Reviews by itsthepens

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    itsthepens
    United Kingdom United Kingdom

    Showing 1 to 19 of 19.
    rating

    Bleu de Chanel by Chanel

    Oh well, at least i know what the locker room of my gym will smell like for the next few years.

    This is VERY generic-sporty-fresh-masculine at first sniff, grapefruit/lemon (albeit not too synthetic, listed notes are grapefruit and lemon trees, and there is a sort of leafy quality to the citrus) with a sort-of lavender, but not an old-school barbershop accord - instead this is insistently modern, but deeply uninspired.

    It softens through some vague ginger, a faint pink pepper spice and a cool peppermint note which comes and goes, never too distinct or loud but it's an interesting, faithful peppermint.

    As it progresses there comes a solid, uninteresting but nicely constructed woody base (some cedar with some sandalwood, neither too dry nor too soft and smooth), maybe there was a faint soapy vetiver before the woods if i'm being generous. ultimately though this a pretty well blended, nicely constructed, modern-sporty-masculine by numbers effort. more Boss than chanel really.

    there is nothing wrong with this, at all. but i wouldn't wear it if it was free.

    16th August, 2010.

    rating

    Tobacco Vanille by Tom Ford

    as others have said, very linear tobacco and vanilla! but VERY well done. the tobacco note is absolutely divine, and the vanilla is a perfect bedfellow, blending almost seamlessly with it. a dried fruit note is also in the mix, somewhere between cherries and figs and prunes, it has been said that this smells like cherry pipe tobacco and that's very true - but there is no smokiness - this is warm, moist, unsmoked cherry tobacco.

    beautifully recreated notes, masculine yet warm and sweet, enduring (19-20 hours) and great sillage, if you love it on first sniff (like i did) then that's all you need to know.

    16th May, 2009.

    rating

    Tuscan Leather by Tom Ford

    my first impression was of how accurate the leather note is - i've owned countless leather jackets, and this is the smell of a really good new one left on a car rear window in the sun. warm, soft, and... well, very leathery. there's also a cumin note, not at all funky/stinky/sweat cumin but a rounded, deep, mellow cumin/saffron accord (the saffron is quite quietly done) which complements the leather wonderfully - beautiful, warm supple leatheriness.

    as for the cocaine note, i don't think it's nearly as prominent as others have made out, but after a few minutes there is a slight alkaline fruity saltiness, very much floating above the leather accord rather than blended with it. i actually really like this aspect of it, and indeed the fragrance in general. i suspect that the 'cocaine' note comes from the raspberry note interacting with something elsei can't identify. it's a very linear scent, but the notes are truly fabulous so this really isnt an issue for me. towards the base there's a slightly ambery element, and what to me smells like crushed dried bay leaves.

    It's unabashedly masculine, yet very gentle, and the lasting power is fantastic - i tried it alongside the also great Tobacco Vanille, and it even outlasted that on my skin - pushing 24 hours. Sillage is also very good. I need this in my life.

    16th May, 2009.

    rating

    Original Santal by Creed

    the opening i found surprisingly herbal (the corriander i assume), the light cinamon lending a not unpleasant twist to a fairly mature-feeling top accord. this settled, via some more herbal aromatic-ness (the lavender and rosemary i'm guessing, though neither seemed prominent to me) through a soft fruity middle, i suspected it was apricot but i believe this might be the impression given by the mandarin/orange wood/benzoin accord, the citrus softened and blurred by the baked vanilla note which i am assuming is the benzoin at work. the sandalwood is there to me (although it seems not to others), and it's warm and smooth and very well-blended feeling, with the vanilla character coming through more with time.

    overall, fairly pleasant. not agressively gourmand, it doesn't shout and i think it could easily be worn in an office environment, although it's by equal measure quite casual and relaxed. however i found it a bit on the dull side, and at Creed prices i wouldn't accept dullness.

    16th May, 2009.

    rating

    Gucci pour Homme by Gucci

    many times this has been compared to Commes des Garcons 2MAN, and i think that's fair.

    To me, this is the slightly classier, less incensey cousin. They have the same arid, smoky, super-cedary shaved-pencils dryness, but the spicy opening here is simpler, all about the pink bay (i have no idea how this differs from ordinary bay, smells like bay to me) and the hot, prickly pepper with warm cinamon and i think possibly a nutmeg or mace note.

    i have been debating for god knows how long whether to get this, as I already have cdg2man. i think i probably will though, i think they are different enough to warrant owning both - IF you really like spiky spices and hot, baked dryness and smoky cedar wood. which i do.

    16th May, 2009.

    rating

    Envy for Men by Gucci

    by no means a bad fragrance, there's a lot of notes here that i love. unfortunately the execution very quickly becomes jarring - whilst the notes dont clash, they certainly arent in harmony and this is a little tiring on the nose for me to enjoy it.
    the drydown is very pleasant and a lot calmer, but equally it's quite generic and uninspiring.

    16th May, 2009.

    rating

    Mugler Cologne by Thierry Mugler

    fairly non-descript really, i can see what this is meant to be 'the cologne for people who don't like fragrance'. very clean and soapy (i suspect the 's' ingredient is ACTUAL soap...), there's a very mild vetiver character to it and a bland non-descript citrus aura. a couple of hours in a surprisingly floral heart was in full flight, although still in the vein of clean/fresh/soapiness.

    i'd love this as laundry detergent, but that's about it.

    16th May, 2009.

    rating

    White Patchouli by Tom Ford

    the bottle is indeed gorgeous.

    i got a noticeably medicinal, yet very pleasant opening, which softly morphed into a patchouli/floral accord which persisted for some time, after a couple of hours a fresh-pencil-shaving woodiness asserted itself with the patchouli still present, and a very lightly incensey note.

    as has been noted by others, it opens quite dramatically but is overall fairly subtle, present but chich - which i guess was very much the point of this fragrance.

    very unisex, very stylish, very nice.

    20th March, 2009.

    rating

    Encens Flamboyant by Annick Goutal

    this one is confusing to me. the incense was there from the get-go, and is a wonderfully true incense, mellow and soft and evocative, and there was a slightly peppery note which didnt last long. after that however it became 'elderly' on my skin, with an unimpressive flowery-piney-soapy character - i wouldnt mind owning soap smelling of this, and indeed maybe incense or a candle, but the incense/old soapy character was peculiar. i don't know who this would suit - it certainly is flamboyant, but in a way that aging drama teachers can be - like old velvet jackets and lavender soap. the sillage is very good for the first couple of hours, but it did fade to not-muchness after about three.

    23rd January, 2009.

    rating

    Duel by Annick Goutal

    tried this the other day and.... meh. i was informed of it's 'all natural' pedigree by the SA, which did nothing but prepare me for the shocking longevity - i big spray to the back of my hand was gone in no more than two hours, and severely diminished after one. at first it smelt like lemony wood, like lemon furniture polish on old, varnished wood. i was actually reminded of the shiny, cracked-varnish wood of the benches in the school gymnasium when i was very young. it's very inoffensive really, light, old-style freshness, but i couldnt possibly recommend it, on any grounds. as for tea - there is a mellowness to the scent which is similar to that of of tea, but to me it was just old timber and polish. blah.

    23rd January, 2009.

    rating

    Hugo Energise by Hugo Boss

    the opening is sweet, tangy mandarin, quite synthetic – think the flavour of canned mandarin segments. There's also a light, vaguely soapy herbal note – fresh corriander (cilantro) to me, and a hint of what could be pepper – but it's not a rounded pepper with any true depth, more of a soft, unnatural, light pepper. The pyramid lists pink pepper, which I believe isnt actually a pepper in the same sense as black/white pepper, but a similar hardy berry.
    The overall impression is an exotic-fruity-herbal synthetic accord, with a hint of sucked-penny metallic-ness. The heart has a faint touch of florals, but it's very 'cheap smelling', and then it dissapears altogether. No discernible base, let alone anything resembling a cocoa bean.
    The sillage is pretty good, but the fragrance itself is very unimaginative and 'generic'. And the longevity is feeble.

    16th January, 2009.

    rating

    Chic for Men by Carolina Herrera

    The topnotes present bergamot, but light, fresh and soft, spiced by cardamom – piquant, dry and aromatic, this accord is almost salty.
    Watermelon underscores this with rounded, lightly sweet, melon-freshness with the faintest spice (other than the cardamom) detectable after a couple of minutes, faint notes of black pepper warm the cardamom further. It's not listed, but I get a pear note, perhaps its the citrus/melon/cardamom combo fooling me.
    Pleasant combination between the soft bergamot, clean, wistful watermelon and warming, cardamom-dominated spice. The effect is gently bracing, if that makes sense – masculine but soothing, delicately invigorating. It gives a somewhat creamy impression and as it softens into the heart there is a very faithful pipe tobacco which announces iself briefly then dissapears into the very light suede of the heart. The base is where I start to dislike this fragrance, it has the sweetened metallic-vanillic-sandalwood, synthetic and soft, that 212 has – but unlike 212, here it doesn't quite 'relax' on my skin for a few hours, until after about 6 hours all that is left is the musk and sandalwood, whereupon I love it. Like-Like-Not sure-Love. Hence the neutral rating.

    16th January, 2009.

    rating

    Very Irrésistible for Men by Givenchy

    the initial waft of mint seems to ride the subtle waxiness of the grapefruit peel note straight into the hazlenutty mocha. whilst this manages to not smell entirely cacophonous and clashing, it is really rather synthetic in feel, and can be just a little 'vomitty' to me. i also don't really enjoy gourmands, and whilst this isnt viciously sweet, the chocolate note is too much like a chocolate bar left in the warm sun. yuck.

    as has been previously mentioned, the head and heart notes of this do indeed seem to arrive all at once, but then within ten minutes all that is left on my skin, and indeed it remains almost exactly the same for hours after, is a very pleasant generic accord, masculine and synthetic and lightly woody, with a very faithful light pine, like your fingers after you carry a christmas tree, and perhaps the faintest (very very faint) of anise/herbal notes, like cold dill.
    the nutty mocha element is still vaguely present too at times, but ultimately i have to ask myself: do I want to smell like somebody spilt a Starbucks on the wooden top of the fragrance counter?

    i'll be honest, i've smelt FAR worse. at first interesting but sickly and dischordant, afterwards a fairly superlative generic.
    very irresistible? i can manage...

    14th January, 2009.

    rating

    Terre d'Hermès by Hermès

    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.

    9th July, 2008.

    rating

    Armani Attitude by Giorgio Armani

    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.....

    15th June, 2008.

    rating

    Ultraviolet Man by Paco Rabanne

    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.

    12nd June, 2008.

    rating

    Le Dandy by D'Orsay

    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.

    10th June, 2008.

    rating

    L'Anarchiste by Caron

    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.

    10th June, 2008.

    rating

    A*Men / Angel Men by Thierry Mugler

    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!)

    10th June, 2008.

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