Rihanna Swears By This French Perfume Brand, and It Just Launched a New Scent

It's probably the worst-kept secret that Rihanna smells incredible. I've not been lucky enough to catch a whiff or her IRL (trust me, I'm hoping), but many articles have been written about how her celebrity peers say she always smells amazing. It's well-known that there are fragrances that celebrities wear and love—and are not paid to wear them, FYI. Rihanna has her own fragrance now, Fenty, but a while back, an Instagram post confirmed that Rihanna wears Kilian Love, Don't Be Shy, and we've all been a bit obsessed with the sweet vanilla scent since, which is all marshmallow, neroli and orange blossom—an intoxicatingly sweet perfume but alluring in equal parts. While it is a strong fragrance and not one for the shy, retiring types (or a fragrance for migraine sufferers), I can envision that Rihanna would wear this fragrance and command a room, and not the other way around.

Rihanna is a fan of Kilian's Love, Don't Be Shy fragrance.

So when I heard that Kilian was launching a brand-new fragrance, I knew I had to try it. Kilian's latest perfume, Can't Stop Loving You, falls into the brand's Narcotics collection—the same in which Rihanna's favourite scent belongs, which has a range of sweet, gourmand scents. Sickly sweet scents aren't my usual choice (I'm more of a woody and musk kind of gal), but if Rihanna gives it her approval, I'm keen to try it. So when the post sample arrived on my doorstep, I practically tore open the box to try it. Below is my honest review of Kilian's Can't Stop Loving You perfume.

Kilian Can't Stop Loving You Review

Let's get into the fragrance notes. The all-singing, all-dancing star of the show in this scent is orange blossom. It's a sweet and floral smell yet powdery and clean. If you've smelt Rihanna's favourite, Love, Don't Be Shy, you'll recognise the scent, as it's all the main note in that perfume. In comparison, this one isn't near as sweet. If Love, Don't Be Shy is the sugar rush of an entire bag of marshmallows, Can't Stop Loving You is an orange blossom macaron.

The addition of paradisone, a synthetic perfume compound that smells like jasmine, makes this a creamy, white floral scent with long-lasting staying power. I sprayed it on in the morning, and hours later, it's still prominent on my wrists and even in the room I sprayed it in. It's a pretty floral, but the addition of vanilla and honey makes this a real gourmand scent that's good enough to eat. All of these notes might lead you to believe it's all flowers and sugar, but earthy oak moss brings it down a notch, and a touch of incense makes it mysterious. Labdanum cistus, a sticky resin, brings an amber-like warmth that tempers everything down. "It is an ingredient that, worn on skin, has nothing comparable; it is sensuality in its purest state,” explains founder Kilian Hennessy. 

As this is such a potent scent, you really won't need to use much at all, so a bottle will last you a long time. It's one of those perfumes that you can smell on yourself even after the initial spray. After around seven hours of wear, the lingering scent is powdery and clean, but I could still smell it prominently on my clothing. The floral scent makes it an ideal perfume for springtime, but it definitely has a seductive edge with the vanilla and honey notes, so I'd definitely choose this as my scent of choice for evenings out when I want to make a statement. 

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