In Bloom: buying guide to Gucci Bloom
Praise be to Alessandro Michele. Since the visionary designer has taken the helm at Gucci, things have been smelling gooooood. Gucci Guilty Absolute Pour Femme and her brother have both been deeply satisfying releases, but Bloom is the franchise just keeps on giving.
When this heavenly deluxe edition, with its retro-inspired black bulb and tassel atomizer spray, landed on my desk last week I fell in love all over again and if you are as conflicted as me, maybe we need a pros and cons list. Or a personality test or SOMETHING, because how is a girl to choose?
Three takes on that super easy wearing tuberose (it’s the best flower – fight me on it, I dare you) now sit waiting for your sniffing pleasure. Choices. Do they make you anxious? Let me attempt to assist.
Gucci Bloom
When the original Bloom landed, I believe I claimed it made a smudged lip and inability to resist glittery things seem legit. And maybe this too:
Alessandro Michele is a guy with a vision. And it appears that vision involves some retro rose-coloured glasses and a bunch of bohemian nymphs sashaying around an artfully dilapidated mansion somewhere exotic.
The OG Bloom is dewy, sparkly, spiked with just the right dose of citrusy fresh mandarin. Young without being candy sweet. Contemporary and easy wearing without ever feeling like a cop out. And the fact that Bloom resists the cookie-cutter vanilla/musk melt down of so many designer fragrances, instead sliding into a powdery leather – really there’s a lot to love.
Gucci Bloom Acqua di Fiori
But before a girl could blink, Acqua di Fiori hit the shelves like a plunge into the overgrown garden of whatever party Gucci’s throwing. A dose of bitter galbanum accentuates the exoticism of the original Bloom, while refreshing it, pulling back on some of the swoon. A dive into a lily pond, a barefoot walk through dewy grass just before dawn, the slap and crunch of stems trodden on the way back to that cheap island beach hut after an evening of sun-tan soaked shimmying. Acqua di Fiori is real fantasy stuff as far as I’m concerned and I think it’s my favourite, although the final dry-down is more generic skin scent and less boudoir bustier.
Gucci Bloom Nettare di Fiori
And if Acqua di Fiori is a jungle plunge, Nettare di Fiori is a soak in the heat of the afternoon sun. The opening gets its new kick from ginger, a note that’s having a moment right now for its fresh-but-warm inviting character, like vanilla without the cookie connotations, like pink pepper without that catch in the back of the throat. With the added creaminess of osmanthus flower and a lil hit of patchouli in the base for earthiness, Nettare di Fiori is like Bloom with a killer tan and maybe an extra piercing after a summer in Marrakech (or in my case, Muscat). But it’s not a crazy departure from the original.
The classic fresh composition of Bloom was a very clever first release, a fairly neutral palette that’s easily skewed to a flanker that suits your style. I would pick Acqua di Fiori because I’m quite partial to curling my toes in the grass, but I do find the dry down of the original the most pleasant.
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Would that Rangoon Creeper look good under your Christmas tree? I’ll be giving away my Deluxe Edition, complete with tasseled atomiser spray, to one lucky subscriber.