The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Some fragrances are built to be smelled. This one was built to be felt. So This Is Love arrived in 2012 as part of the Disney Jasmine Collection by Sephora, a collaboration that brought a Disney princess sensibility into Sephora's retail space and gave shoppers something with character attached to it. The bottle sits on a vanity differently than a blank-label bottle does, even before you crack the cap, because the name on the box carries a certain kind of anticipation. Inside, the fragrance opens with a brightness that has actual architecture to it: aldehydes doing their soapy, almost metallic sparkle, with hyacinth adding a green wetness underneath that reads clean without reading cold.
The fragrance pyramid tells you what the brand was reaching for. Aldehydes and hyacinth at the top give it that cinematic sparkle, the soapy-clean brightness that reads as 'fresh start' on skin. The heart pairs jasmine and tuberose, two flowers that share a certain creamy density, and a plum note that threads through both of them with a sweetness that feels ripe rather than syrupy. The fruit gives the bouquet an edible quality without pushing the whole thing into dessert territory.
The evolution
The opening minutes are aggressive in the best way. Aldehydes hit like a glass of cold water splashed across linen, sharp and unmistakable, and they announce the fragrance before anything else has a chance to settle. Hyacinth rides underneath, adding a green, watery note that pulls the brightness toward something vegetal and cool. Frangipani softens the edges just enough to keep it from feeling clinical, lending the top notes a tropical creaminess that bridges into the heart. Then the jasmine arrives, and it brings the tuberose with it, and the composition shifts into a phase that sits close to the skin and stays there. The plum stays low in the mix, a dusky sweetness that keeps the bouquet grounded. As the hours pass, the aldehydes lose their fizz and the composition shifts toward the base.
Cultural impact
This fragrance lives in an interesting corner of the market: Disney princess branding crossed with Sephora's beauty retail format. The collection found its audience among Disney fans who wanted something more grown-up than body mist but more approachable than a designer bottle, and who appreciated having a character they recognized translated into a scent format they could actually use. Released in 2012 alongside companion scents for Ariel and Cinderella, it sits in a small category of character-driven fragrance releases, the kind where the name on the bottle does as much work as the juice inside.
