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Suzanne’s Perfume Journal

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A Conversation on Arabie

A More Affordable Olfactionary

Amouage Dia (pour femme)

Amouage Epic Woman

Amouage Gold

Amouage Jubilation 25

Amouage Lyric Woman

Amouage Tribute

Amouage Ubar

Aroma M Geisha Rouge

Ava Luxe Café Noir

Best of 2009

Bond No. 9 Brooklyn

Bond No. 9 New Haarlem

Capote, Truman & Evening in Paris

Caron French Cancan

Caron Parfum Sacre

Caron Tabac Blond

Caron Tubereuse

Caron Yatagan

Chanel 31 Rue Cambon

Chanel Bel Respiro

Chanel Chance

Chanel Coromandel

Chanel Egoiste

Chanel No. 5 (vintage)

Chanel No. 22

Chantilly Dusting Powder

Comme des Garcons LUXE Champaca

Comme des Garcons Series 7 Sweet Nomad Tea

Coty Ambre Antique

Coty Chypre

Creed Acqua Fiorentina

Creed Fleurs de Bulgarie

DSH Perfumes Quinacridone Violet

Deneuve

Donna Karan Black Cashmere

Estee Lauder Private Collection

Estee Lauder Private Collection Jasmine White Moss

Favorite Fall Fragrances

Fragrances for Sweden

Frederic Malle Angeliques Sous La Pluie

Frederic Malle Bigarade Concentrée

Frederic Malle Carnal Flower

Frederic Malle Geranium Pour Monsieur

Frederic Malle Le Parfum de Therese

Frederic Malle Lipstick Rose

Frederic Malle Une Fleur de Cassie

Frederic Malle Une Rose

Geoffrey Beene Grey Flannel

Gucci L'Arte di Gucci

Guerlain Jicky

Guerlain Parure

Guerlain Vega

Happy Solstice

Hermes 24, Faubourg

Hermes Caleche (vintage)

Hermes Eau des Merveilles

Hermes Hiris

Histoires de Parfums 1740

Histoires de Parfums 1828

Histoires de Parfums Blanc Violette

Histoires de Parfums Vert Pivoine

How I Store Decants

In Memory (w/mention of Lanvin Arpege)

Jean Desprez Bal a Versailles

Jean Patou 1000

Juliet by Juliet Stewart

Kenzo Jungle l’Elephant

L'Artisan Parfumeur Nuit de Tubereuse

L'Artisan Parfumeur Orchidee Blanche

L’Artisan Parfumeur Passage d’Enfer

L’Artisan Parfumeur Tea for Two

La Via del Profumo Balsamo Della Mecca

Le Labo Patchouli 24

Little Lists

Lorenzo Villoresi Yerbamate

Maitre Parfumeur et Gantier Eau des Iles

Message In A Bottle 

Miscellany 

Molinard Habanita

Mona Di Orio Nuit Noire

Montale Black Aoud

Montale Boise Vanille

Montale Intense Tiare

Montale Patchouli Leaves

More Roses (rose cookie recipe)

My Heart Has Skipped A Beat (summer smells)

My Perfumes Have Theme Songs

Nasomatto China White

Olivier Durbano Black Tourmaline

Ormonde Jayne Frangipani

Ormonde Jayne Perfumery Ormonde Woman

Oscar de la Renta Oscar for Men

Parfum d'Empire 3 Fleurs

Parfumerie Generale Bois de Copaiba

Parfums de Nicolai Sacrebleu

Parfums DelRae Amoureuse

Parfums Karl Lagerfeld Sun Moon Stars

Pascal Morabito Or Black 

Perfume Quotes - The English Patient

Profumum Roma Acqua Viva

Profumum Roma D'Ambrosia

Puredistance I

Recipe for Socca

Robert Piguet Fracas

Robert Piguet Visa

Sarah Horowitz Parfums' Joy Comes From Within & Beauty Comes From Within

Scented Reading

Scentuous Reading: One Hundred Years of Solitude

Serge Lutens Arabie

Serge Lutens Chêne

Serge Lutens Chergui

Serge Lutens Five O’Clock Au Gingembre

Serge Lutens Miel de Bois

Serge Lutens Tubereuse Criminelle

Serge Lutens Un Lys

Snow Days

Sonoma Scent Studio Incense Pure

Sonoma Scent Studio Jour Ensoleille

S-Perfume 100% Love {More}

Sweden Is For Lovers

T is for Taxes

Tauer Perfumes: Incense Extrême, Incense Rosé, Lonestar Memories, & Reverie au Jardin

Tauer Perfumes Vetiver Dance

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

The Intimacy of Scent

Thoughts of a Perfume Collector

Tightly

Unlocking an Unknown: Webber Parfum 6T

Vero Profumo Kiki, Onda, and Rubj

Viktor & Rolfe Flowerbomb

What I’m Lovin’ Now

Yves Saint Laurent Nu

Viktor & Rolf Flowerbomb: The Perfume Version of Angora

 

After not purchasing any perfume in a while, I recently bought a bottle of Viktor & Rolf Flowerbomb, the perfect antidote to damp spring weather. Like an angora sweater, Flowerbomb is soft and fluffy and irresistibly girlish and sexy. If you somehow managed to elude or resist smelling this fragrance since its wide and prominent launch in 2004, the “soft and fluffy” nature of this perfume might surprise you. The name Flowerbomb would seem to indicate something overwhelmingly floral, but thanks to the scent’s hefty punch of elegant patchouli, that is not the case. Flowerbomb is an explosion of softness; imagine being wrapped in a cloud of flower petals that are more powdery than humid; more velvety sweet than sensuously nectarous. In other words, Flowerbomb is not about the moist vapors of living, breathing flowers exhaling their secrets to the night wind on some exotic shore; there is no skank here, no drama. These flowers have surrendered such powers—they have already been gathered, their luxuriant petals plucked so that you can be buffeted by a blanket of pretty—and they are easier to wear than a corsage of cut blooms, with no stems or leaves to prick you.

 

There is absolutely nothing scary about Flowerbomb except how much I like it. If you asked me, most days I would tell you that I favor big, heady florals that flamenco dance their way across my skin, and that is still true: I enjoy being held captive by a wanton and willful perfume. But surprise! it’s also quite delightful to wear a floral scent that has the kind of Barbie-doll prettiness that’s, well, easy on the nose. Accessible. Sexy good looks in a bottle. Flowerbomb won’t challenge you (or anyone around you) except to say, “I dare you not to notice me,” with a wink and a smile.

 

Maybe that’s why it’s a man-pleaser, in my experience. My husband pulled me into his lap and nuzzled my neck the first time I wore this, and it’s one of the few scents in my collection that he has memorized by smell and knows by name. Carnal Flower, Fracas, Amoureuse, Jubilation 25?  Those soaring, diva-like beauties are lost on him, but Serge Lutens Chergui and Viktor & Rolf Flowerbomb are two he knows by heart. Which brings up another important descriptor: one of the things he loves about Chergui is its distinctive tobacco-leaf note, and as Flowerbomb dries down, I smell a similar touch of tobacco, though no such note is included in Viktor & Rolf’s official listing. (“A millefeuille flowers around the Freesia, Rose Centifolia, Osmanthus, and Jasmine Sambac, supported by a background of patchouli,” says the company’s website in its perfume description.)

 

If the scent sounds sweet, well it is, but not cloyingly so, in my opinion. “Like candy floss” is how many in the online perfume community describe Flowerbomb, and though they might mean this in a derogatory manner (some of them do, some of them don’t) I happily concur with their assessment. The fragrance’s airy construction gives us sugar that is sublime rather than syrupy. As such, the sillage is quite buoyant and noticeable without feeling heavy. Like a crochet bikini or, in my earlier analogy, a frothy angora sweater, Flowerbomb is a flirty bit of yarn: a beauty that might be too easy or lightweight for the thinking person, but that is beautiful nonetheless—and which comes with promise of being cuddly and cottony soft.


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Viktor & Rolf Flowerbomb, eau de parfum, can be purchased at Nordstrom department store, $95 for 50 ml.  Decants of Flowerbomb are available on my website; see perfume catalog for sizes and prices.

Images: Flowerbomb bottle image from bellasugar.com; mouseover image of bikini bottom is titled "Willow" and is from Strumpet & Pink, two women "on a quest to produce the perfect pair of knickers!"

Posted by Suzanne Keller, 4/14/2009.