Cashmere Mist by Donna Karan : Perfume Review

It is not surprising to me that Cashmere Mist was released in 1994, the same year CK One was introduced. The market was ripe for perfumes that were clean, unobtrusive and almost asexual – perfect matches for the heroin-chic, boyish figures that were advertising clothes at the time. Although admittedly more feminine than CK One, and a good deal more interesting than L’Eau d’Issey, Cashmere Mist is very much a child of its time. Even so, I only discovered it recently and I have to admit it, it was love at first sniff. There is something incredibly comforting about this scent, so aptly named. It smells like clean, powdery skin, skin that is begging to be caressed. It is an abstract concoction that responds so sensitively to my chemistry that it manages to smell slightly different each time. It is a skin scent whose character is always dry; it never smells sweet, despite its soft jasmine and muguet blend. The musk and iris combine beautifully and feature prominently throughout the development, making it powdery and soft from the beginning. And what makes it most special is the gentle, well-worn suede note that is ever so soothing, as well as tame, which I appreciate, since most strong leathers overwhelm me. Cashmere Mist elicits strange memories in my mind, that play like a fast-forwarded flashback scene in a movie: the Noxema roll-on deodorant my mother used to use when I was a child, a visit at the doctor’s when I was a kid – the scent wafting from the clinically clean female doctor comforting me as she laid a hand on my head, clothes straight out of the dryer on a snowy winter’s morning, fast-forward, fast-forward to pictures constructed from the media, colorful Lacoste polo shirts above tiny, blindingly white tennis skirts on a sunny spring day. The smell that fits innocence before adrenarche... and yet, warm flesh wrapped in a fluffy bathrobe on Sunday morning, a scent worn for one’s lover just to say: “I want to have coffee in bed with you”. I did not mean to turn this review into an exercise of freestyle stream of consciousness method, but somehow I found myself compelled to record the strange associations this fragrance elicits in me. After discovering this perfume, I had to rush out and buy it, I find it so charming and well made. I do not regard it as simple, even though it can appear deceptively so. Some have described it as “mumsy” and “old”. If you agree with this statement but have somehow found yourself stuck with a bottle for one reason or the other, here’s a suggestion: Layer it with a tiny bit of Fracas. The end result is very cheerful.

Picture of Cashmere throw courtesy of www.wise4living.com. The limited edition flacon of Cashmere Mist was sourced from www.donnakaranbeauty.com where it is currently available for purchase, with the designer’s signature.