The good news is that Vera Wang Look, her 2008 perfume, is not as shockingly bad as the first ten minutes of wearing it might lead you to believe. The bad news is that the Steven Meisel ads and the bottle are still the best part about Look (and probably where Vera Wang put most of the budget).
I questioned my sanity every time I sprayed myself with Look for this review. I also questioned my karma from any previous lives that might have led me to wearing this apple-lychee water on several summer mornings. I must have done something truly awful to deserve smelling like that. But once the apple fades away and it's more of a sweet mandarin orange with pale, harmless and totally synthetic flowers over a generic but pleasant skin musk we arrive at a status quo with which I can live if I have to. I almost like the soapy undertones I get just before Look fully dries down.
I don't understand why whoever is responsible in Vera Wang's company for commissioning perfumes and creating the creative briefs felt the need to have Look as part of the Vera Wang lineup. Did they consciously choose to make a perfume that lacks any kind of personality, says absolutely nothing other than the wearer's affection towards soap and stirs no emotion? Can they even recognize Look in a blind testing and tell it apart of countless other watery fruity florals? I sure can't.
Other reviews of Look by Vera Wang:
Now Smell This
Perfume Shrine
Vera Wang Look seems to have vanished from Sephora and Nordstrom but easily found online for ridiculously cheap.
Image: the 2008 Vera Wang Look ad shot by Steven Meisel and featuring model Anna Selezneva, from imagesdeparfums.fr
In this case it's ridiculously cheap because it smells ridiculously cheap. G-d love you for throwing yourself in front of this one. Lychee as a fruit smells retro, in that Chinese dinner at Madame Wu's Garden kind of way.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that Madame Wu herself wore Shalimar..
I miss that place. Best Mai Tai ever and they practically invented the Chinese chicken salad.
Until today I hadn't the slightest inclination to try this perfume but after reading your review I suddenly feel an urge to do so :) Not because I don't believe you it's that mundane and not interesting - I do. But you described it so vividly that now I want to experience it. On a blotter, most likely.
ReplyDeleteThank you :)