Basenotes - Reviews by tearoad

United States

Showing 1 to 13 of 13.

Banana Republic Classic by Banana Republic

BANANA REPUBLIC CLASSIC by Banana Republic

Clean and fresh like a lemon mist after a morning shower, Banana Republic Classic is the perfect eau de toilette for summer weekends on Nantucket, the Vineyard, and the Hamptons. With notes of citrus, honeysuckle, and bergamot, this is the fragrance counterpart to crisp linen and espadrilles, white handkerchiefs and straw hatsâ€”and tall gin tonics. Girls in summer dresses and the hissing of summer lawns. In other words, BR Classic evokes the icons of summer. Even the streamlined bottle with its matte nickel top evokes another classic: Chanel No. 5â€”and yet, BR Classic is as American as Gatsby and Daisy on a summer porch in West Egg.

3rd June, 2010.

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Desire for a Man by Alfred Dunhill

DUNHILL DESIRE by Alfred Dunhill: Like the candied apple at the carnival that always looked so good, tempting you with its glossy red hard candy coating—only to break your last baby tooth when you took a bite, Dunhill Desire has a bottle equally hypnotic—a ruby red hip flask—and a bite equally alarming. One spray and I felt I was in a public toilet with the cleaning staff. Another spray reminded me of a child getting sick in a school hallway. Too much undigested fruit after nibbling on rose petals and wood. There’s something nauseatingly cloying about this fragrance—as if this juice were the topcoat, a cover for something horribly nasty underneath. Someone had an accident—and I think it was Dunhill.

28th January, 2010.

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VV Man by Roberto Verino

VV MAN by Roberto Verino:

With a gorgeous Eighties-era bottle—an orange glass flacon encased in an amber plastic container, all very hard-edged and transparent in shades of cinnabar red, orange, and rose—VV Man harks back to an even earlier era, when Pierre Cardin and Courreges ruled the catwalks with festive fun and space-age energy. Roberto Verino’s VV Man has an allure not unlike one of those Richard Neutra homes in Palm Springs: everything old is new again, and better for time’s passage. The juice opens with a heavenly burst of melon cut by cardamom—then passes through a kind of Sixties floral bouquet, before settling into a peaceful patchouli and amber base. There’s something Studio 54 about this fragrance—a kind of mash-up of scents that evokes the upstairs of that fabled club where Halston, Andy, and Calvin are snorting lines amidst a profusion of candles, flowers, and incense—and general hilarity. Given VV Man’s unfamiliarity to the masses, a person could easily make this his or her personal fragrance.

22nd January, 2010.

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Balsam by Agraria

AGRARIA BALSAM by Agraria:

One year, while vacationing in San Francisco, I found myself in Gump’s—and promptly fell in love with Agraria’s Lemon Verbena Cologne Spray, which, fortunately, was also carried by Bergdorf’s in my hometown, New York. For several years, I lived for that crisp, fresh lemony-lime scent, with a touch of jasmine. Fast forward to the New Recession—and I’m shopping at TJ Maxx, where I find, surprisingly, several Agraria candles and one bottle of Agraria cologne, which I promptly snap up. This spray is Balsam—and highly evocative of winter, specifically the holiday season, when hunting for exactly the right Christmas tree: the fresh cut on the trunk, the resin, the wood chips, the pine needles—and then stopping at the house of the Christmas tree farm’s owners, for a cup of hot mulled cider, fragrant with cloves and cinnamon. According to the Agraria website, this fragrance was named Best Home Fragrance of the Year—which might prove unsettling for some. But, for me, I’m happy to be back at that Christmas tree farm, warm and toasty, with those two strapping boys who were always so willing to help load the freshly-cut tree onto the back of the car. Winter’s bouquet in a bottle.

20th January, 2010.

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Calvin Klein Man by Calvin Klein

Calvin Klein MAN: The man who transmuted plain white briefs into designer underwear has always been a master of marketing and packaging—and Calvin Klein’s skill at presentation is no less apparent in the sleek and beautiful bottle that contains his elixir MAN. As if sandwiched between two perfect sheets of black glass, the juice (colored a lovely mauve) is glimpsed only from the bottle’s slender sides—and in keeping with Klein’s signature minimalism in all things, the fragrance comes across like a monochromatic ensemble. As an eau de toilette, MAN is as unobtrusive as the well-groomed guest at a party who has yet to meet his host. Peppery as he walks in the door—before absorbing some of the party’s spice and mint. Later, he might head home through a wooded park. MAN is a man’s own projections upon commonplace scents.

17th January, 2010.

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Essenza di Zegna by Ermenegildo Zegna

ESSENZA DI ZEGNA by Ermenegildo Zegna: At first, sparkling and effervescent, like a bottle of Pellegrino with a slice of lemon on a crisp April day in Milano—and then gradually, as the myrtle heart and woody base notes emerge, it’s autumn, with leaves underfoot as you wander the Piazza del Duomo, heading for the train station and a weekend in the country marked by funghi et tartufo. From spring to autumn in a graceful segue, Essenza di Zegna charts the passage of time, amidst the bounty of Italy’s classic scents. And yet as richly refined and truly Italian as this fragrance feels to me—is that a hint of Dior’s Eau Sauvage, a bit of the French, in its shadow? As evanescent as a memory, Essenza di Zegna leaves the merest trace of its presence.

18th November, 2009.

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Herrera Aqua by Carolina Herrera

HERRERA AQUA by Carolina Herrera: A fragrance called Aqua implicitly connotes water—but then, when was the last time that you drank a glass of blue water? Perhaps then, in coloring the juice a pale blue, Ms. Herrera’s parfumeurs were thinking of the ocean—but it’s the sun’s reflection that causes the ocean to appear blue. Even a pool’s water isn’t blue (and who wants to smell like a pool?). Unless a fragrance smells of hyacinth or hydrangea, why should it be tinted blue? The truth about Aqua is that if you never saw the blue packaging, and if you closed your eyes when you spritzed, you wouldn’t think blue water—instead, you might think of an herb garden after a spring rain—or a picnic in Grasse alongside a field of French lavender, early June flowers mixing with the sweetness of Indian spices from the food on your blanket (just this morning retrieved from a cedar chest)—while at field’s edge, a brook flows swiftly, the moss and ferns fragrant after the morning’s rain. For me, Herrera Aqua is less the ocean than it is Seurat’s Sunday afternoon on la Grand Jatte—and far more interesting for it being so.

12nd November, 2009.

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JHL by Aramis

JHL: JHL lives in my FRAGRANCES I'VE WORN AND LIVED TO REGRET file. When JHL was introduced in 1982, my mother and I were in Sak's—and she bought it for me. As a gesture, it was lovely—as a scent, it was horrendous, though I persisted in wearing it, primarily because my mother chose it for me. I kept trying to tell myself that I enjoyed its heavy, cloying, clingy qualities—until one morning a student of mine where I was teaching prep school came into my classroom, sniffed the air with a sneer and queried, "Is that you?" Not after that, it wasn't.

12nd June, 2009. (Last Edited: 13rd June, 2009.)

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IZOD by IZOD

IZOD by IZOD: Years ago, in a swag bag, I received a bottle of Clinique’s Happy, and wore it—along with everyone else in the world—and was happy. There’s something about Happy in IZOD, in that initial burst of citrus fruit, like a piñata of fruits raining down all around you—and just as with that piñata when it’s smashed open, you almost can’t help but smile at the abundance surrounding you. And then later, once all the limes, tangerines, and grapefruit are trampled underfoot, there’s a faint smell of tobacco and lavender, as if the adults are now smoking quietly at the perimeter of the piñata party. Loud and festive at first, and then settling into a sunny afternoon murmur: that’s IZOD for me and I like it.

10th June, 2009.

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Boss Soul by Hugo Boss

BOSS SOUL: Rich and smooth, a bit like sharing a post-prandial cognac with someone who wants to take you to bed. There’s a kind of smoky quality to the air and a hint of what might or might not happen. Boss Soul is a bit like Diana Krall: seductive without being overbearing. You’re intriqued if not completely certain why. The night could go either way—and this fragrance represents that delicious tension.

9th June, 2009.

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The Dreamer by Versace

THE DREAMER: The fragrance that taught me complexity (and also the depth of knowledge of the people who frequent Basenotes, for which I remain in awe and grateful). At first squirt, I winced and thought, Not even for room fragrance. Frankly, it was alarming—and yet, at the same time, it was like pain that hurt so good, you had to return. There’s something slightly s-and-m about that first encounter, which makes me think of The Dreamer as a bit of a dominatrix/master. And it takes a while to warm to what’s going on—at least the first time. Thereafter, as with all good things, it’s worth the wait—and then the rewards. This is a fascinating fragrance of seemingly myriad moods: a kind of leather and lace personality, both romantic and domineering at once. Hypnotic and addictive, once you’re in The Dreamer’s grasp, there’s no release.

9th June, 2009.

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Lolita Lempicka Au Masculin by Lolita Lempicka

LOLITA LEMPICKA AU MASCULIN: Wearing this, I feel like Fern on the ferris wheel in the middle of the summer carnival. That would be Fern from “Charlotte’s Web.” There’s something in this juice that evokes cotton candy and carefree summer nights and getting stuck atop the ferris wheel with the boy you love. It’s sweet and youthful and innocent, a reminder of the girl in seventh grade who always smelled so delicious you wanted to lick her—but she was going with the football player and so you just smiled and she back at you, leaving a trail of something yummy in her wake. This is the kind of fragrance that’s slightly elegiac, made for the gloaming hour and reveries of lovely girls and boys from your past.

9th June, 2009.

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Route du Thé by Barneys New York

BARNEYS ROUTE DE THE: Conceivably my signature fragrance, in that for twenty years, I have repeatedly returned to Route de The. This was the fragrance that taught me scent was non-gendered. It was early in the Eighties when Barney’s re-introduced this fragrance, and much of Manhattan got caught up in its clean, crisp smell: like spring narcissus in a rock garden after a rain, with a touch of wet macadam. I knew an interior designer who wore it—and it was an epiphany to realize that fragrance had nothing to do with being male or female—and soon thereafter, with earnings from tutoring students, I bought my first bottle of Barney’s Route de The. Years come and go, and some years, another bottle of Route de The awaits me under the Christmas tree. To wear this fragrance anew always makes me happy—and apparently many others, too, given the many compliments I receive.

7th May, 2009. (Last Edited: 9th June, 2009.)

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