DKNY / Donna Karan
DKNY / Donna Karan
86 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Nectarine and mandarin burst forward with aggressive candy-like sweetness, immediately tempered by that plasticky salicylate note that feels more synthetic than stone fruit. Yellow freesia adds a sour-bright edge, though it's quickly buried beneath the sugary onslaught.
Mirabelle plum arrives with welcomed depth, whilst jasmine and lily of the valley introduce a brief floral respite—delicate, almost powdery—before the vanilla-beeswax sweetness reasserts dominance, turning the composition decidedly gourmand.
The base settles into a honeyed vanilla-musk blanket with cedarwood and neroli emerging faintly beneath, creating something akin to creamed honey with distant wooden undertones. The synthetic character fades somewhat, leaving a pleasant if unremarkable sweet warmth that lingers skin-close for several hours.
Nectar Love arrives as a candied fruit salad poured over vanilla cream—aggressively sweet without the sophistication to justify it. The opening bristles with nectarine and mandarin, their juicy stone-fruit sweetness immediately undercut by a peculiar salicylate note that reads less as complexity and more as a chemical sharpness, like biting into fruit-flavoured confectionery rather than fruit itself. This synthetic undertone, which permeates the fragrance's DNA at 64%, prevents what could have been a genuinely luscious composition from achieving any real depth.
The heart attempts rescue with mirabelle plum and jasmine, introducing a whisper of florality that momentarily suggests restraint. The plum adds a deeper, almost winey sweetness whilst lily of the valley tries—somewhat desperately—to inject a clean, slightly powdery freshness. Yet these efforts feel overwhelmed by the gourmand accord's relentless grip; this isn't a fragrance that invites you to smell fruit on a summer afternoon but rather one that insists you're eating a dessert that's trying very hard to smell expensive.
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3.3/5 (149)