Fan Di Fendi: The Top 20 Women's Fragrances of 2011 - A Scents of Self Production

*Current Fragrance: I'm post shower, so all I can smell is my leave in conditioner and Peace massage bar.
*Currently Listening: After Tonight by Justin Nozuka

I can't believe that it's been over a month since I've done any posting about the Top 20 Project, but I PROMISE I have a legitimate reason. I've been posting about the Top 20 in alphabetical order, but saving the number one seller (Chanel Coco Mademoiselle) for last. My last entry was about Chanel Chance and its two flankers that made it into the Top 20, so the next one alphabetically would be Chanel No. 5, and there lies the problem.

Back to No Disassemble Charlie No. 5's first post we go:

So the title. "No Disassemble Charlie No. 5"!?!?! Kathleen...what the hell is going on with that? Let me explain...it has to do with two of my earliest perfume associated memories. . . .

The other one takes me out to the country. My paternal grandparents lived Magnolia Spring, TX on a farm...I use the term farm loosely. We refereed to it as The Farm. They had a garden...(which I would directly pull the carrots from the ground and try to eat them, dirt and all. My mother insisted on an intermediary step of me swiping them back and forth a few times of my corduroy pants - complete w/ rainbow patches sewn on the back - before eating them. Yes, I had an orange nose from time to time as a child.)....and when I was quite young, horses. But I digress. I have a very strong memory of my Granny LeBlanc (for whom her standing Christmas gift from me was a spray bottle of Designer  Imposter's "Primo")....I was in the bathroom where she kept her perfumes, and I ran across a bottle of Chanel No. 5. I think I was about 6 or 7.  I remember I was smelling it, thinking "Hmmmm...Granny doesn't really smell like this..." About that time she walking in and I was caught! She smiled, took the bottle from me, clicked the black cap monogrammed w/ the interlocking white "C's" back on the bottle, and as she placed the bottle back on the shelf she said, "Kathleen, ladies don't wear Chanel until they're at least 50, remember that." Looking back, I'm going to guess she meant Chanel No. 5, but still...I still haven't managed to buy myself any Chanel perfume, thinking it would be a gate-way drug of sorts. This has also fueled my odd reverence towards Chanel. As many strolls as I've made past the one in Boston, I've only been one Chanel boutique, and it was in NYC, to buy nail polish - which is also linked to my Granny (but that's another story). This Chanel boutique was directly adjacent to a Dior boutique...my head almost exploded. Again...another story, for another time....

I've managed to get Chanel perfume on my skin, but Chanel No. 5 - I just can't do it, and I WON'T do it! Perhaps it seams a little silly, but I have this feeling if I did put some Chanel No. 5 on my skin I would feel a very non-positive shift in "The Force", so I'm just letting it go. 

The perfume blogosphere is continue to do its thing without a review of Chanel No. 5 done by little ol' me and I refuse to do a write up of something so iconic without having skin time with it. (Rest assured, the SECOND I turn 50, I'll be picking up a bottle; but that will be difficult given I was born at 5:40AM CST.)

That now brings us to Fan di Fendi. Let's go ahead and jump right in....

1) Prior Experience: I've blogged about Fan di Fendi before as part of the Perfumed Primary Project, but before that, really nothing.

2) Thoughts Now: I'm actually going to go with what my observations were in late January. I don't think all that much would have changed, and I remember giving it considerable thought before writing about it...

Fan di Fendi touts itself as "a fresh floral on a leather base". Here's how the notes break down (as according to Fan di Fendi's website) -

Top Notes: flickers of green with green tea, Calabrian tangerine, and petit grain from the Sicilian lemon tree, a vibrant zest of light

Middle Notes: ...flowers of the sun. Italian Broom absolute replaces the Damascus rose with the same femininity. The note is more solar like the Yellow jasmine accord.

Base Notes: Patchouli and the leather suede accord recalls the Cuoio Romano of Fendi creations, a supple leather with a very soft and velvety trail...

My thoughts: Here's what I jotted down...exactly -

11 am: Light yellow white spice

11:15 am: Generic but non offensive - but not really interesting...oh yeah, generic.

1:15pm: Sweet leather ---> close, CLOSE to skin; DEEEEEP sniffs.

I found Fan di Fendi to be pretty mainstream (i.e. generic). It didn't offend me in any way. To me the best part of the fragrance was the sweet leather base note that it left on my skin a little after two hours from initially spraying it. Very close and personal; and honestly after initially spraying it on me, completely unexpected!

I definitely remember Fan di Fendi being not that special until the dry-down, and really being fond of it, BUT I've got to find the entire fragrance captivating to really get unto it.

3) Could I see myself wearing this perfume? If so, for what occasion: No, no. See previous statement.

4) So Kathleen...would you actually buy a bottle?: No. The only reason I think it made it to the Top 20 List was because it was new, and S.A.'s we pushing it. I'd be surprised to see it on the 2012 list. 

5) What did Al think?: I remember letting him smell it in January, his response, "Meh."

6) What about the smelling strip?: Eek! The blotter I did for Fan di Fendi is LONG gone.

*Currently Listening: Enjoy The Silence by Depeche Mode

**Photo credits: 1) thescentsofself.com 2) sephora.com