Cheap & Chic Moschino perfume – a fragrance for women 1995

Fragrance Review For Cheap & Chic

Moschino

Top Notes

Bergamot Petit Grain Yuzu Brazilian Rosewood

Middle Notes

Cyclamen Rose Water Lily Peony Violet Jasmine

Base Notes

Musk Vanilla Tonka Orchid Sandalwood Vetiver Iris Ambergris

I was very late to this fragrance party from Moschino. Oh how I love to go to their fashion shows in Milan. Moschino is in the vanguard of modernist and post modern fashions, artistic, outrageous, creative, wild, fabulous and unpredictable. They had a fashion show a couple of years ago with the models sporting Mattel box Barbie doll clothing! Yesterday’s Moschino fashion show presented a T shirt with the logo Trash Chic and a handbag shaped like toilet paper. And Moschino’s fragrances especially their more recent creations are just as innovative. Never before had I discovered a fragrance line that so perfectly matches up with their clothing line. And though I am not new to their fashions I am new to their fragrances and I’m getting to know them every time I go to Milan and become familiar with Moschino. I absolutely love their Fresh Couture frag bottle shaped like a Windex cleaning product bottle. This frag is shaped like well I suppose this is Olive Oyl from Popeye, only looking away from us in a contortion of her plastic thin body. This was released in ’95. I never wore it. This is a typical fruity floral yummy youthful fragrance of the 90’s though bursting with color and life. It reminds me a bit of Nina Ricci’s Deci Dela. The fruity sweetness and the florals, plus the powder notes (iris) and that vanilla note is heavenly, a well composed fragrance for the sweet young things that wear it. If this is what Olive Oyl smelled like it’s no wonder Brutus was always grabbing her and trying to kiss her.

The first spritz of Cheap & Chic made me realize why they are calling it Cheap & Chic. At one point it sort of reminded me of the very cheap drugstore fragrance Adidas Floral Dream. It has a very typical citrus starter note. A juicy bergamot orange and a lemony tartness. There’s a tropical yuzu fruit note which smells like fruit shampoo from Fructis Garnier. A great summer scent to wear in the warmth of the noon day sun for your casual get together and cocktails with girlfriends. The citrus is aromatic and a bit green, lemony, zesty and delicious as a fruit scent. Then it becomes floral, very floral, sweet and soapy and never too mature as a floral.

The heart consists of the floral notes of rose, a powdery type of rose with equal parts powdery iris flower and sweet dainty feminine flowers like water lilies, peonies and jasmine. The violet note stands out to me. It is a big violet and iris fragrance. The powdery floral heart is unmistakably feminine and girly even. Smells innocent and like something a little girl in elementary school could wear, I suppose, if she spritz lightly and doesn’t over do it. It has a pre-teen and teenager body because it’s light subtle sweet and tasty without being edible or gourmand or too cloyingly sugary sweet. The florals are very well made and it smells like a lot of sweet powdered flowers.

The base notes reveal a dry down stage performance that comes off as more mature than youthful but not too old lady ish. The musk is detectable but this is the kind of musk that turns powdery and not heavily leathery or animalistic. There is so much vanilla in the dry down that it continues to smell youthful and delicious. Who doesn’t like vanilla ? The vanilla here is wonderful. An orchid and iris top off the florals and smells more of a sweet orchid in the end, and sandalwood with vetiver, slightly green but mostly musky-powdery. It has a good base to support the sweet florals and citrus. This is a good starter fragrance for beginners and novices perfumista.

They are calling it cheap and chic and I can see why. Yes sometimes it does smell cheap and other times chic. The rose-vanilla and sandalwood plus powdery violet-iris give it a more grown up chic air, but the sweet citrus and florals are a bit cheap, but never in a bad way. It’s fresh, delicious, feminine day wear fragrance to wear when you want to smell like spring time and like a girl because the girl in us never dies or disappears even through the years.

One thing I don’t get is the Italian association. This is nowhere near an Italian or Euro fragrance. It’s very American and very casual, very adolescent and pleasant. It’s from the 90’s but it is so modern that it could be worn today or in 30 years. A simple fruity floral that is timeless and lovely.

Wearing it to today’s Milan Fashion Shows!