Internal Love Eau de Parfum 30ml, Unisex

Product Overview

Internal Love, 30ml — a unisex fragrance with a bright citrus opening, a sweet floral heart and a warm, creamy, honeyed base. The maker gives its longevity as 10 to 12 hours and describes it as suited to office, college, weddings and parties.

The Composition

• Top notes: blood orange, mandarin orange — a vibrant, energetic opening
• Heart notes: honey, gardenia, orange blossom, jasmine, peach
• Base notes: beeswax, caramel, patchouli, licorice

Honey and beeswax are the signature here, and they are unusual materials — warm, slightly animalic, and they behave very differently on different skin. Licorice in the base is what gives it the faintly bitter edge that keeps the honey from turning sugary.

An Honest Word on “Inspired By” Fragrances

A large part of the fragrance market is built on interpretations of famous designer scents, and it is worth being clear about what that means.

• An “inspired by” or “impression” fragrance is a legitimate product. Perfume compositions are not protected the way a brand name is, so an independent house can build something in the style of a famous scent and sell it under its own name. That is trade, not counterfeiting.
• What it is not is the designer original. It will not smell identical, it usually uses cheaper materials in the base, and it will typically not last as long. Anyone telling you it is indistinguishable is selling.
• A counterfeit is a different thing entirely. A bottle carrying a designer’s name and packaging, sold at a fraction of the price, is a fake — and the contents of a fake are unregulated, which is a skin problem as well as a legal one.
• The honest test is the label. A house that puts its own name on the bottle and says what it was inspired by is being straight with you. A bottle that carries the designer’s name and is priced at a tenth of the real one is not.

Everything on this page is sold as what it is, under the name of the house that made it.

Where This One Sits

The maker states openly that Internal Love is inspired by Jean Paul Gaultier Scandal. That is the honest version of this trade: a house building something in the style of a famous scent, saying so, and selling it under its own name.

It is not Jean Paul Gaultier Scandal, it will not smell identical, and it will very likely not last as long — the expensive part of a designer fragrance is in the base materials. What it is, is a well-composed honeyed floral in its own right, at a price where you can wear it every day without thinking about it.

Top, Heart and Base Notes – and Why the First Sniff Misleads You

A fragrance is built in three stages and it does not smell the same at any two of them:

• Top notes are what you smell in the first few minutes — usually citrus, fruit or something sharp and bright. They are gone within fifteen to thirty minutes.
• Heart notes emerge as the top fades and carry the fragrance for the next few hours. Florals and spices live here. This is what people around you actually smell most of the day.
• Base notes — musk, vanilla, amber, woods, patchouli — are the heaviest molecules. They appear last, they last longest, and they are what remains on a scarf the next morning.

This is why you should never buy a fragrance on the first sniff. The bottle you smelled at the counter and loved was its top notes; the fragrance you wear all day is its heart and base. Spray it, walk away, and smell it again after thirty minutes and again after two hours before deciding.

Body Mist, EDT, EDP, Attar – What the Words Mean

This is the single most useful thing to know before buying a fragrance, and almost no listing explains it. The difference is how much perfume oil is in the bottle, and it decides both how long it lasts and what it should cost.

• Body mist / body splash / body spray — roughly 1-3% oil. Light, refreshing, and gone in one to two hours. Made to be reapplied and to be used generously over the whole body. This is why they come in 100ml and 135ml bottles.
• Eau de Toilette (EDT) — roughly 5-15%. Lasts three to five hours. The everyday office strength.
• Eau de Parfum (EDP) — roughly 15-20%. Lasts five to eight hours and projects further. The evening and occasion strength.
• Parfum / Extrait — 20-30%. Eight hours and more, worn in very small amounts.
• Attar / perfume oil — undiluted or nearly undiluted oil, with no alcohol. It sits close to the skin rather than filling a room, and it can outlast an EDP because there is no alcohol to evaporate off. A 6ml bottle lasts months.

None of these is better than the others. A body mist after a shower on a hot Dhaka afternoon is the right product; so is an EDP at a wedding. Buying the wrong one for the occasion is what leads people to think a fragrance “does not last”.

How to Apply It Properly

1. Apply after a shower, to clean skin. Fragrance clings to skin that is warm and slightly damp.
2. Moisturise first. This is the single biggest difference between a fragrance that lasts two hours and the same fragrance lasting six. Dry skin will not hold scent — an unscented lotion or a little petroleum jelly on the pulse points gives it something to grip.
3. Aim for the pulse points — the inner wrists, the sides of the neck, behind the ears, the inner elbows. These are warm, and warmth is what lifts fragrance off the skin.
4. Hold a spray about 15 to 20cm away and spray, rather than dabbing the nozzle onto the skin.
5. Do not rub your wrists together. Everybody does it and it is the most common mistake in fragrance. The friction generates heat that breaks the top notes and shortens the whole life of the scent.
6. Less than you think. You go nose-blind to your own perfume within twenty minutes; the people around you do not. Two or three sprays is a fragrance, eight is a headache in a lift.

Making It Last Longer in This Climate

Heat and humidity change how a fragrance behaves. Both make it project harder and fade faster, which is why a scent that lasts all day in a cold country lasts half as long here.

• Moisturised skin holds fragrance; dry skin does not. If you do only one thing from this page, do that one.
• Spray clothes as well as skin — but not silk, and not light colours where an oil can mark. Fabric holds scent far longer than skin does.
• A little on the hair or a scarf lasts remarkably well, because hair holds scent. Spray onto a brush rather than directly onto the hair if the fragrance is alcohol-heavy, since alcohol dries hair.
• Go heavier on base-note fragrances in summer — musk, amber, vanilla, wood. Citrus tops burn off in the heat within the hour.
• Reapply once in the afternoon rather than over-applying in the morning. The result is better and you use less.

On Skin – a Few Sensible Precautions

• Patch test before the first full wear if your skin is reactive: a little on the inner forearm, left for 24 hours. Fragrance is the most common cause of contact allergy in cosmetics, which is worth knowing rather than being frightened of.
• Never spray onto freshly shaved skin, broken skin or sunburn. Alcohol on a shaved underarm or a shaved face stings for a reason.
• Some citrus oils are photosensitising. Bergamot in particular can react with sunlight and leave a lasting dark patch on skin. If you are applying a citrus-heavy fragrance before going out into the sun, put it on clothing rather than on exposed skin.
• Keep it away from the eyes and out of reach of children.
• Alcohol-based fragrance is flammable. Do not spray near a flame or a lit cigarette, and never store a bottle in a car in summer.
• Stop using it if the skin reddens, itches or burns.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it the same as the designer original?

No, and the maker does not claim it is. An “inspired by” fragrance is built in the style of another one; it is not a copy and anyone who tells you it is indistinguishable is selling.

Is it too sweet for daytime?

Honey and caramel read sweet, but the citrus opening and the licorice base keep it in balance. One or two sprays for the day, more for an evening — the amount decides how sweet it reads.

Is 30ml a small bottle?

It is a sensible one for an eau de parfum. At two or three sprays a wearing, 30ml is several months, and a fragrance is at its best in the first two to three years after opening — a very large bottle of something you wear occasionally is not a saving.

Is it only for women / only for men?

The label is marketing. Scent has no gender — the split into “men’s” and “women’s” fragrance is a convention of the last century and it varies by country. Wear what smells good on you.

Why does it not last as long on me as on someone else?

Skin type, mostly. Dry skin releases fragrance quickly; oily and well-moisturised skin holds it far longer. Heat speeds everything up, which is why the same bottle behaves differently in December and in May. Moisturising before applying is the fix, and it works.