Notorious

The Verdict

Ralph Lauren launched Notorious in 2008 to mark the tenth anniversary of Romance, one of the house's most successful feminine fragrances. Created by Olivier Gillotin of Givaudan, Notorious drew inspiration from the allure of golden-age Hollywood actresses -- Faye Dunaway, Lauren Bacall, and Ingrid Bergman in their most iconic roles. The Art Deco-inspired bottle, presented in a crocodile leather case, announced serious glamour ambitions.

The fragrance community's response, however, proved as dramatic and divided as the film noir heroines who inspired it. Some wearers discovered a genuinely beautiful, complex composition that delivered on the Hollywood promise. Others found it confusingly inconsistent -- veering from sophisticated to synthetic depending on the batch, the skin, and seemingly the weather. Notorious remains one of Ralph Lauren's most debated releases.

What It Smells Like

The opening announces itself with bergamot brightness and the sharp, fruity bite of black currant and pink pepper. This initial burst is lively and piquant, setting up expectations of a refined fruity-floral. Some reviewers found this phase pleasant but unremarkable; others detected an unfortunate alcoholic quality that suggested a troubled formulation.

The heart is where Notorious either wins or loses its audience. Carnation provides a spicy, clove-like florality that is distinctly old-fashioned in the best sense. Peony softens the spice with a delicate, rosy quality. And then there is the white chocolate note -- not a literal cocoa sweetness but a creamy, slightly bitter gourmand accent that gives the composition its unique fingerprint. When it works, the combination of spicy carnation and subtle chocolate creates a genuinely evocative mid-century glamour. When it does not, reviewers report a flat, nondescript floral.

The base of patchouli, vanilla, musk, and orris root provides warmth and depth. The patchouli is rich but not aggressive, and the vanilla rounds the drydown into something comforting and sensual. Orris root adds a powdery, iris-like elegance that elevates the base beyond typical designer territory.

When to Wear It

Notorious belongs to cooler months and evening hours. The warm, spicy-oriental character thrives in autumn and winter, where the carnation-chocolate heart and patchouli-vanilla base can develop fully. Cocktail parties, formal dinners, theater outings, and date nights provide the ideal backdrop for a fragrance that aspires to cinematic glamour.

Daytime or warm-weather wear is less successful. The heavy base can feel oppressive in heat, and the more delicate floral aspects get lost.

Longevity & Projection

Performance reports for Notorious are among the most inconsistent in the Ralph Lauren catalog. One Basenotes reviewer reported excellent longevity of eleven hours with good projection. Other reviewers noted the fragrance lasting only three hours with negligible sillage. Multiple Fragrantica reviewers described the spicy chocolate carnation phase lasting about six hours before gradually softening into a skin scent. The wide variation suggests either significant batch variation or extreme sensitivity to individual skin chemistry. Those who experienced strong performance described the sillage as moderate and enveloping.

The Community Says

The community is deeply split. Positive reviews on Fragrantica call it "a beautiful scent that seems to have a niche type vibe" and "the best perfume I've ever sampled from Ralph Lauren." FragranceNet reviewers praised the compliment-getting potential, with one noting consistent attention from men and women of all ages. On the other side, Basenotes critics described it as "completely unmemorable, ordinary and lacking personality," while a Fragrantica reviewer compared the opening to bug spray. The NST Perfume blog and multiple forum discussions across Fragrantica, Basenotes, and Parfumo have covered Notorious, with the consensus being a fascinating but flawed fragrance that depends entirely on individual skin chemistry.

Who Should Buy This

Notorious suits adventurous fragrance wearers who enjoy spicy-oriental florals with gourmand touches and are intrigued by the chocolate-carnation combination. If you can sample it first and confirm it works on your skin, a bottle at a reasonable secondary market price can deliver genuine glamour that few current designer fragrances attempt.

Anyone who needs predictable performance or consistent crowd-pleasing appeal should avoid it. The extreme variability in how Notorious performs from person to person makes blind buying particularly risky.

The Bottom Line

Ralph Lauren Notorious is a conceptually ambitious oriental floral that aimed for old Hollywood glamour and landed somewhere between brilliant and bewildering depending on the wearer. Its chocolate-carnation heart and patchouli-vanilla base create a genuinely unique profile in the designer space, but wildly inconsistent performance and polarizing reception keep it from achieving the icon status its name promised. For the right wearer on the right skin, it delivers exactly the kind of sophisticated drama the marketing intended.