Perfume is often characterized as having the power to allure or seduce. When you start reading about perfumes, there is a quality folks talk about, which is that a perfume is "naughty" or "dirty." Theperfumedcourt.com describes it thusly: "We refer to skank as the base in an otherwise beautiful perfume that gives it a bit of flirt. It may smell a little bit of skin or have a slightly musky smell that shows up after you put on the perfume and your body's natural warmth heats it up. It's not a bad thing at all!"
Naturally curious, naturally, I had to check this property out. A lot of perfume makes the claim to sexy muskiness. Theperfumedcourt.com’s review of Bella Bellissima’s “Perfect Night” says this: “This opens all incense and quickly unfolds into a sensuous and very, very naughty perfume.” I like naughty—naughty is good. Bring it on!
Out of the bottle, “Perfect Night” is about a 4 out of 10 saturation. Fresh pink grapefruit flesh wafts under my nose for the time it takes to dry on my elbow (and on paper), and is gone. Woody notes dominate for the first 5-10 minutes.
Then, I perceive “Perfect Night” clicking into a two-tier scent structure: a lovely but ethereal, almost retreating floral poof over the heat radiating from the fur of a wild, panting animal. The musk-and-incense base of PN is so smoky hot, it smells like the spent phosphorous and pine char of a freshly extinguished wooden match. It is a terrific smell, every bit as naughty as promised. PN most definitely reacts with skin chemistry-- on paper it has no heat at all.
My problem with PN is that pretty-princess top note—when I first smelled it, the image that popped into my mind was the little pink rose lingerie designers put on cheesy garters. A dainty signifier of feminine virtue that says “Oh, when the lights are out, I might do a few bad things, but don’t be fooled, I’m really a good girl.”
Nuts to that! When I want naughty, I want naughty—I want a perfume that distills the essence of whatever was in that Carl's Jr. burger that made Paris Hilton rut like a stoat and decide to take a bubble bath on top of a car in her Versace one-piece.
There’s a primal “wow” in this scent, but over the top of it is too “pretty to please.”
“Perfect Night” is one of those frustrating disappointments that has an element I truly love but isn’t fully actualized. (Another frustration—the scent breaks down to just the incense element after 45-60 minutes. No lasting power. Naughty wants to go all night!) The orgy of musky coals in this scent has set a standard that I will judge all future dirrrty scents by, but it gets me all fired up, then leaves me wanting more.
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