Basenotes - Reviews by lightray

Showing 1 to 8 of 8.

Lyric Man by Amouage

On paper this sounds great, "a masculine rose"....but the reality for me just doesn't quite work.
My problem is that it just isn't "masuline" enough, but perhaps that is more to do with my skin and my taste?
I tried No.88 which was awful on me, really smelt bad (Cuba by C&S was even worse!).

I would like this to be simpler, maybe just focus on rose, incence and perhaps sandalwood, but it has too many other floral overtones which boost the femine side.
It clearly is a high quality scent and maybe for the right skin chemistry it could transcend (A*Men hates me, but works fantastically for friends).

I've only tried it once on skin so far and will give it a second chance.

2nd April, 2009.

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DKNY Men (New) by Donna Karan

My first review here :-)

I tried this a few weeks ago on paper an thought it smelt great with a lasting freshness.
Then I tried it on my skin and was startled by it's familiarity...it seemed very much like another perfume but I couldn't place which. Upon second skin trial I realised it reminds me of one of the Escentric Molecule perfumes (1 or 2). I think it must be the bergamot and orris.

On skin it loses it;s freshness quickly and turns to a powder smell which isn't really for me.
Shame the opening couldn's stick around longer.

2nd April, 2009.

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Wode by Boudicca

I tried this in Berlin 6 months ago. They said is was unisex, but her it says for women?
I'd put in more in the unisex side as the notes are not overly femine. It is similar to JPG2 in style but smells nothing like it.

I tried the paint version which is quite a shock when sprayed initially because it is cobalt blue on your skin. It then rapidly fades to nothing (colour wise). The assistant sprayed it on his white shirt which looked really cool! It certainly dissappeared but I'm uncertain whether traces might remain in UV light or after washing.

The scent was interesting, reminds me a bit of the Tom Ford Extreme (maybe truffle in both?)
It's from the same nose as Escentric Molecules so has some similarity to them and does smell very synthetic, but not in a cheap or bad way.

I developed a bad headache which might have been due to the perfume so I scrubbed it off, but it was quite resiliant and stayed with me in to the evening so longevity seems very good. One male friend said it smelt great on me.

Not for me as too androgenous. If you are in to scents like JPG2, TFExtreme, Black Cashmere, etc, then this is certainly worth trying.

2nd April, 2009.

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Amouage Homage by Amouage

This is wonderful!
Almost as good as (or maybe better) than jubilation for men.
You really need to like Oud to get on with this, but if you do then you are in for a real treat.
I'm not sure how practical it is to wear, I love everthing about it....but I think it would be difficult to wear in most social situations simply because oud is an acquired taste. I think most people could grow to love oud, but there initial reaction may be negative.

Still this is definetly worth trying on your skin. Price wise it is out of my league...but I can dream :-)

2nd April, 2009.

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Jubilation XXV by Amouage

I've tried this several times and just love the scent!
I can't pick out all the elements but it moves from top to base beautifully.
It has a wonderful Oud note which is what really pulls me in.

I like to keep it away from my nose, e.g. I apply to my wrist the very edge of my face, that way my nose doesn't get exhausted and instead I get to detect whafts of it every so often.

As much as I love this it has received mixed reception from mates.
One friend loved it on me. Another said politely that it perhaps "didn't suit me"; probably due to the oud which he isn't a fan of.

Anyway, I highly recommend you sample this fantastic scent. It is perhaps the best in the Amouage range along with Homage.

2nd April, 2009.

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Cuba by Czech & Speake

This really is a puzzle?! 16 reviews before me, 3 neutral and 13 possitve. Nobody else here mentions the fecal smell?

I did some quick research and on other sites they say Cuba contains civet. Well I don't know whether that is the cause of the pong but there is certainly something wrong with the scent!
Others get rum, cigars, wood, etc....but all I get is the smell of ar*e (or a*s for you yanks).
After the fantastic reviews above I hunted this down and found it in Harrods and Selfridges.
Tried it first in Harrods and the female assistant who sprayed the paper strip for me smelt her fingers afterwards, turned her nose up and said she'd need to go wash her hands. I then went to the Bond No9 counter and the assistant there had a whiff and also detected the very pronounced fecal note...I three the paper away.

Thinking the bottle at H was tainted or that it would transform once warmed on my skin I went to Selfridges 1 week later and tried there....but the same problem, except now it wasn't paper that smelt of a*se, it was my hand! Again I checked with another assistant who confirmed all he could smell was faeces too. I determindely left it on me to wait for the booze, cigars to burn through the poo...but it never happened. It just smells of a*se from start to finish. Now there is something vaguely intriguing about the smell but it certainly doesn't smell good and smells nothing like my experience of Cuba.

I wonder if the batch these two bottles came from was bad? Surely nobody would buy this?
Or perhaps my nose is overly sensitive to the civet, but then why did others get the bad smell too?
I really don't understand how our reactions could be so different from the other reviewers?

I wanted this to be a better version of Idol or Havana but what I tried was unwearable!

2nd April, 2009.

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Amouage Gold Men by Amouage

I recently tried all the current range of mens Amouage. I was tempted to do so after the wonderful experience I had with the Jubilation XXV and Homage.

Gold is wierd! It smells so old fashioned, hard to believe it was made just 25 years ago.
It really has not aged well; in fact I wonder if it would ever have smelt right for a man, I can only imagine a 17th century coiffured dandy wearing this. It is way to flowery and powdery and just too old granny feminine. I'm 42 and can't imagine any man wanting to smell like this whatever their age or sexuality.

Well I will give it a second try, but I need to find a time when I know I won't be exposed to people as I don't want anyone to smell me with this on...it would be like walking around wearing lipstick, rouge and a hairnet!

2nd April, 2009.

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L'Eau D'Issey pour Homme by Issey Miyake

I've tried so many different fragrances: some cheap and some ultra expensive (By Kilian, Amouage, etc) and yet none of them have the balance on my skin that this has!

I know it's 15 years old, it's probably incredibly synthetic, etc., but this stuff just WORKS (on my skin).

It smells great from start to finish, parthly because it doesn't evolve much on me, although it does change a little. So many scents smell great as they open but turn to a cloying sickly sweet mess in the drydown. This stays balanced. Perfect for a summer evening or a winters day.
The silage is good and the longevity is at least 6-8 hours on me.

It's the best of the men's in the Issey range. The Intense is ok but doesn't move me. The Blue is plain awful.

2nd April, 2009.

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