Paloma Picasso- Minotaure

When Paloma Picasso chose the Minotaur as the embodiment of her masculine fragrance, she was most likely connecting it to her father's way of identifying himself with the creature's virility and strength. The sexy perfume is certainly not meant to evoke any of the beastly aspects or the various tragedies connected with the monster. Or so we hope.

I bought the Blond a bottle of Picasso's Minotaur soon after we started dating. It was sometimes between 1993 and 1994, and while I was no longer wearing her Mon Parfum very often, I still liked her dramatic style and the fact the scents were quite different than anything else that occupied the shelves in the early 1990s. Minotaure was an unusual masculine fragrance back then as it is today. The obligatory citrus blast of the top notes is very herbal and spicy, and it soon becomes both leafy and sweet. The geranium note is very pronounced but it's not here to highlight a rose facet. Instead, the heart of the perfume is green like an overgrown and somewhat neglected garden. It's cool without being airy and has the feel and romance of an old stone bench that's half covered and hidden in the shadows.

Minotaure's dry-down is an oriental with a hint of soft leather and quite heavy on the amber. I remember it as more powerful and assertive than what I get from the current bottle I own. It used to make me swoon on date nights, but that was long ago, before the Blond had a full arsenal of Lutens, Malle and Guerlain bottles, among other lovelies. I foolishly got rid of whatever was left of that old bottle about ten years ago and only repurchased recently. Curiously, I'm the one who's been wearing Minotaure lately, while the husband has yet to even try it beyond a nostalgic sniff and quick spray on his wrist. Which brings us to the fact Minotaure is quite female friendly, as long as you don't mind some lavender and green geranium notes. I'd guess that a woman who wears Heritage and Habit Rouge can feel quite comfortable in this Paloma Picasso scent.

Minotaure can still be found online from various discounters, but considering L'Oreal (owner of Paloma Picasso perfume franchise) has stopped its production around 2004 prices have been slowly creeping up.

Images-
Pablo Picasso, King Of The Minotaurs, 1958 (abcgallery.com)
Paloma Picasso perfume ads from 1992 and 1994 (cauleurparfum.com)

Paloma Picasso Mon Parfum (vintage)

When I bought myself the first bottle of Paloma Picasso Mon Parfum, it was the spring of 1990 and I was emerging from a long boy-induced funk. The perfume wasn't a new release (launched in 1984) and I've wanted it for quite a while. I was 19 and still believed in signature scents. I spent six months trying to mold myself into a girl who wears YSL Paris, because my mom, full of good intentions and trying to cheer me up after a gut-wrenching breakup, bought me a gift set of the rosy pink Paris, but just like my attempts at dating during those months, Paris went sour.

Paloma Picasso the designer was one of my favorite non-blonde icons. She was a living proof that one can dark hair and eyes, family baggage, an unusual look and an individual style and still make it in the world and be a striking beauty. An important lesson for a child of the 80s whose other celebrity obsession was poor Princess Diana.

Even before I first smelled the juice, I was fascinated by the ad campaign and the red lipstick, and when I finally got to sniff it, I was sold. It was big, bold, womanly and strong. In Paloma Picasso I found exactly the person I wanted to be, and wearing it changed my attitude to the core. I could be myself again and not loath every second of it.

Paloma Picasso is a monumental chypre. It smacks you right on the head from it's opening when you realize bergamot can be a big diva. There's a floral heart that comes and goes, quite a bit of cool, dark greenery and a larger than life oakmoss base, which unlike other scents in the genre, is quite sweet and and has a feel of dark, velvety honey. Paloma Picasso is a strong and assertive perfume, of the kind that gave many chyper-wearers the reputation of an environmental hazard. It was probably not meant for 19 year olds (and neither was Sisley Eau de Soir, another big chypre and the fragrance I started wearing after someone in my social circle, a tall, flat-chested blonde, got a bottle of Paloma Picasso and made it her signature scent) even back in 1984. I still love it and keep some on hand, though I rarely wear it. When I do, I always dab and never spray, lest I kill someone with my sillage. My days of fumigating the planet are probably over.

Like just about any chyper and/or a perfume franchise owned by a global giant (L'Oreal, in this case), Paloma Picasso has been reformulated. The stuff currently found in stores (and online discounters) is as miserable and depressing as I was in the first half of 1990. And to add insult to injury,it smells cheap. If you can, seek out the old stuff (there's a good chance your aunt still has a bottle somewhere) . I always preferred the EDP, because it was sweeter and the opening didn't necessarily cleared my sinuses, but even the vintage EDT is better than the current juice.

Perfume ads: http://www.couleurparfum.com/

With Love, Hilary Duff, Donna Karan Gold

There's something very wrong going on if after testing two fragrances, one by Donna Karan and the second by Hilary Duff, I positively hate the designer perfume and kind of enjoying the one by a really uninteresting celeb.

Maybe I shouldn't have had too many expectations from Donna Karan's Gold. After all, this is a lily fragrance, and I'm not that crazy about this note to begin with. Also, Karan is responsible for Cashmere Mist, one of my all time hated perfumes. Then again, she's also behind Black Cashmere, which I love and wear on a weekly basis. Sadly, this one will join the Mist on my eww list. Its Liliness is so strong and overpowering that it made my skin smell like a cheap air freshener spray. I found the top and middle notes to be downright skanky and unpleasant. It was very sharp, very strong and terribly floral. The drydown wasn't as horrible. It's softer and a little more creamy, but the Lily still prevails and made my husband wrinkle his nose at it.

I had zero expectations from With Love, Hilary Duff (seriously, even the name conjures up an image of something written in glitter, that probably smells like those fruity gel pens). The thing is, that it doesn't. There is a fruity note, but it's different because it comes from the exotic mangosteen and not from a ubiquitous berry. It also has spice, woods, incense and amber. Not exactly the makings of another teen scent (the questionable honor of doing that belongs to Vera Wang and her bastard of a Princess).

With Love is on the sweet side, but it didn't make my teeth rot. I kept sniffing my arm, trying to catch the notes as they changed on my skin and remember what it reminded me of. Finally I got it: Paloma Picasso's men's fragrance, Minotaur. Back in 1993 or 1994 I bought it for my husband (then my new boyfriend). It was very different than all the standard young men's stuff and I liked it, despite its heaviness and agressive nature. Years later I got rid of the half used bottle, (just as I discarded his entire wardrobe) in favor of more subtle scents.

I searched for Minotaur's notes, and what I found (Top Notes of Citrus, Middle Notes of Lavender, Geranium and Jasmine and Base Notes of Sandalwood, Vanilla, Leather) doesn't fit With Love, but on my skin it smells like a slightly more delicate and feminine version of the long gone mythological monster. I would have probably adored it when I was 23.