Guerlain Love is All and Christian Dior Dior Star : Fragrance Review

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Star rating: 5 stars–outstanding/potential classic, 4 stars–very good, 3 stars–adequate, 2 stars–disappointing, 1 star–poor.

Guerlain Love is All released exclusively for duty free stores in 2005 features a combination of iris, mimosa and passionfruit.  Tart red berry opening makes for a familiar fruity accord, which becomes even more ubiquitous when a tropical sharpness of passionfruit contributes to the top notes. The rest of the story is as interesting as watching the grass grow–pleasant but forgettable flirty floral facets against treacly and at the same time sharp fruity notes.

The best feature of Christian Dior Dior Star is its lovely gilded flacon, made in the classic Dior shape and embellished with small stars against matted gold. The fragrance has notes of bergamot, mandarin petitgrain, honeysuckle, peony, sugared almonds and musk. At first, it smells not unlike green chestnuts, which is a scent of sugary verdant sap, talcum powder and unopened flower buds. However, before I had a chance to fully enjoy the vision of prickly green chestnut shell, the fragrance took a turn for a dull unoffensive floral.

Although it is not a duty-free exclusive, I would also like to mention a new Yves Saint Laurent In Love Again limited edition called “Fleur de la Passion”.  Out of all summer limited editions (Van Cleef et Arpels, Lancôme, etc.), it is definitely the most interesting, even though this is not saying much. It is a straightforward fruit salad, with passion fruit and raspberry dominating. In the top notes, it reminds me of the original, with the sharp blast of pink grapefruit and a rainfall of rose petals. Here, sharpness of grapefruit is somewhat muted by raspberries and sweet-sour aspect of passion fruit (not passion flower as I was expecting, even though later it does soften into a floral aspect more like passion flower, which raspberries manage to choke). The development is similiar to In Love Again, but all of the stages are permeated by raspberries.

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3 Comments

  • Robin: Thanks so much for this report on scents I probably won’t get to try for months…but what a bunch of stinkers! The LE In Love Again is the only one that sounds worth a try, although even the regular ILA is too sweet for me. July 15, 2005 at 11:31am Reply

  • Tania: YSL In Love Again Fleur de Passion: I think, in fact, that was the thing I sprayed on while I was in the airport this weekend. It gave me such a headache I thought I would throw up all day long. The fruity sweet things seem to do that to me. July 15, 2005 at 11:36am Reply

  • Victoria: R, if ILA was too sweet for you, this one will surely be an overkill. I would imagine that those who love fruity fragrance, will find it nice, however I just cannot deal with all of the syrup.

    T, sweet fragrances usually cause headaches, but above all I cannot stand fruity notes, especially in lavish abandon. July 15, 2005 at 11:42am Reply

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