Reviews by Mona Visa

I just got a sample today. To me, this is cherry leather completely. I can smell rose around the cherry... slight cardamom, and no cinnamon. This is strong stuff. I think more masculine than feminine. I wasn't sure about it when I first sprayed it on, but now I can't keep smelling my wrist so there's something up.

An hour in I am recognizing the oud more. I'd say the cherry and leather are about equal to it, so far.

Two hours in: we still have cherry, but it's a sour cherry. For sure. I still like it though.

I'm a fan of Tom Ford's Lost Cherry, but this ain't that. I do not think Cherry Oud is an appropriate blind buy, not at Guerlain prices. Lost Cherry is a sweet fluffy gourmand, and Cherry Oud is much more like you're wearing a slightly sweaty leather jacket made of dried cherries.

(Lol I am just not the best when it comes to identifying notes at all, and modern perfumers use a lot of that chemical called Iso E which I cannot smell. I've gotten samples of it from various sources and my kids and husband can smell it but I just get a whiff of cedar and then nothing. If anger had a smell, it would be Iso E Super. I don't know if there's any Iso E in Cherry Oud; but if there is, my experience of this fragrance may be vastly different from yours.)

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, when I was approximately 1/3 of my current age and weight, I was a model. In Tokyo. I was just a tiny bit too short for Paris... It was the 80's, I was a teenager, and it is truly crazy how much I used to make in a day back then. Life isn't fair, make hay, seize the day and all that.

My agency was located across a shopping district and the quickest way for me to get there was by walking through a major department store and out the other side. Anyway, in the center of the lobby-- right before I could walk out, right there in front of the big glass doors-- stood four Chanel perfumes on a pedestal under spotlights: No. 5. No. 19. No. 22.

And Coco.

HOW could I resist? I was eighteen. Y'all know what I did next.

No. 5 on my right wrist, No. 22 on the left, No. 19 on one side of my neck and Coco on the other and I was Perfume Godzilla, crushing the city with my high heels in my fragrant glory! I was powerful, beautiful, menacing, unstoppable.

My happiness lasted about ten minutes. Once I reached the office my agent Had A Talk with me. Do you know they don't really wear perfume in Japan? Lol, well, I know that NOW. It makes no sense, because they have perfume prominently displayed in the stores-- at least they did in the 80's-- and people bought it, too! They just did not wear it. "It was not worn."

I was very careful after that. But determined. My agent wasn't the boss of me. And so every time I went through the store, I sneakily sprayed some on, just a little... and just one.

And that one was Coco.

Chanel 19 is the best, obviously, we know that, it's in the Bible somewhere. But 19 is almost too good to wear too often. Coco is more playful and wearable. It's a more refined upscale feminine spice fragrance; like Opium refined for the ladies of high society. It's cool and clove clove clove clove.

It's pretty. I personally prefer the EDP over the Parfum.

You are a horse. A horse with really big hair. You walk through a flowery cedar forest on a cool Spring evening. The powdery scent of hairspray trails behind you.

The forest floor is strewn with flowers. The flowers get deeper and deeper. Eventually the sea of flowers reaches up to your very sweaty horse knees. Dark rose petals, honeyed jasmine, basil and artemisia are crushed beneath your hooves as you walk towards a urinal in the darkening distance.

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La Nuit is one of my favorites. I wear it more than I should, considering how little of it is left in the world.

The world is changed.

Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it.

Thousands of years from now, a Gandalf-like perfumer combs dusty archives, looking for clues. Looking for answers. What were these great works of art like before we changed them? Before we lost them?

Chanel No. 19 is the best fragrance ever created. There's nothing better. I wish everyone could have the same experience I did: I was fourteen or so, having fun in a cosmetics store, smelling different perfumes and suddenly-- there it was. Heaven. Perfection. Clear and simple and exponentially better than anything else.

I hadn't read a thing about it, and I only discovered years later that Chanel No. 19 is considered to be a "bitchy" or cold perfume to be worn by heartless cold bitches. This is not true. Don't believe those reviews. Those are words written by damned souls.

It's easy to hate something because it's beautiful. I can forgive this kind of jealousy; it's so transparent.

Harder for me to forgive are the changes to Chanel No. 19 itself.

No, stop. I don't want this review to be yet another ode to the past, another "back in my day" whine, a howl about how the band is much better live and how you kids will just never know what you missed. More and more that kind of review disappoints me. Because things change. The world changes. Perfumes change too. I'm getting older, you're getting older, there is no Santa Claus and the cup of coffee you just drank is *much* closer to your last cup of coffee than it is to your first.

Still. It's hard for me not to cry about this one. It is my precious and I do collect it to somewhat ruinous effect.

Nombre Noir is a haunted gothic rose that smells *exactly* like the early 80's. It deepens with jammy notes of blackberry, osmanthus, and flux capacitor. ( I'm not sure how else this can smell so exactly like the 80's! They put *something* in the water during the Cold War.)

Nombre Noir is an 80's fragrance without any of the 80's fragrance PTSD. It didn't permeate every mall and magazine like Giorgio. It wasn't worn in the high school hallways and locker rooms like Poison. And yet Nombre Noir feels like it was actually there. Nombre Noir is the atmosphere of my own dark, perfect, alternate past.

Nombre Noir smells like the deepest velvety purple rose, a rose so dark it's almost black. It's a rose with blackberry jam and carnations (maybe just one carnation, this isn't Ho Hang Club). No soap, no sugar, some spice. It is sad somehow, but it's not depressing or tedious. It's the fragrance that a smart goth girl would wear.

Or at least it was. Nowadays, Nombre Noir is so insanely expensive that it's probably just the smell of bad judgement.

Nombre Noir is uniquely beautiful. It is worthy of praise. But I think it has probably been a bit overpraised and over promoted. There are other rose fragrances out there. There are better rose fragrances out there. Still, if you are lucky enough to own a bottle of this... I guess I should be brave enough to admit that I'm terribly, terribly jealous.

Ladies and Gentlemen, stand back. I am going to wear Lost Cherry. I am then going to rhapsodize about it and fill this review with so much purple prose that everyone who reads it will be embarrassed for me. I'll probably edit 90% of what I write today out by tomorrow, lest the shame of this review stain my children and my children's children and their children unto the fourth generation.

I LOVE LOST CHERRY. I love it. I love it even though I know it doesn't deserve me OR all the money I pay for it. I love it even though the name is, somewhat ironically, tasteless. I love it even though the pure red cherry note disappears disdainfully within an hour. I love it, even though I feel like a bit of a fashion victim every time I put it on. I love it, and I know all about things like cognitive dissonance and Stockholm Syndrome.

I love it but this is the last time you are doing this to me, Mr. Ford. (Do you take American Express...?)

When I first spray Lost Cherry on my wrist, it's a cherry pie cloud. But after fifteen minutes (the bad jokes just write themselves here, don't they) that note is gone. And the fragrance, um, falls flat for a bit.

Eventually the other notes catch fire though, and Lost Cherry descends into dark, delicious euphoria. Bitter almond is balanced to an almost marzipan effect with that boozy cherry syrup, and it's all topped with just enough jasmine to make your head spin.

These notes smolder for about two hours... there's never enough time when it's this good. Any thoughts of this being another fruity forgettable fragrance are gone.

The dry down is heavenly. It's detectable on my skin indefinitely as a powdery, boozy, cherry-clove-cinnamon scent. Cinnamon isn't named in the pyramid, but I promise, it's everywhere in this dry down . Maybe it's some sort of an effect created by the other notes. In any case, for hours the cinnamon and cloves and cherry booze powder weave around each other, and it's lovely. Lost Cherry is a gourmand without vanilla, it's fruity without being insipid, and it has flowers but isn't a floral.

I can't detect the vetiver or the rose. I would love more rose, but I am relieved not to have much vetiver.

Lost Cherry is safe for work. It's not a siren. It's not overtly masculine or feminine. The come-hither powers of Lost Cherry will probably peak around lunch or other associated snack times.

Lost Cherry's sillage is weak. Projection is such that you, the wearer, might be able to smell it all day but it won't go much beyond your own personal space. If you need a fragrance that collects compliments, do NOT chase this dragon.

It's too late for me. The most I can hope for now is that it won't be reformulated or discontinued. Lost (Paycheck) Cherry is going to be on my dresser for a long, long time.

This review is for a sample of the EDP that I received yesterday. I ordered it from the Eris website a few days ago.

The first moment of Green Spell is perfectly, unapologetically green. It's not sweet. It's not floral. Citrus is here, but it's under cut stems, like an unripe, chilled grapefruit peel that has been rolled in tomato leaves.

Green Spell is refreshing and pleasant but not comforting. It's slightly uneasy. It's the scent of the Venomous Tentacular creeping up behind you. It's a bouquet of dandelion stems.

Green Spell starts strong but after an hour it settles down. Maybe it settles down too much. Two or three hours into the dry down, and Green Spell was powdery and dry. Dry, but still as green as a grass snake.

Six hours later I can still detect it on my skin. Much fainter but still fresh, cold, and powdery-earth green.

Thumbs up. It's not for everyone. But if you've been going stir-crazy indoors after a long bleak winter this may be just what you need.

My review is of the EDP that I received in the mail a month ago from a major department store. It is the 7ml mini that is part of Frederic Malle's Roses: A Collection edition.

This is new-car smell. With roses. I think I would have named this Cuir & Rose instead of the other way 'round, because the leather is much stronger than the flower note-- this is absolutely positively not a floral, in spite of the name.

I can tell it's a well-crafted fragrance but I don't know if there's enough depth or roundedness here for me.

It's dawning on me that this is much more masculine than I expected. A man who might not otherwise wear a rose-scented fragrance could be quite happy with Rose & Cuir.

After about fifteen minutes the roses (and that bit of dark fruit, the description says blackcurrant, so it must be that, but there's something like rum or brandy here too) are all but gone. And then I smell cedar, strong but soft. It's a bit like Feminite du Bois in a white suede jacket.

And although I didn't detect it, when I asked my 18 year-old son to use one word to describe this fragrance he said, "Grass."

Rose & Cuir is for someone, but not me. I would be very happy to smell it on someone else, though.

My review is for the EDP. My bottle is a miniature, it's part of the L'Artisan Parfumeur set, and I bought it new about a year ago.

Mure et Musc smells exactly like Ivory Soap Flakes. Pure, white, fluffy flakes. A big bowl of blackberry jam is somehow underneath it all. You didn't know you wanted to smell like blackberries and soap flakes but trust me, you do, you really do.

I'm still not entirely sure what a "musk" note is. I picture a Musk Ox. Whatever it is, though, Mure et Musc smells fantastic.

Even though the blackberry note is strong, it's balanced by the fluffy soap smell, so this isn't a gourmand. It should be safe for work, but I don't think it should be worn if you're going camping. It may attract bears.

My review is for a carded sample of the EDP that I received from an eBay seller this week.

This is a big, soft white flower. Or a bowl of warm white petals.

I personally don't get much of the soap that others do, but this is a clean fragrance. I'm not that familiar yet with different notes in perfume; I wouldn't know "musk" if it bit me. But this feels intimate without any smothering vanilla. It's attractive but not a siren.

Pure Musc for Her feels more elegant and substantial than your average floral. It could be safe for work if used with a light hand.

My review is for a sample of Bandit EDP that I received two days ago from on online site called surrendertochance.com. I'm not sure what vintage it is, but it appears to be a 1ml decant.

My first impression is-- wow. I can't say anything about it that hasn't been said.

This is Chanel No. 19's much older sister. She sits in a dark corner of the bar, drinks absinthe, and tells stories about the war. She wears a black leather jacket given to her by Ernest Hemingway (that jacket is where the smell of smoke comes from btw. She kicked the habit ages ago).

If you are a man, can you wear this? If you have to ask, the answer is no.

My review is for a decanted sample of the EDT that I obtained two days ago. I don't know how old it is, but since L'Arte di Gucci was launched in 1991 and discontinued in 1994 it probably doesn't matter.

The roses and aldehyde jump out immediately. It's very reminiscent of the rose note in Montale's Black Aoud. At this point I was nervous. I can't tolerate Black Aoud for long.

But after five minutes or so L'Arte smoothes out into something soft, beautiful, and almost kinda...sorta... nsfw. Wow, definitely. And this is just the EDT.

Oh, this is a heartbreaking fragrance to have fallen for.

This review is for a carded sample of the EDT. My sample has been kept in a cool, dark place but it is about four years old.

My first impression is of soap. A tart green apple and a bar of soap. Light, fresh, clean.

It develops a sort of aquatic vibe after about 30 minutes, and I'm reminded of Acqua di Gio. And soft white flowers. A cool breeze, like an early Spring morning. The jasmine is light and very chaste.

I think men could wear this easily. It belongs somewhere on the CK One spectrum for sure.

Use it with a light hand for the office. It's only an EDT but it's quite strong.

Not my cup of tea in general but I can certainly understand why people like it.

My review is for a carded sample of the EDT.

Iris Nobile is like a garden experienced at a distance. The iris takes a back seat to the other flowers far too quickly, but overall it's a beautiful etched-in-air mirage.

No soap, thankfully. The longer I smell it, the more I like it, and the more I think I will find a sample of the EDP.

This would be appropriate for an office setting.

Not much projection or sillage, and it's probably too feminine for most men to want to wear.

My husband likes it on me, says it's one of the best fragrances I've tried so far. I'm giving this a thumbs up, and I'm going to find the EDP.