Shanghai Butterfly
Nanette Lepore (2006)

Fresh, clear, crisp fruity top notes. Hints of green. The apple note is the best thing about this... The fruitiness lingers awhile before any middle notes are really noticeable. The flowers are muddled together to give an impression of one generic flower. There is a soapiness here. Not unpleasant but, SB becomes rather "ho-hum"... Cedar and an artificial smelling musk dominate the base. Overall, this reminds me more of a room spray, than a perfume. Meh.

I really liked my experience with this odd little fragrance. Yes, it definitely reminds you of D & G Light Blue, but the apple is a little more prominent in this fragrance, and the cedar base not quite as prominent as D & G. Does not last very long but while its there is smells quite nice. Does not have the metallic note I detect in D & G, just a bit more mellow. Thoroughly enjoyed my bottle, then moved on to something else.

If D&G Light Blue is a pair of Louboutins then Shanghai Butterfly is a sturdy, well-made pair of Nine West stilettos. Some of us may be coveting D&G but need to watch our pennies. This is the economical answer to satisfying the D&G need.

The longevity of this fragrance is very satisfying and the sillage even rivals its D&G counterpart. There is more of a sour apple in the opening but it isn't enough to really compromise the likeness to D&G. And to be honest, if I had to choose which bottle I would prefer to display I'd gladly go with the cheeky cyan bottle any day.

At $10 I am in no position to do any kind of complaining and I certainly do not feel the need to shell out $60 simply so I can have a bottle that says D&G. No one needs to be the wiser!

However, this is a strange bird of a fragrance. I am learning--online and among friends and family--this fragrance is very mercurial if not downright polarizing. I think I am lucky that this plays well on my skin; my brother's gf tried it and spent an hour periodically scouring this off her wrist. She is still bearing a grudge for the experience. This is not a safe blind-buy unless you can find this for $10 and be okay with the gamble of either loving this or hating this (there is no "meh" when it comes to this fragrance).

Ok, first of all, this has to be one of the worst bottles I have ever seen. SO CHEESEY. So. Late. 90's. In the worst way. That sort of retro-girly-cosmo cartoon aesthetic that looks oh so dated now. But I sniffed, and liked. I don't love it, but I feel the reviews I found when I was browsing the internets for other people's opinions about this scent and in the perfume bibles were a little harsh. Ok, it smells a bit like D & G Light Blue. So what–is that a crime? If emulation is so bad, most perfumers should be locked up by now. It's nothing special, but it is certainly wearable. It is a straightforward fruity floral scent, good for a girly spring mood. It's like carrying around a fruitbowl filled with apples, oranges, and lemons, which some fairy magicked so that the boughs of fruit blossoms were still on it. The sillage is not great, but, again, not terrible either. It's something I imagine donning for a casual spring dinner al fresco with friends. If you want to smell like you just chopped up a fruit salad in a flower-filled kitchen, or maybe a bit like a gin and St. Germain cocktail, this will do the trick. It doesn't strike my nose as particularly synthetic smelling, a comment I saw pop up fairly regularly in other reviews. It smells clean, naïve, and girly. No complexity or intrigue. You could give it to a 13 year old girl and it would suit her just fine, I am sure. A good spring/Summer scent.

Citrus, a bit of apple, a bit of carnation for spice, jasmine and lily of the valley background… nice opening but I smelled it before: Light Blue. I agree with takemyhusbandplz on this. The two fragrances are quite the identical especially in the top notes. Shanghai Butterfly moves toward lily of the valley and misses the green bamboo note that is in the heart of Light Blue, so there's a variation there. The drydown has the biggest change: Shanghai Butterfly doesn't last anywhere near as long. I voted Light Blue a thumb's up but certainly not this one.

I like the smell of this, similar to Light Blue, yes, but not as strong and without the impact. I had Light Blue a few years ago and loved it. I put this on and the smell is so faint. I'm pretty sure people can't smell anything on me. I will try to put this up for market when that wardrobe option becomes available.