I have a very dear friend who has a favorite term for the gloriously tacky; tacky so bad it is good. She calls it “High Tack”. In perfume terms, there are many examples of High Tack bottles. It is rare that what is inside those bottles is as interesting as the container. I have actually wanted a perfume which was unafraid to embrace the tacky nature of the bottle and go for the same over-the-top style with the fragrance. At the end of last year, I got my wish with Carolina Herrera Good Girl.
Carolina Herrera has been producing perfume since 1988. As a mainstream designer brand, they have been above average overall. When it comes to the bottles they’ve been typical cylinders and rectangular shapes. They had a series that looked like big capsules earlier in 2016 but nothing that had come before prepared me for a black stiletto heel shaped version. Good Girl? This looks like what a very not good girl would be wearing. Was there an arch sense of humor here? Was the perfume inside going to be another generic mismatch to the High Tack on the outside? The answer is perfumer Louise Turner embraces all of this and produces a giant tuberose and tonka gourmand.
Louise Turner
Good Girl opens with that tuberose swaggering into view. It strides in as if on those stilettos. Ms. Turner chooses an interesting note to add some warmth to the big white flower, almond. The pale nutty quality tames the tuberose a bit. Iris and jasmine also provide a modulating effect. Then we get the other big note tonka. It arises out of the almond. At first I thought the almond was intensifying but it was the tonka arriving with a presence. Tonka is a note which I like in overdose. Ms. Turner takes all that tonka provides in this high concentration and uses it to fashion a gourmand base accord as she mixes in chocolate, vanilla, and sandalwood. It becomes a yummy sweet bomb matching the tuberose that came before.
Good Girl has 10-12 hour longevity and above average sillage.
If you’re looking for subtlety in any aspect; move along, nothing to see here. If you are sometimes in the mood for a perfume which glories in its exuberantly brash taste then grab a hold of this High Tack perfume and have fun.
Disclosure: This review was based on a sample provided by Macy’s.
–Mark Behnke
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