Review: Zara Black & Zara Rose Eau de Toilette

by - 1:51 PM

It’s nice to be come back blogging again! Phew, I was super busy lately with campus life and stuffs plus the organizational event that was hold back there in March? I was in charge as one of the main coordinators and been doing the preparation since January, so yeah my last post as you can see, was in January. And the assignments – this semester, is a hell indeed. Most of the subjects are not very important for my study but still they must be taken like ethics, English, etc.
I was that busy that a girl who once shopped for 1 dozen lipsticks per month simply spent NOTHING on the bullets in the first quarter of 2015. Unbelievable, indeed. But it is the truth LOL I have no time scrolling through the Female Daily threads and look for the reviews for the liquid lipsticks that are so in hype lately. Therefore, no shopping as I never shop blindly like knowing nothing about the thing I’m going to buy. Aside of all the reasons above, Han has the most logical and reasonable reason of why I bought no lipstick lately: 

"I was so drawn, fascinated, yet crazy about fragrances that I wouldn’t care anymore about lipsticks and it’s no any better."

Maybe he was right, since I will be doing a review of my recent purchase today.

This a gift set I bought from Zara at the very last minutes when I was about to pay for only one single tee at the cashier. The cashier man persuasively offered this set, and kept pushing me and Kak Sekar to have a sniff and literally have it too. The date I went too with Kak Sekar was about ‘sniffing perfumes and let’s get lost in Cloud ‘Fumes ’ but never came to our mind that we would spend another bucks on fragrance, as we just uhm, shopped Thierry Mugler perfumes in a very good BOGO deal. But since women are still women, and we were as vulnerable as ever – be it our heart, wallet, and nose – so yeah…we got one set for each of us at last.


This set consists of Zara Black and Zara Rose, both are in eau de toilette concentration and each is 1.7 oz.  Each retails for IDR 179,900 but in this set you can get both for only IDR 199,900. What a deal, eh?



They are housed in one box with cheaply made plastic holder (which I don’t really care about since the box is kinda pretty with the textured surface). Clearly you can tell that Zara Black and Rose has completely different character one to another from the box itself as the Black side is decorated with super pretty gothic, black rose – when it doesn’t even have rose note) and the pink side is just simple, no decoration, clean pink box.




The flacon is designed quite simple but made of a thick glass, accompanied with secure black plastic cap. The spray works well too even though it's made of plastic as well.


Zara Black belongs in the Oriental category. Here are the notes as listed in picture above, but let me write it down again:


Top - Orange, cinnamon
Middle - Vanilla
Base - Sempervivum, Musk 
Main notes according to me: Vanilla, Orange, Cinnamon, Musk




So I don’t simply know what Sempervivum is, so I google and it is some kind of…cactus? I don’t really smell something weird from this fragrance, so I don’t think sempervivum contributes much though – which is good. I smell the orange at initial spray. It’s very fresh, adding balance to the kinda too sweet cinnamon background. After half an hour the vanilla starts to kick in, making the scent warmer and sweeter, but softer at the same time. The musk is definitely there but very, very soft and really helps to calm down the vanilla note which in this fragrance has the potent to be a little bit too sweet. 
The projection of this fragrance is quite good at the first 30 minutes and then bam, it quickly becomes a nice, sweet musky vanilla skin scent after the first hour. It lasts on my skin like 2 hours maximum at cold night, less when the weather is warmer. It lives on clothes longer by 1-2 hours max. I really hate the truth that Zara Black has poor longevity and weak sillage since I love how it smells on me – very comforting, sweet, sexy at the same time!


While Zara Black offers you the sexiness, sweetness in one bottle, Zara Rose is more of a bright, cheerful young woman who pursues her dream walking down the street leaving a trail of joyful floral scent behind.
Top – Green notes, blackcurrant
Middle – Freesia, Peony, Rose
Base – Sandalwood, Musk 
Main notes according to me: Rose, Green notes, Freesia, Musk 



It opens with green notes and a little bit sourness from blackcurrant then slowly the rose appears replacing the fruity accord. I can still smell freesia, but barely sniff any peony. The rose is kinda synthetic and a little bit cloying if you spray too much, reminds me a slightly lower-quality version of the rose in Bvlgari Rose Essentiele. This fragrance is soapy, clean, and fresh. A safe pick for everyday use, very acceptable by people around you. However, this perfume is very generic and not very special itself. It doesn’t develop too much , as it stays rose with a little touch of green behind until it completely fades away. There is the musk, just a little touch in the background. Zara Rose projects way better than Black, yet it stays like 1-2 hours more and is more suitable for daytime wear.



Score

Black                     Rose


Last Words?
Comparisons? Nah, Black and Rose are completely different fragrance. Rose, as mentioned above, is a good everyday daytime pick while Black is for movie night or cocktails. If I have to pick one, maybe I would go with Zara Black. The notes develop from the top to the base way better and smell less synthetic than Zara Rose. Rose tends to stay just the same from the beginning until it completely fades away. I don’t mind bringing Zara Black in my bag and reapply every 2-3 hours. For Rose, I think it’s just a nice fragrance to add in your collection.
Overall, I love this set. It’s very versatile because of the likable-ness of each perfume, and the size is not too big so you can bring it everywhere in your purse or bag. Price and quality wise, I think both perfumes have quite good quality with such a low price. This set is limited, so grab yours quickly before your nearest Zara counter runs out of it. It’s good for everyday fragrance and won’t hurt the wallet much!

***

Until next time, girls! Tell me your thoughts in the comment section below. And oh, I just started a new Instagram account as my makeup/beauty diary! Please please follow I will definitely follow back:

XOXO


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8 kisses

  1. You made me want it. Damn. Now i regret opening this post. Lol.

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  2. have my reviews ever disappointed those who spent some minutes to take a look at? ;) *evil wink*

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  3. Uwaaaaaa ini beli di Zara mana, Lin? Murah bangeeeettt, bisa jadi kado eniperseri :p

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  4. lin zara kids juga punya parfum, lucu2 kotaknya! hahaha wanginya aku engga tau soalnya pas aku ke zara yg di central park engga ada testernya hahah. botolnya pun aku engga tau bentuknya -_-
    tp under 200rb juga jadi gatel bikin pengen beliiii

    xx
    vina
    pinapina.net

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  5. These both sound like great perfumes to add to my collection but I need to use up some of my perfumes before buying more! Thanks for your review :) xo

    http://makeupisdelish.blogspot.ca/

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  6. Hi carolinelle! Salam kenal yaa. Hehehe. Aku jg sempet galau t waktu pilih2 paket parfum diZara. Hampir pilih yg ini karena aku suka banget sm baunya, tp yaa krna sizeny cm 50 ml, akhirnya ak mutusin beli yg oriental n fruity deh yg sizenya 100ml each. Hihihi

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