Good Fortune Elixir Intense

I like it more than the OG. I love warm, heavy balsamic sweet scents so the Elixir Intense is more exciting to me. Red and ruby not a bad combo, I loooove the bottle, it's gypsy time lol. I detected the solar notes after about 10 mins after the smokiness overload of the opening. On me it was not linear at all, but definitely liked it even more as time went by. Solar notes sometimes don't work for me if they're too green and intense like in the case of BBW's Tropidelic, but hey I get used to them I ended up loving Tropidelic, but solar notes sometimes are giving camphor or dirty floral at first, well not the case here! No camphor or dusty, dirty floral smell here, maybe smokey floral, yes. Smoky sunny floral, I love that. The solar vibes are def present in Good Fortune Elixir, so I was not surprised when I saw them in the notes, and it's done right. At times it kinda reminded me of Tropidelic's solar floral essence or Justin Bieber's Key as far as the floral element of it, but this one here is balsamic and heavy (which I love). The sandalwood is very intense like pencil shavings, which I'm not a fan of, but I love palo santo with vanilla (like BBW's Vanilla Palo Santo which is a favorite). I like the drydown alot and it lasts and lasts on me. I even swatched lipsticks on my arm/hand where I had sprayed this on previously and despite all the lipstick smell, I could still smell it and the projection was fantastic. The opening straight up smelled like an Orthodox church to me, with the carpet and everything lol - I haven't walked in there in forever (I used to work for our church). Never found a perfume that smells exactly like church incense, then I see the notes, yep incense, ugh that's the part I wasn't crazy about cuz it was a bit too smoky at some point, but this didn't overpower the fragrance for long, as the floral solar notes started developing more and it became smoother and more floral. I had to wait for it a bit. No wonder incense is a top note, it is a bit too much at first. It'd have been better as part of the base notes as in Alien Essence Absolue. It is a warm sweet scent right up my alley regardless, and I enjoy its different stages. I gravitate towards balsamic and incense scents, so I don't mind smoky at all. Would I wear it on a date? No, but I'd wear it for my own indulgence. A part of it reminded me a bit of Alien Essence Absolue, what a lovely beast that was, I miss it.. nothing like it. In Alien Essence Absolue the incense was very pleasant (to me) not plain smoky, due to the abundance of syrupy resins like myrrh and amber, plus the cashmere wood with the orris rendered it powdery, nutty, so warm, sweet and smooth, just beautiful to me and the placement of the notes was perfect. Not enough syrupy notes here, but it's okay, it takes a different path than Alien Essence Absolue imo, more floral in its core, but they're in the same league, both have jasmine too. Nevertheless Good Fortune Elixir Intense is still sweet due to the vanilla bourbon and it has the advantage of the jasmine and solar essence reminiscent of the OG Good Fortune which is beautiful, quite floral-perfumey to me though and fresh, different vibe. I'd wear the OG Good Fortune on a date for instance. If Good Fortune Elixir is the Greek church, then Good Fortune totally smells like the dressed up, dolled up women in the Greek church lol esp on the Saturday night 11pm-12am right before "Easter", we dress fancy and smell fancy too, that's what Good Fortune projects, like expensive department store perfumes all mixed together. I tested both versions at the same time, this one on the left arm, Good Fortune on the right one, they do complement eachother too.

I will start the review by saying that I could not care less about the original Good Fortune. Tested it and forgot about it! But Good Fortune Elixir is where is at! This is good. This is intense. Warm, smooth and cozy perfect for cold weather. I get a soft incense in the beginning, some rich amber, even though not listed, a very strong jasmine that dominates the fragrance from beginning to dry down. The dry down gets a bit sweet on me and it’s dominated by jasmine, vanilla and palo santo. It’s a wonderful woody, incency, vanilla, jasmine fragrance that goes into a different direction than some others in my collection and I appreciate that this adds variety to what I already have. Palo santo is not very commonly used in fragrances, especially not combined with solar notes. I will go as far as to say that this is a modern jasmine bomb. And it is long lasting and is projecting well. I love it! Viktor&Rolf has not lost entirely its magic. The witchy concept is unique, the bottle is interesting, it’s not just another perfume bottle similar to everything else. The fragrance is strong and complex but not overpriced like many designers these days. It is expensive don’t get me wrong but it is not overpriced! I had Alien Essence Absolue in the past but I can’t say that I remember it that well to compare it with Good Fortune Elixir like other reviewers have done below. The other fragrances mentioned I have not tried at all! Also, be careful with spraying this on clothes. The liquid is indeed very dark, a brown-reddish kind of colour and it will stain any light coloured clothing. Ohhh, this is good! I am ready for fall...

I almost didn't get this one bc I didn't like the OG Good Fortune, but I saw a large bottle of this on crazy sale, so I snagged it. Man, I'm SO glad I did. This is way better than OG Good Fortune. Good Fortune Elixir is exactly what I wanted it to smell like. It's a dense vanilla & syrupy jasmine with accents of palo santo & wood. It follows the same formula of the intense / le parfum / elixir versions that have been coming out in the last year or so (think Alien Goddess Intense, Black Opium Le Parfum, Libre Intense & Le Parfum, etc.), where they amp up the vanilla & main floral of whatever base scent, and it creates a syrupy sweet condensed flanker. In GFE, the palo santo & incense adds an acidic twang that's not in a lot of popular scents, and it helps the scent define itself & stand out. I personally love vanillas & the amped up designer intenses/parfums/elixirs, so this is right up my alley. Performance-wise, I'd say this is above average. On me, it has about 6-8 ft of sillage, and it lasts for about 6 hrs on skin & till the next day on clothes. Overall, this was a great value for the price I paid, and I'm very happy with this blind buy! If you also like vanillas and the recent trend of intenses / le parfums, definitely keep an eye out for this one.

I had to snag a bottle of this and might get one more, before it became overly expensive due to its discontinuation. While this doesn’t have much of the grape candy, floral smell like I get with YSL Libre Le Parfum, it does have a witchy vibes that reminds me of Halloween. I love that because Halloween is my favorite holiday and fall is my favorite time of year. I don’t get that as much from the original, which I also like. This is a high performing perfume both in projection and longevity. I can smell it on my clothes until I wash them, and about 12 hours of distinctly GFEI and not just an unidentifiable, after scent of a lingering perfume. I personally haven’t had trouble with staining of skin or clothes, but I’m cautious to put this on and let it dry before putting on clothing that may touch an area that I sprayed. It is a deep, DARK purple hue, and so gorgeous, but there’s no doubt this would stain clothing. I’m sad this perfume was so short lived. It’s not for everyone, but it’s still very beautiful and unique. I can’t think of anything I’ve smelled comparable to this one, although I haven’t stayed as up to date on the newest perfumes in a while.

This thing is BEAST MODE. Even the original GF EDP lasts ALL day! But what is happening is most definitely olfactory adaptation. When your brain becomes use to the scent it will then block it as to not overwhelm your sensory all day. Ask a friend or co worker if they can smell you, or spray a sweater, hang it back up, & Smell it later that day, & the next to see if it really last and if you can still smell it. If the answer is yes then trust me, others can smell you too. I really enjoy the GF line. Both intense and OG. They are definitely different imo. Never smelt anything like them. The OG is like a mix of Mon Guerlain intense and some Mugler Alien. And the intense is just a darker, woodier version of the original. The OG has more seasonal versatility, while the intense only works from fall to winter. While simple they have this unique flare to them, and they bring in SOOO many compliments. If you want something more sweet, airy, floral, jasmine, with a slight licorice feel, go with the OG. But if you want a darker, woodier, airy, floral for winter go with the intense.