Helena Rubinstein's new Wanted fragrance was built around an abstract accord of magnolia wood, and is meant to be a "a vibrant woody floral filled with sensual and carnal tension".1 Sounds good, no? And while I have no particular feelings about Demi Moore either way, it's always nice to see someone over the age of 40 (or let's face it, even 25) fronting a new perfume.
Wanted doesn't quite live up to its steamy advertising, but it's not bad. The opening is a fruity-lemony blend of ylang ylang and magnolia (other notes include iris, cedar, sandalwood and vanilla). It's rather high pitched — yes, even vibrant — in the early stages. The dry down falls squarely into the modern "fresh floral" mode: it's airy and clean, slightly watery, and very smooth. The later stages have a creamy finish, and it's sweet, but not overly so. There's a bit of darkish wood in the base, which presumably stands in for the "carnal tension" in these days of über-clean office friendly fragrances.
Wanted is pleasant and wearable, and smells very much like what it is: a mid-priced department store fragrance — if you act now, you can get a 50 ml bottle and a 30 ml bottle in a coffret at Macy's for $65. That's less than what you'd pay for a single 50 ml bottle of the niche magnolia entry for the year, Acqua di Parma Magnolia Nobile, which retails for $105. Do you get what you pay for? It's hard to say. The Aqua di Parma has a considerably more elegant feel — I'd be the last person to accurately judge the cost of materials, but Magnolia Nobile smells like more money (and possibly some real flowers) went into the formula, whereas Wanted smells like most of the budget went to Demi Moore — but Magnolia Nobile isn't massively more interesting, and if you're after carnal tension, well, it's a toss-up: they're both more pretty than sexy. Is there such a thing as a sexy magnolia perfume? There ought to be.
Helena Rubinstein Wanted was developed by perfumers Dominique Ropion and Carlos Benaïm, and is available in 30, 50 and 100 ml Eau de Parfum.
1. quote via the Helena Rubinstein website.
High-pitched is a big no-no for my nose; thanks for the review.
Oh, I’d try it anyway — it doesn’t stay that way for long.
Now I quite liked this for a pharmacy product. Mag Nob was beautiful in the opening but had a shampoo note that I can’t work with. Wanted omits the shampoo note, thankfully. I asked the SA for a sample and she said they don’t make them (while looking down at me). So I asked why they were for sale on ebay…..
Thanks for the review!
Between the two of them, MN is arguably the cleaner & fresher perfume, so I can see that.
Lovethescents, was this at Macy’s by any chance? They’ve told me the same thing many times. I’ve told them that I can shop elsewhere.
Macy’s, out of all of the department store, is stingiest with samples, I think.
Yeah, they act like you’re trying to rob the place! They’re nice in our local Macy’s — this is small-town Florida — but I don’t think they know how.
Trying to get samples out of Belk SAs is actually HARDER than getting them from Macy’s SAs, if you can believe that *cuts rant short for another time*. Then again, it may just be me, I’ve always had horrible luck when asking for samples, no matter what the store — I’ve even had SAs scold me (and no one else) for taking samples that were left out on counters and tables for the general public to take! I’ve always wondered if the SAs with whom I’ve dealt aren’t secretly reselling those samples. (I’ve actually seen shrinkwrapped sample packs and not-for-sale-still-in-the-box-and-labeled-as-testers testers turn up at flea markets in this area, and the stuff IS legitimate and not fake, which is why I wonder) Or maybe I just give off some sort of vibe that says “Do NOT give this woman your samples”.
Yes, they steal the samples and then sell or trade them… happens all the time. I worked with a Narciso Rep (same co. that distributes Gaultier and Miyake) that kept all the samples and deluxe gwps for herself. I also worked with a Coty Rep (Daisy, Prada, etc.) that had his collateral delivered to a storage unit … 2 years worth of unopened Coty collateral piled up and then he was fired when discovered. We had a lot of work sorting all the samples and gwps. I got a brilliant little Marc Jacobs bag as a thank-you for helping sort it all out.
Keep in mind the frag companies send boxes upon boxes of collateral to reps, as well as the stores. When I worked for LVMH, the boxes were so big the UPS guy had to carry them in for me. P&G was also generous in sending collateral and they sent wonderful Burberry Teddy Bears every holiday.
But anyway, yes, the SAs and Reps steal all the time. That’s why most department stores requires them to use clear plastic handbags only. And Macy’s gets tons of collateral and the SA’s divvy up the spoils and smuggle them out (at least in the 3 I’m familiar with) .
Also it’s very possible that customers are stealing testers. Because they are considered “no value”, stores have a hands-off policy when customers swipe a tester bottle. I had a woman take 4 testers off my counter and saunter off into the mall and there was nothing we could do about it. Another time a guy came in with a BOX and just picked out the ones he wanted and took them home.
Well, my faith in human nature just took another hit.
Overhere, it is since November very difficult to get samples. There was one company which filled something in a small glass bottle if you asked for, since November that is no longer allowed. Mostly they have original samples from the newer scents, but not from the older. ;.)
Yeah well it is late here. Of course they filled some perfume in a little glas vial and not in a bottle. And “mostly” has to be “sometimes”.
No, we don’t have a Macy’s here. This was at a local pharmacy. Shame, isn’t it?
Ditto Miss Kitty’s take. They really seem to heave a good does of condescension your way when they tell you the don’t have samples, don’t they? You’d think they’d see it as laying the ground work for a future sale…the SAs at Barneys and Saks seem to get it.
Thanks for the review Robin. I’ll give this one a sniff, but methinks this one will be more miss than hit. Oh sexy magnolia perfume, where art thou?
There really should be one — it’s such a great smell in real life.
A colleague wore always Yves Roches Magnolia. It smelled gorgeous on her. I do not know whether this scent is still produced. I could not find it on the homepage from Yves Rocher.
That was a pretty one.
To play the devil’s advocate, if I get a nice sized sample from Sephora from example, and decide I’m going to buy the fragrance then I am probably going to shp online for a good deal rather than go pay full price at Sephora. I think Macy’s and maybe Lord & Taylor’s game is to bully you into buying on the spot. Sometimes I cave but almost always end up with buyer’s remorse and returning what I bought. Anyways, I guess the gain for Sephora is that I might go in for a fragrance sample and buy a lotion or an eyeshadow or smething.
True. But if I am going to pay full price for something, I always try to buy at Nordstrom or Neiman Marcus where the customer service is worth rewarding. I avoid giving Macy’s my $ whenever possible.
I agree. I’ll reward good service with my business every chance I get. I don’t feel too guilty about using their testers and buying elsewhere; and anyway, it often works out that department-store retailers carry only the most recent releases, so I don’t have to make a moral choice. If I want this month’s release, it’s probably not going to be online for a while so I’d have to buy it at a department store; I’ll pick the store with the nicest SAs. And the twenty-year-old frags (with the exception of the blockbusters), you have to buy online anyway, so there aren’t any testers in the department stores. I’ve cruised my local Macy’s (a huge one) recently for Bulgari Black, Cinnabar, Hypnotic Poison, and some others, and they didn’t have them. And the SA’s looked at me as if to say, “You’re so out of it; what do you want with that old crap, anyway? This is what’s hot!”
I’ll sniff this if I’m in Macy’s, but it doesn’t sound like anything that can’t wait until the discounters get it. And yes, Demi may be over 40, but what does that matter when she’s airbrushed to look like she’s under 20? If companies *really* wanted to pay more than lip service to showcasing mature women, they would leave a few lines on their faces in the adverts. But then, that wouldn’t sell much perfume, would it?
LOL…it is true, but given that it’s usually a 19 year old airbrushed to look even thinner than she is, it’s still an improvement, no?
I’m not a woman “d’une certaine age” myself, but I can appreciate a sexy but real woman who is older than I sponsering a fragrance, especially since more and more I prefer fragranced geared towards older woman than myself (I’m in my late-twenties). But for me Demi Moore is not that. I never liked her even as a young women and I find her publicized personal life even less palatable. Give me Meryl Streep as a spokesperson for a fragrance and I might be more inclined to go sniff it at Macy’s . . . On the other hand I always have to smell whatever celebrity fragrance is out there no matter how bad, and I am just waiting for a Lady Gaga fragrance.
I didn’t recognize Demi in that super-smooth, airbrushed and Photoshopped version. I thought it was a computer-generated woman. What’s with all the cedar all of a sudden? It amps up on me, so this looks like another one I won’t try.
I also avoid cedar. it is too “hot” for me if you know what I mean. I feel the same way about cinnamon, which is funny because I love cinnamon in food and the smell of cedar chipsin mulch.
This is not a very cedary fragrance…although of course your mileage may vary.
I really don’t care for Demi Moore. It was actually her image that caused me to write this fragrance off and not even bother to try.
Didn’t Lauren Bacall do an ad for a fragrance while in her 60s? I think a truely sophisticated woman can front a quality fragrance and sell it. I’d at least give it a shot.
Gosh — I’d never write off a fragrance because I didn’t like the ad. You might miss something perfect! (although I doubt missing Wanted will kill you)
It is nicely done, but I found it nothing to remember. There is something in the dry down, that smells not good on my skin. Don’t know what it is. On the paper strip it smelled like a very wearable fragrance.
Agree — nicely done, not really as memorable as it could be.
nice p-shoped picture of Demi. I did not even realise first there was a guy next to her.
He doesn’t matter 😉
I had to look for him, too. Shame it wasn’t Ashton, but I guess HR couldn’t afford both of them.
Well he’s scruffy and dark haired like Ashton. A less-expensive stand in?
Stunt Double? Perhaps? 🙂
Stud double?
I dunno, R. I’m all for a fragrance fronted by a woman over 40, but when she’s been photoshopped to look 25, and I’m 52 and spend my days in the cold, hard light of reality — well, maybe it’s not so surprising I feel even older. 😉
Robin R. please don’t feel that way. you must be a fabulous 52. a real supercool one. I wanna be a real 52 too, not a Demi-like 48.
Aw, you are sweet.
Yeah, I know what you mean. But she looks awful young even without photoshop:
https://nstperfume.com/2009/12/02/what-do-you-want/
Not saying that’s w/o help — for all I know she’s botoxed to death.
I read somewhere that she has some kind of bizarre beauty regimen. It might have been National Enquirer though LOL. Darn those long grocery store lines!
That rings a bell — I think somebody might have posted something here about that. Happily I’ve completely forgotten what it was.
LOL!
Does the regimen involve drinking the blood of virgins or anything?
…and that of very young children. And puppies. 🙂
Goodness gracious! The voice, the inflection, the phrasing, the vocabulary, the umms and ahhs, the hand gestures, the very idea behind that little home video — she’s not 48, she’s TWELVE!!!
Thanks, R. I feel much better now. 😉
Yeah, watching that video is not likely to make anybody feel inadequate. She’s got damned nice arms though…
Thanks for the clearheaded review, Robin.
I’m finding that although I love the creamy-lemony floral smell of real magnolias, and quite a number of my favorite scents contain the note, perfumes focused on magnolia tend to bore me.
Same here, and it’s a shame.
Thanks for the review I was wondering how the MN could be!
I like the phrase: ….. “carnal tension” in these days of über-clean office friendly fragrances….. ” It’s so true and so boring,… (sigh) too much respect for the others but not for the art of perfumery.
But there is a story about a magnolia scent. In Greece on the Aegean see there was a boat sailing, and an english lady was also on the ship. It is a bit stinky as always and she cannot stand it and starts spraying around her (probably expensive) magnolia scent in order to survive the journey. A friend of mine was on the boat as well and got totally enchanted by the perfume of the lady, she followed her and at the end asked her which perfume it was!!!! And she could not remember to tell me …… It was a pefume called magnolia in a fancy bottle …. I though it should be one of the Feraggamo scents. They have fancy bottles and I thought I saw one with the name Magnolia but… it’s a vague impression. So now I have one more perfume enigma to solve. For sure it wasn’t MN cause it’s a story of a long time ago.
Oh, I have no idea what fragrance that would be — did not know Ferragamo ever had a perfume with Magnolia in the title.
It is a strange story of my friend to start with, and before that I am quite sure that I saw and sniffed at Hondos in Athens a perfume by Ferragamo and I see it in front of my eyes and it was Magnolia , but I never saw it again. It smelled really special….
That’s how it goes with the spooky perfumes.
I was able to try this recently at Macy’s. My first impression was that it smelled like a toned down version of ‘The One’ from D & G, which I sort of like, but is just a little too overly sweet / ‘enter the room before you’ for my taste. Wanted was not bad, and lasted a long time on my skin, but it was not a gotta have it, extremely unique type of scent, in my opinion.
I did like it better than The One, but neither is terribly unique. If it sells as well as The One I’m sure they’ll be very happy though…
Robin- I think it’s a refreshing change to see an older woman promote a new fragrance. This was a nice photo of her, although I am not a fan. Of course she has been worked over. No woman that age has breasts, skin and God knows what else like that. Airbrushing can only go so far. As for the scent, I’ll give it a spritz and whiff.
Might as well try it!
“sensual carnal tension”? I have a feeling Wanted is going to leave me “wanting”….
Quite possibly.
I got a sample of this at Macys believe it or not when I was shopping at Thanksgiving time. When I tested it in the store, I had Wanted on one hand and Rose The One on the other. I recall thinking Wanted was better than I thought it would be – it does have a creamy-musky floral thing going on. It doesn’t offend me, and it doesn’t smell like cheap shampoo fragrance either. I tested it again at home a few days later and noticed more how strong it came off at the top, but it did soften up quite a bit and remained medium soft throughout. It is very long lasting. I say it is a lot better than most of the rest of mass market, and even could be better than most of the D & G unisex set that is out. That being said, I don’t know if I’d wear it.
The bottle is pretty though! And you are right about using an older woman – I am tired of looking at half naked lolitas with absurdly attenuated arms and legs….
Oh, I would wholeheartedly agree it’s better than much of what is out there, and it’s miles better than the D&G tarot collection things, which are IMHO an utter waste of time.
Still, in the end I thought what I so often think: would be considerably better if they’d spent just a bit more on the juice, and if they’d made a bit less of an effort to make it universally inoffensive.
Yes, absolutely. One of these days, someone will stick their necks out and be different.
I love the phrase “universally inoffensive”! That is the most dead-on description of so much out there!
I was really surprised with how much I liked Curious as a magnolia-based perfume. I’ll definitely try Wanted and Magnolia Nobile, particularly since Wanted seems to have a more appealing drydown. But Curious was actually really well done for a magnolia-based fragrance, even if it was far from ground-breaking.
A more carnal and provocative take on magnolia would certainly be smashing, though. Maybe magnolia with a really sexy and definitely not shy musk. A girl can dream…
Oh, as a side note, I also have a “small town Macy’s” and often walk out with a little bag full of samples from my hook-up saleslady in the cosmetics department. And a good deal of those minis and samples has led, without a doubt, to a definite desire to purchase full bottles. I don’t see why samples are frowned upon if they create a customer where there may not have been one in the first place.
Curious was also a very wearable scent. I’d say this one is more sophisticated than Curious, and Magnolia Nobile even more so…but of course, that doesn’t mean MN is the one you (or anyone else) will necessarily like best.
I do happen to think that Demi looks pretty darn good usually, lucky girl….except in this advert….I think she looks so photoshopped that it’s beyond “perfect” and passed right into “creepy”. Of course that has zero to do with the fragrance. However: high-pitched , fresh floral and mid-priced department store ….none of that sounds particularly tempting. I adore real magnolias like we had in the yard when I was a teenager (in the southern parts of VA. ) and have yet to smell a real magnolia in perfume….you want a sexy magnolia? maybe if JHaG tackled that one….or Amouage…..of course then who could afford to try it?
Yes, Amouage should do one.
I tried this when it first came out and I still have some samples of it.I was very dissappointed by how generic it is.It is not something you will remeber it was just blah.It has no soul and certainly doesn’t live up to the sexy ad.And yeah Demi is airbrushed to the point where she doesn’t even look like Demi.This fragrance was a huge miss it gets points for not being pink and trying to attempt to be a womanly fragrance.I expect this to discontinue in the near future.
It is kind of blah…agree it’s nice that it’s not a pink fruity floral, but there are pink fruity florals I found more interesting than this.
If anybody wants a really sexy scent with a magnolia note (though not a soliflore), try Lelong pour Femme. It’ s a knockout. Sultry as all get-out and quite unusual at the same time. 😀
Thanks — good to know!
Thank you for this description, it’s 100% my opinion!
Glad we agree!
Thanks for the review Robin! When I initially tested this one it left an odd metallic note on me..something that just didn’t ‘fit’ into the overall composition, if that makes sense? I was a jarring note that stood out amongst the rest and not in a good way. I’ve since gone back and retested this, and to my delight (and oddly) that note is no longer there and it’s actually quite a pleasant scent, just not pleasant enough to shell out on a FB for when there are so many other lemmings! All relates to body chemistry I spose, and depending on time of month/hormones…all play a part too I’ve discovered. But enjoyed your review.
Would agree it’s pleasant but perhaps not FB worthy.
DO NOT BUY THIS PERFUME. Something in the base that lingers a bit too long. Causes headaches, much like the hideous “Poison” perfume of the 80’s or 90’s. Sorry Demi.
Wow, I didn’t find it nearly that strong or loud.
Just tried this, only to find that this isn’t magnolia at all. It’s prune danish plain and simple. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Interesting!