Master X Master

I purchased this for $15 and honestly I’m shocked that this isn’t popular! I only found it by chance prowling on Fragrancenet clearance pages. First off, the bottle is stunning and it comes with a stand, if you’re a Monet fan especially you’d love this. Packaging is gorgeous and looks like a wooden art supplies box! It’s very floral, a bit tangy or sour but with a soft sweetness and the most subtle spiciness to it. This last a good while, I can smell it after 5 hours or so. I don’t feel it projects beast mode, but anyone around you can pick it up. Although I found this to be a unique perfume, after it’s dried down it reminds me of like a sweet version of A Scent by Issey Miyake, which I fell in love with so I layer them to add a bit more green to this! It’s inoffensive for the office and any occasion really. Perfect for spring and summer! Whenever I spritz this on I can’t help but sniff myself! I’ve received compliments on this about how pretty it smells. My art aficionado friends love the bottle and I keep it in my art prints area so it can be appreciated along with everything else!

This perfume is an absolute stunner—fresh, floral, and delicately sweet, yet with a refined elegance that makes it feel effortlessly luxurious. It has that 'expensive' aura without being overpowering, striking the perfect balance between sophistication and charm. A true hidden gem in the fragrance world! I’m honestly surprised it doesn’t get more attention. This beauty is quickly becoming my signature scent for spring, and I can’t get enough of it!

50 year old straight man, this leans feminine but I really like it and I think a Man can get away with using this. On the dry down it evens out nicely. If you like fruity florals you can pull this off.

This is what the movie "The Secret Garden" (1993) smells like. It's dewy, floral, slightly sour, sweet, and gentle. Dreamy stuff, I love it. 10/10 Edit: Notes above are missing lily of the valley

I am not sure why this isn’t more popular. The floral is so fresh and has great longevity. A bouquet of mixed flowers in the spring.

I received this fragrance for free (just had to pay shipping) by using my Purple Rewards on Fragrancenet. I figured, why not? If it was terrible, I could give it away. The perfumer is Nathalie Lorson. That alone should be a clue that this was going to be a winner. She's iconic in the perfumer world with many exceptional creations in her arsenal. That being said, the fragrance came in a heavy box adorned with a print of a Monet painting adhered to the front. The opening is two little doors that open outwards, revealing information on both of the inside doors. One door has info about Monet while the other has info about Lorson. Pretty cool little touch!! The fragrance is inside the main compartment, which is also adorned with another plastered Monet painting - the same one from the cover. It comes with a ridiculous looking perfume bottle (reminiscent of Avon) and an even more ridiculous looking stand to hold the fragrance. But I knew all of this when I ordered it. It's even uglier in person, though. But does that all really matter? Well, it depends on the person. I mostly care about the fragrance itself but it will be difficult to store this perfume as it will take up a lot of room, plus it's ugly. Anyway, the perfume..... .....is beautiful!! It surprised the hell out of me considering the awkward packaging but I had to remind myself that this is a Nathalie Lorson fragrance, despite the awful packaging that I'm sure she didn't know about and never would have approved of. The perfume is a bright and fresh floral fragrance. Fresh as in floral fresh, not green fresh, if that makes sense. It's light and airy with some sweetness to it as well. This is such a beautiful fragrance and it truly deserves better packaging. Either way, this is a win if you're looking for an inexpensive fragrance that's easy to wear in the Spring and Summer months. 7/10 - I took off 2 points for the horrible bottle and packaging and 1 point for longevity. This doesn't last longer than a few hours. Overspraying is a must.

Someone said it reminds them of late 90's early 2000's perfumes and I have to agree it's a nostalgic floral elegant scent. I am perfume abuser so the scent is very hard for me to detect even after loading my arm with it.

In my previous review, I said overspraying was necessary and that this wasn't a potent fragrance. I was wrong. This stuff is eternal and should be only sprayed two times. Really good value for the money.

I received this fragrance for free using the purple rewards program at Fragrancenet. Heads up, if you are interested in this fragrance, it is on clearance right now for $17.49 using their 35% off coupon. That's quite a price drop from what it originally sold for, which if I remember correctly, was well over $100. The press release, which you can read under the description above, claimed that it "captures the essence of Claude Monet's renowned painting, The Garden at Giverny." My interest was piqued when I read that Natalie Lorson was the perfumer, because even though I don't own many fragrances that she created, what I do own I love. Intentions and perfumer aside, the packaging for this product is insane. It comes in a heavy wooden box that feels like it must be 20lbs. It actually weighs 3lbs but is so big and bulky it feels like it is much more. It's pretty but a little over the top. The bottle is shaped like a star, of seamed mass-produced glass, on a chrome stand. The picture of it appears much nicer than what it actually looks like in person and brings to mind a higher end Avon. I thought, if I didn't like the fragrance I could send this to one of my nieces but feeling the weight of the box had me ruling that out. Just the thought of packing this up and lugging it to the post office has me exhausted. I think I'd rather wait until they visit. 🤣 At this point I hadn't even tried the fragrance yet, but the way it was packaged almost had me sorry I wasted bonus points to get it. Thankfully, that feeling changed somewhat after I gave this fragrance a try. This is a simple fruity floral fragrance with the freesia giving it a light spicy peppery edge. It verges on being sugary but the freesia and neroli offset that somewhat. It's in the same vein as fragrances like Flower Market by Maison Margiela, Lismore by Waterford, and Dior Forever and Ever, with the heavy use of freesia, though they are more distinctive. It doesn't smell generic, but it doesn't smell particularly special either. It's more in line with designer fragrances than what it was intended to be (niche? - the original asking price certainly was). While I can't see anyone disliking this, I can't see anyone falling head over heels for it either. I think a safe, mass appealing fragrance was the intention, and if my assumption is correct, then they succeeded in that aim. It would make a nice gift as the presentation is terrific and the Frangrancenet price, unbeatable. I'm sure it would be appreciated by all who receive it. As far as bringing up images of a Monet painting or of his garden, this doesn't do that for me. I think if they had used the master of the watercolor floral, Jean-Claude Elena, this might have been closer to the mark. Or even Harry Fremont, as his wonderful interpretation of a crystal vase full of flowers for the Waterford brand demonstrates. In fairness to Lawson, it's still a pretty perfume in its own right. It just doesn't bring up Monet's garden to me, nor justifies the original asking price. All that being said, I got it for free, so I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

To be honest, I got it for the bottle, and it was also on clearance for under $34. I'm not much of a floral kind of gal, but this surprised me. At first, it was very floral on the dry down; it became a bit softer and sweeter. Very office-friendly, it's beautiful, floral, classy, and a little powdery, with a very feminine scent. However, because of the florals, she may not be for everyone. I don't mind her; I can also layer with other perfumes, but alone, she is beautiful. Just wait for the dry down, don't be like me, quick to judge. I came to appreciate her a bit more after the dry down.

Not a heavy floral... but a FLORAL it sure is!!

The bottle, the box, the romance...this is an Objet d'Art unmatched today in its artistry. The palette box reminiscent of a box of paints. The heavy glass bottle resembling the perfume bottle in which Monet's wife Camille kept her own scent. 'This bottle reflected the same light Monet longed for in his paintings and garden.' Now imagine the aging artist, his sight muted and smeared by Glaucoma, his other senses suddenly his only avenue towards understanding the beauty of his own garden. Monet's work from this late era of his career is not merely Impressionism, nor Modernism; Monet's 'Water Lilies' series (which are absolutely massive in real life, so big that the Musée de l'Orangerie had to build a vaulted chasm of a room to contain one of them) depict the world Monet found himself witness to as his sight deteriorated to the point of blindness. And yet there is such beauty and passion in those muffled hues. Not like Vaseline on a camera lense, but like viewing the world through God's own eyes. THIS is the ideal Nathalie Lorson sought to replicate in her fragrance. And this is what she acheived. Monet's Garden is nuanced, it is soft and a person cannot understand it without searching through it sniff after sniff. I sprayed this fragrance for the first time right before I took a nap on a sunny afternoon and as I fell to sleep, I understood that it is not a fragrance which can be compared to the plethora of high end niche; Oudh, Rose, Synthetic Noted or Attar soaked boldness. No, this is a fragrance you search for, you explore and you silence the world around you to discover. It may not impress on its own, but this perfume above all other things is about the package and moreover, its about the story. If you don't feel breathless gazing at a painting by Monet, you need not apply. Just keep scrolling.

Thank you to Ferminadaza, Bijoux Sioux, and others for having the integrity to call out what some people are calling reviews these days. Your comments hit the mark. If someone needs to spew out nondescript negativity, they should save it for another venue. I appreciate those who understand the art and science of perfumery, use punctuation and grammar that help with interpretation, and are cognizant of the fact that opinions are subjective. When I look at reviews, part of what I look for is comments about the fragrance and comparisons to other fragrances I may be familiar with. This helps me to decide if I want to invest in trying it. I also watch for comments on whether certain notes are dominant in the mix, like patchouli, which I like sometimes and sometimes not. From what I’ve seen recently, some folks possibly don’t understand the chemistry side of perfumery and how to actually give a fragrance a thorough testing with their body chemistry. They smell it immediately and then pass judgement on it without giving it time to evolve (top, middle, and base notes) or to try it in different weather conditions. There are many fragrances I love but only when applied a certain way or condition. Deciding to hate something without giving it a true chance can result in missing out on some hidden gems.

@Ferminadaza - Bravo. I Couldn't have said it better myself. It's become so vapid and pretentious. When did we lose sight of actually giving descriptive insights and note/sillage/longevity reviews, not just vitriolic, pretentious digs. And the general consensus around here is - designer/name/price equates to a better perfume. I really enjoy finding and discovering 'budget' and 'cheapie' scents to add to my collection. You get made to feel you're not a true fragrance conneseuir if you don't involve yourself with higher end fragrances. This should be a fun, enjoyable place to share with others. But now, it's just becoming carbon cut copy posts with no value. Talk about your experiences, your feelings with the perfume. What you do/don't enjoy about it. My favourite reviews are those who share their 'what vibe' it gives, what memory they attach to it, how it makes them feel. In the end, that's why we love fragrance - the ability it gives to transform a persons energy, mood and emotions, to evoke memories, to make memories. Love and light

It's very shortsighted and perhaps even immature to call something ugly; one should instead say that XYZ is not to their taste. I find the bottle very pretty in a vintage 1980s, glamorous soap opera pop cultural aesthetic. I am far from the only one. Despite that, I will admit that it's not earth-shattering in terms of design, but surely if we used our "big" words, we could have found a less polarizing descriptive term. I've found that I've become increasingly distant from the fragrance community because, with the current popularized interest in perfumes, the demographic of the fraghead community has shifted sharply to a much more closed-minded group who mistakenly believe that offering an opinon translates into an opportunity to be rude or offensive and that providing feedback about a fragrance is an opportunity to spread narrow-minded, sophomoric, and often tactless perspectives. "It's ugly" "It's granny" "It's old lady" "It stinks" "I don't like it because I don't like it" It's exhausting at this point.

So I decided to do something different for my wife for our 19th Wedding Anniversary which its on the 22nd of April and, that is I bought a total of 19 Perfumes Plus 1 makes 20 to surprise her and, this Master x Master was one of the one of the 20 That I got her. Judging by the few good reviews I have read on this Perfume I can't wait till she opens them and smells this one. .

I'm STILL not a heavy floral fan but this was a blind buy after reading about it via another review. Scooped it up from ebay - purely for the bottle and Monet. I was floored at how enchanting & fairies-prancing- in-the-woods it is! NOT a heavy floral IMHO, thank God!! I find it comforting and really quite elegant.

Smells like carpet to me. The bottle reminds me of something like a set piece on Deep Space 9, which is kind neat but also fairly impractical.