The first twenty minutes or so of Donna Karan Pure DKNY aren't too bad. The first time I tested it I remember thinking "well, I can sort of live with this today". I guess I was in an incredible good and forgiving mood, because while it is, indeed, an aquatic floral as I was warned, I could smell that vanilla drop and hoped for the best. The best never came.
I would have been happy with a musky skin scent, something cuddly and mostly innocent like Kate Walsh Boyfriend that came along later last year and surprised everyone by actually being nice. I wanted the equivalent of the first ad but instead got the second, assuming that kid is fully potty trained.
I don't get any skin and warmth from Pure DKNY. I can't think of any other perfumes right now that manage to be musky and aquatic at the same time. Maybe it's a new category, the culmination of fragrances made to smell like fabric softener, because focus groups don't want to smell like perfume. They want to smell clean. And fresh. And have I mentioned clean?
By the time an hour passes I feel and smell like my shower is chasing me. Or maybe the house has become humid and because all the faucets are leaking and the cats knocked down a bottle of detergent and someone turned the heat all the way up and somewhere there's a flower dying. Yes, Donna Karan has created a nightmare. But it's a clean nightmare, right?
Pure DKNY doesn't last very long and doesn't leave any kind of impression once its gone. Perfume enthusiasts often lament and/or make fun of SAs who try to sell us the Jus de Jour touting its amazing freshness and lightness and how you'd feel like you just stepped out of the shower. We all know the spiel and some of us just want to go after the SA and spray him or her with some MKK.
Donna Karan - Pure DKNY, $85 for 3.4 oz at Sephora.
