Carousel Holiday Edition

After walking into a Neiman Marcus and spending 2 hours sampling every single HOS scent, This was by far and away my favorite. I was gutted when I realized the only version for sale was the $800 version. Please HOS, release a $360 version of Carousel so that us mere peasants can afford a small piece of luxury.

Picking up the bottle, I expected a whimsical scent to match the objet d’art in my hands, and was a bit disappointed at the pretty but all too familiar juice within. Carousel is a delicate fruity floral, sketched in watercolor and pastels but left half-finished. The opening is powdery, with the sweetness from the peach, an unexpected but intriguing kick of spice from the pink pepper and distinct tropical overtones. On the dry down, the coconut and amber imbue the fragrance with creaminess and warmth that really remind one of the sun, albeit a soft, distant sun of the early fall or late spring. I also get a beautiful, raspberry-scented gardenia that comes across almost as an exotic, fruity cocktail with the subtlest lactonic notes blooming underneath. These notes ground the scent, keeping it from becoming too airy and effervescent, and at the same time dulling some of its complexity and charm. I loved the dry down up to this point and hoped the gardenia, raspberry or peach would make a reappearance, but no such luck. The interplay of the fruit and florals here is reminiscent of a more subdued version of my beloved 51 Parfum by Roja Dove, though 51 Parfum is a much richer and multi-faceted creation. (It also bears a slight resemblance to the coconut-heavy Love the Way You Feel by Kilian.) All in all, Carousel is a lovely summer fragrance, just too linear and derivative to make it truly stand out among similar scents.

This is not chevaux dor. Completely different scent.