Perceive Avon for women

I'm keen on this fragance, but I have a limited edition that has glitter inside, and when you shake it and perfume yourself, it spreads little sparkles on your skin.

I'm usually fond of the freesia-note, but in this it is too cloying and somewhat distasteful. When used by someone occupying the next seat or the seat in front of you at the theatre or in a church, this fragrance may become rather offensive.
And I think it's actually beneficial to the potential buyers to read even the most negative reviews, which however describe some personal experiences, subjective as they are :)

So many negative reviews! I had a bottle of Perceive as a gift eight or ten years ago and enjoyed it very much. Notes I could detect: pepper, freesia, ylan ylang and musk. Staying power and sillage are very good considering the price.

I bought this for myself 5 years ago as I liked how it smelled in the catalog.And I still theoretically like it however it was a pure disaster with my chemistry so I gave it away to my friend who happened to love it and is on her 2nd bottle already. I must admit I really like this one on her. I cannot explain why I couldn`t stand it on me though..

I find Perceive a very pleasant light, scent. Avon catalogue describes it as floral. I like the combination of pear, freesia and musk. I don't really find it very oriental. The bottle looks like a piece of ice, not really the best design.
I could wear this for example at work.

EDIT. I bought a set of Perceive today, and now I find it more oriental, but not strongly. I really like it, it is perfect for this season (fall), too.

Since Avon has proved to be so good to date thought I would try out one from their archive. Or at least one older than a year. Read about the pheromones that are in this, which made it extra interesting. Turns out this fragrance needs a bit to make it interesting!

It is freesia, freesia, freesia followed by some carnation and plum. There are some similarities between this and Sun, Moon and Stars but Sun, Moon and Stars is much more complex and longer lasting. Perceive isn't bad but painfully boring and plain. My wooly winter socks seem positively exciting in comparison.

Don't get me wrong: there is nothing wrong with a sweet, floral perfume but I just don't need another in my wardrobe. Do you?

What I can smell is mainly damask plum and blueberry with some unidentified jasmine-like flowers on a base of artificial civet. I have hardships in classifying this perfume indeed. Floral? -I do smell some flowers but this is not a floral. Oriental? - Not exactly. It lacks the spices, woods, herbs, resins, or whatsoever which makes an oriental but most importantly depth. To my nose, it has a kinda artificially animalistic quality which is not pleasant. Indeed smelling -and wearing- this perfume causes nasal congestion in me accompanied by a burning/irritation like uneasy feeling in my upper respiratory tract. This really surprises and slightly upsets me, as to this day I tried maybe countless perfumes, and only two of them caused this reaction, Perceive being one. I must be allergic to that plum note I guess, or something definitely artificial (chemical) which I am yet to discover.

I bought this perfume because the bottle reminded me of the original bottle of Donna Karan's Chaos which has now been re-released. I hunted everywhere to buy this perfume to find it was out of stock and taken off the market. As it has now been re-released I have a bottle but also having bought the black cashmere I much prefer the later.

Perceive is a beautiful floral scent. Starts with intense floral which after five minutes settles into a floral bouquet with freesia being the most prominent. As it matures on the skin it becomes light and fresh and in the dry down it becomes a mix of fruity, floral and a little powdery.

On the whole,great scent and good sillage. I like it.

Dear Kittycat63, I must thank you for your comment because all this while a lot of people simply have no manners in giving their personal perfume reviews. They aren't careful with the words that they use in giving their personal comments. Imagine, if the person who made this very fragrance read these rude comments... well, he'll definitely be hurt. To satisfy every single nose with any given fragrance is just impossible. That's a fact, but it doesn't mean that we can liberally spit things out in an impetuous way to tell other people how we feel about a perfume. So please, have some manners dear reviewers. Should we feel unhappy with a particular perfume and intend to comment about it openly, then we have to be very selective about the words to use to describe it.
Ok, back to this fragrace. It was lucky of me to be able to buy this fragrance about 8 years ago. I managed to buy it only after about two years it was launched. Sadly, now it is no longer produced. I only have two words to describe this gem: amazingly beautiful. Dear Monsieur Christopher Sheldrake, thank you for this creation of yours. It's one of your best!

I had this in university 8 years ago, I would have reordered it but it was discontinued. I loved it as an everyday everywhere scent. It was there but it wasn't there. It was hard to use too much of it to a point of it being overdone(on me). I am still learning about perfumes so please try to visualize my review :) It smelled like very icy cold water on the top of a mountain. and like paper. It was clean smelling. Later on I would smell powdery and gentle. My boyfriend at the time loved it. If I ever get it again I'll do another review, since I will probably have a different experience due to body chemistry. I didn't know people hated this scent! lol i thought it was good.

I just noticed that one reviewer on here said that she finds Perceive to be an "ugly, ugly" perfume and that she thinks it's suitable for old ladies. How incredibly rude!! As for the "B.O. stench following me around .." that another reviewer mentioned she smelled when she wore this perfume - well, presumably it's her own chemistry that affected the perfume that way, or perhaps it actually was stale body odor!!

I find it curious that some people have such strange views. Why should anyone think that old ladies should be the ones who should wear what may be seen (in some people's views) as being unpleasant perfumes?? That's a very peculiar, and nasty, attitude. Everyone can choose to wear the perfumes that they like and that they feel happy wearing. That might mean that a more mature lady may prefer light, fruity, fresh perfumes (and smell good in them!) and a younger woman might prefer deeper, more intense perfumes (and, to other people's noses, might smell unpleasant!). Either way, everyone is an individual with individual tastes, regardless of their age, and has a right to wear what makes them happy without other people being nasty and sneering about them.

Anyone who has such narrow minded views as the reviewer I mentioned above who made the nasty comment about old ladies should take a good hard look at themselves and try to be nicer. Maybe that would make them more pleasant people.

For the record, Perceive is actually a very likeable, fresh, light, feminine, AGELESS, perfume and is one of Avon's better ones - and it DEFINITELY doesn't smell of either old ladies (if there is actually a definitive old lady smell - which there isn't!), pigs, stale socks or body odor (which some other people have likened it to)!

I really dont like this one.
very artificial smell.made me nauseous. My mom said it smell like pigs ;-) so not a scent I would choose to wear.
The drydown gives a very plasticy vibe. yukkk

The freesia comes through loud and clear in this bright floral fragrance. Everything else in here is a backdrop. There is the faintest suggestion of a hint of powdery warmth, possibly coming from the musk note, but in the end, this is a cool, crisp fragrance for freesia lovers.

Even a great nose behind it couldn't make it bearable for me.
This might be due to Avon using some cheap ingredients. This smells so synthetic and atificial, almost as if you would smell a really bad knock off of something and you instantly know there is something wrong with it. To me it smells the most cheap of all Avons I have tested. Sorry, not for me ;)

I just bought and I can't stop smelling my hand =D
I find smell like roses don't know why
maybe because of the freesia :D

And it really is similar to Revlon Absolutely Fabulous!! They are both super sensual and spicy!

This is a typical Sheldrake creation! I find it a super complex perfume, not for the faint hearted! If you are a daredevil try this one!

Actual notes:

TOP: pepper, freesia, pear
MIDDLE: gardenia, carnation, plum
BASE: vanilla, orchid, musk, sandalwood

We've had Perceive lying around on our bathroom shelf forever. It's a very, very sharp pear scent with lots of pepper and white flowers. It's a little green, a little fruity and sweet, a little sour and very, very high-pitched and strong. It doesn't smell bad - but it stops short of smelling good. Obviously, this is a problem.

Like people, perfumes that bend over backwards to please the lowest common denominator usually come off as annoying.

i dont care for the perfume spray, but the powder is really nice and light. i buy the powder version and it smells very nice and soft. the spray, sweet, citrusy and comes on way too strong.

freesia is one of my favorites flower, so I bought it for this reason....but I have it for about a year, and used it only a few times cos is not very nice on my skin

too strong and sharp. cant stand this smell.

I bought this yesterday and it was a big surprise for me! I had years ago a spray of this and I didn't liked it very much, but the perfume I truly love it, especially the top notes in the first 5 seconds and the base! It's very special, not too sweet, not too fresh, not strong, but not too light, just wearable. I don't find it oriental at all, it's a floral aquatic with some fruits. It reminds me of Yves Rocher Fleur de l'aube. If would have less white pepper it would be just perfect. Anyway,it worths what it costs and deserves a try!

what to say about this one i found it rather pungent and nothing struck me as exciting with this one its not something i buy regularly and wont make a habit of buying i dislike the bottle design it really doesnt say much about the perfume ... maybe thats why its called perceive.

smelled good at the time when i bought this of course this was about 10 years ago now

I got it in body powder several years ago. I liked it so much that I got 10. I like to sprinkle on my sheets before going to bed - it's like aromatherapy to me. Sometimes I prefer buying the powder rather than the fragrance.

I had Perceive about ten years ago. It did smell good and was Oriental on me anyhow. I did notice that the color changed from blue to green after awhile. Then when I used it , it was different, smelled off. I have come to the conclusion that it can spoil over time. If you can get it fresh it smells good. However , it's discontinued so getting a new fresh bottle might be impossible now. It's Avon and not expensive so it's forgivable that it doesn't keep for years.

absolutely awful I thought because it had freesia it will smell nice how wrong I was . terrible and synthetic

Perceive belongs to that enigmatic group of perfumes I think of as "non-scents". Also in this group are Simply by Clinique, White Couture by Givenchy, L'Eau par Kenzo, Yohji original for Women, 212 for Women by Carolina Herrera, and, marginally, Pleasures Mineral by Estee Lauder.

These perfumes seem a conconction of synthetic notes that try painfully hard not to be "perfume-y". Despite the stated ingredients, there are no discernable florals and the musk bases are white, thin, and synthetic. Often people's first description of these fragrances is "alcohol". The abovementioned perfumes are fairly interchangeable, being differentiated only by a wan floral here, a shy pepper there, or a tiresome marine note. Perceive is no exception, although there is a slight warmth to it that, while clashing with all the sanitizer, does make it slightly more approachable than others in its class. On the plus side, it does not have the replusive yet compelling feel of a rectory buffet that most other Avon scents do.

This group of perfumes is better suited to being a Demeter scent line called "Hospital", with its santizer top notes covering a skanky diaper note (supposed "musk"). With no florals to round things out, or spices to distract, Perceive and its kin will roam the halls of General Hospital forever.

p.s. 3 hours later...a warm, soft vanilla floral drydown. What a surprise, it's rather pleassant.

I see why this is a child of Christopher Sheldrake, it is a perfume with it´s own unique identity. It is very warm and distinctive, it is not a mild perfume. Only wear it if you are truly confident !! It is the spicy version of Versus Versace vintage and has a lot in common with Revlon Absolutely Fabulous!
Good luck!
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Perceive has been one of my favourite fragrances for many years.
I think it's the top notes that make this scent almost irresistible for me. The pepper and the freesia make me feel like there's an undescribable aura surrounding me.
The only downside for me would be that there's a bit too much vanilla in the base.

how that could be, how that perfume is an Oriental perfume,??!!!
personally i used it over 9 years ago and still it used to be my signature perfume for years i was 17 or 18 years old and i fall in luve with it at once, i bought it over 5 or 6 times now i have it and i luve it but it became not my cup of tea any more .. but i never thought it can be just sick ORIENTAL perfume , it can be oriental floral , or floral but not oriental, its so sweet for being an oriental perfume i adore the base not of vanilla, musk and sandalwood , and um sure about the floral note i cant define it exactly but it has a clear floral note, in short that perfume is GOOD i like it very much

had the same reaction like sublimedoll: this just doesn't work with me.

Orientals:favourite! notes: I could very much like! Perceive: turns into soap on me. And not a nice scented one - just plain old soap bar. Grrrr.
Body chemistry is a bitch - well Moral here: test before buying!!!

perceive is the best fragrance ive ever smelt

I smelled Perceive for the first time today on a scented strip in an Avon brochure and loved it. It's fresh, light, clean, floral but slightly fruity too. I immediately placed an order for a 50ml bottle and two roll-ons which were all on special offer at an incredibly reasonable price. I tend to think that on the whole most Avon perfumes are quite pleasant, if nothing special, but Perceive stands out from the rest by a long shot.

I don't usually wear Avon but I bought the roll on Perceive for a neice and when it arrived, I wanted to try it myself and it smelt so fresh so I kept it for myself. It reminded me of fresh clean linen. I was scared it might smell cheap but it doesn't to me, and I'm usually quite fussy. I don't know if the spray will smell different to the roll on, as I just had the roll on.

I used to love this perfume, but now the scent just makes me sick. I think it's just too much, too sweet, too oily, a disaster for thr liver-suffering...:) The last time I bought it, I gaved it away because it almost poisoned me.

firs i smell it on my friend and it was awful like some acid and old socks(she didn't wear the socks then so probably it was only her skin reaction;)...but after few years i get the sample and try on my skin. And there is a bingo! Smell is very feminie, i feel a lot lot of white flowers, little lilac at the beggining, some powdery notes deep down but very gentle. After some hours it starts to be gentle flowery and little wanilla. For me this is a smell for the woman in her thirties, with smile on her face and children around:) lovely for me now:)!

I wanted to like this fragrance...I've fallen in love with a lot of Avon fragrances lately and Orientals are some of my faves! Unfortunately this does NOT work well with my body chemistry...there's some kind of a sour note to it that just doesn't sit well...thank goodness I used a tester first...looking forward to showering off the stench tonight :(

i'ts good for me when i was 16++.. at that time, it smell like expensive perfume. but now, i dont really like it.. why?? cause i fall in love with chanel..

I love the quiet, subtle aura of this scent - it's a deep and lasting peppery floral on me, an individual and memorable fragrance, like many of Avon's older perfumes. I wear this during the daytime in the summer and it takes me through to evening very happily. Love it.

This is my first and only Avon perfume I've ever bought. I used to like it when it first came out, but I guess my tastes have changed a lot since then because it just smells like cheap cologne now. Too spicy & peppery, too sour, and most of all, way too much alcohol. Yuck

Bought this years ago with high hopes of a light fresh scent but after a couple of days I realised that the B.O. stench following me around was this perfume! Yeuch!

this is one of my fave avon perfumes i find it very individual and people always ask me what it is when i wear it, its perfect for night and day and i love its girly smell :-)

Perceive used to be my signature scent when I was 16. It is really nice and longlasting. Sweet and spicy, perfect for day and night time wear. One of Avon`s best scents.

i think its a perfect scent, i absolutely like it!!!!!!!!!clean , creamy and innocent!!!!!!

It smells so clean, innocent, delicate, calm. It is long lasting but common scent. i like the pepper in the top but i don't find it so special.

My mum bough it so I couldn't resist to try it:D
Well, at the very beginning it smells almost like it smells from bottle- sweet, fruity and a very little bit pepper here. Then I can feel carnation too and something else. The pepper amount here is not very prominent- just to add the oriental feeling. Dry-down is pretty similar to others only with added faded heart notes. I quite like this fragrance it's interesting and it's not boring. I should persuade my mum to swap it on Pur Blanca Blush which bores me already. And... there's a very good nose behind it! That was very pleasant surprise! The lasting power is very good.
I think it's similar to Giordani Gold perfume my grandmother has.
After trying Feminite Du Bois, which also is Sheldrake's work. I can tell that it has alike smell there it's like strip down Feminite's incense and resins and make it more sour and louder. In Feminite du Bois 'carnation' is feathery and airy.

Perfume bem intrigante e exótico ao mesmo tempo !!

This is the first Avon perfume I purchased. For me it's very pleasant with lovely notes of pepper and freesia. It makes me feel romantic and delicate, almost makes me dream... I find this perfume a special one!

for me this perfume represents the faculty years when i didn't have much money and i could afford only avon perfumes.
but this one i really like though i do not wear it often nowadays.
anyway it has a sophisticated smell, metalic in some moments and then somehow sweet.
but...there it is always a but...it comes from avon and so it is not soemthing that you should want to have over and over.

no, i did not mean it in combination:)
old and cheap - no! :)
but many old ladys smell cheap, so it reminds me... old wise lady`s should smell unique (often expensive:) !!!
and you know how it is: for one a fragrance smells cheap, for the other one not, i guess it`s about experiences, if you have an aunt witch you don`t like and a smell reminds you to her, you don`t like it i guess...

So what - old ladies deserve to smell cheap and ununique?Rubbish.

I don`t like it, it`s too plain and freesia clashes with pepper horribly.Avon has better scents then this!

i like its bottle and smell too but now every1 using it so i have changed it:(

AT FIRST I LIKED IT A LOT BUT LATER I FOUND IT VERY COMMON.

i was using it from 8 years ago but i stoped it because all the girls are wearing it now so im looking for any1 unique

smells like paco rabanne ultraviolet..

i love this. this is my favourite avon perfume, at first its very strong and sharp maybe the pepper top..., its true, but after calming down its just lovely, and lasts forever. its such a calm and harmonic scent

Ah. . . ylang-ylang! *THAT* must be what makes me want to rip my arm off after spraying this stuff on me. Immediate headache. Ylang-ylang and I do not get along.

dear mnm, i think they do. at least in my country.

i love this perfume!!!!!!!!!1 its my second favorite!! i had but i finished the bottle ooops... but i want is so badly but i dont think avon sells it anymore:(

I love this frangrance to death... I agree with Guest_dina. It really is light and soft to sense of smell yet alluring, sophisticated and sexy for anytime of the day. It doesn't matter whether you prefer to walk through the mist or apply directly. Either way you will turn heads!

i love it. its light but lasts all day...or more. i just loved when it marked my clothes.it makes you love yourself more. light, feminine and gives you feeling of freedom, but not in the way you feel free after a couple of drinks, the way you feel free when youre in love or so..

Personally, I don't like this fragrance. It just doesn't work with my body chemistry. It's too light & smells sour on me.