The latest perfume by CK has actress Rooney Mara in the ads and if you’ve seen her on the red carpet then you get a sense of the woman that this fragrance is meant to be for: confident and slightly aloof – and between the ages 25 to 35. Mara also has the reputation of being edgy thanks to her role of Lisbeth Salander in Girl with a Dragon Tattoo, and Downtown is supposed to have an edge to it as well.
The notes are: cedrat, green pear, bergamot, neroli, pear, watery plum, pink pepper, violet leaf, gardenia, cedar, incense, vetiver and musks. The watery plum and pear are at the top and are sweet but fresh. The heart notes are floral with the gardenia and neroli melding together nicely, and the vetiver and musks finish the scent.
Because of the sweetness at the very beginning of the scent, this isn’t my kind of perfume, but I have to admit that I have many friends who love it. The sweetness does go away and the middle and base notes are pretty and wearable. The scent is soft and not at all overpowering the way that many CK scents are, and I think that’s deliberate. Even when you look at the Downtown ad featuring Rooney Mara, you can see that she’s wearing a leather jacket, but there’s a real softness in her expression accentuated by the delicate shadows in the image. Perhaps this is meant to be a scent that a downtown girl would wear if you got close enough to her.
Wearable and different, this is for the grown up CK girl.
Downtown is on counters now: 50ml EDP – $78, 90ml EDP – $105, 10ml Rollerball – $25 (Sephora exclusive) 200ml Body Lotion – $49.
