Kate Walsh Boyfriend

Tropical goth.

Before I'd even tried Kate Walsh Boyfriend, the PR onslaught for it left me a little...flaccid. Private Practice actress Kate Walsh was issuing press releases, releasing webimercials and popping up on HSN and in magazines to flog the high concept scent. Although I don't know why I'm whining -- I'm telling you here and now that if I had something of my own to promote, be it a lip gloss, book, or genetically engineered pink kitten, I'd shill the living bejeepers out of it. I'll be following that Kate Walsh playbook to a T.
Okay, I gotta admit, that was pretty funny. Let's look at another one:
Walsh sums up the Boyfriend concept thusly: “I was like, oh F it! I don't have to have a boyfriend to have that boyfriend fragrance....that worn-in, little bit of boyfriend smell on your shirt or on his shirt. ” Bushwhacking my way through the forest of PR and emerging from the other side covered in soundbites, I finally tried the perfume. And hush my mouth, it smells good! I did not see that coming. Boyfriend is peachy, plummy, almost a little musty. It doesn't smell tacky or lightweight -- it's got a certain darkness I didn't anticipate. The fruity/woody blend is fattened up with a suspicion of white florals and coconut -- a milder Tom Ford Black Orchid. File Boyfriend under “tropical goth.”
Boyfriend EdP is available from Amazon.com and Sephora.com starting at $35 for .5 oz

33 comments:

  1. I've been wearing Boyfriend on and off for a few days now, and I also found it suprisingly enjoyable for an actress-touted fragrance. I'm not getting any gardenia/coconut from it myself, but I do find that it smells vaguely like my boyfriend. You know, the no fragrance wearing, foot scented lotion loving one. It's like someone got a good up close whiff of him, amped it, and added plum.

    Boyfriend. It smells like a dude who loves feet smells.

    But I like it! I think it's kind of sexy in an understated way.

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  2. Anne -- Haha! How did Kate Walsh have knowledge of your boyfriend's intimate whiffs? You better keep your eye on her.

    I do know if the "coconut" I'm detecting is actual or phantom - perhaps an olfactory leap between jasmine...suntan lotion...coconut! But those tropical blooms did whisper "tropical" to me. (That's right, my perfume talks to me.)

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  3. I will have to pass on this one, Katie PinkKittenrik. And I'm personally insulted that the phrase "boyfriend smell" and "bleu cheese" are bandied about here. Oh yeah - you bandied, woman! Admit it.

    Total sidenote here: my girlfriend just bought an iPhone and I was playing around with the apps therein last night - do you have any solid recs for perfume-related apps for it?

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  4. Blue cheese?! I kind of hate the smell of blue cheese. And sometimes the mold seems to trigger a slight allergic reaction so it's hard to swallow for several hours. And you know what ... I kind of hate the smell of gardenia too. In perfume. I don't know that I've ever smelled a real gardenia. I love tuberose, like it might be my favorite note ever, but gardenia kind of turns my stomach. Is that weird?

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  5. I love it when my fragrances have that little bit of masculine edge. Though I'm a girly girl in a lot of things, I just can't wear the "feminine" fragrances.

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  6. http://notesfromjosephine.blogspot.com/2011/04/boyfriend-by-kate-walsh-were-item.html

    Josephine also liked it!

    Oh how many boyfriends have we had? hm

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  7. Hehe you called Kate Walsh a slut.

    Ok, I will smell this. I didn't want to, but you convinced me. Oh you wavy haired temptress, you!

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  8. I'm now interested in this. The "commercials," although strickly low-budget productions, are very funny. Thanks for posting them!

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  9. Stefush -- my solid rec for an perfume app is the one I'm launching shortly! Do you have a spy cam in Puckrik Towers or something?

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  10. Hey Katie, are there any vacancies in Puckrik Towers? I want to be your neighbor!

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  11. Suzy Q -- Fume-huffing neighbors! A novel idea for a sitcom if ever there was!


    Elisa and Stefush -- Suddenly concerned about the credblity of all my blue cheese chatter, I've reapplied Boyfriend to address your comments. *sniffs hand* There's definitely something twangy to Boyfriend. Now I want to call it the "pissy pineapple" that I detected in Black Orchid. It's creamy-sour, but "blue cheese" is somewhat overstating it. So Elisa, perhaps you might give Boyfriend the benefit of your consideration after all, unless pissy pineapple makes your throat close as well?

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  12. Geordan -- I know what you mean about the appeal of perfumes on l'homme side of life. It wasn't until recent years that I got into proper lady scents.


    Bloody Frida -- thanks for including the link to Josephine's post.


    lang -- I hadn't see the commercials until I'd done the review - they're really clever and charming.

    How many boyfriends have we had? How big is the bottle for all their names?

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  13. Katie Puckrik-Towers:

    Seriously about the app launch? Neato. I applaud your entrepreneurial spirit (and humbly submit for post of Ancillary Fragrance Reviewer/Recommender for this endeavor. I work cheap, i.e. for samples and whiskey.)

    The bar is way low also - the only app I've seen so far that has even a trace of depth is iPerfumer, which isn't saying a whole lot. Keep me posted!

    p.s. The new Ozmoz.com app is a sad, wan sorry little thing - I was greatly disappointed by it.

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  14. I just kept smiling at the "wavy haired temptress" reference...I have thought that myself about you.....:)

    sadly my bf isn't into scents...and one day will say...you smell good and the next day tell me I make his allergies flair up..what is a fumehead to do? that is what happens when you marry out of your tribe lol

    keep making us all smile, you wavy haired temptress.

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  15. I was about to run out and buy this unsniffed until I read Pissy Pineapple! Blue cheesy gardenia? No problem. But pissy pineapple just scares the crud out of me. Can you retract it? Let's go back to blue cheese, okay? I want to buy this unsniffed. The commercials are so anti-the usual actress-model-celebuscent that sales should be in order. And really, how does she keep a straight face, slowly crawling her way across that boardroom table. How many outtakes do they have for that scene?

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  16. Hmmm, pissy pineapple eh? I'm somewhat intrigued, more intrigued than by blue cheese. But you're reminding me that Luca Turin writes somewhere in the guide about the distinctly "cheesy" smell of pineapple, so perhaps we're just looking at two sides of the same smell.

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  17. P.S. The cheesiest perfume I've ever smelled was Annick Goutal Gardenia Passion. Holy mushroom turnovers! It goes straight past the bouquet into the appetizer tray.

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  18. LOL Elisa, I seem to remember "blue cheese" being talked about when people describe the smell of true gardenia, so there must be something to your aversion to both.

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  19. So first of all those videos are hilarious, even though the one makes it look like the Red Swingline-looking guy is the one wearing the fragrance.

    Katie, I haven't smelled BF yet but for some readon your description makes me think of a tanned-out version of Byredo Pulp that maybe spent spring semester abroad and somewhere beachy.

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  20. Stefush -- Double neato. And yes, seriously. Thanks for the enthusiasm.


    onesmalldog -- That is a sorrowful state of affairs: the fact that your love of fine perfume makes your beloved ill. You'd almost have to wear your fragrances on the sly: they're "the other man."


    melisand61 -- Ask and ye shall receive: an outtakes reel for Kate W's commercials:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQHGBBKgIgY&feature=channel_video_title

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  21. Elisa and melisand61 -- Holy Luca Turin! I think we *are* looking at two sides of the same smell. I'd forgotten about LT's observation in The Guide, but yeah, there it is: blue cheese = pissy pineapple, and if one of those grosses you out in a perfume, just tell yourself it's the other one.

    But I hasten to stress that there's merely a suggestion of sour twang in Boyfriend, not a full blown pu-pu platter.


    N -- Boyfriend doesn't have Pulp's bright Starburst fruit flava. It's nicely dark and muted. When I wore it again last night, it started to remind me somewhat of the billowy amber powder effect of VC&A's Midnight in Paris. "A muted Black Orchid" is really the closest description I can get.

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  22. I find the name of the perfume un-subtle to the point of being painful, but I can definitely relate to the concept, one certain someone comes to mind that used to leave his scent on my, my clothes anything he came into contact with like a caveman to his cave woman - and thankfully, it was a great scent! But there's also ambivalence towards the concept as in absence and melancholy, but perhaps that's just me.

    I didn't realize who Kate Walsh was until I saw the pictures above and I would buy the scent unsniffed on the basis of her appearance alone - I think she is one of the most gorgeous women on television these days, much unlike many of the desanguinated actresses that seem to rule in this day and age, on e.g. Desperate Housewives (with obvious exceptions).

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  23. Hi Katie,

    I made a visit to Sephora yesterday to get a small sample. I couldn't figure out what was bugging me about the fragrance at first. It wasn't as "edgy" as I was expecting, but "for the sake of science" (as my perfume penpal and I say), I sprayed it all over again today. That's when it hit me. The opening smells exactly like Organza Indecenze (sp) to me. Once I figured that out, and the fact that it's not truly going to be edgy like some unisex fragrances that I like, I realized that I really do like it quite well. Very excited to see that Sephora has the rollerball for $20, so I won't break the bank to have it around.

    Best,
    Geordan

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  24. Hmmm, I love gardenia's cheesy glory, so I'll just pretend I didn't hear Luca's comment next time I wear it. But it could come in handy. Next time my husband eats salad with blue cheese dressing, I'll have to sniff at the air and ask him about the pissy pineapple smell wafting from his greens! That'll teach him to wrinkle his nose at my indole-monster jasmines!

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  25. Geordan -- Intrigued by your finding, I just sprayed scent strips with Boyfriend and Organza Indecence. They do share a certain fruity-spicy billowiness. They're both warm and ambery-musky. But the delightful Indecence lives on the cookie side of life, and Boyfriend is emphatically woody. And smelling it again, I'm impressed with Boyfriend anew. I hope it does well, and shines a light down a path away from standard cupcake florals.

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  26. melisand61 -- I didn't think about that part of the equation: the fact that your husband may not share your "sophisticated hoochie" tastes in perfume. That sounds like a constant negotiation for you two.


    Junelady -- I'm sure the concept folks behind Boyfriend would tell you you're overthinking the whole thing, to focus on the horny caveman and ditch the melancholic abandonment musings. But you're right...one train of thought often leads to the other.

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  27. Katie, there are many good reason why I'm not in the advertising busines. I'd be voted kill joy of the month month after month after month.....

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  28. "Tropical Goth" sounds good to me! And "Muted Black Orchid" sounds encouraging too - I'll just try to forget the pissy fruit and blue cheese. Yes, on balance I am looking forward to catching up with this one. Oh, and I seem to recall that Kate Walsh is a bit of an Ajne fan too...

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  29. Vanessa, I'm curious to hear what you'll think of this one. As Geordan rightly pointed out, it's not edgy. But then I guess it all depends on where you locate your personal edge, because one of my regular YouTube commenters just pronounced it as containing something that smelled of "weasel piss" (ah - that will be my "pissy pinaepple")!

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  30. I just found your blog and have enjoyed it. I just received a sample of Boyfriend from Sephora. All I could think about was your blue cheese analogy before I tried it. (I hate blue cheese). I kind of can smell that. My opinion is that it isn't horrible, but I wouldn't want to own it and probably wouldn't wear it again. I like the vanilla part of it, but not a fan of the rest.

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  31. Hi JC -- welcome aboard! Sounds like you prefer your vanilla without all the trimmings. Especially twangy cheesy trimmings.

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  32. Applied Boyfriend to see if I could pick out coconut. Got it. To me, smells like the coconut musk combo used in BPAL. Blood Pearl comes to mind. There are others.

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  33. Anonymous, yeah, I found the coconut subtle, but present.

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