Daisy by Marc Jacobs : Perfume Review

I have been saving my sample of Daisy for a couple of weeks now, with the prospect of using it for this month’s Tried and Tested feature. It struck me though, that perhaps something a little more elaborate is needed in this instance: many of you are likely to be wondering what this actually smells like and whether a visit to the closest department store is in order, since the cute-as-a-button bottle has garnered so much attention.

Well, let me start off by saying that I can hardly believe the nose that created the lovely, subtle and oh-so-thoughtful Bulgari Blu is the same nose behind this scent! The first whiff is quite nice – I get a quite interesting blend of honeysuckle and green foliage from it. Rapidly though, the pleasant green scent gets replaced by an intense wave of fruit. On a paper strip the only fruit I can detect is strawberry, on my skin though, I smell a whole range of red fruit, including pomegranate. Unfortunately, this little fruit salad is rather bland – there is no spice to make it interesting, no dash of a smooth liqueur or even a dollop of cream to make it more palatable: Just some citrus juice to keep the fruit from going brown and a sprig of mint for presentation. And even that tiny sprig of mint spoils it for me: quickly the jus starts reminding me of chewing gum. The type of chewing gum that remains slightly ambivalent where flavor is concerned, uncomfortably hovering between full fruitiness and freshness. As the white florals (jasmine, gardenia) rise to the top, it all goes downhill. Daisy quickly starts smelling completely unoriginal – in fact, it is indistinguishable from other generic fruity-floral concoctions. Too, despite the high intensity of the opening, the entire funfair fizzles out relatively quickly. Daisy lovers will have to reapply frequently: an hour and a half later there is but a trace of musky fruitiness remaining and I practically have to exert effort to discern it. Well, at least the bottle is gorgeous right? Truly, the bottle is very photogenic, but it failed to wow me in real life. I mean, of course it is a beautiful bottle, just not the radiant, whimsical little jewel I was prepared to find judging from the images I had seen. But to be fair, Daisy does have some saving graces. It does not fall into the pitfall of being overly sweet, like many of her sisters do. And once again unlike many other fruity-florals, this one does not smell chemical. It is not likely to be classified as a scrubber by many, nor is it likely to offend anyone. It’s just highly unremarkable and generic. You’ve smelled it all before.

All in all, I have to say that with a name and bottle like this one, I consider this to be an opportunity lost for Marc Jacobs. For me, Daisy would have ideally been a truly innocent, transparent scent for everyday wear. Freshly cut grass and chamomile for example, would have done it for me. They would have perfectly described the feeling of laying lazily on a grassy field studded with tiny daisies on a sunny day. I find fruit to have been a bad choice for a fragrance trying to evoke such images. Not to mention the fact that jasmine and gardenia are both too heavy to be associated with anything daisy-like.

Sorry Marc – Love the shoes.