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J. Peterman- not all overblown copywriting. E.M. Ca' d'Oro

By Anonymous
As the J. Peterman name has become a "cult thing" - mostly due to Seinfeld - and to the evocative yet not really very descriptive copywriting in the J. Peterman catalog, it's tricky to get an idea of the quality of the man's company's products.

I know that they re-sell quite a few items, the Muck Shoes, the Dominica Bay Rum, etc., but the products that are manufactured for the company are often fairly unique, and appeal to the sort of person that fancies themselves unique.

That said, I fancy myself fairly unique.

And I have fallen for the JP line of frags.

The 1903 (marketed as a woody fougere for men) is a nice scent I'll review later.

Ca' d'Oro is part of the E.M. line ("who is that woman 'E.M.' to whom they are referring? Did she exist or is she fictional"... that's part of the JP mystique) of EDT for women, and is another quite good scent.

The ad copy states that Ca' d'Oro is "An exotic scent with notes of bergamot, musk, amber, almond-hazelnut, sandalwood, and patchouli." While that may indeed be the case, this scent to my nose is ALL ABOUT THE AMBER. As in (I'm guessing!) ambreine, which is a name for a quality grade of perfumers' labdanum. Which is often substituted for ambergris... which makes me wonder if it's not the "amber" note. Labdanum or ambreine, which, as it turns out, is one of my favorite notes.

The bottle ( a 1 oz. spray EDT ) in my scent cabinet simply oozed essence of labdanum when I lifted the cap... I knew that this was going to be one of my favorites when that warm, resinous scent hit my nostrils.

The bergamot is there, yes, in the top notes, but the warm nutty musky earthiness of the other notes pretty much overwhelms it. This is a little sex-in-a-bottle EDT and I am enamored with it!

A very good, well-crafted offering from JP... that smells as niche as, say, any JHAG (and has the warmth of Citizen Queen but not the rose), and has the MAGIC INGREDIENT for my nose. Good stuff! I wish I knew who crafted this scent.
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  1. AnonymousAugust 1, 2010 at 11:55 PM

    Labdanum done right is wonderful Luna babe ! :) Sounds intriguing. :) Great post! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousAugust 7, 2010 at 11:07 AM

    It's quite nice. On the other hand, the 1903, the J. Peterman men's offering, used to be a favorite of mine, but this summer it's not doing anything for me and smells kind of "cheap and synthetic" right now. We'll see if it smells better in the cooler months... it could be that it's going off, or that I've expanded my fine scent wardrobe to the point that my nose is becoming a scent snob!

    ReplyDelete

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