Laura

"Laura" ranks as one of my all-time favorite perfumes. I'm always stunned when I see negative reviews of this fragrance, as it's one of the most inoffensive and lovable perfumes I have ever come across. I first smelled Laura on a friend about 2 years after it came out in '94 and was so taken by the fragrance, that it didn't take long for me to get my own 100 ml flanker. Laura is one of the few perfumes that will *always* be a repeat purchase for me. I am very comfortable with wearing this fragrance (and respraying it) around people who are sensitive to perfumes. It always receives compliments. Back in the 90s, I was not familiar with the lychee note, just because I never owned fragrances which had this note. I only discovered what it really smells like in a lotion I bought this year. I don't particularly care for it in the lotion, but absolutely love how it's blended with other notes in this fragrance. Lychee and watermelon are the top notes in Laura, with freesia, violet, and iris in the middle notes. I have come to love freesia and iris after smelling them in two other fragrances I purchased this year. Laura is soft, floral, has an aquatic element to it, and is just so clean and beautiful. Unlike others who have commented, I do not have any fragrance in my arsenal that reminds me of this scent. It holds its own, is memorable for me, and will always be the one fragrance I reach for any time of the year. I spray this on my pulse points and a little on my top, and it carries throughout the day or night. I have noticed that with flankers I've purchased in recent years, I have to re-spray the fragrance, which was not the case before. This is a safe blind-buy and as mentioned before, will always be a repeat purchase for me.

I was beyond excited when I spotted this bottle on Fragrantica. Years ago, I worked as a hotel chambermaid, and one of the perks of the job was getting to sample various fragrances that we didn't see in our local shops (for those who travel a lot, take heed - sometimes our spritzes were quite 'generous'. Keep them in your case!). One day I came across this little lady, had a tentative sniff, liked what I smelled and sprayed it's fruity, aquatic deliciousness on my wrists, elbows, hair, uniform - I was a walking cloud of pretty. Imagine my horror when the lady-owner unexpectedly returned to her room to retrieve something. I hastily busied myself making the beds while my cheeks burned in shame. There was no way she couldn't have sussed what I'd been up to, but, lady that she was, she never said a word. The day she left, I went to strip her beds and found a generous tip, this bottle and a note which said 'To the dark-haired room attendant - I think this smells better on you than it does me'. How cool is that?! I was THRILLED. All mortification forgotten! I used the entire bottle up, moved on to something else and forgot about it until I joined this site. I racked my brain to remember what it was called, but all I could remember was that it had a girl's name, and what the bottle looked like. And then, whilst looking at something else entirely, up popped Laura on the left-hand side of the screen! YES! I ordered her immediately, for very little and now she's back with me - a beautiful, fresh feminine everyday fragrance. She's my 'for-now' signature - not quite unique, or loud enough to win the full-time role, but a sweet, friendly little temp who is more than up to the job. I heart Fragrantica!

Laura is what I imagine a freshwater mermaid to smell like! It's aquatic, but without any harsh pseudo-oceanic notes, just full of beautiful watery flowers like cyclamen and freesia. I get a hint of lily of the valley, which I usually dislike, but here it's done in a transparent way and not screechy or soapy like in many other fragrances. The watermelon adds extra aqua-freshness, the other fruits like peach and a berry-ish lychee are lush and sweet. I think the fruity notes show that this is a 90s scent, they are done differently than fruit notes from today. But Laura doesn't smell dated, it's rather timeless to my nose, especially compared to some other aquatics from that era that smell like calone overload and cleaning products. This is a well-constructed perfume with a nice warm base of vanilla and sandalwood. These notes don't dominate the scent, but are a canvas for the fresh fruit and flowers and make them last longer so it's fresh and sweet all through the drydown. This was popular back in its days and if you were around back then, it will likely smell familiar to you. Today it's a little forgotten and available for a song, but it's such a dreamy, romantic perfume. I noticed that sometimes tester bottles of Laura smell stale, likely because they don't get used up quickly nowadays and because light scents like this turn more easily. So be careful while testing and find a new bottle.

One of my all-time favorite perfumes. Just when I think I’m done with it, I fall in love all over again. Laura is always ensconced in my wardrobe in some format or other. This used to cost an arm and a leg, but am grateful for the occasional summer sale nowadays, now that the perfume’s novelty has dimmed somewhat. This was groundbreaking when it came out. This is, in a phrase, a fruity floral, but very difficult to describe. It has the lightness of an aquatic without evoking beach, lotus or sport; it has the gentle aroma of the outside of a peach without exploding into fructose, jam or fruit mix. I suppose that freesia and lily of the valley must be present, because the fragrance gives me that feeling of clear-eyed well-being I get from each of these accords, but the florals and fruit are so well-blended you can’t single out a note. A complex mix of woods gives Laura depth, though to me they are already perceptible from the first spray, and come to the fore as the notes of calone (watermelon) and the other fruits fade. This is a youthful, but by no means juvenile, perfume. Older women can wear it too – and enhance that romantic, endearing playfulness that only comes with age. There was nothing like Laura before its release in 1994, but plenty of emulators (or homages) popped up subsequently, including at least one Hugo Boss, an Ellen Tracy and a slew of drugstore dupes. Just beautiful.

I never expected to fall in love with this perfume as it is everything that I don't like in a fragrance, but that's the beauty of Fragrantica, where we get gifted wonderful perfumes which dispel our predjudices and open our minds to trying new things.(Thank you Yohji) The opening of this scent is very bland on me, I am almost anosmic to the notes but it develops into a magnificent floral composition which wraps itself around me like a cloak and envelops me in this wonderful, addictive floral mist, all softened by the basenotes. This is truly a beautiful and elegant scent. It is quiet but responsive, floral without being typical and boring, woody without smelling like a forest and sweet but not candy. The aquatic vibe that runs through this is truly stunning and makes this a delightful olfactory experience. It develops gradually, wafting up from time to time as a gentle reminder of it's beauty. The longevity is very good, this review is for the EDP, silage must be good as this fragrance has been commented on when I have worn it and I have been noticed in a good way. This is a classy and elegant lady, well recommended!

Dewy WATERMELON & PEACH. This was love at first sniff for me. Opens with a burst of juicy fruits including watermelon, peach & litchi with watery, sweet, tropical, green & fresh tones. Already here the woody tones are coming through from Brazilian rosewood, while it deepens into the floral heart with powdery, dewy & white-floral tones. This all rests on a musky vanilla-woods base. This is beautifully blended and overall I get a dewy, tropical fruity-floral with watermelon and musky vanilla-wood floral support base, that has a cooling, sweet & refreshing vibe. Has average performance for a light spring-summer wearing experience. Contrast to So de la Renta Oscar de la Renta: These are different, but you will catch a glimpse of Laura in So de la Renta's dewy tropical tones. So de la Renta has clean/soapy & creamy facets not found in Laura. Roughly equivalent performance. Overall: beautiful dewy watermelon & peach scent, with average performance. It's a love for me. Enjoy!

Close experience with previous review by Schattenburg 😄 I was so in love with that fragrance in my teens and early 20s, but so broke back then. I regularly visited the perfume store in my town (in eastern Europe) to ask the lady to spray Laura on a blotter. The lady already knew that I won't buy and always gave me some bad looks. Then I inhaled the beautiful aroma and left the store. 2020 I heard rumors that they'll discontinue the perfume (I guess it was false, because it's still available 😄) but that was the push to buy a whole 100ml bottle. It's so strange - it drives me directly to the 90s, so nostalgic. Regarding to the scent itself - I always thought that as pure aquatic as it is, this is a summer frag. However, I can't wear it in the heat, it gives me extra warmth. I have to test it again in cooler weather.

I have never smelled any of the *Other* perfumes up above that this is supposed to smell like, so I cannot atest to any of those. You would think by now, this would be just another perfume to me, because it's so light & pretty. OH NO! I am getting MANDARIN & I don't care how soft spoken it is, It's aquatic & fresh & I just ordered it! I was sent a sample sprayer in a PERFUME order I received today. Yep, I am a total junkie! I never expected to spray this & fall head over heels, but THAT just happened. At first it reminded me of Rasasi's Emotion, which smells a lot like one of the Tiffany Perfumes. BUT Rasasi isn't Mandarin, so the dry down is different between the 2. I cannot wait to get this bottle. I could only find 2.5 oz, someone mentioned 100 mls & that is what I searched for to no avail. It's a beauty!

@ Jazzku and Hollyms, i had that same experience recently with CK's Euphoria. Wonder what note turns to puke smell sometimes :D. Laura was my signature scent for years, i wasn't even trying out other fragrances, wasn't that interested, after finding a good one. Then i got more into perfumes, and Laura was left in the drawer for a couple of years. The other day i tried it again. It still is pretty, it is fresh, and for an EdT it has great longevity on me. I do find it a bit boring now though, after sampling, and using a lot of different fragrances. It's a pretty and safe choice, if you wanna smell good, not offend anyone, and blend in to the crowd. Not that i even now like my perfume to scream "i'm here!", or fill a room, i just guess i want something a bit more complex and different now.

I was probably in my early teens and too poor in Eastern Europe, to realistically have the prospect of owning it when I first sprayed it at my local Empik store. I loved it back then, it felt so romantic. Now I have bought it on a whim, when I saw it in the mastery perfume section at TK MAXX. I thought I would be probably embarrassed to wear something so 90s, but bought it anyway for nostalgia's sake. And I am not disappointed! I am actually wearing it. It's so lovely, and the best thing about it is that it stays on skin/ clothes for a very, very long time. You know it is not a fully natural scent, but at the same time it is not sickly artificial, or vulgar. It sits in the perfect spot of "delicately noticeable" which I can say is not the case for many contemporary fragrances.

At some point, I have probably already reviewed this beauty, either way, I am here to beg it is never discontinued. A RARE beauty that has hung in there for over 30 years! Kudos that it is so beautiful & not a watered down body spray as some have dwindled down to. I have several backup bottles, but every single time I use this, I want to get online & buy 2 more bottles out of fear of losing it! Way ahead of it's time, b/c this fragrance in no way smells dated. It's just perfect. Very similar to Jovan Island Musk that you can't find anymore. It's just a beautiful scent that wraps around you & says "Hey, it's Summer,..get outside & have fun". Triple Love! NatalieN on Youtube

The original Laura, that was still around in 2006 was to me the Best floral aquatic ever created, one of the best perfumes, period. So special, unique, unforgettable, unmistakable, with great persistence and sillage too. There was nothing like it. At some point I couldn't find it anymore in stores, so I was thrilled when I found it again many years later in a duty-free. It had NOTHING to do with Laura; I could't believe it. That wonderful scent is gone due to reformulation. Beautiful bottle design and advertising, but again one more great creation ruined. It should also be illegal to sell a totally different product under the exact same label- it is misleading.

To me, this is the Fragrance with a big F. My mom used to wear this when I was little, so it reminds me alot of her comfort and safety. Beside nostalgia, it is a very light but interesting scent to my nose, not overpowering, but has that kind of «sparkle» to it that makes it noticable. I find the drydown somewhat similar to Aqua Di Gioia. Its that kind of aquatic, fresh floral scent that is impossible to get tired of. Honestly, I compare every fragrance I smell to Laura. It is the standard perfume, and even though it is generic in some aspects, any other scent does not quite compare to it.

I have been wearing this since I was around 19 years old back in 1997. It has been in my collection ever since. I have around 130 bottles of perfumes, but I still reach for this one after all those years. My ex-boyfriends have always said, that this smells of me and has my name on it. It is fresh and sweet at the same time. I don't think anyone can get offended by this smell. I sprayed this on at a festival at 10 am, and people could still smell it on me at 4 the next morning even though I never overspray. I will never get tired of this.

The opening fruity blend is so beautiful, it's like touching real fruits with your nose when you close your eyes and want to absorb as much of the incredible deliciousness as you can. I wanted this ravishing, delicate sweetness to last forever, but shortly it transformed into my favorite flowery scent, freesias and flawless orchids. As the two flowers are gentle and sophisticated, so is Laura drydown, no effort, no shouting, beauty speaks for itself. Absolutely feminine, gentle fragrance alluring with its refinement.

This smells like the air on a dewy, hazy summer morning around 4am. An airy, gentle fragrance, like a breath of wind. Aquatic and white floral. The scent of watermelon and peach come through as well, and bring sweetness to it, but not much, just enough. Very light, like a summer breeze. When you walk by people they can smell it ever so slightly. it's there, but only intimately. It comes and goes. It's not overpowering, it only enhances you the same way a very natural makeup does.

This is a summertime go-to fragrance for me, one of a few I own. A close friend of mine was given a bottle and I tried it and loved the peachy / watermelon top notes with the creamy notes underneath. It's very lady-like and doesn't overwhelm the wearer but you can still smell wafts of it as you turn your head. Also, I don't know if this is just me, but does anyone else think 'Laura' smells like Olay Total Effects moisturiser, the one in the pump? I love her for that.

This was one of my first perfumes as a pre-teen. I always thought it smelled like mandarin so I am surprised by the actual notes. Once I used it all up I bought the orange-colored Date perfume named Alexandra since it was a cheap knock-off. Sadly they discontinued that one ages ago. EDIT: I recently bought my first bottle in 20 years and it is more aquatic and fresh now than I remember. It still got that mandarin smell.

It's such a beautiful scent. It's light, but not watery, dewy light. It's like air filled with floral aroma in the summery afternoon. It makes you feel so happy, feminine, and very attractive. Whenever I wear it, it draws constant attention of men and women alike. Men want to know what I wear and buy it for their wives and girlfriends. Has good staying power. Wish they will never stop making this fragrance.

I adore this scent its a classic perfume for me. My mother had this and I also used it many times. It is a fresh, fruity and juicy fragrance, because of the watermelon and litchi, but the combination with the pure flowers and a hint of vanilla makes it very special. I could wear this every time, its so enjoyable, but anyway I would recommend it for spring and summer.