Kenzo
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
The raspberry hits like breaking into a jar of thick, seeded preserves, syrupy and intense, with mandarin providing only the briefest acidic reprieve before the sugar takes hold. It's immediately, almost aggressively sweet—a concentrated burst that announces its gourmand intentions without preamble. The fruit isn't fresh so much as cooked down, reduced, preserved.
Bulgarian rose emerges with its petals glazed in that praline accord, creating an oddly delicious floral-gourmand hybrid where you can't quite separate flower from confection. Orange blossom absolute adds a creamy, almost custard-like texture, its natural sweetness folding seamlessly into the caramelised notes. The powdery facets begin their work here, softening the edges just enough to maintain a perfume-like quality rather than tipping into pure dessert territory.
Bourbon vanilla and praline fuse into a skin-scent that's warm, slightly nutty, and persistently sweet with a soft, talc-like powder hovering above the sweetness. The florals have largely retreated, leaving behind only their ghost—a vague rosiness in the vanilla's embrace. What remains is cosy, close-wearing, and unrepentantly indulgent, like the lingering scent of expensive chocolate truffles on warm skin.
Flower by Kenzo L'Élixir is what happens when Alberto Morillas takes the poppy-centric original and drowns it in melted praline, emerging with something that veers confidently away from ethereal florals into unabashed gourmand territory. The raspberry opening isn't the tart, piquant fruit you'd expect—it's already macerated in sugar syrup, practically jammy, whilst the mandarin serves merely to cut through the sweetness with a fleeting citric brightness before surrendering entirely. Bulgarian rose arrives drenched in that praline accord, its natural honeyed facets amplified into something almost caramelised, whilst orange blossom absolute contributes a lactonic creaminess rather than its typical indolic bite. This is a rose wrapped in spun sugar, dusted with icing sugar, then dipped in more sugar for good measure.
The bourbon vanilla in the base doesn't so much ground the composition as enable its sweetest impulses, melding with that persistent praline into something reminiscent of the filling from expensive chocolates. There's a powdery quality that emerges—likely from the interplay between rose and vanilla—that prevents this from becoming entirely edible, lending just enough abstraction to remind you it's perfume rather than confectionery. This is for the fragrance wearer who has no patience for restraint, who wants their florals amplified and sweetened, who considers "too much" a challenge rather than a warning. It's unashamedly maximalist, best suited to those who view fragrance as an exuberant statement rather than a whispered secret. Evening-leaning, yes, but really for anyone who wants to smell like a Parisian patisserie window dressed in roses.
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3.9/5 (246)