Basenotes - Reviews by Rita LeftCoastNose

United States

Showing 1 to 7 of 7.

Lovely by Sarah Jessica Parker

To know what "Lovely" smells like, picture this: a young woman in a strapless summer dress steps out of her house, fresh from the shower. It is 11 a.m. in July. She's late, so she walks fast along a hot sidewalk to get to the subway. "Lovely" is the scent she exudes when she just...starts....to sweat. ("glow"-- sorry-- men sweat, women "glow.")

Clean, fresh glow. Sexiest scent imaginable.
Two thumbs up-- way up.

22nd November, 2009.

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Angel by Thierry Mugler

Angel” is the scent of powdered sugar, the inside of an aluminum orange soda can, patchouli, and raving rabid homicidal bee froth. It is the fragrance the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse would wear if the Four Horsemen were War, Pestilence, Death, and Tooth Decay. It is the scent of a terrible emergency, and no one should ever smell it.

I need to borrow several thumbs down to fully rate this.

22nd November, 2009.

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Perfect Night by Bella Bellissima

“Perfect Night” clicks into a two-tier scent structure: a lovely but ethereal, almost retreating floral poof over the heat radiating from the fur of a wild, panting animal. The musk-and-incense base of PN is so smoky hot, it smells like the spent phosphorous and pine char of a freshly extinguished wooden match. It is a terrific smell, every bit as naughty as promised.

My problem with PN is that pretty-princess top note—when I first smelled it, the image that popped into my mind was the little pink rose lingerie designers put on cheesy garters. Nuts to that! When I want naughty, I want naughty.

There’s a primal “wow” in this scent, but over the top of it is too “pretty to please.”

10th November, 2009.

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Padparadscha by Satellite

At the opening, freshly cracked peppercorns and strong green juniper wood. After a few minutes, the pepper blows off, the juniper bows out, and fresh cedar wood steps in seamlessly joined to the most flawless, unforgiving sandalwood I’ve ever smelled. There is fillip of amber at the tail, to sweeten it one tiny little bit and to give it finish. Deep under the fresh woods is a sturdy base of campfire coals. It is stiff, bracing, and uncompromising. The only sweetness is the amber—just enough to make it wearable.

I’ve read “Padparadscha” described as arid, and I think that’s correct. It’s as rough as a cat’s tongue, and to breathe it in deeply dries out the back of my sinuses. Named after a pink sapphire, there is nothing crystalline, cold, or static in this fragrance. When I smelled it, the hot pepper slap, the fresh cedar sap and sandalwood fireworks going off, I said to myself, Oh, Sweet Shakti.

10th November, 2009.

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Noir de Noir by Tom Ford

The scent notes call it a chypre—okay, fine, I won’t argue. But most chypres, in my experience, are about contrasting, almost warring smells—the citrus getting a rise out of the florals while the oakmoss ties them both to the ground.

Instead, I immediately experience “Noir de Noir” as fully shaped and stable with no sharp edges—harmonious rather than atonal, a major rather than a minor chord: dark caramel, vanilla, roses, freshly-cut blond tobacco leaf, yummy woods, rum. If there’s a citrus in there, I don’t find it. And then, as promised, black truffles over the top, and a curlicue of saffron. After 45 minutes and for the next 4-5 hours, the gooey center of a vanilla-saffron rum ball.

This is a scent to wear when you want someone to taste you. I’ve got another name for NdN: “Man Candy.”

10th November, 2009. (Last Edited: 22nd November, 2009.)

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Bois de Paradis by Delrae

You are in a cedar forest, five minutes before the sun rises under a glowing amber, rose, and fig sky. Dry, dusty needles under your feet. Standing right up under a tree, just as you snap off a branch to release the scent slap of the green wood, you bite into a fresh orange peel.

I did not know that I needed to know what this smelled like, but now that I do, I would travel to the ends of the earth to smell it again. "Bois de Paradis" is one of only two perfumes I would rate as a five-star.

10th November, 2009.

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Amoureuse by Delrae

DelRae Roth calls “Amoureuse” a “modern chypre.”

Madman perfumer Michel Roudnitska chose oakmoss and tuberose as the basis to recreate the Victorian Box flower. (I’ve often walked the streets of San Francisco, enjoying their lovely fragrance, thinking about what those trees smell like. In my opinion, Victorian Box tree flowers sit squarely between gardenia and orange tree blossoms, with a hefty handful of fresh chamomile flowers and a sprinkle of earth thrown in.)

Tuberose and oakmoss—those are big, challenging, opinionated smells going at one another. But the results are a symphony. In wearing “Amoureuse,” I’ve recorded the following impressions: “sparkling pink tuberose and pale green cardamom bubbles;” “marvelous hot buttered Kettle Corn;” “the loveliest lightly-mulled chamomile tea and honey you ever tasted.” And finally, “the happy intersection where cinnamon meets champagne.”

10th November, 2009. (Last Edited: 22nd November, 2009.)

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