Notorious is the lastest feminine fragrance from Ralph Lauren, and it takes its cues from the "film noir classics of Alfred Hitchcock and other Hollywood greats":
Described as a “daring new fragrance of timeless intrigue and boundless desire”, Notorious was inspired by the sexy, mysterious, self-possessed women of the golden age of film glamour, such as Ingrid Bergman, Lauren Bacall and Faye Dunaway.*
The juice itself, by perfumer Olivier Gillotin, is classified as an oriental, and based on all the ad copy I was expecting something dark, maybe a bit edgy, maybe a bit femme fatale. Nope. Notorious reads more like a foody comfort scent, courtesy of the chocolate cosmos ("a decadent, chocolate-scented burgundy flower exclusive to Ralph Lauren Fragrances"; other notes include black currant, pink peppercorn, bergamot, white frost peonies, carnation, patchouli musk, vanilla and iris). You get the requisite fruits (along with the requisite pink pepper) in the opening, then indeterminate florals laid over a very soft cocoa and some warm musky woods. The finish is just slightly powdery.
It's sweet but I wouldn't call it overly so; it does not smell like it's geared towards 'tweens, and I have to emphasize again how soft the cocoa is. This is not a fragrance for a chocoholic, and I wouldn't call it candied in the least. In fact, it's surprisingly clean for something called Notorious — if someone ever comes up with "Fresh Cocoa Woods" dryer sheets, this would be about how they'd smell. I'd call it cushy-cozy-snuggly rather than sexy-glamorous-sophisticated, and there isn't even the slightest air of mystery or intrigue about it. It's hard to imagine Ingrid Bergman spritzing it on, and it certainly hasn't got enough attitude to suit Lauren Bacall (or even the model in the print ad).
Once the top notes wear off, it's an inobtrusive and undemanding scent, so much so that I don't really have a strong opinion about it either way. It doesn't appeal to me personally — I like a little more attitude myself — but I'd call it very wearable, and I'm sure it will find plenty of fans.
Ralph Lauren Notorious is available in 50 and 75 ml Eau de Parfum and in matching body products. It is exclusive to Bloomingdales through August.
* first quote via wwd, second quote via moodiereport.
Disappointing, not terribly surprisingly. The color (it seems clear in the picture) is not right–something named “Notorious” needs color, and the bottle is too modern and blah. Nice theme idea, but not carried out right.
Agree, the juice ought to be your standard old-fashioned gold color, and really think they should have gone w/ a modern chypre kind of thing like Gucci, or something more solidly oriental, not so fresh. Ah well.
oh well, i was looking forward to it in a way. liking laetitia casta, i imagined something darker, but that was too daring i guess. another creation they'll pull from the market in a couple of years
It isn't daring, but hey, you might like it! And actually I think this one will do well. Probably more likely to do well than if they'd done something daring, right?
Er, I really like the bottle actually.
I wish that fragrance weren't light sensitve. I'd love to have all mine on display. I'd love to have Escada Pour Homme next to Tom Ford for Men and Black Orchid next to each other as a kind of bottle family.
I want to look lovingly on the wonder of Coriolan and the majestic splendor of Edition Imperiale.
But no, they've all got to be tucked away in the dark. Sniff.
Agree with Vetiver53: that bottle looks cheap and tacky to me, at least in this image. The juice sounds less film noir and more like “Bridget Jones's Diary” or something. Since you posted the original announcement, I've been trying to think of the appropriate film analogy… anyone else have ideas?
I don't really have any strong opinion on the bottle either way, I guess.
Maybe rotate bottles in and out of your cupboard so that a few are on display all the time? Lots of people do that. Just keep the shades drawn 😉
Yes, it would go with some modern chick flick like that, although Bridget Jones, gosh, I'd have to think about what she'd wear. Something way tackier than this, I'd think!
The sad thing is, we all know that in no time at all there will be a “Notorious Eau Fraiche” along as a sop to the public, when what we really needed in the first place was a “Notorious Eau Fetide” or “Eau Puante”. Using careful selected animalic notes, obviously.
Another classic fumble by a big name fashion icon coming out with a frgrance that is so disconnected from its parts that this one will probably not take off. I would say in a year we will have forgotten it ever existed. The name and print ad suggest one thing, and the juice delivers another. When that happens, I find ladies are let down and lose interest.
I think they could have made the clear juice work, if they had had the nerve to do it up right; the movie from which it gets its name–one of the greats, by the way–is in black and white, as is the ad campaign, and they could have gone for a very sleek black-and-white look for the whole presentation, rather than ruining it by putting that gold collar on the bottle.
And they definitely should have made it a chypre, a very sultry, vampy forties-noir kind of thing that the glorious, notorious Ingrid Bergman would have worn in the movie. It could have worked, dammit!
I look forward to trying this when it comes around, I look forward to trying most everything! It sounds nice enough, maybe a bit like Hilary Duff's With Love without the coconut sweetness, because I really like the drydown on that one. The patchouli is the only thing that might give me pause.
Sultry, yes, and black & white for the whole presentation would be perfect too.
Yep — look for the Eau Fraiche next spring.
I don't know — am just back from the pool so brain is probably done for the day, but seems to me that scents like this succeed as often as not. It's got a pleasant, not very challenging juice with chocolate (everybody loves chocolate) and the bottle isn't hideous. I'd think it would do better than Pure Turquoise, personally. I mean, most people probably don't want the kind of scent that would fit this concept.
This is so wrong in so many ways.
Is this Ralph Lauren's “Black Orchid”? It's sort of sad, what's happened to designer fragrances. I want very distinct character and personality from a label brand, a fragrance to be a creature all its own. And a “femme fatale” scent should smell like a spirit that's possessed its wearer, not of congenial propriety ;).
Thanks for the heads up: I now don't have to try this fragrance…
FYI the model is French supermodel Laetitia Casta (aka muse of the late Yves Saint Laurent). She was in Chris Issak's “Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing” video:
http://lnk.nu/video.google.com/m9f
Oh yeah, she was a Victoria Secret angel, too.
Possibly 🙂
It's almost impossible to imagine Tom Ford ever releasing a juice like this…it's just too well behaved. But then, I thought Black Orchid Voile de Fleur was not a very Tom Ford-ish sort of scent.
But haven't seen too many reviews of this yet. Maybe others will find it more sultry than I did…
I tried it very quickly last month, and liked it. I'm still waiting for it to come back to me to try again. I didn't get any chocolate from it, and it seemed more floral to me. But I only tested it on paper, and quickly moved on.
Is it less pronounced than in Gucci by Gucci? Though I have a pretty high tolerance threshhold for patchouli and find it okay in GbG.
Velvet Gardenia was very bad-ass, though!
The chocolate is very soft, it's true!
Way less pronounced — and in general, this isn't nearly as dark as Gucci, and it's a more obviously “feminine” scent.
sigh, do they forget they made Safari? which, while not for everyone, had “oomph”, personality and a gorgeous bottle to boot.
enough with the generic sameness already.
passing on this one too….
BIG SIGHS…when I first heard this was coming out, I had allowed myself to build a semblence of hope based upon the mere name alone. Notorious – represents something of strength, character and uniqueness. A fragrance to make a powerful statement, one to be remembered. And the dream bubble pops with this review.
The more “market researched” these fragrances are, the more average they become.
None of the latest frags I've tried had as much as a hint of personality.
But maybe that's because I consider “Very Wearable” to be an insult.
“Oomph” does not seem to be in these days.
Hey, give it a shot — maybe you'll like it more than I did.
bartamy – chocolate cosmos are a flower… so that may be the reason why there was a floral essence about the fragrance. I have tested this and it's a little soft at first spray, but definitely gets deeper in scent as it settles. The juice is a little more yellow in color, definitely not clear as shown above. I don't really fancy the bottle, but it is definitely the art deco shape they say were going for. I think they should have gone with colored bottle; the sample bottle I tried had a nice black and gold foil label. I liked that better!
I think you're right, unfortunately… I'm sure there are lots of women out there who would love a perfume that somehow connects them with the image of the film noir femme fatale, but think that the kind of fragrance a film noir femme fatale might have worn in the 40's are “old lady perfumes”. Sad, but true.
Yes, I garden and I know chocolate cosmos as a flower, but the review led me to believe that there were hints of chocolate in there and that 'chocolate cosmos' referred to something altogether different. I'm glad to know I was on the right track, thanks!
Bear in mind that it's anybody's guess as to whether there is anything in there like “chocolate cosmos”. It could be that they've actually extracted from it (I don't know if that is possible) or used headspace technology to capture the scent, but it's also possible that they just mixed floral + chocolate notes to create a “chocolate cosmos” accord. For the consumer it probably makes no difference: it smells like florals + a soft chocolate note.
Yes, sad but true! Although still think they could have gone the “modern chypre” route & come up with something a bit more sophisticated & glamorous than this. But perhaps others are going to find it more sophisticated & glamorous than I did!
Notorious is a good name for it, in the sense that I think Ralph Lauren's fragrances have, over the years, become notoriously boring!
That wasn't always the way.Does anyone remember Lauren in the eighties when it first came out? It was really quite something. I even owned a bottle: an American scent, of all things, quite radical, and those were the years when we just ate up French fragrances — almost always in perfume strength, because they really weren't insanely expensive — like Femme and Ivoire and a Je Reviens that has nothing to do with the sad dross that currently goes by the same name. Spoiled by pre-reformulations across the board, we were, in those halcyon days. I smelled the reformulated Lauren the other day: an insipid, singularly synthetic shadow of its former, glorious self. Sigh. . .
Lauren really has been destroyed, it's too too bad. I have to go look & see what RL has done recently. Can't think of anything RL has done recently that I care about. Pure Turquoise didn't appeal to me at all.
The last RL frag I tried was “Blue” and someone wrote it's the fragrance of “ladies who lunch”. Well if they smell like that, I won't be joining them. A nice fresh aquatic floral for the 16 – 22 age group but nothing special.
There are still some declared fans of “Romance” here and that fragrance is still on sale. But it's just not my type of fragrance. Some 8 years ago I remember wearing a RL frag advertised by Penelope Cruz, the name ended in “ious”, could have been Supercalifragilisticexpialidoucious for all I care because I can't remember anything else about it at all.
On the other hand I had a miniature “Safari” and that got me quite a few compliments as I remember, nice “upper-class” fragrance.
Tania Sanchez gave Pure Turquoise a very good review in Perfumes: The Guide, but honestly I think the last RL I actually wore was Lauren. The line just doesn't fit me, maybe? Going to be interesting to see how Notorious does, but I think it will sell.
I'm so glad you liked it!
I also really like this one. The patchouli seems to stay on me and provides a kind of catalyst for the florals and other spice. It didn't wear down to a powdery scent that I really don't like but stayed with me in a complex way that had my honey nuzzling my neck for more. Gotta love that!
Well it can't hurt!
i finally got to try it, and i admit, i like it. although i expected it to be huskier due to it's name, it's sweet and subtle and not the least bit naughty. i don't pick up the cocoa at all. in fact, it seems to be very similar to Armani Diamonds, which i refused to buy because i'm not a Beyonce fan, though the juice was kinda nice. i'd wear this on a first date-it's pleasant and unintrusive. i think they should rename it and come out with a Notorious that smells a little more risky!
I was also one of the lucky winners of a bottle of Notorious. Thanks, R, for running the promo!
It's familiar smelling, in the Coco Mad/Chance/Prada/Flowerbomb axis, but it doesn't reach out and slap at others with the patchouli accord. For lack of a better term, it's *ladylike*. Stays close and, by the end of the day, has faded away to nothingness.
If I worked in a traditional office environment, this would be the perfect fragrance.
Yeah, I'd agree with ladylike.
I received my free bottle/ giveaway about 2 weeks ago. I have to say I love it! What I expected from Mr.Lauren. I'd say it's the type of scent that , if I had to describe- for myself, a scent I'd wear when wraped up in a soft blanket or wearing a fabulous, comfy sweater or outfit, all cozy and relaxed infront of a roaring fire, with a nice glass of wine. I dont really know all the techinal stuff about perfumes. I pick a scent to enhance my mood at the moment. I think this will be a versitile scent for me. Thanks, Kate B.
I was one of the lucky winners of a bottle of Notorious and I must say that I really like it.
I do find it very wearable, but not in a bad way. I am petite, blonde and 27 (although I look much younger) and tend to be somewhat understated in my attire, so some of the more daring scents that I admire are, on me, the scent equivalent of dressing up in my mother's clothes. 🙂 I wouldn't say Notorious is as “grown up” a scent as I can handle, but it fits where I am right now- looking for scents that are a bit heavier than what I wear now, but not overwhelming.
I actually prefer Notorious as an evening scent b/c it just feels a little “dressy” to me, especially in the top notes (I almost get a sparkly “cola” from it when I first put it on, but it fades quickly into fruits and pepper).
I think it really shines in the dry down, though. The cocoa woods you describe are very apparent to me, but its not sweet at all- its both comforting and sophisticated. I'm happy to own a bottle!
So glad you're enjoying your free bottle, and you know, “wearable” shouldn't be a bad thing. Not always the same as “interesting” or “unusual”, but still.
I'm surprised to see all these negative reviews about the new fragrance! Although, I have not tried it on my skin yet so i cannot have a complete verdict.
What I can say is that when I first opened the sample in my magazine, I was instantly intruiged. The first thing I thought of was black berries, mixed with some sort of spice with a little sweetness to it. It smelled quite different than most other fragrances I've been sampling lately.
I love the bottle, and i like the ad as well. The name is good too, defenetly better than Ralph this ralph that.
On my sample card of it it smells mostly warm with a quite unique undertone to it, and a touch of oriental seasoning.
I really look forward to actually trying it on, I'll let you know what i think after that.
I don't think all the reviews have been negative at all. Hope you'll love it!
How similar is this to BLV Notte (another chocolate base)? I absolutely adore Notte, but I wish it was a bit “louder” haha.. I basically have to stick my nose onto my wrist just to barely smell it after a couple of hours :/
I'm sorry but I haven't tried the Notte, so I'll be no help!
I was actually attracted to the “foody comfort scent” idea, but Notorious is just an oriental on me, all spice and vanilla, like a low-watt Shalimar. Not my favorite type of fragrance, nor one that gets me many compliments. Oh, well. This is why you try before you buy.
LOL at “low-watt Shalimar” — I actually didn't find it as va-va-voom as even that 🙂
I'm also one of the lucky recipients of a free bottle (thanks, Robin), and I have to say it's a nice addition to my collection. On me, this one is very clean and crisp on the opening, with a floral undernote, then warms slightly on the drydown, but certainly never fits the advertising — I wish it was more of a “low-watt Shalimar” but it's a nice scent to wear when you don't want to broadcast too much…
So glad you're enjoying your bottle, even if it isn't quite what you expected! Can't beat a free “nice addition” 🙂
I really wanted to like this. It wasn't bad on the paper strip, but not interesting enough to explore further. Sorry.
For any Sydney, Australia readers on here: the David Jones Bondi Junction store has lots of gorgeous boxed (crocodile print embossed, no less) 7ml miniatures in stock.
Ah well, time and money saved 🙂
Well, today Notorious finally hit my Lilliputian branch of Boots and I can say that I agree with the broad consensus of views expressed here, namely that it is a ladylike, subtly sweet, inoffensive number. I wouldn't look a gift bottle in the nozzle, so to speak, but if my own money is going to be involved, I think Bvlgari Jasmin Noir, with its drier finish, has more of the vibe this is trying for, without being quite the femme fatale either.
I think the only mainstream release that managed to hit “femme fatale” so far is probably CK Secret Obsession. Unless I'm forgetting something…
Okay, I am a fool. I finally went and tried this scent on and bought it right away. I regret buying this because it does not mix well with my chemistry. What deceived me about this is that I absolutely love the first spritz smell, on paper, AND on my skin, but when it wears down, it becomes a boring, floral that makes me dizzy. Usually I leave perfumes on for a day and then think about buying it but this one, I just went for too soon. It isn't all it seemed to be at first. I'm sorry to come back with a negative response!!! I hope there are more people who really enjoy this fragrance though.
Drat, sorry it didn't work out, and hope you can return it!
I just bought a bottle after sampling it at the mall– I thought the fragrance went well with the promo ads. I'm not very good at dismantling technicalities of the notes into descriptions but I did pick up the chocolate note, but I thought it was just in my mind because it was so very.. subtle and padded. The whole scent struck me as very 40s siren glam, like how “seductive” would be described in the 40s; more understated, more ladylike, more comfortable on the feminine, a more matured woman, more about presence and charm and how a woman carries herself than today's skin exposure.
It does not assail the senses with complicated whiffs but wafts around the person like an agreeable ambience. Well, they were giving away a gorgeous weekender black faux leather tote with this perfume so that clinched the deal for me as the scent was really the firm, understated, glam thing I go for. “Golden age of film glamour” is definitely it. I think I might try to dwindle my perfume collection and just stick to this.
I'm very lucky, I think this scent leaves very well on my skin and mixes well with my .. body constituent? Anyway, it's one of the lucky few, I've never had any perfume smell this well on my skin
Glad it works so well for you
Exactly! We just got Notorious in here in Vancouver, and I'm wearing it “across” from Gucci — my instincts told me, even before I read your comment, Robin, that it would make an interesting comparison.
Well. Compared with Notorious, Gucci — a scent I've always thought was rich, and reasonably quiet, in a very slightly sexy way — is a total femme fatale!! I was hoping that Notorious would take the Gucci vibe a few steps more towards the va-va-voom, but it is not to be.
At least it's moving in the same stylistic circles as Magnifique and Sensuous (although I like those better) which is a mainstream direction I'm considerably fonder of than (yawn) fruity-floral.
If somebody mainstream could work a scent like Tom Ford's too-expensive Japon Noir (incense, woods, vetiver) into something I could more comfortably afford, THAT would be real progress.
R, had a bit of free skin so sprayed on some Japon Noir. Curious to try it next to Black Orchid … smells like it could be hiding over there in the base notes, under the vanilla ice cream. Agree this is closer to something you might call Notorious, but if Ralph Lauren launched this, I'd drop over in a dead faint.
LOL. That'll be the day.
You know, R., In a perfect world, Japon Noir — probably my current fave among the Tom Ford Private Blends, $210 (ouch!) for 50mls here in Vancouver — would sell next to the Calgon body mists at my local drugstore for the same $5-6 price!! Sigh. Life is SO unfair. . .
Uh, yeah! And I'd buy Ormonde Jayne at Target for $9.99 😉
Sweet dreams are made of these!
I think the bottle looks really ugly in real life. And the juice itself just smells plain weird to me. =/
Sadly, ‘dryer sheets’ really captures it for me. yuck.
Yep.
Tried it just last week and I loved it. I have been thinking of it ever since….I sampled a few more perfumes in the same store but kept on going back to sniff the Notorious!. Found it very sophisticated, and subtle. Could never be overpowering, just intriguing. Love the black currant and peony wafts. I came away with a couple of sprayed samples. A definite purchase soon!
So glad you found a favorite!
I still love this scent for the fall. Second year I’m wearing it. Soft & warm