Issey Miyake A Scent Eau de Parfum Florale: fragrance review

When a scent gains a flanker in the guise of just a different concentration (Eau de parfum vs. the original Eau de Toilette) you know you're in for a bumpy ride on some level, to quote All About Eve. Either one will be vastly superior to the other (see Allure, Opium), or there will be confusion among consumers (see Narciso, or Bandit) or both of those things.

Issey Miyake had launched A Scent last year: an ascending, airy green fragrance which impressed me favourably with its polished technical merit and re-introduction of green notes into the mainstream (a trend which one might argue was not pioneered by it, but to which it contributed positively). Imagine my disenchantment upon testing A Scent Eau de Parfum Florale by Issey Miyake and finding out it is not only ghastly but boring to tears as well!
Merely an alcoholic-ladden, light, ~almost to the point of insubstantiality~ floral scent with an aromachemical woody-amber base (Ambrox) for a little anchoring (they might as well not bother, it's fleeting on both blotter and skin). After this strong alcoholic blast passes, a diaphanous peony-jasmine accord (with a hint of peachy sweetness) that is more spectral than real.
I haven't been really scathing while reviewing on the whole, apart from a few atrocious cases, but this time I think it's needed. Eau de Parfum Florale seems like a marketing turn of phrase in the mould of "let's do a pink floral version for the heck of it, it will sell on the heels of the previous model" . No, dear marketing people, it won't, unless you suggest the formula goes into shampoo or liquid detergent (Personally I would prefer to just wash my hair with bar soap instead of this, but let's not pre-empty other people's preferences lest we're called names). What's happening? The Miyake company people weren't that cynical from what I recall. Pity on the perfumer who was given the brief: Is this why they do not reveal his or her name?

Yes, the new Scent is really different from the original as the sales assistant was quick to point out without any prompting. Yes, it's encased in the same (genius) bottle design that recalls sliced plexiglass bricks. Only in PINK! I have probably said the magic word that shutters all expectations for serious perfume lovers and just chimed the "abandon all hope ye who enter here" for those who read. Run for the hills. Run for your life. Run Lola, run! You might be inwardly protesting by now "oh but I like pink fragrances, they're so girly and cute!". Let me circuvent this thought, in case anyone thinks I am being snobby, aloof, or pretentious in saying so: No, do yourself a favour and get some really nice "girly and cute" pink juice: like Miracle So Magic, Kelly Calèche , Guerlain's Insolence or Gucci Eau de Parfum II in that paper-weight heavy bottle. They do exist. Just not into the cubicle-farm of A Scent Eau de Parfum Florale...

Notes for Issey Miyake A Scent Eau Florale:
Top: Jasmine petals, hyacinth
Heart: Galbanum, ylang ylang, rose, peony
Base: Patchouli, amber, moss

Available in 40ml and 80ml in major department stores.