Latest Perfume Reviews

Ma Nishtana by Parfum Prissana

Take, the very good ISOe Frankincense superbomb Cardinal. Add a Saffron touched Kerleo-esque bouquet Sandalwood based creaminess lightly boosted with a touch of ISOe cedar.
The result is rather ethereal and Meditative that renders the Heeley rather linear and stark.

Eau de Charlotte by Annick Goutal

A pleasant white floral bouquet is present from the beginning; mainly mimosa, a bit later some muguet is joining in, and whiffs of oleander too at times.

Soon in the drydown a shift to the gourmand genre is noticeable. There is a vanilla, which is quite restrained and neither very sweet nor very intrusive, as well and a pleasant aroma of a rich cocoa powder. The cocoa is of only of a minimal bitterness, which is balanced well by the restrained sweetness of the vanilla.

I get moderate sillage, good projection and seven hours of longevity on my skin.

This is a nice scent for cooler spring days, developing for the floral to the gourmand, but never too intense or loud - hence good for the office. Not without touches of originality, and crafted well. 3/5.

Boss Orange Eau de Parfum by Hugo Boss

Orange Woman good!
This small yet dangerous truth
Arrived unfiltered

The sample said "Boss"
There was no denying thus
This joyous coolant

Of immortal coils
'Twas elevator music
Of the squared-off spheres.

Orange Woman good?
"Oh, the humanity!" as
Fake Perfume News crashed

First into itself
Then into ev'rything else
"Run! It's Yugo Boss!"

"But no politics!"
Redneck troll trolled Redneck troll
Lest he speak the truth:

Orange Woman good!
Breath of citrus clarity
Sweet transparency

Yet in persistence
Giving glimpse of nature's more
Through sweet chemistry

Oddly giving thus
Transparent window into
Glass's purity.

Orange Woman good!
Clarity through chemistry
Nature's one spoke voice

From each molecule
Fragrance according to its
Lone reality

To each molecule
Fragrance greater thus perceived
Through their unity

Orange Woman good!
Even if by Yugo Boss
Said matrix magic

Sparsely thus arrives
Fewer's sharper's harmony's
Greater's sharper's still

And so what if by
Diff'rent choice some nose arrives
Loudly to proclaim

Orange Woman good!
Chalkboard fragrance stopped clock strikes
Twice as 'twas designed

IFF Orange Man good.
Redneck had nothing to fear
Truth speaks for itself

Leaving only thus
To ponder usly sparsely
What is that it is.

Prada Candy Night by Prada

I find this one to be charming and a little quirky.

If your reference for a gourmand is Angel (I wear Muse on occasion) Candy Night is very, very airy and dry by comparison. I am taken with its melding of a modern sweet frag with the powdery iris and bitter herbal undertones my nose associates with an older Guerlain. It doesn’t smell LIKE a Guerlain, yet those notes are my hook into enjoying it as something a little novel and personal.

I am actually anosmic to the original Prada Candy apart from a pale memory of benzoin, so my experience is that the performance of Night is much better! Will last all day as a skin scent.

Winter Palace by Memo

Wife said this reminded her of a spa smell which is probably the tea/mate. I think it has a citrusy, candy sweet (think Sweet tarts) opening that becomes more powdery into the drydown, which is also more subdued on the sweetness. By the end of it, you’re left with a pleasant but basic warm vanilla. I didn’t get much herbal green or tea note. Still a nice scent with some uniqueness.

Very good projection without being heavy during the opening few hours. The longevity is in the 6-7 hour range.

Joop! Homme by Joop!

Sorry for the verbosity. This ended up being more impactful on me than I expected.

Unusually for someone born in the early 80s, I never got much exposure to this scent, because it just wasn't my dad's deal. Mum would occasionally splurge to get dad Farenheit or Drakkar Noir, but generally speaking my Dad is a Brut guy.

So, I was a touch surprised when I went to visit Mum and Dad recently and saw bottle of bright magenta Joop! adorning the bathroom sill. The juice is literally the exact shade of one of my favourite crayolas from my childhood and very, very close to one of my sister's favourite skivvies. I got hit with an immediate flash of nostalgia seeing it.

Sweet, rich and unapologetically fruity and floral, this is just not what my dad would have worn back in the late 80s/early 90s when he was working in finance. Now that he's too old to bother impressing people and can give in to a bit of whimsy, he'll use it on occasion for his own entertainment, as will my mother.

And after giving it a test spray, I can see why. This is the olfactory equivalent of an ice cream mountain with every possible condiment liberally poured over the top. Even if I don't see myself wearing it out, the honeysuckle and cinnamon in particular are beautifully done.

Just like the ice cream mountain, after a respectable amount of time you start thinking "Oh god.... there's still so much MORE there..." and the inexplicable joy gives way to some rather justifiable fear.

Still though, I have to give Joop! some big respect for having the nerve to stick with their creative and marketing vision. Let's not forget that when this scent came out, homophobic slurs being exchanged around the water cooler was de rigueur and a lot of what would now be referred to as toxic masculinity was just "How sh*t was."

"Here's some bright pink fruity floral juice. Are you man enough to wear it?"

Bowling Green by Geoffrey Beene

Love this. I purchased it largely on the strength of reviews here, as usual with Zealot Crusader's featuring a very good technical breakdown. I would recommend his review for an on point analysis, but hopefully I can contribute some useful info.

There are a couple of points where my opinion differs a bit from most others experiences:

Firstly, from my skin this actually has quite nice projection and above average sillage, although the longevity isn't great - to be fair, I adjusted by hitting myself with 6 sprays in the morning, so this could be a contributor. YMMV, so don't assume you'll have this fade to nothing within a couple of hours.

Secondly, it's been an immediate hit at the office, not just for my colleagues in their 40s and 50s, but particularly from two of my colleagues in their early 20s. One is a young lady who adores barbershop smells and the other a younger guy who just likes fragrances in general.

This is natural, complex, fresh and has some depth of character from its bitterness, florals and herbaceous bite while staying total approachable, dapper and fresh. It's friendly and polite and will definitely be a permanent fixture in my collection. Big Thumbs up.

Cumaru by L'Occitane

Vanilla and sandalwood are the core notes of this creation. The vanilla is dominant, has an ambery touch, but it is not too strong, and the wood notes compliment it nicely.

After the initial a phase a pleasant light spiciness arises, mainly a note of white peppers, and it blends in nicely with the vanilla.

I get moderate sillage, good projection and six hours of longevity on my skin.

This L’Occitane for warmer autumn days, released for the Brazilian market, is nice, but a bit linear and not very original. Overall 2.75/5.

Scandal pour Homme Cologne by Roja Dove

Part Eau Sauvage, part Creed Viking. A classic and modern scent at the same time, clean and soapy with good, modern sweetness. I would guess most would label as a barbershop scent, but again, with modern touches. Not listed but I get a good dose of cinnamon in the opening.

I got mixed performance on multiple wearings. On the first day where I only sprayed once to get a feel for it, the performance was impressive. It projected well for many hours and lasted 8-10 hours. On the second day, I gave it a full 4-5 sprays. It projected nicely in the opening couple of hours but then seemed to disappear, only to register with my nose if I pressed it to my skin where sprayed. It did last for most of the day though. It may be a subject of anosmia, but I did my usual spray routine for testing.

Sud Est by Romeo Gigli

Stardate 20191211:

As others have said, this is very similar to New West. Herbal Calone.
Not a fan of this style.

Alien Man Fusion by Thierry Mugler

Thierry Mugler Alien Man Fusion (2019) is bound to not be very popular among collectors and enthusiasts of the online fragrance community, which seems par for the course considering that the original Alien Man (2018) wasn't either. I feel that Thierry Mugler may be unintentionally targeting a non-existent market at this point with his masculine high street releases outside the A*Men (1996) range, since so far it seems like they shoot for this theoretical demographic of males who want high-concept artistry in their perfume choices without the clout and perceived "ingredients quality" of a high-priced niche brand. That's to say, they want a fragrance with obvious aromachemical usage warts-and-all like everyone's favorite mass-appeal scents in this price range, but without the actual mass-appeal to conceal it. To be fair, I liked the original Alien Man so I'm not saying this to be mean, but it must be said nonetheless. In the name of being against the grain, Alien Man Fusion presents itself as challenging just as the original Alien Man was, if not more so in many ways. Rather than just being a mostly-sweet composition with one glaringly out-of-place note like Alien Man with its dill, Alien Man Fusion comes across like a house mix of melodies from Alien Man, A*Men, and the original Angel (1992) with a controversial heart.

The opening of Alien Man Fusion is really sharp, a bit powdery, spicy, and difficult to love. Dual perfumers Fanny Bal and Dominique Ropion toss in helonial from Angel to achieve that sharpness, while cinnamon and ginger bring a bit of fire to it all. If this doesn't sound all that great it's because it isn't, but things change rather quickly as a sweet apricot-like osmanthus note comes into the heart, forming the bulk of the scent's character. I am not a lover of osmanthus by default, and it's abuse as the fruity floral go-to note for perfumes marketed to women doesn't help things, but I begrudgingly respect it turning up in a masculine. The osmanthus connects slightly to Hugo Boss The Scent (2015) and its use of "maninka fruit", which isn't my vibe either, but it joins the original Alien Man's cashmeran and leather. The base sees another drastic shift in tone as Alien Man Fusion turns into a skin scent. Coffee from A*Men makes an appearance, drying out and taming the osmanthus heart, while a typical scratchy norlimbanol "beach wood" note holds it down. All told, this is definitely not like anything else in the designer segment, and totally won't peg you as a "bro" if you wear it, but may cause some stares too. Performance is average all around, and that is something I can be thankful for considering the style, but having a lingering scratchiness on skin also isn't great either.

Where would I recommend using this? Well, if I actually enjoyed smelling it, I'd say Alien Man Fusion might make a good fall evening or romantic fragrance, at least more than the original, but I'd not be the one wanting to smell more than a few trails of this in passing so I'm a bad person to ask. I don't hate Alien Man Fusion, and can muster indifference about it due to the creativity and daring that went into it, but I don't find it particularly enjoyable. At best, Alien Man Fusion succeeds at being pleasant and is the furthest thing from linear since it does shift in tonality several times from start to end, but it just feels contrarian and edgy for the sake of it. Perhaps I'm missing the point and this has been the mission statement of Thierry Mugler all along, because we are talking about the same designer who has had some of the most bizarre fashion collections in the history of the modern world, but maybe I had grown used to past creations being at least a modicum of wearable. If you're looking for high art without a high price tag and don't mind that a chemist can pick out everything in your perfume with a sniff, shoot for a bottle of Alien Man Fusion, otherwise I'd stare at this like the trainwreck it is before slowly moving on. Neutral.

Livonia by Filigree Parfums

Smoky. Dark woody, damp things. Faint floral bits, rise up a little later. Tobacco is dominant. Patchouli is medium-bodied. Orris, iris-y notes seem to hover above the skin. Slight ambrette seed aroma come and goes with bits of dark brown sugar.

In time, some orange pops up, and tuberose, that does Not drown you... Tobacco calms down. Florals increase a bit. More wood. An excellent, unisex, wintertime, cool month fragrance. You must like tobacco though. It wants to claim your soul at times...

Tilleul by D'Orsay

Garden-like. Light green. Summery. Slight fruit. The heart is where it's at here. Lovely, lovely linden. Very easy-going. The lime blossom is later accented with beeswax. It becomes a light creamy thing. The base vaguely reminds me of Like This by ELdO. A very pleasant, romantic fragrance.

Lavandula by Penhaligon's

Light spice in the background. Lavender is most present but, never too strong. It seems tempered by the other notes for a time... Lavender remains mellow. Tonka bean moves in. Not too boisterous. Slight vanilla and amber move in later. A fairly safe, work-wear fragrance. Not overly feminine. Nice!

Femme de Montblanc by Montblanc

Fruitiness. Dainty spices. Juicyness. Flowers rise up to meet me quickly. Sweet, honeyed flowers. It borders on a lipstick accord.

I'm not familiar with this house / company. It does smell rather mainstream. Not cheap, mind you, just bordering on ordinary. It IS lovely - I've smelled many like this.

The heart is all flowers and it's light-hearted in its character. Of the notes here, heliotrope stands out the most. It becomes powdery.

The base notes aren't overly strong or deep. I get some wood, amber tones, musk, and a hint of chocolate. Three solid stars.

Unequal by Filigree Parfums

A powerful floral blend. Piercing sweetness at times. A green streak which reminds me of pickled olives and pimentos or a freshly diced green, bell pepper. There is something here slightly indolic. There is a natural-smelling gardenia. It's a big, bad garden in full bloom.

This settles into a dark floral. Slight tinges of branches, stalks, and leaves, combine with the floral aromas. It reminds me of an older, Guerlain-style perfume. Something from the 1950's perhaps.

Has some earthy, root-like aspects as well. sophisticated and mature. Nothing girly here.

A slight more woody later on.

Vanilia by L'Artisan Parfumeur

Vintage sample...

Perfectly blended. As it settles, the individual notes rise and fall, displaying their own characteristics. This, may have been ahead of its time, when it was released. L'AP is a house I only discovered in the past few years. If I had known of them, I probably would have obtained a bottle of this vanilla perfume. It's quite good.

Not overly sweet vanilla - lovely amber accord... More vanilla hours later. Thumbs up!

Fleurs des Comores by Maître Parfumeur et Gantier

Smells "old school" to begin with. Fruit is pale. Jasmine is somewhat indolic, starchy. Vanilla begins to overtake the jasmine. There are whiffs of orange, as well.

Some indolic aspects that remain throughout. The base is light, vaguely earthy. Not an overly strong perfume for me. Seems somewhat linear throughout.

Allure Sensuelle by Chanel

Fruit and floral opening. Not too fruity - just enough. There is some bitterness for awhile, also.

Becomes all flowers for some time, in the middle. There is vetiver in the background. For me though, I don't find anything exceptional with this scent, in the top or middle.

The florals merge into the base which has a mellow, oriental feel. It's more of a woody-oriental. Overall, this doesn't blow my mind. It's just, safe.

Gardénia Passion by Annick Goutal

This is a floral floral floral creation. After a beginning of orange blossom with other white florals - and this is the closest to gardenia I am getting here - a tuberose arises that remains the core feature of this creation. It is not a heavy, waxy or resinous tuberose; it is a bit in the bright side, rich, soft and uplifting.

The drydown adds a green jasmine and the base a restrained and somewhat anaemic vanilla, but the tuberose rules until the end.

I get moderate sillage, good projection and eight hours of longevity on my skin.

A lovely spring scent for evenings especially, this floral mix is constituted of ingredients of high quality and expresses a nice tuberose. 3.25/5

Eau de Lanvin by Lanvin

JackTwist is certainly correct that Eau de Lanvin was the name Lanvin gave to a concentration; but, per the images below, it was also a fragrance. It was advertised separately during the early to mid 20th century, and Lanvin’s official website has a picture of a bottle accompanied by this text: “In 1933, true to her pioneering spirit, Jeanne Lanvin launched the very first ‘eau mixte’: ‘L’eau de Lanvin.’” This suggests that it was a fragrance first, with the concentration then applied to other fragrances.

Oud Minérale by Tom Ford

I'm just not liking the seaweed mixed the the tom-ford-linade. I simply don't think this smells good. Almost seems like a fragrance that is unwilling to commit. It is aquatic without being too aquatic, woody without being too woody. I feel like if they would have made the oud more medicinal and astringent this would have worked better. It feels like a tweaked Sel Marin. It performed really well, so it has that going for it. It also does a good job of stating what it is. If you read that this is one of those salty version aquatics with a pinch of fake blond wood it will get you there. Wearing it a couple of times, I liked it more than my initial dislike, but I'm not sure it rises all the way to neutral. It is a low neutral to me, but I'm knocking back to down based on the fact that I expect better from a fragrance that is expensive. Cost. Thumbs down.

Blessed Baraka by Initio

Big, loud opening with a sweet apple pie scent with vanilla heart, spices, booze (rum?) and I detect a slightly dirty/earthy rose-oud-saffron in it, although it's not listed. This is a seductive, winter, nighttime fragrance.

Seeing comparisons to PDM Layton, which is much sweeter, and also Carlisle which is sweeter and fresher/lighter. Might actually be closer to Layton Exclusif with the spices and earthiness. It stayed about the same from beginning to end on me.

Performance is very good with big projection and 8-10 hours longevity with only a couple sprays.

Valentino Uomo by Valentino

Valentino has had similar luck to Gucci with its perfume efforts, in that everything they released up until the 2010's was a false start that eventually saw discontinuation as the license for the perfume division of Valentino kept shifting hands. Past masculines for the house ran the gamut between leathery to sweet tobacco in the 1990's and early 2000's, eventually landing on a typical "freshy woody amber" as the 2000's drew to a close, with each scent signalling the discontinuation of the preceeding one which caused a fear-of-missing-out frenzy among fans; just look at the aftermarket prices for anything released prior to Valentino Uomo (2014) to see what I mean. This house-rebooting masculine pillar seems to have found success the others missed, as it has spawned numerous flankers in the years since, and has given some serious competition to houses like Chanel or Dior in the segment. The reason for this is simple: Valentino Uomo is a continuation of the concept perfumer Olivier Polge put forth in Dior Homme (2005) nearly a decade earlier, and he works with the same ionona-based iris compound he created for Givaudan when he made Dior Homme. From the very onset, it's clear Olivier Polge is continuing his work with Dior through Valentino, especially in light of François Demachay becoming house perfumer for Dior, tinkering with and reformulating all past Dior creations still in production to his liking in the process, although Valentiono Uomo shouldn't be considered a clone of the Dior either.

The opening of Valention Uomo separates itself from Olivier's past work with Dior by being a great deal more gourmand in nature and blended differently. The top notes of bergamot and myrtle are joined by the obvious iris note that this shares with Dior, and a bit of that cocoa is also present as this moves quickly into the heart, but Valentino Uomo is decidedly more Italian in personality by also including a gianduja or "Nutella" note as people outside Italy might recognize it. This chocolate hazelnut vibe is where Valentino Uomo differs the most from Dior Homme, although some may stretch that to say it rests somewhere between the original and intense variants of the latter. For me, it's "different enough to be different" if that makes sense, and the base certainly is not the same display of leathery dryness as Dior Homme. Make no mistake, there is a leather accord in Valentino Uomo considering their stock and trade as an Italian couture house, but cedar mixes with amber, labdanum, and vanilla to round this out far more completely, even if I wouldn't exactly call Valentino Uomo sweet. Wear time is over 8 hours and sillage is appreciable, although projection is thankfully not monstrous. If you enjoy iris masculines, you already know that they can flirt between the office and after-hours arenas fluently enough, and the same holds true with Valentino Uomo, I just wouldn't wear this in the heat. There may also be some unisex potential here for fans of the venerable Guerlain Shalimar (1925), as all these oriental-type exercises in iris inexorably draw comparisons to that fragrance.

Maybe this is revenge for François Demachay messing with (and flanking to death) Olivier Polge's original Dior masterpiece, or maybe this is just second thoughts in perfume form for the former Givaudan perfumer who now works in his father's stead exclusively as house perfumer for Chanel? Either way, this is the last hurrah for the style under Polge's hands outside the Chanel stable, and a nice little period on the whole movement that has since spawned several competing Prada and Amouage masculines as well. If you're an absolute fiend for iris in a masculine perfume, and wouldn't at all see this as redundant in a wardrobe alongside Dior Homme, give it a try. Or, if you found the Dior too harsh but don't want to go in a soapy direction like other masculine interpretations of iris, this might be a great alternative. Valentino Uomo is remarkably classic in vibe and classier than anything the house has released for men previously, so I may not mind so much the fact that the rest of the male lineup lives in unicorn-land so long as I can enjoy this one. I also need to add that in 2015 a black collector's bottle was released that is no different than the 2014 or 2016 and onward bottles, although some may argue with me on that as they do with various limited editions of the original Calvin Klein cK One (1994) released over the years. If you really hate iris, checkout Valentino Uomo Noir Absolu (2017) instead, which a defanged version of this one. Thumbs up.

Mandragore by Annick Goutal

Yes, the opening blast is a fresh bergamot, whiffs of lemon and a good load of mint - brightness galore? Yes initially, but soon a gentle black pepper and a woodsy note add a touch of spice.

The drydown adds an iris as the floral contribution, but a ginger tone together with touches of a cistus impression continues the line of brightness. There are a lot of green moments, mainly sage and a touch of a grassy undertone.

A darker and again spicier base combines labdanum - quite weak though - with a sweetish anise background.

I get moderate sillage, good projection and five hours of longevity on my skin.

This agreeable scent for cooler summer days stars in a nice and fresh manner, but the later stages are characterised by a lack of vividness and a certain generic nature of some of the ingredients. Pleasant it is but not much more, with a somewhat disappointing performance. Overall 2.75/5.

Blend 30 by Dunhill

Perfumer Ron Winnegrad is the nose behind Dunhill's long-gone Blend 30 (1978), and his unique talents shine through the composition. Winnegrad is a teacher for most of his time, with a far smaller number of compositions under his belt compared to other perfumes of similar age, and that's because he chooses to pass his craft along rather than utilize it solely himself. Ron has synesthesia, which makes his perfumes that much more interesting because smells ultimately relate to colors for him, which he in turn relates to places or experiences. Such a condition he bends to his will when perfuming, and it earned him recognition early on with Love's Baby Soft (1974), which in turn led him to land commissions for both this and Lagerfeld Cologne/Classic (1978). With Blend 30, he sought to capture the melancholy of the British countryside in autumn, with overcast skies and dank, dense forestry. I'd say he succeeded with that task, and Blend 30 stands tall as both a precursor to Patou Pour Homme (1980) and Pascal Morabito Or Black (1982), but also a template for the legendary Gucci Nobile (1988). Odd that most of these perfumes have also "snuffed it" like Blend 30 has, due to a combination of shifting styles, ingredient unavailability, and IFRA regulations. It would simply be too expensive for the middle-tier designer perfume operation Dunhill runs to reformulate this properly to bear any resemblance to its original form, and as a result Blend 30 has become quite the "unicorn" in the eyes of vintage enthusiasts. Whether or not you feel the scent is worth the veneration really depends on your experiences with it and your tastes overall, but it is a true scarcity due to how long it has been discontinued, so there's no getting around the price unless you're extremely lucky. Blend 30 is somewhere between a leather chypre and an aromatic fougère, relying on oakmoss, tobacco, spice, labdanum, and a tannery leather note to get the point across, sitting somewhere in a nexus of styles. Taken on its own Blend 30 is a master example of 70's green perfumery, but in light of other releases of the day like Ralph Lauren Polo (1978), Azzaro Pour Homme (1978), Caron Yatagan (1976), or Halston Z-14 (1976), it's easy to see how this might have been overlooked much like Ted Lapidus pour Homme (1978) also was.


The opening of Dunhill Blend 30 is a huge blast of galbanum, pine needles, anise, clary sage, and a peppery lavender, softened only a tad by lemon and neroli. Make no mistake, this is not a sweet fragrance, but it has a rounded smoothness thanks to the balancing of sweet elements that keep it from being too bracing on the nose like Acqua di Selva (1949) or Pino Silvestri (1955). The heart of geranium, carnation, sandalwood, and clove is all but impossible in the modern world of IFRA regulations, as geraniol and eugenol are limited and sandalwood of this lucidity is cost-forbidden due to the over-harvesting of Mysore. I'm not saying this smell niche, just "impossible" in the modern world without some really clever aromachemical tinkering, although they managed to bring Pascal Morabito Or Black back from the dead in 2014 and it smells very close to vintage, so anything's possible with enough time and cash. The base here is where things get a bit hard to place and very blended. The isobutyl quinoline leather note familiar to fans of vintage Hermès Bel Ami (1986) is here, but it is blended in with tonka, oakmoss, and musk to make a near-fougère dry down that compares mostly to the aforementioned Pascal Morabito. The very present oakmoss and sandalwood call forth parallels to the future Patou pour Homme, while all the green aromatic goodness strikes a close accord to the final skin feel of Gucci Nobile once you get past Nobile's initial soapy blast. Tobacco is the wild card here that separates Blend 30 from all the 80's masculines it seems to presage, and since Dunhill was still very much in a "leather and tobacco" mode because those were their primary products sold until they got into perfume, it's almost a given that they would appear here. This is no powerhouse, and much like Dior Jules (1980), is considered somewhat on the reserved side for the period. Sillage is not monstrous, and indeed wear time is shorter than you might suspect for an older "men's cologne" perfume, but Blend 30 does sublimely glow off skin for a good 7 hours before becoming a faint whisper. This feels like a fall-through-spring kind of wear to me, and being such a period-specific example of perfumery, might be too "dated" to the trend-conscious to find suitable context, but you can pull it off in cold weather casual situations without much disturbance if you really wanted.


Dunhill Blend 30 is a good collector's piece for the affluent vintage collector that would rather drop hundreds on survivor bottles of Chaps Ralph Lauren (1979) than on bottles of anything Roja Dove or Areej le Dore puts out, and also represents a bit of a glimpse into the progression from the soapy green masculines of Paco Rabanne pour Homme (1973) at the early end of the decade, to the leathery, musky, jockstrap-in-a-bottle of the early 1980's. Blend 30 falls just shy of being truly animalic because it has everything but castoreum or civet to give it that push from assertive into outright aggressive, so it comes right up to the line of being surly without ever actually losing poise and crossing it, showing Ron Winnegrad was capable of giving Dunhill their feeling of classic British restraint in spite of the heady cocktail itself. I can't really recommend one fragrance that comes closest to what Blend 30 shows off, but if you pick up a bottle of Or Black and layered it with Avon Leather (1966), you'd get really close and not put yourself out too much money. If soaring prices don't feel beyond your means, and dwindling sales listings do not seem daunting to you, this may be worth the hunt, as it represents something you otherwise won't be able to get outside of other similar discontinued gems that also carry stiff premiums. Simply put, this is a well-crafted and very lively aromatic representing an extinct style with extinct ingredients, and real museum-grade stuff that falls just short of being beautiful due to the fact that it isn't terribly unique in the greater scheme of what was goin' round in the time it was being made. Blend 30 is a vivaciously green and aromatic scent capable of painting a picture in your mind thanks to its unique perfumer, and for that I can respect the fervor of its die-hard fans. I may not be in the market to sacrifice my firstborn to finding a bottle, but among vintage "unicorns", Dunhill Blend 30 stands mightily tall. Thumbs up.

Bliss Me by Urban Scents

A fantastic musky-floral modern creation in a revisited vintage 80's style. Galbanum is definitely the real backbone of this quite floral Urban Scents-appointment providing a dark mossy basis on which dips its roots an intense floral concert (dry, woody and fizzy). Bergamot, cedar, galbanum and green elements provide a classic (bitter-dry) mossy/hesperidic vibe a la Chanel N.19 while the floral impact is acid, "relentless", redolent and dark. Rose and jasmine are the listed floral notes but I bet further floral patterns could have been included in the Bliss me-blend (lily of the valley, lotus flower, iris, cyclamen?). It seems to detect water-floral elements along the way (super dry and watery-leafy). Dry down is extremely feminine, sensual and mysterious, it conjures me intensely a classic floral-green fragrance to me familiar in the early 90's but frankly I'm not able to "close" the connection at moment (may bè some Cacharel or God knows what else).

Bel Respiro Eau de Toilette by Chanel

Kind of starts out like window cleaner mixed with a car, air freshener accord. Then, it begins to smell pleasant, with herbs galore. Nice, green stuff.

It turns into a fresh, spring garden thing, very aromatic and more natural-smelling. Slight medicinal smell occurs. Floral roots, as well. Herbal tea.

Florals and herbs mellow out later. A hint of leather moves in... Grassy, green, unisex. Not bad. Not quite my style but, it is quite good overall.

Akowa by Micallef

Too much bitter bergamot in the opening. In a little while, it does calm down.

Bergamot flows into the middle notes. I get some fig leaf here and there. No cocoa at all - bummer. Vetiver moves up, from the base notes.

Vetiver continues, as patchouli and musk merge into the blend... This fragrance gets better with time. The top is bitter but, worth the wait for the middle and base notes to settle in.

Beige Eau de Parfum by Chanel

Honeyed flowers. Just enough hawthorn to make it interesting, with bits of freshly broken branches. The freesia is tamed here, with frangipani keeping it calm and soothing. I find freesia can be quite rude in some scents. Here, I enjoy it.

This frag remains rather linear, stays the same, for quite awhile.

Honey notes linger on, as well as the gentle floral smell.