Velvet ropes and guitars, yeah 'cause you're my rockstar...

Michael Kors Very Hollywood EdP

I think I mentioned a few months ago that I got a sample pack with gift certificate from Sephora. Among the samples, which are popular, big name, best selling brands that I don't usually get to encounter, was today's perfume, Michael Kors Very Hollywood.

According to Michael Kors, Very Hollywood "makes its debut with shimmering jewels of mandarin and iced bergamot. Scene-stealing gardenia follows suit with a decadent performance of award-worthy glamour." Since this did not give me a lot, I also turned to Sephora, which has the following to say:

Make a glamorous escape with Michael Kors Very Hollywood. This fabulous essence features notes of sparkling mandarin, gardenia, and vetiver that are suited to a silver screen siren. Seductive. Captivating. Luxurious.

Notes: Mandarin, Gardenia, Vetiver.

This begins with a whooping whiff of gardenia -- like you tripped and fell face first into a trash can full of gardenia blossoms and can't get out. It's a nice scent, and big scent with lots of va-va-va-voom type sillage of the soap & flowers variety, which can be pretty. I haven't smelled any of Kors other scents, so I only have this one to go on in terms of evaluation.

My biggest beef is that the scent is kind of synthetic. I don't mind the big flowers, and this one gets a little sweeter (other people said, grapefruit, and I can kind of see that, provided the grapefruit was covered in brown sugar to the point you didn't only maybe barely smell the grapefruit), but it just doesn't smell as much like flowers as an attempt to make a flower scented cleanser. Not a bad cleanser, not for stripping greasy and rusted car parts, but more like a gentle hand soap. It's pretty enough, but it's still hand soap. For my buck, I tend toward Kai for this sort of thing, but apparently there are plenty of people who don't like Kai either.

I've seen reviews that say this isn't a very "Hollywood" scent, and I'd have to agree. I don't think of it as glamorous, either in the old Hollywood classic great actress sense, or in the new glamour, which is largely about starving yourself and sticking to vaguely vapid roles as far as I can tell, but it does remind me of the cult of personality created by paparazzi. It also reminds me of Anne Baxter's character in All About Eve. She's not the real thing, not Bette Davis or Celeste Holm, but she's the less original version that aspires to be Bette Davis. It's the aura of talent, glamour, success, the aspiration to be those things, but yet isn't.

I'm starting to come to the conclusion that a really good gardenia scent is hard to come by. A lot of the floral scents I see that have (at best) mixed reviews seem to have strong gardenia notes. Can anyone tell me what they think are some of the better gardenia scents out there? I'm curious.  There are beautiful magnolia trees on campus here, and they all smell so wonderful.  I wish I could find a scent that did it well.  Kai is good, but not exactly what I'd refer to as a magnolia soliflore since it's "magnolia and other beautiful white flowers," and I'd like one was that good.

You can buy Very Hollywood in 30ml, 50ml, 100ml bottles for $45, $65, $85 as well as a solid perfume cocktail ring (so cute!) for $40 from Sephora. Apparently the pure parfum goes for a whooping $300, but if you've got that much to spend, trust me you can find other ways to do it. You can also buy it from Amazon, direct from the perfumer, and Neiman Marcus as well as online discounters.

"I'm your biggest fan.
I'll follow you until you love me.
Papa-paparazzi!
Baby there's no other super star.
You know that I'll be your papa-paparazzi.
I promise I'll be kind,
but I won't stop until that boy is mine.
Baby you'll be famous.
I'll chase you down until you love me.
Papa-paparazzi!"
- "Paparazzi," Lady Gaga (You can listen to the song here)

Want more reviews? Try...
~ A review from Robin at Now Smell This!
~ A review from Left Coast Nose
~ A review from Scented Salamander
~ A review from bellasugar