Every Woman Is A Queen

Jennifer Lopez Live & Live Luxe ~ fragrance review



Jennifer Lopez launched Live, her fourth fragrance, last year. Live was developed by perfumer Dominique Ropion, and the notes include lemon, orange, pineapple, redcurrant, peony, violet, caramel, tonka beans, vanilla and sandalwood.

Not surprisingly, Live is a fruity floral — hey, almost all celebrity fragrance releases these days are fruity florals, and despite what I keep reading about how the trends are changing, it sometimes seems like at least 90% of all fragrance releases are fruity florals, and sweet ones at that. It isn’t my favorite category so it doesn’t exactly strike joy in my heart, but if it is yours, I don’t think you have anything to worry about for the near future.

The ad copy describes Live as an “upbeat fruity floral” inspired by J Lo’s love for dancing, and that is exactly what it smells like: young and energetic and fun. It starts with citrus and pineapple, and the top notes have a kind of tropical cocktail feel, but the dry down is deeper and sexier, with warm woods and lots of musk, and the caramel-vanilla is pleasingly subdued.

Despite the warmth and sexiness, it is still more clean than not. Unless I’m mistaken (sorry, running late and no time to Google it) this is the fragrance that J Lo wanted to smell like baby’s heads and cake. I’m not sure I get either, but there is something like clean skin in the dry down. At any rate, Live is nicely done and very wearable. I don’t adore it but I don’t hate it either. I have read complaints about the lasting power but I had no such trouble with it myself; a kind of indistinctly fruity musky-woods lasted nearly all day on me.

Live Luxe, the first follow-up to Live, launched earlier this year. It is yet another fruity floral, this one created by perfumer Claudette Belnavis. The notes include pear, peach, melon, apple, muguet, amethyst freesia, honeysuckle, diamond musk, amber, vanilla and sandalwood.

Live Luxe did not impress me nearly as much as Live, although of course it all depends on what you are after. The top notes are again sweet fruits: mixed at first; later, I smelled mostly apple. They are followed by sweet florals and then a rather pale, thin base: there really isn’t anything to temper the sweetness as there is in Live; there is little warmth, and I didn’t find it particularly sexy. It smells like perhaps it is geared towards a younger market than the original, or perhaps it is simply meant as more of a summer fragrance? Either way, it is not my cup of tea.

See also: J Lo Glow, Miami Glow & Love at First Glow.