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Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Creed- Love In Black








The problem with Creed's Love In Black is its pretentiousness. I happen to think it's a pretty little thing, but it doesn't live up to any of the promises. It starts with the name. Love In Black should be dark, sexy and  mysterious. Not a juicy berries and violet jam. Then there's the whole Creed ethos, from the rabid fans to the unjustified reputation of only using the best and most natural ingredients.Considering Love In Black's obvious synthetic quality this is not even funny. Then there's the Jackie O aspect. The marketing literature claimed Olivier Creed's inspiration for Love In Black was the style and grace of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. All I can say to that is "Whatever".

On my skin the berries and candied violet take center stage in such an aggressive way nothing else emerges for long hours. When I smell it from a bottle or a sample vial I can tell there's other stuff in there, but since my skin amplifies fruit in general and berries in particular, Love In Black is all purple sweetness when I wear it. Not that there's anything wrong with it, but I can think of several more interesting variations on this particular theme just in my own collection: Tom Ford Private Blend Black Violet, Balmain La Mome and Armani Prive Cuir Amethyste. It reminds me mostly of MPG's Fleur d'Iris, only the latter seems to have more iris in it, at least in its original incarnation (I haven't tried it since the re-bottling).

Love In Black was supposed to be an iris fragrance. It takes most of the day and lots of patience for me to find the iris note, and it's week and lacks any of the mystery or elegance associated with it. The same goes for Jackie Kennedy's ghost. Love In Black is cute and sweet and is more of a débutante than a gracious First Lady. It's a sunny and optimistic scent, easy to wear and uncomplicated. If you insist on finding Jackie in there it is the young Jacqueline Bouvier, long before politics, losses, Marilyn Monroe, Dallas or Greek millionaires entered her life.

Love In Black ($130, 1 oz) is available from Creed authorized retailers, such as Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, Luckyscent and Aedes.

Photos of a very young Jackie: kennedys.tumblr.com

5 comments:

  1. I am so on the fence about Love In Black. When I had a bottle I grew so tired of it- can't put my finger on why but I found it a cold fragrance that on me wasn't quite sweet enough. The bottle is so perfect & on paper it sounded so lovely. But there is a cold vegetal note that just lingers & stays linnear on me.

    From all I've read of La Mome for some reason I've got it smelling something like Drole de Rose in my mind. But, reading it here as a more "interesting violet" you've piqued my interest in La Mome again....it sure doesn't get much love, well, anywhere but has always interested me. I love Balmain and Piaf :)

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  2. I definitely smell the sweet violets, and that's what other people say they smell too when I wear LIB. But I smell cedar, really strongly, over the violets. It reminds me of walks in the the woods in the spring, when everything is damp and they have just spread cedar chips over all the paths. So that aspect makes me think dark. It's a real bi-polar fragrance for me.

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  3. wow. it is much sweeter on you than i.
    i get the vegetal, iris thing. and something that makes me think of ashes or asphalt-- which i like, because it makes it kind of an edgy violet. or at least to me, on my skin. similar to CDG Stephen Jones. but without the meteorite smell.

    typical creed lovers hate this fragrance. and i don't love most creeds. i think this is my favorite along with Santal.

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  4. I love your attitude of Whatever. But you knew that... :-)

    This is a little salty on me, which makes it interesting. Salty violets are not that common. Then again, can it just be my sweat? Whatever... :-)

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  5. LOL - your tastes in fragrance are so sophisticated (along with your elegant way of describing them), and mine are pretty simple: just give me flowers! We ought to start a perfume exchange.

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