If you are looking to totally blow $100 plus on this one be my guest!
Being the type of person willing to try just about anything (fragrance-wise) I was really excited about giving Juliette a shot. I’d read several reviews and it seemed like at least a few people were quite enamored with the fragrance. Reviews said that it was unique, fresh, exciting, really different. Naturally I was intrigued and hopeful.
Suffice to say that curiosity killed the cat.
My first reaction upon spritzing it on my wrist was WTF. Are my nostrils blocked??? Is this a joke??? In disbelief I tried my other wrist and it was the same thing. Truthfully “Not a Perfume” should have been a big clue but I seriously didn’t imagine that anything costing this much would smell like vodka mixed with seltzer water. After a few minutes the rancid odor faded away into literally nothing which was actually preferable.
Desperate to find out exactly how this fragrance even got on the map I frantically hit the internet. I went onto the website and saw that literally everything except the names of their perfumes was written in in french. Digging a little deeper on the web I learned that “Juliette Has a Gun Not a Perfume” is a fragrant molecular composition of the single note cetalox captured in a perfume bottle.” On a mission now, I learned that Cetalox, also known as Ambroxan, is a synthetic molecule created in the 1950s by the Firmenich firm as a substitute for ambergris which had become very expensive by then.
Just to rule out the possibility that I hadn’t received a knock-off, I tested the fragrance later at a Sephora store and had the same ghastly experience.
Oh well, another frog kissed and no lasting damage:)
This is actually my favorite frangrance! I never would have tried it if I didn’t have a sample, now I’m sad I don’t have the full bottle!
Hi Jessica,
If this is your favorite fragrance then you should definitely snap up a full bottle my dear! Better yet hop on over to Sephora and treat yourself to Not a Gift Set which includes a shower gel of the scent along with the perfume. Moscow Mule is one of their newest I’m dying to try.
Cheers!
Erica
I absolutely love the name of this fragrance! I don’t know where they got the inspiration from, but it’s really cool.
But from what I can see that’s the only cool thing about it, unfortunately 🙁
I can’t believe it cost so much!
Thanks a lot for letting everyone know, if I saw this perfume in Sephora, at this price I would have probably said it’s a great one, and who knows, maybe I would have bought it.
But now I’ll know, fortunately! I’m really sorry for your experience, probably the best thing you can do from now on is smelling the tester, or else you never know…
Most of the Juliette Has a Gun perfumes have clever names like Lady Vengeance and Mad Madame but obviously we all buy perfume for what’s inside the bottle! I usually don’t write negative reviews even if a scent isn’t right for me personally but I found nothing good to say about this one. Fortunately I didn’t lose any money but I’m sure that other’s have and will!