Black Tea Fougere: Eau de Gaga 001 by Lady Gaga

I wouldn't have picked up this perfume except for Victoria over at eaumg.net giving it an incredibly positive review and she was correct in her enthusiasm for the scent.

I could start this review with the usual discussion of how most celebrity fragrances leave much to be desired but honestly it is well covered territory and I'm not adding anything new to the discussion.

So lets get to the scent, for an absurdly low price, you can get what I am going to call a black tea fougere, well that is how Eau de Gaga reads on my skin, and lots of people get the tea note. Frankly, as so many reviewers point this scent smells far more classy and expensive than it should. The word that comes to my mind every time I smell Eau de Gaga is "dapper", this scent is dapper, it's tasteful, fun, and wonderfully androgynous. At times leaning more towards the masculine but then reigning it in enough that the feminine comes out. It is actually rather mercurial on me sometimes the black tea note is the most strong other times the violet steps forward but it always ends up smelling like ambergris leather musk on me. That may sound heavy but in no way is it.

What I find myself respecting the most about this scent is the musk. It's not a laundry detergent white musk, which feels practically unheard of these days at the mass market fragrance counter. It is a warm clean animalic musk that does not suggest I have recently been to the dry cleaner, it's not screechy, rather it is caressing, like skin still damp with water after a bath.

So who thought a bizarrely tasteful and thoughtful scent would come from Lady Gaga? I didn't, but I am wonderfully surprised.

Try if you like Jicky by Guerlain, Gris Clair by Serge Lutens, or Dorian by Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab.

First image from fragrantica.com
Second Image Jiwoon Pak www.kaifineart.com

The Thing About Freesia

Yesterday, I sprayed a perfume that opened with a wonderful tannic black tea note, it was rather unexpected considering it dried down to something akin to Cacharel's Noa Fleur. It was as I looked at the notes for the scent the freesia creating the effect. What saddens me is freesia is a rather maligned note in perfume, it has been taken by the fruity floral category but not really used to its full effect. I remember the first time I smelled fresh freesia and realized that it smelled like a freshly brewed cup of Earl Grey tea. It is the most black tea like scent I know of that is not black tea, it hints at lemon, but is supported by a rather tart floral quality. I should probably name the scent that has such an amazing black tea opening: Oscar de la Renta's Rosamor.

image from https://www.flickr.com/photos/lonoak/4454903605/