Parfume d’Extase

Some smell iris, some smell jasmine, some love it, others hate it, some love the bottle, some hate the bottle. How's a person to decide if they should blind buy it!? Let me add to the confusion! I saw three sizes on a shelf. 1 oz, 1.7 oz, and 3.4 oz. I'm a me me me selfish person. I grabbed the largest one! Then guilt struck me. I don't NEED the biggest bottle...I have hundreds for crying out loud! I will never even USE that much. I placed it back and took the medium bottle, I mean five bucks is five bucks RIGHT? I LOVE THIS! I'm so SICK and tired of trying to be a good person! I should have been the original ME....and gotten that HUGE bottle. LOVE this! To my nose, this smells very similar to Balenciaga L'essence, only much better. This smells similar to our own famous founders Swan Princess, but doesn't last quite so long. Some say it does on clothing...which I will try. I didn't think violet leaf smelled like violet before, but it certainly seems to NOW. This is a most lovely violet to my nose. No jasmine, no iris, I don't even get a musk....pure violet....ahem...PERfect violet. It's real scent took me back to 5-7 years old, sitting in our back yard picking oodles of little purple flowers. This scent means a lot to me because of that, and what I smell. The bottle, I don't care for. The design could only be lovely to me if they used a quality crystal, diamonds, and sterling silver. Of course that would not sell to eighty percent of the population but, THEN it would be stunning. As it is, I think the bottle could have looked that expensive with a different design. Simply put...it looks very impressive in the photos, but not so much in your hand. I'm sad this is discontinued? It's going to hold a place in my heart. Forever, the memory of not purchasing the largest bottle will haunt me. I'm still a greedy little girl and I can whine for hours. or years, as this medium size bottle will torment me for a long time! Seriously, this is a lovely perfume and bottle for anyone. I totally see it as a brides perfume also. Those who have large bottles, I will grumble in passing! When it doubt, and this is your warning, buy BIG! ***INFO*** Got the large bottle also last night! JOY!

Wow...Body chemistry is a funny thing!!! First of all love Marchesa gowns and I have to give props to their marketing and advertising department. When this first came out I was reading a mag when I came across that gorgeous ad with the woman laying down wearing that stunning violet gown that is meant to look like a blooming iris. That ad is what drew me in to Sephora in the first place to try this perfume. The bottle with all the little diamonds is gorgeous. Even the box is beautiful...like a beautiful jeweled little present!! I bought a 50 ml immediately. This has all the things I love. Iris, violet, freesia, jasmine, orris root, musk and most importantly...NO PATCH!!! The iris here is gorgeous, soft & powdery. This scent is bone dry and powdery with a bit of sweetness from the freesia. But where others are getting a total freesia overload I am happy to say I am not. The jasmine is really very lovely and the longer I wear this perfume the more I love it. It lasts for hours on me. Call this boring. Call this cheap...Call this inoffensive...All I know is that I love the way this perfume makes me feel. This scent is gorgeous, elegant and sophisticated. I love a well done pretty floral and this is all that and more!!! I have so many different full bottles that I rarely finish one and I have already finished my 50 ml, a 100 ml and half a bottle of the hair mist.

When I first saw this at Sephora, I thought it would be another over-the-top, indulgent, heavy fruits-and-vanilla-with-a-base-of-musk kind of fragrance that I would rather be without. I was pleasantly surprised. It was nothing of the sort.It smelled strongly of orris root/iris at first (I'm ok with this scent, don't love it but don't hate it either). Then the scent changes to a bit greener note as the violet leaf edged in, but the iris scent remained. About 40 seconds later the freesia and jasmine come in to create a dewy, rain-on-irises kind of smell. This scent seems to linger for me. Simply put, I love it! It's elegant, clear, and mid-voiced. Kind of like a lady lawyer in her office-- you see her and you respect her, even if she says nothing her presence is there. This scent is good for office or evening formal. By the way, I have a "warm" undertone to my skin...it reacts strongly to any vanilla, sugary, and amber notes in perfumes. Any of these notes become extremely accented on me, so it becomes too sweet and cloying. I tend to avoid these perfumes, so glad D'extase doesn't have any of this.

Despite the notes listed, this fragrance was always more violets than iris for me. In fact, Parfume d’Extase is the fragrance that made me fall in love with violet, and I was sad when it was discontinued. I still have a bit left but I don’t spray it often because I don’t want to run out of those last precious drops anytime soon. I loved wearing this most in the fall because it smells like a rich purple. It’s not a typical frilly floral in the sense that it isn’t powdery, nor does it rely on an amber base to give it body — these violets have a substance all their own. They are a bit woody, a little cold, and in some moments this scent is *almost* (but not quite!) medicinal. They are not candied violets, though the freesia seems to lend some sweetness. This fragrance feels contemplative, modern, and intriguing. It’s simultaneously light and dark. I recently received a sample vial of Dusita Splendiris with a perfume order and to my happy surprise, it reminds me a lot of Parfume d’Extase. If you love and miss Parfume d’Extase, give it a try.

For me, this fragrance is all about the freesia. It stands out the most to my nose and I really don't get any powdery iris until the dry down a few hours later. This scent is very beautiful. It is light, airy and fresh with a touch of soapiness. I have to disagree with those who say it is nothing special but that's just me. I get strong freesia for a good 4-5 hours and then the scent significantly softens and leaves a light powder that whafts when you move. The dry down is very soft which is why some may say it only lasts a few hours but it smells so good! I too got 100ml for $7, best deal of my life and so happy to add the gorgeous bottle to my collection. And I think Inventress nailed it with her review.