Scentzilla!

Jeanne Arthes is kind of the equivalent of Coty, with a wide range of fragrances all mostly tagged to sell at low price points. However, Arthes scents differ from many US drugstore brands’ in a couple respects. I don’t find that weird acidic musk thing going on in them like I do with way too many of the low end scents sold here, and the bottles are, like, 500% cuter than the ones I see on our shelves. Some scents are quite enjoyable, others by the brand are merely triffling. Their online site is holding a sale, and I thought I might share some very brief impressions of the ones I’ve tried from their listed Valentine’s Day specials. Do not get too excited over their online descriptions, as they overstate the case with each scent to make them sound more complex than most of them are. However, simple as some of them may be, many are quite enjoyable.

Aroma Absolu: I am 99% sure this scent is a “tribute” to some big commercial scent, but I cannot for the life of me remember which one it smells like. So I’ll just judge it solely on its own merits, rather than as a dupe. It’s probably my second favorite scent from this house. A rosy ambery scent, there’s just the nicest touch of smokey incense in the amber base. This would appeal to those folks who love the way sandalwood incense smells when it’s unlit. Gift sets on discount.

Boum: This is what I’d always wanted Victoria’s Secret Strawberries and Champagne line to smell like on me, but it never did. There’s some other fruits here, so it begins just a little complex, but the drydown is all strawberries. It’s not a strawberry that is truthful to the actual fruit: it’s more at those Brach strawberry hard candies wrapped in shiny strawberry patterned paper that grandmas everywhere seem to have on hand. Not one I’d ever choose for myself, but it would be an inexpensive treat for a young teen who’s just starting to want to wear perfumes. 100 ml bottles at half off, and gift set on special as well.

Cassandra Blanc: Oh this is my favorite from the house by far, and in fact, one of my favorite fruity scents ever to wear. I wrote about it earlier, and you can read a full fledged review by clicking here. Gift set on sale. Not the fanciest bottle, I admit, but it has the best juice.

Sultane: For some reason this one makes me think of Fendi’s Theorema guest starring in an episode of The Brady Bunch. It’s got this nice dry woody base, with a touch of very ambery musk too. Yet the middle of Sultane is a much brighter sweeter fruit, sort of vaguely orangey and peachy at once, so somehow I think Theorema Brady. “It’s a sunshine day!” indeed, I guess. It’s actually head and shoulders in quality above most US drugstore selections, and compares favorably even to some department store scents. Still, do not go looking for a masterpiece here. Gift set can be had for the same price as just a lone bottle.

I do see some sets of miniatures for sale on the site, and if you’re interesting in trying this line just for the sake of trying it, I might start there.

Jeanne Arthes is a company that appears to specialize in distributing low to mid-end priced fragrances. While none of the Arthes fragrances I’ve tried are exceptional, none are outright terrible, and some are very nice.

Cassandra Blanc is very nice, indeed. And it’s quite affordable at €10 for 100 ml.

It begins with a creamy lemonic note that causes me to think of lemon custard ice cream. Suffused through the fragrance is a warm cuddly woodiness, calling to mind sandalwood and light cedar, and a very yummy honeyed vanilla. The creamy lemon unfolds into a fruity accord. This fruit reminds me of the ambrosia fruit salads church ladies would bring to church picnics when I was growing up. (Well, they’d bring that along with a whole smorgasbord of dishes. There was just something about South Dakota church ladies and cooking that I think always took on a dimension of kindly decadent excess.) The drydown retains this creamy ambrosia salad, but it allows the vanilla and wood to gain prominence nicely.

Cassandra Blanc’s affordability is presumably due to use of very cheap ingredients. And you know what? So what. It’s enjoyable and a pleasure to wear. I like it as an everyday fragrance, because it’s so easy to slip on and it always fits. (Now if Arthes would only offer a matching body wash I’d be as pleased as punch.)

The most reliable, and frequently cheapest, source (for those of us in the US) is directly through the company’s online site. The site can be viewed in either French or English, but you will have to be able to navigate their shopping cart for payment and checkout in French.