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Hermessence Ambre Narguile

Hermès

houdini

For starters.... I love this fragrance. I didn't know I did, because despite being aware of it for years I'd never bothered to seek it out. At this point it's worth mentioning that I own PdM Oajan which is a very similar, I'd say louder to the point of spinal tap, more honied, spikier more obvious cinnamon, just more of everything and that came nearly a decade after Jean Claude Ellena created this little beauty. So this has the Cinnamon but it's more reserved, an amber like resinous body of benzoin, sweetness from vanilla but the heart is a darker, honied tobacco sort of smell, laden with spice. It's completely adorable and what I like is that it has all the stuff I love from Oajan but in softer focus, not a brutish and more quietly, respectfully humming away. There's a Daniel Josier which to me is an even more dense, less complex version of Oajan and despite all the similarities between these three, wearing (owning) them I suspect it becomes easier to tell them apart. Ambre Narguile appears to be the genesis though and a very lovely thing JCE brought into the world, I'm enjoying it massively today.

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7 years ago

Encre Noire a L'Extreme

Lalique

houdini

So....I used to be really good at keeping up with new releases and Lalique was a brand I struggled with because they are barely stocked in the UK anymore. Well that's not true EVERY UK based online discounter has them but I'm not blind buying even at a reasonable price. I mean stores that used to carry them, simply don't anymore and that coincided with this release so I never got to sniff the stuff. I love Lalique as a brand too, many of the fragrances are super classy works, even if they are super cheap raw material wise (yes a formula boasting 80% Iso E Super, I'm looking at you!) and Encre Noire is an example of that. To me it smells very faintly of citrus, dry graphite and a smoky dose of Cedar & Vetiveryl acetate...oh and IES. That's it's genius though! Anyway, enough about the original what's this one like? I found it to be an incense type of opening more like a GPH I or a CdG Man, that kind of thing. Peppercorns flung onto some impossibly white hot, cosmic, griddle pan, instantaneously sublimating on impact into a diffuse, peppery, vapour. Then a cypress/cedar, some sandalwood, spicy, softness but more of that raw, gloomy day, Vetiver from the original. I like that Lalique have continued with the dreary and bleak EN aesthetic when they could quite easily just make the crap that other brands churn out, yet they refuse to do so, even the 'sport' flanker in this line had the original at it's core. I think L'Extreme is alright.

7 years ago

I've heard Youtube reviewers and the usual crowd, spouting about this fragrance and I can't say I necessarily agree that this is some clean, soapy, linen fragrance. I thought the opening was like a creamy, dense, vanillic body which had been unsweetened by strange licorice and celery salt notes, before the heart becomes woody but lightly sweet. I didn't find this particularly powdery but it does have those herbal touches and is somewhat powdered. Maybe? I'm surprised how good it is! Not that I don't like other stuff from Josh or this brand, I do, but I guess the spoilers I'd heard about it didn't really fit with the scent I found on my skin. The heart is more woody (must be the teak wood listed here) and the tenacity of sweet vanilla notes remain at the end but it's by no means a total sweetie. I enjoyed it, had a somewhat 'designer' feel. Now I'm not exactly sure what I mean by that and I really do hate to toss tedious, meaningless labels around only to then cross pollinate.... but on this rare occasion I make an exception because that's how I feel about it.

7 years ago

The Original was Original, giving weirdness of nagamotha or papyrus or something against the waxy uplifting orange and orange blossom, it was a real grower on me. This however, is rubbish. Soooooooooooooooooooo boring. Acquatic piddle. Not a fan. Shame.

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7 years ago

This Is Love! for Him

Zadig & Voltaire

houdini

Having liked the This is Him, I'm wandering into Z&V releases with a reassurance that they will at least be passable. That's a dangerous state of mind BTW. From this I got a fairly 'generic' (I do hate that term but it's fitting in this instance) opening of heightened, diffuse citruses and musk resulting in a sigh of...oh well it's not terrible but they appear to have peaked in their first release...how sad. But wait a moment (or an hour or two to be more precise) and you will be treated to a very rounded and appealing, synth santal and mild, creamy florals in the base. It actually had me thinking, wow this isn't half bad, coupled with the fact that it has a central note among all this that I'm not sure what it is, and it's unique, alluring. It's sweet and kind fruity but always maintains a none too vanillic sandalwod. I'd have to try it again but This is love Him, ain't too bad from an initial test out on my arm.

7 years ago

Now I did ask the brand owner what the discoloured juice was all about and she said (paraphrasing here) 'ayedunnoe?' Nah, she did give some explanation but it's of little consequence, she did however assure me that it hadn't just destabilised in the shop window. Truth of the matter is I thought it was a shady, kinda juniper/dry gin zing, at top a kind of citrus, woody accord akind to a very lack lustre (and in fairness not trying to be) version of an Aventus or Elysium or Cedrat boisee or a million others. I don't want to be too hard on it because I like the brand concepts and this isn't terrible but didn't fill me with joy either.

7 years ago

It's a rare, rare occasion that I would ever dare to say that a fragrance evoked my beloved Fahrenheit, I said it about a DS&Durga fairly recently and I'm doing it again about this. Super 8 has a wonderful, sweet opening nearly, but not quite mimicking the hawthorn effect of vintage or even present day Fahrenheit. It's much more airy and cool but does have a brace of greens and a violet note, but dries down much less leathery and more sparce, modern. I quite like it but it didn't punch me in the face (in a good way) with originality or vigour. Worth a sniff though.

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7 years ago

Gingembre & vétiver Sensuel

100 Bon

houdini

I'm wearing this today and I have to say it's pretty interesting. The vetiver is green, almost clean & fresh but the dirtiness is being provided by something more in the realms of a patchouli and cedarwood. The ginger is there, but it's not, hot gingerbread nor is it fresh and vibrant, newly cut root, but thankfully it's not the essential oil type ginger which I find lacking in realistic or authentic ginger note. It reminds me of something by Lush, there's definitely bergamot and a natural linalool smell both citrus and lavender, aromatic. On par this is the best of the three I got in a pack together and it lasts a bit better too. It's not a complete muddy mess but it's definitely natural perfumery at a decent level, not elite.

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7 years ago

Les Parfums Mythiques - Organza Indecence

Givenchy

houdini

This fragrance absolutely floored me! Nothing like the original Organza, it's a sensual, beauty of a thing, a rare light and airy feel of sweet citrus, amber, woods, and fruit all so delicately spiced with cinnamon. I mean... I love deep, rich amber's spiced with cinnamon don't get me wrong, but to reduce Organza Indecense down to the notes listed here or my fumbling description wouldn't be right. Sometimes a fragrance calls to your heart, it beckons you in and this siren came from the most unexpected of places a Givenchy counter, a strange alt version of a femme classic and a nearly defunct and hard to find line. I adore this fragrance, the amber is quite vanilla centric and after several hours once the top and heart has been striped away, it smells like a kinda pedestrian, sweetie, puff piece. However, by the time that rolls around you've already had hours of exemplary & stunning perfumery to enjoy. I want a bottle.

7 years ago

One curious anomaly, a glitch in the matrix, a wrong to be righted if you will, well it has finally been put straight...I've tried Derby. In my years as a perfume fan I've tried rare vintage Chanel's and Guerlain, Coty etc... from the 1950's and earlier and yet this alluded me. Four main reasons why it frustrated me so much... 1) I love Guerlain (who doesn't?) 2) This is a 'Men's' release 3) It has a prominent carnation note (my favourite floral odour) 4) Even the non vintage release has a fantastic looking flacon. The reasons I couldn't try it are purely due to location and having poorly stocked Guerlain counters in my area. Well I just visited Amsterdam and gorged on this collection wallowing in three classics not least of which was my favourite....Derby. What a fantastic scent. I mean it's simplistic in some sense but you can take more from it if you want to, being that there's actually layers of complexity within Derby too. I get quite a lot of lavender and geranium underpinned with a mild powdery carnation note. There's a touch of oakmoss if you ask me and the leather listed in the notes is more of a gentle floral, flesh, like an orris or iris leather. Light, but lasting, classy men's business, you can't go wrong with this stuff. I think it's fantastic and I will maybe even try to acquire a vintage bottle but if I don't manage to find one this modern version will do just fine. Superb.

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7 years ago

Pasha de Cartier Parfum

Cartier

houdini

This fragrance was massively anticipated by me as a big fan of the original so anticipation and expectations were unduly high, so bare that in mind if I give this a lukewarm appraisal. So it opens and I get masses of ‘Parfum’ like closeness and oriental warmth, not something I get from the original but with the declaration Parfum in mind, this effectively does the same thing. Another aspect it borrows from Declaration is a cumin/caraway note, mildly sweaty even at first with only the vaguest glimpses of the aromats from the edt. I’d say this is very much a modernised, and reinvented Pasha, but does it have merit? Well it’s been on my skin for a few hours now and I’ve got to say, it’s really grown on me. There’s an almost sweetness to the leathery drydown, it’s really soft and subtle and I doubt will catch the attention of your average perfume punter. This will be sort out by those in the know and Cartier have surely created something, while not earth shattering that is very accomplished and has way more class than the vast majority of new men’s releases. I need to wear properly, but I’m of the same opinion as the Declaration Parfum, it’s a welcome addition, and it’s effectively a “what would this fragrance be like if it was in an entirely different genre?“ type of thing. Is it as good as the original? Nah, but if it’s reduced somewhere, I’ll make it mine. I love the soft sandalwood like drydown, though even just on my arm, can’t wait to have a proper wear and update this.

7 years ago

God these bottles are friggin' massive! The scent is pretty massive too. If you like the saccharine sweetness and technical modernity of BR540 then you'll dig this. Baccarat Rouge 540 was a scent that I loved when it was first released (commercially for MFK rather than the crystal one which I was aware of due to Fragrantica some time before that) but vowed that there was no way I could wear it. So a bad scent then? right? No absolutely not! Something about it seemed like a paradigm shift, even before the subsequent hype, something about that formula just made a statement in modern perfumery and the more polarising, the more impactful the statement. I was digging the strange, plasticy saffron which cloud seems to have slightly less of but is no less of a molten sugar, aroma chemical haze and for the price actually a really accomplished fragrance, even if you want to call it an 'official clone'

7 years ago

I don't dislike this fragrance, but to say it has little depth wouldn't be unfair. I guess it's not really my cup of tea, a fruity musk cocktail which primarily smells like some exotic fruit punch. I imagine rose when I smell blackcurrant or cassie which I do in the opening. I don't feel qualified to comment on what makes a good fragrance like this,so take what you will from my review.

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7 years ago

Les Absolus d'Orient Cuir Intense

Guerlain

houdini

Okay so....Set phasers to 'GUSH'!!! No....I hotly anticipated this release but couldn't find it on any Guerlain counters in the UK! I know Harrods had it exclusively for a while but this is Guerlain, and they usually roll it out everywhere after a short period. Still no!!! I noticed that it's now in Selfridges online but not in store....arrrrggghhh!!! My frustration was mounting, am I never going to be able to try this fragrance?? Then a perfume pal of mine from Poland (who is a sweetheart xx but also probably was sick of my moaning) sent me a sample in the post over the weekend and finally I got to sniff it. You might think that degree of anticipation can only lead to disappointment, but I'm pleased to say this stuff joins the family of brilliant releases in this line. Cuir Intense is a symphony of delicate touches and floral leather mastery, further cementing Wasser as one of the greatest perfumers alive today. I'm aware that it's a bit strange and redundant to say that this evokes Chanel's Cuir de Russie partly because Guerlain Vs Chanel is a bit like The Stones Vs the Beatles....I'll just have both thanks! Also because they don't smell anything alike but the high watermark of the Chanel always lingering and this come close to that kind of brilliance. So the facts are I don't have much to say about the breakdown of notes, because this thing is majestically smooth but there's definitely a soft iris/orris to the rounded, leather accord and Cuir Intense resembles musky touches that run through the entire line like Encens Mythique and Bois Mysterieux etc... This has a light, waxy but exotic touch of Jasmine/Ylang but it's by no means a hyper floral leather or fragrance for that matter, nor is it a complete, intense rawhide of a leather. Sadly (for my bank balance) it just adds to the long wnats list, along with the other two I mentioned. It's BRILLIANT!!!!

7 years ago

Another massively interesting opening where I can positively smell the chocolatey benzoin and perhaps tolu from the opening, which is unusual. Then the wet floral accord is like a sweeter hyacinth (lilac) and starts building when settled but with a honied thickness backing it and ensuring that the floral aspect isn't too big. I really like it actually.

7 years ago

I think my TF counter put this out early by mistake because I've already tried it, sighed, and moved on. I hate to be reductive for a few reasons not least of which being the fact that I like the fragrance I'm going to compare this to, and because it's so easy to say...this is like this. Rose Prick to me feels like a reworked Noir de Noir. If you've smelled NdN this opens with an airier, creamier feel much more like the sheerness of a FF or Soleil Blanc or Santal. Then the 'darkness' grows bringing some of that, candlelit, red wine dinner table rose of Noir de Noir. It might just be the same Rose/Patchouli mix dealing a bit of earth into what is in effect a creamy, hazy rose fragrance. I like it. I wasn't wowed by it, it progresses into different moods whereas I find NdN quite linear, but this isn't as 'dark' so it's a trade off. The name is stupid. I mean I'm no prude and I defended Fucking Fabulous, I then tolerated Lost Cherry (after rolling my eyes quite heavily) but now it's getting a bit tired.

7 years ago

The way Rouge smoking opens is undoubtedly interesting and carries on from themes of Lost Cherry by Tom Ford a scent I actually revisited on the same day I sampled this. It's funny how your mind associates cherry with almond and vice versa and materials like Benzaldehyde and bitter almond oil contain the qualities of both, as does the love/hate relationship I have with Heliotrope. This has some top note presence though and adds a grown up, almost sophisticated flavour to what I often consider quite a childlike smell of cherries, with a mildly spiced edge, and balmy quality of amber. There's floral sense to it as well but it's creamy base of tonka growing all the while until you are left with a perfume which is indulgently and unapologetically coumarin and almond heavy. A kind of creamy soup, I kinda like and if you love that stuff is clearly enjoyable but I couldn't wear it, just not my scene.

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7 years ago

Mirages Some Velvet Morning

Prada

houdini

To be honest the notes don't ring true to how I experienced this perfume. The peachy opening you expect of powdery Hermes or honied, peach classics or even other Andrier stuff is not what I get, it's a light suggestion of peach wrapped in a very dry accord of woody ionones, perpetually playing peekaboo with amber and vanilla sweetness but in this shifting, minimal but endlessly complex dance. Wierdly it finishes on patchouli, a material I couldn't smell throughout the whole wear until now, nose nuzzled deep into my skin...there it is. It's almost totally classic Andrier, everything in it's right place and just when you think it's boring or derivative of her other stuff, it changes ever so slightly, like a kind of rotating object catching the light but never quite revealing it's true shape. If you like musky, prada, powdery, woody, iris works from this perfumer, you will enjoy this. I did. Not bowled over though by any means I'd say it's the middle ground between that yellow one she did for Bvlgari (Zahina is it?) and her staple musky, Iris minimality of She was an anomaly. I basically love this perfumer and that everything carries her signature but sniff a little deeper and they are all subtly different and it's those subtleties that fascinate me.

7 years ago

Wow! This is hugely interesting, a real eyeopener with so many niche brands I'd seen these bottles around but just sort of glazed over especially a brand with Initials just doesnt really capture my attention no matter how nice the bottles are. (Which they are.) It's the stuff inside that matters and this comes out with a boozy almost gourmand smell but it's not trying too hard to be all sozzled, more smooth and effortless. You don't really get a lot of jasmine initially but a certain exotic and waxy florality, gently throbs at the back of aged, sweet sherry cask of thing that Wood Jasmin is. Clearly resinous and warm too. The drydown definitely reminds me of something else, (I can't place) more dried fruit, lightly vanillic but not all creamy or typical. For a man that doesn't need any more orientals and often states he doesn't like gourmands, this is sort of neither and both and I'm on a no buy thing at the moment, I still want a bottle. I will have to wear it properly but the initial signs are good.

7 years ago

Wow!!! This is a rich composition on the gourmand spectrum eventually evoking a kind of ebony or dark woods and Bounty choclate bars. Yes this combination of cacao, tobacco, amber, coffee has subtle undertones of coconut which is complementary and likely coming from all these materials like fine rum and vanilla etc... I absolutely adore it! I'm not a gourmand fan particularly and would never actively seek out a gourmand attar of all things but this is FANTASTIC!

7 years ago

I'm steadily getting through my Pasha attars and this one when first dabbed on skin smells of light camphor like a gentle eucalyptus, then cypress, greens, olibanum resinoid. Then give it a rub and the spice of cinammon erupts, joining the composition in a very complementary way think Z14 by Halston. This is a dirtier dry down though and goes into a massively woody territory, to dank Forrest woods and peppery bark and resinous incense. A appealing fragrance.

7 years ago

I'm about to gush.... Again! This is divine. I have to own this it's majestic. This is REAL magic come to life, I didn't think I'd be so taken with an amber fragrance but don't forget about the leather element. One of the best leather accords I've ever smelled. If Sultan was going for old leather bound books then he beyond nailed it! Usually when making leather accords there's tropes like castoreum, labdanum, birch tar etc... But also you have synthetics like Isobutylquinoline and Cuir bases like Suederal and Cuir 17500 at your disposal and you can push leather in different directions..because like many smells, you might think in your own mind that 'leather' is one thing but it's a broad, broad church. Sultan redefines it. This fragrance redefined to me what is possible from a leather accord. Maybe the leather on it's own IS more like a castoreum biased leather I've smelled before but brought together with amber, it modifies it to shine in a whole new way? Ambrecuir opens like a boozy, malt whisky smell but so incredibly refined, and smooth. Next comes a wave of leather and it's soft as butter, yet it's lived in, and has a life, cracks and wealth of stories to tell. Then into the sweetness element which is mildly tinged with a sweet, honey, medicinal note. The dryness and ancient, dustiness is there but it's not too much, it doesn't make your face implode from cotton mouth. This is a thick amber colour from the nectar of the honey bee's to the discoloured pages to the patina on the leather binding, this scent is vivid and alive. I think I'm going to cry? Emotive, life affirming perfumery.

7 years ago

I think Pasha is redefining what attars can do with this by recreating a classic chypre feel and evoking memories for me that were long forgotten. This is special. It opens with citrus and a heavy narcotic, boozy smell but booze that's been infused with cask woodiness. It's not a spirit though, it's more gentile, like a fine wine with peach nuances and gloriously floral but doesn't smell of anything predominantly. It's a vague blossom but not neroli, orange flower or petgrain there's no waxiness or fatty effect. Jasmine but with non of the indolics or tropical banana sensation, and none of the volume of tuberose. Basically it's floral but I'm not sure how? The base is deep and animalic to of set the brightness and it's vaguely, almost smokey, like a stale clean bomfire smoke that's been infused into fabric. I can't say I've ever smelled anything like this an yet it's so familiar, setting olfactory synapses firing.

7 years ago

This is off the charts! Absolutely, stratospheric! Life-changingly good! I mean...holy moly! I have used tobacco absolute materials of varying origins and they are all pretty fantastic. However, as surprisingly thick and potent as they appear, they can bit tricky to use and fight for pride of place in a composition. Anyone who thinks it's easy or linear to present tobacco in this way is naive to say the least. The opening for me is like the blend of classic perfumes in that you get a realistic honey note and animalics in the background humming away. Then the tobacco builds and what a fine tobacco material he's using, deeply, deeply faceted you can just fall into it and be enveloped by the dark, seductive goop. Now I smoke cigars and have been known to have a pipe now and again and I can honestly say this tobacco although incredibly authentic, doesn't evoke the saccharine sweet tobacco that I usually go for. Nor does it have the manure or peppery edge of a fine Habana cigar and this shouldn't surprise anyone but it doesn't smell of the smoke of tobacco, but instead the beautiful sensation of sticking your head right into one of those tubs of pipe tobacco they have in the tobacconists. This is a particularly mellow tobacco and probably not one I would choose to smoke, as I mentioned I prefer the almost too sweet smelling stuff because it remains sweet in the smoking, which I like. Something like this would smell DIVINE raw but that's not why I buy tobacco to sit around admiring and not smoking it. It does have a hay like quality (maybe some hay absolute) but likely just from the tobacco, bitter coffee nuance, animalics, natural sweetness, woodiness, booze, it's a complete treat and takes me right back to being a kid and buying tobacco (perhaps when I shouldn't have been?) from Henry Monks which also sold shotguns! This is a revelation and the attar is very thick and very dark and would likely stain your clothes badly but in all likelihood you could spill this and it would take about 3 years to migrate out of the bottle, if it even moved at all?

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7 years ago