Chocolovers is the second fragrance release from Aquolina, makers of the wildly popular Pink Sugar. As you can already guess from the name, they are not straying too far from their gourmand fan base. Chocolovers features notes of bergamot, orange, lemon, lily of the valley, coriander, hazelnut, vanilla, malt and musk.
A blast of sweet citrus in the opening settles fairly quickly, leaving behind only a hint of orange. The early dry down smells otherwise remarkably like the makings of a nutty chocolate malt just before you add the milk. It is very sweet, but be warned if you happen to be looking for a deep, rich chocolate perfume: the hazelnut and vanilla are as pronounced as the chocolate, and as with a real chocolate malt, the smell is closer to chocolate syrup than a dark chocolate truffle.
After an hour or so, the chocolate and hazelnut are very mild, and it starts to veer closer to a Pink Sugar-ish combination of cotton candy and vanilla musk. The Pink Sugar fragrance has never worked on me; besides being too sweet for my taste, on my skin it takes on a rather odd burned smell — not the pleasant aroma of just-torched crème brûlée, but something closer to cotton candy that has caught on fire and sizzled down to a black gooey mess.
Chocolovers also has a burnt sugar note in the far dry down, but it isn't nearly as strong, and I find it a much more appealing fragrance overall. It is still too sweet for me, but it is a fun scent and very wearable. If you liked Pink Sugar and you like chocolate, I should think you are bound to like Chocolovers, and for that matter, I am guessing that it is likely to find an audience outside Pink Sugar fans.
But a second warning: it is not for the diet-conscious. It made me very, very hungry. In fact, it made me eat a half a tub of Trader Joe's Cocoa Almonds.
A 50 ml bottle of Aquolina Chocolovers Eau de Toilette is $35, and can be found at nordstrom and sephora. If you can wait, it will likely turn up at the discounters eventually.
Great review! I tried Chocolovers on Friday, and my impressions were almost the same as yours. The orange topnote reminded me very much of Amour de Cacao. The drydown, however, is nuttier and a bit more complex than that of AdeC, more along the lines of Bond No. 9's So New York. The Chocolovers, however, is much sweeter than So New York. The bottom line for me is that it's a cute, fun, nicely done fragrance … but do I really want to smell like Gianduja? Also, the name is a bit cringe-inducing. Suppose someone were to ask me the name of my fabulous fragrance, and I had to tell him or her I was wearing “Chocolovers”? There are women who could do that with panache, but I'm not one of them.
Have to agree on the name, I think they could have done better! Honestly can't remember if I have tried that CSP, but I like the Chocolovers better than So New York. You're probably right that SNY isn't as sweet, but it was too plummy for me.
Sounds good to me, as well as the almonds!
Victoria O
you get burning too, R? i've traced this burnt smell to a particular kind of bergamot being used – a synthetic one, used for a “sweet” citrus note instead of the earl grey smell.
between Serendipitous and Amour de Cocoa, i think i'm over the whole “chocolate scent” craze. i've found two that really work, and the rest just seem like too much effort. but i admit i do like dark chocolate as a note in a larger compositon. do you have preferences?
(i'm currently wearing a concotion of my own, which has cabernet wine as a strong note, and it makes me realize i associate wine and chocolate together. not something i'd want to see in a perfume, but an intriguing scent correlation regardless.)
mmm…cocoa almonds…
Chocolovers sounds appealing. How big a hint of orange is there, though? 🙂 I am one of the (indeed probably the only) weirdos who don't like orange chocolate to eat or in fragrance. But I do love hazelnuts!
Pink Sugar also smelled a little “burnt” on me.
The only remotely chocolate scent I've ever liked is 100% Love, which is not at all foody, of course. My daughter gave me a chocolate and orange candle for my birthday, though, and I love it. I admit it makes me hungry for chocolate, though, which is good and bad. Oops, on going back to reread your review, I see you've had a similar reaction to Chocolovers perf. Man, don't you LOVE cocoa almonds??
I think you will like this one V!
I wish I had a sample of Serendipitous to compare, but going on memory, I think I liked it better than Chocolovers. But I don't own any straight chocolate perfumes. I like the idea better than the wearing, if you know what I mean…Chocolovers is fun, but I'm not kidding when I said it made me hungry. I do wear 100% Love, which has a very bitter chocolate note, but it isn't very foody.
Well M, I like orange & chocolate so it didn't bother me. The orange does fade eventually, but then, so does the chocolate. Not sure you would love this one.
Adore cocoa almonds. Also partial to the Trader Joe's Chocolate Toffee Almonds. A chocolate orange candle sounds perfect!
LOL! Yeah right, R! I know you were looking for an excuse to eat that candy! :):)
I tested this on Friday and agree with you that it is very sweet. I wish the hazelnut/chocolate accord was stronger, but overall, I gotta tell you, I rather liked this one. I am thinking about purchasing the body cream, as I can better control the amount of sweetness (and not crave sweets quite as much!).
Hugs!
R, check out the one review on MUA — it is not good, and it is by someone who rated the fragrance itself highly. 1 review is not much to go on though!
A cream in this fragrance would be great, actually. I can think of some fun layering possibilities.
Absolutely, that was what I was thinking, too, R! I wonder how it would layer with Guerlain Attrape Coeur or even Vetiver Tonka?? What a combo!
Hugs!
Actually, there are more reviews up now, most of them rating this very highly.
One reviewer mentioned the body cream and said it was not as sweet as the edt. She also mentioned (I think it was the same reviewer) Coco. I think the body cream would layer well with Coco, too. 🙂
Hugs!
R, don't know what I'm doing wrong, but still only seeing 1 review of the cream. Worth trying in any case! I want to layer it with something very orange…
Oh yeah, that's a good one, R! Maybe Divine Bergamote or 3as4?
Ack, I can't stand the thought of the As4 since it is limited edition & can't be replaced. Isn't that silly?
They don't sell Chocolovers around here so I had to order it off Sephora.com. After I got it in the mail today I was so excited, expecting it to be more milk chocolately and a lot less citrusy. What I actually got was a burst of citrus/cocoa powder then a sickeningly sweet smell of flat Seven Up/Sprite and some kind of raspberry turkish delight with chocolate and musk. I normally like sweet smells and I love Pink Sugar so I thought this would be a winner, but the only thing I like about it is the look of the packaging. I'm going to try and layer it with a cocoa butter body lotion to see if that will tone down that horrible sweetness. My verdict is definately try before you buy.
So sorry it was a disappointment! Have you tried Serendipitous? That is closer to a milk chocolate kind of perfume.
Hi, Robin
I am WAY late – almost a year! – but hope it's OK still to comment.
I found this yesterday for $9.99 at TJMaxx, along with a host of other goodies including Safari at $29.99. (Man, 3 months ago you couldn't find it ANYwhere – what's with that? Christmas pixies been hiding it all?) Anyway… I wonder why the chili pepper on the cannister? Did you try layering it wiht Coco or any of the others that were suggested? I wonder what about layering it with 24 Faubourg. For soem reason that came to mind as I was reading about layering, having spritzed it on my arm. Unfortunately, I bought without being able to try it. I think it may be going back tomorrow – unless I can find a successful way of layering. I know one can't *necessarily* assume that a perfume's winding up on the shelves in TJM's means it's a scrubber – think Sensi White Notes, which I got there and adore; think Safari; think L'Air du Temps; think Jolie Madame… OK, some ppl hate them, but you get my point – one does rather wonder why it's suddenly turned up in such wild proliferation. I also noticed that a large number of ppl on MUA had bought it at a large discount, too. Hmm.
OK, enough rambling – my apologies. Thanks for any thoughts you might have on this negligible subject; and stay warm!
I saw it at TJ Maxx too, and would have bought it except that they also had Anisia Bella, and I wanted that more.
No idea on the chili pepper!
Have not tried layering Chocolover, but personally I'd like to try it with something that would cut the sweetness…maybe something with lots of orange too?
I just made a friend of mine smell my bottle of this. She made the following comment:
I feel like this would attract ants.
nice…
LOL!
I really wanst to try this perfume but I think this perfume has been discontinued or something coz i cant seems to find them everywhere!
Yes, I think it’s discontinued.