Sephora

Stores & Services
Find a Sephora

Happening at Sephora

View all

Services

From makeovers to personalized skincare consultations

Free Classes

Get inspired, play with products & learn new skills

cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Post in Fragrance Fans
|

Ho Ho Holidays, The Festive Fragrance Gratis Thread!

A little birdie told me that Santa's sleigh is touching down early this year and some of our active community members have a holiday gratis parcel en route.

 

Please feel free to use this thread to share your holiday gratis unboxings and let us all know what you think of this sweet surprise gift 🙂

 

Thank you, as always to @TeamBIC for putting together these wonderful opportunities that celebrate our members of the BIC community.

 

Can't wait to see what everyone got!

 

 

Re: Ho Ho Holidays, The Festive Fragrance Gratis Thread!

@eshoe really enjoyed reading these detailed reviews ❤️

Re: Ho Ho Holidays, The Festive Fragrance Gratis Thread!

A very humble thank you for the compliment, @pocketvenus ☺️

Re: Ho Ho Holidays, The Festive Fragrance Gratis Thread!

Thank you again so much @TeamBIC for allowing me the opportunity to try all of these fragrances. I never know how to pick out a fragrance for myself, so this was so much fun getting to try everything. I really enjoyed this entire selection. Here are my thoughts...

 

Kilian Paris Apple Brandy
I absolutely love this fragrance! I get a nice, warm apple scent with some vanilla/cardamom spiciness. It has a rich, mysterious, smokiness that I find unforgettable. The bottle is gorgeous as well. This one is my favorite of the bunch - it's such a me fragrance. I will repurchase when I run out. 

 

Floral Street Sunflower Pop

I love the refreshing, citrus scent of Sunflower Pop, and just smelling it makes me wish for Summer. I can definitely smell the citrusy, bergamot notes, and while the scent is fresh and light, it still has nice lasting power on me.

Gucci Flora
I love the bottle! So gorgeous! As far as scent goes, I don't tend to gravitate towards florals, but I really enjoy this. I smell the gardenia scent, but it's nice and fruity and bright. It lasts around two hours or so on my skin, so it's a fragrance I will need to reapply throughout the day.

 

Chloe Naturelle Eau de Parfum
The wear time on this is great, as I can still smell it around six hours after application. In terms of fragrance, it has a fresh floral scent -- predominantly a rather green, rose-like scent. I think the fragrance lends itself towards both daytime and nighttime wear.

YSL Black Opium Extreme

This is such a strong and sexy scent, and I am so impressed by how long this fragrance lasts on my skin. It’s definitely a warm, gourmand scent, and the coffee and vanilla notes seem to dominate most on me. Though it’s strong and powerful, it still is very warm and comfortable to wear.

 

Chloé Chloé Naturelle Eau de Parfum 1 oz/ 30 mL 
Floral Street Sunflower Pop Eau De Parfum Travel Spray 0.34 oz/ 10 mL 
Gucci Flora Gorgeous Gardenia Eau de Parfum 
KILIAN Paris Apple Brandy Eau de Parfum 1.7 oz/ 50 mL Eau de Parfum Spray 

Yves Saint Laurent Black Opium Eau de Parfum Extreme 1 oz/ 30 mL Eau De Parfum 

 

fragrances.png

Re: Ho Ho Holidays, The Festive Fragrance Gratis Thread!

@PrettyPaint I just left a review for the Gucci Flora Gorgeous Gardenia Eau de Parfum yesterday on the product page, and I agree, I'm not much of a floral person, but this is one I find pretty and will wear.  A lot of florals are also powdery, and I don't particularly like powdery perfumes.  Some reviewers say they can't smell the gardenia, but I can smell it and like it.  

Re: Ho Ho Holidays, The Festive Fragrance Gratis Thread!

@curlychiquita  I'm so glad you like it too. Sometimes flowery scents give me a headache, but this one doesn't and it's very wearable to me! 

Re: Ho Ho Holidays, The Festive Fragrance Gratis Thread!

I went for a sweet espresso martini, with brown sugar rim and edible star confetti as a cocktail pairing for Yves Saint Laurent Black Opium Eau de Parfum Extreme 1.7 oz/ 50 mL . I get a blast of coffee and brown sugar at the start of this one. Not as much vanilla or chocolate. After the dry down, I definitely pick up the jasmine, which is one of my all time favorite floral notes. Although it doesn’t smell similar, it reminds me of NEST New York Midnight Fleur Eau de Parfum 1.7 oz/ 50 mL Eau de Parfum Spray which just happens to be another gourmand floral that works for me. 

My husband wasn’t a fan of the Black Opium Extreme, but he has an extremely sensitive nose! I will wear it when he’s not around, haha. I always wanted to like Black Opium but it never had enough oomph or uniqueness to me. This one is lovely and more powerful, though I would still prefer (and purchase) Midnight Fleur before this one. But, if you love coffee and jasmine, and a relatively powerful projection, this may be one for you!

 

Thanks again to @TeamBIC  for the lovely gratis and chance to try these! 

C5B2E9B0-9482-491B-89BA-F4A0C8B319E9.jpeg7E9F59BE-F4EF-48EE-BC0E-827DE4E3FF1C.jpeg94D9ADF6-12D0-4B04-B923-52FDCDB38272.jpeg71DDC0CC-C701-4BC7-8512-5A9A8C0875EC.jpeg

Re: Ho Ho Holidays, The Festive Fragrance Gratis Thread!

@sister13 Girlfriend! I nominate you for Official BIC  Mixologist! These drinks look soooo amazing!!!❤️❤️❤️

Re: Ho Ho Holidays, The Festive Fragrance Gratis Thread!

@sister13 The cocktail looks amazing! I have never tried one of those!

Re: Ho Ho Holidays, The Festive Fragrance Gratis Thread!

I guess I made it up, haha, we’ll  call it YSL Black Opium! @Mellmars1185 

Re: Ho Ho Holidays, The Festive Fragrance Gratis Thread!

Whoa @sister13! I have been absolutely loving this cocktail pairing series you've done! Beyond impressed (and our fragrance merchandise team is too 😉). Happy new year! 

Re: Ho Ho Holidays, The Festive Fragrance Gratis Thread!

That’s awesome, thanks @CarolBT ! Happy New Year to you and the whole team at HQ!

Re: Ho Ho Holidays, The Festive Fragrance Gratis Thread!

@sister13 That cocktail looks amazing & I love the glitter stars! 

Re: Ho Ho Holidays, The Festive Fragrance Gratis Thread!

Thanks @rrroxanne , I thought they added a “sparkling” element! 

Re: Ho Ho Holidays, The Festive Fragrance Gratis Thread!

@sister13  Just had to pop in to say I'm loving your cocktail pairings with each fragrance. 🖤 The wine taster in me can fully relate to these pairings. And I just realized I've yet to test Black Opium Extreme... I think I subconsciously have non-Extreme Black Opium expectations (I've never been wowed by Black Opium either), so I keep putting off a test spritz. Note to self! 

Re: Ho Ho Holidays, The Festive Fragrance Gratis Thread!

Thanks! I love fragrance even more than I love wine! I’m really not the best at descriptions or identifying notes of either wine or fragrance, but I know what I like. And these have been speaking to me as pairs and I’ve had fun trying to match them in a way. Actually, this Black Opium Extreme didn’t wow me the first time, but I think it’s grown on me the few more times I’ve tried it, maybe 5 or 6 times now. @WinglessOne  I’m not sure if it hadn’t been gifted if I would have given it more chances. And/or, it was because I was often spraying multiple scents at once. I’ll be interested to hear what you think!

Re: Ho Ho Holidays, The Festive Fragrance Gratis Thread!

And the rest of them...

 
Gucci Flora Gorgeous Gardenia Eau de Parfum #  is a non-descript floral scent to my nose. There's a lot of pear ( fruit, not flowers ) in the opening. I don't think I like pear much in general. So, not a good start for me. And then no name florals galore. Some sweetness. Pretty generic. And non offensive, I'd say. Safe. But just so... pale. It does not inspire me to write much. But I love the bottle! It's super cute! And the best part of it! But I am puzzled by the content of the bottle not matching that bright, fun, cheerful bottle itself, actually. I was kind of expecting that. The scent to be as bright, cheerful, and pretty as the bottle is. But it's kind of... sad. And cold. At least that's my experience with this one. 
 
Yves Saint Laurent Black Opium Eau de Parfum Extreme 3 oz/ 90 mL Eau De Parfum # I am not a fan of any of the BO's. But I see why they're so popular. The scent is warm, cozy and yummy. Super easy to wear. Crowd pleaser. Compliment getter. I agree that it is a scent that doesn't take itself too seriously, so it is easy to enjoy it whenever wherever. It has a surprisingly good longevity on me. I heard these don't last long, but this one does! At least it does on me. 
 
I don't even know what to tell you about Chloe. I can only smell something super loud and screechy, that makes me wanna screech, and that's it. I don't even know what it is, but it's super unpleasant. Something's messing with my nose here. Or I don't know what's going on. But my sis-in-law loves it ( she says it's light, refreshing, soft, super pretty, and super floral ) soooo... Merry Christmas to her! 😂

 

Re: Ho Ho Holidays, The Festive Fragrance Gratis Thread!

Great reviews! I definitely get that screechy-ness from the original Chloe (like the description of original Chloe sounds so lovely, I kept wanting to love it, but that sharp, screech was awful to me), but I don’t get it from this Naturelle, so I was surprised to love this one! @RavenR 

Re: Ho Ho Holidays, The Festive Fragrance Gratis Thread!

Thank you, @sister13 !

Re: Ho Ho Holidays, The Festive Fragrance Gratis Thread!

KILIAN Paris Apple Brandy Eau de Parfum 1.7 oz/ 50 mL Eau de Parfum Spray next!

 
In short, this smells exactly like apple brandy! On the rocks, too!
 
In not so short... I like the fresh and sparkly opening with cardamom, bergamot and fresh green apples that I get... And which quickly turns into a deeper, richer, sweeter scent. Like baked apples with spices, vanilla and booze. The whole thing really smells like spiced, sweet-ish, smooth, apple brandy. On the rocks, too. You can really feel the cool freshness through the warm, boozy scent of apple brandy. That has been kept in a wooden barrel whose aromas it all soaked up. Somewhat smoky cedar emerges from the heart of the composition and embrace it all through and through. And it is the strongest note from that point on.
 
No pineapple for me whatsoever.
 
All in all, it's a nice, warm and spicy, fruity, boozy, mostly woody scent. It is pretty much a skin scent on me, but it lasts and lasts. I like it better on my hun bun. On him, it is simply divine! On me it's so so. It has some kind of unpleasant underthing... I can't figure out what it is... But I like it anyway. It's delicious!
 
The packaging is glorious! And that bottle! It is perfect! It has a look and feel of those old school, massive, heavy, crystal whiskey glasses. But I suppose that was the idea. Very nice.
 
Cheers!

 

Re: Ho Ho Holidays, The Festive Fragrance Gratis Thread!

Time to stop by and tell you about my favorite from the bunch! Floral Street Sunflower Pop Eau De Parfum 1.7 oz/ 50 mL ! What a wonderful surprise! I've never even heard about the brand before, and now I need me a fs bottle of this happiness in a bottle. And I need to explore the rest of them
 
This scent is so positive. And I mean positive! Positive vibes all around. It's so happy, cheerful, bubbly, uplifting, sunny! It is like a ray of sunshine that says everything is gonna be alight after all. The clouds are gonna disperse, and the sun is gonna shine again. I am really enjoying it. And quite surprised by it because I am not much of a citrus fan. And this is definitely a citrus scent on me. It opens up with a beautiful, fresh, juicy passionfruit. Yum! Then some bergamot and mandarin join in, sweet ( but not too much ) and tangy. Fresh. Tenacious. All sparkly, playful and happy. There are also some creamy flowers in the heart of it all. But the whole composition just reminds me of Atelier Cologne Clementine California Pure Perfume + Leather Case Set 1 oz/ 30 mL #, a lot! And I love that one. So, maybe that could've influenced my experience with this one, too. I don't know. But I do know this scent is as positive, vibrant and optimistic as that Van Gogh's painting is. The painting had a special meaning to him. It was about being grateful and optimistic. And this scent sure is a boost of optimism in a bottle. At least that is my experience. It makes me happy. What else could a girl ask for
 
It has a great longevity and sillage for a citrus scent. And it is definitely a summer scent. But I don't mind to spray it here and there even now when I need some extra sunshine on some particularly cloudy days.
 
Screen Shot 2021-12-18 at 10.32.54 PM.png

Re: Ho Ho Holidays, The Festive Fragrance Gratis Thread!

I love all your thoughts and descriptions @RavenR . Never in my dreams could I even find the proper words compared to yours! Amazing and now I can maybe put some of my own similar thoughts to them! 😊💞

1 Reply
Photos108
  • 68741170-CEF9-4911-B561-FD5283BE5774.gif
  • 1E7C920A-E2DC-4263-B9BD-8575A5FA73DD.jpeg
  • 159614A7-21D6-49A9-A8F1-65DA5785F63D.jpeg
  • A724F118-0AF9-4F59-BD0C-60D8BACE1214.jpeg
  • BIC-21-11b.jpg
  • BIC-21-11.jpg
  • BIC-21-11a.jpg
  • C4F39992-3F0D-4553-9939-06F0099F42E5.jpeg
  • C2A7064A-9834-49D0-ACD0-388A388CD6E7.jpeg
  • 3BC5C287-0D5A-4355-A171-C3E2BD477A2F.jpeg
  • 5E38EF85-0ED1-4C15-9C90-AE9420F6EEFF.jpeg
  • sister13_0-1638406432780.gif
  • C850C171-2BA0-4B3A-980E-322CA6C5D8B1.jpeg
  • FD48917F-2BA2-45DA-971E-D3318D819307.jpeg
  • C3E6BB7C-69C5-4AA7-A337-E5F9DB2BAEB1.jpeg
testing