Was it born to rule over the other gourmand fragrances? [reviewing Princess edt, by Vera wang]

Dare to claim the princess in you...

Radiant and whimsical, Vera Wang Princess is a sheer, fruity floral – rich with vanilla and brimming with exotic flowers and succulent fruits. Princess is all about a new attitude. It’s about claiming something magical and mystical in your life. She is feminine and modern, always sophisticated and stylish and she has many unexpected, free-spirited characteristics. She has the magical, whimsical, youthful spirit that resides in all of us – regardless of age.

Princess is one of those fragrances that I have false memories about: I remember having my first bottle of Princess in the family house we lived in during my secondary school years & of me trying to get away with wearing the cap as a ring to school [they were very strict on no makeup or jewellery rules in those days]... even though I've found out that Princess wasn't released until 2006 - six years after I'd left school and we'd all long-sinced moved. It's weird how memories become jumbled like that, isn't it? I can also remember coming across a print ad for J.Lo Miami Glow whilst flipping through a magazine in the same childhood house and being excited about it - despite the fact that the original Glow wasn't released until 2002, and Miami Glow came along in 2005 - again, years after we'd moved.

I remember enjoying Princess enough to have had 2 smaller bottles over the years and like to think that I remember the fragrance pretty well, although finding out the release dates & therefore false memories of past favourites, has shaken my former confidence. Having seen that you can constantly find Princess on special offer & in outlet stores, as well as it being widely available online for under £25 [£18 for 100ml when I bought my latest bottle], I've become curious enough to buy a bottle to reintroduce myself to it and go back through time...

Despite the tweeny name, I think of Princess as being an ageless fragrance; the fragrance surprised me with its lightness, as I was expecting something heavier & aggressively syrupy sweeter due to the combination of chocolate, vanilla, amber and frosting [I'm assuming that this is a sugar accord]. However the standout notes of the fragrance are a freshly sweet mild combination of vanilla-infused apple, mandarin and apricot on me, with a powdered white floral heart. Overall the light, airy scent does bring meringue and frosting to mind.

I can't separate the floral notes apart from orange blossom alongside the listed waterlily & tuberose, but the combination stops the fragrance from being sickly sweet & too 'young'. The waterlily & tuberose are more distinct than I remembered them being, but the guava develops around the same time and helps boost the existing fruits slighty above the floral bouquet at every stage of the fragrance.

There isn't much difference between the heart and the base; but you know you're reaching the final stretch as a creamy sandalwood & ambery musk develops, plus slight hint of dark chocolate and something that brings patchouli to mind, adds a tiny bit more depth to the fragrance as it dries down.

Official key scent notes: Apples, water lily, golden apricot, mandarin meringue, pink guava, Tahitian tiare flower, wild tauberose, dark chocolate, vanilla chiffon, pink frosting, precious amber and "forbidden woods".

I remembered my first couple of bottles of Princess as being slightly nutty, as well as having having very quiet florals. I don't pick up on anything nutty now and whilst the floral notes aren't as loud as the fruits, sweet or the woody notes, a couple of them are pretty clear. Formula changes, or mixed memories?

Overall I still find Princess to be a pleasant all occasions, all year round scent that's only let down a bit by its poor staying power [around 5 hours on average] - but as the concentration is a edt, I'm not really surprised. Since you can easily find  bottles of Princess below £20, I find the performance reasonable enough. I think that it's perfectly fine for adults to wear Princess both as casual wear and for more conservative places like work, as it's not something too 'young' and it is mild enough not to irritate scent-sensitive people around you. I also think that it'd make a nice gift for people who typically enjoy modern, more 'feminine' fragrances, as the scent notes used here have become ones that now appear regularly in fragrances and body care products - Princess was one of the fragrances that newer fragrances take inspiration from.

You can buy Princess from most retailers, but I recommend that you try outlet stores like TK Maxx, B&M, or a quick Google search of the many online retailers for the day's best deal - you can easily find larger bottles [and sometimes even giftsets] below the £25 mark most of the time.