One of my favourite discoveries from Aldi Lacura is their fragrance range, not just the candles, wax melts and Reed diffusers but they also have an incredible range of perfume and aftershaves that are not to be sniffed at. Having already shared a few of those fragrances in recent weeks, today I am back with three more!
Meet Guardian, Luxe and Floral Love, three fragrances from the Aldi range and you might have guess that they are inspired by Thierry Mugler Alien, Viktor Rolf's FlowerBomb and of course Marc Jacobs Decadence.
Anyone who knows me or reads my blog will know just how much I detest Alien by Thierry Mugler, there is something about the notes that I just cannot stomach, but I was willing to give Guardian a try.
Each one of these fragrances retails for just £5.99 and whilst the bottles are not that similar to their high-end inspiration, they are all really well made and quite distinguishable in any perfume collection, but how do they rate?
Starting with Guardian which has been formulated with sweet scents of pineapple, coconut and mandarin orange which work alongside the sharper aromas of red berries, orchid and jasmine. Then finally the base notes of vanilla, amber, caramel and tonka bean. Unsurprisingly, Thierry Mugler Angel has very similar fragrance notes which are the sweet red fruits, soft caramel, honey and praline, combined with the captivating power of patchouli and vanilla.
The two fragrances do smell very similar as soon as they are spritzed but Guardian is less heavy with the vanilla and it makes it, for me, much easier to wear. When it comes to longevity, I haven’t worn Angel long enough to compare the two but Guardian gives a good 3-4 hours wear time before it would need to be re-applied. Priced at just £5.99 whereas bottles of Angel can retail over £100, so it’s quite the saving.
The second fragrance, Luxe is packaged in an emerald green bottle and it is quite striking, though clearly not a patch on the Marc Jacobs Decadence fragrance which is made to look like a snakeskin handbag.
Again with this fragrance, the notes of Luxe are described as being notes of saffron and iris that complement undertones of papyrus and heady vetiver. Added to that is the description of a fragrance which is deeply woody and sensual with creamy notes of jasmine and strong aroma of Bulgarian Rose. Contrasting that to Decadence we have top notes of Plum, Saffron and iris; heart notes of Orris, Jasmine Sambac and Bulgarian Rose before finally it’s base notes are Vetiver, Papyrus and Liquidambar. So once again, very similar notes in the same order but the slight difference between the two for me is the top notes, they’re much stronger in Decadence than they are in Luxe but as they dry down they become remarkably similar but I prefer Luxe once it has dried down because it doesn’t quite have that sharpness I find with Decadence.
The final fragrance is my favourite of the three and it is Floral Love, which is described as being a dupe of Flowerbomb from Victor & Rolf. The bottles, which are both glass are very different in design though both are quite weighty in the hand. Again, it costs just £5.99 for 100ml and that is a massive saving of over £100 for the same sized bottle!
Floral Love is described as a ‘celebration of all things floral’ with notes of rose, freesia, and African orange flower. Then with Flowerbomb we have top notes of Tea, Bergamot and Osmanthus; heart notes of Orchid, Jasmine, Rose, Freesia and African Orange flower and then the base notes are Patchouli, Musk and Vanilla. Both of these fragrances smell exactly the same to me, they open with that wonder zesty scent and settles with the jasmine and rose before the musk comes through to keep the vanilla from being too heady. On the skin, Floral Love lasts a really good amount of time, for me it’s 6-7 hours, so a full day at work and people can still catch it as I walk by.
I have one more Aldi fragrance still to share on my blog and this time it is one for him! But for now you can enjoy these three beauties which are the same but different!