Zadig & Voltaire This Is Her! EDP Natural Spray: A spray for everyone

This is her! This eau de Parfum was one of the Scentbird perfumes that G purchased. She and I share a lot of similar fragrance notes so I was curious to see what it smelled like. It was just about time to add this to my Scentbird list when I noticed that FragranceNet had testers on sale for a hugely discounted price.

The price of a 50ml/1.6fl. The price for a full 50 ml/1.6 fl. oz. bottle, in its original packaging was only $32 plus change. It was too good to pass up.

The notes of the fragrance were not known to me, so I did not check it on Fragntica before buying. I went with it.

It was a real full-size bottle in its original packaging, and I’m so glad it came to me.

Both the top and bottom of the package say, “Tester”. It says “Not for Sale” but it looks like a new packaging or bottle that can be purchased anywhere. It’s a great deal!

Both the box and the bottle say “Art 4 All”. As I said, I did not know much about the scent. This is Her! Art 4 All was launched by Zadig & Voltaire in 2021, making it a brand new scent. According to a fragrance website, Art 4 All was a limited-edition. I didn’t know I had bought the wrong This Is Her!

This blind purchase was a pleasant surprise. I expected an amber smell since G. and myself both like the scent. This product does not contain any amber. It has no of my favorite notes, except for vanilla. Zadig & Voltaire original This is Her! The 2016 launch is a vanilla amber fragrance. It’s not surprising that this is what my friend G gets from Scentbird. That’s what I was looking forward to trying!

Zadig & Voltaire have released a zillion line extensions for This Is Her! There’s also the Capsule Collection and the Capsule Collection 2019. There are also This Is Love!, This Is Me!, This Is Us! and Just Rock! For Her. It’s very confusing, especially if you are new to this brand.

This is the information I found about Art 4 All on the Z&V site:

Cecilia Bonstrom (Zadig&Voltaire artistic director) came up with an idea for a contest, Zadig Wants you, which offered the chance to be the designer of Art 4 All. Charlotte Daotrong chose a Voltairean, vibrant and modern Paris at night to illustrate on the iconic bottle. The limited edition THIS IS HER bottle is available in this special release. Eau De Toilette is a colourful, fruity fragrance. A mango’s exoticism enhances a chestnut, jasmine and jasmine accord. Zadig&Voltaire’s vanilla sandalwood signature is a reminder that cashmere worn close to the skin .”is voluptuous.

Zadig & Voltaire’s This is Her, however, does not have the same spicy oriental scents that I usually use. This is definitely a female fragrance. It’s a scent for young people, IMHO. This is a floral fruity scent. In my life, I’ve never bought a floral fruity.

But I did not go to Paris when I turned 21. When I entered a department shop to purchase a French perfume for myself, I already knew which one I wanted. It was Je Reviens from Worth. The base notes, which are amber, incense musk and tonka beans, still fascinate me, even though it is a floral. The saleswoman replied in French, “Non! C’est for les grandmeres!”. I had meant to say that the perfume was intended for my grandmother. I felt humiliated. She was insistent that I purchase Caron Fleurs de Rochelle, and brought me a square glass perfume bottle. It was a good price, so I purchased it. It smelled to me like spring but also bananas. After doing a little research, it was strange that she insisted I purchase Fleurs de Rocaille instead of Je Reviens. They both had almost identical notes, and were released a year apart in 1933 and 34. The one was “pour les grandsmeres”, and the other, for 21-year-olds. I will never know.

Please excuse my diversion. That’s the story of my purchase of a fruity-floral. This Is Her. Art for All.

This is Her! The main accords in This Is Her!

• tropical
• fruity
• Sweets
• vanilla
• Woody
• Powdery
• Balsamic vinegar
• Warm spicy
• nutty
• terpenic.

It took me a while to find “terpenic”. Terpenes are something I’ve heard about, but didn’t really know. Terpenes give scents their aroma. Terpenes, originally derived from plant material, can be synthesized to create all sorts of scents. This doesn’t tell me much about what “terpenic”, in the sense of smell, means. It’s okay.

This is Her sprays on! The top note of Art 4 is mango. The middle notes are introduced after a while: frangipani and jasmine (almond blossom). The base notes that I prefer, such as vanilla and sandalwood (which smell like cashmere), never really reach me. The scent has already disappeared by then.

This fragrance is not for me. It’s not something I hate, but it’s also nothing I love. It would make a great spring or summer fragrance. The scent is tropical. It’s definitely a scent that can be worn day or night. The fragrance is not very strong, and stays near the skin. (Although, it’s the mango, rather than cashmere, that sticks to your skin.) It lasts several hours, which is funny. While the scents that I like (all of them big, spicy Oriental scents) disappear quickly, this one seems to linger. Well, that’s okay.

It’s unlikely that I could return it, so I won’t keep it. I may give it to a friend in my area or sell it on Buy Nothing. It was a good deal to pay only $33 instead of the full price. It’s strange that the “regular” price I could find was only on the Zadig & Voltaire website, where it is 78 Euros which is today $89.14 in U.S. Dollars. This limited edition must be limited.

Now I’m going to look for a place where I can get a sample of original This is Her amber and vanilla. The 0.27 ml sample at Scentbird would be $25.95. I’m not willing to pay that amount in the event it’s not for me. MicroPerfumes will have a small size, I am sure.