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Showing posts from February, 2011

Laetitia by Rance 1795

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I am finally getting around to sampling this house and I decided to review Laetitia first out of the 4 samples. I chose Laetitia because it smells pretty damn good and reminds me of another favorite; namely Reminiscence Eau de Patchouli. I cannot get over how similar this is to the Reminiscence offering and during the first sample wearing, I was compelled to do a side by side. The differences are barely perceptible with the exception of price point. Rance 1795 is noticeably more expensive. That aside however, Laetitia is a labdanum-patchouli bomb that leans slightly feminine like its counterpart. From the onset, cistus labdanum is front and center and everyone else ( including patchouli) are along for the ride. The citric opening of orange and bergamot are immediately reigned in by the labdanum surging upwards from the  base accord. It's a very nice accord that last about 5 minutes on my skin before a very muted floral heart tries desperately to unravel itself. Rose, Magnolia,

Un Bois Vanille by Serge Lutens

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Why 'o' why does this house annoy me more than please me? Can someone be too niche for their own good? So many offerings and so many misses lead me to believe that a Lutens may never end up in my wardrobe. I have liked a few offerings and in spite of "the few" being bottle worthy (IMO), I'm never "moved" to pull the trigger on this house. Enter Un Bois Vanille and it's mystery wood component. Why did they not call this Coconilla? Is this a pleasant scent? Yes, to me it is. Is it special? No, it is not. Un Bois Vanille is an overpriced rendition of coconut and vanilla that eventually gives way to a wood so anemic that it couldn't give a carpenter's apprentice a splinter. Coconut. Vanilla. Almost imperceptible wood. There you have it. You can pay top dollar if you want to. I have better things to do with my money.

Carlos Santana for Men

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Carlos Santana ??? Surely....you jest ! Celebrity scents usually suffer an abysmal fate and rightfully so....but let's not be so hasty with the guitarsmith's first foray into the world of scent. The first 2 rock albums I ever purchased were Santana Abraxas and Neil Young's Harvest in the very early 1970's. I would have never imagined Carlos being linked with a fragrance.....let alone one that has some merit. Almost 35 years later in 2005, his notes have changed from a patented staccato style to notes implemented in fragrance accords. The first thing I noticed from 2 healthy spritzes of Santana for Men is that it's a rouge offering that has some substance......and more earth shattering for me is its similarity to one of my all time favorites; namely Shiseido Basala. Yes.......I said it.......Basala dammit. ( I was forced to do a side by side and while Basala was a shade brighter and one degree woodier, these two are so close it's scary). Santana opens up on

Private Number for Men by Etienne Aigner

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Every so often, the lady luck tips her cap in my direction and this time, I walked away with a NIB 50ml Private Number for Men for the staggering sum of $.99 plus $4 shipping. Not too shabby for juice that's fetching approximately $45 per bottle. What made this even better was that I was searching for a deal on this particular scent since Aigner is my favorite designer house......and because I had never even sampled this 1992 offering. Suffice it to say that neither the price nor the scent itself disappointed me. Private Number is a fougere that leans fresh and has a very similar fruit note  that is implemented in Aigner's Statement for Men. That note is really the only link between both, but it left an impression on me in Statement and is no surprise that it stands out to me in Private Number. Both Private Number (1992) and Statement (1994) are aptly named. Both are fougere's that are fresh with Private Number being lower in volume and Statement more boisterous. Priv

Tam Dao by Diptyque

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I have sample worn Diptyque's Tam Dao countless times since its release in 2003. I have never, in all these sample wearings, disliked it. I also never have been moved to purchase it. It seems to fall in that gray area with me like so many other fragrances that fall through the cracks of my "potential purchase" list. What amuses me about this particular "type" of scent is that I end up comparing them to a huge bottle of Zara Sandalo that I have......and they either equal it or fall short. Keep in mind that Zara Sandalo is extremely economical while Tam Dao costs more than $1.50 per ml. To be fair however, Tam Dao is a nice woody. Diptyque's site lists Ambergris, Cypress, Rosewood and Sandalwood as its notes, yet I do get a prominent musk that's not listed. It is this musk note that is the deal killer for me. This additional note is far too reminiscent of inferior masculines I have worn that seems to be included simply to augment and be frugal at the s

Moods, emotions, times. L'Heure Bleue vintage...

I haven't posted here in some time, but wanted to update with a little tidbit of what might be coming. Having acquired a vintage L'Heure Bleue EDT, I realized upon first sniff that there was much more to this perfume thing than just notes, sillage, and longevity. (actually I knew this long ago, but feel a bit dramatic at the moment.) The idea of a perfume capturing a moment, or an hour in time as a universal constant holds great appeal to me. Living in the moment, yes, that's a very good thing to do. However, there is pleasure of a different order in the capture of a period of time, a mood, an emotion... and L'Heure Bleue seems to me to do this very well. So well, in fact, that I cannot yet put words to what L'Heure Bleue smells like. Notes, yes, I can describe. Sillage, yes, and longevity, that too. But L'Heure Bleue confounds and confuses the senses in a way that, perhaps a Zen Koan does. That is the essence of what I want to say about L'Heure Bleue. I may