Benefit will launch a new trio of fragrances for women, Crescent Row, this coming July:
Inspired by a trip Jean’s [Jean Ford, Benefit's co-founder] daughters took to a row of Georgian townhouses in Bath, England, called The Royal Crescent, Crescent Row is designed to speak to three different young women who Jean and Jane Ford envisioned living in the chic residences.
Laugh With Me Lee Lee ~ a "fun and feminine" woody floral with cassis, melon, citrus, black violet, lily, jasmine, blond wood, amber and sandalwood.
Something About Sophia ~ a "free-spirited" oriental with mango, freesia, sheer lily, jasmine, peony, musk, white caramel and vanilla bean.
My Place or Yours Gina ~ a "provocative" fragrance with pink pepper, bergamot, tangerine, peony, wild raspberry, lily, patchouli, tonka bean and vanilla.
Benefit Laugh With Me Lee Lee, Something About Sofia and My Place or Yours Gina will be available in 30 ml ($36). (via wwd)
Update: see a review of Benefit Laugh With Me Lee Lee, Something About Sofia and My Place or Yours Gina.
I can’t live without Benefit’s Dandelion, and they also have a lipstick shade that works well for me [no small feat]. But their fragrances leave me cold. In all fairness though, they’re obviously aimed at a different demographic. Are these cutesy enough though? hehe
Yeah Maybe Baby smells awful and sour on me and I made the appropriate ick faces. The saleslady said to me “oh you know Maxim magazine had men vote on their favourite scent and Maybe Baby was it.” (not sure if that’s true or not) Like that’s gonna all of the sudden make me like it LOL
Wouldn’t surprise me!
I think they’re trying to “beef up” their fragrance offerings, so perhaps these will be better? Who knows. I have several of their kitschy makeup bags, but that’s it.
The real residents of the The Royal Crescent would also be left cold, believe me… I would bet serious money that there is no one in that road – or probably the whole of Bath – called Lee Lee!
My image of Bath is entirely via Jane Austen, since I’ve never been there — I wouldn’t have thought Lee Lee was a big name there either, but what do I know.
Think the Beacon Hill district of Boston as a suitable US equivalent… Old colonial / Georgian architecture, historic gas lamps, wrought iron door knockers, bay trees in tubs outside the front door and so on. A strange location to anchor the quirky, fun kitsch brand values of Benefit if you ask me, but sales will tell!
Yeah, not sure the location even matters. These have very cute packaging & cute names — if they’re halfway good, they’ll probably sell.
It is an interesting idea to develop three women of parfume. I prefered Sophia because of peony and vanilla notes. Is there anyone like me ?
None of them sound really appealing to me, but I’ll give them all a shot!
Sephora is giving a mini-fragrance set of these away to Beauty Insiders – just make a purchase and enter the code word CRESCENT at check out to get them. I don’t know if I’ll like them, but it was time to get my birthday gift from Sephora and restock on Lempicka’s Fleur de Corail and pick up my other bonus gift for spending $100 at Sephora – so I figured why not try them for free?
One of the choices for the bonus gift was the Harajuku Lovers sampler – so if anyone is interested in that and is ready to buy something else anyway….
I also just got my 15 item sampler from TPC and am waiting on my Guerlain & Chanel samplers, so I’ll be in perfumista sampler heaven for awhile.
Thanks so much for the news!
I just ordered the trio with that code, so I’ll happily give them a shot. I think the packaging is fun and if anything, the fragrances will end up as room sprays.
Btw, as a former Beacon Hill girl, I can tell you it’s not nearly as serious as it looks from the exterior…. there’s lots going on behind the brick facades!
Cheers!
I’ve got samples & will try them soon…been sick so long I haven’t smelled a thing in weeks.
My Place or yours Gina is an interesting fragrance – the opening has a strong rubber accord (!) and the burnt sweetness of Pink Sugar. The rubber grew stronger on me, then thankfully died back after the first 10-15 minutes. The sweetness mellowed out a bit, too… lasting power was average. To my nose, it smelled like a skewed melding of Pink sugar and Bvlgari Black and then dried out and away…
Laugh with Me LeeLee is a standard sparkly citrus, nothing groundbreaking but I can see how it would do well with younger wearers who want a light,clean, fresh scent and an alternative to D&G Light Blue.
Something about Sophia – there is definitely *something* going on with this one, but I don’t think it’s what Benefit intended. I have a hard time with mango (bad food poisoning episode) and this one made me feel sick when I first applied it. I’m going to try it again, because after the mango went away, I thought it might have a little potential.
None are purchase-worthy for me, but I’d definitely use the LeeLee as a room spray, or would make a good hand soap.
Will review them tomorrow…wish I could keep the darned names straight, I can’t even remember which is which & I’ve already worn them 3-4 times.