Vertigo Parfums

Before leaving Takashimaya for a bit of fresh air, I detected a vanilla-y floral scent wafting about as I walked by the Vertigo Parfums display. The rep was quite eager to share a sniff, so I asked her if I indeed smelled vanilla. She replied that it was Vertigo, the line's first scent, a sweet white floral with a musky drydown.

Vertigo opens up with both white flowers and musk, with a fresh cleanness, like a particularly fragrant shampoo. There's a bit of citrus up front, a tiny amount, more lemon than orange, that takes on the dusty quality of the dried peel of the fruit. There is also a green quality to the scent, although nothing I would call "lush." White flowers take over the middle of the fragrance, nothing standing out in particular but blending together harmoniously. The drydown is an ambery muskiness that comes out to join the white floral party. Oddly enough, I can't find the vanilla, unless it is part of the pervasive sweetness of the scent as a whole. Sweet, but not quite cloying, Vertigo is a pleasant and cheerful summertime scent that would do well with young or youthful women.

Vertigo Notes: California lemon, Brazilian orange, lush greens, May muguet bells, Egyptian jasmine, Indian tuberose, vanilla planifolia, long-stemmed white roses, galbanum, Brazilian rain forest "Tears of Venus," ylang ylang, white amber, sheer sandalwood, white musks

Hypnotica is not quite as sweet. It is a "floral, fruity, musky" scent that opens with a berryish note that's as much fruit as leaf, and a bouquet of white flowers that manages to be light and airy, with that clean marine-esqe or ozone quality to it that reminds me very much of CK One. The drydown is faintly woodsy, with a lot of white musk. 

Not a particularly unique or interesting fragrance, but the packaging is quite, er, hypnotic.  Stare at the pattern on the side of the box and it will seem to be in motion.  Focus on any one of the many ovals that make up the pattern, and it will stop moving.  The heavy crystal-like bottle has a spiral carved into its base, continuing with the theme of hypnotic motion.

Hypnotica Notes: blackcurrant leaf, seringa, Water fruits, jasmine, orange blossom, muguet, cyclamen, sandalwood bark, cedarwood, white musks.