Top Perfume Picks – Secret Obsession
Top Perfume Picks – Secret Obsession
“We love perume and we love the way it can attract ones senses and opposite sex. We have put together our own perspectives and personal choices when it comes to smelling good.”
1985’s Obsession, from Calvin Klein, was meant to capture the “essence of the 1980’s obsession with carnal and material gratification”; Secret Obsession, the brand’s latest feminine fragrance, hopes to update that notion for modern times, to “become the meaning of what is sexy today — more personal, sophisticated and intoxicating”.* If Secret Obsession fails in that mission it won’t be the fault of Eva Mendes, who gamely writhes and moans in (presumably) perfumed ecstasy, and shows just enough nipple to get the advertising spot banned from television, thus ensuring that a bajillion people will watch it on YouTube at no expense whatsoever.
Secret Obsession is floriental, and has a sweet, fruity opening that smells entirely of today; still, don’t go looking for the sparkling and sheer pinkish berries that decorate so many of the fruity florals of the past five years. These fruits are spicy and overripe. It’s not quite Rochas Femme or Frederic Malle Le Parfum de Thérèse, mind you, but it smells more grown-up than I expected.
The dry down is a sweet floral (the notes: exotic plum, mace, rose de damas, jasmine, orange flower, tuberose, cashmere woods, burnt amber, vanilla and sandalwood). The rose is center-stage very briefly in the early dry down, it’s a bit loud, but has a more modern, stylised feel. While I don’t find it unpleasant, I’ve seen more than one remark comparing it to hairspray.
What hairspray there is largely disappears within an hour; then Secret Obsession is a (relatively) quiet amber-y musky woods, medium-dark, spiced and honeyed but not overly sweet (although the fruit notes, which get buried under the flowers for a time, seem to reappear in the final stages). It’s sultry without the bitter edges that render Obsession an unlikely sell in today’s youth-oriented market. It isn’t a shy scent, but it isn’t quite so overwhelming as Obsession, and it’s considerably more subtle (and arguably, sexier) than Calvin Klein’s last stab at this market,Euphoria.
Secret Obsession is nicely done, and it’s always agreeable to smell something that’s supposed to be sexy and is — so many “sexy” fragrances turn out to smell like candy or laundry detergent musk. Still, I’ve been wearing Secret Obsession off and on, and it has really captured my affections. I’ve become more impressed with Obsession.
Calvin Klein Secret Obsession was developed by perfumer Calice Becker, and is available in 30, 50 and 100 ml Eau de Parfum and in matching body products.
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