.
Post by Anne-Marie
.
Curse you Narciso Rodriguez! Why are your fragrances packaged and named alike? Brand cohesion is one thing, but have you no sympathy for your customers (or their hapless friends who try to buy for them)?
Well, applying my attention to the list on Fragrantica, I realised that the 31 listed NR fragrances are all just variations on just four pillar fragrances: For Her, For Him, Essence, and Narciso.
Got it? You’re welcome.
Today I’m going to cover NR’s second release, Narciso Rodriguez For Her EDP. This is the one with the PINK bottle and the BLACK box.
Narciso Rodriguez For Her EDP 2006
Narciso Rodriguez For Her EDP by Christine Nagel + Francis Kurkdjian
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: rose, peach
Heart: musk, amber
Base: sandalwood, patchouli
Portia has done a stellar review of the original EDT, but there is a difference in emphasis in the EDP. Intimate and sensual, both are musky florals with very clean (fractionated) patchouli and amber. On me the sillage and longevity of both are just moderate.
However, I remember the EDT (I’ve sold my bottle) as sharper and drier – more masculine perhaps – than the EDP. What distinguishes the EDP for me is a prominent note of peach, juicy but not too sweet. This is what I hoped Lancome’s Tresor would be like if it did not collapse into a sickly sweet, artificial mess on me.
Narciso Rodriguez – Fall 2016 – NYFW
However, not everyone seems to particularly notice the peach in NR For Her EDP. The fascination with Narciso Rodriguez fragrances is that there are wide variations in how people perceive them. You might love the EDP but utterly disagree with my take on it.
While musk is the common accord in both concentrations of Narciso Rodriguez For Her, people nevertheless react differently to other notes and accords. They will detect more or less rose, more or less amber, more or less citrus, more or less orange blossom (I get none), and so on. Musk anosmia means that some people can hardly smell them at all.
For years I eked out a large decant of the EDP. Mostly I wore it when travelling for work. Its casual but professional style was perfect for meetings, but even better was to save it for the evenings when I was in the hotel and at could at last take a shower and relax. Any parent of young children will understand the heaven of being alone in a hotel room with the bathroom, room service and the TV remote entirely at your command. NR For Her EDP easily complements moments of simple enjoyment such as this.
Further reading: Perfume Shrine and Perfume Posse
FragranceNet has $78/50ml before Coupon
My Perfume Samples has from $2.50/ml to $7.50/5ml
I’m now the possessor of a partial bottle of the EDP, and very happy I am too.
How about you? How do you go navigating the Narciso Rodriguez line? What are your ‘simple pleasures’ perfumes?
N.B.: If you click and buy from the My Perfume Samples link I get a kickback
Australian Perfume Junkies 
hello anne-marie,
i really enjoyed reading your review.since you specifically mentioned the patchouli was fractionated i was wondering what that meant and if it is different to molecular distillation.
thanks : )
LikeLike
Thanks flowergirlbee! Ha! That will teach me not to use terms I don’t really understand. I was thinking of patchouli in the sense described by Now Smell This in their glossary of terms: ‘Patchouli has a musty-sweet, spicy-earthy aroma; modern patchouli is often molecularly altered to remove the musty components.’ The technical process for how this is achieved – mollecular distillation? fractional distillation? – is unclear to me.
It does mean that for me, at least, I can’t trust my nose when it comes to patchouli. Once you take the musty bits out, what are you left with? I’d love to smell patchouli that has been altered in this manner by itself, ie not in a perfume, to understand what it smells like. Although even there, I’m sure patchouli fractions would vary quite a bit.
LikeLike
Hey there Anne-Marie,
I left a comment here last night but I’m not sure where it went. It was long too.
Well, in a nutshell it said that I prefer the EdT. It seems to last better on me and has a more interesting scent ride.
Portia xx
LikeLike
Yes, a lot of people do prefer the EDT. I really advise anyone thinking of buying to thoroughly test both, and not blind buy. In Australia at least, NR for Her sits on the expensive side of cheap (if that makes sense). It’s not a mistake I’d care to make.
Sorry your comment got swallowed. Gremlins!
LikeLike
I had that problem at the store just a couple of days ago! A while ago I smelled two of the NR perfumes from a magazine scent strip and told myself that I needed to test these. But when I came to the shelf I couldn’t figure out which perfumes I wanted to try: they all looked the same! I ended up just spraying two of them – one from the pink bottle (it was the only pink bottle so it should have been the one that I wanted to try) and some EDP from a black bottle… but now looking at Fragrantica I’m not even sure which one I tried 🙂
LikeLike