I think you could say that Clean is best known for its fragrances such as Cotton T Shirt, Fresh Laundry and Simply Soap which are the kind of daily fragrance that make you smell shower fresh all of the time. The Clean brand really tipped scent on its head with these – the concept of just smelling simply ‘clean’ instead of being clouded in a soup of undecipherable fragrant notes wasn’t really a thing. I think Bobbi Brown Bath came in about 2006, a few years after Clean’s signature fragrance in 2002. It’s like using scent as lingerie as opposed to a dress.
Clean Reserve is that concept magnified – the clutter of perfume stripped back to leave a more distinguishable fragrance trail than existing Cleans but without the billowing clouds of confusion. When I look at a fragrance’s layers of notes (that top, middle and bottom thing) I can rarely pick out more than a few actual accords and even then, it will only be if it’s something I distinctly like or dislike. The rest of the notes languish in oblivion. I have Clean Reserve Smoked Vetiver here – something I’d never pick out for myself and nor do I like it, BUT there is a certain fresh crispness to it that makes it feel uncomplicated, clear and unisex. There are several notes to it, so it’s not a single note fragrance – you’ll find verbena, bamboo leaf, bergmot oil, quince pear, blonde cedarwood, cotton peony, wild moss, golden amber, soft musks, vetiver, clean woods and myrrh. It should be the note soup that I spoke of but it isn’t.
I think I would prefer the Rain Cotton or the Warm Cotton and as soon as I can I’m going into SpaceNK to smell them. The Clean Reserve is Clean’s move into a more upmarket category of fragrance (£79) – sorry to say that I really prefer their originals but I can see why these are causing a bit of olfactory excitement at the moment. In the UK we have five Clean Reserves currently – in the US I think they have more. You can find them HERE.
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