By Kilian Liaisons Dangereuses

...like a tea party in a rose garden. In heaven.


My YouTube fragrance channel, KatiePuckrikSmells, has been running for about ten months now. It’s been a sharp learning curve -- I now understand that coral lip gloss makes me look like I’ve been kissing peanut butter, that Britney Spears’ fans will violently defend their troubled goddess’ right to flash her honeytrap (sample comment: “Even at her CRACKIEST, Britney is more fabulous than you will EVER be, bitch!”), and that my sidekick, Rodrigo the Perfume Dog, is more charming on camera than I -- or Britney -- will ever be. Bitch.

One of the perks of being a YouTube “guru” is connecting with like-minded fumeheads. It was my Burger King “Flame” review that reeled in my Perfume Pen Pal, Dan Rolleri. And it was Dan who got me squeeeing about By Kilian Liaisons Dangereuses, which he’d sent me in a care package of decants from his Donatella Versace-sized collection. Out of his 130+ bottles, LD is just about his very favorite. The note included in his care package described it thusly:

“It’s a plum jam that’s as gorgeous as the most gorgeous thing you can imagine. Quick: think of something gorgeous. Liaisons Dangereuses is more gorgeous, I bet you!”

Dan makes no secret of his willingness to try any fragrance, be it designed for men, women or babies (I think he draws the line at dog cologne). However, even he might have winced a little at the reaction of the Sunday-Monday gal at my local perfume shop, when I told her that it was a guy who’d shared his LD with me.

“But Liaisons Dangereuses is a fruity floral! For prom queens! And he’s straight?

I’ll leave it to Dan to defend his manhood -- or whatever they’re calling it nowadays -- to Ashley at the Scent Bar. In the meantime, let’s crack the nut on Liaisons D, which for the record is listed as unisex, Ashley.

Liaisons Dangereuses smells like a tea party in a rose garden. In heaven. This insanely beautiful eau de parfum opens on blackcurrant, with its bitter-berry sweetness. There’s the smell of fragrant leaves, a little minty, crushed under your picnic blanket. Then, it explodes into wine and roses and peaches, along with that plum jam Dan mentioned.

It’s an extremely dense fragrance, with every last inch of the canvas painted in voluptuous swirls of indecently ripe fruit. The roses here are alive, unplucked -- fresh and zesty, rather than soft and powdery.

The name seems a bit of a misnomer, though. If there are any liaisons going on here, they’re not very dangereuses. LD is filled with light and life and magic. Much of the magic is in the scent’s development, which moves out of the sunshine and into twilight as the fruit recedes and the moss creeps forward. The drydown is quietly lush, with creamy woods supporting wisps of rose and spice. At this point, I’d even venture to say that it skews masculine. Tell that to the prom queens, Ashley.

Liaisons Dangereuses is truly a crowd pleaser -- I get compliments every time I wear it. So does Dan, he tells me. And those prom queens are probably getting results, too.

By Kilian Liaisons Dangereuses is available from Amazon.com, LuckyScent.com, and ByKilian.com, starting at $225 for 50ml

"Fruit Still Life" by Mette Tommerup

19 comments:

  1. lol i loved this. and you you better watch out for britney stans, they have no limits.

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  2. Just dropping by to say Hello!! I luv ur videos on youtube!

    I cant wait to see who won that Summer contest!

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  3. Hi missingme05, thanks for stopping by. Feel free to sniff around the site.

    tofupoo, you ain't kidding, "no limits". Britney's fans may have a median age of 12, but they are the angriest, most vengeful bunch ever. I'd pit them against cranked-up death metal dudes any day. And those death metal dudes better be on their game!

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  4. Ummmmm, your description of this perfume makes it sound like the perfect thing to wear while enjoying a proper Brit tea, with scones and LOTS of blackberry and plum jam. Yum! Thanks for the heads up on pricing - that is helpful for your many sniffers, er, readers. (Sniffers and Sniffettes, perhaps?)

    And it was interesting to learn that your review of Burger King Flame was the spark that led to your collaboration with Dan. IITL! I can't wait for the next chapter in the Katie and Dan fragrance forum. I would like to hear how Dan got started on his Olympic-sized collection of perfumes.

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  5. LD is lovely for a fruity floral (not my favorite genre), but it doesn't last very long on me. Last time I wore it, my husband said, "Somebody smells like roses!" I'll use my sample up, but it's not full bottle worthy for me.

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  6. Good point, Pino! I'd like to know myself how Dan got sucked into fragrantiphilia.

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  7. occhineri, the thing that strikes me about LD is that the finish is so radically different to the opening. My take on it is that the fruity-florals do make an exit after an hour or 2, and then the musky woods take over - and they are indeed much quieter.

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  8. I never get the musky woods! After about an hour, LD is completely gone. Maybe that's why I've never understood why this is considered unisex.

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  9. That'll do it, occhineri - you're only getting half the story. If only LD was half the price.

    I've heard tell that LD bears a resemblance to the original Burberry women's fragrance, "Burberry", which I haven't smelled. Can anyone vouch for this? I'm intrigued!

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  10. It's odd, occhineri, all of our reports on longevity seem to differ. For me, the By Kilians last a very long time.

    And Pino, I've always liked perfumes and have researched some on scent memory and association, but my collection got completely out of control a couple years ago when I had quarantined myself in Oregon's Cascade Mountains to write a book. During that time perfume was my favorite distraction, and while the book is still unfinished, I've accumulated a good many bottles. If only I had made perfume my job and writing my distraction, I'd have polished off three books by now. Though I wouldn't smell as good.

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  11. Thanks for signposting me to this review, Katie (I'm alnsubuga on YT). I enjoyed reading your take on LD.

    I'm definitely all about the latter stages of this fragrance's evolution. The fresh and fruity opening, while nice enough, wasn't quite enough to convince me to fork out almost 200 euros for this. Fortunately the SA realised I was a soft touch and distracted me with an in-depth discussion of the By Kilian candles while the scent developed.

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  12. Hi amber, so glad you joined up with the frolics over here at the blog! It sounds like the SA knew his/her stuff. All the By Kilians I've tried have such involving drydowns that are very beguiling.

    How are you enjoying the BK candles you bought?

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  13. She did indeed. She also knew that I'll go back to buy Love and Back to Black, despite my half-hearted insistence that I be sensible and not spend too much money. Sigh... I'm so easily swayed by nice smells. I blame my gene pool - my parents have never been able to walk past a duty free shop without popping in to buy at least one fragrance each.

    Sadly I got home too late from work to burn any candles, but I'm planning to crack open 'Love' tomorrow. With all these horrible rainstorms we're having I could do with wrapping myself in a blanket of vanilla yumminess...

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  14. All those By Kilians are available in cheaper travel sizes (in 4 small cannisters) or in a 100ml refill cannister that costs the same as the regular 50ml bottle. The drag is, they don't have atomizers, but you could always buy your own atomizers and decant, or just splash on the fragrance.

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  15. I'd spotted the travel sizes on their websites but hadn't realised the 100ml cannister was the same price as the 50ml. Thanks for the tip!

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  16. "Liaisons Dangereuses smells like a tea party in a rose garden. In heaven." <-- Best description of LD...EVER!

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    1. You and I must've been at the same heavenly tea party!

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  17. How did I miss this one??

    Katie, my bank account says that you are a wicked vixen.

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    1. That's funny - my bank account tells me the same thing.

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