Lolita Lempicka Sweet (2014): Fashioning Young Women through Fragrancing {Perfume Short (Review)} {Paris Photo}
Lolita Lempicka Sweet, the latest launch by the house, is sweet but without excess. In fact, never has the crushed heart of a hard-candy lollipop spilling out its jammy insides felt so well-mannered. A whisper of licorice reminds you you are at Lolita Lempicka's and not inside the house of Hansel and Gretel. This black aromatic note adds a herbaly counterpoint, as the contrast would play out, say, in a rosemary and raspberry jam jar...
The promised cherry and cacao accord, you need a really good spray of it to see it appear in 3D...for 10 seconds. Otherwise, I find it rather indistinct. Soon, it becomes hard to pinpoint it inside the little explosions of ethyl maltol. What is more perceptible is the licorice accord which is the trademark signature of the house since its debut launch of Lolita Lempicka Le Premier Parfum.
What the composition by perfumer Anne Flipo is best at is in blending seamlessly all those gourmands hints into a soft musky fragrance which wears close to the skin. It has excellent sillage on textile. The angelica note merits its name bringing characteristic softness to the composition. It is very well balanced and manages to avoid smelling cheap. There is a sense of restrained intensity even.
Would I want to offer this new fragrance to one of my nieces thinking it is a perfume aiming their sensibilities and ages? I might be tempted because of the pretty flacon imitating a bitten red apple kissed with golden lipstick. I know they would be enchanted by it. On the other hand, I'd feel remiss at this point in time to teach them that "this is the kind of perfume you ought to wear, girls". No, in fact, I much prefer Hello Kitty. A few years on, now I'd be tempted to offer them an Après L'Ondée, an Olivia Giacobetti or a Jean-Claude Ellena whose transparent yet sophisticated textures can be interpreted as befitting a tender yet eager-to-learn age.
Another thing is that Sweet is one of the many offsprings of Angel by Thierry Mugler, so I might think it's best to show them the first in line first so that they know their classics. If Innocent were still around, then Sweet would be even closer to the origin albeit with more of the cherry found in the Guerlain bestseller La Petite Robe Noire.
Well, one of my nieces already made her choice and picked Repetto eau de toilette created by Aurélien Guichard - excellent choice - when she was out shopping with her mom. So I see that her taste already craves something fleshier than the lithe Sweet.
I see however a possibility that adults who want to play doll house a bit, you know those who love to borrow from the fashion codes of children and feel like the Jeff Koons of sartorial choices, might like the idea of wearing a tender and sweet nothing, keeping in mind a certain critical distance from all those childhood cues.
Lolita Lempicka pitched Sweet as an ingénue fragrance, one meant to bridge the gap between childhood (cherries, cacao, sugar, angelica) and womanhood thanks to the risqué musks in the base. This logical choice, I don't think they have succeeded in being convincing at imposing as a model to emulate - to this reviewer at least.
A perfume must preferrably sing - not just think.
Fragrance notes: cherry, caramelized sugar / iris, cacao absolute, angelica / musks, Cashmeran.
