Sunday, April 22, 2012

Perfume Review: Truth or Dare by Madonna


Yesterday I went in to my local Perfumes&Companhia store to pick up some more of my beloved Estee Lauder cleanser (more on that in a forthcoming post) and upon checking out I was given a sample of Madonna's new perfume Truth or Dare.





I have soft spot for Madonna. My parents had the record (actual vinyl!) of Like a Virgin and when I was a kid I loved it. I also played plenty of Madonna when I used to DJ at a gay club. Unfortunately Madge's album sales are not doing that great. In fact, her lastest album MDNA is expected to drop 88 percent in sales from her debut week - apparently the biggest second week drop in music charts history (source: Forbes). Truth be told, I kinda like the album! I'm sure she's hoping to pick up sales from her new perfume.


And an interesting perfume it is!


At first I was taken a back by the heady tuberose/gardenia in it. I really am not a fan of tuberose and gardenia fragrances because now they remind me of Kim Kardashian's awful first scent. Yuck! I stuffed my Truth or Dare sample away and thought I'd smell it later after it dries down.

The evening progressed and I then caught a wiff of it on my wrist. Wow. It softened up quite a bit to an almost musky gourmand floral on me - warm vanilla, gardenia and amber. The tuberose is still there and it smells very "fleshy". If you want to smell expensive, this is a good option! Its a very ballsy fragrance. Madonna was right when she said it takes a daring woman to wear this.

I think a lot of younger people may immediately think "old lady" but I think there is something very different about this perfume for me. Under the strong heady tuberose and gardenia there's that deep dark amber and smokey benzoin pull. Its incredibly mysterious and, dare I say, slightly lecherous. In a good way!

My prediction: this is either going to put Madonna in the "jumped the shark" category or seriously going to boost her image. Either way, I still lover her.

(As of posting this, the fragrance is available at Macy's stores and Macy's website within the US and at Perfumes&Companhia stores and online within Portugal.)

When life hands you lemons...

I know. I hear you. Its been a while. Life got busy. What can I say. I have a couple posts coming up but in the meantime - make these lemon bars! They're so amazing with fresh squeezed lemon juice. (And they're so easy that my non-baker husband can make them!)



Recipe here:  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/the-best-lemon-bars/

Photo and recipe from AllRecipes.com (photo taken by mominml)