Fleur d'oranger

This was the one that hit my brain while approaching Fragonard shop in Grasse! Well, Fragonard has a determined marketing attitude to say the least. You see the yellow boards everywhere and even a little train going around the lovely town taking tourist around! While getting closer to their shop I was overwelmed with a lovely hypnotic smell that lingered in air! OMG! I immediately knew it was orange blossom as it is one of my favourite floral note together with jasmine and rose! Orange blossom in itself is a very uplifting, nerve-calming and anti-depressant note! It can be too pungent at time but in this case it is so lovely blended with thicker notes like honey (not too much or cloying!) and a soft musk base. Simple and simply enchanting! You could smell Fleur d'Oranger sprayed high on top of the street from nozzles place on a high metal bar! I'm happy that Fleur d'Oranger provided a common point of agreement between my BF and me! We usually don't like same fragrances! I would dip into a vat of oriental amber and he would shower with citruses! I will always match Fleur d'Oranger with my beautiful sunny trip to Grasse with BF wearing only a short summer dress and a big hat! Freedom! That's why I say Fragonard went quite hard on olfactive marketing, more than its competitors Galimard and Molinard, who also make lovely scents with a less commercial vibe! The Fragonard shop was packed with customers from all over the world! Oh, and it was such a beautiful shop full of bottles of any kind and a museum! Fleur d'oranger is what I tried to find in L'Artisan La chasse aux papillons. Less pungent and more mellow, not complicated but present. The staying power is average but sillage is not very big. EDIT: this fragrance is heaven for me and lift my mood up! But... I got quite a few negative feedback, mainly from the oldies of my family, which are not really perfume fan in general. My mother says it smells too strong and synthetical! I wear only 2-3 spray at time. Other told me it smells like floor detergent with bleach!

Most of the time I associate orange blossom with food. The association with perfume is, strangely, secondary. Maroccan mint tea, crêpes, pancakes, cheesecake, madeleines. It compliments almonds and raisins, lightens vanilla, caramel and rum. Combined correctly, it takes most desserts from tasty to enchanting, from familiar and reasuring to pure magic. It's easier to work with and has more applications than rose, but as with rose, too much will taste like soap. So I struggle with most orange blossom soliflores since I'm not a gourmand person. Great number of french baby care is perfumed with orange blosssom and musk. I have stumbled upon an article some time ago where one of the Costa sisters, owners of Fragonard, talks how she asked Daniela Andrier for years the permission to edit this one. She created it for herself and her son, when he was just a baby. Even wearing it, without knowing the story of its creation, there is a notion of intimacy, simplicity and wellbeing. The addition of quite large quanitity of neroli brings even more light, lovely green facet and all that musk results in clean soapy accord. Very few of us don't enjoy smelling clean, but some of us want to smell like that as long as possible. This orange blossom is so simple that I welcome it any time. I feel well groomed and cared for without putting a lot of energy in it. Something you do just for yourself. The bottles are functional and affordable. And 600 ml refils are even more so. And Fragonard was doing it before it became fashionable. High quality, affordable, traditional French perfumery.

This was a very beautiful perfume on my skin, but it smelt 90 percent the same as their Fleur D'oranger Intense EDP on my skin. The only difference is that the EDP of course is longer lasting and has a very slight woodiness to it. They're both very realistic smelling orange blossom perfumes which smell white floral, a bit citrusy and a bit indolic. They also both smell fresh and clean on my skin and very feminine. Fleur D'oranger EDT has a slight honeyed smell to it though that the EDP doesn't have on my skin and Fleur D'oranger EDT is a bit sweeter smelling on my skin than Fleur D'oranger Intense. There may be the tiniest bit more of an orange blossom smell in the EDT too. I got moderate projection from this perfume and it lasted about 5 hours on my skin. I feel like it is a very happy and bright perfume and it would be very suitable for during the day in both the spring time and the summer time. I think that this perfume is really good value for money and you can't really go wrong with it. I wouldn't buy it though with Fleur D'oranger Intense already in my perfume wardrobe, since they're both too similar smelling to me. If you have one, you don't really need the other. I'd still give this perfume a 9/10 though. It's a very beautiful fragrance and it's probably one of the top five best orange blossom perfumes out there! It makes me think of the spring or the summer and sitting out in the orange tree orchards in the middle of the day.

So fresh! So clean! I've always loved the scent of real orange blossom, but until this I haven't found a fragrance that captures it faithfully. (The closet I've found has been the Acqua di Fior D'arancio aromatic water by Santa Maria Novella—not a proper fragrance, but still absolutely lovely though more herbal/medicinal leaning). To me, this one is true orange blossom of the most beautiful kind. After wearing it regularly for several weeks, I'm faintly noticing the unique, fleeting honey note (which I didn't detect previously). I find it clears my mind and is also energizing, yet peaceful and calming simultaneously. Incredibly wearable for all occasions—day and night, work and leisure days, the gym, and also great as a bedtime scent. Absolutely unisex. I find longevity to be moderate and sillage to be low to moderate—it has the performance I want from this type of light, fresh scent profile. I was in Paris earlier this summer and sampled this on my wrist in a Fragonard boutique in Montmartre. I tried a few others, but this was the only one that spoke to me. I kept smelling my wrist the rest of the day and knew I had to buy a full bottle, which I ordered first thing when I got back home. Fragonard offers really inexpensive refill bottles—600ml for 75 EUR, which for the quality, can't be beat. This has very quickly become my signature.

Leonardo da Vinci said: "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." Somehow simplicity and naturality always wins. Few days ago, I started washing my hands with richly fragrant orange blossom heart shaped soap from Fragonard. Valentine's Day and all that. Entire bathroom smells fabulous, my hands are squeeky clean and not even screaming for hand cream. In the middle of the winter! Anyway, I'm so buying myself a bottle of this. And more soap. If you were wondering, the nose behind it is Daniela Andrier. She did all orange blossom for this house and they have 4 different ones! This one is the thinnest and the closest to the nature. Intense one is close but thicker with some white flowers as a plus and there is Belle d'Arles, not far at all with lovely warm vanilla ambery drydown. The strenght and performance are pretty much in that order. My Oranger, I didn't have the opportunity to try and it will soon be discontinued. If you're looking for a simple orange blossom, Fragonard will probably have what you need.