Package came on time with correct order.
I ordered 7 samples to try, and I was most excited about Bora Bora. I'm from Hawaii and used to travel to Tahiti regularly to visit family, and tiare, jasmine and coconut feel so nostalgic to me. I thought it would feel like a really elegant take on a Polynesian type of white floral and coconut scent profile.
Unfortunately, after trying this four different times and trying to love it, I just can't stand it. It smells very sharp and a bit metallic to me. I don't get the tiare, jasmine or ylang ylang. I get a little bit of apricot, and it does start to smell better in the dry down (I get the vanilla, caramel and white musk), but I don't get Tahiti from this at all. I don't even get like, beach/summer/vacation. And I've tested this both on skin and test strips.
I'm just so thankful I second guessed blind buying Borabora. Now, it is a popular fragrance and a lot of people love it and describe getting the white floral and coconut. So you may love it; but definitely sample it first.
Happily, I LOVE 4 of the other samples I bought. :)
When I was a kid in the 80s and 90s my dad worked in a government office. On rare, exciting days we'd pop in and visit him. This perfume captures the smell of that office perfectly. I swear the moment I sprayed it I was back in the foyer, Heidi behind us, ushering us through the doors. Cubicles everywhere, glass walls that let in far too much heat and blinded everyone with reflections from windscreens in the carpark. My dad's scent as he hauled me out of the meeting room in a hug after I erased a week-long meeting's worth of diagrams from the whiteboard so I could draw cows. The smell of his suitcase - locked tight, so of course it was full of treasure. The laptop that was anything but portable, that had only one program - a word processor - and the hours I spent hidden under his desk typing stories, the only thing I would stay quiet for.
But it's not just that it's nostalgic for me. I mean, this perfume LITERALLY smells like that. It smells like an 80s and 90s office. It smells like cheap leather, old coffee, and electronics that really need to be dusted more often. It's weird, but it's actually so good.
amazing and unique smell; have now bought a full bottle from the excellent sample