In a recent Sephora order, I chose Boyfriend Eau de Parfum by Kate Walsh as one of my free samples. Kate Walsh is the actress who plays Dr. Addison Montgomery on Grey's Anatomy and the spinoff show Private Practice. Boyfriend Eau de Parfum is meant to evoke the lingering scent of your boyfriend on your skin. It's a way for a woman to carry the scent of her man with her throughout the day. To bring home the point, the amber colored fragrance is housed in a bottle imprinted with various men's names (Joe, Pablo, Sebastian, John, Kevin, Rob, and Michael)
Boyfriend is a woman's scent with masculine wood tones mixed in. The inspirational notes include: dark plum, myrrh, night blooming jasmine, benzoin tears, skin musk, golden amber, and vanilla woods. In simplified terms, I would describe this as a vanilla and cedar wood scent. The scent opens with the resiny scent of myrrh and benzoin. These contribute to the masculine woodsy element of Boyfriend. However, hints of cedar-like woods often show up in women's fragrances. The choice of wood keeps the fragrance in the feminine spectrum, while the strength used makes it more masculine. The wood is followed by a considerable amount of vanilla. It's not too sweet and it's rounded out with amber. There are touches of musk and jasmine that I really have to think about to notice in the midst of an overwhelming wood scent. After drying down, the woods become cleaner and the vanilla grows a bit sweeter.
Kate Walsh's Boyfriend Eau de Parfum is a decidedly sexy scent meant for a confident woman. It succesfully accomplishes its goal of being a women's fragrance with a man's smell mixed in. As a blind smell test, I held a fragranced sheet up to Mr. Lovey's nose. He responded with 'Is this for men or women?' While the woods in Boyfriend Eau de Parfum are definitely not for me, I do appreciate its concept and execution. Thanks for reading! Have you tried Boyfriend or the new Billionaire Boyfriend? What do you think about mixing a man's scent into your perfume? Yay or nay?
Love, Dovey.
i like the smell of men's cologne on men, so it's gonna be a nay for me!
ReplyDeleteHi Sisi, I think I mostly feel the same. Love them on men, not sure about on me
Deletei find some of the men's fragrance are quite wearable, for example aquolina blue sugar is much prettier on me than pink sugar. then, there is chanel chance which totally smells like men's cologne on me. for that, i think this fragrance world is so misterious. i guess it's all up to your body chemistry. ;)
ReplyDeletei still think this concept is very interesting and i'd like to try it.
thanks for your review, Dovey. ;)
Hi Lena, What an interesting perspective. I've never really thought to play around with scents that way. Perhaps the patchouli is being pulled out on you in Chance? I think you're right that it's due to body chemistry. It's part of why I love fragrance!
DeleteI think I would just wear a man's cologne, you know? I guess it is all about body chemistry, though. I do appreciate the concept - I wear scents that remind me of S because some of the notes remind me of him in some way (or of his fragrances), but I think that's specific to your own partner, so this kind of catch-all thing doesn't suit me :)
ReplyDeleteHi Larie, Ah, sounds like you're all in! I think it's really sweet that you wear scents that remind you of S. It's like a real life version of Boyfriend's idea :)
DeleteI'm a fairly new reader, finding your blog interesting and well written!
ReplyDeleteDelurking to give my two scents on this. I often like men's fragrances better, as I find women's are frequently too sweet and blossomy. Never gone to the length of buying a men's fragrance for myself, though.
I've tried a couple of unisex fragrances (sorry, can't remember any names) which I liked but found maybe too neutral. I'll definitely try out this one if I can find it in Europe (going to a couple of airports soon so maybe in the tax free shops). Thanks for the review!