The pigeonholing of fragrances as either masculine, feminine or, I hate this term, shared; has caused many a perfume to lose the potential to be found just because many consumers will be influenced by what section of the store it can be found in. Only the most confident of customers will walk up to the opposite gender fragrance counter and say, “I’m shopping for something for myself.” It took me awhile into my personal fragrance use to really live the mantra “I wear what smells good,” without concern for the artificial gender categorization. Even so sometimes I fail to be as true to that credo as I’d like to. At the Sniffapalooza Spring Fling on April of 2010 I was given a goodie bag full of many different samples. As I opened my bag upon my return home I smelled a spicy woody amber-laden whiff coming from the bag. I knew I hadn’t smelled that fragrance during my weekend and so I went shuffling thorough the multitudinous samples looking for which vial was smelling so good. I tossed the samples which didn’t seem like likely candidates into a pile while I started sniffing what I thought were the possibles. Yet my search was still unfulfilled. I hovered my nose over the “not likely” pile and there it was. Finally I narrowed it down to the most unlikely of suspects based on the name, Pretty Woman by Barbara Orbison. I sprayed it on and immediately thought…Pretty Woman….Really!? This was a fragrance that was outstanding on my skin and the amber, patchouli, incense made this feel like a great, excuse me while I shudder, shared fragrance.
Pretty Woman was designed by Roy Orbison’s wife Barbara and it is meant to reflect both the song made famous by her husband and the movie made famous by Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. The fragrance opens on a Julia Roberts kind of feel as a distinct bergamot is joined by a spicy rose and clove-like carnation. Rose and carnation are two of the more neutral of flowers and by accentuating the spicy aspects of both floral notes Ms. Orbison poises Pretty Woman for Richard Gere’s entrance. The rest of the development begins with patchouli and amber with a healthy amount of vanilla. This is, at turns, spicy sweet and resinous. That resinous facet becomes more pronounced especially in the latter stages of Pretty Woman’s development.
Pretty Woman has excellent longevity and above average sillage.
On the website Ms. Orbison says about designing Pretty Woman, “It has been a life-long dream of mine to create a fragrance that speaks to women everywhere.” I hate to contradict the lovely and talented Ms. Orbison but she has created a fragrance that speaks to me and last time I checked I wasn’t a woman. In truth what she has created is a beautiful underrated and undiscovered gem appropriate for anyone who loves great fragrance. I urge anyone to seek it out I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
Disclosure: This review was based on a sample obtained at Sniffapalooza Spring Fling 2010.
-Mark Behnke, Managing Editor