Perfume / Cologne

I've bought some of those indie / alt perfumes, but TBH, the branding on many of them is too precious or humorless goth. I mean, if you want to sell, you should broaden your market. Like I don't identify with the rich uncle at all! And then there are all of the perfumers who use Eurocentric and / or Victorian imagery, as if we all relate to or have those values. It's the same problem that plagues the DIY world in general, with all of its apothecary / homesteading nostalgia. A woman's perfume should respect all women, and sometimes the "mysterious magical witchy woman" crap is just plain sexist.

I am working on a fragrance inspired by Italian women in my family - the smell of the purses, like powdery makeup, rose, tobacco and candy. I didn't think it would work (I had the concept first), but I wear it all of the time, it really smells like my memories!

yeah, the branding slightly annoys me, but no more than, like, the porny tom ford/(k*l*an)-type branding does. but, like, deconstructing eden's melisande is a really pretty cinnamon-jasmine-amber thing that I could more or less live in a cloud of, and also is named after a character in a thoroughly embarrassing book series

damn no idea his stuff was that controversial

The fragrance I got this month was Caswell-Massey's Centuries Sandalwood. It's kind of a dud. It's unisex, and although it claims to have other ingredients, like cypriol, which I LUV, it just seems to be all overpowering Australian sandalwood, which given its gluey, synthetic aspect, I don't think is real. Or maybe it's a mixture of authentic Australian sandalwood and aromachemical. In any case, it's not very subtle. I'll keep looking for a decent sandalwood scent, but given the unsustainability of the stuff, I'm not hopeful.

I used to buy sandalwood oil in college, when real mysore was more affordable. I guess I have to leave those days behind me, because the Australian variant isn't getting it done.

Oh by the way, I got some amyris, which is supposed to be "west Indian sandalwood" and I like it a lot, although it smells nothing like sandalwood.

There seems to be a Miller Harris offer that if you take an empty/full bottle of any Perfume/Cologne to one of their stores, you will get half price on any of their fragrances.

Oh ... or use the code "RECYCLE" online.

Hey, I found a new way for people on a budget to get $$$ perfumes for cheap. Some people are buying big bottles of expensive or rare perfumes and bottling them in smaller bottles. I got my own personal holy grail - five ounces of CHANEL NO. 19. It has galbanum, and I usually can't afford it, because you usually have to get it from France and pay a jillion dollars for it because nobody in the US carries it anymore. So it came in the mail today, and it's the REAL DEAL. I got into perfume because I always wanted to make my own version of Chanel no. 19 but I can't get the galbanum right...so now I have my very own to study. So if you're looking for that expensive shit, try Ebay!

I love Chanel No. 19

more astringent and modern than No. 5, but both are classics

looking at it in retrospect those really are the two classic Chanel fragrances

Yeah, it's a classic and a long time ago, it was my signature. I like the slightly masculine or astringent aspect, but it is just so well-done and original. The new formulation is nice, but not as good and the personality isn't as strong. I loved the old one. It was greener and maybe more masculine and assertive. I guess you can get no.19 straight from the Chanel website, but I don't feel like paying $125 the new formula - I don't think it's worth it.

So, this bottle made me want to buy a few vintage bottles of the stuff that are on Ebay, and they're not really expensive, but prohibitive enough on my budget that I'm not sure if I should spring for it. If I had my druthers, I'd have a whole cabinet full of the original stuff. This is why I tried to concoct my own version - which was nice but nothing like the original. I mean, every description of the formula has something different in it. Apparently it has rose and leather in it, whereas I smell greens, vetiver and iris. I just love galbanum, which is a weird thing to put in a "classic" major house fragrance.

I'm just wondering if anyone has sprung for vintage bottles of classic fragrances, and if they hold up well, or if they morph over time. The few vintage bottles I have of stuff are not that great. The bottles I want to buy are from the seventies and the eighties.

And Chanel - as weak as the reformulations are, Chanel is still my go-to as far as designer fragrances. Some of those other fashion houses just produce overrated shit. The Chanels never disappoint, at least, and are worth the money you pay for them.

i got some samples! and then, opinions were had!

miller harris - fleurs de bois. what it says. citrus, florals, but then woods. it's got that miller harris thing going on.

ferrari - noble fig and bright neroli. ferrari is mostly not good except recently they're going for actually good and these aren't bad. the noble fig is mostly orange and fig leaf and assorted whatnot. i have ferragamo pour homme, which is grapefruit and fyg leef, and i forget what spices is supposed to be in there but it has eugenol which is cloves and then at the end there's what youtubist lanier smith describes as italian shoe leather, which is apt as ferragamo is an italian shoe company. that guy's a hoot, he makes himself a cocktail and goes on to relate a totally made up story about his travels and talks about fragrances almost as an afterthought. the bright neroli is a cheap alternative to neroli portofino but i got varvatos artisan pure at marshalls which is an orange blossom thing with citrus but also there's this herbal thing happening that smells like a hay note to me, so hey! don't need the bright neroli which is a cheaper neroli portofino because i have the varvatos which was pretty good for the summer.

got a vintage fahrenheit sample and it's better than the current but not but so much that i'd spring for a vintage bottle.

rochas eau de rochas smells like dior eau sauvage but for cheap.

i got davidoff good life, which is like joop! what about adam but not quite as good, amd escada magnetism, which is saffron and tolu balsalm. i have the versace man, which is saffron and tobacco and what i feel is too much amber, but the tolu in the magnetism has a soft touch to it. the joop! has a discernible tomato leaf note, while the good life has fig leaf, which isn't present as fig leaf as much as a general green note. alexandria fragrances, which is a clone house, has a good life clone but not and adam clone, so i got that. and they have a magnetism called called chic magnet but okay. as far as i can tell the clones ae spot on, as much as can be expected. getting vintage bottles of the originals on ebay and so forth is right out because price.

also at marshalls they had a varvatos signature so i got that. it's got this dates note and some leather or what passes as leather so it's not bad, for a designer. the dates i kind of compare to the dried fruit notes in timbuktu, not that they're on an even plane but the timbuktu is a bit more complicated and the varvatos was there.

the good life clone is called the best life and i wouldn't go that far but it really has the early 90s interzone thing happening that was in the og davidoff which is what i want: transitional, neither heavy 80s oakmossy old skool but not full-on 90s calone aquatic unbearable lightness of being contrariness. i get sandlewood in the drydown which is always a plus because sandlewood, even if it's the cheap synthetic kind since no more sandlewood. also black currant, which i don't know how that plays nowadays, seems like an old-timey note. there's a good floral accord from the violet and a green accord pulling it in the other direction that's always in play so it has an intestesting tension going on, at least from my perspecyive/ experience level, i don't ask for too much. philosykos is still ahead in the green race but this isn't too far behind.

alexandria also has a givenchy insense clone in which i have an interest, but they also have dumb stuff like an hermes terre d'hermes clone, which, you can still get terre d'hermes for about the same price per ounce.

the davidoff good life is actually from 1998 while the joop! what about adam is from 1992, so in between there were other fresh and green things like tommy and polo sport (1995 and 1994) that factor into the equation. and then there's gap grass (also 1994), which is green but i think leans floral so that might be closer to the good life than is the what about adam. so i was placing the good life into a 90210 slot in the timeline when it's really dawson's creek.

jo malone does green and that would be a good place to dick around in to find fragrance qua fragrance i actually dig apart from the fragrance as pop culture artifact thing i'm awkwardly bumping around in but also i'm cheap so there's that.

sluggbuggy, when you speak of Dior's Eau Sauvage do you mean the EDT or the EDP, and if the latter do you mean in the black box or the white box?

did not see this, sorry. i meant that the edt, imho, is is the one of which the eau de rochas homme points towards. not exactly a copy but i would say ballparkish. the eau sauvage edp is the resinous myrrh one, in the 2011 formulation. i had to look it up, there's a 2017 formulation that has elemi balsam instead, and i think it is the one in the white box. i haven't smelled that one. the 2011 was gaw-juss; i dunno what the newish one is like. from what i can tell, doir pulls that kind of shit, changing good things to where they're not even the same although they carry the same name, lie dior homme sport, which used to be iris and giger and citron but now is blood orange and sanndalwood.

acquisitions/ stuff i got, for crimbus and birfday presents:

a vintage splash bottle of versace versus uomo. either the top notes have burnt off or the sample i got from a sample shop online was not the versace. the sample had strong fruity top notes, i could discern apricot in particular, and the bottle doesn't have that. still, i get fir in spades and the trad lavender and whatnot, so it's all good more or less.

l'instant de guerlain pour homme edp. this is the latest formulation in their standard bottle they put all their oldies in. idk about different formulations, but goddam, i am one elegant mf wearing this.

kenzo jungle homme. it donut have ginger but it smell like ginger. plus sandalwood (which i tend to spell "sandlewood" usually}. i think this is just discontinued, so i got it right on time. typical woody spicy, but that's my jam. there's this thing where you disregard things that are pretty ok, even pretty ok plus, but you overlook because you're looking for that next level shit. i got my brother the alexandria fragrances clone of the iconic gucci envy and although i never smelled the original, the alexandria thing is pretty damn nice, also a ginger and sandalwood thing. the kenzo and gucci are both fromm 1998. i would say the alexandria, and presumably by extension, the gucci, is superior to the kenzo, but the kenzo gives me what i need so i'm happy with that. people want stupid prices for gucci envy on ebay and such and i'm not trying to hear that noise.

lalique encre noire sport. this is the mall version of encre noire. i like it! the grapefruit freshens it up and the lavender smooths it out and makes it more in line with stuff like gucci guilty and whatever you an get from macy's but it's encre noire so it smells good when you smell it. it's what the fragcom (fragrance community, which is a thing online) calls a "dumb reach." it's versatile season-wise and occasion-wise. also, you can get this online discounted to about 25 united states currencies even thought it retails for like hermes prices. if you dig encre noire but find it too fancy, this works for everyday.

l'eau bleue d'issey pour homme. i can't wait for spring, so i can rock this. it's weird; there's cypress and juniper berries and so much rosemary, which to me has a straight up funk to it. these are all stank notes to the contemporary snoot. it reminded me somewhat of paco rabanne pour homme and also joop! jump, which are both lousy with rosemary, but the comparison is only just so. before i knew what the notes were, i smelled this at the mall kiosk that has all the non-standard stuff in it, it's where i got the og ysl rive gauche and kenzo tokyo for their original retail prices even though they both go for way too much on ebay now. anyway, i thought it smelled of lichens or moss, not the soapy way oakmoss smells in perfumery but reminiscent of green moss you'd peel off a rotted tree trunk while doing hiking outdoorsey stuff and feeling all dark and woodsmany and full of nature and state-parkmanshipfullness. you know, when somebody passes you on the trail and they're like "how's it goin'" and you're like "straight up dank like a gangsta named hank" and you mean it. i think knowing what the notes are dispels this perception somewhat, in that i think of rosemary and musty coniferous shit qua rosemary and musty coniferous shit when i smell my wrist instead of when i bite into a york peppermint patty i get the sensation of trekking through virgin forest after a rain type of thing. anyway, for a mainstream designer it's a bit weird and not at all related to the og issey miyake yuzo citrus thing.

alexandria fragrances hysteria. a givenchy insense clone. the og insense is considered, by some youtube reviewers, a lost classic. i admit, i bit ecause of the rare thing categorization. this is my mission of burma, the thing i missed first time around but want to like now, because taste. straight up retconning my cv. this has all the florals, but it's butch because it has a fir backbone. also, insense is from 1993, which is in my intezone sweet spot, like versace versus uomo and laura biagiotti roma uomo and egoiste! (slams shutters!). of the florals i get mostly lily-of-the-valley, and also the aldehydes and fir. i expect this to bloom once the weather becomes more humid and warmer. spring and summer things tend to lie flat in cold and dry conditions so i can't really say tho it'e good now so whoa whoa whoa whoa, whoa whoa whoa, things can only get better, howard jones.

also i got myself aqua fahrenheit. for summer. 4.2 ounce bottle, so i'm all set. not mind-blowing, but i actually really kinda like it so i think i'll wear it.

Do you have a Guerlain counter where you shop and if so have you tried the top shelf things they have (at Saks they're pulled out of a drawer) like Chamade or the two versions of Arsène Lupin?

Btw you're right about the reformulated Eau Sauvage edp, it comes in a white box, but curiously I see the 2011 formulation in the black box more often in stores.

i love l'instant edp. never gets compliments but gets some interesting reactions, such as one lady telling me I smelled like someone she knew decades ago.

mostly i get guerlain online because i live nowhere good. there's a saks within driving distance but i haven't been yet so i don't know what they have. so far i only know the standard guerlain stuff: vetiver, habit rouge, heritage and modern things like l'instant and homme.

Miller Harris are presenting an online discussion about some of their fragrances - they're flagging them in advance so you can order samples of the fragrances that are being talked about (3 for a tenner, I think). It's one of those things that I ought to do because I don't really have the language to talk about fragrance in a meaningful way but aren't likely to remember to do.

https://www.fragrantica.com/perfume/Histoires-de-Parfums/1740-Marquis-de-Sade-8590.html

I want to make a poll out of this incredible and exhaustive set of perfume reviews.

been wearing habit rouge and guerlain homme l'eau boisee a lot lately

guerlain's mitsouko is still the perfume of all time I think

it is intense and nostalgic, with peach and mostly now forbidden oak moss

i have the edt -- my bottle's almost empty, need to get the edp

I think vintage Mitsouko EdP is worth seeking out

Vintage Coco is the same way. I like it again but only the old formula.

Recently scored some vintage Rive Gauche (in the blue atomizer) and really love it, it's transporting

for a while I had told people that if you can't track down vintage mitsouko then hiram green's shangri-la is a good substitute, but it's been discontinued

have been exploring the Oriza L. Legrand scents:

Vétiver Royal Bourbon is almost too much, very sweet and heavy

Chypre-Mousse is like the bottom of a pile of damp leaves. from what I’ve read it is very much loved. it is intriguing

Relique d’Amour is a dank crypt with lilys laid on top, very extreme. I hated it so much at first, it seemed really harsh, but it has grown on me

Reve d’Ossian is a bone dry incense scent, my favorite of all

chypre mousse is one of the weirdest things i've ever worn -- can't say i really liked it but i'd try it again

weirdly desperate for perfume these days - like, i crave SCENT as a response to pandemic bullshit. but then the frustration of being unable to go into a shop and sniff vials, not without feeling unsafe. so: ordering various decants in the mail! and trying to appreciate the scents i can find in this sunscorched summer hellscape.

I bought Clinique aromatics, will report back.

i'm fulla maker's mark; let's go.

i bought my brother dior homme cologne for birthday. it's one of those things you wouldn't get because it's way common and easily available but i'm a slave to love and it's actually lovely. one day it'll be gone and then you'll all be all like "that were pretty good" so i got it now. they say it's like a lemon ice and i think in this case i'll go with what they say. the sun: beautiful. the moon: beautiful. dior homme cologne: beautiful.

i also got myself cartier roadster sport. it's got the usual indistinct citrus upfront and the herbalness: rosemary, sage, and some patchouli. when i smelled it i thought it had rosemary and when i looked up the notes it did! i give myself points when i do that and in my head i hear the sound of mario getting a coin. it smell like spearmint but it ain't got no mint. i got both of these at the mall kiosk that sell perfume. the regular mall department store don't got no cartier and the didn't even have the dior. eff them because i really wanted to give retail my money because the economy. anyway, the roadster sport is a really good designer green thing. it' glossy and smooth in a designery way but there's a touch of old school. the only problem is performance. the doir also sucks, performance wise, which is why i also gifted my brother with the cartier. two badly performing fragrances equal one decent performing thing.

re: guerlain homme l'eau boisee. i like the regular homme because it got some barbershop to it i think because the booze note actually imparts an aftershavey alcoholness (like maybe jade east or whatnot?) to it but the boisee is way better. for a green thing it performs really well. people on thee internet say it's got a celery salt note to it and i don't disagree. it feels green and the vetiver feels salted. i have the og version with the clear cap before the current reformulation in the trad bottle guerlain puts everything old in so i don't know if there's a difference.

i also have been wearing the varvatos artisan pure a lot. it smells like a neroli frag but there's no orange blossom or anything like that in there, according to fragrantica. basenotes says it's got orange flower and coffee tree flower so i'll go with that. whatever, it smell soapy to me plus it's herbal as it wanna be. i said before it smell of hay; i stand by my declaration.

also, diptyque philosykos, banana republic vintage green 78,and lilique white. this s*** is republic, r-e-p-u-b-l-i-c, i told the salesguy at br that this could be a cousin to hermes jardin sur la nil and was a step above the usual eros stuff you find in sephora and he said he wears eros and i said i didn't mean anything by that; i'm not smart enough to be a genuine frag snob. but it's true. girl you know it's true, ooh, ooh ooh, i love vintage green. it's just a simple tea fragrance with some mango (hence the hermes comparison) but for a cheap chain store offering it's spectacular. i think they discontinued it.

the lalique is mostly an oily pettigrain with maybe too much laundy-muskiness and the pencil shavings note which is the cedar and pepper but that will do, pig. of all the quotidian clean and fresh summer options this is perhaps the most of the most? i dunno, i dig it in a reliable quality thing kind of way.

also. i'm wearing my brother's lapidus homme sport. i had a sample of diptyque eau de sens and this is pretty much the same thing for cheap. this is a for real orange blossom scent, but the dish soap aspect of orange blossom is way tolerable. if you love orange blossom but hate orange blossom, get this. it's a white floral citrus aquatic, mainstream niche. i don't really like it but i'm way into it.

bbr vintage green sounds real nice

i splurged a bit and got ysl la nuit de l'homme edp - comes on like a pastry sweet shop but fades into a nice floral heart. i've probably gotten more comments on this frag than any.

have aromatics elixir and lalique encre noire sport coming in the mail soon

la nuit de l'homme is a great one, I concur

My star fragrance of the summer is Roma by Laura Biagiotti. It's sort of a spiced citrus creamsicle that seems to come alive and evolve interestingly in hot weather. What led me to this was I scored a bottle of vintage Minotaure by Paloma Picasso which is lovely and unusual and as it turns out often likened to Roma. To me the two only have a distant relation, and in a way the Roma is more versatile since it's less zingy and more subtle/soft.

roma uomo cedro has been one my favorites this summer, and the original is still so addictive

head over heels for Mona di Orio's cuir

i haven't worn cologne for years but tempted to get a bottle of Gorse by Laboratory Perfumes

i have minotaure, but it's a recent formulation. i like it but i don't get a contrast between the vanilla and tonka bean sweetness and the citrus and green notes as much as i'd like. maybe too well blended. contrast is key. the future will quote me on this. i know for real and true that sometimes modern versions of antique things lose life force in present day existenialities, they are at best sidelong glances at the beauty they once were, polaroids found in a shoebox in the attic of your danceteria days when you were the sex. other times the difference is negligible, so who knows. as the sparks song goes, i wish i looked a little better. i wish this smelled a little bit better. it's nice though, i'd still like to compare what i got to a vintage. anyway, david bowie liked it so i try to see it through his eyes.

i had a sample of roma, but i forget if the galbanum and tarragon and whatnot stand out against the benzoin and orange. i hope so. i already have hermes rocabar, which is benzoin and fir and citruseses. i lurve me some benzoin, and fir is favorite. clouds i think you said upthread roma is musty like someone else's house. that's straight poetry. if so i might get it just to wear your words.

also, clouds, clouds, clouds. do you like the encre noire sport? i ask because i really like encre noire, but am not always satorially aligned with its patrician formalism or whatever i'm trying to say. the sport can go anywhere. oh shit, my streaming radio is playing just like heaven. wait right here until i come back.

ok. sorry for the delay. anyway, i still get the inky thing that is integral to the encre noire vibe but the sport is so fresh and smooth. the last ten years of mainstream perfumery can go to hell in a knockoff gucci handbag. my take, and this is my take, so grain of salt, which when you think of it is really a weird expression because when you think of it, a lone grain of salt would be virtually imperceptible, but encre noire is high-end designer, encre noire a l'extreme is some niche shit, and sport is straight up the mainstream designer wazoo. it pops so hard. it aims to please, if you please. it's populism predicted on the illusion that the populace has decent taste. in summary and in conclusion, i give it a grade of b+ or so.

my brother got kiehl's original musk and it's innerstin. dunno where or how or when as far as donning it as a real thing but it's of the ages so i plan to go back to it. there's sweetness to it and not too animalic as i'd thought.

predicated, not predicted, dammit. almost had an undrunkable good post.

i'm wearing my brother's joop! jump. so weird. grapefruit and rosemary and heliotrope, things which should not exist in conjunction with each other. fresh grapefruit, stank rosemary, and powdery heliotrope. tres' synthetique, to boot. i think gaultier's kokorico also smells weird, maybe i'm weird but this smells weird. sometimes you smell things other people don't. bvlgari aqua marine is also weird to me; the seaweed note is so pronounced i can't see it being popular. you wade into the ocean because you spent all that money to go to florida and you're not having fun but you have your partner or family to consider and you trundle back up to your beach blanket and you've got seaweed clinging to your left calf and you pull it off in strands and toss it hither and yon and that's bvlgari aqua marine. i like it but who else would like something like that?

At one time I had bottles of both the older Minotaure and the newer one and I compared them. They're identical on initial spray but within minutes they go two separate ways, with the newer one starting a quick fade to nothingness while the older one starts to evolve, becoming less brash and dandified and more dark and ambiguous, perhaps even "older" - in Bowie terms it's like going from Ziggy Stardust to Low.

Have we talked about Rocabar before? I really like it, the way it starts sort of flinty and when that note fades a more sensual balanced accord blossoms and lingers.

I bought some Xeryus Rouge by Givenchy blind because it's supposedly located in a zone of the fragrance chart where other things I like come from. But nah, this isn't for me. Reviews talk about a hot pepper/pimiento character but all I get is a strident rose with a light suggestion of spice in the background.

Went to Sephora and sampled some Jo Malone products. One of them smells just like the beach - too much so for my taste - like dried out suntan lotion and sea grape and candy. There's one with oud in the name that's OK but I've learned that oud has a more outdoorsy nuance than what I'm comfortable with.

Scentbird has a series now called "Scents of Wood" that I'm trying, and the Sandalwood in Oak is great - a pleasant surprise. Very unisex, and it just smells like a fresh oak with sage - which is weird for a fragrance, but lately I'm into things that smell like raw nature. Only the slightest synthetic aspect to it. Truly smells like a log cabin.

I am done with Sephora - have a habit of falling in love with something, only to have it become total dud after I've brought home a bottle. Sticking to my subscription service for now.

Anyone familiar with the Confessions of a Rebel brand? I have Get a Room coming up in my queue. Sounds great, like that means anything, but reviews are good.

yeah EN sport is very wearable in most situations and a great work scent with sensible sillage/projection

try caron's yuzu man too slugbuggy

Got Miller Harris’s Tender a couple of weeks back and really like it, but it doesn’t last long enough!

I think I like Aromatics now that the weather is cooler.

i love aromatics, especially after the drydown and you just get whiffs of lemon verbena throughout the day. so comforting.

feel the Sephora regret... I got a bottle of terre hermes at Sephora a couple of years ago based on a sample I got with some other stuff but now I’m like “why did I buy this”

been alternating between Tom ford’s noir de noir + atelier’s cafe tuberose + maison margiela whispers in the library.. the first two are very similar but the TF is more deep dark intoxicating dreaminess whereas the atelier has more of a bright almost champagne thing going on. I don’t really know how to describe whispers.

maison margiela’s soul of the forest was my mainstay for a long time but after all the crazy wildfires near me this season it feels weird to put something on that smells kinda like burning wood.