Fragrance Reviews by itsthepens

i first tried this a while back on a card, and was underwhelmed. thought i'd try it on my skin today to see how it warms up with my chemistry.

the first thing i get from terre d'hermes the orange, but it's a candied orange-peel orange note. there's something unusual after a few minutes, a note which emerges as the orange becomes surprisingly more citric. it's as though what was originally preserved orange is now becoming fresh orange (plus a faintly bitter lime), like watching some process in reverse, and the 'preservative' is now present separately. it's a pleasant note slightly reminiscent of unscented moisturizer (if that makes any sense), and it gives a weird quality to the citrus, and to me the first hour or so of terre d'hermes is dominated by this weird/citrus accord combining and separating again. at one point i felt certain that it smelt to me like a lime jelly baby (english candy), almost feminine in it's sweetness, and then suddenly i started becoming aware of something organic, the 'after the rain' shrub-like smell that others have noted. i simply dont get the cedar that others have mentioned, nor any pepper whatsoever (a shame, as a good peppery kick would fix the sweetness for me i suspect)

it has good staying power (my skin can positively drink fragrances) and even a couple of squirts is still quite noticeable now. now it has a patchouli tone to it, again with this odd vegetal/wet/moisturizer smell (is this the mineral note?) that is actually the main thing that keeps me interested.

my current thoughts are that i wouldnt mind smelling this on someone else, but that perhaps its not for me with it's overly candy-sweet fruit in the opening. the drydown is beautiful, thoughtful and cool and very faintly soapy (perhaps vetiver, lovely though i dont normally like soapy) but is it worth hours of orange candy?

i'm going to have to keep trying this one. not sure.

well this one is a bit confusing really. i fully anticipated disliking it entirely, as code leaves me cold and AdG is.... well, it is what it is. However the bottle of attitude i kept passing (i often take a shortcut through a local department store from one street to another) was wearing down my resistance with it's trendy cubist zippo charms. so finally i took the plunge, and..... well, the neutral rating here i think is perhaps the most appropriate i've given. this fragrance is certainly well-blended, in that there are almost no distinctive notes, rather a well-rounded aura of scent. i do get the lavender, but it's not an old fashioned lavender, rather a candied, softened, out-of-focus lavender. I don't actually smell the coffee note that people are mentioning at all, except that i do seem to experience a strange scent-memory trigger of the bar of a restaurant i know, of being near the coffee machine (i find this VERY weird). there is a powdered quality to attitude also, a warm semi-vanilla softness that makes the fragrance one that could easily be worn by a woman - it's hardly an overtly 'masculine' scent. i ALMOST get, as other people have noticed, the faintest of cardomom notes, but very vaguely. nothing in attitude is very definite, it's all so blended and vague and sweet-cloudy-hazy. there's a slight freshness to this also, a synthetic accord which is technically quite at odds with the rest of the fragrance (without it, and with a bit more oomph, attitude could potentially head towards the sweet-gourmandy end of the scale) but which seems to keep the scent grounded in the middle of fresh and sickly. perhaps it is only to be expected of this end of armani's product range, but attitude is one of the most obviously focus-group created fragrances i have smelled, as though a hundred people were surveyed as to what they want in a fragrance and then this was created to satisfy as many as possible.

it is by no means unpleasant - quite clearly it is meant to be as pleasant as possible to as many people as possible. and it's freshened powdery-warmth makes it appropriate for daytime, the office, casualwear, an evening, even as a clubbing fragrance. it is quite light, and even a heavy application doesnt ever go over-the-top. it's also not even really a linear scent - as foetidus noted, this is basically all topnotes and not really much else. it really is quite uninspiring, doesn't last long, smells quite cheap i think, and whilst doing nothing that badly, does nothing at all well. yet im confounded by my inability to stop smelling it - as though it has the fragrance equivalent of MSG in it, and my brain's being tricked into enjoying an inferior product.

4.5 out of 10. yet i might buy it if i'm over-tired in duty-free.....

i've always dismissed this as something i might not like, but today i decided to get aquainted with ultra violet man.

At first i get a wash of sweet fruit, a juicy peachy note which is quite pleasant, underscored by a driving metallic/eucalyptus accord (the 'liquid mint' perhaps?) which stops the fruitiness being too feminine and lays the first stones of UVman's stark, synthetic olfactory experience. Then i start to detect what i think might be the 'gray (grey!) amber', which to me is piqued by the lingering pine-air-freshener (not unpleasant) into what i can only describe as being almost like savoury marzipan, almost almondy yet spiky and interestingly weird. From then on, the fragrance is indeed quite linear, mellowing from this to a more rounded 'gray amber', and what smells to me like cedar, or cedar-lite - all the while with a persistent metallic note evoking hard, shiny surfaces and neon light. it's a light fragrance which manages to persist on my skin, the 'moss crystals' in the drydown being yet another alien reproduction of a classic fragrance note, here a mossy softness which never quite feels real.

the overall feeling from ultraviolet is, it seems, quite deliberately wholly synthetic in concept and execution, as Milamber said it 'has a certain vibrancy to it that is almost teasing but monotonous. It fades very quickly but lingers for hours.' herein perhaps lies the ultimate failing of UVman perhaps - it's rapid fading. conceptually i think it's a very interesting and valid exercise, but all that wonderful weirdness and synthetic reality just isnt quite weird enough for long enough.
Nonetheless i think it provides a welcome occasional diversion from luxurious, beautiful 'real' scents into an outer space starkness that remains surprisingly sultry, utterly inorganic yet nevertheless vibrant with sexual energy. and so I think this defines its use - it's absolutely perfect for clubbing; pulsating strobe lights and filthy electronic music.

not perfect, but buy it. UV rave clothing optional.

finally tried this this afternoon when i was in fortnum's, and Oh My God. i'm in absolute love, i'll be ordering a 200ml bottle as soon as i can find my wallet!

i'm a fan of booze and fruit, the last thing i bought featuring both was michael by michael kors. but whereas the wonderful michael is (to me) very much an evening scent, to be worn with an expensive suit, a crisp white shirt, a pack of gauloise and seven double rums (i'm thinking matusalem gran reserva) in a sort of predatory sexual way, le dandy is a whole different kettle of fish.

there is none of michael's heady smoky sleazy booze, instead there is more of a true tobacco note, with figs and prunes swimming in a warm whiskey/brandy cloud. this is very much a daytime fragrance as well as being eminently suitable for evenings too, perhaps due to its sweet fruit, but the overall composition is mellowed by the tobacco enough to allow for it to adapt to, i think, any situation - perhaps only a spritz or two if the occasion is more sober, and with wild abandon if circumstance permits. i normally hate vanilla, but in the last of the drydown i'm detecting the barest hint of it, in the creamy powdery woods at its finish - and i love it. utterling fabulous.

i think foetidus has it spot on here with his description of the orange blossom and mandarin notes in l'anarchiste - it's not harsh citrus accord by any means, but more of a tamed yet twisted, candied orange, yet not particularly sweet. that's not to say there isn't a degree of sweetness overall, but this combined with the vetiver as it starts to dry down impressed on me a somewhat traditional masculine soapy quality - as has been noted, hardly anarchic. the initial waft is perhaps almost orange liquer-esque, a sort of cointreau note progressing into wonderful sandalwood which softens the cedar assault into something i find almost beautiful, this boozey-orange tinged-woodsy symphony which almost should be a mess but really works. but as i've said, when the vetiver rears it's head it all goes soapy, spoiling l'anarchiste for me before i get to the gorgeous lingering skin-scent musk, which still retains a hint of the sandalwood and the merest, faintest whiff of what finally seems might be the orange blossom.

i'll buy this for sure, but the vetiver soapiness means this is no anarchist, rather almost formal.

i normally despise 'foody' smells, and i absolutely detest the women's 'Angel', so i was fully prepared to hate this - and yet i really don't. i definately have to agree that the initial assault that this provides is peculiar to say the least, maybe 'pinesol' as nthny said, i think it's almost absinthe-y in its vodka-alcohol driven herbal mint/lavender slap.
once this fades (which mercifully was quite quickly) i got full-on cocoa - not in a rich sickly chocolatey way, but in a dry, hot, bitter cocoa bean way - mixed with a coffee note that was more like an empty, dried-on espresso than the frappuccino described by other people here. perhaps its my skin chemistry (things rarely smell quite like they do on others when applied to myself) but this never became cloying-sweet, but remained hot-sweet-dry (i also really didnt get much, if any, vanilla), almost like standing near a candy-floss (cotton candy) machine, and there was a definate smoky edge to it (the 'tar' note perhaps?). the patchouli is the main prominent note to my nose, beyond the espresso-cocoa accord, and this weird-sounding combination is really quite lovely (although i do love patchouli, and i do love coffee houses!). the dry-down for me retained the patchouli, joined very nicely by the musk and the tonka, and only after several hours did the caramel sweetness become apparent.

this stuff is really WEIRD. i couldnt quite get my head around smelling like cocoa powder and old espresso and patchouli, like some kind of fat hippy. but i really and truly like it. will definately buy when i see it going cheap (i think i saw some for £35 for 100ml online!)