Sofia

Edit, New Year's Eve 2023: Sadly, as happens so often with beauty products I love, the formulation for this has been changed. I bought a new bottle this fall, and the sophisticated allure has been obliterated by a blast of pepper. The note list and description is unchanged but no matter how long you wait, a strong pepper scent persists and prevails. The formerly feminine Sofia now gives brazen masculinity, so for me it's no longer wearable. A true tragedy of fragrance, as evidenced by my original review below from 2016: Beloved Fragranticans, please allow me to share my pain. I generally don't go for celeb scents, and as beautiful as Sofia Vergara is, I've seen her acting like a bimbo on a few too many late-night infomercials to ever take her seriously. I'm also mad at her for stealing my shoulda-been husband, Joe Manganiello, who was about to realize at any moment that he couldn't live without me. So needless to say, I didn't have very high hopes or expectations when I let Fragrantica reviews talk me into blind buying this perfume. The first spritz and initial sniff seemed to confirm my suspicions: another generically sweet synthetic jumble of common, overplayed fruit-powder notes. I silently kicked myself, mentally kissed that $22 goodbye, and placed little miss Sofia with so many others on the Triple-B shelf (BBB, Blind Buy Blunder) destined for next spring's yard sale. The only consolation I had was knowing I'd been right about the saucy tart all along. Little did I know that she was determined to take even that from me. Semi-dejected but hardly surprised I went on about my day, secretly wishing her a case of atomic acne just in time for her next media appearance . About an hour later, maybe a little more, I stood up from bending over the dishwasher and caught a whiff of an incredible scent. I started looking for the source and was genuinely dumbfounded to discover it was Ms. Sofia giving her encore performance. Despite the gawdy opening, Sofia is absolutely gorgeous. (Insufferable bitch.) The $22 intro turned into a high-dollar finish. Time really is money. In that one hour she went from an infomercial bobblehead (for just 2 easy payments of $10.99 each) to a red-carpet stunner. But wait-- there's more! The finish of this was so good that I immediately went online and blind ordered Sofia's dark-haired sister, Sofia Love (who no doubt has her skeevy eyes on at least one of my runner-up husbands). Just like the original, she starts out cheap but cleans up beautifully in no time. (Naturally...the tramp.) It's like the movie Pretty Woman in a bottle. Anyway, despite my misgivings and personal angst, I can't help but recommend Sofia and Sofia Love if you're looking for feminine, alluring, and completely respectable fragrances at a ridiculously reasonable price. The drydown of this is actually classy enough for evening wear, and still affordable enough to wear to work...or even to bed (go figure). And so, much to my chagrin, Sofia sashayed her way off the Triple-B shelf and took a place among my regular rotation. And why not, she's taken everything else. Heifer.

Fresh, warm, creamy, clean, and not complex, Sofia opens with a very loud and sparkling, juicy blackberry-plum fruitiness. It was almost too sweetly fruity for me, at first, and VERY strong! But, within the first hour, the juicy fruits die down and the warm, clean sandalwood and sweet vanilla establish themselves (orchid is in there, too, but I'm not quite sure what orchid smells like...). Like many others have said here, Sofia is reminiscent of Calvin Klein's Euphoria (they share berries, orchid, and vanilla). Also, a few people also mentioned similarities to Rihanna's Reb'l Fleur -- with its plum, berries, and vanilla -- which I can see, but Sofia is definitely minus the earthy patchouli. On the other hand, I cannot see much resemblance to Thierry Mugler's Angel, which a few people mentioned -- that complex cotton candy-honey-patch bomb I LOVE! -- other than maybe the fact that both are very strong and long-lasting; Sofia is a lot softer and less jarring, ultimately -- way less over the top -- than my beloved Angel. Sofia lasts 10-12 hours on my skin and is a linear scent, not changing much after the initial plum-berry blast subsides in the beginning. It's a yummy, beautiful fragrance and smells, simply, happy... :) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Over the last couple of weeks, I've found myself not reaching for Sofia, which is strange to me because it's so delicious it almost seems liquidy and "drinkable" (not literally, though!). Then I realized that, while Sofia is so pretty, it's as if it's missing a base or profound/deep note that would anchor and solidify it. It plays soaringly in all these"higher" registers but lacks depth. As someone who was raised on old school chypres (Mme. Rochas, Femme, etc.), maybe it's also missing a little bit of "stankiness" for me, too (though I also appreciate newer, non-stanky post-80's concoctions). But, when I woke up this morning, it suddenly occurred to me that I could remedy pretty Sofia's lack of base and depth by using it in tandem with Estee Lauder's Azuree. I love Azuree but only occasionally reach for it because it's SO strong, dry, and leathery that it can be overwhelming. However, both Sofia and Azuree are very strong and while Azuree could use some liquid fluidity, sweetness, and softening, Sofia could use some leathery weight and dryness. The two scents combine beautifully and address any issues I have with Sofia's sweetness and lightness and Azuree's rough, pungent angularity.

My apologies, Sofia. Last week when I first tried your lovely perfume I found it too strong and woodsy. I hit the "dislike" button on this very page and instead of putting you in a place of prestige amongst my weekly bottle choices I shoved you into the dark depths of my perfume drawer. For this, I express great remorse. Because this week I decided, as I do with ALL perfumes I initially dislike, to give you another chance. I spritzed and recalled your quite beautiful and dare I say - sublime mixture of plum & luscious FRESH blackberries. None of that synthetic nonsense. Then I prepared myself for the inevitable drydown that I had so loathed before. However, this time was different. This time I finally recognized your perfume for what it truly is - NOT the typical candy-like or fruity fragrance that dominates the shelves these days. Oh no, this is MUCH different and certainly worlds apart from anything else in my fragrance wardrobe. This is a drydown like NO other. Here we are in the dead of winter and your drydown bouquet sparkles and glimmers with fresh cold weather berries, it seduces with sexy orchid and calms with a woodsy violet. I can still smell this enchanting concoction the next day, on my collar and sleeves. The sandalwood is present but sits in the background, allowing instead the plum and blackberry to have their moments in the sun. I have switched my vote on this board to "love" and you now have a place of stature not amongst my favorite bottles, but you are the sole fragrance sitting on my bathroom countertop! A place of esteem and prominence! ;) Sofia, I have now decided that I am in LOVE with your perfume!! In fact, I am considering making your fragrance my "signature scent" for the autumn months since this perfume, to me, just SCREAMS harvest moon, pumpkin patches, apple picking, corn mazes and hay rides. This scent is mature - it is NOT for teens or for women who have no self- confidence. This is meant for the woman who knows who she is, who is strong and self-aware. Who loves the person she has grown to be. Perhaps, Sofia, this is who YOU are? I've never met you or seen on tv so who knows? ;) But I thank you, Sofia, for this gift. An affordable fragrance in a large and BEAUTIFUL bottle that looks more like a piece of glass art than a simple mass-produced decanter. I will *certainly* be buying more of this because I have truly and properly fallen in love with this work of art.

Update: After my really negative review I left the bottle couple of days on the shelf, then decided to give it another chance...and wore it several times. I don’t know what happened but the harsh green sour stuff just disappeared! It transformed to the lovely sophisticated, fruity, sweet, woody scent, everyone is talking about. I’m really glad that this change happened somehow and I can proudly and happily ware this frag 🥰 After lots and lots of YouTube perfume reviews, I made myself a looong wishlist. This was mentioned a lot even as a Coco Mademoiselle dupe, so I decided to blind buy it, regarding the price furthermore, I thought it will be one of the best scents in my collection. But!!! It’s a huge disappointment :( I totally expected something else...l must admit that there are nice things about it, like the price, the packaging and bottle, longevity is insanely good, I got about 12h...but the scent on me is just unbearable. I wouldn’t recommend to blind buy it, I definitely advise to try it before. At first spritz I only get something like harsh green sour apples, what’s not even mentioned in the notes.... After dry down I can only feel an unpleasant edgy green bitterly cassis, what resists for very long hours. Sweetness of vanilla and woody notes I can barley smell somewhere underneath that horrible currant buds note. I am sooo disappointed, I expected and hoped for a fresh but sweet and pleasant scent, which could fit in any situation, as well as a signature scent...

I ordered this fragrance along with Love awhile ago. I enjoy both fragrances! I was pleasantly surprised that Sofia smells so sophisticated for a celebrity scent. Yes it seems sweet to me, I do smell plums but more over I smell a jammy sweetness that is quite tenacious through out the wearing of Sofia and stays quite long on clothing. Sandalwood is a dominant note and you must like it to be comfortable with this fragrance. I love sandalwood so that works for me! I smell a bit of vanilla that tempers the sandalwood and the wood is nice as well. Really it is a very pleasant, sweet fragrance for any occasion and I believe that it is a safe blind buy. 10/15/2020 Sprayed this on then flew out the door for an appointment. We are all wearing masks in my state so I really did not pay attention to how much I sprayed probably thinking no one can smell it through their mask anyway - I mean I can't! At the end of my appointment I had two people ask me what was the beautiful fragrance I was wearing! I asked them if it was too strong and they said no, they just LOVED the smell! One person said that it was refreshing to have a fragrance she could smell with her mask on. So I was pleased and surprised as I really could not smell Sofia with my mask on but when I got home and took off my mask I really enjoyed this beautiful fragrance for the remainder of my day.