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.
I smell this and I'm suddenly time traveling back to the olden days of 2014 when I did a thing on the internet which some of you may remember though you may not have known it was me. I shared daily missives of love and self-acceptance from Eternia's most nefarious skull-faced villain, as he progressed on his journey of healing. I am speaking of course, about Skeletor is Love. The facebook and tumblr pages still exist, if you have no idea what I am talking about. Anyway, someone on Makeup Alley realized that was me, and tickled that the creator of that weird thing was a also fragrance enthusiast, we became friends. Miyako from Annayake was a rare scent she insisted I find, she pointed to an eBay listing for it, and it was soon in my possession. Inspired by Japanese incense rituals, it was a perfume I'd never heard of, but was intrigued by, and it's unexpectedly lovely. It's warm, richly-scented amber, copious dry, dreamy spices and woods, and a shifting but utterly ambrosial note of smoky green floral cardamom. It is lush and hypnotic and when I wear it calls to mind the strange connections we make in life and how if you're not open to them, you might miss out on something spectacular.
Tibetan Mountain Temple does not smell like my idea of a blend prepared in accordance with centuries-old traditional Tibetan Buddhist methods to accompany prayer offerings or spiritual purification rituals. But what do I know! This is more like the snack aisle in a tourist shop *next* to the monastery but the only thing they sell are orange creamsicles and those ridiculously delicious Newman ginger-Os, which if you've never had them, they are basically like Oreos in concept, but instead of a chocolate cookie sandwich, it's a ginger snap.
I was a little kid who never paid attention to anything. I perpetually had my head in the clouds. Of course, when you’re forever checked out of what’s going on, things happen without you noticing. Sometimes these are things like your mother signing you up for summer camp and you don’t know anything about it until she’s packing you up on a bus with a lot of kids you don’t know to a place you’ve never heard of. Still, there’s daydreaming and imagining to be done, so I’d just find a seat by myself, lean my head against the filmy glass of the bus window, and breathe in the clean, cool morning air of an early June morning in Ohio, as the vehicle picked up speed and we drove out of the suburbs into the sunshine. Demeter’s Fresh Hay smells like honeyed red clover blossom, warm, dusty earth and soft woody grassy vetiver; the fertile ground of summer daydreams and limitless expanse of a young person’s imagination
Poets of Berlin from Vilhelm Parfumerie is a vile bioluminescent mutant blueberry thing. A blueberry subjected to a sketchy, underfunded experiment in a prototype telepod but there was also a particle of lemon-aloe-bamboo Glade air freshener in the chamber before it was hermetically sealed as well as a smashed bedazzle gem that fell off of an intern’s acrylic nail, unnoticed. Torn apart atom by atom, the small jammy fruit merged with the glinting shards of sugary bling and a blisteringly caustic glow-in-the-dark citrus-lily. I don’t think David Bowie ever wrote a song about this monster but there was a movie adaptation with Jeff Goldblum
We've got a date with Old Scratch and we're gonna meet them wearing Idole de Lubin and nothing else. This fragrance is marketed for men which is a bunch of malarkey because this woodsy, darkly spiced scent with notes of saffron, rum, teak wood, and sugarcane would be devastating on anyone who possesses a human body. And speaking of possessing human bodies, our bae Beelz is due to stop by at midnight and this infernal gourmand redolent of unholy smoke, syrupy booze, and leather-clad sin, will make them feel right at home.
This is modern perfume hyperbole, so strong it should be impossible. One tiny dab somewhere on your person is MORE than enough, and 10ml will last a lifetime. Personally I'm sick of the dearth of akigalawood Bischs but this one is one of the best. I can't decide if it's more or less brutal than Tubéreuse Astral, I think more.
This is magical stuff. Boozy, pagan, woody, spicy... absolutely fantastic to wear in cold weather. And the bottle is stunning. COmpletely unisex.
Enormous, sexy, RUDE, delicious fragrance. Definitely for date nights. This lasts forever on skin and is glorious.
Fizzy rose leather! I have no idea how JC Ellena does it. Delightful.
A dash of Fils de Joie with the dank papyrus from Figment Woman, old school plum in a supporting (but restrained role) and fruity ylang ylang. Amouage is my favourite house for a reason, every composition is a triumph (I'm taking Chong era and before, recently there are highs and lows), and this is no exception.
