I love trying fragrance, but H&M Beauty I hadn’t really tried. So last year I decided to change that. I was looking for some herbal, fresher scents and had heard that Formentera Eau de Toilet by H&M might fit that bill. In terms of fragrance and perfume I love scents that are more on the woodsy/ earthy side rather than the fruity/ sweet side and this indeed fit that bill. In the end however I was happy to only have bought a small travel size of this as it just wasn’t my favorite.
Review: H&M Beauty Formentera Eau de Toilet
First of all we need to chat about affordability. This small 10 ml travel size retails for just €4.99 at full price. Currently it is on sale though and you pay a euro less. A larger 75 ml bottle is currently out of stock but that retailed for €14.99 at full price. In short, this is an affordable perfume that is easily a fraction of the costs of most fragrances you’ll find anywhere else. I hadn’t tried much H&M fragrance before, even though I am quite a big fan of their makeup line. So it was about time to be making that change.
What does this fragrance have to offer?
Since I hadn’t yet tried any H&M fragrance I decided to go with a small bottle first. Just to see how this would wear and if it had any longevity on me at all. I was surprised by how potent this was in the initial spritz but I did find it faded away very quickly. For some reason this works better on my skin in the summer time. It’s almost as if the heat of my skin makes this perform better instead of worse. Maybe it’s because my clothes aren’t constantly rubbing my skin, but I can smell it for longer for sure at this time of year.
What fragrance notes have been used?
This fragrance has a base note of cedarwood, middle notes of green leaves and fig milk and top notes of neroli and coriancer. Fragrantica describes this as a green woodsy scent which is what made me buy it. It also has a hint of sweetness to it and that is exactly what is turning me off this perfume. It smells really nice at first: it smells earthy and herbally, exactly what I like. When this develops on my skin though it starts to smell like something has gone off. The sweet notes come to the forefront and there is a hint of something sharp that I like some days, but not on all days.
My final thoughts
The H&M fragrance in Formentera surprised me for sure. For the price point I felt the fragrance performs well and really doesn’t do under for some of my more expensive fragrances. The scent itself just wasn’t for me. It smells nice at first and just seems like something I might like. But the dry down on this fragrance just makes it not that pallatable. It smells earthy in a bad way is all I can describe it. Almost as if something has gone bad. If you’ve ever repotted a houseplant with rotting roots: that’s what this reminds me off. And I don’t very much fancy smelling like rotting roots.
Would I recommend the H&M Formentera perfume?
Even though this scent wasn’t great for me, I did end up committing to using this up. It’s only 10 mls afterall and since it doesn’t last too long I didn’t mind going in for using it up completely. Whether I would recommend this fragrance to anyone else is difficult for me to say. I liked it okay, but it is definitely not a scent that everyone will like. So don’t blind buy this and definitely see if you can give it a whiff first.