New Romantics

as I said in the shop floor to my coworkers, New Romantics chooses you, and not the other way around. it’s a genuinely head scratching scent for a lot of us including me, because it just... reads like orange rind. when I smelled this on the strip, I had war flashbacks from bartending days where i was making 10 aperol spritzes a minute and peeling orange after orange in a valiant attempt to please the drunken masses, but on the skin, it’s a different story. on others, they tend to wrestle with the citrus and spice and whatever the hell davana wants to bring to the table that day, and on one of my coworkers, this smells EXACTLY like an orange scented cleaning spray. on me however, it turns into this bright orange, ripe and juicy, tropical sunshine filled papaya. straight up papaya. a dolls head type papaya, but papaya nonetheless. one of my friends said “you smell like a high class escort” which was so funny because I described this to people as “filipina barbie on the streets of Salcedo village in the 80s smoking and awaiting her next meeting”. the dry down I notice ends up into this creamy spicy warm sweet scent that really makes me think of fixing my hair after a hookup. I honestly don’t know what is super valentines about this, but I absolutely love it nonetheless. longevity is similar to white label perfumes which is fine, esp for the price point. I love it a lot and I think this should be layered to appreciate it. EDIT 6/11/2024: she's back as Betel, have fun yall!

I remember the 80s and this does not smell like my 80s (best just leave it there!) Love it though - rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb! Wierdly on a bed of bananas and custard stewed with sweet spices - who would eat that? Smells good though. No hint of sick for me but I guess that is the slightly sour note otherwise attributed to sour fruits of various kinds. Anyway, I am finding New Romantics absolutely addictive. Ok, maybe that's an 80s substance sense memory after all ;)

on my skin, the sweetness is only slightly apparent; this reminds me a lot more of jasmine tea, or perhaps a raspberry herbal tea. i also sometimes get the wish of a tangerine peel, but it's nothing too sweet and smells quite natural and soft that is hard to find in other lush perfumes (except for karma maybe). for me, it's a really pleasant surprise and i'm sad it's a spring exclusive!

this smells exactly like forest berry jello at first sniff, exactly the kind my mom used to make from the packet - I can imagine it even now. the cloves stay, or something else spicy, I kinda like it as it still reminds me of that jello smell but now it reminds me more of the universal Lush smell (to me!!).

Now let me tell you something... The opening smells exactly like the orange flavoured CAPRI-SUN! And the dry down is sipping on mulled wine on Christmas Eve. What more can you possible wish for???? Love in a bottle.

This smells just like a Capri sun at first for me, and then it mellows out into a powdery, bright orange candy with a hint of coconut. One of my favourites!

This smells exactly like a ripe Peach stone, I absolutely love it.

I work in lush and DID NOT like this perfume when I tested it on a spray card. I tested it again on my skin when I noticed we only had one bottle left and really liked it! It smells very fruity on my skin at first (like a fruit punch with a tiny bit of turkish delight?) but then it turns to a really fuzzy white flesh peach which smells so cute! (if you imagine eating a peach on holiday. The peach is sweet BUT not overly ripe and it is still a bit crunchy, not soft and mega juicy...lol) It reminds me slightly of a Victorias Secret or Hollister body spray in the sense that it is quite a young scent but it has grown up a tiny bit?... this scent just makes me feel really sweet and cute and I can't wait to wear it in summer with a cute floral sun dress!

I don’t understand what everyone’s problem is with this fragrance...like calm down people it’s not that bad. And also no it does not smell like orange juice? I don’t know what type of orange juice everyone out here is drinking but proper orange juice does not smell like this. NR smells 100% like a christmas fruit tea. I actually think it’s the most photorealistic perfume I’ve ever smelled. And that’s also where the acidity in this perfume comes from. It’s not rotten or overripe, it’s like the fruit scent you get from tea. If you’re European and you’ve ever bought winter fruit tea bags, you know what I’m talking about! It’s not sophisticated or mind blowing but a comforting scent for the winter months.

Imagine being on a beachside restaurant having brunch and cocktails way too early in the morning. Orange peel, fruit compote, some acidic almost liquor type note. Polarizing, sometimes smells like a citrus scented bathroom cleaning agent. I never wear this alone unless I want to piss off everyone in a 2 meter vicinity, but adds a beautiful complexity to clean soapy perfumes when layered. DO NOT blind buy unless you’re brave.

Smells like winter berry fruit tea with orange juice. Pretty unique, lush quality (which is good imo, long lasting and decent projection) but i hardly ever wear it. Message me if you want this, my bottle is pretty much full and I'd gladly swap it for another perfume (we can seal the deal on vinted)

to me this perfume smells like pure orange juice, and then when it dries down it's like a really powdery cinnamon candy/big red gum.

I get a stone fruit/peach note like crazy. I love it.

I went to test this one as after reading the generally negative reviews on the Lush website as I figured it wasn't a safe blind buy, even for someone like myself who has a lot of Lush perfumes. I came out £30 poorer! This doesn't smell anything like I'd expected from the reviews. It's also quite strong to me - not Lust levels of strong (not many perfumes are as strong as that beast!), but stronger than many other Lush scents I have. I smell tons of orangery citrus in here and I find those zingy, fruity notes to be the dominant aroma, not the davana or spices.... there is certainly a bit of a resinous feel, but no more so than many other Lush scents. I can sense the through-line to this from Love, Karma and 1000 kisses deep for instance so I do still recognise this typical Lush. My first thought was "this reminds me of something edible from my childhood" like fruit salad sweets or wham bars or something and as I was born in 1982, the name New Romantics and the perfumer being inspired by the 80s rings true to me. Then I started thinking about what it was reminding me of from Lush specifically, because it really does smell familiar. It reminds me A LOT of Very Very Scary shower gel! The acid yellow bottle my husband and I used to love, which came out for halloween a couple of years back - I referred to it as our P0rn Star Martini shower gel because it reminded me of the passion fruit cocktail that I used to be partial to in my younger years. New Romantics has a very similar scent - it smells like a tangy cocktail! In a way I'd say that this is almost the grown up version of Princess Peach body spray.... I'm wondering if that is the same perfumer (I don't know why Fragrantica don't name the Lush Perfumers anymore, but I believe the nose behind New Romantics is Emma Vincent?!). She clearly loves zesty scents. Supermilk and Avocado Co-wash are hers too I think and they all have sherbetty elements. I never had an impulse body spray that smelt like this (I had many of them fyi!) but I definitely had some Escada summer limited editions that weren't far off. This is almost the Lush equivalent of those "wear it to the bar" style Escada's like Rockin' Rio and Hippy Chic but with much nicer ingredients, so not as cheap smelling. Having said that, you will not smell chic or expensive in this. You'll smell youthful in a 2-4-1 cocktail joint kinda way..... Nowt wrong with that! *Edit!* I remembered what this smells like from my 80s childhood... Sunquick Real Orange Fruit Concentrate drink! Lol what a blast from the past! I'm sad to say that this one seems to give me headaches so I might have to return it :(

smells like bananas, tropical fruit, crayons. a lot of people say it smells like vomit and i can see that but i don't immediately think of it upon smelling. i think this perfume is lacking something and i'm not sure what? patchouli maybe?

I am starting to have a big Lush collection and getting bored because they tend to all go to the same direction. This one is no exception. No big surprise here.

Smells like a specific type of chewable multivitamins that I was fed as a child by my mother. Very nostalgic, but not a great smell.

I cannot smell any citrus notes in it, just a lot of cloves. It can feel somewhat suffocating if warm weather or when overspayed.

This perfume was quite a pleasant surprise for me. Normally, I'm not a fan of fragrances with citrus notes, but this one really impressed me. It evokes the sensation of a spicy citrus-infused milk tea, despite not having any milk notes in it. There's a subtle medicinal scent to it, but oddly enough, I find it rather appealing. The longevity is impressive as well. It's a pity that it's only available as a limited edition in a 30ml bottle. Hopefully, Lush decides to bring it back. Edit: I changed my mind, it smells like shit.

this one smelled soooo bad/sour on my skin, like passion fruit almost? but with a bad stank :( I think the davana oil just isn’t for me