California Reverie

In the oversaturation of white florals, I feel like this is so underrated. This and Freckled and Beautiful are my two "desert island" fragrances and if there is even a whisper of discontinuation, I'll be buying backups. I LOVE white and yellow florals, and so many are so similar, but the beeswax and frangipani give it grounded sweetness that makes it so beautiful! IMO it's no where near similar to Bal d'Afrique by Byredo. It does take quite a bit to create a scent bubble, but sticks with you. It doesn't have a trail like BR540, but performs wonderfully in 100 oceanfront heat! It doesn't have a "spring/summer" vibe to me. It's an "all season" white floral! Those are hard to come by! Just buy a sample, it's worth it!

Lovely composition with a well done frangipani accord, but doesn't last long and projects faintly. I thought there was something in it that I was anosmic to, so I let my scent-sensitive partner sniff. Even he had to press his nose right against the fabric and skin on which I'd applied the perfume. (His verdict: "It's okay, kinda smells like nice hairspray.") If you love white florals, and price is not an object, and you want a fragrance that's super soft with a discreet sillage and never at risk of overspraying, then sure, this would be your jam. I just want a personal scent bubble with my perfumes. This fragrance doesn't seem like it'd be up to the task without bathing in it. Which would be luxurious indeed, at this price.

Such a beautiful fragrance! Soft and fresh with sweet notes of mandarin and florals.

To me, this perfume smells like Australia (NSW) in the summer: the soft sweetness of frangipani and jasmine blooming over a sunlit path as you walk barefoot to the beach. The honeyed vanilla and beeswax add a familiar and comforting warmth to the scent, making it feel incredibly personal: like VC&A has bottled your favorite vacation memories. The tangerine and orange lend a certain clarity that cuts through like dappled sunlight through the trees and guide you through the scent as it evolves. Overall, this is a truly beautiful scent, perfect for summer and capturing summer memories.

The search is over. I have seen the light, I have touched God, I have smelled angels. This scent has everything I've been looking for, and more. From refreshing flowers, to intoxicating beeswax and vanilla, to comforting tangerine - I love every note and every stage of this perfume. It is incredibly beautiful, and after sampling a dozen different scents, this is finally it - my true love.

This is an airy, yet warm floral with a base of vanilla and beeswax and vibrant mandarin. Mainly fragipani and some light jasmine notes at the heart, it is incredibly well balanced and blended. One of the absolute best floral scents I have ever come across.

If you've ever smelled the flower daphne this perfume comes close to that bright, crisp citrus scent that sweet daphne tenderly gives off. This beauty is modern and clean yet romantically seductive in a way that does not cloy or shout. You just keep wanting to smell it and, I would imagine, so do those around you. Wear this on a quality occasion and you'll never go wrong. Van Cleef scores a 10 for this juice.

This is a soft, very well blended floral with honey notes. The frangipani comes thru the most after the initial mandarin opening. I wish the mandarin note lasted longer. Very summery. Highly recommend trying.

Smells lovely. Beautiful white floral, creamy like Le Labos Lys 41, but like that one, this doesn't last on my skin either.

When my nephew was born, my brother lived in a condo community in Santa Monica that had night blooming Jasmine. It was the most amazingly beautiful thing to catch whiffs of while walking through the dry, dusty courtyard in the early evening. I've never been able to find that smell/feeling in a bottle. Until now. While CR isn't as potent as that Santa Monica night blooming jasmine, it embraces the entire ambiance surrounding night blooming jasmine and Santa Monica in the early evening. It is a very fresh, clean scent, which starts out with what I thought was a hit of lime (I guess that's part the orange blossom?), and then develops in this veil of fragrance that moves like sheer drapes. It develops a simple/classic jasmine that lacks indolic starkness. Instead, it's the hit of jasmine in the air. So refreshing in the sunshine and dry air. It doesn't just sit and absorb into the skin, it blows around one. While I would probably prefer this to exude off the skin a little more (Richwood is my HG, after all), this fragrance encapsulates Southern CA "being." On the East Coast we like dark clothes, and classic lines. While CR is a classic (in my book), its a classic that appreciates the white wispy linen dress, that flows in the dry beach wind. If you haven't been able to find a jasmine that doesn't gag you, then try this.

As a 6th generation Californian, I am a complete chauvinist when it comes to my state and really didn't think Van Cleef & Arpels could give me an authentic California dream of a fragrance. But this reverie rocks! Somehow the notes combine into a juice that is not literal but beautifully figurative. Suggestive of a Golden State of mind. Casual and cultured. Sunny and rich. Pretty and smart. Smells like a billion bucks but wears like a bikini. Just dreamy.