Reviews by silverdog

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    silverdog
    United Kingdom United Kingdom

    Showing 1 to 15 of 15.
    rating

    Dear John by B Never Too Busy Be Beautiful

    B Never Too Busy To Be Beautiful’s perfumer, Mark Constantine, clearly likes to spend some time hanging around the Comme des Garcons counter. This smells like a confusion of what CdG does really well – warm, deep, hearty spices and bright, zesty synthetics.

    It’s supposed to be coffee and lime, apparently. But that comes off as a rich, sweet clove accord with an enthusiastic, effervescent top note. It’s clearly synthetic, like a cinnamon sherbert latte in a plastic cup that’s been put through a Soda Stream. But that’s what makes it very good indeed.

    6th September, 2009.

    rating

    Dirty by B Never Too Busy Be Beautiful

    This is supposed to evoke the smell of a sexy, unwashed man. It doesn’t. It’s a cheap copy of Comme des Garcons’ Shiso with some toothpaste thrown in. Shame.

    6th September, 2009.

    rating

    Eau Sauvage by Christian Dior

    As a fey teenage boy in the early 80s, spritzing Drakkar Noir or Kouros with gay abandon, the notion of having to market a men’s fragrance as “savage water” seemed somehow archaic and faintly ludicrous to me. Eau Sauvage was worn by elder brothers, uncles, friends’ fathers; those with less of an interest in Soft Cell 12 inches and the cheap cosmetics counter at Woolworth’s. It was something from another age when men had to be overly assured of their masculinity before they dared do something as dubious as wear a fragrance. As a futurist, I eschewed it.

    I first came across a bottle that I could actually try for myself when I moved into a friend’s London flat in the early 90s. This was the Summer pied-a-terre of a rich West Indian family, a place now used less frequently as old Mr Barnard had passed away. The bottle remained at the back of a bathroom cabinet and when I dared to retrieve it and take a spray, it really felt like reaching into the past. I suppose it was imbued with what I knew of its 60s heritage, the grandeur of the wonderful residence I was using and the stories of old Mr Barnard, sitting it the St Lucian sunshine, sipping single malt whisky rather than cheap rum, attended by maids and nurses whilst commanding his empire of hotels, distilleries and banana plantations.

    At the time, I was unable to identify anything beyond the initial blast of rich lemon that faded into something poised, confident and, well, expensive smelling.

    Now, thanks to a prize draw from the completely lovely Katie Puckrick’s fragrance blog (http://www.katiepuckriksmells.com), I have my own bottle. Now, I can appreciate how the ghost of the lemon opening remains and hovers at the edges of a wonderfully balanced herbal, mossy, lightly floral combination. I can see how well it would have worked for Mr Barnard, out in the tropical sunshine, first cooling and refreshing and then underlining his position at the head of a dynasty.

    I still find the idea of “savage water” quite amusing, but now I understand how this thing works. It’s classically clever, handsomely confident and it really does provide the assurance of a fine life conducted with good taste. It’s a fragrance to aspire to.

    6th September, 2009.

    rating

    Bulgari Black by Bulgari

    Imagine a rugby-fresh public schoolboy in a rubber gimp mask and waders. Or Diana Dors languishing on the leather upholstery of an exhaust-chuffing E-Type Jag with a cup of tea and a fag…

    Somehow this manages to be big, blonde, sweet and buxom yet cruelly, elegantly, smokily svelte at the same time. It’s a vanilla ice cream at Brands Hatch; a cut-throat razor being sharpened on an old, dry barber’s strap. It’s wonderful.

    6th September, 2009.

    rating

    M; Men by Masakï Matsushïma

    This is excellent. Refined, clever, slightly strange but so, so wearable.

    It's dusty, musky citrus filtered through the mulch of hedgerows and laced with shitake mushrooms. Superb, Japanese elegance, like yesterday's Comme des Garcons shirt, left outside overnight.

    Or maybe like a big, cuddly Panda supplemented its usual diet of bamboo shoots with a cup of good quality tea and a nice, ripe grapefruit - and then burped. Or maybe not.

    3rd July, 2009.

    rating

    Mat; Male by Masakï Matsushïma

    I have to agree with a previous reviewer... After a couple of hours, the base of green, sappy wood - bamboo, I suppose - with some dusty, fruity florals hanging on in there, is really, really good.

    But the shrill opening, like an animated, brightly coloured confectionery counter, commandeered by some frightening ninja lychees and a samurai watermelon, attacking your olfactory organ with lots of sharp little citrus swords and badly-aimed berry nunchucks, is enjoyably strange but not particularly pleasant.

    3rd July, 2009.

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    Quorum by Antonio Puig

    What I love about this fragrance is that 'they' wouldn't dare launch it today. It's deep, dark and visceral and very 80s - a total 'power fragrance'.

    Like a Halston trouser suit on a butchered veal calf or an abortion in Don Johnson's spice rack, this is a scent of its time, its sleeves rolled up and its fingers on Reagan's Star Wars buttons. A whiplash in a pine forest, a cheap cigar in a plastic ashtray. Yum.






    26th April, 2009.

    rating

    H&M by Comme des Garçons

    Just what you'd expect from Comme des Garcons, really, but without the overt complexity.

    The lively, musty top notes are gone in an instant and you're left with a pretty straightforward sour, dry, synthetic wood. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. There's a warmth and a vague spiciness but I just can't locate any particular notes.

    A stale slice of mahogany Christmas cake, anyone?

    17th November, 2008.

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    Concerto by Fragonard

    Clean and fresh without soapiness, bright and citrusy with no sharp edges.

    ck One with the volume turned up.




    17th November, 2008.

    rating

    1 Million by Paco Rabanne

    A full fat liquorice milkshake... To me, it shares the cloying sweetness of Gaultier 2. Cheap and synthetic.

    16th November, 2008.

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    Terre d'Hermès by Hermès

    Not bad, but it would be so much better if it did have some real earthiness. The subtle, dusty floral notes are good but the citrus and pepper are far too sharp and shrill, and there doesn't seem to be enough wood to balance it all out. I guess I wanted it to be a bit deeper and dirtier.

    16th November, 2008.

    rating

    Nostalgia by Santa Maria Novella

    Amazing stuff! Like a rough kiss from a sweaty, unshaven mechanic whilst being pushed up against a pile of old tyres... *sigh*

    Actually, the 'pit-stop' opening dissipates rather speedily and you're left with a dry, subtle, synthetic leather and wood drydown that's eminently wearable.

    'Nostalgia' clearly refers to classic cars and it commemorates some famous race or other. I'm afraid I was a little distracted by the scent and scrabbling for my credit card as the lovely lady at the Santa Maria Novella Pharmacy in Florence told me the story.

    The wooden bottle cap is totally hideous but this is a beautifully clever fragrance. One of my all time favourites.

    16th November, 2008.

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    Tarnish by Demeter Fragrance Library

    Sweet, dirty metal. Like gummi bears, TCP and the rusty nails in an old packing crate at the far reaches of an unexplored, dusty attic. Fabulous.

    16th November, 2008.

    rating

    Knize Ten by Knize

    They don't make 'em like this anymore.

    I discovered this incomparable elixir of pure sex when my friend told Tania Sanchez how he was saving up to buy Cuir de Russie in a brief Facebook exchange. She responded with just six words: "Good but get Knize Ten instead."

    So we tracked it down (to a great online retailer - manufactum.com). And now it's leapfrogged Santa Maria Novella's Nostalgia and Bulgari Black to become my all time favourite.

    It's bright, powdery and soapy at first and then deep, dirty and deliciously animalic on the drydown. Complex and very classy.

    I love to imagine Marlene Dietrich wearing it at the height of he powers, swanning around the less salubrious bars of LA looking for wanton sapphic pleasure in a tuxedo, wishing she was back in Berlin or Vienna.

    Goodness! See what it can do...?!



    16th November, 2008.

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    Ginger Ale by Demeter Fragrance Library

    Unquestionably one of Demeter's very best. Unlike the rest of my fragrances, I keep my Demeter collection in the toilet. I love it when visitors emerge exclaiming that they've been transported by the smell of Thunderstorm or laughing that they've covered the smell of flatulence by turning my WC into a Funeral Parlour. But Gingerale is one of the few Demeter scents that's allowed a place in my fragrance 'wardrobe'.

    It's undoubtedly a faithful recreation of one of my favourite mixers but it's also completely wearable. It fizzes off your skin and into your nose; it's sweet and dry in all the right places; it zings with citrus and then settles into a wonderful spicy dryness. Mmmm.

    And like a naughty friend, it actively encourages me to drink whisky.

    16th November, 2008.

    Showing 1 to 15 of 15.

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