Angel

I'm going to tell you a story, since descriptions are certainly not lacking here. When I was 17, I was introduced to Angel, fell head over heals with her, and subsequently met my first HUMAN love a couple of months later. We were one another's first... Well... Everything essentially. His mom didn't like me; I was a red lipstick wearing, 20 eye Dr Martin sporting punk as fuuuuuuhhhhh teenager brazenly waltzing into her house leaving a trail of the dirtiest, sexiest, most illicit perfume ever, with an attitude and the cleavage to match. As an aside, I'm a mother of a teenaged boy now- I would've hated my guts too. Anyway, we broke up a year and a half into our otherwise perfect relationship because he's totally a mama's boy. I noticed immediately that my bottle of Angel was missing, and was convinced his sister stole it because she was always telling me how good I smelled. Not wanting to deal with the heartbreak of seeing him, I sucked it up and bought another bottle. Fast forward 10 years later, I started kind of dating someone. A few weeks in, I realize his room mate is THE BOY, so I did what anyone would've done and dumped the dude for his room mate. On our third date, we were watching a movie in his room, when he reaches over into his drawer and pulls out this bottle of Angel, the juice all weird and discolored and almost gone. He had kept my perfume for over ten years, spraying it every once in a while to remind himself of me. Ten years. Needless to say, things worked out. He's still my man, his mama has since decided that she loves me despite the fact that I still wear red lipstick and I'm still rocking Angel on the regular. She's much more open minded to our hand holding now that we are married. Goes to show you just how powerful olfactory memories can be- this perfume allowed me to pick up where we left off, as though the ten years without one another had never existed. My advice? Get a perfume that's too big for your britches and go make out in the back of a muscle car. It'll go somewhere pretty alright.

Testing an Étoile Collection Parfum miniature, roughly dated to 1994-1995: I can see exactly why this landed like a military grade glitter bomb when it came out. I don't think I've ever smelled anything that so aggressively and uncompromisingly embodies 1990s futurism before. If the Sega Dreamcast was a fragrance, it would be Angel. The upholstery of the VengaBus is completely saturated with Angel. The gift shop on the Fhloston Paradise absolutely stocked Angel. Hear me out. There was something about the way the 90s looked at the future post-Cold War. It was fun, playful, fantastical. Translucent plastics, virtual pets, bright colors and rounded shapes. Directly in opposition to the grunge 90s. Mugler, Chiris, and Cresp somehow read this shift in the air before almost anyone else did. Angel opens with a bang - melted artificially flavored gummy bears over dry patchouli, with something almost plastic in the mix. What it feels like is brightly colored see through inflatable furniture, brightly colored frost finish nail polish (Hard Candy or Pure Ice, dealer's choice), the neon orange of Leeloo's (The Fifth Element) or red of Lola's (Run Lola Run) hair. It is youth offering you one of an unlimited number of possibilities. Angel knows it is fantasy, knows it is artifice, and wants you to just enter its world for a while. It holds onto that spun sugar until the drydown, where rich powdered cocoa and a bit of smoke also make an appearance. I don't get gourmand or chocolate cake at all personally. This is enticing but not remotely edible. Unless you were one of the kids who really wanted to eat the scented erasers you could buy at the book fair. Then I totally get it. I am incredibly glad I got to try this and remember how it felt to be a preteen in the late 90s. The only place I could imagine wearing this to in 2026 is a rave. Maybe I will.

I tried this when I went out with the intention of trying Alien Hyperspace + Goddess, and I ended up liking it *on me* so much more than either of them, gosh !! I think I get easily overwhelmed by initial sprays, and always seem to just smell chemicals. So I think that's a me problem. After a couple of minutes it was quite fragrant on me, but I couldn't quite place how it smelt. Then after 5-10 minutes, it became this gorgeous fruit punch type scent. It wasn't giving super heavy vanilla or anything it was like,,,,,,, yummy fruit treats which yES me, I'm fruity thank u. I wish it could keep that scent all the way through, but after a while it dries down to this nice sweet vanilla-y scent. I'm still trying to decide what I think of the dried down scent, because I spent half of my teens wearing Ari, so anything that reminds me of that can feel a little offputting LOL, but I do enjoy the smell. I'm very surprised by the difference in reviews? I wonder if it's everyone's nose working differently, or everyone's skin working differently. or maybe both? This scent absolutely STUCK on me. I'd tested a few perfumes, so I had to put it on the back of my hand instead of my wrist. It stayed wayyyyy stronger than the two on my wrists (hyperspace & goddess). My friend who I was with said she could slightly smell it after like? An hour? This was only one time when it wafted toward them, so it's not like it was projecting a CRAZY amount. Kind of a good medium amount? So if I do buy this, it'll probably be a two sprays type situation. I don't see this as particularly unsafe for the office, as long as you're only spraying once of twice in the morning, before travelling in??? The other reviews are making me question that, but I imagine the people they're complaining about are respraying throughout the day or coating themselves.

So today I tried a batch of this from 2016 (batch code 601497), and I have to say, I actually really like it! I think the specific formulation genuinely made a world of difference. This patchouli isn't one pulled straight from the soil; no "dirt" undertone at all. It's much smoother and complements the rest of the notes rather than canceling them and drowning them out; it's much more spicy and warm in this formulation. I still don't really get cotton candy tbh, but lots of chocolate and honey. This Angel is sweet, but edgy and uncompromising. It actually reminds me a lot of Christmas, gingerbread houses, antique shops and potpourri for some reason? But not at all of an "old lady." It's very unique, like it's equal parts cozy and standoffish. This is definitely not an edible gourmand. It's gourmand in a similar sense to how some kind of scented decoration, ornament or satchel is. "I'm sweet, but don't get too close and eat me, I'm too dangerous." I really really like this and I think it really fits an impression I want to give off, at times. However, I've gotta say, I don't really subscribe to the belief that you should never wear gourmands at all in the summer, but you'd kind of have to be a psychopath to wear this particular fragrance in hot weather. I wouldn't say "too sweet" is apt, but this is WAY too heavy for the upcoming months. One spray is enough! I find that I like spraying this once on the lower back of my neck more than on the front of my neck or my wrists, it's more subtle and enjoyable that way. I have long hair which diffuses the scent and I'm not left overwhelmed by this method of application.

After reading so many different opinions about Angel, I had to go and test it myself. I just can't believe I never did this before. I went straight to my favorite perfume's store and asked for it. The sales lady told me, Angel is a women's perfume but it's purchased mainly by men who adore it. It's very unisex. Well here is what I got. The top notes are really golden honey, meringue and something between peach and wonderful passion fruit. Not even a single flower. Remember that fragrances change from skin to skin. That was a very nice opening for me. Thirty minutes later, while I was checking stores at the mall, I could notice a gorgeous moss as I had never felt before, real moss fresh from the forest mixed with musk, honey, patchouli and caramel. The base notes on me are musk, a very fine and delicious patchouli, vanilla and the caramel evolved into toffee with some honey in the background. I just went back to the store and found the sales lady waiting for me smiling with the box. She said, the moment I smelled it on you, I knew Angel was for you. She was so right! I have never had so many compliments as I get wearing Angel. To be honest, Angel is not cloying nor suffocating as others said. Maybe it's my skin's chemistry, or maybe we were meant for each other. You must try this gorgeously addictive perfume at least once in your life. About the gender label let me tell you this. First, Angel is very unisex actually I found it more masculine than A-Men ( at least on me). And on the other hand, you just wear watever makes you happy and forget about labels.