Just like a woman, the fragrance is a dichotomy of softness and strength. Utilizing ingredients that are traditionally found in masculine fragrances and wrapping them with nurturing white florals, Donna Karan and [perfumer] Anne Flipo’s groundbreaking creation results in a feminine and sensual scent: the confident signature core of sandalwood and Haitian vetiver is sublimated with the creamy feminine notes of orange flower resonating in an instinctual feminine sensuality.
— Donna Karan Woman press materials
If I had a nickel for every time a new women's perfume has promised some "fusion of masculine and feminine",1 I'd have a grande latte, or maybe even a frappucino. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, the fragrance itself turns out to be business as usual — most women's fragrances have notes that could be considered "traditionally" masculine, after all, just as most men's fragrances have notes that could be considered "traditionally" feminine.
Why this should be a selling point — for women! men's fragrances advertised as having a feminine side are as rare as dodo birds2 — is beyond me, but apparently it is, and I'll say this for the new Donna Karan Woman, it delivers, at least on this particular point. Donna Karan Woman is closer to feminine than masculine, but not by much. If you put it in a different bottle and tweaked the top notes a bit, you'd have a Donna Karan Man.
The start is a fairly conventional blend of citrus and fruity notes. After that, it's a floral woody musk scent, with the emphasis on the woods more than the florals. It reminds me of Estee Lauder Sensuous3 — they don't smell at all alike, and Donna Karan Woman is darker, and far less candied and ambery, but they share an "atmospheric floralcy" and a sort of stylized idea of wood. Another way of putting it is that Donna Karan Woman is too smoothed over and well-blended to smell like any particular notes to me; of the three notes listed in the press materials — orange blossom, sandalwood and vetiver — only the sandalwood stands out. There's no earthiness to speak of, and it's a bit darker than you'd expect from that list of notes. There's probably some cleaned up patchouli and/or dark woods in the mix.
The first time I wore Donna Karan Woman, it was a very hot and humid day, and it struck me as definitely a fall- or winter-weight fragrance. On subsequent tries, on cooler and less humid days, it has seemed much quieter. It's not exactly sheer, but it gets more so as it dries down, and it has an aura of softness despite the dark woods. After the first 30 minutes or so, it's nearly linear, although it does get mildly creamier in the far dry down, and eventually, it takes on a powdery finish.
It's been a good long time since the last pillar launch for the Donna Karan Beauty line (the DKNY range, of course, keeps itself plenty busy with all those apples). That was in 2006, with Donna Karan Gold, a wonderful fragrance that never found its audience. I keep hoping they'll move it into the less widely distributed "Donna Karan Collection", where it can live out its days with the likes of Black Cashmere, Chaos and Fuel,4 all of them bankrolled by the sales of Cashmere Mist and its flankers.
So I had high hopes for Donna Karan Woman. And it is well done. It doesn't smell like everything else on the market, and it didn't bore me to tears. It has more dignity than your average feminine launch — it's hard to imagine this scent done in pink juice and bottled with vinyl flowers. I enjoyed wearing it, and if I had a bottle, I'm sure I'd go on wearing it from time to time. But I'm not wild about it. The more I wore it, the more I started thinking about what I could layer it with to add a bit more oomph. This for a woman who has grown past, say, DKNY Be Delicious, and who finds Sensuous too sweet, but isn't quite ready to let her hair down with something as unruly as Black Cashmere. Hopefully that will appeal to many women, but it isn't a gap I need to fill in my own perfume collection.
Donna Karan Woman is available in 50 and 100 ml Eau de Parfum and in matching body products.
1. That specific wording is from Gwen Stefani L.A.M.B. And Gucci by Gucci was meant to 'unleash' Frida Giannini's “affinity for masculine notes”. Juliette Has A Gun Calamity J was reportedly a "masculine scent for women", and Elle Yves Saint Laurent was supposed to be a feminine with “a touch of the masculine”. Fergie said she was "playing with the masculine and feminine sides of the female" with her new Viva scent for Avon. And so on and so forth. I can't even keep track of them all.
2. And if I had a nickel for every men's fragrance that was advertised as "unapologetically masculine" or some such, I'd have my own chain of coffee boutiques.
3. The advertising echoes Sensuous as well, with three models (Sensuous had four) representing women of different age groups. Donna Karan Woman is represented by Karolina Kurkova (in her 20s), Liya Kebede (30s) and Christy Turlington Burns (40s).
4. Although as much as I liked Gold, it's arguably not really of that caliber. Or is it? Do add your opinion in the comments.
Add to the list of masculine and feminine Balenciaga L’Essence. They even claimed the color of the juice was a genderbending breakthrough!
The first thing I thought of when I saw the ad was Sensuous too, but I hated that print ad with Gwenyth et al. in the cliche borrowed-from-my-boyfriend button-down shirts and nothing else. And Gwenyth or Gwyneth or whtevr looked confused about how to look sexy and came across looking creepy. Here I like the ad: classy, comfortable, minimal. Although it might also read, “Skinny Woman.”
“skinny woman”–you’re right! There’s something creepy about their arms in particular!
Creepy but forgivable, their angular arms and shoulders mimic the bottle design. (:
Well-spotted! I didn’t notice that connection!
I agree – between the arms and the expressions, they look uncomfortable.
It’s called photoshopped trimming. I can assure you the edits didn’t physically hurt 😉
Yes, and photoshopped de-aging – I can’t for the life of me see different age groups…
Lys, good one, I’d forgotten that about the Balenciaga.
I ‘ve always loved Donna Karan’s fragrances (except the DKNY line), FUEL is one of my favorite fragrances ever, there was always something “off” about her scents that is very appealing.
However I think it’s funny that the models are supposed to represent different ages but they all are airbrushed to look 20.
Aha! Very good point about the airbrush effect!
I thought the same! All polished to an unreal perfection that completely wipes away age differences.
Peter, very true — you’d never notice they were different ages.
You are so right: it didn’t even occur to me that that they were supposed to represent different ages!
Am I wrong to get a sort of homoerotic feel from all of this? Gender-bending, mix of masculine and feminine, women touching each other in the ad (and the shape of that bottle!) . . . hard to imagine the lesbian market has the same pull as the gay male market has managed to define.
Marjorie Rose, good point, maybe that’s meant to be the attraction? I honestly don’t know why so many women’s fragrances make this claim. It seems odd to me — like being a woman just isn’t enough on its own.
“Like being a woman isn’t enough”
Yes, there’s something sort of 80’s shoulder pads career woman about the claim–maybe I’m not making my point very well? But it seems like there was a time when women who wanted to make their way outside the home put on this false masculinity. There are certainly still fields where this is necessary, but I think it’s changing. Unfortunately, I wonder if we’re overreacting the other way–hence all the uber-girliness. I want the happy medium–to be feminine without justification but still to be taken seriously. Doesn’t seem too much to ask for, huh?
As for the lesbian market, I wouldn’t think it’s a cohesive enough group to be targeted.
I go for that happy medium too. Your point about false masculinity reminds me of an early ad for Chanel No 19 which depicted a woman done out in tweeds and lurking behind a newspaper, camouflaging herself in a one of those old fashioned men-only clubs. Fortunately that was not typical of the Chanel No 19 ads, as mostly they depicted very feminine , sassy women.
Oh, I can see how classic no. 19 would sell itself that way! It *is* feminine, but it’s such an assertive sort of scent–not blushing or dainty.
You hit the nail on the head, Robin!
Black Cashmere is my DK of choice, so I’m not really interested in this, but I am intrigued by the bottle. It’s the ultimate palate-cleanser for things like Marc Jacob’s Dot.
And so is the scent (the ultimate palate cleanser for MJ Dot)! I really meant it when I said it had dignity. Turns out it is maybe *too* dignified for me.
Ahh… the old ‘damning it with faint praise’ review. 😉 Thanks for reviewing, Robin.
Yes, “damning with faint praise”! Every sentence! I enjoyed reading it – and so accurate a review. Thanks, Robin.
On the one hand, yes, on the other, I really do appreciate that they’ve made something that isn’t stupid or a complete sell-out. It is rare! And can completely see why someone would find it perfect — there are few enough dignified fragrances for grown-up women these days. But I do think many perfumistas will find it too tame.
I understand, and am I right in assuming that this will be sold in dept. stores? So maybe it will be the gateway perfume for some of the younger women rather than a pink fruit-chouli. If so, Mission Accomplished!
Yes, in department stores. And department stores, today, would probably not “waste” space on something like Black Cashmere long enough for it to get a following either, so I appreciate that DK keeps it in production in a limited way, and that it’s harder & harder for a mainstream brand to do truly risky fragrances given how many launches they have to compete with. Frankly, I think that’s starting to cross over into niche too. There’s just too many fragrances!
Now, Now…. There are a Couple or so Fruitchouli’s out there that are STUNNINGLY Great! Jimmy Choo is one of them! Flowerbomb (Kinda the ORIGINAL Fruitchouli!) Valentina is a An AWESOME one too! so Is Flora By Gucci….
lol! You’re so right! And my personal favorite in the “fruit-couli” category is Voleur de Roses. 🙂
Honestly, I’m a sucker for a good fruitchouli; I think the best of them are far preferable to most of what passed for girly perfumes in the ’90s (floral/aquatic/screechy). CK Euphoria can still drive me to distraction, in a good way, when I smell it on passersby, and don’t get me started on Flowerbomb, Black Orchid, or Angel. I think they’re all fabulous.
Black Cashmere is on my short list of all time favorites; I also like Women (the tall skinny bottle that smells like tomato leaves) and Gold edp is the only white floral I really like. Gold is perfect in the winter but gets a bit cloying in warm weather, and it lasts so long I get kind of tired of it before it disappears (lol, I’m the first to complain of a fleeting scent, so there’s no making me happy, apparently.) Is this bottle as difficult to handle as it looks in pictures? I’m sure I’ll give it a sniff if I run across it.
Ditto on Black Cashmere, and wish I had a small bottle of Gold.
I have not seen or touched the bottle for Woman (they sent me a little lab bottle). Mean to check it out next time I’m in the mall.
Gold is interesting – it fulfills the same urge I have to wear DelRae Amoureuse, but just lighter, if that’s possible. I think it’s too bad it’s not around, but I never wanted a lot of it either. It is nice to be challenged by a mass market scent. I got very lucky a few months ago: the Perfumania that’s near-ish to me (I rarely go to it) had the 1 oz edt of Gold on sale for about $15, so I picked one up. It seemed like it wanted a good home….
I will try out this new offering, but don’t think it will beat Gold, which is for me a wondrous thing. I love it, and it’s the perfume that gets most remarked upon when I’m wearing it. I love everything about it, and it’s one of the few that I don’t have to constantly re-apply, as I have scent devouring skin.
I was so sorry to see Gold disappear from the market so quickly…really is sad that fragrances can’t hang around long enough to find a following.
I’ve got me a small stockpile, so should last me for a few years.
Dear Robin… you can find Quite a few EdP Bottles of Gold on that Magnificent Obsession… Ebay for quite the Cheap… Just purchased Myself an UNOPENED IN THE PLASTIC 1.7 EdP Bottle YESTERDAY! 🙂 so see if you can Stockpile up there, Dearheart! 🙂
Thank you! I don’t stockpile anymore because I have such bad luck with long term storage, but I might cave and buy a bottle.
I saw ” …If you put it in a different bottle and tweaked the top notes a bit, you’d have a Donna Karan Man…” and couldn’t help but immediately think to myself ‘might that not be the idea?’ Ah, cynicism. You make me so…
…irritable, really. :{
Could be. And if they advertised it to men as having a feminine, nurturing side, I swear I’d buy it just for that reason!
There was that niche scent that claimed to be about men crying…Polish name?
Humiecki and Graef Skarb
Ah yes! But they were niche, and even now I’m not sure what they were getting at, exactly. But I don’t think you’d see even that in a dept. store scent.
Black Cashmere and Chaos are absolute favourites of mine so maybe this will be too tame but I will try it anyway as I get on well with the Donna Karan line. Your reference to Sensuous caught my attention as I like Sensuous but it is just too sweet for me so this may be a nice smooth easy wood fragrance. I’m a bit bummed as I was hoping for something darker but she has already given us Black Cashmere hasn’t she?
I like the ad an agree about the airbrushing but am pleased to see Christy Turlington Burns. She is truly beautiful, airbrush or not and I think part of her appeal is the intelligence that shines through-definitely not just a pretty face.
I find it linked to Sensuous stylistically even though they don’t smell the same — you’ll have to tell me if you agree after you try it.
Definitely will do!
I think the whole “masculine notes” thing might be code for “this isn’t pinkified Hello Kitty juice .” I run into quite a few non-perfumista women who like perfume but feel alienated by lollipop femininity and shyly admit to me that they cross the aisle to shop in the men’s department, looking for something more their style. This sounds like it might satisfy them!
Love ‘pinkified Hello Kitty juice’! Such an accurate, if depressing, description of so many current releases. And, I think you are probably right that ‘masculine notes’ is code for ‘this actually smells grown-up’
I do think that’s exactly right, except sometimes they’re just lying and it turns out to be pretty much Hello Kitty anyway, and of course, it irks my feminist sensibilities that “not childish” = “masculine”.
Yes, I agree that’s depressing, Robin. But I like to hope it’s more a diagnosis of the PR industry’s inability to grapple with intelligent, moneyed, middle aged women than it is an actual diagnosis of our culture. There are days though…
LOL…yeah, there are days!
What did Hello Kitty ever do to you?!
(=^ x ^,=)
LOL – I have to remember this emoticon!
Excellent point 😉
Haha…. “pinkified Hello Kitty juice”, is a great description of the of the current trends. That is how I would describe Marc Jacobs Dot.
It is a shame that masculine equals mature femininity these days. Just because a woman can have a strong personality does not mean she is masculine, is means she is truly feminine and all woman.
Oh, and Gold — I don’t know! It certainly gets better and better as other things decline, if that makes any sense. I don’t know of another mainstream lily like it. Half the time I can’t wear it, but I own a small EDP just because I thought the bottle was too gorgeous to pass up.
Yes, in hindsight, Gold seems even better than it did when it launched. And that bottle was perfect.
Alyssa I agree 100% on Gold. I don’t really like wearing it most of the time but I appreciate it more and more.
Smelling Baiser Volé has made me appreciate Gold even more. I got a bottle for the EDP ( of Gold) for a song on ebay. I think lily is not my favourite flower in perfume but Gold is a beauty. I think I will pass on this one.
Gold had balls (seriously, I thought of that, typed it, and realized how well it jived w/ all this masculine/feminine talk we’re having. So I’m guilty too!!)
More than one woman has told me she prefers masculine scents because ‘they are not as sweet’. So there’s another factor.
Gold is still on sale at discounters in South Africa, but the EDP is faintly repelling on my skin (perhaps the tester turned – but since they are unboxed they may all have turned). I’v been considering the EDT, though it does have that cucumber note…
For a long time, I thought of myself as preferring masculine scents for just that reason — they weren’t as sweet. Now that the men’s market has been overrun with same-old-same-old sports fragrances, it doesn’t hold true as much as it did.
I have two older brothers and was a tomboy when I was a kid. Now I have a bit of an obsession with jewelry and perfume but I still tend to be drawn to unisex styles of both!
To Me, Gold was something of a Let down after Scents like Donna Karan New York (TRUE AND ABSOLUTE GENIUS! Still makes me weak at the knees) and Cashmere Mist (GLORY, GLORY, HAL-LE-LU-JAH!) it was one of those scents that kinda SCREAMED out of the bottle… a little overactive and extrovert… I have come to enjoy it’s Exhibitionist Scent now, But No, i don’t think it belongs in the collection, because all those scents in the “Collection” Scents should still have their own identities and Original Bottles and Ancillary Items.
As For Black Cashmere… NEVER got that Fragrance… When it came out me and my beloved departed sis were RAVENOUS to smell it and we were both Affectedly Disappointed. It was just too Thick and Resinous-y and not at all Nuzzly or Comforting as it promised… it was Just Dark on top of Dark on TOP Of DARK! it was like some Oud Overdose! I long to smell it now with a more Experienced Nose, but i want an original bottle not one of those “Air Freshener” Bottles of “Collection” (BLECK! Could those bottles BE Any More “Designer Impostors” Like in their Dreckitude??? YIKES AND ZOODGAKS!)
I am eager as a beaver to smell this new scent and the Bottle by Zaha Hadid is very much in Tribute to Donna’s Magnificent late Husband’s, Stephan Weiss, Brilliant Sculpture! Brava Ms. Karan and Ms. Hadid! (P.S. That Original Bottle for Donna Karan New York… if you have Never seen it in person or held it in your hands… You have missed one of the true sheer joys of Perfume Bottle Art!)
Agree, the “Collection” bottles are horrid, they might as well be shampoo.
Maybe this would be a good gift for someone’s m
Mother?
Great review, Robin! I tried Donna Karan Woman last week, in the disgusting New York City heat and humity no less. It was very nice, and definitely a fall/winter scent. I just was not “wowed” by it, even though I got several complements on it. The salesman was wearing it, and it totally passed for a masculine fragrance on him. Funny, considering it is called Woman 😉
Too bad they didn’t pick a slightly more original name! 😉
Agree….why does every brand do this??? It’s like they want to make it hard for you to google it.
It’s called woman because every person who had something to do with this from the scent creation to the packaging is a woman.
Since we are talking about lily, perhaps I can relate that the last couple of days a lobby that I pass through has had a nice lilly smell, and I finally asked the desk person if it was a perfume she was wearing or something they’d sprayed in the air – I wondered if she might be wearing Gold, actually.
It turns out that one of the night guards had sprayed bug spray due to mosquitos. Yes, I, a vintage and niche perfume snob, have been drawn to actual BUG SPRAY! How humbling, although I do recall TS noting that LT had predicted that as mainstream fragrances become cheaper and dumber, and functional fragrances get better and better, functional fragrances will surpass perfume. (He himself is partial to a particular spring-scented Tide, I think she said.) So I’m grateful that DK is doing her part to keep perfume ahead!
HA, that is hysterical!!!
I never know what people mean when they say a perfume they dislike smells like bug spray. One person explained to me that it smells like something overly strong trying to mask something else thats really unpleasant. Personally, I’m just not sure exactly what thats like – although I can understand cheap toilet spray!
I was away with some people recently and I was the resident perfume-buff. One person asked me what I thought about one scent which I quite liked – and then, to everyones amusement, told me it was one to keep mosquitos away. But then I correctly guessed that it was the one called ‘Peaceful Sleep’ because I LOVE the smell of that. There is another one here called Tabard though, which smells revolting, so there we go!
Still, I may never recover my previous status in the community – LOL!
Merlin, I’m thinking of the classic smell of a particular popular brand of household insecticide spray in the US that had a very unnatural chemical smell. If you caught a whiff of that scent anywhere, you knew they’d been trying to kill bugs. At least, that’s what I personally think of as typical bug spray smell. The definition that you heard sounds very plausible, too.
You’ve highlighted one of the challenges of talking about perfume. Everyone who uses terms like “woody” has a different frame of reference.
I was given two samples of this while browsing this weekend (very insistant sales reps) and have been wearing it now for a couple of days. I like it, maybe a lot. I love sandalwood, and as you note, Robin, that is the dominant note. I like the drydown. It’s just not quite…well, I haven’t figured it out yet. It may go on my Christmas list. It is, at least original and adult. (Fans of woody scents might also want to try Hove’ Parfumeur’s Diverti – it’s lovely, and a gender-bender as well.)
Original & adult is more than we usually get 🙂
I’m irrationally excited about this launch; I feel nostalgic for the days when a woman’s perfume smelled like a WOMAN’s perfume, not a tween girl’s. It seems to me that Donna Karan’s fragrances are a little smarter, more worldly, and more mature – in the best sense – than most department store offerings. If DK Woman is a step in that direction, whatever its faults, I’m all for it. I will absolutely be seeking this out for a sniff.
Hope you will love it then! Totally agree, the brand tries to do a decent job.
Well, you certainly appreciated it more than me – I found it a complete dud, and a big disappointment for me from one of my favorite lines. I got a big harsh blast of pink-pepper/vetiver/woody amber up top, derivative and seemingly thrown in just to prove it wasn’t going to be sweet and girly, and then a nondescript, smoothed out drydown like the DK Collection Essence line ( i.e boring).
I think Gold, especially in the EdP, was 100 times the fragrance this thing is – any lily, especially as dry and ambery as Gold was, has more balls, market-wise, than this safe little mish-mash. I also think Gold comfortably belongs in the Karan Collection with Fuel and Signature, and I say that with the two latter being amongst my most worn fragrances. I would miss the original Gold bottle, though. (Really, you don’t like the Collection bottles? With apologies to the late Stephan Weiss, I never liked the weirdo sculpture bottles – the robotic duck, the Chaos shard, the predictable Fuel gear shift – and thought the Collection bottles an improvement.)
I adored the original Black Cashmere bottle, & thought it was a perfect fit w/ the scent itself. Ditto on the Gold bottle. The others were at least interesting! To me, there is something very shampoo-like about the Collection bottle.
Hi Erin, I’m glad not to be the only one who thought that the Cashmere Mist bottle looked like a duck!
I have two bottles of the original “Signature” with the weird gold and rubber. I love that fragrance, but it is really demanding – it is very deep and rich and sensual for sure, and little goes a long way. My husband likes it too. It doesn’t get enough attention in the world, and there is really so little marketing for Donna Karan’s special fragrances. I am not going to rush out to get Woman, even though I’d probably like it, b/c my last woody restrained purchase was the Bottega Veneta, which I really adore. I don’t want too much overlap in this category of rich woods. I’m wondering if Bottega Veneta, Woman, et. al., is part of a woody unisex trend that’s supposed to project more maturity or elegance? I am waiting to test the Coco Noir before I decide on which mass market wood will get my attention this year.
IMHO, the BV is the better scent.
The funny thing is that although the ad is supposed to represent three different age groups I never would have known that if you hadn’t mentioned it. They all look young-ish and airbrushed to plastic perfection to me.
I’m not really a fan of Sensuous, it smells very blurry to me, so I’m not keen on smelling something that has a similar style, but thanks for the review. I’m glad it’s different than the majority of what graces department stores!
IMHO, this is just as blurry, but if you ever try it you’ll have to tell me if you agree.
They used them because they are humanitarians as well as models, airbrushed or not, they are as beautiful on the inside as the outside…
There are no words to express how much I dislike that bottle. And, obviously, one stops being a woman after the age of forty something. Bah!
You’re not alone on that bottle…I kind of like it, but haven’t seen it in person.
The bottle is gorgeous….
I just love the fact Donna Karan used three of the grand dames of supermodels for the campaign.
I’d be more impressed if they used 3 nobodies who *really* looked like they were of different age groups.
Indeed.
The reason they used these 3 women was because these women are tremendous humanitarians…all three of them.
Thank you, I can’t wait to try even if it’s likely to disappoint. I really love Black Cashmere. I think I’ve worn it for ten years now, since it came out. Sometimes I spray it on my neck/chest/cleavage for me and I spray a friendlier scent on my arms for others. I have never tried Chaos, though! I’m sure I’d like it.
Sorry for the late reply, don’t know how I missed your comment! BC is great, I think even better than Chaos, although I know some perfumistas would disagree.
Chaos is better, hands own.
I REALLY enjoyed this one! I really did. I prefer it to her Mist and Gold. I never did get the chance to try her older ones mentioned so I only have those two to go by. This one just might be my favorite designer launch so far seeing as how the new Mugler Alien smells so much like the Taste one. Is it TERRIBLE that I also really liked her Be Delicious Intense?! Hahaha! : )
Glad you liked it better than I did! And I did not even smell Be Delicious Intense, which is just as terrible 🙂
Oh no Robin, stay far away from it if you did not care for the original! Haha! It’s FRESHER and FRUITIER! : )