I almost left the review at that one word, but then I started having thoughts. For example, Pulp is indeed fruity. It's a little abstract; it doesn't conjure up completely realistic three-dimensional fruit. But it makes me imagine warm, overripe, crushed pulp with bees just starting to investigate, rather than candy or sorbet or Torani syrup, as so many other fruity fragrances do.
It also announces "perfume" in the topnotes (Aldehydes? Something else?), as if to assure me, with a wink, that it has read its job description, and that it knows I'm a grownup. But that fades; within perhaps ten minutes it's just squashed fruit. And that's fine.
What fruit? The notes list has a lot of fruit and a few flowers. (Bergamot, cardamom, black currant, fig, red apple, tiare flower, cedar, praline, peach blossom.) But it all blends, so that it smells to me like a single unknown fruit, rather than an orchard or a salad. A stone fruit, I think, related to but very different from peaches or plums. Bigger and wetter and more brightly colored; the kind of fruit that you carry outside to eat over the grass, because it's going to drip that much.
But there's a gesture toward melon--it has a fair bit of that note that can make cataloupe smell just a little bit sickly. I'm guessing that's what makes some people smell decay in this, but it stops before it goes over the edge, and in fact I might like just a little more of it. It's this note that makes Pulp work for me on a winter day; it provides just enough sun and warmth without any risk of seasonal jetlag.
FTC Disclosure: I got the sample for free (bwahaha!) but in my role as a sniffsniffsniffing customer roaming the wilds of the Holt Renfrew perfume floor, not in my role as a blogger.
Review Roundup: MakeupAlley and Basenotes and Now Smell This and Perfume-Smellin' Things and Katie Puckrick Smells and Fragrance Bouquet and Perfume Posse and No Dissasemble Charlie No. 5 and WAFT.
Image: Wikimedia Commons.
"Bigger and wetter and more brightly colored; the kind of fruit that you carry outside to eat over the grass, because it's going to drip that much."
ReplyDeleteThat is a perfect way to describe Pulp, which took me a while to appreciate. It is juiciness in HD and 3D and all the Ds combined, but rewards perseverance, also the having of a serviette to hand.
I liked Pulp when I tested it but I remember thinking that the perfume was too expensive for what I liked in it.And I definitely do not need even 50 ml of that ripeness.
ReplyDeleteHey, Vanessa! Now that you appreciate Pulp, do you find that you wear it (or wish you could wear it, if you didn't go so far as to buy some)? I'm debating a decant, and I _think_ that it would be perfect for certain moods, but I'm not quite sure.
ReplyDeleteYo, Undina! Yes; I'd be more likely to buy a real bottle if they offered something like the Hermes 15ml Discovery Set bottles. The existing price and format doesn't _quite_ tempt me to fork over the money.
ReplyDelete