Fragrance Review

Remember those fruit-scented body sprays people were crazy for in fifth grade? Well, I got my paws on Katy Perry's new scent, Purr ($45), and it smells like a fancier, less chemical-laden version of those.

It's an "upside-down" fragrance in the sense that most perfumes open with their prettiest notes and then end with a relatively generic bottom accord, usually some variation on musk or sandalwood. Purr has a really nice caramel and sweet patchouli dry down that fans of Angel will adore, but to get there, you have to sit through a bunch of fruity opening notes. Purr faded on me after about two hours, which means it's probably better as a scent sprayed on your hairbrush, since the oils on your scalp will help it last longer.

How do you feel about violets? If you love them, let me introduce you to Lush's new perfume, Tuca Tuca ($30), available in in spray or solid form. The scent is very much a sweet green floral, made with violet leaf absolute and vanilla, making it reminiscent of old-fashioned violet pastilles.

Both the spray and the solid have a nice, soft drydown, but the spray is a lighter, more powdery fragrance, and the solid is sweeter and a bit heavier. Neither scent develops an awful lot, but that's not necessary for enjoying a perfume if you like its body accord. It's made with a lot of high-quality absolutes (but not entirely organic), and for the price and the niceness of the scent, I'd say it's a very good deal.

When I try perfume, I'm not usually reminded of Stride gum. But in the case of Fergie's new scent, Outspoken ($28), it's a pretty apropos comparison. No, the fragrance doesn't smell like gum, but it does hold on the same way Stride does, solidly smelling the same all day — and it has a similarly pleasant but artificial note profile.

It opens smelling like grape popsicles and then quickly dries down to a soft floral scent with a substantial wood base that stays and stays. It's high quality for its price point, but it's also not the leather and vetiver rock-chick smell it's billed as. It's the kind of scent you wear out dancing—sexy, not too expensive, and still on no matter how sweaty the dance floor gets or how late you stay out.

If you're a fan of Benefit's original three Crescent Row Eau de Toilettes ($36 each), you'll probably be excited to hear that the brand has released a trio of new scents to round out the line. While the originals are a bit more traditionally distributed — one's a woody fragrance, one's a floral, and one is an oriental — all three of the latest scents are more experimental florals.

The Garden of Good and Eva ($36) is described as a "citrus floral," but more accurately, it could be described as a sweetened, softened neroli. Lookin' to Rock Rita ($36) smells like an actual margarita, with lots of lime, sweetness, and even a little saltiness. It's fresh, gourmand, and light. The last of the scents, and my favorite, is So Hooked on Carmella ($36), a warm, slightly fruity vanilla. It's not complicated at all, but it smells like comfort. Which one appeals to you most?

If, like me, you love the idea of tropical scents but find that many of them smell a little cheap, then there's a nice new fragrance out that's definitely worth a sniff: Christian Dior Escale Aux Marquises ($66). It's a soft, gingery citrus floral that's pretty without being sweet like most tropicals. It opens smelling like ginger and lime, and then a real jasmine essential note comes in to create the body before it dries down to a soft but bright vanilla musk. Dior could easily have made this one a run-of-the-mill fruity floral, but I'm glad it didn't, because this scent is so much more ladylike and wearable than I expected it to be. Its low sillage also makes it perfect for wearing in the heat, and will transition nicely, I think, into the first couple months of sweater weather.

If you're a musk fan, there are a couple of new scents out right now that are sure to strike your fancy. The first, Bulgari Jasmin Noir ($75), has a deceptively floral name, but 80 percent of the fragrance is a slow-developing musk that gets sweeter and lighter as it ages. It's interesting in that, for me at least, it aged backwards, opening with strong musk and moving on to a lighter, more modern floral. If you don't like mixing flowers with your musk, there's also Donna Karan's Cashmere Mist Liquid Nude ($72). Nude scents have been a trend recently, but Liquid Nude is a standout. It opens with expensive French-milled bath soap, and then quickly shifts to a very realistic smoky leather accord before drying down to an incense/musk. Both fragrances were fun to smell, and pleasantly subtle, so if you're perfume sensitive or looking for something to wear at work, I recommend both.

Yesterday, Gap launched its latest scent, Stay ($35), and yesterday, I pedaled my way to the nearest store to sample it. As temperatures hovered around the mid-70s with clear blue skies above, I really couldn't have picked a better time to try out this light, refreshing, Summer-inspired fragrance, which, I might add, almost has a laundry detergent essence about it. See what else I thought of Stay when you read more.

If you're the sort of oenophile who doesn't mind dropping $300 for a bottle of good wine, then Strange Invisible Perfumes' latest scent endeavor is going to make you very happy. The fragrance, which was created in collaboration with California's Colgin Cellars winery, is called Essence of IX ($320), after the vineyard's famed ninth estate.

Given its price, it's good that the partnership produced a thoroughly singular scent. IX opens smelling exactly like a Napa wine cellar on a rainy day: full of resinous, oaky must, then progressing quickly to a sage and bergamot botanical musk with a touch of rose inflected at the edges. The entire scent is pretty close to the skin, but the body and dry down particularly so, with loads of lavender and woody notes for a soft finish.

Wearing it really does feel like taking a winery tour on a March afternoon right before a rainstorm, which is a testament to SIP's ability to capture and relay scent memories. Next, I vote they re-create San Francisco's Conservatory of Flowers in a fragrance — I'd be on that one no matter the price.

The other day, I received a mysterious package in the mail. When I opened it, there was a box marked "Aromachology" inside, and a funny, clever note that totally surprised me. It seems that Aromachology is a perfume line, and they decided to blend up a fragrance to "embody the BellaSugar reader" and then send it on over to us for review. Intriguing, no? I didn't want to miss the opportunity to find out what we all smell like, so I spritzed it on and took a good, long sniff. Want to see if they got it right? Just keep reading.