Nina Ricci L'Extase Eau de Parfum Spray 80 ml

Product Information

Absolue begins directly sweet-spicy. It's very sweet that it almost kills me. Not sugary sweet, adult sweet (stupid word yes) but I would almost say sexy, seductive-sweet. It's got something. Nina Ricci’s latest perfume L’Extase is marketed as an erotic boudoir fragrance that is said to liberate a woman’s deepest desires and fantasies! So although it isn’t what it’s supposed to be, Nina Ricci’s L’Extase is still a nice cold weather scent. It’s just a shame that it wasn’t marketed differently to reflect the softer side of the scent.

The other strange thing about L’Extase is if you read the notes listed, you’d be fooled into thinking it was going to be a real sexy mysterious fragrance. Notes like warm Amber, romantic Rose, sweet Caramel, glowing Benzoin, sultry Jasmine, soft Musk, and vibrant Pink Pepper, Raspberry, and Pear. Nina Ricci's perfume distribution in the US is spotty. You can find the old classic L'Air du Temps at Nordstrom or Macy's, and Macy's also has the youth-oriented Nina. That's about it. Bloomingdales, Saks and Neiman Marcus don't have anything (although Neiman Marcus has some lovely items from the fashion line at the moment), nor does Sephora. I never saw Ricci Ricci or Mademoiselle Ricci here at all, although admittedly I did not look all that hard. Pepper comes right behind and displaces this seductive note. Like I smell a pepper mill. Pepper doesn't usually bother me in perfume. Here, however, he becomes a lot to me. I imagine this scent being worn by a sophisticated woman who exudes class and understated feminism. She sprays it on her favorite pashmina as she sinks into the sofa with a good book and a cup of tea on a rainy day, or wears it on a special night when snowed-in in front of a roaring fire with her lover.I was curious about L’Extase, the latest, which is geared older than Nina but younger than L'Air du Temps. +1: it's a musky floriental from perfumer Francis Kurkdjian. -1: the advertising, with Laetitia Casta, is the usual drearily predictable writhing we've already seen a million times over. No erotic fantasies here, but sometimes that’s ok. Sometimes, we’d just prefer a good book instead! But does this scent really evoke the overt sex appeal that it promises, or does it fall flat on the sheets?!

Well, I recently tried the new perfume and had high hopes that it would make me swoon at first whiff, instead it left me feeling a little unsatisfied (wink wink). So far as I know, there are no plans to distribute L'Extase in the US. When distribution plans were detailed in Women's Wear Daily earlier this year, the US was not mentioned. The rest of the world should either have it already, or will have it by the end of the summer. That being said, I don't dislike it either, I just wish that the caramel was stronger. I was expecting more sweetness; it is hardly sweet at all on me. Caramel is one of my favorite perfume notes, and I was hoping for more of it in this scent, based on what reviewers have posted. I guess I really will have to commit to that full bottle of Luna!Although these notes are sumptuous, it’s almost as if they were all added in the exact same proportion. There is no structure and differentiation in the ratio of notes, leading the scent to muddle and create just an indifferent fruity-floral.