Sashka EDP by Micallef

I believe the Sashka line released by the House of Micallef came about in the late 1990's. I have had no knowledge of them until recently. There are simply too many frags to keep up with and this line escaped me.......until now.

This is one of two masculine Sashka's I recently purchased from Parfum1. Yes......I bought them blind based on reviews and accords......and yes, I still have a horseshoe in my !@# because both are very good and wardrobe worthy. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good............

I am, at this moment, wearing both on each hand and find myself appreciating them equally, in spite of them being completely different one from another. I shall now focus my attention on Sashka ( amber-colored) for the sake of this review. The opening is a concerted blast of lavender and a lemon-mandarin duo. You can smell all three equally and I am pleased to announce that the lavender is extremely well blended and never takes more of the topnote spotlight than it should. This is a clean and transparent lavender sans the soapiness. Ah yes.......my kind of lavender. The interplay with the citrus is also very good and balanced.

As the opening transpires, a note of pepper emerges to give the accord some pop. This signals the heartnotes to spring into action. Well.......spring may be a strong word here....since the nutmeg and very subtle pimento simply slide in nonchalantly to augment the peppery citric theme. I cannot say that I recognize the "pimento" note as such.....but there is something that inserts itself alongside the nutmeg and I deduce that this is Micallef's rendition of Pimento. It actually performs better than quite a few pimento notes I've smelled in other releases, so I'm not complaining.

The base of Patchouli and vetiver are as unencumbered as its predecessors. Spatial enough to differentiate the notes, yet substantial enough to carry the composition. In my opinion, this is well done...aside from smelling really, really good. All in all, Sashka is a winner in my book and for the prices these bottles of EDP are currently selling for.......a complete no brainer. It's a win-win all day long. Big thumbs up from Aromi.

Comments

Newport by Caswell Massey

Bergamot, Mandarin, Lemon, Lavender, Geranium, Muguet, Rose, Ambergris, Cedar, Sandalwood, Vanilla, Musk. After wearing Newport by Caswell Massey a few times and then reading what others had to say about this recent formulation, I found some of the opinions harsh. I have no way to compare it to the heralded vintage formula, nor can I use memory as I've never tried the original. Enter the current version. I do agree with some reviews that this rendition does not bring about the sense of beach and salt, but there's a long line of fragrances that fail to represent their depictions. However, Newport isn't so far off the mark that it's a complete misrepresentation. I can imagine wearing Newport ( or something similar ) in a beach setting. It smells classic due to the way Citrus, Lavender and Geranium are implemented. It's assuredly retro, but it seems to have that intangible I like that keeps me sniffing. Newport, at least on my skin, is top heavy in the sens...

Black Suede by Avon

Nutmeg, Clove, Amber, Musk, Moss, Wood Notes. Yes.........I am reviewing one of the Rodney Dangerfield's of fragrance. Black Suede has been gracing medicine cabinets, for better or worse, since 1980 my friends. If you're expecting me to inform you ( like others may have already ) that Black Suede is a nasty scrubber, you will be disappointed. On the other hand, if you're expecting a glowing review claiming it's a diamond in the rough, you won't hear that from me either. I will say though that Black Suede doesn't deserve the hate it's received and most of that is due to snobbery aimed at Avon products in general. I kid you not when I state that a close relative to this fragrance is Cacharel Pour L'Homme. The array of spice in both ensure comparison, but the "smoother" of the two is Black Suede due to its implementation of Amber. While wearing Black Suede, one can detect a hint of "drugstore". That quality doesn't manife...

Lanvin L'Homme

Lord knows the world has enough fresh woody citrus fragrances. It's a hackneyed genre of masculine perfume, having been done to death by countless designer firms cranking these things out since the 1990s, and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight. Lanvin L'Homme, released in 1997, is one of the early woody citrus releases, but it (along with Essenza di Zegna) stands out because it's one of the best. That may sound like it's not saying much, but Lanvin L'Homme really is excellent. I won't get into a long treatise about all of the notes contained in this and how they evolve. Lanvin L'Homme is sparkling, spicy, woody, transparent and dry. What I love about this scent is how brilliantly it uses vetiver - the vetiver gives Lanvin L'Homme a woody, dry and somewhat bitter smell, but it also manages to create an effect of sustaining the citrus top notes for several hours. This results in a fragrance that smells fresh and cheerful from beginning ...

Il Mondo di Odore

Search This Blog