Annick Goutal 'Mandragore' EDT.

I got this back in my December 2011 Feel Unique box, and have been using it pretty much every day since I got it, although I didn't like it at first, but wore it because I had no better perfume to wear (I never buy perfume, I always use what I get given during birthdays/Christmas).
However, the scent really grew on me, so much so that now I actually really love it and it's probably my favourite perfume in recent times.

The perfumes that get bought for me are normally quite sweet-smelling perfumes, which is fine because I love that sort of really girly/sickly-sweet kind of perfume.

The actual product description on Annick Goutal's own website is here;

"Fascinated by the mysterious and spellbinding mandragore, Camille Goutal and Isabelle Doyen wanted to capture the powers of this plant to the multiple legends to create a unique fragrance, where the feminine and the masculine merge in a secret harmony. Mandragore... Its very name is reminiscent of ancient times, when men kept secret their knowledge of the power of plants. A mysterious name for a perfume at the uncommon elegance, presented in a purple bottle to reflect the color of the plant. A scent which likes the skin, for both a man and a woman."

This perfume is very different to those sweeter smells I like to wear. I think that was why I really didn't like it at first, it is actually so different from something I would have picked out for myself!
It's very unusual, and harbours strong citrus-sy notes. There are notes of "citrus, aromatic, spicy (Bergamot, blackpepper, peppermint, star anis, boxwood, ginger, sage, iris, ciste roots, labdanum)", which as a collective sound quite a mysterious bunch of ingredients!
I think these smells all combine to create a really deep, heady, dark, mysterious, seductive and really sensual smell. It is actually quite a 'sexy' smell. It doesn't smell like little girls (think the 'Charlie' sprays, bluergh), and it doesn't smell like your average perfume. The old romantic inside me thinks of midnights liaisons and forbidden love whenever I smell this perfume.

I think it is quite a delicate smell and not at all overpowering, and this may be because it is an EDT and not the perfume. However, I don't like it when you can smell perfume from miles off, I prefer a subtle smell more noticeable when you get within .

The sample bottle itself was lovely. A little rectangular purple matte bottle, with gold leaf and stalk patterns. The bottle really emphasises the sensuous, mysterious personality of the EDT perfectly I think.
I also love the long gold spray-tube (I don't actually know it's proper name) on the top, it gives the bottle an air of elegance and perhaps royalty.
But, to top that ramble off, I really love the bottle and it accentuates the scent of the perfume amazingly.
However, when looking on the Annick Goutal website, you can quite clearly see that the bottle featured on the website is a lot different from what we recieved in the box. That said, I think both bottles are superb and would look amazing on my dresser.

What I also like about the perfume is that it's for both sexes. You can't beat a good multi-use product! I think it would smell pretty darn good on a man, although after wearing it on myself for so long I think it would be a bit weird if I caught my boyfriend smelling of it!

In the box there was a 25ml sample, which has lasted me for about a month and a half (with a little bit left to go! So in foresight it may last me 2 months). You can get the EDT in the 100ml bottles, which potentially could last me 8 months.
That does little to make the £62/£77 (the prices differed from the Feel Unique website and Annick Goutal's own website) price tag a little less of a bitter pill to swallow. It is a lot of money for a perfume. I would never dream of spending that much on a bottle of smell. Maybe for skincare, but not for something that smells bloody amazing but won't reduce wrinkles/fight flab/stimulate hair growth or any other noticeable effect.

So no, I definitely won't be repurchasing, because frankly I can't afford to (please God let me win the Euromillions), but I do really love the product because of all the points above, and I will be extremely sad when it runs out...*sniff*.