Perfume / Cologne

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hermes concentre d'orange verte i also like enough.

slugbuggy, Saturday, 6 August 2016 07:52 (seven years ago) link

"cypress" not "cyress" for the lalique. cyress i believe was the only good thing abt real world boston.

nb i know he's cyrus but jokes.

slugbuggy, Saturday, 6 August 2016 09:30 (seven years ago) link

i looked it up, it's syrus. joke still holds.

slugbuggy, Saturday, 6 August 2016 09:41 (seven years ago) link

jason still kind of a dick, although there was that time when he and syrus and sean were going to get the log for the kids at the youth center to do the log rolling thing and "more than a feeling" came on the radio and sean instinctively turned it up and he and jason bonded over that intersection where they both visualized maryanne walking away and the division within the house dissipated, at least in that moment, so i guess he's ok, but syrus was like, whatever.

slugbuggy, Saturday, 6 August 2016 09:57 (seven years ago) link

i'm really focused on vetiver-based scents at the moment, is what i'm getting at. sean seems like he'd be into tom ford grey vetiver eu de parfum, which is kinda dull and serious, but also clean and purposeful and sorta trustworthy.

slugbuggy, Saturday, 6 August 2016 10:12 (seven years ago) link

that's probably the greatest moment in the history of television, although i'm not sure that tom ford is the way to tie it into the concept of fragrances.

slugbuggy, Saturday, 6 August 2016 10:58 (seven years ago) link

not funny or good

Bein' Sean Bean (LocalGarda), Sunday, 7 August 2016 13:07 (seven years ago) link

yeah, i shouldn't drink and try to talk about things. even when i was typing all that mess i realized maybe djp at most cared about mtv's real world minutiae and there's no reason to drag him into this.

i read that iso e super is widely used in woody scents and florals as an intensifier and an extender. it's such a large molecule that it can block receptors and cause temporary anosmia and headaches. last few times i used the terre d'hermes i couldn't smell it at all, and it has one of the highest concentrations of iso e super out there. it wasn't just olfactory fatigue from getting acclimated to an overused scent because i couldn't smell anything else for a good hour after that.

the lalique and the cartier also are high on the list of scents with iso e super. i like the warm, buzzy effect that i attributed to the vetiver but i think that's the synthetic extender so i might have to go easy or cut them out. before i stated messing around with this the most recent fragrance i had was cool water, which i think is ok, but a lot of modern scents are too sweet/ gourmand-y like the muglers, or too light and citrus-y aquatic like all the aqua di gio progeny, or intensely spicy or powdery, musky club and date night scents like spicebomb or le nuit de l'homme.

i'm still entry-level and experimenting so i like to smell things before i get samples to see how they wear, which limits me to the selection at sephora and nordstrom.

slugbuggy, Sunday, 7 August 2016 23:36 (seven years ago) link

this was a good revive and had me lolling on a blue saturday

no poke balls (rip van wanko), Sunday, 7 August 2016 23:52 (seven years ago) link

very well done

considering some escentric molecules fragrances

mh, Monday, 8 August 2016 02:33 (seven years ago) link

i think i want to get a sample of molecule 01 just to see if i can smell the iso e super in isolation. i'm guessing i wouldn't smell much of anything in particular but would still recognize the visceral buzz i'm getting from the hermes or the narciso rodriguez which i might like more than the actual scents.

i ordered some cb i hate perfume samples from the perfumed court: at the beach 1966, wild hunt, and memory of kindness. these seemed like good starting points for this line as from what i've read they're pretty literal snapshots of the scenarios invoked, as opposed to their scents inspired by poems or novels. they didn't have the soaked earth so i got the demeter dirt. the imaginary authors line looks interesting too but i dunno just yet.

slugbuggy, Friday, 12 August 2016 00:20 (seven years ago) link

I have samplers of the escentric/molecule varieties and a couple of the molecules do seem like they're more the suggestion of a scent than an actual scent. The formulas using them as a base scent actually smell like perfume, and the molecule odor is actually more discernible than it is on its own!

mh, Friday, 12 August 2016 00:59 (seven years ago) link

ugh i have been meaning to go to cb i hate perfume for years and keep forgetting

laraaji p. henson (Stevie D(eux)), Friday, 12 August 2016 01:02 (seven years ago) link

i think my new frag is gon b 1 spritz each of dirt and grass

do you do this still? i got the cb i hate perfume samples and i really like memory of kindness and wild hunt as both wearable scents and as personal memory/ primordial image switches but the water perfume is as ephemeral as the demeters (maybe the cb absolute perfumes have more projection/ longevity) so i was thinking for a lot less (20 bucks per 4 oz. each vs. 100 bucks per 100 ml.each) i could get the demeter dirt, grass (or just earthworm instead of both since it's soil plus green notes), tomato, thunderstorm, snow (or frozen pond), cypress and/ or fraser fir, and log cabin (cedar plus oakmoss) and reasonably approximate a good six or seven (memory of kindness, winter 1972, black march, the fir tree, etc.) of the cbs using the note breakdown on fragrantica. i know the cb accords are supposed to be a step up but i have a compromised sniffer from smoking so the soil note in wild hunt seemed pretty close to the demeter dirt. i still would like to try some of the individual cb premium accords like north atlantic or wet pavement london, though, because cb seems to really focus on quality of individual notes, cf the rare flowers series.

also just having smelled dirt i feel like i've at least entered the 1990s scent-wise. you miss a lot of history if you don't keep up.

in defense of mediocrity and mall culture:

i also read a few christopher brosius interviews and i get the knock against the perfume-as-accessory orientation of mass-market designer scents but that of-the-moment quality is what makes hungry like the wolf or take on me so great. armani pour homme or farenheit, maybe those were good or maybe not ever or just not anymore given what we know now, i don't know anyone's tastes, i like them, but i grew up when monoculture and branding really meant something. the ubiquitous look of herb ritts ad campaigns, the wonderful pastels and warhol-derived newsprinty-dotted halftone graphics on OP t-shirts, nagel posters. some of those scents were loud and stupid but so was everything else and i have some awesome swatch watches from the 80s and early 90s, made almost entirely of plastic, and christopher brosius can't have them even if they're crap. i missed CKone and l'eau d'issey so they don't mean anything to me now, i smelled them at the mall and they're just ok, but that's like never having seen a tarentino film or having heard sneaker pimps or fastball. it's not the best the culture had to offer but it's mostly what the culture was and i'm not necessarily smarter for not knowing that stuff.

i like the fig leaf in hermes' un jardin de mediterranne so i'm gonna sample the philosykos, per thread recommendations, as well as the wonderwood and amazingreen, since i'm not completely averse to quality.

slugbuggy, Sunday, 21 August 2016 10:15 (seven years ago) link

i havne't done this in a while, tbh they don't last long! also idk if i hyped it upthread but this is the price of 1.5 bottles but you get 3 bottles

http://demeterfragrance.com/20th-anniversary.html

laraaji p. henson (Stevie D(eux)), Sunday, 21 August 2016 15:12 (seven years ago) link

thanks! i was looking at a discount site that only had the 4 oz. size but i just need the small bottles in the anniversary set. i figured the weak longevity would be a problem if you actually wanted to wear these out for a personal scent but it would still be fun to play with. i got the marc jacobs bang for cheap a tj maxx because it gets compared to encre noire and it's just pure pepper. i layered it with the cb memory of kindness (tomato leaf and green notes) and now i'm a salad.

what did arty kids and downtown types do for scents before the internet, with all the fragrance blogs for intel and direct access to niche houses for supply or the grey market for affordability? back then i could just go to the mall and get polo or tuscany because i didn't know anything else and it suited my needs, i'd wear any cologne in any weather for any and all occasions. now i can watch a few youtube reviews and decide that avignon or kyoto from comme des garcons or l'artisan parfumeurs' voleur de roses would be a good choice to wear while listening to disentegration on a cold november night. i assume if you were in a major urban area and had the cash resources you'd have a network of like-minded friends to clue you in to what was hip and you could shop at exclusive or avant-garde boutiques but if you lived somewhere else or didn't have the funds was there an acceptable sector of the designer market i missed or did you just pick up vintage scents from thrift stores and flea markets and wear those? or did that division not exist then, and everybody just wore opium and beautiful or grey flannel and eternity?

i have azzaro pour homme and paco rabanne pour homme samples and i think i'm getting a handle on 70s aromatic fougeres. the azzaro has a latin feel because of the anise note and it has a tinge of barbershop but not too much, while the paco is pure sweet green soap but in a not entirely unpleasant way, to my nose. way weaker than the original versions afaik so over-projection isn't a big problem. i wish i could pick out notes better because these classic fougeres were supposed to be heavy on the oakmoss, and i don't know what oakmoss smells like specifically, especially now since it's restricted in use. i think if you're old to have worn these or remember adults wearing these they may or may not seem offensive but not weird but under a certain age these aren't even recognizable as scents a human would but on his body. i also have a dior eau sauvage (the steve mcqueen eau sauvage from the 60s, but in the reformulated version, not the contemporary johnny depp sauvage) samples and i like it for a summer citrus aromatic.

slugbuggy, Saturday, 27 August 2016 21:04 (seven years ago) link

tbh trying to smell all the old popular scents i missed and trying to connect them back to the culture they came out of is a really bad idea since they've mostly been reformulated to the point that they've lost all the qualities that made them part of the culture in the first place.

i still have guerlain vetiver and habit rouge samples coming but because they're supposed to be good and something i could like and not just artifacts.

slugbuggy, Sunday, 28 August 2016 15:28 (seven years ago) link

i ordered habit rouge from amazon and fucking UPS would never ring my buzzer or call me and just said that no one was available so they wouldn't deliver >:(

clouds, Monday, 29 August 2016 13:50 (seven years ago) link

have you smelled it before or are you getting it to try? i'm wondering how this smells to someone else. i got my samples and the vetiver seems like a timeless classic, no big surprises, really fresh and wearable today, but the habit rouge seems rather like something out of time, something that fell directly through a temporal portal instead of persisting throughout the years, something that's not supposed to exist in the here and now. maybe not that weird but it seemed really elegantly louche and dandyish, as opposed to crisp and buttoned-up with maybe a hint of five o'clock shadow, which is what i was expecting. i was thinking cary grant and i got tom wolfe, if he were standing next to quentin crisp.

that was the first wearing. i got a really floral and powdery vibe after the citrusy notes blew off, and then a really sweet and gentle leather eventually. today it feels a touch more woody and spicy, so it makes a little more sense that this was keith richard's favorite. maybe i'm overthinking it a little, but this is a little more complex than the reliable and serviceable old-timey scent i thought i was getting.

slugbuggy, Tuesday, 30 August 2016 19:29 (seven years ago) link

now it just seems nicely balanced. i don't know if this acts weird on my skin or my nose is just settling down and getting used to it. sorry about all the fuss.

slugbuggy, Wednesday, 31 August 2016 12:11 (seven years ago) link

not smelled before but a friend said it was mindblowing

clouds, Wednesday, 31 August 2016 20:56 (seven years ago) link

one month passes...

acquisitions so far:

versace dreamer, blue jeans
lolita lempicka au masculin
bvlgari black, aqva marine
d&g the one
narsico rodriguez bleu noir
rochas man
hugo man
armaf tres nuit, club de nuit intense
grey flannel
lalique encre noire
azzaro pour homme
armani pour homme and drakkar noir minis, and claiborne for men, for nostalgic smelling

the hugo man is pretty synthetic and mall-generic but i got it because it seemed pretty 90s-ish and i'm ret-conning my past. i figure i would have had this in 1995 or so if i were buying colognes then. i was taking a drawing class at community college at the time time and someone was playing "you oughta know" on a tape deck and someone walking by stuck and his head in the door and asked who that was because it just seemed so now and hugo man fits in there somewhere. we were doing gestural figure drawings with charcoal sticks and a girl liked mine so i sold it to her for fifty cents. d&g the one was at tj maxx so i just got it; it's ok but i figure i need something that's popular today instead of waiting 10 years and getting it as something emblematic of that era, which is now. the dreamer is what i assume leonardo's romeo was wearing while skulking around verona's cafes scribbling poetic vignettes and romantic idylls in his moleskin, mooning over claire's juliet as his hair flopped around insouciantly while everyone else was off doing violence. it's pretty good; it's a dirty, smoky le male for people who are afraid of le male. the armafs are clones of creed's green irish tweed and aventus for way less because i don't need to spend that much on what i can't tell the difference. rochas man is a good gourmandy espresso. grey flannel is grey flannel.

i want guerlain homme but that can wait until next year. it's a pretty basic summer scent but i like it just fine. the lime, mint, rum (mojito) and vetiver notes just seem really natural and uncomplicated. i don't know what else is good for summer or i'd get that. all the other fresh summery scents, the versace man au fraiche, d&g light blue, azzaro chrome, montblanc legend, etc. that i smelled seem interchangeable but maybe that's just me. l'instant de guerlain is supposed to be a modern classic but i can't really get a handle on it yet.

prada amber, it's really clean and elusive and zen-like. it barely smells like a fragrance but it feels like it's knocking all the kinks out of my chakras at the same time. i should get this.

i'm also gonna get:

narciso rodriguez for him. strong violet leaf note like fahrenheit, which i also want, but rainy and moody, instead of a kerosene fire accord. i'd forgotten about fahrenheit but it's the really the apex of human achievement. i have a hard time not drinking it straight out of the sample vial. gucci pour homme ii has that same note but i'm already getting the other two.

hermes terre d'hermes, un jardin sur le nil, and concentre d'orange verte, why not. i know i like them already, but they're more pricey. also want to sample rocabar, equipage, and bel ami.

slugbuggy, Saturday, 1 October 2016 09:28 (seven years ago) link

i keep sniffing the empty vial of habit rouge. if i were david niven, sporting a velvet smoking jacket and glancing up from a leather-bound tome to address a bbc audience who just popped in via the telly to hear a narrative on the crimean war i'd be all over it but i can't pull that off.

slugbuggy, Saturday, 1 October 2016 10:50 (seven years ago) link

i'd also like a bespoke fragrance series based on and titled after popular music selections, specifically in between days, strangelove, silent morning, her head's revolving, cities in dust, green eyes, lake of fire, and blister in the sun if anyone wants to get on that.

slugbuggy, Saturday, 1 October 2016 11:52 (seven years ago) link

my friend joe would actually probably be up for that

clouds, Saturday, 1 October 2016 13:32 (seven years ago) link

i don't know you'd translate subjective sonic perceptions into subjective olfactory perceptions, but i figure out of the tens of thousands of perfumes out there, one of them best matches the impression new order's ceremony leaves on me, for example. it's likely different for someone else but that's an interesting question for a nose, how closely can the feel of a fragrance be matched up to the feel of a song, even if that experience is unique to him or her.

slugbuggy, Saturday, 1 October 2016 23:25 (seven years ago) link

true faith, if you could just bottle true faith i'd be all set. my life depends on the morning sun. i need that inner sensation externalized, bottled. how soon is now? is also a song i need to smell.

i don't feel like 80s fragrances i know match the perceptions i have of 80s culture: bright, shiny, immediate, corrosively seductive, NOW! krugerian/ haringesque/ nagalesiac/ lynchific pop offerings in music, film, graphic design, and fashion, but the fragrances seem like they kept to a narrow leathery, fougery tangential corridor left over from god's own whenever until joop! homme and fahrenheit arrived at the very end of the decade, and those only posthumously capture the pop! zeitgeist. you get these words wrong. armani pour homme at least feels like bryan ferry in mood and texture, louche and elegantly disheveled, everyone has left the piano bar save the two chic personages exchanging wry repartee at the end of the night, tuxedo and unbound tie and rumpled satin dress, and they're totally gonna go home together and do sex things, except this is only a vague memory of what you once felt was once possible. you can't wear armani pour homme anymore; you're too grown up to dream. slave to love reference.

the contemporary grey flannel i have is so wrong. bitter herbal, green, soapy, with a mild violet note coming in during the heart note section. very pleasant and calming, a true classic fragrance that stands the test of time, once the difficult opening is past. except wrong, the grey flannel i had eons ago was a leathery, oily, floral, sensory blitzkrieg that radiated iridescent purple and stayed that way. i'm gonna get some oakmoss absolute and add a few drops to my bottle because that's supposedly the difference due to ifra restrictions. i'm not some weirdo nostlagieste who thinks old things are inherently better but there's a marked difference and it's not as good.

slugbuggy, Saturday, 15 October 2016 10:23 (seven years ago) link

slugbuggy, have you ever tried Égoïste by Chanel? It came out in 1990 and I remember sniffing it at the time thinking it was the loveliest scent out there. Powdery and subtle, as I remember it. Apparently it flopped in the US and hasn't been sold here in years but still is in Europe. Maybe price was an issue - it cost about twice as much as a Guerlain, iirc. It's the favorite scent of its creator, Jacques Polge, who has created quite a number of fragrances going back to 1970.

I recently scored some online just to see if it smelled as great as my memory… and was kind of surprised by the strength and intrusiveness of it. Maybe best in small applications. Still stands out quite a bit from what you would normally smell nowadays.

Josefa, Saturday, 15 October 2016 15:43 (seven years ago) link

*opening a french door* EGOISTE!!!

got a bottle of yatagan off amazon, kinda reminds me of the fougeres my dad would wear in the early 90s. not sure what the connection is... artemisia? it's also really spicy and woody. today's weather is chilly and wet and i notice the oakmoss notes for the first time and can't stop smelling my wrist

clouds, Saturday, 15 October 2016 21:40 (seven years ago) link

i've been wanting to try egoiste but it's not in stores and the sample sites i use don't have it either. from what i read the current formulation doesn't get as much love from people who had the original; at least the opening is supposed to be harsher but i gather that overall it's still pretty good. either way i'll feel like i missed out if i don't get a hold of a sample.

yatagan has a castoreum note so maybe there's some similarity to kouros?

slugbuggy, Monday, 17 October 2016 14:22 (seven years ago) link

my dad wore stuff like drakkar noir and joop! -- don't think he was fancy enough for ysl. kouros is on my wishlist though.

have you checked out luckyscent? i'm planning to get a bunch of samples from there since a friend rec'd it

clouds, Monday, 17 October 2016 14:36 (seven years ago) link

i've browsed luckyscent but so far i've only used myperfumesamples since it's pretty inexpensive but limited to designer and theperfumedcourt for higher-end and it also offers different sizes compared to luckyscent. for full bottles i've only bought from fragrancex (i usually get stuff in two days) but i also check fragrancenet since prices vary and sometimes one will have a better deal than the other. there are other online discounters but so far i think i'm doing ok. luckyscent has full bottles of niche that i can't get from the others but they don't seem to discount.

i got my oakmoss absolute and put two small dollops of the resin into the 8 oz. splash bottle of grey flannel. there's a marked difference: the bitter green herbal galbanum note off the top of the current formulation is still present but pushed back into a supporting role. the problem i had with my current bottle was that one day the herbal note predominated and the next the floral or soapy notes stood out, but after i messed with it it seems pretty consistent so far. i think oakmoss is like a rug that ties the whole room together. i may have dampened the floral notes a bit in the process but this seems a lot closer to the vintage mini (90s pre-oakmoss ban) i have in texture and style if not exact smell. i'll let it settle a bit more and i don't want to futz with it too much but i might get some violet essential oil and add a bit to bring that note up. i've also added a touch of oakmoss to my screw-off top bottle of azzaro pour homme to see what that does.

slugbuggy, Saturday, 22 October 2016 07:38 (seven years ago) link

nb i'm still a novice at this. mostly i can't pick out individual notes unless i see the note breakdown on fragrantica and then i go back and correlate what i'm smelling to what's supposed to be in there. like i thought d&g the one's sweetness derived from vanilla until i read it has a predominant amber note; maybe the inkyness of encre noire is the cypress? some people are really good at this stuff.

slugbuggy, Saturday, 22 October 2016 08:14 (seven years ago) link

tbh i don't know what the grey flannel mania is about but if the past keeps changing i don't know how the present isn't wildly oscillating.

slugbuggy, Saturday, 22 October 2016 09:27 (seven years ago) link

i think what i meant by that last post was that perfumery is a weird area of interest since you always have a shifting frame of reference temporally. if fragrances keep getting reformulated until they're barely the same thing anymore you don't have a stable baseline for comparisons. plus, given the "smell is the most powerful memory trigger" thing, if you change the smell you're getting a wonky signal and not getting full access to the memory bank. unless you want to pay $225 plus shipping for a vintage bottle off ebay. it's like if your mom photo-shopped your high school graduation picture every year to keep the hairstyle up to date.

like whenever i mention polo green to a sales rep as something that was really popular in the 80s they always wrinkle their noses and declare how awful it is. that kinda makes me a bit upset, not because they dislike the styles of my era, but because they've never truly smelled polo and don't know how gloriously awful it once was in all its disgraceful glory. it was truly glorious, that disgracefulness. i wore it all the time anyway.

also, clouds, have you smelled lapidus pour homme? it's from 1987 but to me smells even older, like from the deep polyester afternoon delight 70s. there's something really weird and dated about it in the opening, but at the same time i can't qualify why i feel that way since it doesn't smell like anything else from that era that i'm aware of. it's an oriental, it has rose, tobacco, honey, incense, pineapple, and some other random stuff in the notes. it think the clash of the sweet, floral, and dirty notes makes it weird, but it dries down to something that's really elegant, if you don't go heavy on it since it's pretty potent but i think it's like kouros in that aspect. fine line between love and ew gross. i think its datedness makes it kinda sad and poignantly beautiful, like a grand hotel that's fallen into disrepair.

i only figure since you mention kouros, egoiste, and yatagan; i think it triangulates somewhere in there. also i only recently smelled whatever current formulation exists so i can't speak to all that previous blather about things being different now since i don't know if it's changed any or how.

slugbuggy, Sunday, 23 October 2016 07:34 (seven years ago) link

i think from the present era i like the narciso rodriguez for him and prada amber the most, but even those are like ten years old. they seem pretty introverted and contemplative and kinda soggy and passive-aggressive in their blithely transparent opaqueness that doesn't settle anywhere particular, so there's that. also i think from a raw sensory angle they also smell good to me without qualification and that's is not an idea i'm used to.

slugbuggy, Sunday, 23 October 2016 08:35 (seven years ago) link

i don't know how i got from wanting to try a few new things besides cool water to wanting to learn a little more so i can make good choices to where i'm getting all upset because as cultural artifacts fragrances are texts that i don't have the skill set or methodology to properly approach so i'm not sure what i like anymore, all in the space of two or three months. i was in a store just smelling things and doing field studies and an actual customer walked in, asked to smell something, decided he like it, bought it, and then he took his purchase and left, and i think i was blown away that you could just do that.

slugbuggy, Sunday, 23 October 2016 19:26 (seven years ago) link

i haven't tried lapidus, sounds interesting.

just got my pack of samples from luckyscent: unum lavs, cdg hinoki, maison francis kurkdjian oud silk mood, legrand chypre mousse and lutens vetiver oriental

wearing unum lavs atm and it's like old precious leatherbound books meets slightly metallic herbal soap.

clouds, Tuesday, 25 October 2016 13:30 (seven years ago) link

i may have overreacted a bit but the lapidus was weird to me because i'm not really familiar with orientals in general and particularly because it seemed so far out of context with what i've tried of the old-timey scents, but it gets mentioned by the ppl who are into kouros and yatagan and the like so i thought i'd bring it up.

i looked up what you got and they all seem nicely timed for testing in the autumn weather, which is something i should keep in mind since i usually try whatever i've just read about that i think i need to put into my database, regardless of season.

slugbuggy, Saturday, 29 October 2016 07:31 (seven years ago) link

also, i'm not sure if i'm trying to find scents that reflect and express something interior bout myself to the outside world or if i'm trying on things from the outside world in hopes of effecting some change in that general direction, like there's some jungian alchemical work towards actualization going on through the application of discernibly attainable qualities via the medium of scent or whatnot, or maybe just a a cargo cult type of thing. or else i just want to smell nice and carry around a nice thing on my self to smell all day. between love and madness lies obsession.

slugbuggy, Saturday, 29 October 2016 11:33 (seven years ago) link

wearing unum lavs atm and it's like old precious leatherbound books meets slightly metallic herbal soap.

yeah, this is what i like about putting on smells. it's just fucking chemicals but there's old books in there and the leather seats in the dodge challenger your father drove before he got serious and had a family and violins and woodwinds and scratchy wool sweaters or whatever.

slugbuggy, Saturday, 29 October 2016 13:22 (seven years ago) link

also, we're living in the near future already, you'd think by now they'd have developed sub-dermally injected symbiotic micro-organisms that metabolize and convert raw materials into designer aroma chemicals that are continuously extruded through sweat glands so your days belong to adventure and your nights belong to romance.

slugbuggy, Saturday, 29 October 2016 14:59 (seven years ago) link

yeah i am quite solipsistic in public life and i really only wear things so that i can smell them, also it tends to block out unpleasant external smells

so far out of all the testers i got the mfk oud silk mood has been the most stunning, of course it's almost $400 for a bottle. it is like the most luxurious rose scent, but the rose is so fresh that it's almost herbal and not even floral at all. not skanky at all, not that that's a bad thing (part of why i love yatagan actually, it's such a dtf frag). i don't know what laotian oud is like on its own (checked the price for a bottle of oud absolute, sheesh) but i assume that and the blue chamomile are responsible for the "herbal" impression.

clouds, Saturday, 29 October 2016 15:10 (seven years ago) link

i'd been thinking of fragrances as having personalities so i was wondering if people (mostly myself) tend to pick scents that project or amplify aspects of their own personalities or if the tendency is to pick scents with personalities they aspire to have and graft those over top of their own, is what i think i was getting at, but now that i see what i wrote that seems less the case than it is that scents have moods that you can use either way, to amplify or change you own mood at will.

i like what you wrote even better, though. creating a mini-environment that you yourself inhabit and can take around with you everywhere, it's not about changing yourself as much as it's about altering the texture and feel of the space you're in to your liking the way someone might decorate a room.

slugbuggy, Sunday, 30 October 2016 03:07 (seven years ago) link

three weeks pass...

i got cdg 2 and 2 man samples. there was a post on the 2 that i can't find, but iirc in summary and in conclusion the takeaway was idgi, and i also am befuddled by this fragrance given its statement of purpose and what i actually experienced. the concept is opposition: light and dark, airy aldehydes and inky blackness, but i get a moderately pleasant scent that i can't engage with. prada amber is a comparatively liminal scent in that there's nothing there but the suggestion of something beyond what the senses can detect, but with the prada, and i'm quoting diane in manhattan, it has a marvelous negative capability whereas the cdg does not. i'll probably end up getting the cdg 2 over something i actually like, because it makes me feel dumb and i want its approval.

the cdg 2 man, though. my current situation is that i need something that is accessible/ wearable but pulls me towards the dark side and this is it. there are likely more complex incense fragrances out there but this is pretty fucking solid. it literally just smells like an incense stick but it also guides you by the hand into the proposition that dank smokiness can also be light and elegant at the same time, ever fallen in love with someone you shouldn't have fallen in love with?

i didn't get the amazingreen sample because of the negative reviews that said it was generic and mainstream but then i remembered what stevie said so i'll get it next go around. i think there's an intersection between advanced and populist that knows where you live and that's what i'm looking for. i think it just might have a nice butt; everyone likes a nice butt and everyone wants to have a nice butt despite creed or philosophy so let's get together on this. also i got the wonderwood a few months ago and it was way too much wood but i tried it again in the dry and cold weather and it it really dialed in to where it's on point.

i also am trying out the l'artisan parfumeur line. the velour de roses is way patchouli. the rose and plum are barely evident but i felt like it was instructive in that they really rounded out and shaped the main accord. it's hippyish firstly and gothy secondarily (lucretia, my hippy mama )and it's gorgeous out of the vial but it's yuck on my skin so i'll pass. the caligna is just a really good fresh fig; i don't get anything else. fou d'absinthe is an aromatic fougere so it smells like a lost classic from back when but i can't separate the wormwood from the pine and fir because i don't know what wormwood smells like. there's some spiciness in the drydown. très lumberjack. tea for two is available again and i want to try that. also i want to try timbuktu and the premier figiuer. seems like this is a good entry-level niche house for people who are me.

slugbuggy, Thursday, 24 November 2016 07:25 (seven years ago) link

i'm wearing the fahrenheit. the next to last formulation toned down the chamomile, which apparently gives it the kerosine accord, and i checked the batch codes so that's the one i got. the reactionary faction of the fragrance community prefers the most recent formulation in that approximates the original with the smells like burning, but i can spray on the bastardized version as much as i want and get that sweet violet leaf bump as much as i want. you really can't go wrong though. i know there's a guidingi force to the universe because she gave me fahrenheit to spray on myself. who's gonna drive you home tonight? fahrenheit, that's who.

slugbuggy, Thursday, 24 November 2016 07:44 (seven years ago) link

mongol general: what is best in life?

conan: to crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women. and dior fahhrenheit, never mind that aggro bullshit i just mentioned.

mongol general: that is good! that is good.

slugbuggy, Thursday, 24 November 2016 08:30 (seven years ago) link

bookmarked

illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 24 November 2016 08:34 (seven years ago) link

friend of mine has timbuktu, recommends it

really want to try al oudh

clouds, Thursday, 24 November 2016 15:31 (seven years ago) link

for some reason i really want to like the timbuktu, and that reason is the hay note. rocabar is supposed to have this, too. i want to roll around in field and hear what the earth wants to say to me, without literally having to do that. i'll take a simulacrum of that experience. also i want a serviceable woody spicy thing that's good for cool weather and scarves.

i have opium pour homme and jaipur homme coming and that's something, even though i think they may be too old-timey. still can't find egoiste samples.

slugbuggy, Saturday, 3 December 2016 10:04 (seven years ago) link


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