Rogue

Ever since trying out and liking Elizabeth Arden's 5th Avenue and 5th Avenue Royale, I have started looking at celebrity scents with an open mind. Some of them are of surprisingly good quality for the price. This is one of them. My current favorite celeb scent at the moment. The plum, suede and vanilla blend so well on my skin. The suede here has a realistic feel to it. Overall, the suede keeps the plum from getting overtly sweet while the vanilla sort of smooths the suede and keeps it from being too screechy on me. I wish the patchouli was a bit more pronounced though. I find that this gem evolves differently on me depending on when I have it on. During spring/summer type weather, a juicy plum dominates with strong support from suede, vanilla and musk. Patchouli only peeps out shortly in the first 2 hours. The scent then dries down to a warm and creamy musky suede, with amber and sandalwood coming in during dry down. In cooler weather, suede dominates on me with strong support from a jammy plum, smooth vanilla and medicinal patchouli. The musk takes over from the patchouli during the dry down. This is a little sweeter than during warm weather, but in a mature sort of way if that makes sense. I love it on both occasions. Sillage is moderate (about arms length), but this is persistent in terms of performance (lasts about 9+ hours on me). This perfume's versatility and quality for the price is definitely worth having as a staple in my closet.

Okay, guys. So I bought this fragrance just yesterday. I was really impatient to open it up and try it because it was a blind buy. I kept on reading the reviews here, about how it smells like couch, like a prostitute, etc. I was intrigued and fascinated. Had to own it. The moment I opened the cap and sniffed it, I fell in love. It was a very soft, floral, orange blossom-y, citrus-y kind of fantasy. But pay attention - the moment I sprayed it on my wrist and on the back of my elbow, BOOM. Explosion. Citrus-y feeling lasted for about 10 seconds before it was replaced by the most opulent, rogue smelling, nose numbing LEATHER. And believe me, this is not some dirty leather. It is a creamy, luxurious, niche type of leather scent. Now, I have to tell you that I kept on sniffing my arm for a long time. The longevity is...God, let me tell you. So I am writing this the next day after I applied it, it is morning and I can feel the smell radiating to my nose. It is not leathery anymore, it is a very sweet, musky yet vanilla-y aroma that comes across as soothing and effortless. So, if you have doubts about this perfume, if you are a person who likes to take risks, to turn heads and who is independent and completely fearless, I urge you to buy this one. The longevity is OUT OF THIS WORLD for a celebrity scent. The sillage is good. Rihanna is such an exquisite perfume maker, I will definitely buy this again. I can feel it becoming my statement perfume.

I stumbled upon this scent after clicking through reviews on the right tab. I ended up purchasing the men's and the women's Rogue. To be honest, I was more excited to purchase the women's than the men's version. Why the women's version? Mainly because of the notes and how it's described in reviews. The description "a leather handbag with chapstick and mints scattered in it" sounded quite appealing to my tastes, and sure enough, the analogy was spot on. My personal thoughts? If I hadn't read the notes, I wouldn't think this was leather and plum. It actually comes across much like the scent of tuber and rose, to my nose. Much like Noir de Noir or even Black Orchid, but without that pesky dry chocolate accord, which turns Black Orchid rancid for me. I tend to like this type of scent on a woman, but I didn't purchase this for any woman in particular, I just wanted to smell it. Luckily, in my opinion, this is quite unisex, no more feminine than my favorite rose scents, so I'll likely wear this one myself from time to time. This falls right between Cartier Declaration d'Un Soir and David Yurman Limited Edition in my collection, which is a gap that I really wanted to fill! Update: This is a joy to wear. As complex and unusual as it smells in testing, this wears like a very soft, clean and agreeable tuber, rose and leather scent on my skin. It may not be for everyone. Try before you buy, but also try wearing it before you judge this one!

Continuing on the plum (and now Rihanna) train, I come to "Rogue". I didn't try this for the longest time because I was put off by the leather note. Leather in perfume tends to make me pause. Do we reeeeeeeeeally want to do that? It's rarely done right, but when it is: It's this! "Rogue" is sexy and smooth throughout its life. The plum is reined in by the suede here. All this time I was nervous about leather when plum could have been mine and "Rogue"'s downfall. Wonderfully, the sweetness of the plum and the deep smoothness of the leather is perfectly balanced. The gentle cyclamen and lemon blossom in the top notes is delightfully feminine and tangy cirtusy. It's actually lovely and incredibly underrated! It's subtle, but it's there. It settles to a very pleasant sweet musk, but the suede is always present. Longevity is okay. I would honestly love this to last much longer. If this was an all-dayer (or all-nighter), I'd buy this in a heartbeat! Sillage is - again - okay. Moderate is you spray thoroughly, and on clothes / hair. Overall, this is a pretty great scent for the price and availability of it. I'm suitably impressed and *very* tempted to buy my own bottle. It's sexy, modern, unique enough, and can be either attention-grabbing or subdue; depending on how trigger-happy you're feeling. Repurchase-worthy. *** Kitty rating: 8/10.

Oh, Rogue... Very special. Not a safe blind buy unless you have 25 bucks to experiment with. Also: unisexy... I couldn’t smell most musks when I started my fragrance journey and now, magically, I smell a whole new dimension of this fragrance because my nose opened up to musk. So I now get the suede thing. I am officially addicted to this. There’s a weird medicine menthol thing in the first 5 min I used to hate- now I love that too... lol (lemon blossom plus patchouli??) The suede. It’s a cushiony, rich complement to the plum and sweet lemon blossom I guess? But it’s heaven to me now and smells full and balanced. It’s warm, a bit fruity, dark and comforting. I think it resembles a Dr. Pepper vibe in some way- I get it! My 12 year old boys chose this perfume as their favorite over my Chanel Allure and that was the former favorite...hmmmm. I am loving my reunion with Rogue. Lasts 8 hrs. Incidentally, I ordered samples of Bottega Venetta because I heard it was similar and I didn’t want to spend big bucks on something too similar so I am reporting HERE that to my nose they are very similar, and after I put BV on my brain said wait this is Rogue. After first 5 minutes. Compared on both wrists. I could tell the difference slightly but hubby could not. Rogue is sweeter...