Fancy Nights

Fancy nights is definitely not your typical celebrity fragrance. And it has very little to do with the original Fancy, which I used to own but gave away because it never really wowed me. Still a good fragrance, just not my vibe. I only bought this one because of the patchouli, and as a huge patchouli lover, I try to get my hands on as many patchouli fragrances as possible. I really have to give credit to Jessica Simpson here, because this is a bold move. Especially considering her target audience, which I believe must be largely made up of teenage girls. The original would definitely be their cup of tea but this is sort of the opposite. Of course there are teenagers out there who might love this, but I'd be surprised if many did. That's not to say that I don't like this fragrance, I actually happen to love it, it just may not be what people expect when they spritz on a JS fragrance. It really reminds me of one of my all time favourites, Patchouli Imperial by Dior and I'm surprised I don't see those being compared while Coromandel is mentioned. I think Fancy Nights is a lot closer to PI than Coromandel. All of them stay within the same realm though. If I have PI on one arm and FN on the other, yes of course I can smell the difference, the former costs more than $300 and the other is around $10 and I'm definitely not saying they're the same. But I want to give credit where its due, the maker of Fancy Nights really did a superb job. Sillage is quite similar, I can tell which one it is I'm smelling in the air, but still, they're similar. Fancy Nights starts out heavy on the papyrus note, which I do believe might scare people off. It's dusty, heavy, and rather unpleasant for the first 10 seconds. It might even smell like it's gone off. But that soon changes dramatically. The patchouli note enters in its glory and it's all wrapped up in sweet earth. It goes without saying that if you don't like patchouli, or aren't interested in expanding your olfactory senses when it comes to patchouli, stay away. I'm always so surprised at how many reviews I read, where one note is dominant in a fragrance and people start out by stating they hate said note and then trash the fragrance for smelling like the note they hate(??). The reviews for Delina, for example, are hilarious. "I don't like rose/lychee/rhubarb in fragrances.. Blablabla... I really don't like Delina and wouldn't recommend it and it's just a bad perfume..." 🙄. So, this is a patchouli heavy fragrance, don't trash it for what it is. If you don't care for patchouli, you may saunter on to greener pastures of your likings. But don't leave a patchouli fragrance a bad review just because you don't like patchouli, pretty please. Now rant is over. Fragrances that I love always give me stories I associate them with. Fancy Nights is perhaps best described through what I picture when I smell it. The witch in the forest smells like this. She has long red hair and wears velvet in deep colors. She has her own little house that's located high in a mountain that overlooks a big fjord. She often stands on the balcony of her little wooden house at sunset, taking in the scenery of the ocean, mountains and the forest that surrounds her house and all the way down to the river that leads to the ocean. She is undeniably sensual, a woman in touch with her femininity and has harnessed her powers. Below her house is a lake where the animals come to drink. She grabs her oil lamp that casts a warm yellow and red glow to her as she makes her way down to the lake, just to make sure everything is at peace. She's wearing her forest green velvet dress, and has wrapped a soft, golden shawl around her. Her long red hair sways as she walks down the path to the lake, her cheeks are rosy and her dark brown eyes tell you that's she's completely in tune with her surroundings. She radiates beautiful energy, joy and the calm that comes with knowing herself fully and being at peace with who she is. She doesn't need anyone as she knows she always has her own back, although she might want to have certain well chosen people in her life. She understands nature perfectly and knows how to work with the natural magic and therfore she is an extremely powerful witch. Her three cats follow her down to the lake. One is completely black. One is a calico cat and the third one is a grey, black and white Norwegian forest cat. You can see their eyes in the dark, carefully following her, making sure she's safe. She's not afraid of anything though. She is safe in her forest with her animals. Once she gets down to the lake she sees two deers standing there and drinking. She nods to them and they keep on drinking, knowing she's a friend and not an enemy. She gets down to her knees because she needed a couple of things from there for one of her potions. She starts digging into the earth, eventually scraping out a root of a plant. Her fingers a covered in dirt and she puts the root in a little cotton bag. She keeps looking for more ingredients, picking up twigs, leaves and berries, crushing some of them to see if they smell like she needs them to for her potion. Her hands now smell like sweet, deep earth. Without thinking she touches her hair and now that smells like this intoxicating, wet, sweet earth as well. When she's done she walks to the lake and washes her hands, nodding again to the deers and then starts to walk back up the hill through the forest to her home. Her three cats follow her silently behind her. Once she's there, the leaves, the root and the twigs and berries will go into her pot and they will be cooking through the night. She's looking forward to getting to bed with this aroma surrounding her. Once she's sitting on her bed, she again takes in the view over the forest in the fjord. Right next to her bed is a large window and she can see the moon and the stars and how they glisten on the river and ocean. A bird coos somewhere. It's magical. Suddenly there is a low knocking sound on her front door. She smiles to herself. She knew he'd be coming tonight. He just can't seem to stay away from her. She gets up and puts on a long white silk and lace robe. In the moonlight and the candle light you can she the outlines of her curves through the robe as she walks down the stairs to open the door for him. This magical night is just beginning ❤️

A lot of people seem to hate this, yet I love it loads more than the original Fancy. My skin pulls all of the floral notes from Fancy and none of the sweetness. I bought, tried and got rid of it twice before realizing that I just didn't like it. The florals in it smelled cheap and would give me a headache. I was always looking for that caramel goodness but was always let-down. (The bottle was cute though!) Fancy Nights smells very similar to another perfume that I love, Prada Amber for women. The drydowns are nearly identical, with a warm, cozy, hazy, fuzzy, earthy patchouli. Definitely a patchouli dominated fragrance but because the patchouli feels fluffy to me, I really find myself enjoying it. The opening of Fancy Nights is more aggressive than Prada Amber but I personally don't find it particularly offensive. In 5 minutes or so, the dry-down starts and it's smooth, lovely patchouli all the way! Even though it's most definitely a patchouli dominated fragrance, there are other notes mingling with it to help round-out the patchouli, such as vanilla, amber, oakmoss, papyrus, bergamot and sandalwood. I really can't detect rose or jasmine at all. Many of the reviews here speak to its performance as being quite strong but on my skin, I found it to be average, (not a sillage monster) with moderate projection and fading after 6 hours. I find the performance to be on par with Prada, the only difference being that Fancy Nights disappears completely by bedtime and Prada was still present (albeit lightly.) I find the Fancy Nights bottle to be beautiful but then again, green is my favourite colour so perhaps I am biased! I'm sad that they discontinued this (since it was such a good, more cost effective alternative to Prada Amber for women which is also discontinued) but I'm happy to at least own a big bottle of it along with a travel spray which should last me for a very long time!

DARK PATCHOULI - Earthy, Rich & Vanillic. Opens with a burst of papyrus supported by multi-faceted bergamot with powdery, dry, aromatic, woody & leathery tones of papyrus highlighted. That deepens into the rich & earthy patchouli heart accented by rose & jasmine. Jasmine here bringing some near-licorice tones and rose helping to continue the powdery softness of papyrus. This all rests on a base of amber-vanilla & creamy sandalwood that's projected & brought to life by oakmoss which keeps it from getting too gooey. Overall I get a rich, earthy & vanilla patchouli scent with all the other notes helping to support and enhance different facets of patchouli in all its splendour - even picking up some white-chocolate-patchouli notes into the drydown. This needed a year in dark storage after the first sprays to come alive with the richness of the true scent profile and performance to develop. Before that it was flat & unsweetened with poor performance, but now it's a beautifully elaborated & vanillic patchouli scent. Contrast to Prada Prada 2004: These are different, but there are some striking similarities with vanilla & patchouli. I went through a bottle of Prada (Amber) as it used to be called, back when it was released, but it has a more forward benzoin accord. Roughly equivalent performance. Contrast to Les Exclusifs de Chanel Coromandel: These are different, but there are striking similarities with vanilla & patchouli. Coromandel is more complex and has a more forward benzoin-amber accord, and although Fancy Nights does pick up some white-chocolate-patchouli tones, the white-chocolate note is more obvious in Coromandel. Coromandel outperforms. Overall: gorgeous rich, earthy & vanillic patchouli scent with well above average performance with dark storage following first sprays. It's a love for me. Enjoy!

This perfume is bizarre. I purchased this for a song from Amazon and after reading the notes and reviews figured I would love this. Let me preface this by saying Fancy Love is my favorite of the Fancy line and probably the fragrance I wear most often and especially when I can't figure out what kind of perfume mood I'm in. That said, I am totally conflicted about this fragrance. I want to like it, but I'm not sure I do. But, I keep holding my wrist to my nose repeatedly so maybe I do like it and I just don't know it yet. It's masculine, but not unwearable by a woman. I get the "Polo" reference some have made. I also pick up the "library" reference too, which is most likely the papyrus, an odd note, IMO, for a fragrance. There's a creamy note in this as well, which is probably where the tie to it's "Fancy" sisters comes from. I wouldn't mind smelling it on my husband. I just don't know if it's for me. I typically like super girly smells, however, they don't need to be floral or candy coated smells. I like Shalimar, and Tabu, and Chantilly, and Jessica McClintock, and Vanilla Fields. I'm not a 'fume snob, nor do I dislike a perfume simply because it's different. I have a wide variety of scents but this just may be too masculine for me to wear frequently. We'll see. I'm not shutting the door on it quite yet. Will update when I form a more solid opinion. This is a tricky one... UPDATE: OK, so close your eyes and picture this...sitting near a window on a rainy day, curled up in your favorite armchair, under a warm crocheted afghan, with a steaming cup of Earl Grey tea and an original copy of a Dickens book, all while an extremely attractive gentleman wearing Polo sits by reading a vintage newspaper. THIS perfume is the olfactory equivalent. I've decided that I love it.

I had such high hopes for this after reading the articles and reviews. I can’t find what I’m craving, and sadly this isn’t it either. FN is the strangest perfume on me. There’s a really nice patchouli blast in the opening that almost immediately takes on a very weird oily quality that is not like patchouli oil, but something else entirely - motor oil fishy. It’s truly that awful, but it thankfully changes in a few minutes to a woody bright patchouli scent. I would be so happy if it stayed somewhere in that range, but it quickly fades in strength and moves to vanilla and then straight to synthetic chocolate dirt. There are about 2 hours max of anything resembling perfume and 2 hours after that of the faint, dried out potting soil with cocoa powder phase. This is a very dry scent, nothing luscious or rich, and so disappointing. If it works for you, I’m really glad. I’m continuing my quest. Update - I finally understand what some Fragranticans mention in their reviews about letting a perfume rest after it’s been shipped to you. I don’t get why it makes a difference in the scent, but it very much did with this one. My first unpleasant experience with Fancy Nights was when it was straight out of the mailbox. I tried it again two days ago and it was a completely different experience, like the fairies switched the bottles as I slept. It’s EXACTLY the patchouli I longed for - everything about it was stunning. It lasted a good 8 hours and still permeates the shirt I was wearing. It’s gorgeous, enveloping, warm, oiled, and resinous, beautifully blended, not a medicinal, dry dirt, cocoa powder or petroleum off note discernible. Giving it a few more tries to be sure, but that patchouli is just haunting to me. I think I see a bigger bottle of this in my future!