Gabrielle vs Gabrielle Essence ~ Fragrance Reviews

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When Gabrielle was launched in 2017, it caused a controversial reaction. I had high hopes and really wanted to praise it (I love Chanel,) but it lacked depth, complexity, strength; it was a Chanel fragrance, but very dry and scarce, fronted by awkward Kristen Stewart… So when I learned about the new Gabrielle Essence, with a new face, I, like many others, hoped that the “ugly duckling” would grow into a beautiful swan.

I got a sample of Gabrielle Essence several days ago, and it instantly made me miss the good old Gabrielle.

Gabrielle Essence is exactly what they told us: A more voluptuous, rounded and warm fragrance, revealing a floral side of Gabrielle. I can say it’s beautiful, but also extremely boring. Gabrielle Essence is a feminine fragrance, and it is hard to attribute anything to it more specifically. It is not a Chanel fragrance: It is larger, and can make a fine representation of women’s perfume as a phenomenon of modern civilization (to be sent into space with some other pieces of knowledge of what we are and can do.)

It appears that Olivier Polge, upset by the public and executives’ comments about Gabrielle, put it into a blender, added some jasmine and vanilla (“lacking femininity you said? I will show you femininity!”), and hit the button. What we got is a very congeneric feminine fragrance, frameless, for every woman.

Jasmine from Grasse is supposed to be its key ingredient, and I don’t see any reason to doubt it, the question is why to waste pricey material to make it smell mediocre and even somewhat synthetic in a general public view? For some reason, lately, perfumers try to persuade us that we are supposed to like “aged” jasmine (sweet white florals from 80–90s) with a standard seductress kit of musk and vanilla. Jasmine, natural or not, loses its innocence in their lusty embrace, starts sweating and suffocating, and finally screams. All you can do to relieve its suffering is to wash it off with soap. By the way, in this phase Gabrielle Essence is quite similar to its peer Idôle Lancome.

Gabrielle Essence is a beautiful perfume, by all means, it is just spiritless. But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise for me to find a beauty in the first one, Gabrielle. The composition of the original is so scattered and thinned out, compared to thoroughly ground Gabrielle Essence, that it comes refreshing and even rejuvenating. It reminds me of shy, Northern sunlight and is loaded with hope, revealing nothing.

I admire Chanel’s thoroughness in details of its fragrances representation–the color, the shape, the face of the fragrance are always a perfect match! As in the case of the perfect match of Kristen Stewart with Gabrielle, the impeccable beauty of Margot Robbie expresses the mature feminine essence of its successor in the beautifully standard ad campaign. I can’t help thinking that the choice of the model and and the entire aesthetic of the campaign is what Estée Lauder would have done sometime ago. Gabrielle Essence has happened before.

And I want to return to the teenage period of Gabrielle with its unspoken suppressed desires. I am calling you to read the Ode to Gabrielle by Alex (Sane-Witch) Osipov.