Fragrance Reviews by bluesoul

This stuff is great. I got a spray on paper yesterday at Sephora and decided to leave with a 1mL sample spray of the stuff. Wore three sprays, one to the neck, one to the belly, one to the back of the wrist. The four notes that are standing out the most to me are lemon, incense, sandalwood and maybe vetiver? Initially it's a bright, orange and sandalwood-laden scent that's a little too fresh for me. When it dries down, though, you get the most wonderful incense note, deep and smoky, sweet without being cloying. This interacts with the lush sandalwood wonderfully and you get what I find to be a unique incense. Combined with heat from the body you get a marvelous drydown, one of my favorites to date.

Sillage is fair to good, I did get a comment on it at work today. Longevity is good so far as I'm seven and a half hours into wearing it and most of the magic is still there.

What it reminds me of, and the SA agreed, was Terre d'Hermes, only a little stronger, deeper and maybe a bit sweeter in different ways. Where TdH has a note that conjures up images of a mouth-puckering sour lemon, Dunhill Pursuit offers oranges at an incense-smelling church. I like it, I like it more than TdH honestly.

This was the first Dunhill fragrance I've tried and I'm impressed thus far. Dunhill Pursuit is now on my buy list. :D

A sad truth in the fragrance world is that the public, by and large, has awful taste. Mainstream garbage like Acqua di Gio is regurgitated endlessly by the media, the marketing teams, and the public itself. What I’m getting at, eventually, is while AdG will probably be selling well into my twilight years, you can not find Aramis Havana in any retail store. Not in North America anyway, if you want it you’ll have to do a bit of traveling, to South Africa or one of the other handful of countries that still receive it. Or, you can pay a premium on eBay or one of the fragrance retail websites, upwards of $80 an ounce on average, which is higher than many niche label fragrances.

So when I was posed the offer to buy about 1.5 oz of the stuff for well below market price, I couldn’t really pass it up. Thank God I didn’t. Part of the reason I was initially interested in the stuff is it had a lot of notes I liked by themselves. Then again, it has a ton of notes, the most I’ve encountered in a fragrance. Havana features top notes of Coriander Seed, Anise, Birch Tar, Juniper Berry, Tangerine, Grapefruit, and Orange, middle notes of Bay Rum, Cumin, Jamaican Pimento Berry, Pepper, Jasmine, and Hyacinth, and all of that is sitting on a prominent woody base of Tobacco, Patchouli, Cedarwood, Myrhh, Labdanum, Oilbanum, Tonka bean, Vanilla, and some other assorted exotic ouds. So there’ll be pretty much something in there you’ll like.

If you’re spraying from an existing bottle, the sprayer has a sort of spicy, even pungent aroma, which should give you a fair indication as you prepare to wear it that this is going to be something well off the beaten path. The initial blast is almost entirely drowned out by a pronounced cumin note that evaporates in about 30 seconds to a minute, or at least takes a back seat to one of the most unique, riotous, magnificent dry-downs you’ll ever find in a fragrance. Notes jostle for supremacy, and if you have the chance to wear this without distractions you’ll find yourself engrossed in the play of the different elements; Havana doesn’t actually settle down for 2 or 3 hours, and during that time you’ll encounter the full spectrum of what Havana has to offer. What you’re left with at that settling point is a scent led by the tobacco and patchouli notes, with plenty of woods behind it (I don’t detect the cedar so much as I detect medium to heavier woods in general; I think the spices mask it a bit as I rather like cedar-based fragrances). Behind all that is a sparkling boozy accord which I’m pegging as the rum and pepper notes working together. In my initial review of Havana I compared it to a cross between Quorum and Chanel Platinum Egoiste, minus the jasmine and carnation notes. At this point I don’t believe that anymore, it’s a composition unique in it’s own right. It’s honestly a lot of stuff going on, and words don’t do this one justice.

Let me put it this way. I’m currently sitting at 19 different bottles. If I’m completely honest with myself, if I’m narrowing my wardrobe down to 3, it’s in there. If I’m narrowing it down to 2, it’s in there. If I’m narrowing 19 down to 1…Havana’s going to be the one I keep. I may rage and curse over the decision (who? me?) and thankfully I don’t see myself having to actually be forced to just have one fragrance, but the more I thought about it, the more I realize there’s really no contest. So many people are wearing the same thing, even stuff like Terre d’Hermes and (egads) A*Men is becoming popular in the mainstream. It’s a pretty safe bet, though, that I will be the only one in Paducah wearing Havana on any given day.

Unfortunately, finding it, as I indicated, is a pain in the butt. Even the usual suspects like The Perfumed Court don’t have it, instead carrying the slightly more common, slightly different Havana Reserva. Even that’s gonna run you $8 for 1mL, which is by my math $240 an ounce. Buying it in a half-ounce bottle on there will still run you $119. Don’t despair though, it is fairly common on eBay, and not one that’s subject to counterfeiting. You can also find it for sale on Basenotes at the rate of about 2 bottles a month. Maybe you’ll luck into one like I did.

If you see fragrance as anything more than a casual fling, you owe it to yourself to try this stuff.

Wore this stuff out of a sample atomizer today at work, and I couldn’t quite place what I was smelling right at first, though it was hitting me right in the face. It occured to me later that it is in fact a gourmand along the lines of A*Men, or possibly Armani Code. Where it differs from those two is the addition of citrus overtones, and some woods in the base make this an amazingly complex fragrance, especially for a gourmand. Think a toned down Gucci 1 or M7 without the bite, and the lush chocolate-vanilla notes of A*Men, and add the tiniest splash of Clinique Happy’s sweet orange notes, and you’re getting close to Hanae Mori HM. Very sophisticated, very classy for what it is.

Still, while I’ve got both A*Men and Code in my wardrobe, I really can’t be bothered to buy another gourmand, even one as nice as this. When I run out, though, it’s a whole different story. If you don’t have a gourmand in your lineup I recommend this sincerely.

Let me say before I go any further that I remain steadfastly neutral with regards to celebrity perfumes. I think equating a complex fragrance with many ingredients to one particular person is pretty much dumb. I own Sean John Unforgivable on the merits of it being an excellent fragrance, and honestly don’t give a damn if it was made for Sean Combs or Sean Connery.

Gratuitously lifting the notes from K over at Now Smell This, Usher He features pineapple, verbena, melon, white pepper, lavender, violet leaf, vetiver, amber wood, black suede, sandalwood, guaiac wood and musk. Upon applying, all I could smell was slightly overripe melon a la Paris Hilton for Men. The drydown was a chemical mess, but I got a little glimmer of where they were trying to take this, and that was to copy Creed Himalaya. Of course, I’m not against this; Unforgivable is virtually identical to Creed Millesime Imperial and I have no problem wearing it (and saving mad bank, to boot). The problem is that they didn’t put the effort into the copy that Sean John did. I get the pepper, and the vetiver/musk duo, but that’s really all that I can pick out, everything else is just a blob of scent.

Color me unimpressed.

I have a confession to make. I like women’s perfume. Well, just one. Dolce & Gabanna Light Blue Pour Femme. Of course, they also make a Pour Homme version, but it’s a bunch of crap. The women’s version is definitely unisex, damn whatever their marketing department says.

I was considering buying it. That is, buy a women’s perfume for myself. Thanks to Versace Man Eau Fraiche I won’t have to because it’s the same stuff in a different bottle.

Why am I finding myself commenting on blatant rips as of late? That aside, the stuff really is good as a fresh scent, which I’m normally bored to tears over. It’s clean, slightly fruity with melon, citrus, and berry notes throughout, set on a base of amber and musk. I’d almost say there’s some light woods in there, but if there are it’s not a main part of the composition. That said, those top notes are present throughout, even when you’d rather they go away.

Sillage is good, longevity is fair to good, I get about the standard 6 hours and then it’s faded to something pretty much unrecognizable. Still, if fresh scents are your thing and you want one that’s…*cough* unique, check this one out.