Fragrance Reviews by Hoos

Last night I sampled Lorenzo Villoresi's Dilmun. And I have a story. Pour yourself a nice little beverage, maybe a small plate of shortbread, pull up a chair by the hearth, and I'll tell you my tale of Dilmun:

It all starts as a lovely trip for Mom, Dad, Dexter, and Penny. Yes, they're taking a car trip on a beautiful morning that has a hint of orange blossom in the air.

Less than an hour out of town, Dexter exclaims, "Dad! Look! A cake factory! Can we stop? Pleeeeezzzzzeeeee?"

Now Penny loves cake and thinks the idea of touring a cake factory would be wonderful and they might even get samples! So, Penny chimes in "Come on Mom! That would be fun! Let's go!"

Mom and Dad benevolently smile knowingly at each other and Dad chucks little Dexter under the chin and says, "Sure, son. Let's tour the cake factory."

As they wend up the road leading to the Dilmun Cake Factory, a road lined with beautiful orange trees in blossom, a faint chemical smell reaches out to their nostrils. Nearly too faint too notice. Mom, ever vigilant over her family, says "Hmmm. Do you smell that honey? I'm kind of concerned."

Dad, tapping out his pipe and chortling ever so gently, says, "Honey, you worry too much. That's probably nothing."

So, Mom, Dad, Dexter, and Penny trundle up to the DCF and ask for a tour. The plant manager, Mr. Glower, looks at them with a bit of surprise. "Um," Mr. Glower emphatically states, "we usually don't give tours here."

Dexter pipes up, "But it's a cake factory! How can you not give tours?"

Mr. Glower looks our loving family up and down, debates a moment, and says, "Well, if you like, come on in."

Imagine our lovely family's surprise to be greeted by aisle upon aisle of shelves packed ceiling to floor with cakes! And not just any old cake, either!

Urinal cakes! On a hot day in a huge storage room with no venting.

Yes, our little family quickly went from a pleasant day scented by a breeze tinged with orange blossom to standing inside a hot, airless room filled with nothing but urinal cakes. Cakes whose power of scentification seemed to grow by magnitudes of 10 as each second ticked by.

The family fled with noses held and feet a-flying. But they could not escape the smell. They dived for the car. Dad sped (Dad never drove like that before!) all the way home.

They took three showers and still they smelled of urinal cakes. Mom thought a nice alcohol bath might help. Alas, Mom was wrong. Dad, thinking through the horrid predicament as only a Dad could, said "Clorox Wipes! That'll do it!" Alas, Dad was wrong too. Even subsequent showers with a nice bar of Lava Soap did nothing for the clingy-sweet stink of the Dilmun Cake Factory.

Much like the emanations from a frightened skunk, the scent from the Dilmun Cake Factory was not to be trifled with. It was an event to be lived through. Even, if you will, suffer through.

So, gentle reader, the next spring morning that you step from your house, notice a lovely scent of orange blossom, and think it would be a wonderful day for a family outing. Just remember: it would be, but it would be nicer if you avoided the Dilmun Cake Factory tour.


This conflagration of fragrance is officially worse than Michael for Men simply because of its unholy tenacity. It gets no stars and a thumbs down.

I'm a fan of PdN's line of colognes. After that experience and the raves about New York, I thought for sure this would be a winner.

It's not. New York is pretty much like every other department store frag out there. Combined in one scent.

Think of the last time you were in a room of older women at a semi-formal/formal event.

That scent is New York.

It's not bad, it's not awful, it has quality ingredients. It just isnt' distinguished.

One thing I'll say about the Villoresi line - it's not the same on everyone. Which can be fine.

I tried the Vetiver today. Initially, it was great: vetiver and neroli and sage and sandalwood and spice all nicely mixed and all playing together beautifully.

Alas, the drydown on me was all lavender in the sillage (against the skin, it still had the same fantastic beauty as the start did). But the lavender sillage just made me nuts. It's a very nice lavender. It's just not a scent I like on me.

While this is another Villoresi I won't be buying, it is beautiful and well done. Five LV samples down, 11 to go.

L'Eau de Hesperides seems aptly named, as there are three distinct notes to this scent: orange/citrus, celery, and floral notes.

The scent bursts out in a wonderful juicy, orange fragrance that quickly disappears. But it reappears periodically throughout the life of the fragrance - very lightly and very fleeting.

Next, most notable, interesting, and bothersome is celery. Perhaps celery salt, as there is a note of saltiness to it. But it's strong and long-lasting. This is the predominant note throughout the life of this fragrance. Which is why it's bothersome. The celery scent could have been toned down a little.

A couple of hours into it, though, a truly "floral" note becomes noticeable. It's not sweet, it's not "a" flower, but it's floral. Floral in the way that a bouquet of flowers can scent a room - not in the sense of sticking your nose into the bouquet. It's interesting and is a floral I would love to wear. But it seems to be overwhelmed by the celery.

The best way of describing this is being a in a field of predominantly Queen Anne's Lace and with patches of wild flowers.

The scent is beautifully made, interesting, and lively. It will take a second testing to see if this is bottle-worthy. It may not be a scent for me, but it is beautiful.

Wow! I'm 9 years old again and sitting in the barberchair at Bill's Barbershop. He's just finished my buzz cut, unwrapped the paper collar, and swept the hair off my neck.

This is without any doubt whatsoever what I think of when people say "barbershop smell".

I don't care what ingredients are in this or what the notes are supposed to be, all I get is powder (maybe a scented talc, but definitely not baby powder), clean, some sweetness, and dry hair.

Not bad at all, complex, surprisingly good sillage. But not one for me. I really don't need to go back to Bill's Barbershop too often.

The vanilla is what hits me first in this. And it's too heavy, too much, too long.

A rinse off of cold water (no soap) toned down the vanilla considerably. The scent then really bloomed into a very sparkling scent that I enjoyed. That was tempered with a light note of cocoa - without being dusty. Once the vanilla is killed off, HM is really very nice.

HM has sillage, projection, and staying power. This would be a good formal evening scent. Start with a light application.

Just more or less a mess.

Strongly reminiscent of Lysol Bathroom Cleaner. The beginning of the middle cleans up a little bit and has a pleasant citrus.

But the sandalwood fights the cedar.
The amber fights the musk.
Amongst them all there's no clear leader.
Just a mess of fragrance lasting until dusk.

Les Nuits d'Hadrien was a let down for me.

Over several wearings, it just seemed to be a confused, unfinished fragrance with a lot of projection.

The patchouli overwhelms the citrus and there's a nagging cumin in the background silently screaming for attention, yet getting none. On my skin, it's a heavy fragrance that I consider feminine. Not sure why, but it does. More of a combination of hairspray and patchouli - something the "society ladies" of the little farm town I grew up in would wear.

Color me confused. Goutal gets a lot of high praise for Eau d'Hadrien,.

I don't get it with this one. Over several wearings of increasingly heavier applications, Eau d'Hadrien barely lasts an hour on my skin.

The initial blast of citrus is great: lemon without being furniture polish and a hint of green.

Then it's just kind of a confused, muddy citrus (not in a Terre d'Hermes way). Unfortunately it doesn't last long enough on my skin to create a solid enough impression one way or the other or to even ascertain the artistry of the scent. It's just a neutral.

PdN's colognes are really beautiful. Their Cologne Nature was my first purchase and found it to be a very beautiful scent. So, I had to try the Sologne.

During the first couple of hours, it smelled just like 4711 on my skin. I spent a good bit of that time wondering why I wasted $XXX on Sologne when I had 400ml of 4711 in the cupboard. Well, that was a waste of two hours!

Suddenly, this beautiful, full, dusky rose blooms. It's really an amazing note. But this seems to be an unusual thing. Most users report a middle of beautiful neroli. But, on me, the rose is just undeniable and it's a "full" scent - nothing thin, or flimsy about it.

Sologne has decent sillage and a little bit of projection.

Not an every day scent but a nice addition to any summer wardrobe. I don't consider it a "must have" and I feel fairly close to a neutral vote on it. But I will give it a thumb's up because the artistry of Sologne is very clearly evident.

Sens et Bois is a wonderful, quiet, surprise.

Pepper, cedar, the occasional fleeting note of violet: all come together quite beautifully in this EdP.

The initial note of pepper (recognizable but not sneeze-inducing) tickles your nose. Within a few minutes, the warm red cedar makes an appearance. Other cedar scents I've tried cause heartburn. Not with this. This is like opening a handcrafted heirloom cedar chest: dry and bright and clean. But light and not overpowering.

The cedar and pepper meld beautifully into a clean, close fragrance. This is a perfect intimate scent: it plays very close to the skin with minimal sillage.

Then, just when you think that's all there is to Sens et Bois, it delivers a beautiful fleeting note ("where did that come from?") of violet highlighted by a simple incense note. Almost like a ghost. Nothing smoky or really floral - slightly more than a suggestion of violet and incense that make periodic repeat performances throughout the day.

This is truly an elegantly crafted scent.

Fresco di Vetiver is very nice. As others have noted, it's an especially well-done blend of citrus and vetiver. The citrus hangs around for about an hour before blending into a really nice, bright vetiver that really smells fresh green to me. There's a hint of earthiness to it that keeps it stable and substantial (without being heavy or cloying).

It brings to mind being in a huge field of grass on a warm day in early spring: the sun's shining, the dew is gone, there's a nice breeze, blue skies, and a stand of oaks off in the distance (just to the right, up that way).

Sillage on FdiV is very good. Projection is decent. It's not a power frag, but it holds its own. Longevity is great: 8+ hours. iPdiF has done a nice job with this fragrance.

A great bottle design doesn't make up for this mess.

M4M is trying to be too many things in a chemical factory kind of way. It actually smells like a chemical factory has exploded in the bathroom when applied.

It has no unifying note, no one note even comes across clearly, they all come across at once. There is neither accord nor artistry to this fragrance. It's like a Sex Pistols concert (when you're sober): screamingly loud, deafening to the nose, and irritating to the brain.

Alas, there's nothing less than one star, so that's what this gets.

To my nose, CF Gentlemen’s Cologne just has too much going on – it seems to want to be all things. It’s not muddy or unpleasant. But it’s not unified or harmonious, either.

The topnotes are definitely citrus (I get bergamot and neroli; maybe some petitgrain – kind of a greenishness to the citrus). The citrus notes last for about an hour and fades down into a green middle. Oakmoss and some lavender, but a “piney” kind of lavender.

There are still notes of citrus for a fairly pleasant chypre. But it’s not an elegant chypre. It kind of bounces around the middle notes – sometimes more green/mossy than floral; other times it’s more floral. There were a couple of times that it smelled like a very feminine floral.

The drydown. Oh my the drydown. After about six hours of the middle notes, the drydown comes across as spicy/woody. It seems to go back and forth between cedar and cinnamon. I will say that the cedar in this frag is excellent. The few times I get a whiff of it. For much of the drydown, it has been mostly cinnamon and maybe cardamom.

Sillage is good – there’s a potency to it that’s not overpowering. An application to the wrists/hands has been plenty. It doesn’t have heavy projection, so it’s not bugging the folks down the hall.

The thing about this fragrance, for me, is that there’s just too much going on. I am not partial to one-note fragrances, but I don’t enjoy things this complex.

Overall, the individual notes in this frag are excellent. It creates ambivalence in me: I like the individual notes tremendously, yet am neither overwhelmed nor impressed by how they play together. It plays more like an orchestra at an early, partially-hungover rehearsal than an orchestral performance led by a maestro. Maybe that’s it! There seems to be no maestro to this concoction.

After trying a number of "citrus" fragrances in search of a refreshing lime scent that had a life longer than ten minutes, I did a blind buy of Agrumi di Sicilia.

The initial notes are strong (lime, grapefruit, and a hint of pepper) and fade to a manageable, fresh citrus in a few minutes. The lime/citrus scent lasts for a couple of hours on the skin and dries down to a woodsy floral that's very nice. It's reminiscent of Acqua di Parma Colonia with a little shaprness to it. The entire life of this fragrance smells natural and is very pleasant.

If you prefer to keep the lime/citrus, those top notes of Agrumi di Sicilia will last all day if applied to clothing.

Sillage is decent: you won't announce yourself by walking into a room, but it doesn't stay right next to the skin either.

Overall, I find this an excellent citrus fragrance with some life. For spring and summer, it's definitely one of the top two in my wardrobe.