Absolutely stunning if you like smelling like root beer, which I personally adore. There’s a lovely, subtle almost licorice note that is just so beautiful with the vanilla base. I adore this version of the poison line!
Juicy cherries skewered and dipped in smokily scorched toffee. The snack of dreams to go with your fragrantly steaming hot chocolate as you wander around a Viennese Christmas market. Cheerily decorated wooden huts, glittering brass band oompah-ing, golden lights gleaming against the snow——all present and correct.
Smells like having a cup of tea in the middle of Sephora surrounded by teenagers spraying cheap designer perfumes. No wait, it's more like a cup of tea that someone has squirted a dollop of generic men's shower gel into. I wanted to try this perfume for the longest time and I'm thoroughly underwhelmed so far. It may even be a scrubber, it's starting to annoy me after 15 minutes.
Nice but remarkably similar to way cheaper Serge Lutens scents such as Parole d'Eau. I mean, it is different, but it's not giving me anything that seems worth the extortionate price.
Serge Lutens Datura Noir, as far as noir-anything goes, is not noir at all. This is a milk glass fairy spell, cast in the delicate light of dawn, calling for pale blossoms soaked in milk at midnight. Heady aromas of honeysuckle and heliotrope combine with buttery floral vanilla fantasies, a flittering whimsy of bitter almond dream fuel, and a diaphanous reverie of powdery coconut musk. This datura-inspired fragrance is less deadly devil’s flower-induced euphoric hallucinations and more moonflower pudding for sleepy Thumbelinas.
Scorpio Rising from Eris Perfumes begins as a cool, citrusy pink pepper with rosy nuances, an artful enigma of a spice, more zingy herbal aromatic than the sting and pungent bite than you might expect. This is one of the more restrained Scorpios I’ve known, and while I don’t mean to generalize I can say that in my experience, there are two types of Scorpios: the one that is Very A Lot, they don’t hold back, you always know what they are thinking and they practically flay themselves open for you. They want you to have all of them, even and especially the ugly and scary bits. They wear their shadow side on their sleeve and their shadows aren’t very subtle, either. The other kind of Scorpio is not exactly secretive, silent-type, but their shadows are shrewd and sharp and you might not get to see them right away, but you always recognize they are there and you are inexplicably drawn to them like a moth to flame. While I am absolutely obsessed with pretty much all Scorpios, I think Eris’ Scorpio Rising falls more into the latter category and I wouldn’t automatically mark it as a bombastically passionate although I would say it has a quiet intensity that sort of sneaks up on you. After the cool, dry floral, and discreet fruitiness of the opening, there emerges delicate smoke and soft leather, woody-floral cardamom and immortelle’s elusive burnt sugar musk. This is the Scorpio you follow down shadowy corridors in a dream, following their lingering trail of scent, and when you’ve reached the dead-end abyss, the void at the end of the trail, you find they were behind you all along. This is the Scorpio that takes your hand as you jump into the darkness of the unknown.
August Picnic, 1976 from DSH Perfumes is an elusive and ephemeral splash of zesty, effervescent, subtly sweet-tart strawberry lemonade joie de vivre on a summer day when the grass is blindingly green and tall enough to tickle your knees and the sun hangs golden above the cedars, not even the barest whisper of winter in its shade—the joyous and wistful and fleeting perfume of an idyllic June afternoon.
I've recently been sampling several perfumes from Meo Fusciuni. So far, these are all introspective, quiet creations--nothing bold or bombastic, but they're all really lovely, and I get the sense from interviews and the way shop keeps and other perfumers talk about him that he is a thoughtful, elegant, and articulate fellow.
Because I agonize over these things, I wonder if he might be bummed out (or maybe, hopefully, elated?) to read a review wherein someone compares his Spirito offering to a less sleazy, more delicate and pensive Drakkar Noir?
Ok, some context. I love Drakkar Noir. I always have. My high school boyfriend used to wear it, and I found it rather swoony. In retrospect, I am realizing that I wanted it to be a swoony fragrance FOR ME. I wanted to smell like a villainous rascal reeking of peppery-woody-musky fougère! And somehow --just today!-- I am realizing that I have been drawn to various iterations of this combination of notes all throughout my journey with perfume.
When I smelled Spirito this morning, I thought, "Gosh! This is like Drakkar Noir leveling up after 12 lifetimes, and it's finally stopped being the skeeziest guy at titty bars. It mediates and keeps a journal, and it'll listen with intent when you talk now, and it'll ask you if you want venting space or solution space. It's sensitive and self-aware. Maybe even a little wistful and ruminative.
In reviewing their various compositions, it looks like they don't have an awful lot in common. Just angelica, lavender, vetiver, and cedar. Maybe the interplay between the notes creates some kind of connection for me, I don't know. But I'm sticking with it. Spirito is a poetry-reading, contemplative Drakkar Noir whose roguish heart, it turns out, is just as fragile and hopeful, just as much as a dreamer as mine.
Meo Fusciuni, I mean no offense or insult! I adore Drakkar Noir, and as far as I am concerned, it is legendary. And Spirito took it (or my memory of it) to task and turned it into something softer, lovelier, and better.
Fiery Pink Pepper from Molton Brown opens with so much promise, a zesty dust storm of dry citrus peel and pith, ginger’s tangy effervescent spice, and some underlying rosy-peppery woody notes. It rapidly becomes a somewhat predictable smelling woody cologne that is somehow also aquatic, but both aspects are equally lackluster. It’s that bubbly, vivacious new acquaintance that when you get to know them, you realize that they don’t actually have any interests or passions and they don’t have much of an internal life. Fun for a very short time, but it’s no one you are ever going to have a deep or lasting connection with. This fragrance is the essence of that person--what little essence they might have, anyway-- distilled and bottled
I purchased Shay & Blue Cotton Flower because I thought it might be similar to a scent I am very fond of: Bath and Body Works Clean Cotton Blossom which then became Sea Island Cotton and which is now Fresh Cotton, but is perhaps not even available anymore? I loved the idea of that scent because it always conjured a sort of Anne of Green Gables Gunne Sax feeling for me, like cottagecore pre-whenever people started referring to it as cottagecore. Cotton Flower is less bleachy and screechy than any of the B&BW iterations; it doesn’t have that harsh lemony lily of the valley cleaning product aspect. It’s a bit woodier and muskier and warmer, with a golden nectarine glow, which is not to say it’s fruity, but it’s got a rather peachy-coral-vermillion-emberglow YouTube vaporwave neon sunset version of the scent of something like a nectarine.
The opening for me is a smack of plasticky rubber, thankfully that doesn’t last too long, only a couple of minutes on my skin, but behind that..
The fresh citrusy resins with their warmth and spice are almost mouthwatering, complemented by the fragrant and spicy peppers.
Fresh juicy resins is a new thought for me lol
The warm fuzzy suede, and the creamy indulgent vanilla hold the fort. The vanilla is realistic as it should be. Somewhere between sweet and savoury.
A really sexy alluring scent.
I don't find this similar to Oud Satin Mood at all. OSM is smooth, creamy, jammy, sweet and vanillic! So delicious. Perpetual Oud on the otherhand is drier and rosier. It's colder and somewhat metallic - it's a more traditional oud. If anything, I find it similar to Guerlains Santal Royal but with a more feminine incensy twist.
It's as if there were a Shalimar Flanker/Hybrid with AMan. Not terrible, but completely superfluous, and hugely inferior to Shalimar, AMen, Tonka Imperial, etc
bus, club, another club, another club, plane, next place, no sleep
Firstly the bottle is just gorgeous, shame I have to hide it away but light is not a friend to fragrance!
There is a comforting creaminess that marries with the sharpness of the lime which makes this special to me. And then when the citrus notes disappear the spice comes through on my skin.
I find it uplifting and calming and as the weather is pretty rubbish in the UK right now I find myself reaching for it more and more
Disclaimer: This is a part of Le Labo's City Collection & is more expensive than their usual frags
True to the city it represents, Gaiac 10 is an embodiment of Tokyo — it's minimalistic yet complex, will remind you of nature & at the same time Gaiac 10 is a very metropolitan fragrance.
This is a very straightforward fragrance: it smells of guaiac and cedarwood, from the top note to the drydown. But don't be fooled, as you smell yourself throughout the day, the sweetness of musk and incense compliments the woody notes and it makes the fragrance just irresistible.
Anyone familiar with Cecile's output in recent years will feel a warm hug of familiarity in the form of her MASSIVE, fiesty amber accord driven, opulence-fest of a style. This is no different Gigantic, Amber-patchouli accord, loads of incense, Chewy gingerbread and licorice facets, almost too much to talk about, and you get different things popping out here and there. I say the drydown is reminiscent of your favourite oud/rose/patchouli perfumes, then never ending woody, amber, musk. It's really good. Not an awe inspiring wear or anything but I have to say that Zarokian is one of the best perfumers working today, she seemingly found a style groove. Amouage: Stop pricing your perfumes to appeal only to people with more money than sense.
This is nice perfume, but nothing as astounding as I'd have thought reading the gushing reviews here. It's not leather, it's orris and sandalwood, and of course lacks top notes and is totally linear, which I guess is deliberate. The quality, concept, packaging and performance are worthy of perhaps 150 euros MAX for 100ml. The price as it stands is farcical. But then someone must be paying it. If you want a truly beautiful suedey leather that costs a lot less than this try Clean Suede, which accomplishes this idea more successfully/less boringly.
Now despite my moaning about how beige the branding of Amouage has seeming become in recent years, this is the jewel in the crown of what is an impressive trio of perfumes. To say Outlands felt like Zarokian doing her signature thing and Reasons was creative and interesting but I didn't connect with it, Lustre is magic right off the bat! For me it opens with a powdery rose/iris, outrageous pastel pink and fluffy but with masses of substance and character, quintessential Amouage character too, because you can smell the twinkle of resins which underlie this perfume before turning into a sensual warm woody, balsamic affair. There's a classiness to this perfume, befitting it's price. No actually scratch that, someone told me they're £750 or something? Fuck off Amouage!!!! Where there's a heavy use of resins to create rich, deep perfumes with a stratifying heft, less can be more, and can make for diffuse, delicate and powdery smells which for me is when resin is actually utilised to open up a composition rather than weight it down or to use a cooking term 'thicken' it. This application smells like resins which do just this, such as benzoin, styrax, tolu balm etc... which have sweet, spiced facets and show the real deft hand of the perfumer (or in this case perfumers) to create something so robust yet fragile. The most heady of the lot is labdanum and it's use in here is prominent, certainly in the heart with the Ambrarome material really coming to the forefront as it dries down. I usually don't like Ambraome but I can actually smell it in here and it stops short of that awful off note I get from it, again another display of the perfumers getting it right. I adore this, really good perfume. My pick of what I've already conceded to be a strong trio from the brand. Update 19/12/24 Okay so wearing this was a little different of an experience to spraying on a card and my arm. I still love it, but it's worth noting that it immediately became a big labdamic, cuddly, base heavy perfume and much of the top note detail (that sort of powdery, lightly floral aspect) which had been so dominanant in the opening 30min to an hour on a card and initially on my wrist, seems to be far less prominent on my neck and clothes etc... perhaps my perception changed having smelled it a couple of times? dunno? it's still a delight though and still probably just edging first place out of this collection but it's seemingly more simplistic now than the other two.
Strong as all hell, be careful. The opening is A LOT, which is not to say it's bad, but it's very heady and needy, no subtlety at all. There's loud jasmine and a whole host of scratchy chemicals. After 30 mins the joy begins, as the flowers and aroma-chemical blob calm down and the cocoa comes through, along with the creamy base. Lovely. Nobody needs 100ml of this. I have 10ml and it'll probably last me 20 years. Far drydown smells exactly like Fève Gourmande.
I'm quite certain that the nose who composed this scent had no actual concept of sin either in theory or practice. This is a creamy white floral grounded with a light woody musk and it's one of those pleasantly inoffensive scent that one might spritz when they don't want to spend a lot of time thinking about their perfume. If your idea of sin is wearing white after Labor Day or not properly sorting your recyclables, this may hit right for you. If the imp of the perverse lives permanently on your shoulder, you may think this is laughable but you keep it in your cabinet because you love the cheesy gothic melodrama of the bottle
I love most incarnations of myrrh and this is a really nice one. Its bittersweet, medicinal edge is tempered by the tonka, and tonka's earthy sweetness is reigned in by the inclusion of the aromatic herbal crispness of lavender. There's the barest tinge of something smoky and acrid, which calls to mind imagery of blazing, blackened amber, and yet this is a very cool scent, and I don't get a feeling of warmth from it at all. It makes me think of the sadly discontinued Sonoma Scent Studio Ambre Noir, a fragrance that goes hard with the smoky amber, so maybe this could be a possible, though less extreme, dupe.
I first sampled Montale's Cafe Intense years ago when I was initially getting into fragrance and perfumes. I guess I was feeling a little nostalgic for that sample a kind MUA-er sent me way back when! My recollection was that it was meant to be a coffee-forward scent, but...it is not. My partner observed that it smells like a teenage girl who typically wore a lot of candied, sugary scents and who wanted to level up with fancy florals and didn't quite hit the mark. She tried, I guess, was his conclusion. My thoughts are more specific. This is a cloying fruity-floral that smells exactly like Rose Jam from LUSH, which I bitterly loathe because that smells just like those gaggy sweet Jolly Ranchers hard candies that all the popular kids were always eating in 6th grade. Which in turn makes me think of the MOST popular girl, we'll call her Mary Lesa H., who broke off and ATE part of my sugar crystal science project that year. I hate science projects and I have never forgiven Mary Lesa H., and this awful perfume can go straight to hell.
Musc Maori from Pierre Guillaume Paris is another one that I tried a long while ago and wanted to revisit, and it's just as quietly weird as I remember. It's got milky vanilla notes of cumaru wood, which I had to look up just now, and Google tells me that basically, it's where tonka beans come from. It also features appearances by coffee tree blossom and cacao pod. I typically don't love chocolate scents, but this is like a musky, musty, ghostly packet of Swiss Miss. I say ghostly because it's a very transparent scent, and the musk alternates eerily between something etherous in spirit and warm, sweet human skin. This is not the finished cup of hot chocolate but rather the grains of cocoa trembling in the tablespoon before being stirred into the boiling milk. It's an odd but thoroughly charming fragrance.
