La Perla

Very classy grown up Chypre. I have only just started to appreciate the classics , chypres and aldehyde's in the past couple of years. In fact i thought i detested Aldehyde's until i discovered Vivienne Westwood "boudoir" ( must review that too!) My tastes are changing and expanding to include the whole range of frag genres , which is a good thing! I chanced across La Perla in a dusty old box of samples at a local discount store ( My fave place for finding discontinued n unusual frag samples) . I new nothing of La Perla frags at all , but it looked quite expensive/classic/classy and worth trying out. I'm so glad i did! Its a very well behaved Chypre IMO. It doesn't overpower or burn my nostrils with aldehyde's! ( That's the problem i have with some Classic perfumes. . Aldehyde overdose..eeek!) Its very well balanced and no particular note dominates. If La Perla was a lady , she would be an Upper Class , well mannered lady = young or old , who wouldn't dream of swearing or smoking in company . You would find her having afternoon tea at the Ritz rather than drinking pints and ending up drunk with her knickers showing at the end of the night ..... But she is no prude and underneath her clothes , (Chanel tweed jacket n skirt , silk blouse ) she is wearing some Agent provocateur basque n stockings ;) . There's a sensual side to this perfume , certainly not "too respectable " or boring. I really like it , and its yet another addition to my "must buy full bottle" list It also lasts well. I got a few wearings out of my tester ,and when i sprayed some on before bed it was still there in the morn ...Lovely dry-down. Very cosy and soft as a scent to wear to bed too . Very good quality for the price. Id recommend this to fledgling perfumistas who want to test scents out of there usual comfort zone , but who are scared off by heavy Musks , Civets and nose stinging Aldehyde bombs !! This perfume contains musk n aldehydes , but those parts are subtle. It doesn't smell "old lady" or stinky and I think its a good choice to ease yourself into the realm of Chypres This is the kind of perfume id wear to a job interview , or to meet a new BFs parents for the first time...In the hope i will give off an aura of been more classy than i actually am ( Lol!)

For me...this is nostalgia in a bottle. And....not because I think it smells "old" or because I knew anyone who wore it in my past. On the contrary, it is simply a gorgeous blend of notes that somehow have the ability to evoke a gazillion fond memories yet still manages to smell timeless. La Perla is a thick, heady and even moist blend of Ylang Ylang,Honey,Carnation,Vanilla and Patchouli.Of course, there are many more notes listed but these are the particular ones that stand out for me. There's a heavenly sweetness to it but also a crisp soapiness that compliment each other so well that they keep things from being too much of one or the other. As it dries down it becomes even softer and more powdery and takes on a creamy, spice cake feel. When I wear this and close my eyes, I see myself outdoors at night, in the moonlight, either on a warm summer night or bundled up during the crispness of fall or winter.Gazing up at the stars, enveloped in fond memories and cocooned by a feeling of warmth and comfort. It does,indeed,smell so similar to Paloma Picasso ( I'm doing a sniff comparison right now on each arm.) I think that the first phase is where all of the similarities lie because as they dry down, La Perla becomes softer, warmer and more powdery than PP, which becomes more "dry", soapy "uplifting" equally as beautiful but in a slightly different way. I also think that K de Krizia shares similarities with La Perla in it's powdery softness. I'm so glad that I found this scent...thank you for all of your wonderful reviews!

High hopes- It's by La Perla, after all ! New (reformulated) La Perla La Perla (2012+): Flat, stale-peppered (cheap) wood. Now linear; Absent any discernible structure nor evolution of top/heart/base notes as in original (pre-reformulation)... Now, loud, crass, hard, sharp, & harsh upon initial spray; Settles quickly to low sillage, poor longevity, & a barely-there skin scent- Total duration +/- 3 hrs. Former (original) round, rich, deep, subtly sweet, full-bodied, fresh-ground peppered, smooth, complex, artfully blended/ layered "Pearl" of chypre perfumery, is now sadly stripped of its beauty; Reduced, instead, to the irritant shard of sand within; degraded further yet to a solidified, bottom layer, hardened lump of decade-old, stale, bone dry, residual fine silt of pre-ground pepper, in a tired diner, where the shakers have never been fully emptied nor cleaned. Tragic loss. This formerly smooth, complex, elegant, Italian classic (masterpiece!) reknowned for her heavenly dry-down, was an exquisite treasure! La Perla La Perla used to be a life-long, top shelf, HG woody floral Chypre- Under-rated, under-appreciated, under-priced. Thankfully, I stocked up on 30 bottles of pre-reformulation EdP (the 100 ml. Tall bottle). A timeless, priceless gem- Now lost to reformulation- A dusty, dry, linear, 2-note stale pepper-olfactory irritant.

A perfume for life...To me it was love at first sniff, back in the Nineties (It was issued in the late Eighties, though). I was quite young at the time, but that fragrance was the hype of the moment and wearing that was a kind of status symbol. Today I would use it with more modesty, because it is a quite potent one, important, in the sense that you won't go unnoticed when wearing that (tons of compliments by men), it is easy to overdo. Or, it was. I am speaking about the original formulation, when the bottle was oyster shaped, pls see for reference the original ads posted above. La Perla is a spicy chypre with a strong, bold spicy carnation. And a hundred different notes. Animalic, deep, sexy. A powerhouse of the eighties, with a super intimate drydown, oriental with resins and a hot pachouli. It is wrapping you in a silk sheet. But the description of the notes alone does not do it justice. You should wear it for getting its real essence. It was unique, one of a kind. Gorgeous. Now, I got a new tall bottle of the edp, like the one pictured here. What a disappointment... the new formulation lacks all the depth and the animalic part. I find it soapy, loud and screechy. Very ordinary. Nothing like the real one. I never wear it, as i prefer remembering how great it was. Get the vintage one if you can.

I try out as many chypres as I can get my greedy little hands on (it's my favorite category of perfume), so stumbling upon this one last year (thanks, Sherapop!) was a special moment. I am enamored of this scent, to put it simply. Such a beautifully complex, well blended fragrance. So well blended that I have a hard time picking out the individual notes. The opening is only mildly citrusy to my nose; I pick out some sweet notes like orange blossom or jasmine almost immediately. Some spiciness from the cardomom and coriander adds a nice touch as well. The heart notes are sweet (rose, jasmine again, iris, lily of valley), but the peppercorns are also slightly noticable which seems to offset the sweetness of the florals. The honey doesn't seem to stand out as a distinct note, all accords flowing together in a soft way. The basenotes are wonderfully earthy. A musky incense seems to be buried in there among the woody elements of vetiver, patchouli, and oakmoss. Compared to many fragrances of this era, LP is soft and inviting; I never tire of it. Sillage is strong, use sparingly. Longevity is great as well, about 9 hours on me. I'd recommend this as a night time fragrance since it smells so sumptuous.