Purple prose

    As florid, hyperbolic nonsense goes, advertising copy for perfume is up there with the best, don't you think? I offer you the following by way of example:

    "As if in a dream, a fantasy, hovering between euphoria and delirium, Heliotropia inspires such reverie as it unfurls, arousing Elysian visions that threaten to overload the senses. Like a hazy veil of white flowers in the early dawn light, wild gardenia and jasmine sambac appear effortlessly elegant and serene, their fragility belying the intoxicating sweetness and indolic warmth beneath. A weightless floral, both gentle and fresh with glints of piquant green illuminating powdery, swathes of heliotrope. Billowing clouds of silvery white, plumes of sensual, spiritual Somalia Incense and fragrant woods combine for a deep melodic base. A heady fusion, in turns virginal and narcotic, Heliotropia carries the mind to a dream like place, a higher state of illusion."

    Get yours here!

Comments

[Mary Ronan Drew]

I love the contrast between the description and the bottle!

[Cornflower]

Yes!

[Mary]

The headiest part of that perfume is the price.

[Cornflower]

Quite so!

[Toffeeapple]

Goodness, what a lot of meaningles twaddle! It doesn't actually give one any idea of what it smells like.

[Cornflower]

Who writes these thing?!

[Toffeeapple]

Your guess is as good as mine, m'dear!

[Mary]

How would you ever live up to it! Did you buy some? You can't possibly dab some behind your ears and wear it just popping out to the shops!

[Juxtabook]

It uses 'virginal and narcotic' as though they're opposites like right and left. It is as though they add random words without knowing what they mean. Or they've been given a list of keywords to use and just strung them together with little attempt at sense!