Juliette Has Gun Banana Rush review

Juliette Has Gun Banana Rush courtesy of the brand

It is no secret that artificial fruit scents often have little to do with that of their authentic, freshly picked counterparts. Strawberry, grape, and blueberry candies all share a universal, saccharine sweetness, yet don’t taste or smell much like the real thing. When it comes to bananas, the synthetic signature is unmistakable: loud, sugary, and polarizing. There’s a rumour that most banana flavorings are modeled after the Gros Michel, a cultivar of banana that was largely wiped out by blight in the 1950s. I haven’t been much of a fan of the banana in fragrance, but the new release by  Juliette Has A Gun has completely shifted my perception of this note.

Juliette Has Gun Banana Rush promotional image

Brand founder and perfumer Romano Ricci sought to create a banana fragrance that challenged its perception as juvenile or gimmicky.  Juliette Has Gun Banana Rush is no Laffy-Taffy; it’s an elegant composition full of contrast – fruity without too much sweetness, quietly bold, never gaudy. The opening spray is all maple syrup, slightly sticky and indulgently edible. It’s reminiscent of a Werther’s Original, that hardened combination of sugar and cream. As it settles on skin, out comes the green crispness of a frangipani blossom, at first verdant then shockingly heady. The banana is an undercurrent, a green, ripened note that dances beneath the sweetness; if you’re expecting Bananarama, you’ll be thoroughly caught off-guard. Coconut lends a slightly toasted quality to the sillage, fleshy and fresh. This is not your banana milk-shake vacation fragrance; it’s a cheeky-yet-sophisticated fragrant concept that is at once unexpected and chic.

Juliette Has Gun Banana Rush promotional image

Ricci points to Wes Anderson films as inspiration for Banana Rush, those colorful, poignant, often absurd stories filled with humor and heartbreak. The scent is a perfect parallel: rather than a banana picked fresh from the tree, it’s a nostalgic memory of the fruit, golden and idealized. As Anderson achieves a kind of cinematic camp with his high-saturated, painstakingly arranged vignettes, so Ricci achieves the olfactive version with Banana Rush’s subversion of a familiar – even notorious – note. Neither a sugar bomb nor a garden-fresh soliflore, it’s a triumphant celebration of an underdog accord, served with a sly wink of tongue-in-cheek wit.

Notes: maple syrup, banana, frangipani, coconut, vanilla

Available at Twisted Lily to purchase or sample

~ Catherine Bialkowski, Guest Contributor and staff writer at BeautyNewsNYCOfficial.com

Disclosure: Perfume kindly gifted by Twisted Lily;  opinions are my own.

Please read Michelyn’s interview with Romano Ricci here

Enjoy Steven’s video of Ex Vetiver, Olya’s reviews of Ode to Dullness here Juliette here Miami Shake here Powder Love here

Follow us on Instagram @cafleurebonofficial @signorricci @juliettehasagun @twisted360 @cat.bialkowski