Fragrance Reviews by Ronberge

Sweetly sophisticated and refined vetiver fragrance that has a definite daintiness to it, very upperclass.
It does without the rubber/tobacco of the Guerlain Vetiver and the soapiness of the Creed OV.
Can be easily worn by both sexes IMO.
To paraphrase something I read; if Guerlain is the gardener then the lord of the estate is definitely Givenchy.
Reasonably priced but not easy to find - well worth a try.
4.5/5 stars

The good: A simple straightforward vetiver, clean smell with an oily note in there at a very low price (got mine 7.99$).
The bad: Longevity about the same as this review.
3.75/5 stars

I think a good perfume is one you forget you wear after a while seeing that it blends with your skin’s chemistry, becoming one with you; kinda like the dark side of the force. This is the case with me with Lalique Encre Noire.
Vétiver is strong in this one (It’s the main theme- two vétivers bourbon and Haiti - no secret here) but unlike the 'soapy' ones or the 'green' ones on the market this one is ‘dark and smoky.’ I sense a medicinal aroma that I'm hard pressed to identify...Also I detect a trace of fruitiness at times. To say I have grown fond of it would do it injustice.
This is easily one of the most intriguing smells I've come across in a long, long time. The adjective that comes to my mind is 'Mysterious'. To better illustrate, and make my review more interesting and longer than necessary, allow me to cut and paste some synonyms for the word ‘mysterious’: abstruse, alchemistic, arcane, astrological, baffling, cabalistic, covert, cryptic, curious, dark, difficult, enigmatic, enigmatical, equivocal, esoteric, furtive, hidden, impenetrable, incomprehensible, inexplicable, inscrutable, insoluble, magical, mystical, mystifying, necromantic, obscure, occult, oracular, perplexing, puzzling, recondite, secretive, sphinxlike, spiritual, strange, subjective, symbolic, transcendental, uncanny, unfathomable, unknowable, unknown, unnatural, veiled, weird . Get it?
For me this isn’t a sexy perfume – It isn’t surrounded by an intrinsic field that has the sole property of attracting the opposite sex – No this one is more of a personal statement, the unapologetic kind, it’s definitely a presence fragrance. It's like saying: 'I am here and this is me; remember who I am!' Nope, not for everyone.
If you like it at first, chances are you’ll end up loving it. If you end up loving it you may never get enough of it. I like to think of this one as the Darth Vader of fragrances - at least the ones I've tried. ‘Beware of the dark side… If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny; consume you it will, as it did me.’
A bit pricey but one of the best out there!
On a lighter note, as the name suggests, I feel it’s perfect for the aspiring (if not to say the perspiring) writer.
5/5 stars

As I searched for a replacement for defunct Dunhill Edition I came across a review somewhere that stated this fragrance had 'the same idea but executed far better'. Naturally I had to try this!
Fortunately my local Perfume shop at the Rockland centre had it.
What can I say : Lemon (lots and lots of it!), spice, anis and musk.
Could be vulgar, but it isn't.
If D.E. is the self-assured urban British gentleman of the power-hungry corporate eighties, Loewe pour homme is the Spanish aristocrat that becomes the matador whenever the need arises.
This one I consider a sexy smell on account of the 'animal factor' in the juice. I'll admit I find it off putting at times (call me prudish) but I always get over it quickly.
A unique fragrance to say the least, very hard to find here in Canada. Best for day wear IMO.
BTW the juice is light green, not yellow, unlike in the picture shown here.
4.5/5 stars

It was 1988, I went into a Dunhill of London store (we had one back then in Montreal) after learning in a Fleming novel that James Bond wore Dunhill.
I tried the original Dunhill for men (1934) and found it way too overpowering - not bad, just too much for little moi. I remember thinking 'no so self-respecting spy could ever have the drop on anyone wearing this!' But then discretion was never really part of Bond’s many attributes, was it?
Then the salesman - the image of British elegance for a price- offered me a more recent Dunhill Edition (1984) to try.
There was a lemon opening to be replaced by spicy sweet cinnamon and clove that lingers on a back drop of luxurious woody aroma. As a youth I had cedar shelves in my room and it is one of those smells that stay with you. Needless to say I fell in love with the scent!
Now this is more what I had in mind for a gentleman's scent; understated elegance, discretion being the better part of valour! No knock-over-the-furniture-here-I-come-aura; no intrusive or offensive claim-this-space-for-queen-and-country-sillage but when people get close they don't back away, not in my twenty years experience with it! More than once I was asked what I was wearing.
I bought the 100 ml bottle right there and then for the princely sum of 150$. Quite an investment for my student budget back then, but then I thought I was buying class in a bottle!
A few years later, mercifully, the price was about halfway down for the same-sized bottle.
It's a very pleasant smell that still mixes well with my skin's chemistry. My wife couldn’t get enough of it, sometimes I muse we never would have made it to the altar otherwise!
My signature scent for the last 20 years – Sadly now discontinued - Wished P&G ‘d reconsider.
C'est la vie!
5/5 stars

I'm not a big fan of the Guess fragrances for men (Suede and MAN) but I do like the smell of the original Guess by Marciano, especially on my wife, so when they did their thing for men I decided to give it a try. I wasn't disappointed.
To my nose this smells like orange liqueur (think Cointreau or Grand Marnier) mixed with the peels of an orange or grapefruit. Do I detect a dash of vanilla? The 'colour' that this brings to my mind is dark orange, definitely.
An interesting smell that lingers on for a few hours. IF you like oranges try it!
4/5 stars.