Narciso Rodriguez For Her Delicate - review

There's been a few Narciso Rodriguez flankers floating around since the original scent was released in 2003.

I've mostly avoided them, because I get grumpy when given too many variations on a single fragrance (See Gucci's Flora for snarky evidence). As such, I've only tried the original (pretty and fresh in a musk-soaked floral kind of way) and the Essence Eau de Musc (MOAR WHITE MUSK!). The newbie is called Narciso Rodriguez For Her Delicate, and I have the EDT version.

Excuse the wonky photos, obviously I was wearing an eye patch while taking them which threw my vision off. Why was I wearing an eye patch? Because otherwise my Blaine outfit wouldn't be current. Obviously.

"No, YOU'RE lopsided!"

I've really surprised myself by liking this one. It's a warm milk and creamy fig kind of scent, with a touch of natural (not toasted) almond rounding out the dairy feel. The fig isn't rich or exotic, but a slightly green, a pulled from the tree and gently squeezed kind of fruit, without the sharp fuzz of the tree's leaves. It's not a musk overload, nor does it veer into laundry powder floral like the original. Orange blossom is listed, but thankfully doesn't turn all metallic-soap on me like it normally does. It's a passive fragrance, it won't offend anyone, but it's forthcoming in what it is. There's no marketing suggesting it's anything else. The official notes are listed as soft musk, coriander, fig, orange blossom, vetiver and amber.

The staying power is pretty bad, it only lasted about an hour on me. For now this doesn't phase me, as I've introduced it into my bedtime perfume rotation and it only needs to last long enough to send me to sleep (I'm planning a post on sleepy time fragrances, and their magical snoozy properties, which will hopefully make me sound less weird).

I wonder if the only reason this is branded as a For Her scent is because it already has a ready-made customer base. To me, it really doesn't resemble the original, aside from the musk (which everything has nowadays anyway) and I wouldn't have even bothered smelling it if it didn't literally come across my desk. However I would be very interested in trying a new line from Narciso. Perhaps they are shutting off a new audience, simply by refusing to start with a new vision, bottle and branding? That said, it is a very pretty and practical bottle, with its purple ombre shading, and simple 'I'm a bottle!' shape.

I picked this up post beauty sale at my work, sadly no-one claimed it. A$125 for EDT 75ml, A$138 for EDP 75ml. Limited edition.