Kkw Fragrance Review: Products for The Everygirl are chosen by the editorial staff. Affiliate commissions may be earned at no additional cost to you if you make a purchase through our links. We’ll never endorse anything until we truly believe in it. It is common to equate Celebrity fragrances with the 2000s, which was a decade of celebrity-obsessed mania.
The popularity of celebrity-endorsed fragrances has waned in recent years, as customers have become more devoted to high-end prestige scents than to their once-favourite celebrities’ signature scents. As a result of this trend, KKW Fragrance was launched in 2017 under Kim Kardashian-moniker West’s by KKW Cosmetics. Unlike the celebrity perfume lines of the past, KKW Fragrance is owned, conceptualised, and distributed by KKW herself. Because of this, there will be no licencing deals or advertising, nor will there be any cross-country department store signing tours. Aside from some lines offered by Ulta, she’s mostly sold her scents straight to consumers via social media and cutting-edge press kits.
Three of these were released last year on Valentine’s Day in honour of the holiday (Bae, BFF, Ride or Die). For Valentine’s Day, the same three scents were re-released, along with three new ones (Wifey, Baby Girl, Baddie). For $30, you get 1oz of product for each heart. They arrive in a box that has a rubberized “feel” to it, which is a nice touch. We’ll start with the package, as I always do: These adorable little hearts are created of a material that has the appearance and feel of plastic glass; they are not, however, glass. Dropping them on a hard surface will almost certainly break them. For some reason, I really enjoy the way they look “rubberized.”
Now, let’s move on to the scents!
The six-heart set on KKW’s website is currently out of stock, but individual hearts are still available. There is no advantage to purchasing all six in the pack; the cost of purchasing all six separately or purchasing all six together totals the same amount, and you do not receive any additional benefits for purchasing all six together (something I am actually a little bitter about-$180 for all of them and we couldn’t get a cute little tray to line them up on and take our photos with?!). Kim, don’t be so coy.
Ride or Die is a true ride-or-die scent, bursting with succulent blackberry, juicy plum, night-blooming jasmine, vanilla, caramel, and tonka bean. Ride or Die is a scent you can rely on for any occasion, day or night, work or play. The good news is that everyone I’ve had the pleasure of smelling this rich perfume loved it. Not surprisingly, the bad news is that it was only ever made available as part of the limited-edition KKW Hearts launches in 2018 and 2019 (no launch took place in 2020). With the bottle emptied and nice memories from the days when I had my Ride or Die in my life, I’m done.
My KKW Fragrance collection has grown to 10 fragrances over the years, none of which I had ever tried. As a result, there are those that I adore and those that I think could have been better. The thrill of opening a package of perfume and discovering a scent you didn’t expect is as terrifying as it is exhilarating. I’ve learnt a lot about reading fragrance notes and determining if a scent is right for me thanks to KKW. Oriental gourmet smells with base notes of vanilla and sandalwood are my favourite. Floral middle tones and fruity top notes help to balance them out. Because of this, you can see that I had a taste for sweeter scents, I was fine with florals, and fresh odours were at the bottom of my list.
Floral Musk Gourmand with citrus Notes
It’s floral. Jasmine and gardenia go well with mandarin and kiwi. Vanilla and sandalwood are two of my favourite scents. Floral citrus for a baby girl (peony, jasmine, Muguet). Slightly musky. Floral gourmand with citrus notes of yuzu and pomelo, freesia and magnolia, whipped caramel with creamy musks and freesia Floral musk is the bad guy’s scent (wild rose, iris, geranium). Warm, woodsy, and mildly musk-forward. Berry and star apple are my best friends. pear blossoms with rose petals. Cedarwood with vanilla marshmallow.
There is a “sign up to be notified” button on the KKW website, so it appears likely that it will be refilled. Each of these fragrances was tested at least twice, including spraying strips of paper with the fragrance and inhaling them every five minutes for a duration of 20 minutes to examine how the odours oxidised throughout that period of exposure. As rated from most to least favourite, here are my top picks: When you’re married to your best friend, you’re known as “Wifey.”
To begin with, they are short-lived. It works like this: You take an average perfume, and then a perfume that lasts even less time. These are more like body sprays than scents, in my opinion. The “Bottled Emotions” of the 1990s are still popular today. Geez, I’m so out of date. Like them, I guess? Victoria’s Secret or Bath & Body Works’ body sprays are another option. This means that for a lot less money, you can buy a similar product that smells and functions just as well.
When I think about Wifey, I think of sitting by a pool with plants and flowers drifting around. Magnolia is the dominant note here, but it’s very lovely and blends well with everything else. This and Ride or Die, in my opinion, have the most “natural” fragrances. Because of its more unusual components and structure, Ride or Die appears to be less popular than the others on social media. This smell is one of my favourites, and I couldn’t decide if I preferred Wifey or Ride or Die. Ride or Die’s “fruit-scented” scent intrigues me more than the others, and I guess that’s why it’s so popular.
Baby Girl’s Scent is pleasant
Once oxidised to my skin, Baby Girl’s scent is pleasant, however, it initially smells a little acidic. It has a rich floral scent, with notes of peony and jasmine, as well as a trace of grass. After a few hours, this one, like Wifey and Ride or Die, smells practically natural. Baddie has the most nuanced aroma profile, as it begins with a rich grass scent that quickly becomes nearly too acidic for my taste. For the first fifteen minutes or so, the lovely aroma of the flowery scents hiding beneath emerges, but you have to truly inhale the scent to detect this.
This one required several sniffs before I was able to pick up on the flowery notes. However, the strong grassy scent obscures the more pleasant undertones until my nose gets used to them. The second-worst odour is that of Bae. It’s almost too sweet and musky at the same time because of the addition of gardenia in this one, I suppose. Gardenia with vanilla and sandalwood don’t go well together for me. Possibly two of them would work, but all three of them aren’t my favourite combination.
My least favourite friend is BFF because of her syrupy sweetness. A little too much marshmallow aroma conceals the fruit and flowery scents underlying, in my opinion. For Kim, this one is almost there, but it’s just too sweet for my taste. Overall, Kim’s idea is adorable, but it’s a bit pricey. In my opinion, charging between $15 and $20 per item is more reasonable. But hey, that’s how commerce works if the people would pay for it!
