Cacharel- Gloria

Many perfumes, good and bad have been discontinued or altered beyond recognition in the last decade. Gloria by Cacharel, a 2002 release that got the ax three or four years later is one of the most puzzling cases. Not just because Gloria was quite terrific while still being on-trend as not too heavy gourmand, but also because it looked like Cacharel (L'Oreal, actually, as they're the owners of Cacharel perfumes) mishandled Gloria from the beginning. Case in point, the ugly ad:

And even worse so, the commercial:

Gloria was actually not an adolescent glitterfest, but rather a peppery, boozy, rich yet modern-feeling almond-vanilla-rose confection. It's not quite airy as a macaron or an almond meringue, but more cake-like or  perhaps a vanilla cookie with rahat lokhoum filling rolled in powdered sugar (hi mom!).

So, yes, we're talking about a decidedly foody fragrance that was significantly better than many of its mainstream contemporaries (it was a much better year for the indie perfumes, with classics from CdG, Ormonde Jayne, Parfums DelRae, Gobin Daudé, etc.), not to mention anything else we've seen from Cacharel in the last decades. You know what I mean if you ever sniffed Scarlett. Gloria starts sweet and remains so, keeping an interesting balance and not turning into a toothache. My favorite part is the dark amaretto note that rules the core of Gloria and smells a lot more grownup than the adverts want you to know.

Notes: Bulgarian rose, amaretto, amber, white pepper, vanilla, almond and cherry.

Cake and cognac photo from howcanilivewithoutfoods.blogspot.com.