Intimately Beckham Night Men & Intimately Beckham Night Women (2007-2008) {Perfume Reviews & Musings} {Celebrity Fragrances}
The Beckhams moved to the United States before their new duo of fragrances, Intimately Beckham Night for Men and Intimately Beckham Night Women will cross the Atlantic. The perfumes were launched in September of 2007 in Asia and Europe and will be rolled out to the US market in 2008. Another "signature fragrance" by Victoria Beckham is said to be planned for the fall of 2008.
Since 2005 and the success of Instinct, the Beckham franchise has developed to include both the day-time and night-time versions of the couple's perfumes meant to embody their marital bliss and sexy image. The Intimately Beckham Night duo is the sexiest to date. The men's version was created by perfumer Jean-Pierre Bethouart of Firmenich, the women's by Andrea Lugo of Takasago........
The new duo has been made to feel more nocturnal and more suggestive than ever not just thanks to their dark-glass packagings but to their compositions. They do that by having both adopted an opulent oriental texture that plays in particular with impressions of sexual indoles and near-sticky sweetness. Their studied well-balanced intensity feels by thought association near-medicinal, like that of carefully weighed love potions or aphrodisiacs at the bazaar in Istanbul. They develop smoothly on the skin.
The men's version smells -- one soon finds -- like a Tom Ford Black Orchid for Men might smell (it is in the works by the way); it has that chocolate-y, truffle, and cheese-y nuances found in the first one that makes one think of a damp jungle. The women's version is a white tuberose and orange blossom floral that has been made to feel more shadowy, of the night, erasing any obvious reference to whiteness. They are both quite rich concoctions -- or at least create the illusion of being so -- and are concentrated enough to awaken one's curiosity as to how they will develop on the skin and finally reveal their personalities a little bit like our intuitive grasp of the anticipated taste of a thick syrup that needs to be thinned down with water to let the flavors play out. The mystery is in their intensity.
If the spicy fresh opening of Intimately Beckham Night for Men feels somewhat déjà vu, reminiscent of typical woodsy blends, it soon starts revealing a deeper texture and a more pronounced sweetness than average. At this stage it still remains fairly unsurprising. But then it continues to develop by referencing a more daring composition, Black Orchid for Women by Tom Ford, except that it is more characteristically woodsier to impart a more masculine personality to the idea. The texture becomes also milkier, almost caramel-like with some classic masculine metallic nuances. The feel is oriental, languorous, with gourmand overtones -- even a wine-y undertone -- and feminine indolic connotations. The scent does not hide its desire to seduce and through the richness of the olfactory signals it sends out seems to behave more like a man waiting to be chased rather than wanting to chase himself. The dry-down is both creamy and woodsy and behaves like an intense skin scent with medium sillage.
Intimately Beckham Night Women is on the same wavelength as her partner as the compositions have been clearly harmonized. It too aims to be unambiguously rich and sensual, playing with sensations of deep creaminess and indoles. It opens on a fresh bouquet of floral notes which quickly, there too, segues into a deeper carnal impression evoking flesh thanks to the impression of marked creaminess. Its sexiness is accentuated with an undercurrent of spicy sandalwood and the cushion-y, pillow-y feeling created by the vanilla and Tonka bean notes, just like in the men's version. It suddenly reminds one of the plush pillows portrayed in the pictures of the couple shot by erotica expert Tony Richardson. To some extent it smells like a more nocturnal, softer, and velvetier version of Pure Poison by Dior.
Both scents are unabashedly mainstream, borrowing ideas from already known popular perfumes, but offer a pleasant intensity of their own and are not boring unless you start applying art-for-art criteria, which could only elicit a chuckle in this case for anyone in their right minds. One of their strengths lies in being efficacious functional perfumes at good price points ready to be worn for the dating game.
It also confirms the fact that Black Orchid by Tom Ford has become a trend-setting perfume as Intimately Beckham Night Men is the second or third perfume we smell that presents an affinity with it. Nevertheless the developers have taken the calculated risk of making it masculine here.
Some people will probably interpret this duo of perfumes as being strangely sweet, but this very impression conveys to us the idea that the sweetness is there for a reason, to be sublimated by the skin. It is not too sweet in our view; for instance the John Varvatos Vintage -- a comparable quite sweet masculine scent -- gives us the impression of being a bit too sweet, but not in these two cases.
Intimately Beckham Night Men has, "notes of bergamote, mandarin, cardamom, nutmeg, and ginger. It segues into notes of coffee bean, jasmine, violet, and cedarwood. Base notes are amber, incense, patchouli, vetiver, vanilla, and tonka bean."
Intimately Beckham Night Women has, "top notes of mandarin, bergamote, and a whisper of cinnamon. This is followed by a bouquet of iris, tuberose, and orange blossom. Base notes are sandalwood, patchouli, vanilla, tonka bean, and myrrh."
They are very reasonably priced and smell more expensive than their prices would suggest; the women's perfume will retail between 15.50 and 34 Euros in Europe and the men's scent between 18 and 26 Euros.
