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PaperclipPerfector
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Notes -
Fragrance thread. As you know, I spent my latest digital fast looking for new scents. Since I already have several bottles, I tightened my rating scheme: good stuff that doesn't show me I have a gap in my collection gets a zero.
This time the fragrances are sorted chronologically.
Essential Parfums Mon Vetiver, +1. One of the basic man smells: citrus and vetiver. Smells more complex than Escentric 03, but I actually prefer the straightforwardness of the latter. Has the same background note as Tabarome, which I can't really describe.
Wife: not bad
Houbigant Duc de Vervins, -2. The smell is too sharp for me. Grey Flannel is sharp as well, but it's bitter and fresh. This one doesn't have the freshness and neither is it aromatic. Again, my poor fragrance vocabulary can't explain what the notes are. Acrid is probably the word I would use.
Escentric Molecules Molecule 03, 0. As you know, I quite like Escentric 03, which is a fragrance based on vetiveryl acetate. This is just this single compound alone, and I bought it to see what it smelled like. It's a pleasant woody smell, but I quickly lose the ability to sense it.
Escentric Molecules Escentric 04, 0. I like it, but it doesn't smell like a revelation. It's a mix of citrus and flowers and sweet woods, I can't really separate one note from the other.
Wife: hated it, called it cloying and sweet
Mauboussin Une Historie d'Homme Irresistible, -1. Pleasant, but not my style. I says it's for men right in the name, but I see it more as a sophisticated women's fragrance. People say it smells like Ombre Noire, but I find them quite different: MUHdHI is very smooth, with none of the oriental notes from ON.
Wife: meh
Byredo Mojave Ghost, -1. It's really a ghost: the scent is very weak. It's sweet and floral, with the same synthetic undertone I usually notice in MMM perfumes.
Wife: weak and feminine and synthetic
Max Philip Cypress, 0. It does smell like cypress when you spray it: that briny smell that was the feature of Cipresso di Toscana. The sharpness recedes quickly, and you start noticing the oily vetiver like in Etro, but, again, it's more subdued.
Issey Miyake L'Eau Bleue d'Issey Pour Homme, +2. Wow. It smells incredibly fresh and green, with the citrus notes providing the backing vocals. If Terre d'Hermes or one of its flankers isn't fresh enough for you, this one definitely is. The only drawback is its poor longevity. Oh, and its name is impossible to remember, like one of a Turkish all-inclusive resort.
Wife: wow, this one it so good, I didn't expect this from you
Frederic Malle French Lover, -1. It's not bad, but the overall effect is spoiled by the presence of some kind of incense. I find practically all of them irritatingly stifling. Other than that, it's a nice mix of herbaceous and woody notes.
Wife: loved it, but she's a big fan of Middle Eastern resins.
Cerruti 1881 Men, 0. A very sharp dark green fragrance. A bit like green Polo, but without the vapor rub note. There's a bit of a mothball in it, though. Of all the fragrances I've tried, it's the most "old man" one. I'm not exactly young, but still too young to wear it.
Wife: that's just Fahrenheit.
Byredo Bal d'Afrique, +1. My first association is a fruit-flavored milkshake. Sweet, sour, cold. Not herbal at all, at least in the first hour. I quite like the result, it's a literally attractive scent that is unusual enough to make you want to investigate its source. Not aggressively masculine.
Lalique Encre Noire A L'Extreme, -1. While I loved the OG Encre Noire, this one has a cold sweet synthetic note that I don't like at all.
Wife: that's amber
Bonus round: Creed Spice and Wood, 0. From my wife's stash. Maybe it's a very old tester (the rubber band around the phial crumbled when I touched it), but it completely vanished on my skin in less than half and hour. While it lasted, it was a rather generic woody scent with just a hint of pepper.
Lalique Pour Homme (Lion), 0. Kinda smells like Duc de Vervins at the start, but less aggressive. Mellows out quickly into something soapy. I can't say it's bad, it's nice, but I want my fragrance to either smell like something or to make people wonder what it smells like. Lion smells nice, but it's a large ensemble of very familiar notes. You can't tell exactly what they are, but it smells familiar.
Wife: that's a basic bitch fragrance
Lalique Pour Homme (Equus), +1. I like the horsey more that the kitty. Smells like an Orthodox monastery gift shop: pryaniks and expensive wood.
Initio Parfums Prives Side Effect, +1. It's exactly like Narcotic Delight by the same company, but without cherry. A very nice sweet tobacco fragrance.
Wife: you know I hate sweet fragrances, why do you do this to me?
Diptyque Tam Dao Eau de Parfum, 0. Eh. Smells like some exotic wood. I think Equus is the better choice out of the two.
Laboratorio Olfattivo Vetyverso, 0. By that moment I got tired of testing new fragrances myself and just gave everything a zero by default. None of them had anything surprisingly good or bad about them.
Roja Dove Elysium Pour Homme Parfum Cologne, 0.
Roja Dove Vetiver Pour Homme Parfum Cologne, 0.
Houbigant Duc de Vervins L'Extreme, -1. I expected it to be worse than regular DdV, but it's a bit better. Still acrid, but not offensively so.
Summary:
I ended up getting a bottle of Equus and bought a fresh batch of testers with it. It's this close to being my final fragrance, but it's been discontinued, so I keep looking for a potential replacement.
Lalique White, -1. I like Lalique in general, but White smells like toilet freshener. It gets better when the first notes evaporate, but it's not worth the wait.
Aesop Hwyl, -1. Recommended by an LLM as a Sycomore replacement. It has this "nasal bacterial infection" note that I hate.
Chanel Antaeus, +1. I faulted Lalique Pour Homme Lion for smelling like everything, but the difference in price between Lion and Antaeus is understandable. It's another fragrance that is a complex blend, but it delivers. The opening is sharp, bitter herbaceous, then it mellows a bit and you can smell various flowers, but the overall presentation is still incredibly masculine. When you're wearing a suit at night, you should smell like this. In my first review roundup I wrote that I didn't like chypres, but it looks like I simply didn't try the right one. Unfortunately, the longevity is abysmal. It very quickly cycles through its various notes and in just an hour smells like nothing at all.
Alain Delon Hommage, -1. It has this base note that I don't like. I think it's supposed to be musky, but it's unpleasantly synthetic.
Caron Yatagan, -1. Smells like Duc de Vervins when first sprayed. I don't think this acrid note is lavender, which is what "Fragrantica" claims they have in common.
Diptyque Oud Palao, 0. I wanted to try what out smells like, and this was recommended to me as natural, but now overpowering oud. The smell is... interesting. Like a leather warehouse or a taxidermy workshop. It's also incredibly resilient, if you put it on, you'll have to wear it.
Issey Miyake L'Eau d'Issey Pour Homme, -1. Unlike the "blue" version, this one has a generic sweet and fruity scent that I don't find appealing.
Gucci Love At Your Darkest, -1. Doesn't smell like anything. Supposed to be pepper and cedar, but I didn't get anything from it.
Eight & Bob Eight & Bob (Original Inside Book), -1. Smells a bit like furniture polish
Antonio Puig Quorum Silver, 0. Bought as a potential Equus alternative, but it is less sweet-spicy. Not bad, but not what I was looking for.
Cerruti 1881 Bella Notte Man, 0. Another Equus alternative, a bit worse than Quorum Silver. There's a pickle note in the beginning, and then it's just nutmeg.
Escentric Molecules Molecule 02, no rating. That's pure ambroxan and I can't smell it! My wife can and hates it, which explains why I'm find with certain fragrances and she can't stand them.
Escentric Molecules Molecule 01, no rating. I think I can smell Iso E Super, but the concentration in 01 is too low.
Jo Malone Hinoki & Cedarwood, -1. Smells like a bit like one of these gummy candy stores at first. Then it smells like the drum of a washing machine: clean wet clothes and detergent. I don't know why I thought Jo Malone would be any good.
Bottega Veneta Bottega Veneta Pour Homme, 0. Smells nice, but is quite weak to my nose. I might try higher concentrations later, they surprisingly have the same notes.
Yves Saint Laurent La Nuit de l'Homme, 0. It smells like shampoo that makes you cry. Which is a nostalgic scent, but I was looking for an Equus alternative.
Perroy Blueforest, 0. I was looking for another peppery-woody option, and this delivers, it smells like black pepper and cedar, but in the most boring way possible.
Diptyque Vetyverio, 0. Nice vetiver fragrance, but kinda feminine. Like a mix of Mojave Ghost and Bal d'Afrique, but with some vetiver in the background.
Boucheron Singulier, 0. Cheap, pleasant, derivative. Nice if you want an inoffensive summer fragrance.
Caron Aimez Moi Comme Je Suis, +1. The first blast is coffee latte and cumin. Then they decay into hazelnut and vetiver. The scent is natural and distinctive.
Lalique L'Insoumis, 0. Pleasant, but weak and not distinctive. A bit of the washing machine in the base notes.
Chanel Paris - Edimbourg, +1. Finally, something similar to Sycomore in woody quality! Of course, being Chanel, it's the Indian tailor joke all over again: it's again as weak and impermanent as it is delightful.
Eleven testers left, which I plant to finish by the next FFT, along with some final thoughts.
Crazy. I've smelled only a small handful of these, but I admire your thoroughness. Nonetheless, might I suggest that the job of perfume (cough, what? Cologne) is not to be fragrant to the wearer, but to others. To what degree have you looked into pheromones? I remember in the 80s Polo did it for all the gals, and of course we boys dutifully followed suit by buying it...until it became yesterday's (at this point yesteryear's) fragrance. I remember some students once came into my office, when I was wearing Polo Sport, and said it reminded them of....their host father.
My point is that smells say different things to different people, in particular I think even unisex fragrances have different hits for men and women, and even in men and women individuals will vary.
Also you must have spent a fuckton of money. For science, I applaud you.
The green one?
That's why I always ask my wife for her opinion. That's the most important opinion after my own. I want to enjoy what I smell like too!
I haven't. Like I said in the previous roundup, 1-2ml tester bottles are cheap. I mean, they are relatively expensive, but I must've spent about $500 on them in total. For a midlife crisis hobby, that's peanuts.
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