ANYWAYS, I bought some perfume. It's D&G's L'Imperatrice EDT, and you can get 3.3 oz for $65 at sephora.com, or half that on eBay ($35 with shipping! Woohoo!). Now, as always with eBay, you have to be careful that you don't get ripped off. Make sure that the seller you buy from has at least 100 reviews, and that they accept returns. When you get the perfume, if it smells a lot like rubbing alcohol even AFTER you apply it, there's a problem. If it seems like it's too good to be true, it probably is. What you want to look for are Tester bottles. When stores like Sephora get perfume shipments, they'll get tester bottles, which come in less fancy packaging (since no one sees that anyways) and have tester stamped across the bottle. These bottles haven't been opened, they're the extra testers, which come unwrapped and sometimes without a box. Hence the cheapness.
See how it says Tester on the box? And under the black cap on the bottle it says Tester as well. Doesn't bother me!
Packaging: I really like the packaging of this series of EDTs. These are high quality bottles, nice thick glass, and clean, simple lines. It does have D&G plastered across the bottom, but that's not that bad/logo-whorish. It looks pretty on a vanity, very elegant and even a little retro. I like.
The EDT itself: First off, it is an EDT, so the I had low expectations for the lasting power. It was a bit better than I expected; for the first hour it has great sillage and really gets into the air around you, and then it settles down and stays strong until abotu the three hour mark, where it begins to slowly fade. At the end of the day you'll still be able to smell it on you, but it's much more subdued. I actually have a sensitive stomach, so the fact that this doesn't reach up and slap you across the face is nice.
The notes are rhubarb (LOVE), kiwi accord, red currant, pink cyclamen, watermelon, jasmine, musk, sandalwood, and grapefruit wood. The thing that confuses me is that the one note I get a lot of is peach, and it's not on the list. At first, it's very lush and sunny, maybe a bit tropical, but nicely rounded out by the tart rhubarb and all those musks and woods. It's a very grown-up fruity floral, there's nothing childish or twee about it. What I really love is that the name fits it so perfectly. When I think of an Empress, I think of someone that comes across as warm and caring and in the moment, but underneath is very cool and calculating, the perfect mixture of open and reserved. It really reminds me of Audrey Hepburn's character in Breakfast at Tiffanys. She seems like this fabulous, It Girl/party girl, looking living in the moment, and then you realize that her life is a carefully constructed masquerade she's built up around herself, playing everyone around her like puppets on strings.
It's the same way with L'Imperatrice. It's all sunshine and fields of flowers, but there's a little hint of something twisted, musky, almost tart underneath it that takes it from generic department store fragrance to something unusual. If you can't tell, I really like it, but it's probably not for everyone. It's part of a series of 5 by D&G, that's uni-sex, but really three for for women and two for men. If white florals are more your thing, try La Lune, and if you like foody scents, I'd recommend La Roue de La Fortune, which is really amber and cookies. As for the guy's scents, I like L'Amoureux, which has bergamot and pink pepper, and other lovely spices.
Image Sources:
Audrey Hepburn: kaitlinpaigeallen.wordpress.com.
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