Soft solid that goes on with sugared grapefruit and sinks into the skin with lovely green forest woods. The cedar pushes it to the masculine end of unisex, but the musk at the end is sweet.
Lasts a good three hours an inch off the hands.
Comforting and friendly. A great one to give as a gift.
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My favorite art inspired song.
A marvelous cheapie that’s a splash of gin and lime bitters and Christmas fir trees. Sweetens to a light, long-lasting oak and lavender musk.
Many consider Aspen the green Cool Water, but I think it aged with the times better. Less freshman Chemistry 101 and more junior Natural Ecology.
Best during winter term.
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The boy who wore this decided Norwegian Wood was our song. He hated country, so after this bird had flown, the version by Waylon Jennings became my favorite.
Another apple for the teacher–this one is passionate about Victorian literature and floral print dresses.
Honeycrisp by the bushel and Crabtree & Evelyn rose talc, with modest sillage until tea time. Woodsy amber at the bottom lasts longer on clothes.
I kind of feel like this is what an American designer thinks London should be–cliche and prissy and pretty history–without acknowledging the grime and colonialism and punk rock.
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The “DKNY Hearts the World” line came out in 2012, when this song hit it big in the US. (And Florence is actually from London, unlike this perfume.)
Goth girl weird, and nice.
An exploding Bic pen in the best way: big inky dark indigo iris that fades to purple suede and some woods at the bottom. Lingers close to the skin for an hour or two.
The only one of V&R’s Magic Tricks to read “witchy” to me–this one is spell components thrown in a cauldron, and it works.
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Love this witchy tune.
Moody woods and spicy leather. I like it.
The bergamot and pepper opens bright, then the suede turns up the volume. A hit of wintergreen fades into forest within an hour.
This might be marketed as unisex, but I find it very masculine, with smoke and dry musk between the trees.
I still like the original of this one.
The bottled perfume smells like high end floral shampoo and wet garden–a bit meh, and doesn’t last long.
However, the candle has more of the spicy rosewood notes, and the wax brings out the creamy sweetness of the gardenia, so there’s a lovely hot cocoa accord, perfect for snowed in afternoons.
I bought three.
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Another Sparrow.
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.
Happy, happy.
The best New Year’s party ever, that changed its name from Champagne for copyright reasons.
(Perfume is technically alcohol, so it cannot legally be sold with the word champagne unless it is made from specific grapes by a specific method in a specific region.)
The new name is a play on YSL and the word ivresse, which means intoxication.)
Yvresse does sparkle out of the bottle, a joyful room-filling effervescent peach muddled up with delicious spices, that calms to petal-soft fuzzy apricot florals in slow dance space for the evening.
Finishes with lovely sweet wine notes over resinous woods–another pun on the cork–that last the night, leaving rosy dregs on the skin in the morning.
Rich and light-hearted, but not silly.
‘Til next year!
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kira a. gold 