Persolaise Review: White Luminous Gold from Michael Kors (2015)

The soundbites
If White Luminous Gold were a colour, it would be an easy-on-the-eye yellow.
If it were a texture, it would be the softness of mimosa blossoms.
If it were an item of clothing, it would be a wide-brimmed straw hat, ready for the summer.

The review
You don’t see much written about the Michael Kors scent collection on the blogosphere. But since the beginning of the century, the Lauder-owned brand has been releasing a stream of competent fragrances: largely pleasant, by-the-numbers creations, of the sort beloved by people who buy only one or two bottles per year, usually at a duty free store. Then, a few months ago, they gave us the Gold trio. Granted, two of the scents in the set – Rose Radiant Gold and 24K Brilliant Gold – aren’t notable for their inventiveness: the former is a relaxed, sunset-cocktail-sipping tuberose/ylang and the latter is a breezy, light-salad-at-lunchtime floral which, if you sniff hard enough, presents a sedate sweet pea facet. However, White Luminous Gold is an altogether more intriguing prospect. Fizzing to life with convincing citrus notes (an allusion to the luminosity in the name?) it then presents a cascade of white chocolate shavings as well as a shimmer of dessert-like green notes before settling on restrained woods and musks. In perfume-geek-speak, it’s ‘Habit Rouge meets Coromandel meets Dune‘, with a dash of grapefruit and plum for originality. All of which makes it one of the most welcome fresh orientals we’ve had for a while. Do seek it out.

[Review based on a sample of eau de parfum provided by Michael Kors in 2015.]

Persolaise