Welcome to a week of reviews of drugstore perfumes! Each day I'll review a fragrance from a different category of drugstore scent. Today's category is Cheap (in More Ways than One). My selection is Body Fantasies Sexiest Fantasies Strawberries & Champagne, Love Struck, and Va Va Voom! body sprays.
You've got to admire a company — in this case, Parfums de Coeur — for naming its line Sexiest Fantasies. Nothing subtle about it. This is also the company that brought us Sexiest Musk (and now owns Prince Matchabelli and makes Wind Song.) What could the sexiest fantasies smell like? A suite at the Ritz? Caribbean beaches at midnight? Fireplaces in Alpine lodges? Whatever they smell like, Parfums de Coeur has a hunch the Candy Man plays a major role.
I put off testing Strawberries & Champagne until last, but let's get the scariest out of the way right now. The back of the box says, "Think intimate tryst, drinking chilled French champagne and nibbling on ripe strawberries...and each other." I say, think shampoo. Fruity shampoo. Strawberry alone is tricky enough when the chasm between a ripe strawberry from your garden and a styrofoam-like Driscoll at the supermarket is a mile wide, but add Sexiest Fantasies' idea of Champagne and pressing the trigger on this bottle for me took a deep breath and a "1-2-3-press." In the end, it wasn't as bad as I'd feared, just a lot like shampoo. Lasts a few hours.
Love Struck is described as "an enchanting elixir of Cherry Blossom, Peach, and Sensual Musks that leaves your skin totally kissable!" Basically, it smells like peach without much musk at all. When I was in college, I spent two weeks working at the complaint desk at a dairy. One day I received a letter written on bilious pink stationery. It complained about the dairy's strawberry yogurt, comparing its flavor to the color of the note paper. Love Struck is peach like peach-colored note paper is peach. I might give this one to my niece in high school. Lasts an hour or so.
My favorite of the trio is Va Va Voom!. The box says, "Imagine a bewitching blend of creamy fig, dark flowers and exotic fruits drying down to a long lasting accord of rum chocolate liqueur and soft musks." This one smells like chocolate, fig, and musk. It's loud but tasty with a bright orange opening followed by a load of melted chocolate chips and over ripe figs smothering whatever dark flowers might be hiding. Something light — fruity aldehydes? — diffuses what could be heavy enough to be baked in bar form and sold at a 4H fundraiser. The promised musk turns out loud and strong. Va Va Voom! is to high-end perfumery as Heidi Montag is to Cate Blanchett. But as much as I love Cate, the occasional peek at reality television can be thrilling. Va Va Voom! lasts hours — possibly longer than you want to smell it. I just might keep my bottle.
The Sexiest Fantasies trio comes in a pink and black box with its $6.99 price tag thoughtfully perforated for easy removal in case you want to give it as a gift. Each spray bottle is 50 ml. They're also sold individually in larger bottles. I bought mine at Walgreen's.
Ok, looking for my nearest Walgreens to check out that Va Va Voom – sounds like a great cheap thrill for evenings at home.
I’m laughing as I write this, but do you think it is too over-the-top for summer? It sounds more like a fall/winter indulgence.
It’s pretty over the top for summer, but maybe on a cool evening. At any rate, at that price, it’s worth a try.
Oh, Angela! I’m picturing you wincing as you bravely spray Sexiest Fantasies Strawberries & Champagne. Talk about taking one for the team. 🙂
Hey, you guys are worth it! (My dog may have suffered, however.)
Interesting– Victoria’s Secret has a Strawberries and Champagne, as well as Love Spell (admittedly not the same as Love Struck, but close enough), and the notes for both are pretty much the same. I actually have the VS body sprays because they’re great for summer. They’re good, cheap fun, and I (strangely) get a lot of compliments when I wear them. It doesn’t sound like these are even fun, and for the sake of my ego, hopefully do not smell the same as the VS’s.
Now you’re making me wonder if they’re made by the same company? No–if that were true, they would have named them something different. I’ll have to try the VSs.
Isn’t this the company that used to do the designer knock-offs? In which case, it would be no accident that the names and notes are similar. Meanwhile… is there anything more cliched than strawberries & champagne? That one made me laugh and hope to never encounter the pair in real life.
Yes, same company. “If you like Obsession, then you’ll love Obnoxious…”
Hey, I’m doing a review of a No. 5 knock off tomorrow. I think that’s their slogan (more or less)!
Oh, I can’t wait! I can’t imagine someone even trying to do No. 5 cheaply. That scares me. I think I did sniff at that out of curiosity one time in Walgreen’s, but I can’t remember what my verdict was.
I’m looking forward to this series of reviews, Angela. It’s nice to know what’s out there without having to actually depress the spray button myself.
I don’t know who Heidi Montag is, and I won’t Google to find out (though my curiosity will get the better of me, I’m sure). Not that I’m immune to trashy TV — the Housewives of Atlanta and Jerseylicious are strangely compelling.
You’d really give a “Sexiest Fantasies” to your high-school-aged niece? Well, why not, I guess!
All you need to know about Heidi Montage is: fake boobs and lots of them.
As for my niece, the bottle is kind of over the top, but the smell is very innocent.
I like trashy reading more than trashy tv, but it’s the same concept!
Hee, hee! Joe loves Jerseylicious just like me! I’ve never seen airbrushed makeup in person but the next time I’m in NJ I might give the Glam Fairy a call.
Now I’m eager to see this show! It must be on cable, and that’s why I haven’t seen it.
a few weeks ago I’m working up in my bead room (making something glorious, I’m sure) and I hear the CEO and J downstairs just yucking it up like crazy! Of course I had to come downstairs to see what was so damn funny — Jerseylicious! Gawd! It was hilarious! Who knows if we’ll ever waste another 1/2 hour of our lives watching it, but those women were KILLING us!
Anything that funny sounds like it deserves the occasional half hour, it sounds like!
You know, I don’t get whatever channel it’s on, but a friend now living overseas told me it’s one of her guilty pleasures and I just watched a bunch of episodes on Hulu (which has more ads and interruptions than you can imagine, but it works).
I’m at my father’s house now, and he has cable, so I scanned the listings last night hoping to find it. I did stumble across Hoarders, which was pretty horrifying, but haven’t found Jersylicious yet. I haven’t given up, though!
Hoarders and Intervention used to be guilty pleasures on Mondays. Horrifying, yes.
I like some of the VS body sprays and such as well – realatively cheap fun, and nice for evening or after shower on a stay-at-home day (where Serge Lutens, for example), goes entirely unappreciated!
People love simple scents, I think. They’re so easy to appreciate. BBW is great for that, too, I think.
I’m seriously considering a backup bottle of Sunshine Cuties ‘Lil Angel because it is a limited edition and I rather like the simple lemon-vanilla smell of it.
See! I completely understand.
Julia, I just picked up Lil’Angel at my local Dillards department store. They are currently having buy one get one free. Maybe other stores are having a similar offer? I’m enjoying wearing this one as well:)
Really enjoying these posts. Thanks Angela! I’m looking forward to my next drugstore visit.
I actually have a lotion in one of these (smells like vanilla and pineapple..) and I alwasy get people sniffing me up and asking what it is!
There you go! A winner!
Oh, Angela, Angela… the things you do for your faithful readers. Bless your heart, you even put these *on skin* so you could give us a report…
No, really, thank you for doing a Cheap Thrills week – I’m going to dig it. I used to wear only drugstore scents, so it’s nice to see someone talking about what’s out there. I so rarely get the chance to just drop by the drugstore and sniff things.
Do drugstores where you can sniff things even exist? Even if the “fine fragrances” aren’t locked in glass-fronted case, I’ve never seen a tester and all the stuff is in shrinkwrapped boxes. The only fun to be had is popping the top in the body wash aisle.
My local CVS has testers of the entire Mariah Carey line in a free standing cardboard display as well as sample bottles of Faith Hill, Queen Latifah, and other celeb scents out on the shelves.
It sounds very celeb oriented!
we have Walgreens & CVS both with testers available….some on displays near the cosmetics register, but most behind the counter so you have to ask. Which reminds me that I was going to stop there today and look for some Old Spice! Rats! have to make a note to do that next time I’m by there.
Daisy, I’m in Billings MT right now and saw a bottle of 1940s Old Spice in top condition for $6, with the box, even. Need it?
YES!!!! you are a perfume ANGEL ….but don’t inconvenience yourself…after all , you are on holiday 🙂
I’ll see if I can’t get down there today. I hope it’s still there!
Gah! I would give (almost)anything for a bottle of Shulton Old Spice in a glass bottle!
Joe, my Walgreen’s has testers of a lot of their perfumes, but actually trying them is harder than it sounds. Once, the cosmetics department had lost the key to the perfume case and couldn’t open it at all. Another time, someone had broken a bottle and cut herself, and the cosmetics desk was cordoned off until the medics came. After that, everyone was too frazzled to do anything.
My Walgreen’s has testers! You have to request them, but the clerks oblige.
However, my favorite clerk at CVS, where I fill prescriptions, told me that the fragrance testers were frequently stolen, so they don’t have them anymore.
Wow. So drugstore perfume is the fragrance of choice of thieves!
I haven’t spent much time with drugstore scents, either, so this is fun for me, too!
I am so looking forward to this week! Thanks in advance for a great week of perfume fun!
You’re welcome! I’ve written all of them except Friday’s post and am pondering that one…
In Canada you can definitely sniff things at London Drugs. Not everything has a tester, to be sure, but there’s always a selection to be tested.
That is such a great policy!
Oh Brave, Brave Angela…..this is going to be a fun week! But I bet you’ll be glad when it’s over. **snicker**
I happen to be wearing my first ever strawberry perfume today! Montale Mukhallat —which J enjoys calling “muck-a-lot” –smells like strawberry bubble gum and vanilla and musk….interesting stuff. Don’t even ask why I got it in my head to buy strawberry perfume….but it’s actually pretty tasty.
Hey, if you’re into strawberry perfume, I think you can scratch that itch a lot more cheaply! (L’Interdit has a nice strawberry note, by the way.)
Daisy, your purchase has reminded me I think I have a sample of Mukhallat somewhere. I made the mistake of trying it right after Montale’s almond frag (which I did not like and clung to my nostrils like nobody’s business) so the test was a bit tainted. But I love strawberry as a note and have been on the search for the ideal one so must try to track down that samp.
YR’s Strawberry is okay, Hanae Mori’s is nice but not quite strawberry-ish enough, Escada Sexi Graffiti is mostly violet with strawberry to my nose and Molinard’s Fraise is proving impossible to find and apparently is the HG of strawberry perfumes.
At least it is a fun search. 🙂 I love berries in perfumes, as is often reflected in the many rather Peter Pan-ish frags in my collection. 🙂
Hey Abs, I can send you some….big bottle, don’t need this much myself…think I’ll list a split and all that jazz…but meanwhile— Montale’s almond is tenacious and hard on the nostrils, you know I love an almond note but the Montale one was just killer (in a bad way) so it could very well taint any other testing! I’m not normally one for a lot of berries in fragrance….but every now and then I just get a taste for something luscioiusly berry-ific….berry-abulous?…oh I know: Berry-tastic! yeah, that’s better.
Daisy, I’m digging berrytastic! I’m going to have to add that one to my fragrance adjective list. 🙂
Count me in for the split, too. 🙂 I’m all over that. Thanks!
I used to wear strawberry oil with Hanae Mori. I don’t know what was wrong with me.
A phase? nothing wrong with that. Probably no better or worse than my penchant for smelling like a cookie 😉
Oh, there’s nothing wrong with smelling like a cookie. Or cake. Or cupcakes. Or scones. I could go on. But Hanae Mori is already so sweet, I don’t know why I would have felt the need to fruit it up.
…hungry now…
Abs, great recommendations! Thanks!
This was such a fun review, Angela! I think I need to try the Va Va Voom. I *love* shopping for cheap thrills at CVS and Walgreens, when I’m in a certain mood! It’s an experience all its own.
It really is! Despite suggesting I’ll give the peachy one to my niece, I think I’m actually going to donate it to a free store for people living with HIV/AIDS. Is that too cruel, though?
Not at all, I think it’s a nice idea — it may be someone’s idea of fabulous!
Thanks for the vote of confidence!
I’m really looking forward to these reviews as well! I always wonder what’s trapped behind those glass walls at Walgreen’s… now we get to find out!
Angela you have to tell us if you find something that smells like raspberry jam. I asked a woman what she was wearing a year or so ago one day, and she said “I don’t know, it’s from Walgreen’s and it was cheap” but it actually smelled good! (In the way that raspberry jam might smell good for a few minutes I guess)
That does sound good! I’ll keep my nose on alert for it.
I’m very much looking forward to this week’s reviews, Angela. I often suffer from a drugstore budget so it’s always nice to find hidden treasures there.
Funny enough, I bought a bottle of the Va Va Voom in a body spray last winter and positively love it. It reminds me a bit of Angel Innocent with a good dose of fig, and there are reviews for some of the others in this line on MUA that draw comparrisons to other department store frags. I wonder if PDC tried to creat frags similar enough to popular and more pricy ones to reel in the teen market who’d be able to more likely notice the similarities…
And confession time. I actually ordered a bottle of PDC’s Vampire. The general reviews so far mention berries, violet and chocolate, which sound absolutely perfect to me. And it’s only thirteen bucks plus shipping, so no big loss if it doesn’t suit me.
Thanks for the fun review and looking forward to the rest! 🙂
I commented above, but now had to go google, and sure enough, Parfums de Coeur do the Designer Imposter frags, so it would seem that’s their MO.
Yes, I’m doing a review of their No. 5 dupe Wednesday.
Oh good, I’m not alone in my guilty pleasure! Come winter, I’m sure I’ll be dragging out the Va Va Voom and taking it out on the town.
Dear Angela, I am going to the States in October for a week long vacation…. and I LOVE buying cheap souvenirs for people at home.
This trio looks great!
I am eagerly looking forward the rest of your reviews. And I love your week long themed extravaganzas.
Bring it on! 🙂
Hey, if your friends have a good sense of humor (the names are so ridiculous) they’ll be especially great souvenirs!
I am kind of tempted to try these now (especially the strawberry, but /especially/ the Va Va Voom)! I haven’t tried a body spray since being mildly traumatized by the medium in my early teens when they were quite popular. Understand, when I was a 13 y.o. who knew nothing about body chemistry, top notes, or dry-down, having a melon-scented body spray (which I had spent a substantial chunk of babysitting money on) turn all sour and talc-y on skin was very, very upsetting. *g* I was convinced that if I sprayed it on more, or differently, or sprayed it in the air and walked into it, it might smell like it did at the store, but alas…
I’m downright giddy that we’re getting a week (!) of drugstore fragrances. I can’t wait!
Hey, maybe it’s time to give them another try, then! I’m glad you like the drugstore theme for the week. I hope it doesn’t disappoint!
Right about now ANYTHING would smell good to me. Just finished spraying my gorgeous, now huge, pots of annuals with some sort of deer scram product that seemed to be a cross between cat pee and dog urine. Horrible stuff. However, these pots become a smorgaboard for the local deer and this year I’m determined to force them to someone else yard for their midnight snack. Last time I sprayed, it was in the morning and I thought the mailman would pass out before he got the mail into the slot!
Sadly, I was at Walgreen’s tonight but before I read this. Next trip in gotta check out Va Va Voom! if only for the name. Would love to tell someone who asked what I was wearing just for their reaction.
Looking forward to the rest of the posts–some fun for the dog days of August (at least here in SW Ohio).
LOL —must be “Hinder” —I just got some to try to salvage a hosta leaf here and there—those darn deer! There’s fields, woods, wetlands even a huge nature preserve all right nearby….but apparently the Hosta on my street are like the finest Caviar….they’ve been munched right to the ground. Now my Hosta are trying to grow again—and CHOMP! grrrrrrr….anyhow—Hinder smells mighty bad, hope it works. Good luck on preserving your flowers as well. Maybe in deer season I need to commisson a few hunters to hang out in my flower beds….
Make sure they’re handsome, muscular hunters. And invite me!
will do! 😉
Yikes, that sounds horrifying smelling! Va Va Voom would annihilate it, though, I almost guarantee it. Good luck keeping the deer away.
I enjoy the cheap thrill reviews, especially as I don’t think I would dare to put scents like these on myself – this is where you really discover what a snob you are! And I usually pride myself on being willing to smell almost anything. Not true when it comes to sugary drugstore scents, apparently.
I know I’m a ridiculous snob. I’m kind of ashamed by it–and kind of not. I hated shelling out any money for perfume I knew I wouldn’t wear again, but it turns out the Va Va Voom wasn’t bad at all!
LOLOL I love your last analogy. From your description, that scent sounds like it would knock me out. I have to admit that I expected much worse from these though. Thanks for the review!
I’m glad you enjoyed it! I like analogies a lot. Some old coworkers used to call them “Angela-isms” when I really got going.
I’ve read somewhere online that these are indeed Victoria’s Secret knockoffs, but not really having smelled any VS body sprays, I have no idea. I must admit, though, I do like Va Va Voom! (am going to possibly buy a bottle soon), and I even have a body spray of Sexiest Musk *hangs head in shame but secretly likes it once the sweetness has burned away*.
No shame necessary! Va Va Voom is just perfect for when you want it.
Angela
Thanks for boldly going, so we don’t have to! Actually, I don’t have access to this range anyway. Never mind, eh…
: – )
I’m not sure why I never responded to these long-ago comments, but just let me say a year later, I’m glad to be the guinea pig.
Victoria’s Secret Love Spell has been my favorite scent for a very long time. I have a bottle of the lotion left that I have been using super sparingly because I couldn’t get more (due to the price and the fact that there isn’t a VS near me) i was walking through Rite Aid today and the bottle for Love Struck caught my eye because it was black and cute and i picked it up and squirted a bit. i was floored!!
It smells EXACTLY like Love Spell and I can now enjoy my favorite scent every day! It really doesn’t smell like peach or cherry… but whatever it smells like I adore it!
That’s terrific! You’re so lucky to find a good substitute, and at a great price, too.
I’ve seen these many times perusing Walgreens while searching for the elusive perfect mascara. I think the Va Va Voom sounds interesting and next time I’m in Walgreens I will indeed give it a test!
There’s something deliciously fun and trashy about it, for sure!