Kate Spade

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Kate Spade New York

Sample card and spray, with pink on white graphic pattern of Kate’s spade.

Seems like every design house is desperately churning out their version of a citrus-berry-rose, as if fruit sorbet is the must-have wardrobe staple now that COVID-19 has made hard pants a thing of the past.

This one should have been named TRULYsprite.
Kate Spade New York is nice, bright strawberries with lemon-lime zest opening, rosy refreshing middle and a mineral chrome shine at the base. It’s fun and bubbly, but it’s a bit brief, and a bit simple.
Pair with stretch leggings.

This is likely the first fragrance that Kate Spade herself didn’t have a hand in producing, on some level. Do most legacy houses take the safe route after their creator has recently passed?
I hope they find their way back to her iconic cuteness-as-an-artform aesthetic.

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Terry Gilliam took Kate Bush and Donald Sutherland to a new level of cute in her “Cloudbusting” video.

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In Full Bloom Blush

in full bloom blush
Pretty lavender mini casting pink shadows, with ivory sculpted flower cap twice the size of the bottle.

A pretty cuppa tea.
Opens with Ceylon rose and lemon, then slowly cools to musky peach Oolong.

It’s simple but long lasting with impeccable sillage–personal space and the faintest trail of petals. The base notes–woody stems tinged red with the roses–linger for days on clothes.

And the bottle is adorable.

Another gem that came out in 2019.

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Truly Dazzling

truly dazzling edgy
Turquoise green wavy graphic peelie and sea salt.

Fresh and fun and fashionable–a mermaid in spangled spandex and designer seashells.

Wet flowers bloom strong, then ease into sugary herbs, water mint and those funny green lake apples that float on the surface in the summer. A bit later salt cascades into the sweet, the sharp edges of the crystals biting like ocean water.

I liked the advertising insert enough to look for it in the store–it fades fast. A pick me up rather than a long wear, but the lack of white musk is refreshing.

This is also fun and fashionable and fresh–

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In Full Bloom

Pale purple mini bottle with papery white gardenia top that might be meant to look like a rose.

Opens with lots of roses and some other greenhouse flowers my grandfather grew in patio pots and brought inside in the winter.
There’s an edge of citronella and underneath, some cedar notes, but it doesn’t tell much of a story.

I love the marketing on my little magazine sample–yes to gorgeous Black women with natural hair and real women over fifty! But I’m disappointed that there is none of Kate Spade’s trademark whimsy of typewriter purses and flowerpot bags in this scent.

Edit–2/18/2020

Three years later and here’s a mini in a box of curiosities I don’t remember ordering at all, and I manage to splash it all over the house while opening it. Now I have rosy cedar floorboards and an annoyed cat, but there’s a quirky cottage-core vibe that I like (and didn’t get from the peelie) so I’ll tuck it into my linen closet until I find a good home for it.

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Rest in Parfum, Kate Spade. I’ve loved your fun designs.