My Kind of Love : Princess
Kilian (2018)

This is so sweet. Be warned. I love my fair share of sweet perfumes and this is almost too sweet for me. The thing is, as much as I WANT to say I have a limit, this thing right here is literally beating me over the head with its delectable sweetness and driving itself directly into the pleasure center of my brain. I can’t even fight it. Do I think it’s beautiful? No. But holy crap I want it in my life. Is it sophisticated? Nope, not even a little bit. But is it enjoyable? Hell yeah it is! I have a smile on my face and it’s somehow transporting me to a fair or carnival in the hot summer nights with the sweet scent of cotton candy and laughter filling the air. A warm breeze wafting the sweetness to your lightly dewy face and sticking to your skin. Hot and humid, neon lights and nothing but joy surrounding you. Impossible to be mad at it for that.

More directly for those of you who don’t have much interest in what this scent makes me think of, I am getting marshmallow loud and clear. With a very pleasing light green tea scent. For some reason, mixed together, though I can still smell them separately, I really do get the impression of cotton candy. And maybe a hint of funnel cake, because I don’t know what else is making the fair imagery so strong in my mind but it’s all I can think of. I don’t detect any ginger. I’m trying to find it but it just isn’t there for me.

It lasts about 2.5-3 hours where it has a small projection, then after that it’s a skin scent for another hour or two. While it’s wafting though, oof, major assault on the pleasure center. It’s demanding my undying love and it’s getting it.

I bought the travel size because I hate the bottle, even the newly redesigned bottle which is an improvement but still a travesty in the world of perfume if you ask me. I hate the full name too. And this will be one I reach for probably when I feel down and really just need a pick me up because it’s deliciously good. I think this brand is ridiculously good at sweet perfumes. But has zero taste when it comes to aesthetics.

Be warned, the sweetness is dialed all the way up with this one. Yet it’s not a heavy sweetness. I don’t feel like I am at any risk at all for a headache. But this definitely is not for any day where I want to feel refined or elegant. That simply is not this perfume. This is totally in the guilty pleasure category, and I imagine it would be for anyone giving it a go. Everything in moderation and you’ll be fine.

It’s fairly short lived, but that could be a good thing in the case of something this sweet.

My review is for a carded sample of the EDP I received this week from an eBay seller.

Holy toasted marshmallows and creme brûlée, Batman! This is the first thing I smell, it's immediate, it's big, with the lemon juuuuuust underneath it. It actually made me hungry. I'm impressed with the deliciousness and authenticity of this marshmallow note. This puts a big smile on my face! It's time for lunch.

The dry down is the ginger & green tea, very light, very faint.

This is a fun fragrance even though I am not particularly a fan of gourmands. I like my sugar cookie-type body scrubs from Bath & Body Works, but I don't really think anyone wants to pay Kilian money to smell like a marshmallow. Angel is still around! And Angel lasts and lasts. Princess does not. (Princess is no weakling though. I'd say it's about half of Angel's strength.)

As a perfume bottle collector, I can't say this bottle has much to recommend it in the aesthetics department. I can forgive a fragrance so much, honestly so much more than I should, if it comes in a gorgeous bottle. Or at least something with personality! Or a bottle that's fitting for the fragrance inside somehow-- I know, it's kind of the opposite of the Frederic Malle approach, but I understand and appreciate what he's doing, too-- but this bottle is just a drab little thing. The six year-old girl in me is delighted with the perfume but wants to know why the bottle is so ugly, Kilian.

Ultimately, I don't know who this fragrance is for. What comes to mind is an absentee parent, wracked with guilt, buying it for a teenaged child. And that's not a pleasant thought. At that price...

ETA: Credit where credit is due, twelve hours later this fragrance is still here on my wrist and it's still delicious.

ETA, the next day: It's still detectable, twenty-four hours after I first sprayed it on my wrist. Marshmallow-y vanilla, and pleasant, even after washing my hands several times over the past day.