Emporio Armani Diamonds (2007): A Girly Party Rose {Perfume Review} {Celebrity Fragrance} {Smell-The-Roses-Till-Valentine's Day Challenge - Day 8}

Emporio Armani Diamonds is yet another example of one of the most popular feminine perfume note accords that were last year: the rose-amber-patchouli accord. You might have come across it in the major launches of Dior Midnight Poison, Gucci by Gucci, and Yves Saint Laurent Elle, which capitalized on it. Of the scents found in the series alluded to above, Diamonds is the least sophisticated one as it aims a younger age group or at least, seems to. It is a rose perfume updated to meet contemporary mainstream taste; it took a detour to the candy factory and was made to adhere to a pink-coded girlish ethos despite the fact that the juice is colored white. If you smell it, you will see that in fact it is a pink juice. One can read in the copy from Sephora,

This surprising and decadent fragrance is based on the traditional symbol of femininity, the rose, but is twisted with luscious, edible notes to create a truly desirable combination.

We will not linger here on the celebrity context for the scent. You can find more details about Beyoncé Knowles fronting the ad campaign in our previous post......

The interpretation of the rose here is fruity (fresh lychee is prominent), tart, sweet-toothed, sparkling, and as they might have said, "mischievous". The copy people may not have said "mischievous" but it feels like a standard "mischievous rose". The scent thus feels more like a rosé wine without alcohol meant to be consumed by underage people than an adult fragrance.

Having said that, if the fruit-cocktail effect is the most predictable twist one could have come up with for a rose-based perfume for contemporary women labeled as "young", the result is not absolutely tepid and bland as the tart facet and the candied nuances have been pushed enough to make them feel a little edgy and are rather well-balanced. It smells fresh, rosy, citrus-y, slightly jam-y. Of course the scent is not particularly subtle, but nor is it as hazardous and cheap-smelling as Paris Hilton Can Can, our new standard of low quality celeb fragrance. People who love sour candies will probably appreciate it. People who like the scent of Japanese erasers might also see an interesting connection here. It is a perfume created for mass-consumption, nothing less, nothing more and can be seen more as a sociological object than an artistic one.

People who will hate it will have the consolation to know that it was not meant to be worn by them, and people who will love it will know that someone has been thinking about them, their tastes and laid-back, unfussy lifestyles.

Notes: Lychee, Raspberry, Rose, Freesia, Lily of the Valley, Vetiver, Cedar Wood, Patchouli, Vanilla.