Don’t miss the post on Lady Million’s beautifully crafted campaign, with images and interviews!

I’m going to start off this review with the truth: I quite dislike Lady Million. It simply isn’t my type of fragrance, at all! I like the bottle, simply because the spray mechanism is interesting and the design is quite fresh, but the fragrance? …not so much. It is described as a “fresh woody floral,” and was designed by Anne Flipo, Béatrice Piquet and Dominique Ropion. It’s strange to have a fragrance fall into three categories, and even more strange to have it designed by three different people, but I was determined to give it a try all the same.

Lady Million opens with neroli, bitter orange, and raspberry. I find the fragrance way, way too strong when first sprayed — it’s not just overwhelming, it’s knock-you-to-the-floor overwhelming. Very sweet and very sharp, to the point where it’s hard to distinguish one note for another: it’s just all one big mess of scent.

Given five or ten minutes, Lady Million begins to calm down, and reveals orange flower and Arabian jasmine absolute. The syrupy-sweet edge is taken down a bit (though not entirely,) and the floral femininity of the scent is expressed more clearly.

Finally, Lady Million dries down to a confusing jumble of all of the above, plus some honey and patchouli. She’s high on sillage, obviously, and hangs around for ages — I spritzed this upon receiving it, and could smell its drydown in the air for the next two or three days!

Simply put, I think this was a fragrance created with good intentions, but it ended up being poorly executed. It feels as if the three perfumers couldn’t decide on a perfume to make (fresh, woody, or floral,) and created three scents on their own — and then just blended them together.

However, I’m not going to knock Lady Million completely. I have very, very specific fragrance tastes, and this just didn’t fall into them. (Which was surprising, because I think 1 Million, the men’s fragrance for which this is a counterpart to, isn’t half bad!) So…

Try this if…

• You usually like celebrity fragrances, as this is very “celebrity fragrance”!
• You find your skin has a tendency to “eat” perfume, leaving you scentless before noon.

Be sure to try this on your skin, and give it time, if you like the sound of the notes. I find that the “feel” of Lady Million remains the same from top to bottom notes, but the compilation and strength of the scent fluctuate quite a bit as different molecules diffuse into the air.


Another idea: This comes in 30, 50, and 80ml concentrations (all in Eau de Parfum,) but it is also produced in a body care range. It’s main problem is that it is simply so overwhelming, so try the body care range! A dab of lotion is usually much easier to wear than a spritz of perfume.

Alternately, you could try being a little chemist and blend a small amount of your EdP in an atomizer with either distilled water or alcohol to dilute it. This can sometimes cause clouding of the perfume, but won’t damage the scent itself!

Lady Million launches on September 15th (one week from today,) though I do believe other countries may have gotten it first!

Pssst… Canadians who purchase 1 Million or Lady Million on Sephora.com will receive a free mini his or her bottle while supplies last! Sorry I don’t have more details; I kind of sort of maybe deleted the email by mistake >.<