When I learned that Thierry Mugler had passed away on January 23, I recalled my feelings the first time a sales associate offered me a sniff of the original Angel in a department store: I was intrigued, repelled, and somewhat confused. I didn't buy it, but it lingered in my mind and I kept trying it whenever I spotted that distinctive pale blue star bottle on my shopping rounds.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, I'd occasionally smell Angel on another woman on the subway, at a party, at a professional conference, and sometimes it smelled glorious on someone else, and sometimes it didn't, but it was always distinctive and not quite like any other perfume...until so many new fragrances suddenly started to smell more and more like Angel, and they just kept proliferating at every tier, from high-end niche to mainstream, not to mention candles and body products.
I did eventually purchase a small bottle of Angel, which I still wear sparingly on occasion — I admire it intensely, as an artistic achievement, but it just isn't me. I've traditionally gravitated more towards Angel's flankers. I liked the Garden of Stars, I wear Angel Muse periodically, and I still adore Dis-Moi, Miroir, from a limited edition collection that's long since gone. I somehow never tried Angel Nova when it was released in 2020 (oh, right! the pandemic!), so I blind-bought a travel-size spray to mark Mugler's passing and this moment in time.
The Mugler website describes Angel Nova as "a captivating, super-feminine fragrance that exudes instant pleasure and confidence. . . . born from the unsettling fusion of fruity delight, an exclusive Mugler rose, and vivid, modern woods. The dazzling encounter of pleasure and self-assertion...," etc. Its composition, developed by perfumers Quentin Bisch, Louise Turner and Sonia Constant, includes notes of raspberry, lychee, rose, Akigalawood and benzoin, and there's some language about the rose being "achieved through the sustainable process of upcycling, or double distilling rose petals."
Basically, Angel Nova is flirty and cheeky and fabulously fake. It starts off smelling just as "hot pink" as the glass of its modified star bottle, with a vibrant raspberry note. I happen to love a big raspberry intro — it's the reason Givenchy Hot Couture is a guilty pleasure for me — so I was instantly aboard the Angel Nova train. The berry mellows after an hour or so, and Angel Nova turns into a neon-bright fruity-rose scent with some vanillic underpinnings, still very much to my taste on a cold day when I'm working from home and need a pop of olfactory fun to keep me company. Is there a connection with the original Angel? Less so than some other flankers, like Muse or Eau Sucrée, but it's there. The link is patchouli, which shows up in Angel Nova via Akigalawood, a Givaudan molecule that smells like a sheer, peppery variant of patchouli without patchouli's characteristic earthiness.
One day when I decided to wear Angel Nova, I sprayed it on, worked at my desk for a couple of hours, then went out to do a local errand. On my walk home, I removed my mask and got a refreshed inhale of the Angel Nova wafting from my wrists into the cold air: the red berries, the jammy rose and a sharp, contemporary patchouli. For a split-second, Nova's orchestrated clash of something almost-too-sweet and something weirdly woody felt very Angel. Then my nose readjusted and Angel Nova was back to being a fragrance that pleased me while still feeling a bit familiar, not just for its association with its groundbreaking big sister, but because of the very fact that it's not groundbreaking, if that makes sense.
I just watched a TV show that ended with a character finding themselves sucked through time and trapped in the mid-1990s. While there are some aspects of that era I'd like to re-live (shopping, music, my younger physique), I know you can never step into the same river twice. No one will ever be able to experience Angel today as people initially did in the 1990s, simply because it has reshaped the perfumery landscape over the past thirty years. That makes me feel grateful and sad at the same time. I'm glad Angel exists, even if I could never quite make it "fit" me, and I hope Monsieur Mugler is spritzing himself lavishly with Angel in some starry afterlife.
Do you have a favorite Angel flanker from the past or present, or any of your own Mugler memories to share? Feel free to comment!
Mugler Angel Nova is available in refillable 10 ($32), 30 ($78), 50 ($104) and 100 ($135) ml Eau de Parfum. A 100 ml refill is $105. (A newer Eau de Toilette version, done in a paler pink, is currently sold in 50 and 100 ml.)
Well, my lemming is ready to fling herself right over to the discounters after this review! *Berry* notes? Check. Fruity rose? Check. I think you have described so well what I see as M. Mugler’s genius: his fragrances are compelling, no matter what opinion I have at first sniff, I will take another sniff…and another…
Exactly! and to a lesser extent, I felt the same way about Aura and Womanity…not “me,” but also not focus-grouped to total inanity. I appreciate the Mugler brand’s commitment to weirdness in its perfumes. I know ownership has changed, from Clarins to L’Oreal, and there have been changes…but I’ll hope for the best. :/
I’ve always been intrigued by Manfred Thierry Mugler.The first time I became aware of him was when I tried to find out who made the clothing in George Michael’s Too Funky music video,which back then,I had to record on our vcr to play it over and over and over!(I still have that videotape,mind you!).
Miroir de Majestes is the only perfume I wear from Mugler.I do appreciate Angel,and Womanity,a fellow perfumista/colleague regularly wears Alien to work and I love it on her!This sounds like a fun fragrance and I shall definitely go have a sniff!
That video is genius — a great song and a fantasy Mugler fashion show in one. And Linda Evangelista is miraculous, that shot about a minute in when she prepares to go on stage and just explodes with glamour, visibly becoming a different person, an archetypal sex goddess. Mugler really was an artist. I gotta go watch that right now.
That and the Fast Love video…Iconic forever!(I think some Gaultier pieces featured in Fast Love,right?)
Yes yes yes to the brilliance of that video! George Michael was at such an interesting turning point in his career (and barely appeared on camera on this video, and not at all in the “Faith” video!) and the direction and outfits and performances in “Too Funky” were all brilliant.
Correction on myself:I used to wear Angel Inncoent as well,that was the only iteration of Angel I could wear!And I still swear it has one of the best fuzzy pineapple notes in a perfume,although very few people get that.
I too remember my first sniff of Angel: I laughed out loud because it was so *audacious*, so completely different from anything I had ever smelled before. I bought it, of course, and A*Men too, and a half dozen other Mugler flankers and creations.
Now as you say there have been a thousand imitations of it, and it’s been reformulated to be not as good as it once was, too, as is the way these days. And I think my nose has changed, too, as I’ve gotten older: I wore both the leather Angel and the Liqueur de Parfum 2013 in the days since Mugler died, and I don’t enjoy either of them as much as I used to. But I will always remember that first sniff of the original.
Yes! I think it was Tania Sanchez who wrote about Angel as being a “big belly-laugh of a perfume.” It doesn’t hold back, and I admire it for that! I’m also glad that Clarins and the Mugler team gave it time to find its audience back in the early 1990s…nowadays, I bet, and in different hands, something so weirdly and wonderfully different would be dropped after a year if it didn’t sell well.
I might have to seek this one out. I can’t handle Angel on myself, though I agree it smells good on select others. I do have Angel Muse, which is good in small doses. Must find my mini of Hot Couture!
A mini of Hot Couture is all I need, but I do love it! I agree about Angel Muse — a small dose is very satisfying. I love its toasted hazelnut side.
Angel horrified me the first time I smelled it. At the time, I did not care for patchouli at all! I’ve since done a 180 on that.
Thanks for the review Jessica!
I wish I could smell what you do in Nova. I do get the blast of raspberry but after about 5 minutes all I can smell is what must be the Aikigalawood? I originally thought it was ambroxan but it’s not listed. Whatever it is, I seem to be over sensitive to it.
“I hope Monsieur Mugler is spritzing himself lavishly with Angel in some starry afterlife.”
That’s so lovely.
I remember buying A*Men during my lunch break and after I spritzed myself just once at the office, all the girls were asking for the name so they can buy for their husbands/ boyfriends/lovers… it was around year 2000 and it has been reformulated to a paler/duller version. I still like it but only use it seldom for the sake of nostalgia ☺️