I have scent design issues with both Raspberry Ripple and English Pear & Sweet Pea (review here) as isolated titles, but when smelled together the problems become even starker. That’s how these two scents were recently presented to me, on plinths side by side, on my trip to Sephora. Marketing was heavily indicating that Raspberry Ripple and English Pear & Sweet Pea should be smelled as a pair, presumably to compare and contrast. I actually think this was an accident and the store just used the visual displays materials it had at its disposal, but a happy accident for a critic. The deep divides between Raspberry Ripple and English Pear & Sweet Pea reveal an aesthetic in crisis, looking to the past as desperate last attempt to keep the joke going.
