ÇaFleureBon Fragrant Awakenings: Juliette Has A Gun Lady Vengeance. Juliette has a who? What the heck kind of name is this? Why would anybody name a perfume this? Had they lost their mind? Well, I’m not sure about that but I was definitely about to lose mine + Bang Bang Draw

May 19, 2019April 13, 2022

Christi Long of Eau My Soul’s first niche perfume that sent her down the rabbit hole was Juliette Has A Gun Lady Vengeance which she acquired sometime in 2010 (Photo Christi)

I’ve always had an abnormally high level of interest in scent. From the time I was a barely walking baby (not sure I was old enough to even qualify as “toddler”), I was trying to reach my mother’s Jungle Gardenia (or my daddy’s Hai Karate).

photo by Christi

When she would go anywhere near it, I would make the “gimme” sound while making grasping motions with my hand. She would get it down for me, take the top off, and let me hold and sniff the cap. She said I would bounce up and down and laugh from happiness.

Evyan Most Precious photo by Christi

A few years down the road, maybe when I was 5 or 6, my mom got me an “appropriate” perfume for my young age. It was called Sweet Honesty by Avon. I still get these sort of butterflies in my stomach when I recall how I felt having my own bottle of perfume. And the smell was so perfect, the most perfect scent I could ever recall smelling. Even better than Jungle Gardenia or her favorite, Evyan Most Precious, because it was my very own.

That little perfume bottle started a lifelong passion of perfume collecting. I always had more perfume than was “normal”. While the amount I had then was relatively reasonable considering how much I have now, it was always excessive compared to others. Even when I was in grade school, I had at least 20 bottles when most girls my age had one if they were lucky. By the time I was in my early teens, it slowed down because I mostly only wore musk, namely Jovan (with the orange cap) and Coty Wild Musk, so my collecting was contained for a bit. Until I discovered Gloria Vanderbilt. That bottle! That swan! Then all hell sort of broke loose. Something about this perfume, this new “designer” perfume discovery, triggered something in me. It was so exciting! It felt like a rebirth of a more glamorous perfume passion for me after a couple of years of wearing nothing but musk. So, I added more and more.

When I reached my late teens I had perfume everywhere. On every shelf of my dresser, in the closet and in drawers. I would say I had close to 100 bottles by that time which was quite a lot for someone that age. This behavior never really stopped. But my tastes changed and times changed, and I had some medical issues that affected my ability to smell for a couple of years, and foolish me thought perfume went out of style or got too old to use, so I got rid of it. All of it. After the purge I swore I would only have a reasonable amount like normal people. That lasted a few years.

Until…

I discovered a little something called “niche”. I happened upon a lovely boutique that carried all these fragrances I had never heard of before. It was like Disneyland! I began hoarding L’Artisan Parfumeur, Miller Harris and Jo Malone. My dresser was once covered again.

But the real rabbit hole moment came a couple years later via a little vial (included with a beauty order) called Juliette Has A Gun Lady Vengeance. Juliette has a who? What the heck kind of name is this? Why would anybody name a perfume this? Had they lost their mind? Well, I’m not sure about that but I was definitely about to lose mine. I dabbed the strangely named perfume on, expecting not to be impressed, by the name alone… but it was the reverse; I loved it and I was intrigued. I wanted to know more. I got online and did some “googling”. And I discovered a whole new world of online fragrance lovers and actual websites of nothing but perfume reviews written by fragrance fanatics like me. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It was like some sort of perfume wonderland and I couldn’t stop reading. I don’t think I slept for 24 hours.

Juliette Has A Gun Lady Vengeance Review 2006 — Juliette Has A Gun Lady Vengeance by Christi

Juliette Had A Gun all right, and she aimed it right at me.

Bang bang. I was gone.

–Christi Long, Guest Contributor, ÇaFleureBon reader and Founder of the Facebook Group Eau My Soul

Disclaimer Juliette Has A Gun Lady Vengeance is from my own collection, and opinions are my own

Listed notes are Lavender, Bulgarian rose, Patchouli.

Photo courtesy Romano Ricci

Editor’s Note: You can read Michelyn’s interview with Romano Ricci , founder and perfumer of Juliette Has a Gun here (and learn why the brand is called Juliette has A Gun among other interesting stories about his childhood and life). Lady Vengeance was composed in 2006 by Francis Kurkdjian as was Miss Charming. All other Juliette Has A Gun Perfumes are composed by Romano Ricci.

Over the years many readers, fragrance fans, award winning writers, video fragrance reviewers adn our team have written about their Fragrant Awakening into the world of niche perfumes. We all have more in common than not. You can read their stories here.

In Memorium: Tama Blough, Deputy Editor who passed away January 9, 2015 and began this series May 16, 2014.

Thanks to the generosity of Europerfumes, we have a 50 ml bottle tester of Juliette Has A Gun Lady Vengeance for one lucky reader in the USA. The draw is for registered readers only, so be sure to register if you have not done so. To be eligible please let us know what you thought of Christi’s Fragrant Awakening. Draw closes 5/22/2019

Available @twistedlily and other fine stockists

We announce the winners only on site and on our Facebook page, so Like ÇaFleureBon and use our Site feed…or your dream prize will be just spilled perfume