Fernanda: Valentines 2023

I've been on the record here on this blog, often lamenting about the fact that Japan often has amazing scented products (bath salts, lip balms, body creams), yet they almost never come out with any actual perfume that reflects this from trendy brands such as Ohana Mahaalo (with the brief exception of the Milky body spray by Aqua Savon a few years ago that although was a limited edition release, has since been readily available due to its popularity). However, recently, there's been a huge upsurge in scented products that are actual body sprays and perfumes, coming from the brand Fernanda. 

For Valentines this year, they came out with Cocoa Chocolat and Ichigo Chocolat, which if you ask me, a great fit. I'm always hankering for more chocolate scents. With this release, they only released handcreams, EDPs and body sprays. 

I have made a separate post covering all general information about the brand, so click here if you'd like to read more! 

For this release, they only had sprays and hand creams available. Their official EDP bottles come in square amber bottles, and the premium hand cream comes in a longer tube with a screw top. 

Their exclusive distributors offered the body splash, and their rich handcream formula, which copes in a flip cap packaging. 

As always, the prices for the body spray (1780JPY) and hand cream (990JPY). 

About the products: 

Body spray : 

A little note about the sprays, is that due to most of their blends being top note accords (which are fantastic), they don't have a very long wear life or a significant amount of longevity or projection. I own Cocoa Chocolat in both body spray and EDP form, but there is little difference in the intensity or wear time that I've noticed. I would say that it definitely lasts at least 2 hours, but I would suggest frequent reapplication if you want wear that is closer to traditional perfumes. However, I have sprayed this on clothes and noticed the scent lingering on clothing until the next day, so I'd recommend spraying this on clothing if you prefer longer wear. 

Rich hand cream: 

Ingredients - Water, stearic acid, mineral oil, glycerin, cetanol, shea butter, dimethicone, fragrance, (hydroxyethyl acrylate / acryloyldimethyltaurine Na) copolymer, glyceryl stearate (SE), phenoxyethanol, Na citrate, iodide butylcarbamate Propinyl, hydrolyzed collagen, BG, squalane, olive fruit oil, jojoba seed oil, macadamia seed oil, sodium hyaluronate, canina rose fruit oil, aloe vera leaf extract, hetima fruit / leaf / stem extract, aloe vera leaf extract

Scents: 

Cocoa Chocolat - bitter chocolate, cinnamon leaf, cacao. (translated description) For the full bodied bitter chocolate, spicy cinnamon leaf and aromatic cocoa overlaps. A rich and mature chocolate scent like the real thing. 

This is probably my first love from Fernanda - although there are different types of chocolate, including the dark, dense and the powdery, this is like if you bottled the scent of Japanese cocoa. If you've never had Japanese cocoa, it's what they called their chocolate drinks, but there's also a bottled version from Van Houten which comes in hot and cold versions depending on the weather. My teenage years were undeniably filled with Japanese cocoa, and I have a soft spot for a hot Van Houten bottled cocoa in the winter. The taste is slightly sweeter, and the chocolate they use is slightly more rich and intense compared to the usual types of chocolate drinks (which might use chocolate syrup, or melted chocolate), and has a slight fruitiness to it (it sort of tastes like the smell of Hershey's kisses, but it's not as sour as Hershey's chocolate). Anyway, this is basically a spot on dupe of cocoa - it has the light milkiness and creaminess that compliments the sweet, smooth chocolate, and it has a slight fruitiness to it. I don't get much cinnamon leaf at all, but its basically unlike any chocolate accord I've tried before. One weird note about this scent is that I've tried a few times to mix this with other chocolate scents or other dessert type scents, but it seems to reject it completely, either disappearing or clashing terribly, turning into a sour mess. That said, it's more than enough on it's own, and has been my Go To scent for most of this year (only unthroned by Fernanda's new Yogurt Smoothie scent). I don't know how much more I can rave about how much I enjoy this scent, but all I will say is I stocked up on three extra bottles and have already gone through two. 

Ichigo Chocolat - strawberry, milk chocolate, milk. (translated description) A dense and milk strawberry chocolate scent where ripe strawberries filled with sweetness and rich milk chocolate melt together. 

This scent is extremely accurate - it has a bit of strawberry milk, with an edge of sourness from fresh strawberries, it's basically a spot on dupe for Meiji Apollo strawberry chocolates. I really like this one, it's very cheery, sweet and fun. Although I'm less of a strawberry fan compared to my chocolate addiction, this was extremely popular and was already nearly sold out in every form. I also have this in hand cream form, and never fails to get a compliment, and personally, I prefer this in hand cream format as I don't often find myself feeling in a very strawberry mood for too long. I picked this one up in the Premium hand cream formula - and I enjoy the scent a lot!