To Be True Me

Pistachio with amber (and praline) or caramel (with or without coconut) create a warm, sharp or too powdery ambery-balsamic nutty cherry-like scent in this perfume category of VS Sunset Gelato, (yes indeed) Cheirosa '62, BBW Vacation Vibe and BBW Sunset Glow being the heaviest one because it has actual cherry instead of the pistachio of the others, and due to the caramelized vanilla with the powdery coconut so it's extra warm and pungent (almost like plastic cherry cough medicine) - I can't breathe. Coconut, cherry and caramel don't work in the same perfume for me. Truth be told these perfumes aren't my fav because of how warm, pungent or even sharp and ambery-balsamic they can be with that powdery nutty cherry smell in my face and how the pistachio smells so much like cherry to me - I prefer a cold milky real pistachio smell and maybe a hint of the cherry impression. They can make me extremely nauseous. I mean it's the only time the cherry note or scent that I normally love is a little obnoxious. So I was skeptical about this and feared it'd be a mediocre repetitive blind buy of another Sunset Gelato scent collecting dust. Well this Police creation to me is the most wearable of them all and very unique. It's not a dupe of these perfumes btw, it's just in that league. The coconut-fig pairing made me buy this because I have a perfume by a Greek brand, Aloe Colors, called Aether featuring fig and coconut notes (along with tuberose, peach, sandalwood, patch, vanilla, jasmine) and I love the syrupy slightly powdery, cool toned scent that these two notes create together. You don't have sharp amber warmth but the syrupy fig's natural balsamic quality. Same here. So even though pistachio and caramel here likewise give off a similar yet more subtle cherry-like nuance, the fig differentiates it from the other perfumes in this league. The nutty cherry impression isn't plain and overbearing. The fig offers a more cool toned balanced scent, a green aromatic sweet facet and no sharp ambery tones. Finally living in Greece, at a somewhat rural place by the Athens airport, full of aromatic, sweet fig trees, I adore the fig's green, calming, cold, somewhat lactonic balsamic aroma when it's the syrupy sweet type. Eventually the cherry-like scent is a lot more subtle overall. In the opening it's a juicy candy, bright cherry-like scent, quite brief (from the pistachio, tart bergamot, the cotton candy & caramel I guess), and quickly followed by an almondy pistachio scent and a juicy coconut accord. Here the coconut plays with fig instead of cherry - it's an amazing combo imo. So I clearly smell a pistachio nutty scent in the opening and throughout. At the drydown a vanilla-cherry undertone reemerges accompanying the pistachio-fig, with the coconut's soft powdery veil, without the dreaded overly warm, loud, sharp ambery cherry-pistachio scent. The pistachio in the opening smells more like almond as it mingles with the cotton candy, very milky as the fig hits my nose (it was giving Police Forbidden for a moment). Paired with the bergamot and fresh powdery freesia, it's an impressive bright opening like almond fig ice cream or something. At the very first spray of the cotton candy-pistachio giving almond, it seemed like sweet pink playdoh to me, sightly artificial, but still so attractive. Fresh enough, very nutty, slightly cold, lactonic, subtly floral, summery, like juicy coconut, and the vanilla tying everything together without dominating. No caramelized vanilla here or cherry so the coconut isn't suffocatingly powdery as in bbw Sunset Glow. It gradually becomes more thick and powdery as the coconut intensifies with the fig and vanilla (reminiscent of the powdery drydown of the Aether perfume which is heavier more powdery and more balsamic). I do detect the coconut itself when I smell my skin up close just embellished by the cotton candy and fig before it turns powdery. It's a dance of harmonious notes and nothing overpowering. The last stages are a soft vanilla-cherry scent, the balsamic green fig and a nutty feel. Refreshing yet syrupy enough, with a woody base that keeps it from smelling superficial, aldehydic or juvenile (looking at you Rich Girl which I bought together with this and I'm not too happy with it). I can't stop wearing this in the Greek heat even under the sizzling sun, it's a dreamy escape. The bottle's shiny sleek bubblegum pink matches the cotton candy nutty opening of the juice. I wrote a dissertation again lol. To me this is something new within the aforementioned category. If you like Scandal Absolu with the fig, tuberose and sandalwood you'll prolly like this too, they're not alike, but the fig there is equally aromatic green cold and calming, just less sweet than here.