Jean Reno Loves You

Update: Merry Christmas to me! Some tenacious soul actually hunted down a bottle of this as a gift for me. And actually, it's a legit floral - not green, not fruity, not patchouli, not woody, not gourmand, but so floral. It's sincere and straightforward, intensely sweet. I think Jean Reno did his due diligence, smelling other feminine florals before allowing his name to be put to this. For me, this is all about the orchid; fantasy note or no, I do love orchid. And that bottle - it made me feel 11 years old. Where's my rubber neon bracelets! I almost squealed it's so cute.

Normally I would not review a perfume without trying it. Nor do I incline toward celebrity perfumes. But I really cannot think of an odder celebrity to have a perfume. I think I must at least sample this. I will then update my review. Je t'aime, aussi, Jean Reno. As a matter of fact, you have practically given me my life's motto. (tears)

I found the notion of Jean Reno launching a women's fragrance so absurd that I actually had to get a mini of this for the hell of it. Where do I start... I apparently have the "special edition", whatever that means. The box is a mid-toned cool pink with a silver stripe running down the left side and a giant, red heart in the center, more reminiscent of 90's Powerpoint ClipArt than anything else. The bottle looks made with a target audience of prepubescent girls in mind. While odd, I wouldn't have anything against this per se - who would say no to a bit of fatherly love from Jean Reno? After actually smelling the fragrance though, it is obvious that this is made with adult women in mind. Nathalie Lorson is a respected nose and there is nothing wrong with the composition, it is just a grave mismatch with the bottle design and marketing. The freesia is quite sour, greenish, and together with peony it gives the fragrance a floraly floral character - nothing fruity or sweet about it, a classic pure floral. It's a type of fragrance that is very unlikely to appeal to buyers that got this for the bottle, and the people that like this type of fragrance would in turn not look at it twice because of the bottle. I struggle with pure floral scents, it's just not my thing, but I can't say that it's bad. I don't get much gardenia in this, but the cedar-bergamot combo with the florals packs quite a punch.

Blind bought it on a discount. Didn't like it. Too many different florals for my taste. Ended up in my toilet as a air freshener and even then only sprayed it rarely. The ring though I did wear until it turned my finger green. 😂 Bottle was cute though. That was what got me to blind buy it in the first place. I didn't know who Jean Reno was at the time. Later when I met my French boyfriend and he used my toilet, he said that that's the name of a very famous French actor. I replied that that's cool but I doubt it is the same person. Maybe just the same name. Now years later I come across this fragrantica page and see that indeed it is the guy. My boyfriend and I had a little laugh about it as I'm now living in France and am very familiar with the actor.