Perfume / Cologne

i'm dreading reading this tomorrow when i'm soberer.

I love your posts slugbuddy

We all do!

feel like there's a correlation between talking about fragrances and ski jumping: many may know what they're doing and have perfect technique but the guy that downed a half-pint of maker's mark before hurdling down the slope is gonna provide a hellava show.

i don't mean to drag anyone else into my soused ramblings but the three day interval from brimstead's "hi, i'm new to this and am trying out some things" post to the "restructuring my process to include new data such as how a scent changes throughout development; consequently am considering how new objective approaches to formal qualities of the observed affects subjective perspective of observer" (that's how i'm reading it, re: questioning tastes and impressions) post seemed like a really accelerated evolution.

in my experience this is shockingly common with this

yeah, i might be an outlier but it took me a while longer to figure out neither i nor what i was smelling were fixed entities. more than three days, anyway. like sometimes i smell something months later and it's totally different because it's now a different season and the thing presents itself differently, or maybe i've encountered similar notes and accords enough to have references to fall back on and it's not a new thing anymore.

also i excluded my entire mid-80s to early 90s go-round where none of these concepts existed whatsoever in my consciousness, like seasonality or development or note breakdown or quality of materials (tbh designer output back then was top-notch, if there was a butterfly wing note in a fragrance then you could be assured there were real butterfly wings in it, until all the butterflies were gone). i'd get grey flannel and it smelled like grey flannel and i'd wear it for every occasion year-round til i ran out and then i'd get giorgio red and do the same thing.

until all the butterflies were gone: a reminiscence on the golden age of mainstream perfumery by some guy who didn't know about anything that existed beyond the suburban mall, available in hardback by houghton mifflin harcourt available twelve years ago.

today i am wearing:

Atelier Cologne Café Tuberosa

i kid but that's way faster than i figured that out - the landscape kinda changes as you move around it but doing so also changes you so there's maybe no privileged pov, only where you are at any point, or something. whatever the point was that seems like a good point to have, at that point.

i appreciate it! i'm lucky to have a super knowledgeable SO to guide me

i think what threw me was the sudden shift from ysl to maison martin margiela. in retrospect it's totally reasonable you'd be sampling over a wide range but i was projecting my own process and ended up with the impression that this person just blew through all the merit badges between the two fragrances in record pace, like i assumed i'd have to pass the exam process on dior dune before they'd let me try out tauer l'air du desert marocain, which is totally my own neurosis at play here, like i think if i tried to order the tauer sample i'd just get a curt notice of rejection with a patronizing encouragement to try again at some future point in time, not right away though. .

I ended up getting Vi Et Armis by Beaufort - the perfume line, oddly enough, put out by the drummer from The Prodigy. The collection has a strong and somewhat Problematic theme of swashbuckling derring-do in British history, albeit probably somewhat tongue in cheek, so there are lots of references to gunpowder, blood, the sea and the fruits of empire. The one I got has huge amounts of tea and cold smoke. I also picked up a sample of 1805 Tonnerre which has a really aggressive smoke and lime combination and may not be entirely wearable.

I’ve been going through the rest of the range recently.

Most of them reflect different aspects of British marine exploration and their gourmand fragrance, Lignum Vitae, is a perversely literal interpretation of this idea. What would sailors eat? Biscuits and citrus fruits. What does the fragrance smell of? Biscuits and citrus fruits. Whether you really want to walk around all day giving off an air of McVitie's Digestives is down to personal taste but it's cleverly done.

Fathom V is Like an funeral barge slowly sinking into the Thames. On skin it transitions from an extravagant floral to a murky, spicy marine without ever losing (what seems to me a slightly maudlin) lily note. It's artful and beautiful, in a Fallen London kind of way.

1805 Tonnerre smells like local youths have torched your beach hut and, through salty tears, you are trying to clean it up with lime juice and a chamois leather. Uncompromising but very good.

I’ve also tried Gri Gri’s Tara Mantra and Zoologist’s Macaque in the last few days.

Tara Mantra reminds me of an ‘Indian’ / ayurvedic restaurant (run by Hare Krishnas, i think) i went to out of desperation in Tallinn, back when the vegetarian options in the city didn't extend far beyond pizza - a hippyish hit of patchouli and jasmine up front, some spice in the background applied with a light hand and to little discernible effect. The overall experience is extremely close to ELDO's Ensens et Bubblegum, sans the 'ensens', despite sharing few if any of the ingredients. It's pleasant but not very exciting.

Macaque...it's like...how much more green could it be? And the answer is none. Galbanum, apple, cedar and, i think, ylang-ylang combine like a mountain-top forest lit up in neon. It’s possibly too close to an upscale version of Diesel’s £10 drug-store veteran Green to be worth buying but it’s good.

Has anyone sampled Eau Duelle by Diptyque? I gave my sister a vanilla/cedarwood scent that Kiehl's briefly made but discontinued, and luckyscent lists it as a fragrance that might be a good fit for someone who liked that one. Considering getting her some as a gift.

this thread is beautiful and enticing and

1805 Tonnerre smells like local youths have torched your beach hut and, through salty tears, you are trying to clean it up with lime juice and a chamois leather

made me lol irl

same <3

oh boy just got a bunch of luckyscent samples oh boy

So far:

Maison Francis Kurkdjian Baccarat Rouge 540 EDP. “Oriental Floral.” Pure cotton candy. Goes on like cotton candy, dries down like cotton candy, poor longevity and sillage, like cotton candy. I can’t detect any other notes beyond synthetic sugar. Just candy. Wouldn’t buy for five bucks from the clearance bin at CVS, much less 300 bucks at Saks.

By (k*l*an) Good Girl Gone Bad. “Fruity Floral.” Ripe fruit in an offputting way. Think Bath and Body Works peach/melon shower gel or a peach Snapple, with only the barest sumthin sumthin of interest underneath. A bit of butter reminiscent of the crappy Chardonnay you overdrank at your cousin’s wedding. Poor longevity and sillage, which is good because I don’t care for it. Better than Baccarat Rouge 540, but that’s not saying much. 275 bucks? Oh hell no.

anyone rate byredo?
― ||||||||, Saturday, 4 November 2017 16:59 (three months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Congratulations to Maison Naomi Goodsir for having absolutely nailed the stench of death with their Iris Cendre (£125 for 50ml). It's meant to be a rich tobacco / leather reminiscent of Chesterfield sofas in smoking rooms but comes down somewhere between 'wet saddle' and 'mouse carcass discovered behind the fridge'.

Having showered, scrubbed and, damn it, exfoliated my neck i can still smell it 36 hours later and assume that i will have to carry it with me for the rest of my life as a memento mori.

byredo frags sounds intriguing but those prices are far beyond my reach

xp wow that sounds like a powerfully bad smelling fragrance

verticals, do you own any byredo and which ones? or are you just asking? pulp and baudelaire seem intersting.

i got philosykos! for birthday presents! i'm all set to be superior to other people not wearing philosykos. it's straight up gangster green, snap a fig twig in half green. fresh! natural as f! with no disrespect to kermit, it IS easy being green! i also picked up ferragamo pour homme from marshalls; it's dry fig leaf and cloves, with attendant fresh fruit and florals. this is some wiseguy shit, real uptown, classes up the joint, maybe a case fell off the back of a truck and you can get it for cheap but you didn't hear it from me, okay? just in case tony asks.

i also picked up a 2 oz. bottle of bvlgari man extreme from marshalls for 18 bucks us. i see it everywhere in malls and such so i assume it sells ok but i never see it talked about online so i figure there's no regard. it's astringent cactus juice riding atop a celery-crisp vetiver, with a peppery freesia undercurrent, not really a standard fresh aquatic or whatnot. it's pretty butch, like terre d'hermes. it's not the most of anything but it's different enough from the usual to be exceptional in instances where you'd defer to the usual. like that brady bunch episode where greg asks why he was picked to be the new johnny bravo, and the answer was he firs the suit, this fits the suit.

i figure if you get a 4 dollar sample of a 300 dollar thing and and you aren't trying to hear that, that's 296 dollars in your pocket, plus 20 dollars worth of knowledge, so you're up 16 bucks.

I hace a bottle of bal d'afrique; my partner has oud immortel. both gifts. I love both. I've smelled most of their range and these are my two favourites.

I love philosykos too. I just wish its fragrance didn't disperse so quickly.

have been wearing guerlain l'instant edp (almost edible patchouli and cacao and anise liqueur) and varvatos dark rebel rider (leather, elemi and incense smoke)

I’ve been wearing a bunch of cheap Caron fragrances recently (Yatagan, Le 3eme Homme, Pour Un Homme) and they’re probably a pale imitation of their eighties peak and not particularly long-lasting but all smell very pleasant - classic, simple masculines.

I’m wearing Le Mat by Mendittorosa today and it’s absolutely wonderful - a warm rose with the sweetness of patchouli and spice of immortelle. It’s €250 a bottle though so I may have to make the 10ml sample I have last.

yatagan is brilliant but yeah it is not long-lasting

Currently wearing Bat by Zoologist. The whole range is influenced by animals but that is often in a semi-abstract way - Rhinoceros, for example, smells more like bay rum than anything. Bat smells like bat, or rather bat caves. It’s one of the only fragrances in the world to use a recently-discovered chemical compound indistinguishable from petrichor - the smell of bacteria in dry soil breaking down after rain. It’s ‘earthy’ in the most literal sense.

It’s overlaid with decomposing banana, fig and tropical fruit with a hint of musk and leather in the background. I’ve never been anywhere more tropical than the faux-jungle bit of Singapore Zoo but it’s evocative of rainforests and life / death supercharged by warmth, damp and richness.

Opinion is split on whether it’s something you could wear out of the house in good conscience but, applied with a light enough hand, I’d say so.

is it how you'd imagine batman would smell?

I want to believe Bruce Wayne will be undone one day by the pervasive dank / rotten fruit aroma that surrounds him when he is out of character, yes.

I have been wearing my own concoction. I put allspice and clove in a bottle with rubbing alcohol for a week and now I smell like a fresh, cocky sailer!

I was just fine with Drakkar Noir, despite its reputation as the scent of latent nazis. When a small bottle of that ran out after 2 years, I went on www.fragrantica.com looking for other inexpensive colognes with few detractors, to expand my range a bit. Wound up with Antonio Puig Quorum Silver (cedar + nutmeg), Perry Ellis M (cinnamon + vanilla), and Mr. Blass (leather + church incense). I use them in moderation (one spray), they're all fine, but I haven't been complemented on them either.

Still much prefer the scent that lingers after sitting downwind of some middling Indonesian aloeswood (oud) incense.

even the slightest whiff of drakkar noir triggers every bad feeling i have
i congratulate you for moving on

From the Fragrantica, ‘people who like Drakkar Noir also like...’ thing, Encre Noir by Lalique is quite good. It’s a dark, inky vetiver.

drakkar noir smells like bullying, prepubescent shadow mustaches, and awkward boners to me

terrible

I've recently rediscovered Cool Water, which has a lot of the same negative eighties connotations, and it's pretty great imo.

omg cool water is another bad one
add fahrenheit and you will have the unholy trinity of triggering scents

YES

:(

I have never consciously smelled fahrenheit (a generational thing, maybe) but it is worryingly similar from the notes listed to a lot of leather scents I like/wear

this is the peril of wearing scents i guess
i smelled most of these in the early 90s fwiw

it's also possible my taste just sucks (the big one, generationally, is that I love Poison -- the first fragrance I really, truly loved, as opposed to just found OK -- but realize that anyone alive during the '80s despises it)

i remember when i was wearing chanel #5 in hs and someone complained that i smelled like old people
i was mortified!

still, smelling like old people >>>>>>>>> smelling like a sexual predator
at least old people are friendly and cool sometimes

it's a classic, might not even make me *scrolls up thread to figure out what emotion I associated with it* angry anymore!

teens can't tell the difference between "old" and "cultured" anyway

https://y.yarn.co/abf77722-317b-44d5-b42e-9b1048439029_text_hi.gif

also xxp -- I have a luckyscent order coming in and a byredo sample is in it -- it's Bullion, which I kind of suspect is going to be near identical to eau de velours and/or cuir amethyste (which are already pretty similar) and I have a large bottle of the former already, but we'll see

Which of the review sites do you all like best? Luckyscent, fragrantica, basenotes? Like, if you had to choose one, which one?