DKNY Be Delicious City Blossom Rooftop Peony, Urban Violet & Empire Apple (2014) {Perfume Short Reviews}
How to Riff on a Good One
City Blossom is the latest limited-edition collection for the Be Delicious franchise by DKNY. In the United States, it's presented as a new trio although only two fragrances out of the three are newly created. In the Asia-Pacific region, two other different perfumes were launched as part of a regional City Blossom concept with Avenue Iris and Terrace Orchid. Despite the global scale of the launches, the project remains very much a targeted project intended it seems mostly for Be Delicious aficionados. What perhaps transpires from these cultural shifts is that DKNY may have in mind a similar type of young woman urbanite, be she active in Hong Kong or New York...
Empire Apple
Empire Apple releases the same deliciously crisp and clean apple scent that we have come to know. Composed by perfumer Maurice Roucel in 2004, it scores high on the scale of wholesome freshness (cucumber, grapefruit...) while offering a discreet sensation of sensuality thanks to the magnolia - the French perfumer's fetish floral note - but also the tuberose. DKNY Be Delicious smells of a very crisp and fresh green apple rolled in a white, clean and steam-pressed white shirt. Today, it smells of hay to our nose. But it's exactly the same fragrance as the original; only the packaging changes matching the two others with a common botanical theme.
Urban Violet
The opening makes you think of pear and violets and vanilla cream. It's fruity, crisp, with the trademark crispness borrowed from the original Be Delicious. The violet is slightly powdery and woody (iris), but barely, as it was obviously modernized with all quaint associations discarded. It is mostly a green and fruity violet fragrance, and later an oriental one. As the scent develops, the violet becomes prettier and more feminine. But it never becomes really romantic. Its Sex-and-the-City stilettoes remain firmly attached to an energetic New Yorker's step. Even when the violet accord softens further, there is a Kool-Aid fizz and bubbliness to the floral interpretation which keeps it attuned to the city that never sleeps. The drydown is the same as that for Rooftop Peony making use of a "dating accord" resting on synthetic sandalwood which smells close to sexy feminine sweat except for the cassis. It ends up smelling of violet, licorice and milk lollipops. It's the most obviously "complicated" and rich of the lot while smelling a bit too much of candy for its own good.
Rooftop Peony
A bright, citrusy opening with a juicy mandarin/peachy nuance inaugurates the festivities. This is a fresh musky floral where the pink peony's aquatic accents are paired with a slightly richer Bulgarian rose absolute.
What typifies this fragrance most is its "musk" aspect relying for sensual effect on a synthetic sandalwood. It ends up mimicking the scent of sweaty, sexy skin best with its sligtly high-pitched acrid note hanging in the air. Rooftop Peony is of the three the one most up for a party, hedonistic mood. It's still clean but there is a suggestion of hotness. It is also the most fleeting it seems of the three.
All three are moderately lasting, maybe to encourage you to switch often although Empire Apple/Be Delicious retains the qualities of diffusion of the original. They seem to address themselves to busy, young professional women with a dating calendar on the horizon. It all makes sense when you think of their primary target group.
