Geisha Noire from Aroma M is a scent I first encountered via Makeup Alley, in 2004 when I was beginning my fragrance journey and spent a lot of time on the site's forums. It was a thrilling experience swapping scent samples with strangers, but the kind of strangers with whom you were slowly making kindred connections and forming, in some instances, marvelous friendships that last many years. I have hoarded my tiny vial ever since that time and finally bought a full bottle last week. Geisha Noire is an intense, golden amber and smoky somber tonka that's rich and hypnotic but before it veers too far into gourmand territory, you encounter an unexpected edge of leather and salt that keeps interesting and not so easily categorized.
I've only tried a few Commodity fragrances and own even less. The issues I have with Moss, the one I actually have, are emblematic of most of the others I've sampled as well. They're crisp in the sense that mostly what you get is the acrid, antiseptic zest of rubbing alcohol, and they're generically cologne-y, in a plastic-y green, waxy citrus way that reminds me of every mediocre dude who talks over you in a department meeting and takes credit for your ideas, every tedious bore at a party who suggests that you're misinformed and that you should read the work of a certain subject matter expert --and news flash ya ding dong, I'm the one who wrote the work you're referencing-- and lastly, every creeper who crawls out from his cave to follow you down the street shouting HEY GIRL NICE TATS and then calls you an ugly whore when you politely request that he leave you alone. Pretty sure all of these assholes are Commodity's focus groups.
Ambre Narguilé from the Hermes Hermessence line gets a lot of apple pie references from reviewers, but I don’t get that myself. A spiced compote, perhaps. Dried fruits–raisins and plums, stewed in honey and rum and cinnamon, and left on the stove very nearly too long. It’s been cooked down to a syrupy essence of its former self, and if you hadn’t pulled it from the flame, the caramelized sugars might have started to smoke and burn. I don't love sweet fragrances, but come October I crave this one; it calls to mind a reading firelight a book you've experienced a million times (like the Secret History by Donna Tartt which I only just read but I loved it so much I'm ready to go at it again) while wearing a cozy oversized cardigan with thick cables and toggle buttons and that you probably inherited from your grandpa. Not to be confused with that awful cardigan in Taylor Swift's video. ugh, Don't get me started on that. That's another conversation for another midnight.
Heresy is the sharp green metallic floral of violet leaf, mingled with cool aromatic cedar, lofty sandalwood, and the smoked leather notes of vetiver; elements which alchemize into the austere elegance and kindred glooms of a dry, peppery violet incense. If you like the dark ambiance and nocturnal aesthetic of dungeon synth coupled with spectral visionary Simon Marsden's black and white photographs of haunted ruins and moonlit abbeys, this is a transportive scent that will spirit you away to those eerie, ominous realms.
Utterly sublime oud. Has bonkers longevity and sillage but it’s so well made that it isn’t over powering or too much.
I can’t recommend it enough. Even if you don’t normally like oud you should try this. It’s intoxicating and just sneaks up on you as you’re going about your day.
every time I wear it I always think about how amazing I smell 😝
The opening is a beautiful sweet apple tobacco, and the liquorice is prominent.
There is definitely a similarity to Angel’s Share, but it’s still different enough.
The liquorice note reminded me of the Legacy of Petra from Penhaligon‘s. I don’t care for LoP I find it too cloying, but the liquorice here works beautifully and gives structure and contrast to the sweetener notes, along with the sage
The vanilla smooths and rounds everything out.
A really sex frag. Smooth and alluring without being overpowering.
An interesting one for sure.
Citrus, aromatic, and almost leaning savoury, presuming thats the immortelle and very dry saffron.
A cheap plasticky leather being created on a metal table in a laboratory.
Sterile, cold, yet warm and fragrant.
The woods are dry and fragrant.
The are elements that remind me of Secretions Magnifique. The cool metallic sterility with the lingering florals. Ganymeade However leans away from any lactonic or coppery metallics.
I love almost all perfumes from this house and I have 5 of them for now but I think Paramour is my favorite. First I was amazed by the beauty of Paramour 91 but because it's so difficult to find I gave a chance to the original Paramour and I haven't regretted it for a moment. Leather as a note can be difficult for me but I love it when it's blended smoothly with other notes like it's here. It's not challenging at all. This scent is incredibly charming on men and on women. Straight away from the start there is a beautiful subtle sweetness from Raspberry and and personally, it's that note, along with the others of course, that makes this scent irresistible. I love the sweetness combined with heavy notes, like leather, Patchouli and Amber here, and that's created by caramel and vanilla along with Raspberry. This blend is very smooth, it's velvety, it's delicious and it's classy. It's blended so well that if I hadn't seen the notes, it would have been completely impossible to guess even half of them. Paramour is an oriental scent and it has the popular combination of Rose, leather and Patchouli, but the scent has absolutely no familiar aroma from the combination of those three notes. This is clearly fruity, not floral and there is a gentle spiciness in it. If I had to say three notes that are crucial to making this so special to me, I would say raspberry, leather and Vanilla. The scent doesn't feel heavy at all even in warm weather, but it really shines now that it's a little cooler. It's not too opulent and dense, it just perfect. The sophistication in Paramour and its innocent seductive character is impossible to describe. FYI: The difference between the juice in old/new bottle is minimal. An old one feels a little bit darker and a new one is maybe a tad sweeter but very little. The difference is maybe only because of maceration. Thank you for reading, I hope you liked my review. I would appreciate if you follow my IG: @ninamariah_perfumes It gives me a lot of motivation to write more. 🤗
This smells a lot less like a rose-oud than I expected. The initial blast is petrolly oud with piercing, jammy florals, all of which dies down quickly to make way for the undulating, complex waves of woody oud and, to me, magnoilia first, and then rose and hyrax in equal measures. The rose is reminiscent of the metallic roses Christopher Sheldrake makes for Serge Lutens, although this doesn't smell like a Serge Lutens perfume, make no mistake. There is a breathtaking depth to this, with no synthetic edge whatsoever. You have to like magnolia, and you have to be OK with hyrax, as they're both persistent (I mean, all of the notes are but I feel like these two could be the most challenging, as the oud is a very woody, erudite oud). Before long it starts to develop a rich, ambery, nutty, chocolatey base, which is when my heart really starts to sing. Absolutely wonderful and worth every penny. Update: it seemed light when I wore it in my apartment, but out and about it's NUCLEAR, be careful. Update: the more I wear this, the more the hyraceum dominates. This is way more stinky and challenging than I first thought!
Feminité du Bois, the first Lutens fragrant creation that is still with with us. And what an absolute pleasure it is. It’s name breaking the preconceptions about woody scents only being for men. And it’s scent breaking the boundaries of what is expected of a woody fragrance, by the introduction of (dried) fruits.
It‘s dry cedar notes and fruity plum combined effortlessly. In an almost abstract way, though not quite.
It also features a lesser talked about animalic note, it enhances the purple fruity notes, without being overbearing.
Originally released under the Shiseido brand under the same name and av today under the Serge Lutens brand.
A scent every fragrance lover should get his or herself familiar with.
i wear this in the evenings when I‘m home as it find it very relaxing and comforting. It’s a cosy,clean fragrance. feels like you’ve just got out of the shower or got fresh sheets on.
Really affordable and lovely. Something I think everyone would like, the bottle is beautiful. It’s just a classic and timeless scent.
Copala from Xinu is a beautiful first foray into a brand I’d never even heard of. Opening on a brisk lemony pine sap incense note, it evolves into an amorphous melange of golden resins and dusty vanilla robes, with a spiked ceremonial collar of pink pepper. It’s both sharp and soft and feels simultaneously contemporary and ancient, like mystical wisdom awakened in modern blood ...and I am more than a little obsessed.
Ofresia is a thoughtful fragrance of honeyed and dewy florals, sheer and sweetly luminous, lively and peppery crushed green stems, and a softly rosy, woody musk. I find it somewhat akin to Bath and Body Works OG Freesia Fields but less watery and with a certain sensibility that comes from being a little older and having more discretionary income. And maybe just more discretion, period. It’s lovely even if it is not terribly exciting. It is very good I think, for visiting your in-laws, who really only have an inkling as to the depths of your freaky weirdness, and you are trying your best to keep it that way. This is a fragrance for inducing a certain sort of serene and sensitive spirit or state of mind that reminds you to be on your best behavior even when you’re feeling salty and snippy and sassy, and it feels like it’s got scruples enough to keep your secrets.
Venise is as if the velvety moss-muscled Masters of the Universe Moss Man toy found himself in a biergarten nestled in the midst of a forest of crooked pines &twining nightshade. Seating himself under the canopy of verdant flora, the green plastic henchman orders a moderately priced sampler of lambics and goses and other sour, seasonal ales (but he’s going to expense it to Skeletor anyway) and as he’s enjoying his tiny, half-filled glass of coniferous resin and lactobacilus-y fermented grains, he notices the plants stealthily creeping closer, surreptitious snaking sneaking vines with intent to strangle. For though Moss Man can camouflage himself in foliage and control all the plants on Eternia, on Earth he’s apparently powerless and our terrestrial vegetation views him as a threat. As the air becomes suffocating with the scent of sap-filled botanical defense mechanisms, Moss Man slips into unconsciousness wishing he’d actually ordered the full-sized stein.
I had ordered a sampler set from Libertine so that I could try several scents from this indie brand, but if I am being honest, I didn’t really peruse the notes or the copy ahead of time. With these assortments, I like to keep the details secret from myself and allow myself to be surprised and delighted at however things might turn out. So, for example, I wasn’t immediately aware that Soft Woods, with its notes of fir and incense, also included rose–a fraught note that is all kinds of problematic for me. Dead Mom issues and whatnot. As this wore on my skin, I did become aware that I’d been Trojan-horsed a rose scent, but it’s quite unlike any other rose I’ve experienced, a boldly balsamic, bordering on fruity-rose; it’s weird, the amber jamminess is there, like a resinous fig preserves or a honeyed compote…but rather, the carmelized essence of it, absent the actual fruit. This is a mystical rose, a fairytale rose, an enchanted ode to a princess–any princess, all princesses. Whatever they look like, whatever form they take, whether they were graceful and benevolent, or the kind in a spicy Anne Rice novel written under a pen name, or even the sort who slaughtered their way to sainthood with a toddler strapped to their back. A princess can look all kinds of ways and do all kinds of things and I am pretty sure in all of the stories about them, they smell of Soft Woods.
Initio’s Oud For Happiness is a dry, brittle bitter oud, coupled with a clean, soft woody musk, with the addition of something subtly sweet and pillowy-feathery, like freshly baked milk bread. It then becomes a creamier version of their Musk Therapy, which is what all of Initio’s offerings eventually become on my skin. I am not complaining–Musk Therapy is amazing. But I don’t need a whole shelf of things that smell similar, especially at this price tag.
Chypre Mousse from Oriza Legrand is an unexpected …honeyed absinthe chypre? It manifests as a yeast-raised donut speckled with pungent, green herbs and burnished with a ladle of lustrous warm sugar glaze made from the honey of hallucinogenic blooms and bitter wormwood extract. Like if you went to the super artisanal donut shop/altered state dispensary and ordered “the green fairy special”. It's intensely sweet in disturbing ways that I can't quite put my finger on, and it's absolutely not for me--but I can definitely appreciate it.
This is a delectable deep vanilla, nothing too sweet or cakey. The dry down is just delicious and lasts for hours.
When someone says Le Labo and Iso E perfumes, Another 13 is one of the frags that will come to mind, and boy this perfume is such a crowd pleaser. Another 13 is one of the perfume that smells different every time. If your body chemistry is compatible, the drydown is so heavenly.
In my opinion, this is a full bottle worthy perfume that’s good for casual wear. For date nights, this is also a safe bet!
Mitsouko is already known and loved by pretty much everyone, it is simply a triumph of ingenuity in the perfume industry - the real definition of masterpiece. I’m writing this review whilst sampling a decant from a 1990s EDT bottle, and I’m in love. Oakmoss of course leads the way, which is intensely green and creamy in its overdose. Bright, hesperidic facets from citrus notes give the scent a lot of lift, whilst it indulges into the creamy facets with that impeccable peachy C14 aldehyde. The powdery florals and warm spices are more noticeable here than the current formulation, which is more just focused on trying to recreate that oakmoss accord to the best of their ability. No words can describe the mastery behind this magnificent beauty, having the privilege to sample this from a time before IFRA butchered the use of its most important note, is surreal. I have to secure a bottle of this if I am to continue living on this earth.
Oud Cologne is the marriage of two nouns you don’t typically hear being used together, this is only the second scent I’ve tried from Bortnikoff, but I’m really enjoying it. It definitely is focused more on the ‘Cologne’ aspect rather than the oud, which I don’t get much of at all to be honest. However despite that, it’s lovely. A gorgeously natural smelling cocktail of bitter, rindy citrus fruits including orange, grapefruit and bergamot lead the way - it’s as if the real thing is right in front of your nose. Juniper and pine give it this beautiful green, aromatic, almost gin-like accord, complemented by the salty facets of ambergris and geranium. As I said I don’t really get any oud from this, which isn’t a bad thing, just misleading. As citrus fragrances go, this is absolutely stunning - truly a fantastic offering for the warmer weather when you need refreshing, but I’m not sure I’d want to spend that much money on a citrus scent.
Bortnikoff is a house I’ve been intrigued by for a long time, Tabac Doré is one of the more popular offerings and so I was very excited to sample it. I have to say I feel a bit disappointed if I’m honest, it’s really just not my style of scent at all - in all honesty it doesn’t even feel like a perfume, which some people may love. It’s got this overwhelmingly dry note of tobacco - it’s not ashy or nasty like that of a cigarette, but more like dried tobacco leaves forcefully crushed into an old, dirty pipe. Thick, oily balsams along with sappy labdanum and dense oud turn this into something reminiscent of damp soil. To be honest that’s all I really get from this. I understand people love this house for the unrestricted use of high quality natural materials, but to me it seems to lack overall flair and coherence - more of a barrage of natural raw materials for the sake of saying they’re natural. It’s not a bad creation, just not something I’d ever want to wear.
Goodman’s is a gorgeously sophisticated aromatic oriental, perfectly encapsulating the wealth and elegance of the Bergdorf Goodman clientele. It’s got similarities to other creations from Roja, namely Vetiver and Semi Bespoke 10, but does go off in its own direction. Vetiver dominates the scent profile with its dry, grassy qualities, complimented by the refreshing burst of a rindy, bitter bergamot. From here the oriental aspects make themselves known, dry frankincense and subtle warm spices of cinnamon and cardamom linger in the base to give it some kick. I think this is a lovely scent - it’s not as unique or exciting as some other roja fragrances, but that’s the idea. This scent is made for the modern man, who very clearly has money but wishes to walk the streets without making a fuss. It’s a beautifully classic masculine scent, one I would definitely pick up if I found it for the right price.
Comme des Garcons Rouge is an odd and surprising scent, and at all not what I expected to smell from this glossy, cherry red popsicle of a bottle. It instead reminds me of an artwork by the fabulous, and flamboyant Argentinian painter, Leonor Fini In Les Sorcieres, we observe five frenzied witches swarming and swooping on their broomsticks through a swirling blood-red sky. This scent mirrors these feverish sensations of airy, dizzying fizziness and couples them with a terrestrial earthiness, like herbs and leaves and things freshly dug from a garden patch. Rouge smells like an effervescent shrub (the vinegary drink, not the bushy plant. But also minus most of the vinegar) of rhubarb and beet, fiery ginger root, and floral pink pepper. A witch's cauldron tipple that tapers to a beautiful gingery incense.
