What did you try today? (2023)

[hollywoodforever]

L'eau A la Rose by Maison Francis Kurkdjian

Oof, I really like this one. A refreshing, even effervescent, fruity-fresh-rose perfume. It has just the right amount of sweetness for a spritz-and-go summer perfume. Sort of feels like a pink grapefruit + pink rose, imbued with those signature MFK laundry musks. It brings to mind a specific image for me of those white zinfandel wine coolers women drank in the 90's...

I'd been thinking about picking up Chanel Paris-Paris for the summer, but this may be a challenger!

 

[Schubertian]

FLeur de Lalita by Dusita (well yesterday). Really, really liked this. Love the galbanum in it. It's not too sweet and wore extremely well in yesterday's sunny summer weather. Elegant. Later I discovered it's supposed to be a lily perfume... I don't like lily, nor do I generally like white florals. Fleur, along with La Douceur du Siam (and perhaps Splendiris) is the only one I'd really liked from Dusita so far.

Montri this morning. Tiny sample. Really like this one as well. There is a beautiful rose note... spices and woods not too strong. it's unisex. Subtle, not loud but airy and aromatic. It wafts wonderfully around me.

More of both, please.

 

[cheapimitation]

Sampled a lot yesterday including some Lorenzo Villoresi at New London pharmacy, I might come back to write down some impressions.

But right now I'm wearing a sample of Affinssence Cedre Iris. It has that smooth suave warm effect I get in a lot of nouveau niche that reads expensive but actually seems like a lot of ambroxan and sweet notes to me. I've smelled this profile many times before and after a few minutes it hit me that it is a dead ringer for Celine Black Tie. It's a nice smell, rich and warm but at this point this scent profile bores me.

 

[hednic]

I tried La Nuit Des Fleurs by LM Parfums which I loved.

 

[sakecat]

Went to a Meet and Greet with Barbara Hermann (Eris Perfumes) at Arielle Shoshanna outside of Washington DC.

Eris Perfumes (all skin tested)
- Scorpio Rising - Green leather with some spices and cypriol. There's a lot going on here and I'm looking forward to getting to know this without all the other noise on my arm. Purchased a bottle
- Mxxx - A beautiful balsamic woody amber. The drydown on this is spectacular - a perfectly balanced vanillic, balsam amber. I actually went back to buy this one.
- Belle du Jour - A pretty jasmine and orange blossom with a musky drydown. Now on the wishlist.

Sadly, my allergies were getting the better of me, so I didn't have much sniffing stamina. As much as I wanted to give the entire line it's due, I'll have to do so over a few visits.

Also tried:

Idole de Lubin (test strip) - Leathery anise-like (turns out to be caraway) scent that begged for skin time that I didn't have today. I'll return for another sniff when my nose is fresher.

Gallivant Abu Dhabi (test strip) - pink pepper iris that smelled like it needed some skin time. Also a warning that my nose wasn't going to let me smell too much at once today.

Arielle Shoshana (concentration mods of upcoming scent - on skin) - 25%, 30%, 35% - The next scent for this house is going to be a creamy tea scent. Not the biggest fan of tea scents, but if the mods are any indication, this is going to be lovely and very wearable no matter what concentration she selects for the final. She gave me samples of Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I'm looking forward to digging into those.

 

[PStoller]

Christèle Jacquemin - Enlightenment

Enlightenment is inspired by photographs I took in La Foux d'Allos, a ski resort in the French Alps. Invited to present my combined practice of photography and perfumery, I prolonged my stay in the heart of the white-immaculate mountains to draw on its strength to keep going on the winding way to awakening.

After these few weeks, I translated into scent the need to gather myself so that to better embrace my way.

The alpine imagery is a good fit for this cool, bright fragrance that wears like some sort of snowy forest incense, despite no frankincense listed amongst the notes. The mixture of pepper, conifer needles, and fennel over orris is breezy and intoxicating—almost a literal breath of fresh air. A quiet stunner.

Damn. Looks live I've found another house to buy into.

 

[cheapimitation]

Sampled a lot yesterday including some Lorenzo Villoresi at New London pharmacy, I might come back to write down some impressions.

But right now I'm wearing a sample of Affinssence Cedre Iris. It has that smooth suave warm effect I get in a lot of nouveau niche that reads expensive but actually seems like a lot of ambroxan and sweet notes to me. I've smelled this profile many times before and after a few minutes it hit me that it is a dead ringer or Celine Black Tie. It's a nice smell, rich and warm but at this point this scent profile bores me.

Following up on Cedre Iris, I stared to like it more in the late late dry down (about 4 hours later) I was getting more iris and it started to pull away from the more sweet vanilla dry down of Black Tie. Still, interesting to me these are so similar!

I took a shower mid day and decided to go with another Affinessence Musc Ambergris. I'm liking this more but again feel like I've smelled this before. Someone on frangrantica said it perfectly, that these smell like the dry downs of high end niche and designer exclusives we are familiar with.

It reminds me of the ambergris in Les Indemodables Escale en Indonesie but at much higher strength/density. It has that same pleasing ozonic freshness without any challenging aspects of ambergris backed by a warming woody base, something like the hyper cleaned up patchouli that is so au courant to give a warm woody backbone lingering with what smells like a generous amount of ISO E for that addictive shape shifting quality. I've smelled this kind of profile in the dry down of LV Orage as well.

I am getting the concept of the brand, if anything it's a little frustrating that it does exactly what it says it will without much surprise. Familar but expensive and lovely smelling bases, amped up to have a really addictive "mmm" quality. When a good perfume has an amazing base that you just can't stop smelling, these just cut to the chase.

I've got the discovery set and I'm looking forward to trying the rest!

 

[cheapimitation]

Went to a Meet and Greet with Barbara Hermann (Eris Perfumes) at Arielle Shoshanna outside of Washington DC.

Eris Perfumes (all skin tested)
- Scorpio Rising - Green leather with some spices and cypriol. There's a lot going on here and I'm looking forward to getting to know this without all the other noise on my arm. Purchased a bottle
- Mxxx - A beautiful balsamic woody amber. The drydown on this is spectacular - a perfectly balanced vanillic, balsam amber. I actually went back to buy this one.
- Belle du Jour - A pretty jasmine and orange blossom with a musky drydown. Now on the wishlist.

Sadly, my allergies were getting the better of me, so I didn't have much sniffing stamina. As much as I wanted to give the entire line it's due, I'll have to do so over a few visits.

Also tried:

Idole de Lubin (test strip) - Leathery anise-like (turns out to be caraway) scent that begged for skin time that I didn't have today. I'll return for another sniff when my nose is fresher.

Gallivant Abu Dhabi (test strip) - pink pepper iris that smelled like it needed some skin time. Also a warning that my nose wasn't going to let me smell too much at once today.

Arielle Shoshana (concentration mods of upcoming scent - on skin) - 25%, 30%, 35% - The next scent for this house is going to be a creamy tea scent. Not the biggest fan of tea scents, but if the mods are any indication, this is going to be lovely and very wearable no matter what concentration she selects for the final. She gave me samples of Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I'm looking forward to digging into those.

Sounds great! The Eris discovery set is high on my "to buy" list.

 

[ChypreInBloom]

View attachment 336382

Christèle Jacquemin - Enlightenment

Enlightenment is inspired by photographs I took in La Foux d'Allos, a ski resort in the French Alps. Invited to present my combined practice of photography and perfumery, I prolonged my stay in the heart of the white-immaculate mountains to draw on its strength to keep going on the winding way to awakening.

After these few weeks, I translated into scent the need to gather myself so that to better embrace my way.

The alpine imagery is a good fit for this cool, bright fragrance that wears like some sort of snowy forest incense, despite no frankincense listed amongst the notes. The mixture of pepper, conifer needles, and fennel over orris is breezy and intoxicating—almost a literal breath of fresh air. A quiet stunner.

Damn. Looks live I've found another house to buy into.

Yes, Christèle Jacquemin's line is very much worth a try and a few FB. Enlightenment was with me all summer long in 2022, very beautiful.

 

[hollywoodforever]

Nuit de Bakelite by Naomi Goodsir

An imaginative, multi-layered scent; I can see why there is praise for this one. The primary accords to my nose are a green angelica, a sharp tuberose, a carrot-y iris (though I don't think iris is a listed note), and something almost chocolate-y.

I like it a lot, but it feels very "nighttime" to me, and I think I would probably have limited occasions to wear it. I can imagine it being more useful in a place with cold winters, where it could also function as a daytime scent. It's just much too va-va-voom for laidback Los Angeles.

Unisex. 4/5

Reminds me of: Tuberose Angelica by Jo Malone; Iris de Nuit by Heeley

 

[cheapimitation]

Some quick first impressions after testing some Lorenzo Villoresi for the first time yesterday:

Acqua di Colonia
Sometimes I think you can judge a lot about a house by how they do a cologne. This one is really great, it has to be among the most high impact traditional style colognes I've smelled. The opening is sooo bright, lemony and green just bursting with aromatic compounds. People who don't like a sharp cologne could accuse this of edging towards cleaning product, but I like a cologne that slaps me in the face! Lasting power was OK, for a couple hours it stuck around and left a light green herbal smell without any laundry musk extenders. A must for cologne connoisseurs!

Sandalo
I can see why this is a reference sandalwood. Straight down the middle no frills sandalwood, again very natural smelling and doesn't go toward cedar like Tam Dao nor any "sanalwood" aromachems like Santal33. Not milky either, it leans toward a dusty spicy end of sandalwood that sometimes reminds me of old book in old libraries. The closest thing to it I've tried is Profumum Roma's Santalum but I like this better. It is pretty subtle and simple smelling, so I could see someone being underwhelmed by it given all the praise it gets, but it gets it just right.

Teint de Neige
Wow powerful major old school powdery Chanel No. 22 vibes. So powdery it almost goes nutty or towards rice powder, very old fashion "they don't make em like they used to" fragrance a la some of Santa Maria Novella's classic offerings. For me, I prefer current Chanel No. 22 which I find more airy and having more contrast with the florals and vanilla. Teint de Neige felt a bit heavy bordering on suffocating on a dense cloud of powder. It must have been the EDP because it remains the strongest on blotter almost 2 days later. Not for me but glad I got to smell it!

I also tried Spezie and maybe my nose was fried but it wasn't really legible to me. I thought it was kinda mild patchouli but I see now it's all about spices. The note list looks crazy and makes me want to go back and try it again.

Also on my list to try next are Piper Nigrum and Incensi.

 

[PStoller]

Yes, Christèle Jacquemin's line is very much worth a try and a few FB. Enlightenment was with me all summer long in 2022, very beautiful.

Well, I’ll be doing more all week!

 

[gunmetal24]

(First impressions only) Pacific Chill by Louis Vuitton. Someone said it smelt exactly like a drugstore fruity mango shampoo. I was so intrigued that I went out to try it... and I have to agree 😆. The SA was being a bit weird with me so I didn't bother to ask for a sample. I will try it on skin next time but the opening note wasn't for me...just by the functional scent association.

 

[Schubertian]

Ma Nishtana by Prissana. Like it, incense but warmer and lighter (in colour) than somethink like LAVS or Avignon. My sample was so tiny I used it up, but I'd be curious to smell side by side with Spell 125 and Rève d'Ossian.

 

[hednic]

I tried Abime by Maison Violet which loved.

 

[lfc1892]

Ambre 114 - very evocative scent. Reminded me of old school pencils and wooden study desks. Not bad

Gentle fluidity silver- nice, inoffensive but a little too safe for me

 

[lfc1892]

Ma Nishtana by Prissana. Like it, incense but warmer and lighter (in colour) than somethink like LAVS or Avignon. My sample was so tiny I used it up, but I'd be curious to smell side by side with Spell 125 and Rève d'Ossian.

I found it totally different to Spell 125, which I think is great stuff

 

[PStoller]

Christèle Jacquemin - Meandering Soul

…inspired by the collection of photographs I took in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan where I stayed for one month first in an artistic residency and then hosted in a private home. It was a chaotic month seeking to escape the noise and frantic pace of this Asian New York. My respite: going out at night, wandering peacefully according to my inspiration and reconnecting with nature that I missed so much. Back from Taiwan, I worked to translate into scent the calm felt during these nocturnal walks.

To my nose, Jacquemin is shaping up to have a style—translating everything into a sort of aromatic incense—present here in the way she uses fennel and hinoki on top. Of particular interest is the tobacco base, to which a pungent cinnamon acts as a bridge from the fennel, though the latter stays after the former fades. Something like a pipe tobacco, then, only with fennel in place of vanilla or cherry.

Jacquemin cites caramel as a base note, as well, but it must be the driest caramel on record: the natural sweetness of the fennel is stronger, and still nowhere near gourmand. Likewise, the florals in the heart serve more as canvas than paint.

Lovely and surprising.

 

[cheapimitation]

(First impressions only) Pacific Chill by Louis Vuitton. Someone said it smelt exactly like a drugstore fruity mango shampoo. I was so intrigued that I went out to try it... and I have to agree 😆. The SA was being a bit weird with me so I didn't bother to ask for a sample. I will try it on skin next time but the opening note wasn't for me...just by the functional scent association.

I tried this over the weekend too. No one was watching me and knowing that it would likely be light I sprayed it all over to get a good wearing. I agree it has major shampoo vibes, it's sorta green but also really unnatural smelling, no recognizable herbs like mint or basil, more fake green smelling like a can of Sprite. As far as a green LV freshie I found Cactus Garden more interesting. And Guerlain Herba Fresca is miles better for a fraction of the cost.

After 30 min or so most of the green top is gone and it has a very similar base of slightly salty/fresh/woody/laundry musks that make up the base of afternoon swim. I do like this base and throughout the day it was giving me diaphonous whisps of "something smells nice" but this kind of smell shouldn't cost more than $100. I still prefer the base of afternoon swim which is stronger and has more character because it hints at a salty real ambergris funk. LV is really taking the prize for worst value for money line of fragrances on the market.

Out of the recent spate of soulless corporate green perfumes, I'd choose MFK Acqua Media over this and save $100, but neither are very inspiring.

 

[PrinceRF]

Diptyque Eau Rihla - I get Tuscan Leather vibes right off the bat, but this is softer and more pleasant to the nose. The scent has a warm quality with saffron and iris. Perfectly unisex. One of the better offerings from Diptyque I've tried to date. According to their website, the leather note is derived from natural Chinese cedar wood. Fantastic!

Diptyque Eau Nabati - Another hit from the house which could actually serve as the perfect second option to the above in a two-scent collection. This is the fresher counterpart, with notes of bergamote and immortelle. Immortelle is one of the few florals that I just love when it is well executed. This is green yet ambery. I prefer Eau Rihla of the two, but this is also excellent.