Perfume Saturdays: DKNY Be Delicious - A tale of skin chemistry

Back from my mini-holidays, with a review of a fresh summery scent that does not agree with my skin chemistry at all.

Summary:

Untrained nose description: Fresh, fruity and summery. Not sweet at all. A little linear, but that's OK for a summer day scent. Apple, a hint of lemon, fresh soap (the clean-smelling type, not the oily type) and cucumber (or is it green melon?). Maybe some green tea. Would be a good shampoo/shower gel scent, as long as cucumber/green melon does not turn rancid and weird on your skin.

Bottle: Round, apple shaped, with apple green transparent lower half and silver upper half, spray-bottle, 50 ml. Simple and aesthetically pleasing.

Price: Mid-range. It was a gift. Seems to be going around 50-55 euros on department stores (the 50 ml bottle size).

Status:Still in production, originally from 2004.

Manufacturer:Donna Karan, USA?.

Sillage and longevity: Projects to arm's length, not sure how long it lasts as I scrubbed it off after an hour.

Personal opinion: Does not agree with my skin chemistry at all. Turns weird and very unpleasant on me. Cannot wear it. :(

A long time ago, I used to go swimming at the University (that long ago). Back then, I used to like a Garnier shampoo which smelled of green apples and was marketed for children. I would come out of the swimming pool shower smelling like fresh chlorine and apples, and it was rather nice. This is how I expected this fragrance to smell like.

I received DKNY Be Delicious a few years later. A friend of mine must have noticed how I smelled back then and was reminded of me by the promise of green apples this simple, beautiful bottle contained. And the first time I sprayed it to the air, I thought I smelled green apples and happily stashed it for summer (it was just after Christmas).

Summer came, I tried it and it was awful. Gone was the beautiful green apple. Instead, an awful artificial smell reminiscing of bug spray, something like synthetic cucumber overpowering all the rest and an unpleasant hint of ammonia. I hated it and could not understand what had happened.

Today I tried it again just after showering and solved the mystery: melon/cucumber notes turn weird on my skin.

I applied it after drying myself from the shower and it actually started OK. Finally I could smell again the green apple and a hint of lemon, and the cucumber was soft and not offending. A little soapy too. Not what I usually look for in perfume (more of a shower gel scent, or shampoo), but pleasing in a simple way.

Unfortunately, as my skin warmed up and started smelling like me (and I like my natural smell very much), the cucumber note turned weird, overpowering, synthetic and rancid.

My chemistry and this scent do not mix well. But I see that this scent could be nice on a different skin.