Fragrance Reviews by Big_Scooter

Ah! I love this stuff. Starts off with bracing lavender and a bit of some sort of charred wood that I'm too green to identify. Maybe cedar. The lavender slowly loses it's edge, and some herbs push the charred wood to the back. It stays as lavender with herbs for perhaps 30 minutes (but sometimes it seems to get stuck here on me for hours, much to my annoyance).

I get varied results at this point depending on the day. On the days that it gets stuck in lavender mode like I mentioned a second ago, I don't get much vanilla out of it, and it stays as a warm, round lavender for ages. On the days that the lavender lets up a bit, vanilla with a bit of cinnamon come forward and make themselves known.

On it's good days, it is my favorite fragrance. When the lavender refuses to give way, it becomes a little tiresome and boring. Time to toss the dice!

This is a nice one. The majority is correct: boozy, woodsy, and sweet. One thing I certainly didn't get from the other reviews is just how mellow of a scent this is. With boozy and sweet in practically every review, I was half expecting it to smell like I poured vanilla rum all over myself. It is a very balanced scent, with none of the characteristics being overly dominant. It is hard for me to imagine someone who would have a strong negative reaction to this, and it is equally hard for me to conjure up a situation in my mind in which this scent would be inappropriate. Warm, comforting, mellow, refined, and just straight pleasant.

I may be the only one to mention this (didn't read all the reviews) but to my nose, it bears some resemblance to l'anarchiste by Caron, but with everything toned way down. There is no metal, blood, or oranges. The spices and woods are what I find to be similar, but the edge has been taken off. The spices are toned WAY down, I should add.

A hearty thumbs up!

Mmm... powdery eggnog.

This is certainly a wacky one. A bit painful for the first few seconds until it gets itself organized. I think I read a few reviews which mention dizziness and nausea, and this is no surprise to me. It becomes more "user-friendly" very quickly though. Sweet, powdery, spicy, and a bit dark to my nose.

They aren't lying about the nutmeg. If you want to smell like nutmeg, then you should probably get a bottle. I find, to my great surprise, that I do in fact want to smell like nutmeg. Who knew.

This might be a good oriental to try for people who do not do well with vanilla. I really wanted a sweet fragrance, but vanilla always seems too candy-like on me. As it stands, this is my favorite sweet fragrance.

I have an unfortunate olfactory association with Jazz. I think it has something to do with how the spices were handled, and how they mix with a sort of acidic kick that comes from god knows where.

Have you ever smelled an old metal rail? A sort of acrid, spicy scent mingles with the tangy metal smell after years of use. This is what Jazz smells like to me. Perhaps if I could disentangle the notes better I could free myself from the association, but as it stands now, Jazz is wholly unusable for me. I really wanted to like this one. Darn.

Neutral rating because my bad association shouldn't scare others from trying it. Unless, of course, you were beaten with an old metal railing as a child, in which case this scent might cost you thousands in therapy.

I ordered a sample of Paco Rabanne Pour Homme and received this by mistake. Imagine my surprise. I expected rich fougere, and found synthetic citrus. It sort of reminded me of Live Jazz, with anything remotely interesting taken out of it. My first thumbs down.

I can appreciate this scent as imaginative, intriguing, and complex but as far as personal fragrances are concerned, I think one would be better suited by hanging 4-5 of those pine tree shaped air fresheners around your neck.

This is a beautiful refinement of the smell of a urinal cake, and if that is what YSL was trying for it was a remarkable success. Kouros gets a neutral rating for being of excellent quality, but having no real use as a personal fragrance. IMHO.

This was my very first blind buy, and it was a great candidate for it. A very inoffensive frag, dominated by grapefruit (definitely grapefruit to my nose, not lemon) and mint, as many have said. A cool, fruity, happy fragrance, perfect for daily wear in the summer months. This is the ideal college fragrance, in my opinion. It goes perfectly with jeans and a t-shirt, as it displays not a hint of arrogance or entitlement. Wear it with muted but happy colors, such as light blue, sea green, and white. If I feel like putting on a fragrance for a walk outside in jean shorts and a tank top, this is what is instantly reached for.

L'Anarchiste is interesting, to say the least. It is definitely a deviation from the norm of the fragrance world, and with that in view it is aptly named. Aside from that, I don't see much about it that would offend the average nose, which I would have expected from something given this name. I get the whole "orange, mint, metal, and blood" associations everyone is raving about, but it still seems... well... pleasant.

It is a great fragrance, though not for everyone. I view it as more of a winter fragrance, though many disagree with me. It has a sort of heavy, spicy, boozy quality on me that can get cloying in the summertime. I still wear it in the summer months, though. Just a very light application.