Fragrance Reviews by Caltha

Flora is an interesting name for the sour, sharp scent of sweaty armpit hovering over a sweet gourmandy/oriental base... There doesn't even seem to be any floral notes in the mix, though I suppose it's actually some floral notes creating that odd armpit effect. Now, I don't usually mind skanky or animalic fragrances, but old arm sweat is not the most pleasant of body odours.

I too like it better than the original. I don't perceive any shared notes - definitely no candied violets in this one - but they do share a sort of similar, "dense", powdery sweetness. This is an oriental with sugar and spice, vanilla and peppery hot notes and some actually quite skanky musk. Although I think it smells good and especially appreciate the spices and musk, I think the fragrance is too strong and sweet, verging on nauseating.

A very green floral, but not green in the contemporary, fresh and light, often quite synthetic-smelling, citrus/tea/grass kind of way. No, this is the pungent, poisonous, green of days gone by. It's not entirely unpleasant though - not like Joy which turns into pure compost on my skin - it's more challenging, fascinating yet possibly sickening if you're not in the mood for it. After a while on skin it warms up and sweetens ever so slightly and the white florals begin to bloom, though it's still a very green fragrance, with the pungent smell of hyacinths taking centre stage. I love hyacinths, so I'm happy. The flowers in this composition smell "natural", if that makes any sense. I'm not referring to the actual ingredients or anything, I just mean that they smell as though they would actually fit in among lush green vegetation, much like Carnal Flower does to my nose. A lot of big white florals with jasmine, tuberose and gardenia have a lot of other stuff going on, notes of musk, manure, coconut, cardboard, felt tip pen, plastic, wax, powder, blue cheese... This one doesn't.

Ginger. That's what I get: pure, freshly cut ginger root, with the different citrusy, sweet, piquant and spicy hot notes that implies. I love it.

This reminds me a lot of Sienne a l'hiver and a little of Dzongkha: a very similar, transparent, watery cool yet at the same time peppery hot vetiver accord. Or at least what I perceive as vetiver - I guess here it's really the gentian, whatever that is. Although I enjoy it as a refreshing, non-sweetened, long-lasting cologne it might be a bit too linear and one-dimensional and similar to these previous fragrances to warrant a buy.

Starts out sharply, composty green, but dries down into a much nicer chypre: sweet-and-sour, juicy green notes on a dusty dry, crumbled up, brown oakmossy base.

Yet another failure at recreating the wonderful, luscious scent of peonies. Like most peony scents, it smells more like an ordinary rose fragrance, with added geranium (I really hate geranium and especially the rose/geranium combo!) and some other, quite harsh and sharp, "green floral" type notes. I'm sad and still looking for a peony perfume that works...

Civet and lots of civet, that's what I get out of this fragrance. Daringly old-fashioned indeed!

I can definitely pick out the pineapple (maybe because I know it's supposed to be there) - canned pineapple in syrup but not syrupy-sweet, it still has the tartness of the fruit although not quite as much as fresh pineapple. Apart from pineapple I get an odd jumble of notes - citrus, nougat, a sort of muted plasticky/powdery accord (aldehydes?), a touch of compost (just a touch, while Joy is all compost on my skin), a soft leathery chypre base... I must say that to my nose, Colony smells dated in the wrong way (as opposed to the retro glamour way). Its fruit note doesn't smell synthetic in the blatant, sugary way that most contemporary fruit scents do, but it still smells synthetic, in a musty, old-fashioned sort of way instead. As far as fruity chypres go, I much prefer Mitsouko - in Colony, the fruit note is both too thin and too dominant and not balanced by enough green chypre notes. I think the oakmoss in Mitsouko works better with fruit than the leather in Colony, "opening up" the scent. In Colony it's like the fruit and the chypre are on the exact same frequency, if that makes any sense, making the entire scent feel dense and dull. I can sort of see the appeal of this fragrance, especially when it was first released and its fruit note was quite unique, but I personally don't enjoy wearing it and my girlfriend detested it and couldn't even pick out the pineapple.

A yummy, juicy, fruity, lush, sunny, golden/green scent, somewhere in between Delrae Bois de Paradis and Miller et Bertaux Green, green, green and green. I don't normally like fig scents - I detest the combination of milky and sappy green notes in them - but here the fig is so sweet and fruity it's hardly recognisable. Instead I think of peaches, pineapple and coconut and almost perceive the scent as "tropical" rather than Mediterranean - when I think of the Mediterranean I think of drier, more herbal aromas like thyme, rosemary, lavender and olive. Un jardin en Mediterranee makes me feel like reclining in a deck chair with a huge straw hat, a retro glamorous swim suit or sun dress, painted toenails on my bare feet and a fruit cocktail with a straw.

Jade fills a gap in my scent wardrobe - it doesn't really smell like any other perfume. The scent is almost as green as the coloured juice itself - green tea, mate, a soft cut grass accord, a tartly fruity touch of green apple (of course, there's none listed), hints of anise and mint. It's not green in a rustic way though, if you know what I mean, not blatantly herbal or vegetal. It's a polished green, yes, quite like a gem - refreshing yet abstractly elegant. There's no incense listed, yet I could swear the green notes rested on a similar incense base as Durbano's other compositions. Maybe it's just the dry and smoky effect of the tea notes. Like I said, it doesn't smell like anything else, but the scent most closely related to it that I've smelt is, I think, Annick Goutal's Duel, which also has mate and which is in a similar genre of "refined refreshment". Jade gets a neutral thumb because much as I admire it I don't exactly love it.

I'm not a big fan of lavender scents, but I'll make an exception for Gris Clair, which I find vastly superior to the unpleasant Encens et Lavande. If EeL smells like cold, acrid ashes, GC radiates a dry heat like the scent of fire, if fire had a scent in itself, without any notes of burning wood or smoke. It feels smoky - it doesn't smell smoky. Perhaps steamy is a better word than smoky, steamy like a sauna. I guess this is the amber since I perceive many amber fragrances as hot and dry in a similar way (some are more syrupy).
The lavender is, to my nose, clearly detectable throughout, but it's a dry, warm, almost woody lavender with a citrusy freshness to it, not your green/herbal or sweet/floral variety. I think I only appreciate lavender like this, when its dry/woody aspects are emphasised in warm, musky fragrances like my beloved Jicky and now Gris Clair. I don't like it when it's paired with aggressively aromatic notes like mint or geranium in cool, green and supposedly "fresh" (more like stale and musty, to my nose) colognes, and I certainly don't like it when it's more feminine à la granny.
As much as I enjoy the hot atmosphere of Gris Clair I have one complaint: I find the basenotes unnecessarily sweet. I think the tonka is to blame.

It's dry and woody alright, but not quite naturally woody enough for me as it has a quite soapy feeling to it too as well as a strong air of classic gentlemanly cologny. "Like something your Dad would like to wear" - not mine, he's not that kind of dad, but yes, that's the general idea. I wonder if I quickly grow anosmic to the scent (maybe because it's so close to a single note) because it's barely there, no sillage at all. I tried to refresh my nose with coffee beans but that seems to have had the opposite effect - maybe the scent of Italian Cypress is too close to the warm, roasted scent of coffee beans for it to work? The little I can smell with my nose pressed to my skin is nice enough though, a warm, comforting, soapy/smoky wood.

Sex, huh? I have a hard time imagining a less sexy fragrance, though I suppose Secretions Magnifiques takes the price! S-ex starts out very faint, cool and vaguely salty/metallic/aquatic, reminding me of CdG's Synthetic series or abstract Odeurs. It gets worse after that. Much worse. Allow me to disclose the truth hidden behind the ludicruous official list of notes: dead things washed up on the shore, compost, cucumber soap and feces of fruit candy on a base of fake leather. There. Thank god it doesn't have the strength and lasting power of Secretions Magnifiques, although it has an alarming tendency to grow stronger with time!

I could have appreciated the citrusy freshness of this rose scent, but overall it's just too thin and shrill for me - a high-pitched single note, yet faint, not loud. It verges on soapy territory but I've smelt much soapier roses than this. If it had a tad more of those juicy greens I barely detect, or of the interesting salty accord - or is it rather ambrette? - I think I only percieve because someone told me it's there, I might have really liked it. It's certainly not sweet. Neither is it, too my nose, rich and spicy at all. I rather agree with those reviewers describing it as extremely faint, with poor longevity.

Starts out sickly-sweet and with a strong, fake-buttery accord I find disgusting. At this stage, I think of toffee rather than chocolate - toffee or caramel with added artificial butterscotch flavour. Though my girlfriend immediately recognised chocolate without knowing the name of the fragrance - but she added it wasn't very good or dark chocolate, more like chocolate cookies with cream filling. It dries down to a soft, powdery sort of nondescript gourmand, vaguely chocolatey but not like pure chocolate at all, more like chocolate cake or fudge or something. Quite warm and cosy but too sweet and boring for me. I've tried better pure chocolate fragrances from cheap perfume oil companies.

Like others have said, this is a chypre rather than an oriental. If I were to guess at ingredients, I'd guess at loads and loads of oakmoss, but since oakmoss isn't listed among the notes I suppose it might be an illusion created by some dry, acrid, almost medicinal, resin note. I agree it smells quite "raw" and/or "unfinished" - almost like some single note oil. It also has a sharp soapiness to it I associate with chypres from, say, the 60s or 70s, rather than the real chypre classics from older eras. I'd classify it as "interesting", but not very pleasant or wearable.

Hmm... A tart and sour, but still candylike and nondescript, fruit accord on an extremely discreet chypre base. No richness here - this is a light, even thin, scent. I'm not very impressed.

I think I must be anosmic to something in Embruns d'Essaoira - I can sort of sense it rather than actually smell it. I get hints of grapefruit, soap and salt, which add up to something much softer and milder and rounder and sweeter than it sounds like. The little I smell is pleasant enough.

Much like Fougeres Marine, I perceive Sandflowers as more minty than obviously marine, though it has a dry, mineralic saltiness combined with herbal notes reminding me of Miller Harris' Fleurs de Sel. To my mind, Sandflowers is pretty much an inferior Fleurs de Sel, with an added cool, campherous mint note that I'm not particularly fond of. If you're a fan of mint and prefer fragrances with a sort of transparent "fresh air" feeling to the sunny, earthy warmth of Fleurs de Sel, you might very well appreciate it more than I do.

Hmm, I think this is a minty fougere rather than a marine fougere... Cool and fresh, yes, but there's nothing obviously marine about it, nothing salty or smelly like the sea. It reminds me a bit of L'Artisan's discontinued L'eau de Caporal which I tried recently. Neither mint nor citrus are listed among the notes, yet I think I feel both. Maybe it's a minty/citrusy geranium oil, maybe it's the notes making up the "sea freshness" accord. I certainly wouldn't mind if I smelled this on a gentleman, but it's nothing I feel very strongly about wearing myself.

Sel Marin is not obviously aquatic - in fact, I'd call it woody rather than aquatic - though it has a distinct marine feel to it despite being devoid of the usual harsh and shrill synthetic "marine" notes. The notes I can most clearly pick out are birch - the exact, sweet smell of fresh birch sap which I don't really associate with the sea but more with forests, meadows and possibly sweetwater - and cedarwood. The woods have a cool and wet feeling to them though - this is not your ordinary warm and dry wood fragrance, suitable for winter. The salt is there, though very soft - salt diluted in water and not the dry, mineralic salt note of, say, Miller Harris Fleurs du Sel. Pure saltwater - not really the scent of the ocean because there is not a trace of seaweed or dead fish in it. Sel Marin is like a romanticised, purified version of a sea scent - nothing rotting on the beach here! - or possibly the seabreeze felt from some distance, walking in a seaside pine forest. I normally don't get along with aquatic or marine fragrances at all but Sel Marin I get along with just fine and for that I love it. I especially enjoy the true to life birch sap note, which I detect in their Fine Leather too.

I'm not particularly sorry this is discontinued - except I'm sorry for those of you who love it and I agree it's mint done exceedingly well! Not quite well enough for me to get over my general aversion to mint notes though, but if I did wear one mint fragrance, this would be it. The dry, even sharp, herbal fougere accord with lavender and oakmoss harmonises with the mint-as-herb and takes away all toothpaste or chewing gum associations. Bracingly refreshing. For me personally though, I prefer my fougeres with a licorice/anise note reminiscent of the scent of actual ferns, such as Penhaligon's English Fern.

To me, Un Matin d'Orage smells like a dewy, unripe peach still hanging on the tree that would be tart and crisp rather than sweet and juicy of you bit into it. But you don't bite into it, you just put your nose next to its downy skin and inhale. I find most fruity scents too sweet and synthetic, but this is just lovely. Probably because there aren't really any fruit notes in it - the illusion of peach must be created by the floral notes. Which makes sense - magnolia can smell a tad peachy, but like a cool and unsweet peach note. It's definitely a moist and cool fragrance - rainy, even - I can see the raindrops clinging to the peach, and to the leaves of the peach tree, and the sun has not yet come out between the dark clouds. It's too delicate and pretty a scent to be associated with thunderstorms though - if so, it's definitely in the calm after the storm.
At first, I was surprised at the love-or-hate reactions and the scrubber reviews because I found the scent too pretty to be loathed with that kind of passion, but yes, after a while I can sort of feel the plasticky/metallic tang in the fragrance that might provoke that kind of reaction. It might be the ozone, and it might also be a discreet gardenia, since gardenia notes can sometimes have a plasticky sharpness to them (not existing in the indolic sweetness of the actual flower!) There's also a touch of grassy greens, and I know that some people are very sensitive to green notes, even though I personally love them and rarely can get enough of them even in fragrances supposed to be very green.
Cool fragrances supposed to evoke rain or dew rarely works for me, but this is a wonderful exception, very lifelike, like a photo of a summer garden after the rainstorm!

Jolie Madame is definitely related to Bandit - an old-fashioned (even the reformulation) (in the best possible way!) green/leathery chypre with some added floral sweetness. It's softer than Bandit, less hayfever-inducingly, juicy green and a little more generically "perfumey", which makes me love it less, but still a great classic!

I'm not sure what I think of Royals Heroes - it smells quite good but at the same time I find the scent quite oppressive - too cloyingly sweet, too heavy, too "dense"... Perhaps too synthetic too - it has the kind of saccarine sweetness common to many modern massmarket fragrances, a kind of abstracted fruitiness (my girlfriend said "pear"). I think the anise adds to that almost chemical-smelling sweetness as well. I can't really pick out any other notes but I think there's some abstracted wood or amber accord in there, the kind used in generic orientals, that adds to the warm and sweet and "dense" feeling. That might be the tonka, I don't think I'm any fan of tonka. I also get hints of something musky or animalic lurking underneath, which I'd normally like, but paired with all the synthetic sweetness I'm afraid it just adds to the general cloying feeling. Royals Heroes certainly is strong and it doesn't seem to develop much, if at all. I think it's the kind of scent that lasts forever but that you tire of quickly, even though you might initially like the smell. At least, that's the way it is for me.

MPH is an old school gentlemanly fougere - definitely not as bracingly herbal as it may sound from the notes, more smooth like a softer Penhaligon's English Fern. It has the same sweetish anise/licorice/fennel accord that reminds me pleasantly of the smell of actual, living ferns. It's a dry sweetness but definitely a sweetness nonetheless and yes, now that the previous reviewer har mentioned it, there may be a discreet, non-dirty patchouli note adding to that effect. Apart from that I can't really pick out any notes - no citrus, no oakmoss... It's a very mellow and linear scent altogether. Not too bad, but not too good either.

To me, Sec smells kind of like a soap scented with Yatagan: the dry, aromatic herbs of über-macho colognes like Yatagan matched with an equal amount of aldehydic soapiness. There's something a little "muted", "dull", "flat" or even "plasticky" about that soapy accord in the beginning, but it mellows and mingles more with the herbs as it develops. I can't quite decide what I think of Sec, it's kind of pleasant, kind of unpleasant, not very earth-shattering...

I think this scent is all about sharpness masquerading as "freshness". It opens with a rather harsh spice note, maybe the clove, and soapy/powdery aldehydes adding to the harshness - I get lots of aldehydes although they aren't listed - on a nondescript, stale base. I can't really make out any other notes and the whole concoction seems very fleeting, unless I quickly grow anosmic to it, which to be honest is a relief. I love lots of old perfumes but this one, to me, feels "dated" in the wrong way.

The problem with a lot of citrus colognes, imho, is that they smell like orange blossoms rather than actual citrus fruits. Hierbas de Ibiza is a prime example: I get almost nothing out of it apart from the powdery, sticky sweetness of orange blossom. Well, maybe about two seconds of refreshing lemon juice in the very topnote. My girlfriend thought it smelled like "hotel soap", and I can't get rid of the association with hotel cleaning products. Not bad if you like orange blossom, I guess, but I really don't.

I has high hopes for "mossy" and "green", but there's something about Coriandre that just doesn't agree with me: I perceive it as "perfumey" in the worst possible way: musty, soapy and plasticky all at once. I think there must be quite a lot of aldehydes in it because I get that sharp, piercing, bright, powdery/soapy smell I associate with aldehydes. Apart from that, a vaguely fruity sweetness, fruity in a watery, insipid kind of way like a supermarket apple or pear. Underneath all that, perhaps some green and herbal notes. I get none of the notes listed, and no coriander, which is a pity because unlike many I do appreciate coriander. My girlfriend found it yummy when smelling it on a paper strip though, and I admit it's better on paper than on my skin, vaguely greener and less piercingly sharp and "white". I suppose I'll give my sample to her and hope it smells better on her...

I can't really pick out any vetiver in this concoction - it's not grassy or rooty or earthy like other vetiver scents. Instead, it's dry, astringent, aromatic, green and woody in a coniferous forest kind of way. It reminds me a little bit of Yatagan, though it's not quite as sharp and dry, not scorched brown herbs, but greener, perhaps even a little "cooler" and "wetter" but just a little. There is a certain sweetness in it which I associate with the natural sweetness of pine or fir. I also get what others are saying when they call it "smoky", though I don't perceive that hot, dry, acrid accord as smoke per se, more like some aromatic shrubs or weeds, lichen perhaps. I really, really enjoy it for its great, rugged, outdoorsy feel. My girlfriend immediately liked it too, she exclaimed that it smelled "fun" (!?)

A very warm and woody rose, reminiscent of other rose fragrances with strong woody/resinous/spicy basenotes such as Diptyque Oponé, Tauer Incense Rosé, Eau d'Italie Paestum Rose and L'Artisan Voleur de roses. Though I'm not a fan of rose scents or rose notes in general, I really appreciate this particular scent category, and Rose 31 is no exception. I don't think I need more than my sample though - both Incense Rosé and Paestum Rose are higher on my "to buy a full bottle"-list. My girlfriend didn't get the rose at all, she thought it smelled like birchwood, and I can see that - the sweetness of the rose blends together seamlessly with the sweetness of wood. To me, that's a good thing, since I'm not the greatest rose fan around.

A very cold and dry rooty/earthy iris fragrance. Like purplebird said, austere. I don't normally like iris, but I think I like this one more because it's cold and dry rather than cold and wet like mosts iris root scents. It's almost dusty, even, and a little sharp/acrid but in a way I find pleasant. Maybe it's the patchouli? It's not murky or musky like some patchouli scents though, it has a naturally "clean" feeling to it, clean like earth and rain and green growing things in the cool spring. That "clean" vibe almost, but only almost, verges on laundry detergent territory at times. This could easily be "unisex" or even "masculine", in my opinion - not that I care for gender designations but just so you get an idea of how far from sweet and fluffy it is. I don't love it - I don't think it's a scent to love. It's very reserved.

Slightly more agreeable than their Fleurs d'Oranger, but equally super-sweet and powdery and with a similar cleaning product vibe to it. This one has a touch of bitter almond/marzipan/heliotrope as well I think, but perhaps that's just the natural difference between neroli and orange blossom. Anyway, it makes me like it just a little bit better since I think neroli/orange blossom is more bearable when the naturally gourmand aspect of the floral note is emphasised, as opposed to when they're used in miserably failed attempts at "fresh" colognes. But sorry, I just don't dig neroli/orange blossom scents at all.

As a disclaimer, I'm certainly not the right person to judge the merits of this fragrance. I simply fail to appreciate the sickly-sweet, powdery smell of orange blossoms and no matter how "natural" or "realistic" the note's supposed to be (I've never smelt real orange trees in bloom) I think only of scented, chemical-smelling cleaning fluids and bathroom air "fresheners" working in quite the opposite way.

I really appreciate the interesting ambrette note in Chanel no 18 - a "grown-up" musky and comforting skin scent - but combined with the sweet, slightly "watery", fruit note of pear in this "baby fragrance" I find it downright sickening. And I don't think babies should be perfumed anyway!

I just love this summery cologne, it's gorgeous! I know some find it too "common" for the price and brand, but in fact I think it's very difficult to find green, citrusy and "natural" scents this good! I hate the aggressive, synthetic-smelling, slightly "musty" aspects of grapefruit, the freshly-squeezed-lemon opening of most citrus fragrances including the famous Eau d'Hardien rarely last more than two minutes before they turn to stale washing-up liquid, The Different Company's Bergamote is quite lovely but very, very soapy/powdery, Frederic Malle's Cologne Bigarade is nice but so warm and spicy it's Christmasy rather than summery... Bergamote 22 is just perfect: lovely, fresh bergamote on a leafy green/woody/cedary base reminding me of my other favourite, Miller et Bertaux' Green green green and green. It's more transparent, light and citrusy than the M&B scent, has a little less of that grassy/woody sweetness, which makes it even better as a refreshing cologne for hot days. It is quite fleeting though, I admit...

A very rubbery, leathery, tarry, dry, butch oud, reminding me of old, cracked leather and tarred wood collecting dust in a shed for years since it last saw water. I love it!

Jasmine? Neroli, more like it! Which makes three neroli/orange blossom fragrances in Le Labo's range. I don't even like the sickly sweet smell of neroli...

It's funny, the first time I tried Midnight Violet I found it powdery, soapy, mossy and slightly candied, a bright and sunny violet fragrance and not at all a "midnight violet". This time around I get smoky civet, not much else. The scent is dry, ashen, smoky, bitter, metallic, with a distinctly animalic undertone, the really dirty kind, and fleeting on top of the composition, yes, some sweet yet soapy violets. Midnight violet indeed, this is kinky like a fetish club. I do enjoy the edgy darkness of the scent but it is rather "difficult". Thumbs up for originality.

I'm not familiar with real freesia and have a feeling I don't normally like the note in perfume, but Ofresia is a lovely little gem of a scent. I don't know what it smells "like", except perhaps a little like a fresh green tea scent. I just know that it's crisp, delicate, clean, wet, like a raindrop on a green leaf in spring. Really, naturally clean and fresh - not "clean and fresh" like all those horrid, sharp, ozonic/aquatic, often quite stale, laundry detergent/deodorant/shower gel type scents. Adepta said it beautifully, read her review instead.

Shalimar is too much for me, a too dense and aggressive oriental with a very strong vanilla note. Real vanilla bean, granted, not some sweet and insipid fake vanilla, but still too much of it for my taste. It's the kind of scent that could easily give me a headache and make me feel as though I'm suffocating, despite smelling "good". There's something else beside the vanilla - perhaps a sandalwood note? - that I also perceive as too dry and harsh and aggressive. I can definitely see why this is worn by a lot of men - actually it reminds me quite a lot of M7. It gets a neutral thumb because I can appreciate it in theory, though I don't feel comfortable wearing it and probably wouldn't want to sit next to someone wearing it either. Though to just quickly catch a whiff of someone wearing it might be intriguing and alluring...

I find this scent annoying and slightly sickening - the patchouli note is "thin" and aggressive, mosquito-repellant like, and the rest of the scent is the sort of generic, synthetically strong and smooth sweetness you find in every other massmarket perfume, the kind that smells of nothing in particular and just lasts and lasts and makes you more and more sick of its sweetness for every passing hour. I can sort of see how it might develop better on someone else's skin or "fit" someone else better, but it's not for me.

A big, true, luscious tuberose, though a bit on the sweet side for me and with a touch of old-fashioned powderiness I'm not too fond of. I can definitely see why this is such a classic, but I personally prefer Carnal Flower, which is more like huge, rain-wet tuberoses among green foliage and less like an elegant lady in mink and pearls.

Cuir venenum starts awful: sweet and sour like rottening meat. Or rather like rottening tropical fruits with a smoky leather undertone. Or even just sickly sour-sweet candy sticking to soft suede. It softens a bit, stays sweet and sour but in a smoother and less sickly fashion. I give it a neutral thumb because the suede-like leather note buried beneath all the fruit/candy notes is quite lovely. The scent has some things in common with both Daim blond (the soft suede note, being a sweet and "feminine" leather scent rather than a raw and "masculine" one) and Cuir mauresque (the orange blossom overpowering the leather, the sweetness again). I think I'll keep my sample because once it has settled down I find it quite original and appealing (the sweet-and-sour-ness mouthwateringly fruity rather than sickening) but the thought of having to share an elevator with someone over-applying this concoction - oh, dear God!

I cannot really make up my mind whether this is a refreshingly sharp, tart, bitter mix of citrus peel and herbs, or whether it's too herbally bitter, verging on sour and stale, with a too aggressive, cleaning-fluid citrus top. Quite traditionally masculine, I'd say, more like a classic citrusy/aromatic cologne than a modern super-fresh, fleeting, citrusy/green/aquatic thing. I think I kind of like the dry and bitter herbs (thyme and myrtle), they remind me a bit of Fleurs de sel, only the refreshing accord is citrus instead of salt. What I don't like is the, mercifully faint, minty topnote. Citrus + mint = yuck!

I had hoped for a "L'eau rare matale extreme" but this is a little too different and I'm not even sure it's stronger or more long-lasting. It's also distinctly black tea, yes, but not as fresh and clean as L'eau rare matale. It's more like flavoured black tea, though which flavour I'm not sure - I pick up both bergamot, jasmine and smoky notes. The leathery/rubbery aspect inherent in black tea scents is more pronounced than in L'eau rare matale, which I personally don't mind at all. I think I like L'eau rare matale a little bit better in it's refreshing simplicity, but they're both very nice.

A very lovely fresh black tea scent, but it fades too fast. I'm hoping Hyperessence Matale will be the solution to this problem...

I suppose this is the Comme des Garcons creation. My notes include "violet leaf" and "meteorite" too.

This is an exceedingly cold and metallic violet fragrance, more like a typical iris/orris fragrance than a typical sweet and powdery violet. It has that damp, dark cold of iris scents but feels "unnatural" as opposed to rooty or earthy - there's a sort of carrot-like accord in it but it's like a very clean and abstract carrot. I might get a hint of the "meteorite" and "magma" beside the metallic note that seems to be inherent in the violet, something a little sour/tangy/mineralic that reminds me slightly of the sickening Cire Trudon candle "Odeur de lune". It's very Comme des Garcons with its cold, synthetic, edgy notes. I just don't happen to appreciate cold, metallic iris and violet scents at all but I can see how this might appeal to someone else.

Andy Tauer has created some of my favourite fragrances but also a few I frankly can't stand. Vetiver dance unfortunately belongs to the latter category, despite my weakness for vetiver scents. I don't get much vetiver from this, and if I do, it's an extremely rooty vetiver, rooty without being moist and earthy, rooty in a dusty dry way. If this scent had a colour it would be grey, with perhaps a hint of poisonous green. It smells as though someone cut a bunch of poisonous herbs and mixed them with cold ash and soap flakes. It starts strong, extremely dry and poisonous, and mellows to a cool, soapy scent with an unpleasant, green sharpness and without the slightest hint of sweetness or warmth. I realise scent is a matter of taste but I just can't imagine anyone spontaneously liking this scent, finding it pleasant or wanting to smell like it. And I'd happily wear Profumum's Fumidus! Vetiver dance might qualify as "interesting", as a piece of olfactory art, but it's just too dead and cold to wear, in my opinion. I don't get the name at all, "dance" calls to mind something lively and cheerful but like Jemimagold said this is a frankly depressing scent.

I really enjoy the warm, cosy saffron burst in the opening. Unfortunately, this soon turns sharp and soapy on my skin, the kind of soapiness I can literally taste, not just smell. I could swear there were roses and geranium in this - soapy, potpourri-like roses and unpleasantly sharp and aromatic geranium (I hate geranium!). Maybe it's the aoud at it's most medicinal. I find it not exactly bad smelling but very loud and annoying to wear.

SirSlarty is right, I could swear this opened with a big blast of lavender! I was hoping for dead leaves and mushrooms, but all I get is lavender, eucalyptus (I know it's supposed to be mint but that's what I perceive), patchouli and some camphor. Instead of a damp, cool, earthy scent this is a dry, aromatic, throat-clearing, soapy-clean lavender potpourri. A tad earthy from the patchouli, yes, but earthy in a sharp and dusty way, not like moist soil or a frosty thundra or whatever. It reminds me of some cheap perfume oil from BPAL also failing miserably at evoking gloomy nature. It gets a neutral thumb for originality and daring. I guess it's no worse than Serge Lutens' lavender/incense concoctions which I also don't like.

It reminds me quite a lot of my favourite from this line - Absinth - it has the same characteristic green/herbal/aromatic bitterness. China White doesn't have the spicy/woody warmth of Absinth though, it's a much cooler scent. Drier too, dusty dry the way cedar scents can sometimes be, though not particularly woody. Ashen, yes. It's sort of annoying and addictive all at once. I don't get any of the flowers others are mentioning, but I suppose violet (leaf) or iris (root) may contribute to its cold, and there's also a hint of a sickly-sweet note that reminds me of candy rather than flowers. I think there's vetiver root in there adding to the green sharpness, but it might be some other bitter herb as well. Could be good old oakmoss. China White is like a mix between some old-fashioned leathery chypre (Bandit, say) and some hyper-modern, metallic, synthetic, cold, sharp CdG creation. Oh, and it also reminds me of an über-masculine, dry, loud, woody/herbal concoction like Yatagan.

Extremely dull, despite the name and interesting list of ingredients. Smells like any old clean/fresh/green thing with that synthetic sweetness typical of the men's section of the department store...

Feels very vintage with its powdery/soapy/aldehydic, rich, warm and slightly musty (not in a bad way, mind you) rendition of a clove-studded orange. I think I get a whiff of nutmeg too, but not much else. Definitely a gentleman's scent but I'm not sure why - because it feels barbershoppy with its soap and citrus notes? Because it lacks the sweetness to make it into an equally vintage-feeling ladies' oriental? Anyway, I quite like the old-fashioned quality, it reminds me of scents like Creed's Ambre Cannelle, Penhaligon's Hammam Bouquet, Guerlain's Habit Rouge and even Old Spice... It's been a while since I smelled bay rum, but I think there are similarities there too...

I wanted to like Centaure - I like the idea of a fragrance called Centaure - but alas, it smells just like mosquito repellant. I know I've been comparing scents to mosquito repellant before, but none of them has been so spot-on as Centaure. It really has no other notes, just a perfect rendition of those mosquito repellant sticks you put on your skin.

Gold smells like powder and aldehydes and has a plasticky muteness to it, like hitting your nose against a wall. I get a soapy taste in my mouth when I inhale it. Other than that, it's... floral? Green floral? But not a modern cool, aquatic and citrusy green floral, a really old-fashioned warm, powdery and spicy green floral, positively drenched in aldehydes. Very far from golden, this scent is blindingly white.

Cristalle smells like cut grass galore. After a while on skin, it softens and warms up slightly and develops a more powdery/aldehydic quality beside the cut grass that is still going strong. At this stage, it reminds me of the smell of dandelions - not just the flowers but the entire plant. I don't mind the smell of dandelions, but it's not something I want on my skin as the harsh, sour green notes can get a little sickening.

Eden smells like the juice of citruses and exotic fruits dripping in the dust on an outdoors fruit market in the dry period. It hasn't been raining for months and the dust gets in your nostrils and everywhere, but it's not very hot, the sky is covered with a suffocating layer of clouds or smog. The fruits are out of season, haven't got enough water, are either unripe or have been picked unripe and gone overripe and quite bad since nobody wants to buy the poor tasteless things.
Eden is nothing like a jungle or rainforest.
Eden is original, that much I admit. Dry and dusty and stale and musty and sour and sickly sweet unlike any other scent. And strong too - I fear this scent is guilty of many cases of suffocation on public transport, when someone who has been wearing too much of it for too long has habitually sprayed it on. It's odd, and oddly familiar. I've probably smelled it on a lot of women in my granny's generation, which is odd considering the scent is from the 90s, but it "feels" much older, at least like a 70s creation... Perhaps I actually smelled it on younger women when I was a kid? It feels "old" to me, anyway.
One thing that can be said for Eden is that it suits its bottle very well. That cheap-looking plasticky thing with its very retro cool, muted, slightly grey-tinted green hue corresponds to the supposedly "green" scent gone horribly dry and dusty and synthetic.

This does not smell like "eau chaude" (warm water) to me. It smells like cool or possibly lukewarm water. It's definitely watery, soft and transparent, but also fruity in a sort of synthetic, abstract, apricotty, osmanthus-like way. Maybe that's an impression created by the iris and heliotrope? The iris here is not dark, rooty and earthy, nor is it as cold and metallic as it sometimes can be, nor as powdery as it is in other incarnations. It's rather a cool, watery, unsweetened, soft, ethereal iris note. I'm not a fan of iris, it's just too cold and "unnatural" and aloof for me. Here it's considerably softened, with that fruity aspect, not an ice queen like Iris Silver Mist or a root pulled up from wet soil along with carrots like Hiris. Still, it has the same, to my nose synthetic, coolness that I find offputting. Fans of Osmanthe Yunnan might appreciate this fragrance, I think they are very similar sort of pretty and soft yet chic and resolutely artificial florals. Despite the scent being soft, I feel it's wearing me - and nagging me for not having spent hours creating a "natural" "effortless" makeup and ironed my expensively casual clothes... A "comfort scent" for Very Preppy People.

Reminds me quite a lot of Delrae's Bois de Paradis - a similar ripe, nectar-sweet, tropical golden elixir of a fruit scent. I don't normally appreciaty fruity scents, or overly sweet scents, but this particular genre I like because of its decadent over-the-top gorgeousness. That said, I think Bois de Paradis is the superior one and if I need one at all I'd pick that one. Pulp is a little closer to common sweet fruit scents, if still sensually "mature" and far from the tutti frutti bubble gum department store stuff.

I was intrigued by the distinct cardamom note I got on the paper strip. I love cardamom and find it is used way too sparingly in perfumery. I realised the scent would be too sweet for me, but hoped that maybe the cardamom would balance the vanilla sweetness and make it into a spicy Indian dessert or something. Alas, no. On skin, this is a synthetic, sickly sweet vanilla bomb with no trace of cardamom or other spices that lasts and lasts and LASTS. I wished I could get it off my skin because it made me rather nauseous. I won't apply it again.

The vile Secretions Magnifiques with some added myrtle and/or driftwood.

The unmentionable sickening note (translates as sort of stale/metallic/salty) in Secretions Magnifiques (and to a lesser degree in Skarb) meets the driftwood and aquatic accords of Preparation Parfumee and ends up in a candy sweet mess. It seems oceanic scents simply can't be made.

I really enjoyed this scent on paper, an interesting floral chypre among Penhaligon's rather bland concoctions! Unfortunately, it was horrid on skin. Absolutely vile, the worst kind of musty, stale, sickening, cheap 70ies chypre.

Um, yeah, it smells a bit earthy...

Um, yeah, it smells a bit evergreeny...

Out of all of L'Occitane's masculine scents, this one was the winner for me. A beautifully uncompromising, dark and smoky and rooty, vetiver.

I really enjoy the opening: warm spicy woods, mmm... Unfortunately, the drydown is way too sweet, after an hour or less, all that remains is a nondescript synthetic sweetness. Too bad!

Vierges et Toreros smells like dust and sand: mineralic, dry, hot, monolinear and a bit harsh. And that's it.

It's warm and woody and quite (almost a bit too) sweet, yes, but what makes it stand out is the distinct ginger note. Mmmm. The drydown is rather odd too: it smells like stale pond or lake or swamp water, quite rich and a little decaying. I haven't smelled anything so spot-on for water since Sel de Vetiver!

OLD REVIEW: (rating: thumbs down)
I had to try Bandit because of the history behind it and the rumour that Marlene Dietrich used to wear it. But as with vintage scents in general I just don't get it. It smells vintage to me, no more, no less (and I did get a new sample so it's not aged). Sour/dry/musty/sharp/floral/green, that kind of stuff. I can't pick out any notes and the dirty, naughty leather drydown I was hoping for never arrives.
However, a friend put some on to go clubbing and on her chemistry it was a much nicer sweet and sultry floral which suited her cabaret girl outfit.

NEW REVIEW:
Oh what a fool I was! Thank god I had two samples and only swapped away one so I could retry it, though I would probably have ended up retrying it anyway sooner or later due to the legend... I can now do chypres and I adore Bandit! I can think of a number of classic chypres that have more of that sour/sharp/musty "old lady" vibe (which I like nowadays, mind you). I have some vintage Bandit (not sure which formulation, maybe edt?) and that one is more like a classic chypre (think Cabochard), a bit sharper, more oakmoss/galbanum. The modern edp, which I now own a bottle of, is positively juicy! Green green green in a slightly sour-sweet, sunny way like grass and hay and warm animal bodies. I don't even think it's a very "dark" or "naughty" scent - well perhaps just a bit naughty due to the animalic/leathery warmth of it... Naughty as a biker and a society lady together in a meadow or on the hayloft...

I expected this to be a cooler, brighter, fresher ginger than Gingembre, but actually it has the same generic warm/rich/sweet/musty/oriental/vintage DSH base. It doesn't get as sharp and powdery though, instead the ginger note lasts much much longer. Unfortunately, the ginger note in Indochine, while more longlasting, is not as true as the short-lived one in Gingembre. It smells more like what I've come to expect from ginger notes in perfume - piquant, spicy, refreshing, citrusy - than like fresh ginger root. It's warmer and more syrupy than fresh ginger, closer to the powdered spice. It also reminds me a bit of the "ginger lily" note, which gives the scent a slight tropical/exotic feel, without the pina coladas and seabreeze. I enjoy it mainly because I adore ginger and pure ginger scents are so rare.

This is DSH's generic, slightly vintage-style warm/sweet/rich/powdery/musty oriental base with an added ginger kick. I'd say crystallised ginger rather than the fresh root. I love ginger in any form so I'm happy! Unfortunately, the true ginger note vanishes really quickly and morphs into a nose-tickling, powdery sharpness instead. Also, despite "feeling like" a strong and rich scent it seems to have no sillage whatsoever, I mean not enough to feel it on yourself unless you put your wrist to your nose. Thumbs up for the rare and true-to-life ginger, thumbs down for the rest.

I can recommend this as a "budget" alternative to Miller Harris' Fleurs de Sel. It starts our harsher, colder and more metallic, but the metallic note quickly turns into a saltiness very similar to Fleurs de Sel. The herbs are a but harsher and more traditionally masculine in Rive Gauche, and it does have a cooler, more watery tone that makes it feel more generically masculine and less high end. I personally prefer Fleurs de Sel enough to pay the higher price and I don't need another scent this similar, but that said, I can really recommend Rive Gauche pour homme. Just have patience through the offputting topnote - I didn't want to try this at all after just smelling it on paper, but then I read something about it being a salty fragrance and decided to try it on skin, which I don't regret as it gets better and better.

Like so many other DSH perfumes, both in the cheaper and the more expensive range, this is a fairly dull, traditional sweet/warm/muddy/smooth/powdery oriental. Half of them smell the same if you ask me! Not bad, just not very exciting. I like to be able to pick out at least one note, it adds a certain interest to a scent.... Well, I suppose you could pick out saffron in this, the kind of perfume-note saffron that has nothing to do with the wonderful aroma of the spice, but is more of a golden, powdery sweetness type note. If you really really dig that note, why not try Cimabue? I'm disappointed that saffron in perfume never smells like saffron in food and I'll pass on this version of it.

This is intended as a masculine scent, the classification here on Basenotes is wrong. Anyway, I gladly wear men's scents, but not this! This is just horrible. It has a hint of nice spiciness combined with a disgustingly stale, coconutty sweetness and an artificially "cool and fresh" schampoo-like accord that I can literally taste. The combination is horrid.

At first I dismissed this as interesting rather than pleasing and not really me, and thought Sel de Vetiver was the only salty fragrance I needed. But I've been on a salt kick this summer and they're different enough that I'd like bottles of both - SdV wet and green, FdS dry and brown. It's herbal, but not in a green way, more like scorched herbs on scorched earth covered by a layer of salt. The salt is very pure - just salty, no scary seaweed or fake aquatic notes - and refreshing. I was a bit wary of the sage, a note which normally doesn't work for me, but this is not a dense and bitter aromatherapy-style herbal/aromatic scent, instead it's a "natural and wholesome" theme rendered in an elegantly transparent haute perfumerie way. I love thyme and rosemary and I'm always looking for herbal scents which truly smell like the living thing rather than turning sour, sharp and stale on my skin, and this is it, only with a heap of salt on top! I don't feel the "fleurs" except as a hint of tastefully restrained sweetness, but I do feel the wood and vetiver in the basenotes, which combined with the salt smell more like driftwood than any deliberate "driftwood accords" I've come across. Or like a herb garden surrounded by a wooden fence in a seaside town. This is a wonderful alternative for those looking for a summer scent that is not synthetically "cool" and "clean".

I think Cuir d'Oranger is an underappreciated leather scent (not here on Basenotes obviously, but on the blogs) which I'd pick over Serge Lutens' headshoppy Cuir Mauresque any day! I'm not a great fan of neroli, but in Cuir d'Orange it adds a nice, gentlemanly citrusy/powdery touch. Overall, Cuir d'Oranger is a lot like smooth, warm, refined leather fragrances from days past, not the more modern ultra-realistic kind that smells like fresh hides or leather chairs (which I love too, mind you) As a reference, it's more like Tabac Blond than Knize Ten, without the metallic sharpness of the latter.

I really liked Citrus Paradisi on the test strip, it seemed like a great citrusy/spicy/warm and just a tad animalic composition. On skin, however, it's too much grapefruit. Way too much grapefruit. Grapefruit must be my least favourite citrus note, it always just smells synthetically "clean" and "fresh". It's so persistent and aggressive too - I'd rather take the bitterness of lemon or orange peel any day. On the test strip, this seemed like a classy classic citrus cologne, on skin it seems blatantly modern, modern as in "I'm a Man and I'm so Fresh I only smell of Shower Gel and Deodorant!" Yes, there's a little bit of civet underneath but that doesn't really work with the grapefruit blast. The composition seems hollow and unbalanced, like it has no heart notes (where are the herbs?), only a huge top balanced on a tiny base, and the contrast between cool/aquatic grapefruit and warm/animalic basenotes is just disgusting. It's hot today but I don't find it refreshing in the least, only nauseating. You can probably find something very similar much cheaper, just go for the highest concentration of grapefruit. But I'd rather you didn't, in case I have to stand next to you in an elevator...

Jitterbug has a cute name and I'm learning the dance so I wanted to like the fragrance. Well, it does smell vintage, but there are many other old or old-fashioned scents out there that are better and have more character. Jitterbug smells mostly warm and powdery to me, with a metallic sharpness. I can't pick out any notes and the blend is not glorious enough to capture my interest despite of that. It also seems to have rather poor throw and staying power, which is somewhat surprising as it "feels" like a rich and heavy oriental. I recommend going for the real thing and grabbing a cheap bottle of Tabu instead for a similar but more captivating effect.

Upon application, Quercus seems like a nice, if rather bland, light, refreshing citrus fragrance for summer. Unfortunately, the citrus topnote evaporates quickly, leaving a nondescript, generic, and extremely faint synthetically "fresh" and "cool" man's cologne type scent.

Lily & Spice is really nice. I don't normally go for lily fragrances, at all, but the lily note in this one is warm and soft and creamy instead of rottening or sharp or waxy. The spices (mostly saffron) harmonise nicely with the lily rather than adding a contrast, adding more warmth without being too dry. It's like a "light" oriental, clearly oriental in feel (warm, smooth, rich, spicy) but without being heavy or animalic. It really stands out as more modern than the rest of the line. Despite my amazement at finding a lily scent pleasant and wearable it still doesn't quite feel as "me" though. I think I'd rather go for the candle, in which a more prominent and animalic ambergris note adds a very nice touch.

In the interest of disclosure, I hate lavender. I appreciate what a dr lavender note can do juxtaposed with other elements of well composed fragrances such as Jicky and A Men, but I hate the sweeter, more floral side of lavender, I find it sickly. It's like something with the pretense of being "fresh" which is in fact not fresh at all. Lavandula is lavender softened with sweet and floral notes, presumably to make it less "masculine" and "aromatic" and more wearable for English ladies who like to sew little lavender-coloured bags of lavender with ribbons and lace to put in their drawers.

At first I didn't like it. I'm no fan of rose scents and especially not of the sort of dry, aromatic, rose geranium like one in Hammam Bouquet. What saved the scent for me was the strong animalic/soapy/musty/powdery/warm ambergris basenote, which feels very traditional, very unlike modern ambers. To me the scent is intriguing, comforting and nostalgic like an old house. If you've tried Creed's Ambre Cannelle you'll now what I'm talking about.

English Fern is green in a warm, dry, herbal, aromatic way, yes, pretty much a classic fougere I think. I appreciate how the herbal notes are not overpowering, sharp, bitter or sour like they too often are. The scent feels well blended and smooth with a distinct liquorice note - warm liquorice (fennel?) not cool anise. Feels outdoorsy in a refined, traditional way, like a 30ies gentleman in a light sports costume and a straw hat inspecting his garden or playing tennis with his wife without getting sweaty. Or possibly out for an autumn walk in a cashmere pullover - this may be an autumn scent rather than a summer scent. The sillage is quite strong and the scent linear and longlasting.

Well... it does smell quite a lot like generic "cool and fresh" men's cologne. But it's well done and very agreeable, with no harsh or sharp notes. A pleasant blend of citrusy/aquatic, lightly herbal/spicy, subtly floral and smoothly leathery. It's probably the warm leather base that saves it for me, gives it some interest. My girlfriend liked it even more than I did so I gave my sample to her.

Freezing cold, artificially fresh but thankfully not so perfumey sharp as, say, Light Blue. Even my sister who likes cool/fresh scents (like Light Blue!) found it too cold. Perhaps it does smell like blubells look (because surely they don't have a smell? And if they did it couldn't possibly be so cold!): blue, fragile, delicate, but it's not something I particularly appreciate. Not horrible though, a scent of this type might easily have been much more horrible since I don't normally agree with them. Just a heartless snow queen of a scent that doesn't blend with the skin chemistry at all.

Blenheim Bouquet is very dry, very aromatic. At first I found it unpleasantly harsh but then it sort of grew on me. A little bit. At least enough to warrant further testing. It does smell quite generic within its category of dated, 100% masculine gentleman, über-dry woody/herbal/citrusy scents and lacks something to add extra interest. But at least it is what it's marketed as: traditional.

Artemisia is an extremely dull floral with some annoyingly sharp and "fresh" notes on a cheap sweet vanilla base. Yawn. Smells like a tenth of the price and even then I wouldn't buy it. Wouldn't call this related to Endymion in any way, since Endymoin is actually a decent fragrance.

It seems to be very hard to create a good coffee scent that doesn't turn stale, but the coffee in Café Noir is rich and warm, more like ground coffee beans. It's also quite subtle and blended with the other notes in such a way that it might be mistaken for a bitter cocoa note spicing up a gourmand. (A much better cocoa than in the sickening Piment et Chocolat!) Overall, the scent has a vintage feel to it - like one of those old-fashioned smooth, rich, warm, powdery orientals that instead of the strong synthetic sweetness so common today has a certain "bite" and restraint. I think the "bite" is the bitterness of the coffee note and the dry spices (pepper, cinnamon, pimento), which I sometimes have trouble with as they turn too dry and harsh and bitter on my skin, but here they're kept in check. Instead of doing funny Red Hot things the cinnamon actually smells like a cinnamon stick, an old one with a faint and slightly dusty scent. I can't really make out any of the other notes (resins, florals...) and I don't feel much sweetness from the tonka and vanilla. However, the scent does seem to turn sweeter as it develops on skin - a non-descript, almost white musk-like sweetness rather than a vanilla sweetness, which I guess is what'll linger in the end.
This might sound like a positive review, but actually I think the scent is just decent enough. It would be a star in DSH's cheaper line, but I set the expectations higher for Parfums des Beaux Art. It has a high comfort factor and I like the evocative, bittersweet vintage vibe, but it doesn't really stand out, except maybe as one of very few decent coffee scents. I do wonder if I might be anosmic to something in it though, or rather, if there's something in it I just feel briefly upon application and then quickly develops anosmia to, because it seems to have less throw and fade faster than one would expect from this type of scent in this concentration.

Yuck! Deeming from this scent, there's no difference between the "parfums des beaux art" and the cheaper DSH fragrances -- except the price! I thought it was on the sweet side but ok as a gourmandy comfort scent that didn't feel very sophisticated or expensive for about five minutes, then the chocolate note turned horrible and plasticky on my skin. I feel almost nothing of all the spices and stuff listed that would have made the scent a little darker and more interesting - perhaps a certain powderiness. Actually, I think the cheaper chocolate scents from DSH are better. At least they smell more like actual chocolate - at least almost, while this smells only like "artificial chocolate fragrance". It reminds me of my horrible experiences with chocolate scents from BPAL. The truest chocolate scent I've encountered, if that's what you're looking for, was the one from AvaLuxe, a very sweet milk chocolate type of scent but at least true to life.

Everybody seems to agree that this is the best scent from this line, and perhaps it is, at least it's probably the edgiest one, but it doesn't do an awful lot for me. It's a decent, dry/spicy/woody incense scent, yes, but I'd rather pay more for one I really love. This just seems to sort of sit on my skin and not do anything, it has a sort of chemical/cold edge that never softens or warms up. It might not mean it's a "cheap" or "plasticky" incense - some expensive incense scents have it too, so it might have to do with the incense notes - but I don't find it very pleasant.

I'm not sure if this is a very "good" scent. Probably not, probably its just another a little cheap and plasticky, soft and sweet "skin scent" (white musk) that hasn't got a lot to do with either "real" musk or "real" patchouli (although I can detect a hint of earthy patchouli with my nose glued to my skin). The reason I still like this fragrance is quite simply that it reminds me of my granda who recently passed away. I don't think she ever wore perfume, but it might have been some lotion she used, possibly mixed with a tad of mosquito repellant, just a tad, as a little edge to the scent. I find it very enjoyable, comforting, nostalgic. But I understand if others don't share my memories, so I give it a neutral thumb.

I just can't get over how New York smells exactly like some classic ladies' perfume. Or perhaps it's not reminiscent of a particular classic perfume so much as "stale old perfume" as such. You know, the kind that has been evaporating out in the light on your granny's dresser for centuries. Now, I appreciate a vintage classic, but not nondescript "old perfume". Definitely old ladies' perfume too, can't wrap my head around how this is described as traditionally masculine. True, if I press my nose to my skin, I catch a very fleeting citrus topnote and then briefly a more herbal/aromatic accord which feels classically masculine (it even reminds me of Yatagan) but after that it's just sharp/powdery and the sillage is all "granny perfume" from first spritz. Think Tabu, Youth Dew, Opium... Something rich, warm, slightly soapy and so very very powdery it's sneeze-inducing. Not horrible by any means but... why?

Incense extrême is described as a minimalist incense with an extreme concentration of frankincense extract, and it is. It's neither a murky church incense like Messe de Minuit, nor as fresh and woody like Incense rosé. Instead it's dry, dry, dry like dust or ashes, with an almost herbal/aromatic spiciness. Tauer describes it as a red scent - I'd describe it as charcoal grey. If it was only smoky/spicy hot it might seem red, but it's somehow hot and metallic cold at the same time, like smoldering ashes someone has poured a bucket of water over. Although it feels strong when first sprayed on, it has zero sillage on my skin (like most incense scents!) and either the lasting power is quite poor or it's the type of scent you easily get anosmic to when you wear it. I think probably the latter - it feels like the type of scent the nose would quickly get tired of, especially with the high concentration of one ingredient.

Le Maroc was not at all what I expected. Before I tried it and Reverie au jardin, I thought Tauer's signature was dryness and transparency, but those two scents are polar opposites to his other creations: dense and muddy and and musty-sweet, in the style of "natural perfumery", which I personally can't stand. I'm flummoxed to see Le Maroc compared to L'air du desert marocain or called "dry". To me, it's anything but dry - it's creamy, powdery, musty, dense and sweet.... Actually, I have one word for it: headshop. It smells exactly like that stale, musty-sweet mixed incense smell clinging to everything. Now, I love the dry, crisp, fresh, woody/spicy incense note in fine perfumes (such as Tauer's own lovely incense fragrances!), but that is something quite different from the smell of actual, unlit incense, which I don't particularly like. Le Maroc smells exactly like real, cheap hippie incense, not incense perfume. It doesn't even smell floral to me - floral incense, yes, but not fresh flowers. If I was to pick out one floral note I would say it was a creamy, warm, sweet, heavy jasmine - the rose is nowhere in sight, at least not any kind of rose I recognize from nature or perfumery. (Not that I mind, I'm not a fan of rose.) With my nose glued to my wrist, I sometimes get a whiff of something resembling sticking my nose in an actual flower, but it's like its buried under that headshop sillage. The scent is strong too - one tiny spray from the vial and I can smell it on the air all day long! It doesn't change much either, though perhaps the hint of real flower is replaced by an aldehydic powderiness by the end of the day. Not a favourite at all, but not downright unpleasant (like Reverie au jardin) so it gets a neutral thumb for me. At least I can see how someone might like this fragrance. Someone who wears a lot of tie-dye and smokes a lot of pot.

I really admire Andy Tauer, I do, but I just can't stand this fragrance. It sounds so green from the notes - possibly too herbal for my taste (not a fan of lavender) but worth a try. Alas, it is not green, not refreshing, not sparkling, not juicy, not like a garden at all! Instead, it's an odd, dense, muddy scent with a musty, stale, candylike sweetness that makes me wrinkle my nose in disgust. It reminds me of nothing more than Michale Storer's absolutely horrid Il Giardino, but at least that one had some berry notes as excuse for the sickly sweetness. What's Reverie's excuse? The tonka? The ambrette? The rose? The fir, which sometimes turns Wunderbaum-sweet? Where are all the green and woody notes hiding in this composition? The one note I can pick out is an aromatic lavender. Perhaps the drydown is better - I could bring myself to put this on my skin for the sake of research but not to keep it there for very long...

This fragrance is so delightful it deserves at least one review! The incense is fresh and woody and the rose discrete and natural, far from any of the soapy, powdery or potpourri-like roses common in perfume. In fact, I'd recommend this to anyone, no matter whether you appreciate rose fragrances or not! This is not a dark, murky, chilly, damp, churchlike incense (think Messe de Minuit), instead it's a natural, woody, sunny incense (closer to Avignon or Jaisalmer but even woodier and brighter) The sweetness of it is resinous without being in the least syrupy and the scent is strong without being heavy. The smoking hot and transparent feeling of it reminds me strongly of L'air du desert marocain, but Incense rosé is sweeter and not as spicy or dry. If L'air du desert marocain is (of course) a hot sunny day in the desert, then Incensé rose is a hot sunny day in a cedarwood forest with wild roses growing in it and a fleeting deja vu to Catholic mass.

I have the reverse reaction to those of you who found the opening overwhelming but liked the drydown. The opening is lovely chilly dewy green spicy very true hyacinth, but alas! it vanishes almost immediately on skin and transforms into a powdery, soapy, warm floral I could swear was carnation! I don't like carnation. For a short while, sharp green galbanum functions as a reminder of the topnotes, then that is gone to and it turns even warmer and more powdery. Boohoo, where did my pretty hyacinth go? Perhaps I could use it as a room scent, as it smells lovely from the vial...

This is not the oriental they describe it as, this is in fact a very delightful, lightly spiced tea scent. The first thing I thought was "Five O'Clock Au Gingembre Light!" It's like the cologne version of the Lutens, with the ginger replaced with citrus and the woody/musky basenotes removed. Since I already love and own the Lutens I don't really see any need for an extremely watered down version that vanishes within an hour, but if you find the Lutens too heavy or cloying it might be a good alternative. Thumbs up for the topnotes, neutral thumb for the longevity.

8 88 has the same mosquito repellant note as CdG 2 and Kyoto - must be their trademark, CdG's "Guerlinade"! Well, it sure is original, at least... 8 88 does not have the same emphasis on "dark" notes like incense, vetiver, cedar as the other two, instead it has a much more sweet and floral top and is oddly lacking in basenotes. This makes it sheerer and lighter than the other two, but also more high-pitched. I don't know what's worse really, the dense intensity of the mosquito repellant note in CdG 2 and Kyoto or the high-pitched, yes metallic, tone of it in 8 88. 8 88 smells like a lady out hiking who has had to ruin her floral perfume with mosquito repellant and gets warm and sweats away most of the mixed fragrance while the remaining traces turn even more sharp and sour...

Somewhere in between the fresh leafy green scents I love and the aromatic green scents I have a problem with. Not as musty and sharp as a hardcore old style herbal, but rather sour (which is not necessarily a bad thing) and, at least on my skin, somewhat stale green notes like fresh cut grass, tomato leaves and similar things you'd find in a garden. It's quite "true" to green growing living things, especially tomatoes, but while I love to smell real tomato plants I've realised it's not something I particularly like to smell like. I don't find this genre of green aromas especially "fresh" just because they remind you of nature. Rather the other way around actually - smell them for too long and you get a little queasy, the odour is just too pungent and, well, "aromatic"... That said, Eau de Campagne is light enough to be quite passable as a refreshing cologne for hot summer days nonetheless, at least on someone else's skin than mine, which tends to turn herbal and aromatic scents extra sour and stale.

Bel Ami opens with sour citrus, but not refreshingly sour, it's an oddly stale sourness, perhaps like old lemon juice or lemon water standing in a glass for days. Add to that dusty old herbs and spices rather than fresh ones and you get a pretty musty concoction. This smells nothing like the sweet and floral notes up there suggest (can they really be correct?) - I'd say it's a citrus, herbs, spice and leather fragrance. A pretty classic aromatic/leathery men's scent - yes, quite 80ies, but not quite as macho-extreme as some 80ies scents, this could be an older composition still I think. I have to say it walks a very fine line between the dated, herbal mustiness I detest and a pleasant spicy/leathery accord reminiscent of Yatagan. To its defense, it's actually getting slightly fresher as it develops on skin and that oddly stale citrus note disappears.
As so often with me, I get two completely different scents on my wrists and in the crook of my elbows. In the crook of my elbows, scents stick longer but they also turn sourer, sharper - those notes that tend to turn to soap or powder do so galore, herbal notes get extra musty... On my wrists, scents are fainter and more short-lived but prettier, truer to their original self, drier, fresher, spicier... Hence, with Bel Ami, I get mostly warm aromatic spices on my wrists and musty leathery herbs in the crook of my elbows!

Equipage smells expensive. Yup, that's pretty much it. Classy, classic, perfumey, slightly leathery like, say, Piver's Cuir de russie is leathery - in a dry, sharp, sophisticated way that says "gentleman", certainly not in an animalic, sweaty or sexy way! It has a chypre vibe (sort of sour/musty green in a way I've learnt to appreciate) which makes it feel rather old-fashioned, but it's lighter, cooler, more transparent, more citrusy than most chypres, so say a chypre/fougere hybrid perhaps? I don't exactly enjoy it. It's not a scent to enjoy - it's a scent to appreciate. A scent for well-groomed elderly businessmen - who of course apply it in moderation and don't bathe in it like the Axe-generation. Might remind me of Parfums de Nicolai's Vie de chateau, but it was a long long time ago I smelled that scent...

I could swear Roma had some Meditteranean herb among the topnotes - I recognize it from what you'd smell on the air on a Greek isle or something, yet I couldn't place it... I keep thinking maybe oreganon, but that's not quite it, it's grassier, citrusier, more bracing...? But I guess that hauntingly familiar yet in perfumery strikingly original herbal note is just an illusion created by the mint, blackcurrant leaf and bergamot together... Anyway, it sits on top on a very sweet and creamy base - the effect is like having a main course with green herbs and a vanilla pudding for dessert all mixed up on the same plate. Not entirely appealing. And after the herbal topnote is gone it's just that rather boring and generic creamy sweetness forever and a day.

On paper, Joy is an old-fashioned, slightly musty, indolic jasmine with an animalic undertone - not too promising but worth a try because of the legend... On my skin, it's horrible, horrible: stale, rottening white florals with sharp green compost and loads of aldehydes sprinkled over the decomposing heap to "freshen it up", which of course is doomed to fail since aldehydes aren't really very "fresh", only sharp/soapy/powdery/perfumey. It might be that another concentration is better, but I doubt I'll try it in any form on my skin again.

Well it does smell vaguely like peony. Vaguely. And very sharply perfumey. And also very much alike the non-currant bits of Grosellina. And also gone after a few minutes on the skin. Oh how I wish there was a true peony perfume, but I have yet to come across one!

On paper, and for the first few minutes on skin, this smells extremely refreshing like freshly squeezed lemon juice. No, not pure juice, rather lemon water. No rind in sight. Briefly, I wanted to own it to bathe in it on hot days. Sadly, after those few minutes all the lemon freshness is gone and it smells vaguely and faintly like some kind of perfumed sanitary product...

Ô is not "fresh" like modern citrusy/green/aquatic scents are fresh. It's "fresh" like an extremely watered down version of a classic green chypre - that is, not very fresh at all. The topnotes of citrus and cut grass are agreeable enough, but the development on my skin is in the direction of musty, powdery, stale, sour, sharp, anything but "fresh". This is like the evil twin of some great chypre of yesteryear, the pale, skinny, crooked, whiny evil twin, the Gollum of chypres. It smells like "old perfume" and flowers that didn't smell very good to begin with rottening in a vase. It gets a neutral rateness for classic style and originality and because it might work with someone else's skin chemistry than mine.

At first I thought: vile! I love the scent of freshly ground coffee beans or freshly brewed coffee, but this is old stale coffee or possibly the old coffee beans they provide in perfume stores for you to refresh your nose between scents... It gets better, meaning it gets more like the original A Men - warm, sweet, earthy - but why should you need another A Men with the refreshing lavender topnotes replaced by stale coffee? It's also annoyingly strong and possibly headache-inducing - I just couldn't get it off my skin! It gets a neutral rating for the decent drydown, which is basically the drydown of A Men. The nauseating top deserves a thumbs down, but they say you shouldn't judge a scent by its topnotes...

I like Terre d'Hermes on paper, and I like the citrusy/peppery/woody concoction when I first apply it, but I find that the bracing freshness I first find so appealing really gets on my nerves when wearing it. It's oh so strong and oh so linear - might be a good choice to wake you up in the morning but you'd have to be slightly masochistic. It's "refreshing" like working out is "refreshing", or like that annoyingly cheerful and energetic friend... Some fresh scents cheer you up on a grumpy day - this one would just annoy you more if you weren't in the mood for it. But it might be that I don't particularly like grapefruit as a fragrance note, it has always struck me as unpleasantly shrill and synthetic.
I've seen people rave about the "mineral" note in this one, but they must be the same people who are all over Eau des Merveilles, because I find the scents remarkably similar, like the men's and women's version of the same scent. Yes, they do share a sort of mineralic note that's quite unusual, but more than that they share the same aggressively artificial quality - so much so you can literally TASTE the perfume in the back of your throat. (Perhaps the mineral note and the assaulting perfuminess are really the same element in the scent.) That's what gets on my nerves and makes me slightly queasy with both of them.
That said, I can definitely see the appeal of Terre d'Hermes (more so than with the slam-you-in-the-face-with-a-perfumed-piece-of-driftwood Eau des M., even though the quirkiness of the latter should appeal to me more). It's neither dull nor weird, it feels elegant rather than cheap, it's fresh without being sinus-assaultingly ozonic/aquatic, it has a pleasantly peppery wood note without being too rich and warm for casual everyday wear... If I smelt it on a strange man I'd probably think he was a gentleman with impeccable taste in fragrance (provided, of course, he didn't overapply this sillage beast!). I wouldn't want to snuggle up to him though, or even stay around him for very long. This is a scent you'd wear to impress (without seeming to try too hard), not to seduce. Might be suitable for office wear, especially brief and businesslike encounters. Might even be ok to the gym - ONE spritz MAXIMUM. Don't wear it to dinner though - I at least would lose my appetite if I had to "taste" this perfume mingled with food...

I would call this "Jicky extreme" rather than "Jicky light", but I'm not sure it's more "masculine". The lavender is cooler, the citrus sharper and the animalic basenotes more obviously animalic, barnyard civet rather than warm, comforting musk. When the scent smoothens and softens it doesn't go quite as warm and golden as Jicky but more dry and powdery. I think it lacks the magic of Jicky, the composition feels more unbalanced, but it's still similar enough to be likeable and it has that vintage charm. I think perhaps some note in it deadens my nose though, it feels a bit tickly, so perhaps I can't feel it properly at all.

A powdery, aldehydic, soapy, slightly nose-tickling citrus with lavender. In the "fresh" category, not the butch woody/spicy/musky one, yet dry and warm instead of cool and aquatic like most men's colognes nowadays. Original by today's standards! Might remind me a little bit of classic citrusy/herbal scents like Eau Savage, but much more powdery and aldehydic than most of them. Not unisex though, something in it makes it feel very masculine, gentlemanly. I like it!

At first it has an unpleasantly sharp and plasticky note, but then it mellows into a decent oriental, very traditional in style, with perhaps mostly tobacco.

Generic generic generic. Why did this end up on my "to test"-list? Someone must have said something good about it. I, however, can't say anything about it at all. A bit green, a bit sweet, a bit floral, a bit fruity, a bit bla-di-dah... In fact, it's so sweet and smooth I find it a little sickening - it feels stale, without any spice or zest or anything.

Mmm, rich, varm, spicy-sweet-floral, with a distinct Caron touch. It does have that little metallic/soapy/sharp/dry edge that most of the vintage Carons have, but that only adds to the experience and makes it stand out among similar "winter evening by the fire" type scents. It also has a touch of kinky musk to add some interest.

Well, it smells like lily of the valley. Quite sheer and fresh, not as intoxicating as the actual flower. It does smell a bit artificial, but perhaps lily of the valley is just overused in different hygiene and skin products. But I think it has a certain "fresh" or "soft" quality that the actual flower lacks, a bit like they watered the actual scent down so it would be nonoffensive.

Lovely sandalwood. Not as smooth, buttery and musky as some sandalwoods, although it has those qualities as well. It also captures the spicier, drier, woodier, fresher side of sandalwood. Quite "perfumey", as sandalwoods often are, perhaps simply because the note is used so much in perfumery. I guess the rosewood adds to the "perfumey" feel too, adding a sweet floral quality. Very lovely.

Much better than the disaster called Un Cedre. It's like Feminite du bois with a violet note that manages to be simultaneously soapy, cold, grassy and candied. Something in it feels foody too, savory, like cumin, saffron or some other spice? Or do I smell my lunch cooking in the kitchen? A cool and airy scent, despite the warmer, richer spicy/woody base. Intriguing.

What is this? I love cedar and I love Serge Lutens, so I expected to love it. But it smells like bubblegum! Bubblegum spiced up with some holiday scented candle. Cheap, synthetic, muddy and just plain nauseating. I'm pretty sure the tuberose is to blame for the bubblegum accord. Alas, if Serge Lutens released a true cedarwood scent I'm sure I'd be all about it...

A great addition to the Brit family. I like the original well enough and love Brit Red with the rhubarb topnote. Gold is somewhere in between. It has the cool feel of Brit, so cool I almost detect anise, but I guess it might just be cool florals. Like the rest of the Burberry line, it has a distinctly "perfumey" quality, and that implies a certain coolness.
Gold also has the gourmandy, spicy, rich basenotes of Red however. It's never too sweet or heavy, just a lovely, smooth oriental with vanilla and woods. I could swear I get a pinch of patchouli as well.
I see Dolce Vita among the recommendations below, and I can definitely understand why. They share that quality of smooth, cosy, mature oriental, neither girly sweet nor elderly heavy.

Sweet, smooth and rather bland. Not like a fruity/floral or insipid vanilla, it's sweet, smooth and bland in a rich, adult, floriental kind of way. It smells like "warm mature woman" to me, perhaps simply because a lot of mature women wear it and it's released when they get warm... The spicy/woody/dry basenotes add some interest, but not enough for me. Overall, it's just to perfumey - it smells like nothing but perfume. I can't pick out a single note and I don't think that's a good thing.

I don't get no 5, I just don't. It's the sharpest, soapiest, most powdery and aldehydic fragrance I've ever encountered. It's hardly even a fragrance, at least it doesn't smell like anything pleasant or recognizeable, it's more like the sensation of a drill up your nostril. A drop of this to another fragrance could add an interesting vintage touch, but on it's own it's just an assault to the nose. I'll admit that it softens slightly with time, but it's still mostly just sour, sharp and soapy. Like an annoying tune played entirely in the treble.

I'd classify this as a smoky/tarry/rubbery fragrance - I guess the oud does that. I can pick out most of the notes listed - cardamom, pepper, vetiver, wood, vanilla... - but it all adds upp to a warm, spicy, boozy, almost medicinal rubber/leather aroma. A bit like Bulgari Black on steroids, perhaps? Black is far too soft and wimpy for me, but Oud Wood isn't. It does seem a bit fleeting for a scent with so much character though... And I sure hope it's not the cause of my headache!

Japon noir starts out with a sharp, cool, clean citrus/ginger accord, almost with some cleaning/hygiene product vibes. Then dry, woody spices (nutmeg and clove?) start to dominate. At this stage the scent feels weirdly flat and muddy, like hitting a few random piano keys close to each other, creating a false chord and then repeating it over and over without any melody to accompany it. I thought it would stay like that, but then the melody did appear: sweeter, fresher, brighter notes of jasmine and vetiver accompanying the spices. At this stage, it's rather interesting and exotic, enough to keep for further investigation.

What an interesting orange blossom! Neither Turkish delight nor cleaning fluid, but a third face I haven't encountered before. It's powdery, but without all the usual gourmandy sweetness, and the result is dry and smoky. It reminds me of leather and lapsang souchong tea, but the scent is still firmly dominated by orange blossom, just an orange blossom with leathery and smoky qualities. I even get a dry feeling in my nose when inhaling it, like inhaling dust or smoke, but it's not unpleasant. The ad with the dude bathing in that disgusting white fluid is all wrong, he should be rolling around in a pile of white powder instead!

I confess that I'm seduced by the Baudelaire name and the über-kitsch white torso bottle though. I might not have liked the scent so much otherwise.

It does indeed smell blue, like dark blue velvet. The velvety quality is more of a suede accord I think, and the scent is rather heavy on the leather without ever being harsh or raw. I get perhaps a trace of bergamot or other citrus to freshen things up slightly - the leather and bergamot combo is lovely, much like bergamot-flavoured black tea. The scent is just too velvety smooth and well blended to pick out any more notes, but perhaps some fruity and/or floral sweetness, slightly powdery?

Candied violets (huh? must be the orchid) with some "fresh and clean" hygiene product/men's cologne notes. Where's the patchouli? Where's the skank bloggers are talking about? Nothing at all like the appealing list of notes. Seems faint and fleeting too, not that I mind.

I'm an amber fan, but I prefer my ambers dry and powdery like desert sand. This is more of a syrupy, resinous amber. It even reminds me of pine, pine sweetened with vanilla! Don't get me wrong, it's still an easily recognizable amber scent, it's just a certain type of amber, and not my favourite type. It feels a bit too thick and "gooey" for me, gourmandy with some rather sharp wood notes thrown in. A bit unsophisticated, to tell you the truth.

Sweet, but not with an untolerable cheap and childish vanilla sweetness. It's more like "adult candy", rich and boozy. The tobacco is not just tobacco leaves but has a smoky quality too, which also makes the scent a bit drier and less gourmandy. Like smoking cherry pipe tobacco or perhaps a sugared clove cigarette.

I'm not a great rose fan, but I like this one. It's not sharp, soapy or potpourri-like like most roses, instead it's smooth, powdery and sweet. If that sounds pink and frilly though it isn't. It's a rich, dark, crimson rose with spicy/incensey basenotes of oud and patchouli, just as I prefer my rose fragrances.

I'd call this a "musky chypre" or "musky fougere" in the vein of Jicky. It does not have the distinct lavender note of Jicky, the herbs are more vague and mossy, but it shares the combination of green herbal notes and a sweet, soft, animalic warmth. Like Jicky, it's also a bit "perfumey" in feeling, in a sort of old-fashioned way. I like it.

A woody and spicy scent of the strong and boozy variety, like liquid wood concentrate. It almost has a gourmandy quality of cherry, marzipan or bitter almond. Quite original!

The worst side of neroli: pure cleaning fluid. Sickening.

What others have already said: a waxy, tropical white floral with sharp, plasticky, blue cheese-like overtones.

Interesting, a modern chypre with citrus and herbal notes. I like the spicy undertone and the florals are not too sweet and heady for me. In fact, this is not a predominantly floral fragrance at all and certainly not the big white floral it sounds like. I don't find it particularly "dirty" or seductive either, more dry and aromatic.

I'm not entirely sure Caprifoglio smells like honeysuckle. To me, it's more of a neroli scent. It has the disctint "naturally artificial" odour of neroli. A sweet and heady floral that smells quite "perfumey".

Pleasantly green and citrusy, but unfortunately quite artificial smelling. It also has ginger, and I'm a sucker for ginger so that's what saves it for me.

What a bizarre scent. It opens with a mosquito repellant accord that's almost interesting, a little spicy, and not entirely unpleasant. Next is soap and schampoo, so much so that I can taste it in the back of my throat. Then it quickly mellows to a dull, fruity schampoo scent. The hygiene product vibe is what makes it "masculine", other than that it's mostly sweet and fruity. In this stage it's not unlike other sweet/fresh generic men's scents so the only anarchist part of it is the topnote. Meh.

I love dry fragrances, but this is too dry even for me, or perhaps dry in the wrong way: harsh and sour. Spices like cinnamon and clove do that to me, and I'd say this is a spice scent rather than an incense scent. Sure, I can feel the incense too, but it doesn't really remind me of a church or temple like some other incense scents do. It's more like smelling a sack of woodchips with cloves mixed in. Only, that would smell good, but on my skin scents like that turn sour, like the woodchips and cloves were wet.

This is ridiculous. A cedar so soft and fleeting it hardly reads as cedar. A vaguely "fresh" and "cool" and "clean" cologne with perhaps a slight woody vibe. I love cedar so it was quite a disappointment, but I guess I should have taken the "eau" in the name more seriously...

Pretty dull. I had hoped for a more sparkling and refreshing bergamot-based cologne, but instead I hardly get bergamot at all. I'd say this is a neroli-dominated fragrance, soft and sweetish and vaguely reminiscent of cleaning fluid. Neroli has such an artificial scent, even when it's perfectly natural. It can work in a rich, heavy, oriental/gourmandy fragrances but I don't think it works at all in supposedly refreshing colognes.

Upon first spray I was very disappointed. I had hoped for the lovely dry patchouli of the original Prada with less sugar added. But alas, no patchouli in sight, just watery blandness and fruity sweetness. It was actually even sweeter than the women's version. But then it developed a nice tarry/smoky/leathery smell, unfortionately with the bland fruity/watery accord still in the background. After that the cardamom, vetiver and perhaps a trace of the patchouli kicked in, giving it a very interesting spiciness. This is one you DON'T buy for the tempting topnotes. Try to bear with them for a little while, it will get better...

This is not Prada tendre, this is Prada sucré. The original Prada with the lovely dry patchouli note turned down to a minimum and the vaguely fruity sweetness amped up to maximum. It's not a heavy gourmand, it's rather blandly sweet, much like stale pear flavoured soft drink. Dull but not exactly gross, so it gets a neutral thumb.

To me Prada smells just like the "fake jasmine" common in Sweden, where it's mostly too cold to grow true jasmine. A soft and pleasant white floral, somehow warm and cuddly like florals seldom are. Like the rest of the Burberry line, it has a "generic perfumey" feel, but perhaps a little less so because it's so true to an existing flower. I would wear it if it was this or nothing.

Well hello Coromandel! Prada has the same combination of dry, earthy patchouli and a weirdly 7-up-like topnote. I'm amazed a patchouli scent like this can survive among the fruity florals, and I like it a lot. Coromandel might be a little finer, especially in the drydown which is a little fruity/sweet on the Prada, but Prada is better value. And did it first.

I have tried the vintage and new versions of Shocking, and while the vintage is all powdery oakmoss, the new is all powdery, soapy roses. Yup. I much prefer the old one, but it has some citrus topnotes that have turned plasticky with age and I'm a bit disappointed it's not more "shocking" - as in animalic.

Duel is lovely and refreshing, not as the generic aquatic stuff, but in a refined, classic way. I thought I detected bergamot and mint, but none of the notes are listed. I normally don't like mint, but the minty touch in Duel is nice and dry, something like AvaLuxe's Moroccan Mint Tea. It might be the tea notes I guess. I don't smell tea per se, but I like tea and I like Duel, while those who don't like tea don't seem to enjoy it. This is a light cologne-type scent and longevity is rather poor, but it certainly is pleasant on a hot day!

I like a lot of vintage juice, but not Rochas Femme. It's too cuminy for my taste, with sharp, soapy notes (aldehydes?) and bitterly powdery notes (oakmoss?) Overall it's quite muddy, but that doesn't mean subdued, it's muddy with piercing topnotes, and it also smells quite flat and plasticky, which might be due to the age. I like the drydown better, it's dry and warm and woody with a pleasant bitterness. Not worth the wait though.

Mitsouko smells like Mitsouko, very distinctive and memorable. It's a vintage-styled chypre but it still stands out form the rest. It is a bit musty and "old lady-like", but I don't mind that in the least. It's also less "dense" than other vintage chypres, with bright aldehydic/citrusy/soapy notes. I get the powdery bitterness of oakmoss and the juicy sourness of hardly ripe fruit, but most of all the notes just blend together into something very unique. I think my version is the detested reformulated edt, but I really like it and I might like other versions even more...

This definitely smells like it was made in 1912! While i usually appreciate vintage chypres and the likes this is too much for me. It's just a muddy jumble of sharp and musty notes, I can't make out anything except maybe some bitterly powdery oakmoss and some piercing aldehydes. The flowers feel plasticky and flat and weirdly dense and I think I can detect some cumin too. In fact, it reminds me a bit of Rochas Femme, which I don't appreciate. And this is the extrait too.

Dzongkha took me by surprise! I expected something sheer and cool and meditative with incense and tea, probably dry and not sweet but still on the "pretty" side with the fruity and floral notes. Instead I get pretty much straight up chilli peppers! I love fiery and peppery perfumes so that's not a problem. Still, I wonder what causes it? It's not the first time I find pepper or chili in a scent that hardly even have spice notes listed. I think it's the sharpness of vetiver combined with something else, maybe the incense and wood, that does it. Maybe the cypriol, whatever that is? The cardamom alone is hardly this fiery!

I really hated Coup de fouet when I tried it several months ago, and now that I try Poivre extrait I'm not sure if it's that much better or if my taste has just developed. I think Poivre is smoother, richer, more well blended, less sharp and thin. It's basically the same scent though, very dry and spicy in a little musty, old fashioned way. The description says pepper, which I usually like, but I'd say it's clove and cinnamon, which are too dry for me and turn sour and sharp on my skin.
I wouldn't blame anyone for liking Poivre, I can see how it's a quality fragrance. It has the unmistakable Caron base - coldly metallic and warmly rich at the same time, with a distinct vintage vibe to it. Poivre is well blended and luxurious with honey, carnation, roses and lots of spice, and it might be lovely on someone with a skin chemistry that softens it just a little. Or it might seem lovely to someone who's a fan of carnation and clove in a scent. I'm not, and on my skin the spices turn unpleasantly dusty and bitter.

Just as lovely as everyone says: smooth, buttery soft, dark wood with musky and spicy hints and a touch of powdery sweetness. The violet lends it a cool air, like a forest after the rain, but the scent is mostly dry like leather or black tea or perhaps coffee beans. Enchanting.

I'm not a fan of rose scents, but I appreciate some dark and rich and sultry ones like Black Aoud and Paestum Rose, and also the simpler and truer Ce soir ou jamais. That said, Anglomania is not good enough to make me forget about my rose phobia. It has some honey and spice added, but it doesn't give it enough depth, it's still a relatively "flat" scent. The rose note is also quite sharp and soapy to my nose, not the kind of rose I like. Not downright bad but a little overwhelming, think of the people around you (and of your own head) and don't overdose if you wear it. I'll pass.

Brit smells very generic perfumey (Burberry perfumes seem to do that) but unlike most generic perfumey scents I like it. It's comforting and pleasant, although strong and sweet and synthetic enough to give some people headaches I'm sure. It's a white scent, softly powdery with vanilla, white musk, white flowers... Not the ordinary white flowers like jasmine, lily, muguet, but something like honeysuckle, heliotrope, white rose? It says white peony and perhaps that's why I like it, I love peonies. It's also vaguely gourmandy, perhaps a bit much so for my taste, and I think I detect anise and perhaps a pinch of other spices too? All in all one of the better department store offerings, although I like the more original Brit Red with the rhubarb topnote better.

I have a weakness for tea scents and this is a good one, somewhere in between green and black tea, with hints of citrus, greenery and wood. Not quite as green and fresh and "sparkly" as it sounds from the notes, more dry, but still a refreshing tea scent.

This might actually be one of the most disgusting perfumes I've ever smelled, like an attempt at creating something "dark" and "mysterious" gone horribly wrong. Stale, watery, decaying lilies on a raw, thin, pseudo-leathery base with perhaps a hint of musty spice. Yuck.

From the notes, Dolce Vita sounds too sweet and generic for my taste, a fruity floriental, but I actually enjoy it a lot. It wraps me in a sweet, soft, rich floral/gourmandy/spicy/woody cloud. It does smell like a very feminine and sexy and voluptous woman in perhaps her 40ies, which is not me at all, but I still like it. I'm impressed that it's so not me and yet I want to keep it and wear it. Can't give it more than a neutral thumb though, it's not that original or interesting and it does lack a bit of sophistication in its gourmandy sweetness.

I just don't like this one at all, I find it downright unpleasant. A spicy/fruity/floral, overwhelmingly sweet with weird soapy/plasticky/stale notes.

I can see how this was originally a perfume to scent cigarettes. It does smell a bit like cigarettes or cigarilles with a flavour: unlit tobacco, but sweeter and softer. It's syrupy and powdery and quite heady and I can't really pick out any notes except for the tobacco-y feeling of it. Tobacco isn't even in it, just a long list of other notes. Like Mitsouko, it could perhaps be called a fruity/floral chypre, very classic and glamourous in feeling.

Very likeable, very refreshing, very green and citrusy, without any jarring or artificial "fresh" notes. I'm not sure it's interesting enough to buy for me who love dark and complex perfumes, but for someone who doesn't really like perfume or who's sensitive to strong smells this is the ideal scent. Unlike so many "fresh" aquatic/ozone scents people mistakenly believe can't be overapplied this one really can't. I usually use a swipe or two from the sample vial, but I've been pouring L'eau all over myself all day. No, it does not have much "throw" or "longevity", but that's not a matter of quality, it's just not that type of scent. For what it is, it's lovely!

Jules smells like generic Man Juice. Not like today's bland, aquatic colognes, but like an old school harsh, bitter, heavy, spicy, leathery concoction. I could appreciate the woody dryness of it if it wasn't for a certain cool or metallic note that feels very generic men's cologney and annoyingly aggressive - almost like mosquito repellant. Yeah, Jules has a lot in common with insect repellant, only a little nicer and deeper and more smoky/leathery

I have smelled Mayotte, not Mahora. Anyway, it's far too much of a blah-di-dah tropical white floral for my taste.

My sample is labelled "Violette de madame", and I guess it's a new edition from the Guerlain boutique. It's a cool violet, not too sweet, with an old-fashioned sopay/powdery/candied vibe too. I get a green, aromatic note in the top that reminds me of geranium, but perhaps it's just violet leaf. The basenotes are warm, musky, powdery and almost kinky - cumin perhaps? Not my favourite violet, but I like the dirty drydown.

It feels like a classic chypre, but not "dark" or heavy or musty or sharp or any other such things associated with vintage chypres. No, this is a fresh, light, floral summer chypre with aldehydic powdery/citrusy/soapy topnotes. It has some of the juicy greenness of Cabochard, but it's not that bitterly green/woody at all. It reminds me of Vega - they are both classic, refined scents with aldehyde top, floral middle and woody base, but Sous le vent is greener and spicier, without the almost tropical white florals of Vega.
Simply put: a lovely scent. Cheerfully green and summery yet refined enough for the office and with vintage-type character enough to make a statement.

Very classic: sharp, soapy aldehydic topnotes, white floral heart and creamy, boozy sandalwood base. I'm not well acquianted with Chanel no 5, but I think there are some similarities, especially in the strongly aldehydic top and characteristic sandalwood base. I can see why this is called Vega, the topnotes smell a little lemony in a sunny and bright fashion and the rest of the notes are also very bright: white florals, powder, soap and cream. Not normally my style, I'm definitely not one who wears this kind of buttery, waxy, tropical white florals a lot, but this is so refined and classical I'll make an exception. I enjoy the distinct vintage style of it, although I think my sample is the reorchestrated version.

I find red ginger to be a vintage-styled floral, heady and a little boozy and spicy in a sort of old-fashionedly "tropical" way. Not bad, but not overly exciting either, a bit "perfumey".

Mmm, this is definitely the musky sweet, buttery soft face of sandalwood, not woody dry at all. The top and middle notes add some spicy zest but mostly it's a smooth, sweet scent. I even wish they would have gone a little lighter on the vanilla since it's on the verge of too sweet for my taste, but absolutely not cloying, more like so rounded it almost lacks interest. Almost. Then I get a whiff of spicy rose or coriander or zesty tangerine and my interest is renewed.

I like the notes I can pick out with the nose glued to my wrist: zesty citrus, herbs, spices, woods... Too much of a generic men's scent for my taste though, especially in the throw, which is sort of flat, bland, cool and almost aquatic in the way I really don't like about a lot of scents in the men's department. It feels well done and classic and if you'd like to wear something that is absolutely inoffensive and attracts no attention this is probably a good choice.

Well yes, it has a metallic edge but I prefer the heavy metal of Carons. Other than that it is far too much of a white floral for my taste and I've never been a fan of carnation either.

Amazing! I have half-jokingly wondered why nobody makes a perfume that smells like horses, and this is it. Guet-Apens smells just like a horse! It's the sweet-and-sour quality of it. I get it from Bandit too, but not as extremely, in Bandit it's more of a hay loft plus an animalic warmth. In Guet-Apens it's pure, unadultered horse, with a hefty dose of half-chewed hay and a hint of dung heap.
Sure, if I put my mind to it I can pick out notes: citrus for the sourness, vanilla for the sweetness, some sort of spicy floral for the hay note... But to no avail: it all adds upp to horse! I'm very nostalgic about the scent of horses so I find it quite irresistible in a very quirky way.

I have no idea what's in this, but I keep thinking "buttery tuberose". I'm not even sure I know what tuberose smells like... But it's a white floral nevertheless. Dries down slightly flat and plasticky I'm afraid... on a cuminy/green base. I can tell it's well done even though it's not my style at all.

Wow, it smells just like licorice! Strangely refreshing licorice with some citrus and woods and leather and green notes and coffee. I think it makes my mouth water...

Starts out citrusy, more citrusy than I like, with some candied violets. Then the citrusy and green notes transform into a classic chypre where the violet too is greener and less sweet and barely detectable. I feel the warmth of cumin and the earthiness of patchouli although none of these notes are listed. Unlike anything else and quite beautiful, magical somehow. Yes, I do buy the name "black violet" - thic could be a night-blooming black violet with a very faint scent blooming in an enchanted forest full of satyrs and fairies.

A soft, sweet leather scent, suede-like indeed. Not the best leather scent I've ever smelled, but I guess I like them a bit rough. If you prefer velvety smooth leather this is it.

Too herbal for my taste, it smells like some kind of aromatherapy oil or simply like crushing a leaf on a pottet plant between your fingers and then smelling your fingers. A green note verging on citrusy/minty/spicy/medicinal, I'm pretty sure the geranium is the culprit. As a cologne it lacks finesse, but if you really dig green scents and don't mind geranium it might work for you.

The list of ingredients reads like an enigma to me. The leather, vetiver and lavender makes it sound like a dry, masculine fragrance and it's quite the opposite. I love cardamom but get none. The iris might possibly account for the cool, almost licorice-like, sweetness.
The nicest thing I can say about this scent is that it reminds me a little bit of sugared tea with milk and a lemon slice. Black tea (not green tea, it's just green and fresh and citrusy) and leather often have similar qualities to my nose, so perhaps that makes some kind of sense, and the hint of citrusy freshness might possibly be the vetiver. The sweetness is definitely more vanilla/tonka/honey/gourmandy than floral to my nose though. All in all, a nice and pleasant scent, but too sweet and bland for me (and i'm not a man).

I sort of get the name, it's a bit like being in the wilderness among the herbs and lemon trees... It's a cultivated wilderness though, full of edible plants. It has also a very conventional feel of gentleman's cologne which is everything but savage. The citrus is not refreshing, it's aromatic, and I do think I can detect lavender in there too. I'd go so far as to call this a fougère. Not bad - I enjoy the herbal, dry, almost woody quality of it - but not exceptional either.

Yum yum, this is the sexy sultry leather Madame X failed to be on my skin. Clearly a leather scent, almost single note, but a sweet and powdery leather with slightly citrusy topnotes. I get a hint of florals and an almost gourmandy tone but mostly this is about the leather. Perhaps a bit like the feminine version of BPAL's nice, dry leather/bergamot scent Severin.

I always get this one as a freebie with my orders! It's a buttery soft and musky sandalwood that reminds me of both Santal de Mysore, Muscs Koublai Khan an L'air de rien. It feels animalic and savoury spicy, maybe thanks to the ambergris. That said, it is more plasticky than the musky masterpieces mentioned. Not too plasticky for me to enjoy though, it's still a nice scent. A comfort scent for those who prefer barbecue to sweet desserts.

I'm surprised this is called Teakwood. The cool, watery violet note, which could be taken for iris, dominates the nicely warm and spicy wood. The result is a pretty well blended woody floral, with emphasis on floral.

I wonder what Sweet Patchouli smells like, because this is sweet patchouli. Rather, the patchouli note is dry and earthy/woody, but the overall scent is sweet and perfumey. I get some rose and vanilla, a slightly murky or musty (in a good way!) oriental. I only wish the scent was a little less sweet, with a little more emphasis on the pleasantly dry patchouli.

Smoky, leathery, chemical, medicinal, resinous, sharp... I don't know if Oud is supposed to smell like this since I have never smelled it on its own. This is, however, like CdG Garage Extreme: amped-up car interior, gasoline and tar. I couldn't possibly call it pleasant, but I'll go so far as to "interesting" and add that it might work as a layering note. It might also work worn as it is in very small amounts on the butchiest butch alive. I can imagine getting a faint whiff of this mixed with warm body odours from a hot leatherclad butch might work very well indeed... But too much of it and you get a headache and a sore throat from breathing it in.

I already know I don't like beach scents, I was just curious about this one. I guess as far as beach scents go it's a pretty good one, soft and natural with the sort of "dry" greenness of "dune grasses" being the strongest note. No sharp ozone/grapefruit, no obviously fake "salty breeze", no coconutty suntan lotion. It's a cloudy, chilly day at the beach and the beach is empty. To appreciate it you have to stand the stale, cool cucumber note "water" scents so often share though, and I just don't.

Distinctly woody, yet it's a sweet, perfumey wood, so perfumey I can almost taste the perfume in the back of my throat for a while after application. Apart from wood, I get a hint of spice, a hint of clean white musk, a hint of AvaLuxe's signature sweet, smooth coconutty/musky base. Somehow the overall impression of the sillage reminds me of Earl Grey tea with milk - the citrusy/spicy topnotes of the wood standing in for bergamot, a certain dry, leathery feel like black tea, and that smooth creaminess for milk. I'm a huge fan of wood so I enjoy it, but I must say it feels rather "perfumey" - a little aloof, dressed up, feminine to the teeth in high heels and a crisp blouse, something like that...

Chypre-ish, but not quite a chypre like they used to make them... Instead of aldehydic topnotes, green heart notes with oakmoss, and an animalic, leathery base in perfect harmony there's more of a jumble of soapy sharp topnotes, green grass heartnotes and cumin-y basenotes. Not very noir, in my opinion, but I can smell the aspirations at noir. To be noir it needs oakmoss instead of grass, leather instead of cumin, more heft and body, less soapy sharpness. Potentially headache-inducing.

Starts out with a chypre-like sharpness that soon turns pleasantly peppery. I just love peppery scents. The pepper in Biba is chilli peppers to my nose and I really enjoy the searing heat. It's red-hot and spicy/woody in the same way as Les Nereides Oriental Lumpur, Eau d'Italie Bois d'Ombrie and CdG Palisander. Like them, it also has a sharp/clean soap note that feels very chic. In the drydown it develops more of a powdery sweetness.

I'm afraid Shisha doesn't smell like water pipe smoke to me. I'm used to the distinct smell of apple and cherry tobacco, while Shisha is more vague and fleeting. In the opening there's a sharpness, but not like smoke, more like an acrid green note, but it soon mellows into something you could call the "generic AvaLuxe base", a very smooth, sweet coconutty/buttery/musky scent. I prefer Kretek and Tabac!

This is for Rasa X-treme, which is pretty much identical to Kama X-treme: superskanky supermusky animalic notes. Perhaps Rasa is slightly more sweet and floral.

Viva sounded way too floral for my taste, but I just couldn't resist the evocative description. Well, it is too floral, a sugarsweet, plasticky, bubblegummy white floral. Not very decadent, except maybe in a Paris Hilton kind of way. I was hoping for a more elegant decadence, but this sugared white floral belongs in a schampoo or a handlotion, not in a fine perfume.

This is the musk that puts Muscs Koublai Khan to shame. My sister wrinkled her nose and said it reeked of public restroom, while I'd go for the pleasanter barnyard. It does have a feel of manure and unwashed hair, I won't lie about that. But skank-addict as I am I just love it. There's something both comforting and addictive about it, like the familiar scent of human flesh, and the temptation to inhale your own sweat. It has the raw sexuality of Muscs Koublai Khan, but also the "cosy musty apartment"-feel of L'air de rien. Perhaps it's the other notes that peek our through the animalic ones - the rose and the cedarwood - that give a similar feeling of a chic elderly lady's apartment full of exotic scents, rather than the unpleasant smell of the home of some lunatic who never bathes... Kama feels old-fashioned and, yes, elegant. Elegant in a bold way, like a rich eccentric aristocrat who doesn't have to care what anybody thinks. I wouldn't want to smell this on an unkempt stranger with bad breath and ill manners, but on a chic lady with a sense of personal hygiene I wouldn't mind it.

This is the best firewood scent! Woody, without being a pure wood scent, smoky, without being harsh and bitter, cosy, without being gourmandy sweet. An open fire of birch wood and, although it's not in the description, fir and pine wood.

A relative of Brit, without the citrus. They share a certain air, a rather "perfumey" air I must say. This seems to be Burberry's signature, classy scents that smell like perfume, period. This is not to say I can't pick out notes in them, but it all adds upp to "perfume", not a true-to-nature invocation of a place or flower or foodstuff.
London is a woody scent, and I get a hint of leather too, still it reminds me more of an elegant, refined lady than a gentleman. A lady of the old school, with too much authority to wear some insipid fruity/floral. I'd say it's a lady's oriental wood, sweetened with florals and tobacco. It's very soft and smooth, no sharp or aromatic fougere/cologne/chypre notes. I wouldn't be surprised to smell this on a man since it has the classic woody/leathery base, but I would find it rather sweet, unless his male skin chemistry would make it less so. I'm talking tradition here, personally I think all scents should be gender-free, and all in all I wouldn't mind smelling London on anyone. It's just a bit too "perfumey" for me personally.

A sweetened citrus fragrance, like sipping on a lemonade or eating lemon icecream. Not sickly sweet or overly gourmandy, just sweet. More of a floral sweetness really. Underneath the citrus and floral there's a light, transparent woody/musky base. The scent feels elegant and actually quite "perfumey", perhaps because it's similar to so many other scents, feminine and masculine ones. Well done but not special enough for me to buy.

The topnotes remind me a lot of the lovely Story: refreshing, sparkling, green and citrusy. Unfortionately, the neroli and orange blossom soon starts to dominate, so it's almost like layering Story with a soliflore. I don't get the concept of orange blossom cologne, the flower has none of the freshness of citrus fruits, only the gourmandy sweetness. The neroli in Cologne is sweet, perfumey and powdery on my skin. I'd rather have Story for warm weather.

A very nice scent, I must say! I tried it mostly because I love the woody original, the baby blue juice scared me, it looks like something "fresh" and insipid but no. It's the straightforward, rugged, warm freshness of black tea and bergamot (instead of some horrid ozone/aquatic/mint/eucalyptus) over a very smooth and creamy woody base. I get hints of licorice, tonka and vanilla, but not too sweet. Perhaps a hint of musk, like very fresh sweat on a very hot person, not enough to offend anyone. The tea and spice and tobacco and wood almost give a leathery feel, but a soft and comforting leather, not raw. Very stylish, I'm really pleasantly surprised.

Reminds me a lot of Patchouli empire, a citrusy black tea note, only this time it's logical. The difference is it's a little lighter and fresher without the patchouli undertones. Like Patchouli empire, it reminds me more of some aromatherapy oil than fine perfume, or in this case a insect repelling wardrobe perfume, which it is. You don't have to worry about your clothes smelling bad if you use this, but I wouldn't buy it as a personal scent.

Very citrusy in the topnotes, although no citrus is listed. It's not quite the scent of actual citrus either, it's more like the citrusy feeling of some tea notes, or herbs like lemongrass. Yes, I'd actually guess this was a black tea scent if I didn't know better. But no tea is listed either, so perhaps it's the black pepper (I smell no pepper) or one of the patchoulis that has a citrusy feel. Apart from the citrus I get only patchouli, but it's not the dry, woody patchouli I love, it's more of a murky, musty hippie incense patchouli. The whole scent is weirdly medicinal, perhaps because of the "refreshing" (but not really) citrus/herbal topnote over an exotic, murky base, It smells like some aromatherapy oil more than any niche perfume. I don't hate it, it's fairly comforting, but not one of my fav patchouli scents.

My perfume-hating mum got this as a present and never used it. I sprayed some when I was in her house, and it smelled Old Lady Perfume. Really bad, cloying and musty. Now I love vintage chypres and rich orientals, that's not what I'm talking about, it just smelled cheap, and aggressive yet lacking in personality. I could not discern a note, or scent family, or anything. Perhaps it was a bit musky/spicy?

I think it was this one I got as a present, then broke in my sink so I had to pay the landlord for a new sink when I moved out because it was a little chipped... Anyway, it smelled... musky... and perfumey, and strong. The bottle was deep purple.

Cool, green violets, much less sweet than the actual violets I smelled the other day. The cool greens are almost minty, but more like birch. I also get some very dry, almost papery, russian leather. In the drydown the violets get a little sweeter and the leather richer and spicier - it's probably the woods.

Take some dry patchouli and sweeten it a bit and you got Patchoulissime. Foetidus is right, it's not a heavy or spicy patchouli fragrance and it's not Ye Ole Hippie Patchouli, but it's still clearly patchouli, pretty much a single note. One sweetened, light and airy, and a tad "perfumey", which is what I like the least about it.

Woolly and soft and cosy like mittens drying on the radiator. No snow or frozen air in sight. Perhaps some springlike thawing earth, much like Demeter's Snow. A comfort scent that doesn't live up to its wintry description.

A refreshing pepper scent with soft creamy/musky/clean undertones and a hint of cool anise. Perhaps a tad "perfumey" and very fleeting - the pepper topnote that I like best about the scent is gone in an instant.

The greenness of freshly cut grass, wet earth, a hint of powdery, bitter moss and the barest trace of delicate, crisp spring flowers. Too light and clean to be my type of scent but still lovely. I think I like it so much because it's so very green and natural, instead of the usual cool, light, feminine "spring" florals with lily of the valley, violet, lilac and such that are more summery to my nose. In the drydown it gets a little sweeter and more powdery and looses its crisp freshness, more like a light floral chypre perhaps.

Opens with a blast of "whoah, I drenched myself with ouzo (or sambuca, if you like)!" Then it's a soft, subdued refreshing/powdery/sweetish anise cologne.

Sipping on a juicy lychee cocktail in a rosegarden. Rather nice, but still too much of a sweet fruity/floral for my taste. I expected something darker and more exotic from a scent named Talisman, this is a very bright and shiny Talisman, like a mock jewel trinket found and revered.

A nice musky/spicy/woody oriental, with a slightly rubbery quality, presumably from the birch tar. It is a bit murky or musty, but in a good way imo, that reminds me a bit of S-Perfumes Lust, but more wearable. The downside is it seems to cling very tightly to the skin and fade fast, surprisingly since the character of the scent is rich and spicy.

A dark, seductive rose (I get mostly rose from all the floral notes) with an undertone of leather/chypre/animal. Reminds me of my favourite rose Black Aoud.

A warm, round, sweetish, musky scent, quite unlike any other. I guess it's the uncommon chestnut note. It has a slightly peppery touch which I assume is the vetiver. Very nice and very original.

I got a few vintage minis in different concentration and they smell a little different but all smell good.

The edp is a very smooth, sweet, rounded musk/wood/vanilla scent, almost to sweet for me but I like the woody/ambery note.

The edc is a tad brighter and lighter with more floral and maybe citrus? Perhaps it's the citrusy floral of orange blossom. Still a very musky and smooth base though.

I can see how this scent might make some queasy, those who only enjoy fresh or very restrained and chic and dry scents. It doesn't smell expensive, I give you that, and it's not amazing or anything, but decidedly nice and quite original.

I bought 2 mini vintage bottles that look slightly different. It's possible one of them is a dupe I guess, or perhaps just different editions.

They smell a bit different too, starting out too sweet and fruity for my taste. One has a weird soapy/coffee note, perhaps lavender has something to do with it? The other is paler and fades faster but becomes less sweet and more alcohol-y. I guess one or both might have gone bad, I haven't smelled fresh Madame Rochas so I can't compare.

I got a full vintage mini from Ebay, and I don't think it has turned.

First, it has a certain flatness, perhaps due to evaporated topnotes. It seems like a slightly plasticky feminine floral. After that it's almost pure cumin. Wow! I agree on the Kingdom comparison.

I bought a vintage mini on Ebay, still full, but it might have turned, so read my review with that in mind.

What I get is a rather flat scent, slightly plasticky. It might not necessarily be bad, it might just be out of fashion, with old ingredients. To begin with a got some green sharpness, but it soon mellows to a rather warm scent, slightly cuminy. I can't really discern any notes. I do think it smells like coffe though, from a rather strong coffee blast in the opening to a softer, almost gourmany tone in the background.

My favourite of the scents I've tried from the line. Very true to smoke, but it would be woodsmoke, not necessarily leaves. If it's leaves they're definitely dry - I think I've only smelled the smoke of damp leaves irl, if any. A bit sweetened too.

A sultrier and more luscious rose than Quel amour, and more to my liking. Almost gourmandy in that it feels honey-drenched and boozy/intoxicating. I'm certainly no rose expert, but it reminds me a little of Paestum Rose, only sweeter and without the darkish base. The rose note is similar - heady, slightly spicy and very true to a bush full of large, dark pink roses (not red, not to my nose). Perhaps a bit on the sweetish side for my taste but not girlie pink, it still feels mature.

Aah, too floral, too sweet, too soapy/perfumey, too pink! I love peonies, so I thought I'd try a peony based scent, but I get mostly roses and I prefer my roses dark and seductive to frilly and fluffy. If you enjoy this type of scent it's probably very pretty though. For me, I need some green or woody notes badly, I'm drowning in pink florals here.

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the chypriest chypre of all? Well, Y is pretty darn close. Some nose-tickling, powdery aldehydes over lots of oakmoss and a cuminy hint of animalic notes and hardly any florals. Dense and heavy and dark green. I can definitely see how many might find this musty and old-fashioned (I certainly would not long ago) but I just love the juice.

Before I smelled the real thing I had a cheap perfume oil dupe, and I think it was a good one too, because it only had a stronger cherry note but otherwise captured the odd, not-quite-sweet powderiness of Luctor et Emergo. I think LeE reminds me mostly of Eau des Merveilles, another scent I don't "get". They're both powdery and dry with a sort of stale bitterness I think to many people come off as "salty". The salty/sweet atmosphere is a bit Play-doh-ish, yes. Play-doh or maybe marzipan that's very heavy on the bitter almond and very light on the sugar, but compensates for the lack of sugar with some sweet vanilla. LeE has some green grass thrown in too, and the combination of green notes and powdery sweetness reminds me of Geir. As far as I'm concerned, Geir might be "Luctor et Emergo for him". I'd rather wear Geir.

The iris note reminds me of violet: cool, green and powdery. I can see how this might be a beautiful, ethereal, springlike floral, but I don't really fancy it. I find it a bit artificial, a bit "shower product fresh" with a tiny bit of musty, plasticky sweetness added.

A nice green chypre, a little lighter, fresher and more springlike than traditional oakmoss-heavy chypres. The powderiness seems to be something of a Chanel signature. Nice, not stunning.

An old-fashioned floral, powdery and a little musty. Also cool, watery almost, some might call it fresh. I mostly get violets and there are other violet scents I'd rather wear.

A decent amber with a little bit of dry patchouli, but hardly the best. Too sweetened for my taste, and something about it is slightly nauseating.

An old-fashioned floral chypre with a very nice green note, something like a brighter and less kinky Bandit. I detect something like cumin beneath the top notes, and while I don't like a prominent cumin note it's subtle enough to just add an interesting, vaguely animalic, warmth to the cool greens. Very well done, a classic.

A richer and creamier leather than Cuir de Russie, but not in a very good way. It shares the sharpness of CdR, what I thought was the birch note, but the very artificial citrus note is sweeter and more prominent throughout. The result is weirdly musty/musky/fruity and not at all pleasant.

Smells purely like strong, old-fashioned, yellowish soap, which I've learned is because soap is (or was?) often scented with ambergris. A comfort scent, not of the usual gourmandy variety, but because it's evocative of a musty old house, perhaps one inhabited by a distant, elderly relative with interesting stories to tell. If you bathed there as a kid your skin would smell like this, and you would feel not quite clean but more imbued with the mysterious atmosphere of the place...

I'm surprised a scent with ingredients like vetiver, patchouli and sandalwood can be this faint and weak. It starts out freshly citrusy/gingery/watery, with just a hint of warmness and richness from the tobacco, patchouli and sandalwood. Then it fades extremely fast. Perhaps it would work as a generous splash to refresh yourself with on hot days? I do like the ginger note, and the scent overall is not at all unpleasant, it's just so very unspectacular. I guess you could get pretty much any cheap refreshing cologne as a replacement.

Rather weird... It fells "vintage", yet it has a sweet, powdery, even plasticky vanilla note that feels very contemporary to me. The combination is truly original, I haven't smelled any perfume like it. But is it any good? To my nose, it smells quite cheap, like a cheap perfume oil. It's the vanilla that does it. Loads of vanilla over a dry, woody incense base. In the drydown I get a hint of white floral and the slightest whiff of animalic notes. Worthy of Marlene Dietrich? Hardly! Perhaps in some role where she's disguised as blond angel with a heart of gold in white furs...

A distant relative of Bandit and Cabochard, more "watery" and cool than any of them, a little flatter and more plasticky/soapy/perfumey. The cumin is rather interesting and subtle enough not too disturb, and there seems to be a warm wood note somewhere underneath the cool greens. As a vintage chypre it's ok but not one of the best.

A powdery old-fashioned chypre, a little musty. Not bad, but not worth seeking desperately for vintage bottles either, in my opinion. There are other vintage chypres that stand out more.

Citrus, dry lichen and wood, bitter oakmoss, rubbery leather and an animal lurking underneath. I like the animal. The notes feel a little plasticky, or rather rubbery, but a great scent nonetheless.

Insanely sweet and strong, especially for a "unisex" fragrance. Smells like a cloying, gourmandy feminine fruity/floral to me rather than a unisex oriental. I think I detect a cool and perfumey hint of anise in there, but very sweet, almost more like liquorice. Not horrible in any way, just generic and overly sweet.

I'm surprised cedar isn't listed since to my nose this is a single note cedar scent. And I don't mean that in a bad way, I love cedar. I guess it's the general peppery/woody composition. It's not strong and harsh and butch, like it may sound from the notes, it's certainly nothing like the 70ies scents. It's very 21th century, sort of ethereal and polished and refined and easy to wear. Perhaps a tad weak, even, but I still enjoy it a lot. Its popularity is well deserved.

I had to try this because it was created for Errol Flynn and because I love leather. I don't much fancy it though. I don't mind raw, strong leather scents verging on rubber, gasoline and tar, like CdG Synthetics, Lonestar Memories, Cuir Ottoman, Kolnisch Juchten, Knize Ten, Patchouli 24... Cuir de Russie is too "thin" and cold and aggressively metallic/medicinal though. I guess it reminds me mostly of CdG Garage, which is an interesting concept scent but not very wearable, smelling more like gasoline and fake leather car seats than leather.
CdR starts with very cool birch and very sour lemon and perhaps some of the other notes too combining to a sharp mosquito repellant/felt tip pen scent. Underneath that there's some not-quite-leather, more like fake leather. Very butch but not in the ruggedly handsome way, more like a young model with a chiseled jaw staring coldly into the camera dressed in a brand new punkrocker outfit, metal chains and rubber pants all shiny.
Not veyr likable but I probably have to keep it nonetheless for the history.

It sure smells like the classic it is. A traditional soapy/powdery floral, much like some of the old Carons, only less metallic, with a warm, ambery/sandalwoody/musky base. A very warm and "round" scent, nothing stands out except maybe for a certain green/soapy sharpness. The oriental base really adds to the somewaht old-fashioned florals.

All about the leather. A strong, raw leather, either a really worn old leather or some quite unrefined leather product, definitely not the soft, subtle smell of a pair of new leather gloves. Could be an old armchair or a saddle perhaps.
Some say turpentine and gasoline and garage and well, I see where that's coming from, but I agree with fraddicted that it's more like Tabac Blond: that sharp, almost metallic note. I love Tabac Blond and I love Knize Ten too, they're such a fine couple. With their old families and money they can afford to be bold and eccentric, they don't have to dress up in boring business suits and shower-fresh cologne... However, if you only like your leather notes very soft and refined you should probably stay away.

Wonderfully soft and buttery yet strong and rich leather with a heady dose of florals. I'm usually not so very fond of florals, but these are so soft and compliment the equally soft leather very well without overwhelming it. They are never sharp or soapy or sneeze-inducing as florals can sometimes be.
The scent is so soft and skinlike i imagine it would be heavenly in a lotion, even though it's strong and dark and leathery.

Eau des Merveilles with orange blossom. Yes, I know it's supposed to be candied orange peel, but to my nose it smells like the sweet orange blossom water you use for cooking. Not overly sweet or gourmandy, it has much the same woody/salty/transparent/dry/aquatic feel as Eau des Merveilles. Like Eau d M it's also extremely "parfumey", so much so I can basically feel the taste of perfume in the back of my throat. And like Eau it's also somewhat off with my chemistry, like soap on sweaty skin rather than freshly bathed skin. I almost detect a cumin note...

Eau des Merveilles just doesn't work with my skin chemistry. I can appreciate the unconventional beauty of it, I get the whiffs of dry driftwood and salty skin, but on my skin it's just too soapy/perfumey. It's very light and transparent yet bitter and sharp at the same time, and when I inhale it I get this unpleasant taste of perfume in the back of my throat.

I had heard so much about the bold body odor cumin of Kingdom... Well, it has a distinct cumin note, but it doesn't remind me of bodies, it's just vaguely disconcerting. I'm crazy about cumin in food but in perfume.. not so much. It's off somehow, unlike smelling the fresh spice it's not a very pleasant smell. But unwashed private parts? Definitely not! Maybe a little like some persons' fresh sweat...
Other than that I get a buttery soft and musky sandalwood, like the expensive sandalwood of a Serge Lutens, and too much florals for my taste. Not as provocative or interesting as I was lead to believe.
I got some on my clothes too and there it's pure citrus topnotes, while on my skin it was softly spicy and anything but fresh from the start. All in all, I don't much like it, too soft and sweet and musty, lacking edge or character.

Ethereal, transparent beauty of incense, orchids, pepper, woods and subtle skin musk, a perfect everyday fragrance. It's not too edgy, it doesn't attract attention (except by being exceptionally well done and beautiful) it's not heavy and seductive and it's definitely not a horrid girly pink bubblegum fruity/floral. It's just sheer elegance. It would match a suit with crisp white shirt, jeans and a cashmere sweater or the little black dress equally fine.

Yum! This and Wenge are really great scents in their own right. Labdanum is leathery and a little sweetened, like a complex oriental with spices, gourmandy notes and animalic notes.

There's something really offputting about this scent. I like the dry, woody/spicy macho stuff like Yatagan, Antaeus and M7, so that's not it. It's more like a supposedly "fresh" but really musty and stale note, something cool and watery, like eau de wet dog. I got a little of that from Marquis de Sade and Yatagan too, so it might be the leather. It's far worse in Uomo though, sort of sour. The worst kind of stinky men's cologne I'd hate to smell on anyone, especially on someone a little hot and sweaty, that combination would be truly horrifying.

Very nice! A little bit of "Yatagan light" maybe? It has the sharp, dry woody/herbal machismo of Yatagan, but not as strong, and sweetened with rose and honey. Quite lovely. Feels very refined and well done.

Since I normally don't like light, fresh vegetable/herbal scents (I especially loathe cucumber and mint) I shouldn't like this. I do, however, mostly because I get an interesting earth note from it. A vegetable garden after the rain. Pity I don't get any carrot, that would be really interesting in a perfume...

I'm guessing it's the vintage version I have a sample of. Anyway, it's an appealingly sharp and green and bold chypre. It's often compared to Bandit, and I'd say Bandit is the lighter and more wearable and floral/sweet scent (I have the modern edp, so it might be that the reformulated Cabochard is even softer) I certainly see the similarities though, the greenness, I just think Cabochard is more hardcore.

This is for the vintage Replique by Raphael.
The scent has a certain sourness to it, a refreshing sourness like a lemon is sour. More citrusy than green. The base is warmer an spicier and perhaps a hint animalic. I might detect some floral sweetness too, but very understated. It smells pretty chic, but the citrus is a little artificial, it doesn't have the freshness of modern citrus scents.

It has a certain vintage charm, I give you that. Very old-fashioned powdery/soapy violets and roses, neither sweet nor freshly natural. The base is a little ambery and perhaps a hint animalic. It seems to me most classic Carons have this cold/metallic/sharp quality to them. It might be my skin chemistry that makes them exceptionally soapy too, and that's not an association to a certain scented soap, I mean the nose-tickling quality of unscented soap.

Grass, vetiver, oakmoss, herbs and citrus. Very green and astringent but not as "dark" or "rich" as I expected. I get no candied fruit either, no sweetness. To me it smells mostly like a classic men's cologne. Nice enough.

Metallic soap! I get no notes whatsoever. Well, maybe a dry, sharp clove like the one in Coup de fouet? I recognize the metallic sharpness from Tabac Blond, but in Tabac Blond it's balanced by a musky/leathery/sweet base. En Avion is like smelling unscented soap. Still, somehow refined and elegant, I can't quite hate it.

Whoa, tar, gasoline, and leather, I like it! This would be a very butch fragrance if it wasn't for the vanilla, and I'm actually not overly fond of the vanilla. Vanilla-drenched tar is just... weird. And I like weird, but not sickly-sweet weird. I do detect the patchouli too, a dry, woody, refined patchouli like the one in Montale's Patchouli Leaves.
I must give Le Labo credit for this original fragrance, but it is a bit over-the-top with the CdG Synthetic/Lonestar Memories/Bulgari Black-thing AND the vanilla sweetness, I think this is a scent that could easily cause headaches and nausea.

I normally like anise, but something about the sweetened anise in this is just horrible. Fraicheur? Not likely, more like urine and play-doh. Eau de kindergarten?

A nice woody, no, woodsy, scent with a hint of sweetness, the sweetness of walking through a pine forest. Lots of evergreens and herbs but not really a "green" scent, more of a dry brown scent. The reason I don't give it thumbs up is a certain soapy/perfumey quality, a little sharp, a little overly "clean" and artificial, a little generic.

I was shocked to find this obscure scent here! I had no idea it was supposed to be masculine either... This is nostalgia in a bottle for me, metal shows in my teens. A strong, a bit aggressive/obnoxious spice/citrus/vanilla, yet sweet and gourmandy enough to be rather feminine. From the bottle the vanilla dominates, on my skin it goes more citrusy sour. Not too bad, but a typically headache-inducing scent.

Yuck! I expected something green and fresh, but what I got was plasticky sweet berry-flavoured candy. This would be cheap-smelling even for a children's schampoo! I can't even imagine an adult smelling like this voluntarily, and I normally don't mind gourmany scents.

I might be anosmic to something in Djin, because I can hardly feel it at all. What I do feel is not strong and sharp as I had expected from the reviews, it's extremely plasticky and cheap smelling. My sister said "Barbie perfume" and I can only agree.

I was expecting something cool and murky and incensey, something like Messe de Minuit. Either that or, from the notes, a rich, resinous, animalic masculine scent. Instead, Monk is a sweet, warm, powdery/plasticky comfort scent with perhaps the slightest hint of incense. I'd categorize it as a feminine gourmand. Not too bad, but there are so many similar scents that smell less cheap so I really don't need this one.

Oh! The beauty that is Jicky! I don't know the concentration of my sample, but it has the most glorious refreshing citrusy/spicy/herbal topnotes over a positively hypnotic musky base, warm and comforting yet dangerous and animalic. I wear a different scent every day but Jicky feels so "me" and so addictive I could almost imagine wearing it always.
The base reminds me of skanky musk scents like Muscs Koublai Khan, which I also find very addictive, but the middle and top make Jicky a "whole" scent and a little more "wearable", a bit closer to a classic warm, spicy oriental.

This is not for me, too light, powdery, plasticky, fruity/floral. Not natural-smelling enough to smell lika a garden after the rain, I think it should be more green with perhaps a hint of soil to really do that. This is just vintage-styled perfumey florals. The scent has a certain "cool" and "watery" quality, but not in a fresh and outdoorsy way that reminds me of rain, more in a musty and perfumey way.

I'd love to love it but I'm afraid I can't pull off the hesperidic accord. Fruits, and especially apples, are a bad idea on my skin. I like the vintage chypre opening, but then it just turns too sweet and fruity for my taste, sweet and fruity in a cool and watery way which is especially bad. I'm learning to love the classics, but this is a bit on the musty side for me. I like it better on my wrist, where the green sharp chypre dominates, than on my chest, where the watery fruit notes dominate. I might learn to love it. We'll see...

I'd say French Cancan is mostly a violet scent, and distinctly vintage. That doesn't mean it's overly heavy, but it opens with a chypre accord and then turns more floral and sweet. Apart from violet I get lilac, rose, orange blossom, lily of the valley, jasmine, pretty much everything that's listed, and they are great floral notes too. I'm not even a huge fan of florals and I really enjoy it. So does my girlfriend. It's not too sweet, like many modenr florals. It reminds me perhaps a little of Armani Priv'e Cuir Amethyste, only more "vintage" with the chypre accord.

The funny thing is, I've tried several incense fragrances that smelled like bubblegum, a sort of plasticky, musty fruit scent. One that comes to mind is Encens Epice. Very weird. And it's very weird that Etat Libre d'Orange does it on purpose too. The difference is, this is incense AND bubblegum, instead of bubblegum INSTEAD OF incense. The incense note is nice enough, smoky and crisp and spicy like the smoke note in Jasmin et Cigarette, but why oh why mix it with pink tuttifrutti bubblegum?

Smells cheap and unbalanced. Something sharp that tickles my nose and makes me sneeze (I normally like pepper) and the rest of it is plasticky sweetness, probably the peach.

It doesn't even smell like a perfume, it smells like some "aromatherapeutic" oil: a sharp yet surprisingly thin base of patchouli, vetiver and opoponax almost hidden under a very artificial and unrefreshing and bath&body-like citrus note that reminds me of lemongrass.

Rose, violet and leather, Putain des Palaces reminds me of Armani Privé Cuir Amethyste. PdP is less ethereal, a bit sweeter, but still quite sophisticated. It has a certain "soapiness" and "powderiness" that smell expensive. My favourite from the line, the scent is much more chic than its tasteless name.

A dead ringer for Yatagan, only Yatagan is better. Sharp, herbal, dry, spicy, woody, masculine. I quite enjoy it.

Yawn. A herbal men's cologne with lots of lavender. I don't like lavender, it's too old lady-like. It's ok when it just adds a certain green, herbal piquancy but not when you can actually smell it. It develops a little less herbally dry, sweeter and more like anise, even though there is no anise listed.

Orange blossom. End of story. Not fresh flowers but the perfumey scent of orange blossom water used in pastries. Powdery and sweet enough to give you cavities. I shouldn't like it but I do.

A nice dry/smoky/leathery/woody/spicy scent, but strangely vague and fleeting, not at all as strong as it sounds from the notes. Perhaps I have anosmia to something in it? I really like leather scents, but I often find them faint and fleeting, hiding beneath the other notes, and a leather single note I have makes me sneeze... So perhaps that's it?

Rien smells like a headshop! That musty, smoky/sweetish melange of incense, scented candles, scented soap and perhaps some exotic spices that clings to any item you might buy. Not hippie chic, just plain hippie.

I'm not a fan of jasmine or white florals in general. They tend to be musty and waxy and lack freshness. Jasmine et Cigarette is a jasmine scent I appreciate though. The smoke - very fresh cigarette smoke or more of an aromatic incense note - is a great complement to the floral. In fact, I'd call this "Jasmin et Encens". I think fans of CdGs Incense series might appreciate this.

Woody, but not dry or bitter like some woods. It's a smooth, musky, buttery soft wood note like Mysore sandalwood. Actually, it's a dead ringer for some amber notes: sweet, powdery, golden, exotic, rich... I really enjoy it, and I think it can easily be worn as a scent in its own right. To layer it... well, perhaps a little citrus for a sparkly top note? Or peppery spices for an oriental? Can't imagine it'd be very good with either jasmine or lavender, but then I'm not a fan of these notes. I'll have to try the Labdanum though.

I have only tried two Bond but I have the impression they're not for me. They're too "perfumey", too sophisticated, too chic... It's like they're not perfume for living people, but for freshly showered models in business gear. They may signal "Now I'm casual/formal/flirty/sporty" but they do so in a shallow and impersonal way. Now, if that's what you're going for, if you want to appear aloof and professional and impeccable, Bond is probably for you. I prefer more eccentric perfume houses with scents I either love or hate, and I can't imagine I'll ever have that strong feelings about a sibling to Chinatown and New Harleem.

My problem with New Harleem is I don't get the combination of gourmandy coffee and fresh green herbs. I understand many do, but to me it's wrong. Especially the coffee/lavender combo strikes me as absurd. I have the same problem with AvaLuxe's Cafe Noir. It's not that I want my gourmand scents sweet and cloying. Put some wood in them to make them drier or some citrus to freshen them up, by all means. (But I already think A Men does that with the patchouli) But black coffee and green herbs? No thank you. I wouldn't eat it and I'd rather not smell it. That said, New Harleem is a very elegant and well-blended scent and couldn't possibly make me nauseous, and frankly that's part of the problem I have with the line.

Kretek smells just like smelling an unlit clove cigarette, rather than smoking one. It's not a very "smoky" fragrance, it's mild and sweet and smooth and dry like the scent of tobacco, clove and sugar from the real deal.

I was hoping for more musty old books and leather chairs and smoke, but I got mostly a "mushroomy" note. Demeter's paperback has a musty, mushroomy note as well so perhaps my view of what old books smell like differ from Brosius'.

True tomato leaves. I love the scent, but I'm not sure I want to smell like it. To my nose it's pretty much a tomato leaf single note, and good as it is I'm sure you could get a decent replacement for much less. Or a number of real tomato plants to smell instead. I think I would prefer that.

I was so enthralled by the description and concept of Black March but the scent itself, well, to my nose it's mostly a watery, pale version of the earth note common in obscure perfume oils. I guess I'm too fond of rich, warm scents to really appreciate CBs cool, airy, watery, ethereal concoctions. Not that there's anything wrong with Black March, it's just not all I hoped it would be.

To my nose, Gathering Apples smells like any cheap apple scent, perhaps a perfume oil or bath & body product. Not particularly "true" or "real" or "natural". It's faint and watery and I don't detect any wood.

Yummy! I get rose from Aoud cuir d'arabie and leather from Black aoud, so I find them to be similar. Black aoud is sweeter and softer though, it only has a little herbal sharpness from aoud and the rest is all rich, sultry, luxurious vintage red roses with a kinky leather basenote. I don't normally wear florals in general or roses in particular but this is just too dark and seductive to resist, a real vintage vamp. Now I have to try all of the other rose/aoud scents in the Montale line too...

No, it does not smell literally like sperm, but it has a similar stale and metallic scent and it's the most disgusting fragrance I ever smelled. It's not so much the scent itself. It's vague, watery, metallic, with a hint of vetiver. It's how it makes my stomach turn. It's unbearable the way the scent of blood is, not because it smells so very bad but because it's so wrong, a warning sign. It makes me shudder and gag instinctively, like tasting poison.
I don't mind the smell of sex and bodies and sweat, I don't mind musk, leather, civer, ambergris... But this... I don't swallow. In fact, I don't want to inhale it ever again.

Oh glorious skank! The extrait is like Muscs Koublai Khan or L'air de rien with a metallic edge to it. Utterly decadent. A few months ago I'm sure I would have wrote it off as soapy and old lady-like but now I think modern perfumes, even the really good ones, are newly bathed babies in comparison.

A rich and heady, almost boozy, fruity/floral. Not normally my cup of tea, too traditionally sweet and feminine for that, but it is really nice. It smells like a "classic" somehow, perhaps because it's from 1953, but I guess a true classic would be more well known and not discontinued. It may remind me a little bit of Le Dandy, but it's a much richer scent than that rather insipid concoction. Le Dandy to me is a girlie scent, Fath de Fath a womanly. Perhaps a bit too womanly for my 25 years, although that has rarely stopped me in the past.

Cuir Amethyste is beautiful. It reminds me quite strongly of Heeley's new Fine Leather, which is not very strange since they share notes of violet, birch and leather (I assume from the name, though it's not listed) In Fine Leather, the distinct scent of birch sap is more prononounced and I can hardly detect the leather. In Cuir Amethyste, the leather is there but a velvety soft and subtle leather. They share cool (verging on soapy) florals, but while Fine Leather is ethereal like a spring dusk Cuir Amethyste is slightly more sultry with the added sweetness of rose and vanilla and earthiness of patchouli and labdanum, more like a chilly summer night in the palace garden. They're both melancholy, wistful, beautiful scents though.

I'm a sucker for pepper notes, so I fell immediately for the sparkling kick of pepper in the topnote. However, I have to agree with previous reviewers that it fades too fast! After a little while it's a softer, smoother, subtler pepper/incense/wood scent, quite lovely but hard to detect, and in a few hours, well, you'll have to have a very good nose to pick up a trace of it. Lovely, but oh so fleeting.

Wwow, just wow! It was such a long time since I smelled something truly original. This has Christopher Brosius' signature written all over it, that is, it's closer to obscure gothic perfume oils with ingedients like grave loam and brimstone than other niche perfumes. The thing is, when Brosius makes them they're not dense and dark and heavy like those oils. It has the same watery or airy quality as his own line which makes it more refined and wearable. But I do smell Highland mud very clearly, and that's not something you find in any old niche perfume. Mud, a touch of bitter vetiver, some scotch... After a while it develops a sweetness too.
This is definitely not the strong, macho cigar and whiskey scent the notes and tounge-in-cheek marketing hints at. It does suit the bottle design though. It's light and airy like a walk on the moor in clear weather, the mud clinging to your boots and the faint smell of smoke and whiskey from the gentleman's club clinging to your woolen sweater. Need I say I love it?

Spontaneously, I'd say L'Eau de Circé smells like mushrooms. Like Demeter's Mushroom, to be exact. Perhaps it's really a sort of musty and kelpy saltwater smell. After that, mostly white florals.

Loads of berry sweet and in the drydown slightly soapy roses. No "brulure" in sight. Not my cuppa.

I didn't read the description properly, I just assumed this would be a dirty musk like Muscs Koublai Khan or something but alas no. This is very feminine, a clean, sugary sweet white musk with amber, vanilla and tonka. Almost plasticky in its sweetness. The best thing about it is the topnote of dark, bitter, dry cocoa, but that disappears almost instantaneously. I have cheap cocoa/gourmand scents that are better than this. Not sophisticated enough for the price.

Toothachingly sweet almond with a cool hint of anise. Perhaps a touch of vanilla and white musk? This smells like "generic feminine gourmand" to me. Not bad by any means, just not very interesting and I'd say too sweet and onedimensional for the price.

Especially in the opening I get a hint of something odd, dirty human or dirty dog. There's something similar in Histoires de Parfums Marquise de Sade so it might be the leather note. I'm a fan of really skanky musks so it doesn't bother me much and it's very subdued by the dry and fresh pine forest notes.
A breeze through a sunny pine forest when your hunting dog circles around your legs, wet from crossing a ditch, perhaps. You're a cleanly gentleman, but you're slightly sweaty from the hunt and smell vaguely of moist wool. Most of all the sharp freshness of pines, earth and greenery.
Almost too sharp, on my skin it develops a sour/sharp herbal quality common in many vintage perfumes. The dry, warm, comforting woodiness is what saves it. Interesting and evocative, but not of a kitschen, no celery to my nose. Not entirely pleasant though, and not decidedly a keeper due to that sour/sharp quality.

Fig scents are obviously not for me. I think they smell just like cut grass mixed with milk. The sharp freshness of greenery and the softness of milk just don't go together at all, I don't see the appeal. Also, I have no relation whatsoever to fig trees and don't know what they smell like. I only eat dried figs anyway...
If something's different with premier Figuier, it might have a slightly spicy touch to the grass/milk combo.

Not that fantabulous, actually, quite "perfumey" and generic, that synthetic, sweet smoothness I find rather uninteresting. It has some really fascinating traits though, I get whiffs of dark coffee, and a dry, sandy amber, and something citrusy and refreshing. Unfortionately, I also get whiffs of something very plastic underneath, like playh-doh, salty and plasticky like that. I remember sniffing Scent and liking it, perhaps I should have sampled that one instead of Intense...

This is a dry and strict and woody/spicy scent. Very dry, almost dusty, you could almost taste the dust. I get oakmoss more strongly than anything else, but it might be a very dry and woody sandalwood too, completely unlike the soft, buttery, musky sandalwood of Serge Lutens. It almost smells like evergreens, pimento, allspice, cinnamon, none of which are listed. I might get a hint of warming, sweetening coffe, but just a hint. I like the warmness of it but overall its too harsh and dry for me.

Extremely weird, spiced bubblegum och bubblegum incense. Where does the sweetness come from?? There are no sweet notes listed, but I recognize the sweet, synthetic, cool-ish note from wome perfume or other. Could it be The Dreamer? Not that that one smells like bubblegum at all. This.. this just smells like some cheap yucky-sweet perfume oil imitating.. I don't know... bubblegum?

I really didn't get how salt could be rendered in a scent, salt doesn't have a scent. But after inhaling Sel de Vetiver for a while... wow! It smells just like a salty ocean breeze, with a hint of kelp and the dryness of sunbleached driftoowd! And the best thing about it is I'm not even overly fond of the ocean, much less its scent, but wow... This is so far from all the ozone/aquatics "ocean" scents I so detest. It has the dry, rooty, green, earthy sharpness of vetiver too, but not to strongly to overcome the impression of a beach. I just resaw Pirates of the Caribbean, and minus the dirty pirates, this is it. Very well done.

Starts out surprisingly peppery, and woody. Evergreens rather than tobacco, but I don't mind, it's great evergreens, dry and masculine and not the slighest christmasy/airfreshener. Like brown pine needles on the forest floor, and a sharp hint of sap from a freshly broken twig. Warm and cosy but with that lovely peppery kick, yum

Surprisingly conventional, I'm sad to say. It has that "perfumey" quality about ut, smooth and artificial and "cool" like men's perfumes often are. Underneath, there are interesting herbs and spices, woods and incense, but they're smoothed out by this conventional sweetness, like the overly sweet fruits in Le Dandy. It even has a soapy hint, which I detest. Still, by no means loathsome, just a disappointment.

Ah, what an exquisitely dry and smokey leather, almost with a hint of tar and gasoline, like som chic, urband CdG but stronger and more rugged, more like a worn leather chair with a biker in it.

Yuck! An old lady's heavily scented lotion or an old, cracked, pink guest soap. I just hate florals. This sure ain't worthy of Anaïs Nin, but it's very worthy of the yucky pastel coloured 80ies bottle design.

It starts out sweet and floral but then something happens. I get a distinct cumin note, almost naughty. Where did it come from? Is it the sandalwood and incense? It's spicy-sharp, almost soapy, but warm. I like it well enough but I don't think I would wear it. Very vintage.

To me, Spezie comes off as an incense scent in the opening, that "stale" (I don't mean that in an entirely negative fashion) metallic harshness. Perhaps something like Cdg Zagorsk or Miller et Bertaux 2? Only with a hint of floral to make it more like a traditional warm/sweet/spicy/rich scent. I guess it's the dry and herbal notes that give the impression of incense. In the drydown it's softer and sweeter, more like some vintage spicy/chypre/floral. I can't pick out any notes except nonexistant ones - incense and neroli.

I enjoy the black pepper and wood notes, I'm less fond of the dill, fennel and peppermint that I think get more prominent with time altough they're listed as topnotes. I'd say the pepper is actually the topnote and I'm sad to see it go. I wish there were more pepper perfumes, if there were, I might not have to keep this despite its flaws.

I can't really pick out any notes in Oliban, except maybe the tobacco. It's just a warm and sweet and rich presence Perhaps a tad "perfumey" - as in a well-blended, classical scent with notes like rose and tobacco, rather than a modern, original scent with a jumble of notes. The reason I don't give it thumbs up is that I'm honestly not wild about it, I merely enjoy it, and there are many scents with a similar comforting aura.

Roses and sweets. Not "juicy" and shocking pink like celebrity perfumes, a bit more subtle and powdery, more like baby pink, but still far too sweet and soft and girly for me. I even get a hint of salty play-doh. It doesn't smell bad but doesn't smell its price.

I got 02 as a freebie, it was the one of the 3 I was not interested in trying. However, I like it better than 01. I get perhaps a hint of powdery chocolate, but mostly soft and sweet florals, lilac and lily of the valley (it's really not, it's jasmine and lily). I like it well enough and that's saying something since I don't normally like florals.

Yum, liquorice! I'm not a huge vanilla fan, but I really enjoy the combination of sweet, creamy vanilla and edgy, cool liquorice. There is a nice burnt sugar note in here too, probably from the bitter almond. It's toothachinly sweet, but still somehow tempered, probably by the "coolness" of it. I really enjoy it. That said, there are probably about a gazillion cheap perfume oils smelling more or less like this.

Santal Blanc is not as good, or as complex, as the divine Santal de Mysore. I don't smell sandalwood per se, but then again I'm not so sure I know just what sandalwood smells like. It's not a very "woody" note to me. Perhaps it's almost musky or ambery more? At least that's what Santal Blanc and Santal de Mysore have in common, and what makes Santal Blanc a keeper. Other than that it's sweet and soft and gourmandy, pleasant but not very thrilling.

Arabie is a weird one. I don't find it very sweet or gourmand-y, in fact, less so than I expected. Instead, it's very spicy, weirdly spicy, like Chypre Rouge. Yeah, Chypre Rouge is definitely the closest to it I have ever smelled. They share a certain "sour" spiciness, like the scent of an oriental food store, balanced by a hint of gourmandy sweetness. I can't say I enjoy it immensely, but it's too odd to part with.

At first I was disappointed. I had expected clearer notes of leather, coffee, wood and spice, perhaps a masculine gourmand scent in the vein of Aomassai, Idole or Bois d'Ombrie. But this is nothing like that. This is a smooth "vintage" scent with no notes popping out at you. No wonder since it's from the 70ies and no trendy concoction. It is a bit "sweet & sour", musty and stale like so many vintage or vintage-styled leather/herbals are, scents like Bandit, Art of Perfumery No 6, Aoud cuir d'Arabie, Harmatan noir... Some of these I don't like but L'eau du navigateur has a buttery softness from the leather to conquer the vintage-y sourness or bitterness of it. I have grown to appreciate it.

I don't get the hype around Ginger Ciao. To me it smells just like the perfume oils that cost a tenth of the price. It dosn't even smell like a perfume to me. It smells like the sweet white florals in lotion or conditioner. Of course I'm biased, I don't like white florals. But I had hoped for a gingery edge, a spiciness from the basil, a creamy richness from the coconut, anything... A very bland scent, not the exotic, luxurious thing I was expecting.

I had to try Orris after all the hype. And yes, it's rich and well done like everything Andy touches, but it's not for me. I don't like florals, and I especially don't like cool and soapy florals like iris and violet. I like the basenotes in Orris, the trademark smoky tar, but I don't like the sharp blast of icy cold soapy iris in the top. This is not a sweet or feminine floral, this is a green and fresh floral, slightly lavender-y, and for those who go for that I'm sure it will be a hit. I just don't like the metallic edge to it, like a bar of soap cut through with a knife.

Greyland smells "perfumey". Nothing else. I think most Montales have a certain "perfuminess" to them and I had to grow accustomed to some of my favourites, but in Greyland there's nothing to grow accustomed to. It starts out with an interesting smokiness but after that has faded it's just synthetic, sweet, and slightly perfumey-sharp and cool. I'm sorry, but I can't be more specific than that or pick out a single note.

This was the only one I got to try since the other two samples broke in transit. I sure hope they pack the samples people are actually paying for better!
Anyway, this was the one I was most eager to try, but it was something of a disappointment. I shouldn't be surprised, after all it is described as a light anti-perfume. But I had expected something a little more edgy. The anti-perfume "L'air de rien" is still a brave and skanky musk, while this is just some pale, clean, light white musk. It smells like a dozen other much cheaper feminine not-really-musky, won't-offend-anyone musk scents.

For me, it doesn't live up to its name. It's not warm and rich and boozy enough. It's more of a sweet, light, fruity scent, apples and pears or apple or pear soda even, kind of sparkly like that. Not a dandy but a young pretty model in a frilly version of dandy clothing.

I was hoping for something like dark chocolate with candied ginger, but alas, it's a bleak, almost "watery" citrus scent, quite artificial and nauseating, mostly grapefruit I think. In the opening I get the faintest hint of ginger but no chocolate.

I just couldn't resist - I had to buy it for the bottle. I wouldn't have if the scent was horrible, but it's completely wearable. I was afraid of some generic "sporty fresh" men's cologne with cleaning agent grapefruit, but the citrus topnote is actually natural and refreshing and sparkly, like citrus peel.
After that it's mainly a soft and subdued vetiver scent. I don't know why vetiver isn't listed in among the notes above, as far as I know it's the main ingredient. Perhaps it's a little bit like CdGs Vettiveru cologne - that soft, but without the creamy, milky note in that one. This is definitely a fresh and green vetiver, but not sharp and strong and bitter like the real diehard vetiver scents out there, more like a mass market version.
Not bad at all, and not too boring. A great, refreshing everyday scent, if you wear everyday scents (I don't - I wear anything at any occasion).
The best thing about it is still the book-shaped bottle and box. I would never have bought it otherwise.

Surprisingly soft and sweet, almost buttery. I actually don't even read it as a "woody" scent at all. It's not the spicy wood I got from Escentric 01 - perhaps that was really the incense and pepper? Perhaps I can't really feel iso e super at all, or at least not after having smelled Escentric 01 for a little while?
If I smell Molecule 01 very closely I get vague hints of spice and wood, but it's mostly just soft and buttery. I much prefer the pepper kick of Escentric 01 but it's not bad at all.

I really love the opening burst of spicy wood and a pretty pink pepper kick and the freshness of lime peel. Soon, however, both the lovely pepper and the lovely lime fades. They are still there alright, but more mute and not so vivid and sparkling. Still a nice, spicy woodnote, but somehow "watery" or "transparent", not as warm and full as could be expected from a wood scent. Perhaps it's because it's a single note?

I expected fresh yellow citrus but after a strange, chemical, harsh start I get mainly neroli. A soft, sweet, plasticky, oriental citrus scent like the sugared orange blossom water you use in cooking. Not quite as bad as Anbar but pretty close in style.
Funny, I stayed away from the colognes for a long time because I expected them to bee too generic masculine fresh for my taste, but they are more like sweet and soft and musty.

A very very soft vetiver, light and refreshing. A vetiver for those who have yet to get used to the bitter sharpness of it, a smooth transition from fresh inoffensive citrus scents or suchlike. Not bad at all, just not wildly interesting. And yes, I agress with previous reviewers that it has a certain creaminess, or rather creamy softness, to it.

Yuck! I was hoping for the amber but all I get is horrible cleaning agent citrus. Not even fresh cleaning agent citrus, but a sort of musty, sweet, synthetic citrus scent.

Wow, just wow! Eau d'Ombrie has the dark, caramellized sweetness of Idole or Aomassai, combined with a smoked leather note and a dry, red hot spice like the one in Les Nereides Oriental Lunmpur. There's actully no spice in it so I think it might be the bitterness of vetiver that's coming off as spicy.
This is autumn, but not in a forest like the name implies, this is autumn in a men's club with a crackling fire, worn leather chairs, old tobacco smoke lingering and dark, aged liquor.
It's gourmand-y but not overly sweet. With the dry, spicy accord it could easily be a men's scent. I just love it.

Paestum Rose is a strong, narcotic rose scent. I should hate it since roses, or florals in general, are not my thing and this is strong enough to choke a crowd. Funnily, I don't. I think it's because the rose is so true and fresh. Not dried rose, not soap like so many other rose scents. Just a blooming rose bush, heavy with large, shocking pink flowers.
Underneath the rose there's incense and vetiver, a sharp note reminiscent of some CdG creations like CdG 2. The overall impression is to make the rose even heavier and darker.
This scent can easily be too much and it definitely wears me rather than the other way around, but on days when I feel strong and bold enough to carry it off I really appreciate this rose overdose.

I got a sample of this because of a blog review describing it as a dark, naughty leather scent rather than a tea scent. It's true it doesn't have the simple freshness of most tea scents, but I'd call it a rubber scent rather than a tea scent.
I have a perfume oil sample with black tea and musk only, and it smells just like rubber and tar too. The perfumer said it was a common reaction to the musk flower, but I'm thinking maybe it's the black tea that sometimes go rubbery.
Anyway, I usually like rubber/tar/smoked tea scents, but No 6 has the unfortunate musty, stale sourness of certain herbal vintage perfumes, like Bandit. That unpleasant herbal note reminds me of Aomassais Harmatan Noir too.
In short: while I do appreciate the rubbery quality of No 6 I think Andy Tauers Lonestar Memories, CdGs Synthetics or even Bulgari Black are better alternatives.

Such a nice, warm spicy/woody scent, almost red-hot in the opening, like chilli and curry. Then it quickly becomes more musky, a naughty musk with a hint of vanilla-y sweetness.
It's perhaps a little bit like a masculine version of Dior Addict - wood/vanilla/musk, but more spicy and less sweet. Or a more "common" rendering of naughty musk scents like Muscs Koublai Khan. The spicy/savory musk note reminds me of cumin. Very nice!

This isn't a leather scent so much as a tar scent, and I love it. The closest thing to it may be Comme des Garcons Synthetic Tar, but Lonestar Memories is stronger and warmer and more rugged. The tar accord appears in L'air du desert marocain too, it seems to be something of Tauer's signature. A truly great and original perfumer.

Wow, I usually stay away from florals, but perhaps I should only stay away from feminine florals? If this is a masculine floral I like them.
I don't get a harsh topnote at all, I get a very soft and sweet topnote, almost sweet enough to be gourmand, like A Men or MAT Very Male, but with a floral character. I find it hard to explain why it seems so traditionally masculine when it's so very very sweet. Perhaps it's a certain minty or anise-like coolness and a sort of boozy note that does it?
It doesn't seem to change much but perhaps I still get the top/middle note after a couple of hours. It might be the almost creamy sweetness of the tobacco basenote too though.

It has that synthetic, cool, perhaps floral note of Guerilla 1, but what adds interest is an almost rhubarb-like (I love rhubarb!) topnote. I guess it's the berry sweetness of raspberry with the added citrus freshness of bergamot. Come to think of it... it reminds me of a raspberry-flavoured carbohydrated water called "Frost" and supposed to taste frosty... It has a similar vibe of sweet raspberries covered in snow... The scent is sweeter though, almost syrupy in a yummy way. I don't get any spice except maybe the freshness of ginger.

Opens with a strong, perfumey blast. It's cool and synthetic in a way I normally despice, yet strangely addictive. The throw is nicer than the skin scent, a milder, sweeter fruity floral without that aggressive synthetic note. Still cool, not syrupy sweet or aggressive. I can't figure it out, perhaps it's the champaca that's unfamiliar to me. The white, soft coolness of it reminds me a bit of White, although Guerilla 1 is a bit harsher and almost stale.

Mint is certainly not my fav note, I just tried it because of my love for Rhubarb. Peppermint is pretty much as expected, a cool mint scent. It has a harsh note as well, something like crushed green leaves and stalks. Makes me think of fig scents, that green-milky thing going on. Only Peppermint is far mor ethereal, a shadowy minty whisper of a scent. Feels stale, despite the minty freshness, and without any sherbety sweetness whatsoever. Eating this as a sherbet would be like eating unsweetened toothpaste sherbet with fresh cut grass mixed in for extra flavour. Not. My. Cuppa.

I love Rhubarb so I had to try the rest of the sherbet series. I don't like Cinnamon though. I can't even imagine what actual cinnamon sherbet would taste like. Probably just as bad. It just feels so wrong; cool, fresh sherbet should be made out of refreshing fruits and berries, not warm, cosy spices like cinnamon. Cinnamon ice cream, yes, cinnamon sherbet, no.
The scent is minty cool and plasticky like something from the Synthetic series or 53. I get the harsh, wet coolness of vetiver, even though it's subdued. Add to that a weird, misplaced sprinkle of cinnamon. Not a favourite.

I already love Palisander, so I was bound to love Sequoia too. It's sweeter than Palisander, I could swear there's honey in it, but at the same time cooler. Cool like freshly cut, moist logs outdoors and coolly sweet like trickling tree sap. A little boozy too, but that could be the strong, intoxicating scent of fresh wood and tree resin and sap. It has hints of sawdust too, I'm definitely thinking of a sawmill rather than a forest. I know none of the exotic woods in it but to me it might just as well be a Swedish sawmill with pine, fir and birch. Lovely!

I'm amazed that you don't hear raves about this scent more often since it's amazing, unlike anything else. It has all the things I usually detest - minty freshness, a combination of cool and warm notes, florals and pomegranate - and yet I adore it.
It's like warm wintery spices (cinnamon?) and woods (cedar)under a blanket of pure snow. The white coolness of the scent is really amazing. I usually cringe at attempts at capturing that, since it ends up in synthetic, sharp department store men's cologney ozones, aquatics and mints. Not this one. It's a soft, lovely coolness.
Perhaps it's mainly the lily of the valley? I just love the scent of the fresh flowers even though I'm not a fan of florals in perfume, so I might be a bit biased towards it. I also get hints of spicy rose and for once I don't mind. Perhaps it's because it's a white rose?
I wouldn't call it an "ice queen" scent though. It's so warm and soft and cosy, and not very aggressive. Perhaps a scent for someone so flawlessly elegant and beautiful you don't dare approaching her, even though she herself is very comfortable and polite and sends out no icequeen vibes?

Definitely a chypre: dry and slightly bitterly spicy, like lichen. But a red chypre, yes, with a caramellized note and strong citrus. I find it intriguing. Unfortionately it fades quickly to a faint citrusy sour, chypre dry scent that is vaguely plasticky, or Œerhaps it's just the kind of scent you can't feel after a little while.

Interesting. Quite chilly, like a CdG scent, maybe Zagorsk or one of the Synthetics. I get incense and a sharp soapy/herbal/green presence, but also something warm and comforting. I like it, but I don't know why since it's not "pretty" and not in my usual style. It should be too soapy and cold and sharp for me, but that warm, cosy tobacco/incense note makes me like it, as well as the exotic strangeness of it. It's like smelling metal and ginger, perhaps fresh ginger being cut up with a knife in a room with a lingering trace of incense and spices in the air.

Mmm, it's so wonderful. And quite sweet, I'd call it a gourmand scent. I wonder where the sweetness comes from because there no vanilla or anything like that listed among the notes? There's also a decidedly skanky skin musk, much like MKK, that's quite addictive. Other than that (sandal)wood and spices and a sharpish/soapy/herbal edge that makes me think of this as a "vintage" style scent. Very comforting and warm and enveloping but without being the least dull.
Very alive, like a living person with lots of character, someone experienced, perhaps an aging artist, someone charismatic and warm with lots of humour but also mischief and intellectual clarity and sharp, accurate judgements.

Sharp spices, candied orange peel and an unexpected powdery floral sweetness (I'd say rose) make a musty, soapy vintage perfume. Not bad, just not anywhere near what I'd like to smell like. Too conventional and sweet and floral, even though it's supposed not to be.

The opening burst of very true citrus peel is quite lovely, but after that it feels a little thin and stale and one-dimensional. Also very light and fading fast, I can hardly feel it.

I don't get the oriental spice market at all, I get a northern evergreen forest: tar, wood, resin, tree sap and campfire smoke. A metallic edge too, like in Zagorsk. Very warm and comforting, if you find woodsy scents comforting.

The dry, dusty scent of incense smoke in a cool, dark stone church surrounded by woods. Very evocative and quite a lot like Messe de Minuit.

Sharp and metallic and cold, but with a nice, warm undertone of burnt wood, incense and tar. Still too sharp for my nose overall, but fun for certain occassions that call for something steely and chilly, almost rusty.

The rooty bitterness of vetiver, the dark, warm, humid mustiness of earth, the almost citrusy freshness of greenery and a metallic hint of rain and fresh air. Nice, but a slightly generic single-note vetiver.
I've learned to appreciate the sharp, piercing, men's cologne-y bitterness of vetiver but I still prefer scents with more body and warmth. This is like a high-pitched scream and a bit too close to soapy and "clean" for my taste.

La Myrrhe doesn't have the dark, resinous, heavy bitterness I expected at all. Instead, it has an almost metallic or citrusy sharp, stale bitterness combined with musty sweetness and a soapy note. Not unpleasant but not remarkable or memorable either.

Fumerie Turque is wonderful and comforting like Ambre narguile or Idole. Gourmand, sweet and so warm it's almost hot, with a decidedly dry, smoky note. It's like smoking sweet pipe tobacco and eating loukhom and other oriental delights in the dark of a stone house sheltering you from the heat of the desert outside.

It starts with an unexpected blast of very artificial musty candy sweetness. Then sharp soap and spice and sweet incense. The sickly sweet, smoky, oriental, heavy soap and incense scent of a headshop sums it up nicely. The orange blossom, perhaps? But where's the leather? I wanted it for the leather. The closest thing to leather I get is a smoky, tar-like, metallic hint, but it's drenched in sweets and soap.

Such a clash of notes, I can't figure it out, is it cosy or nauseating? Warm, sweet notes like honey, musk and amber collide with a watery coolness reminiscent of cucumber and schampoo. Weird. The sweet/sour/watery mustiness of it smells close to rottening. And above it all a nice, dry, smoky hint of incense.
I'm sorry, but I just can't take the clash between gourmand sweet and watery "fresh", between warm and cool, I find it sickening.

Now this is weird, in a lovely way. It smells like no other high-end perfume to me, it smells more like foresty, dark perfume oils from companies like BPAL. Only better, of course. I would say pine or fir if I hadn't read the notes, but birch makes sense as well. Definitely bittersweet tree resins and sweet tree sap. It's stunning. It's what I've been looking for - a true, natural forest scent. Just like standing in a forest, inhaling the fumes. A hot, sunny summer forest I think, but perhaps after the rain, with humidity rising from the ground. So vivid. I get a touch of smoke too, of burning wood, a campfire. It also has a fresh, sour note that is almost too citrusy sour in the opening but adds a wonderful vegetal freshness in the drydown.

I love amber, and this is a lovely, dry, sun-scorched, desert hot amber. It reminds me quite a lot of Ambre russe, which I absolutely adore, but less sweet, with a sharper, drier note. Initially I found it almost too sharp, almost soapy or herbal, which gives it a slight vintage-y twist, but it mellows in the drydown.

Yum yum. I was hoping for something similar to Muscs Koublai Khan, and in the sillage, it definitely is. Skanky, foody, bodily musk. Still, there's more to Musc Ravageur. The skin scent is more sharp and dry and spicy, almost vintage-like, from the cinnamon. At first I thought almost too much so, but then it mellows into a wonderfully spicy and warm and cosy scent, sweetened by musk and vanilla. It has a dry, powdery aura from the amber note as well, and I love amber. It is a more pleasant scent than MKK, I don't deny that, still I prefer MKK for the totally unapologetic dirtiness of it.

Guepard smells just like a million other strong, sweet, nondescript perfumes for elegant, middle-aged women. I wouldn't say refined, far too sweet for that, but it's not a girlie celebrity perfume sweetness. I can't pick out any single note, and no florals, which is good in my book. I guess some of the sweetness comes from florals though, and perhaps vanilla? A quite powdery scent, but I don't mind that. It also has a tad of green sharpness/spiciness to freshen it up a little.

I find A Men very fascinating. I have a couple of Angel dupes which smell almost exactly like it, yet somehow they are all gourmand and girlie and sweet while A Men somehow manages to be very masculine or men's cologne-y. So yeah, A Men is the ultimate masculine gourmand, 100% masculine and 100% gourmand.
I definitely see why a lot of people would find it obnoxious, but I find it intriguing. It has a dry patchouli note, a slightly sharp/minty cologne/chypre note and a load of caramel, coffee and chocolate. Sweet, but definitely adult sweet since it's so dry and yes, almost burnt (which I really enjoy).
I put it on from a sample vial, not a spray, and I love it that way. Addictive and mouthwatering, yet the green chypre notes keep it from being nauseatingly gourmand. The balance is just like a masculine, strong version of my cheap drugstore Angel dupe (I think) "Love & Dreams: Blue Moon" - the same addictive, mouthwatering yet still fresh and green combo of chypre/herbs and gourmand notes.

I instinctively hated this at first sniff. It's all the things I hate about vintage scents - sour, sharp, musty, dry, with no detectable notes.
When sniffing it some more I realized there's more to it than that though. It has a spicy, peppery, fiery note I quite enjoy and a hint of creamy sweetness. It also has a hint of contemporary ozone/aquatic men's cologne mixed in, but only a hint, only just enough to actually make it better (I usually don't like that at all). But best of all, it also has a hint of dirty, almost foody/meaty musk like Muscs Koublai Khan.
It's pretty much like a good, interesting scent hiding under a bad, conventional scent. It's such a clash of styles and notes it almost makes it interesting and smell-worthy just because of that. Like someone took a classic vintage cologne, a generic, modern men's cologne and one or two innovative and beautiful niche fragrances and mixed them all together, perhaps with a double dose of the vintage cologne since my overall impresson is vintage-y sour and sharp.

I got a sample as a freebie. I wouldn't have sampled it otherwise since it sounded like some cool, clean ozone and I hate those. I'm pleasantly surprised it's not. Actually, I don't find it very fresh at all, it's rather unexpectingly sweet.
It could be the masculine version of a Luctor et Emergo dupe I've got - a similar salty sweet powdery Playdoh-note (vanilla I think) combined with the green freshness of cut grass. The reason this is more masculine is that the green grass note is stronger, it's slightly spicy and it doesn't have that strong sweet cherry note. I quite enjoy it. The odd combo of powdery sweet and juicy, bitter green makes it on the verge of stale, but I still like it.

Very dry and woody, like cinnamon bark. I was expecting some sweetness from the vanilla, musk and amber but I get none. Or, perhaps, a slight dark, syrupy touch like Wood & Spices, but somehow it manages to stay so very dry even with that touch of sweetness. I also get a hint of mint, something cool and refreshing that balances the sweet touch into that neutral dryness. Not a bad scent but a little onedimensional.

At first, I get a fresh, citrusy vetiver scent and I quite like it. However, it quickly dries to something so fresh it's aquatic/ozone. Or, like the previous reviewer said, minty. I have learned to appreciate the bitterness of vetiver, but fresh, clean, cool, minty ozone/aquatic department store men's cologne is my least favourite scent category. I find vetiver des sables horrible perfumey and artificial, like a scented cleaning product. Overall, I think the Montale line is too perfumey for me - it's like they sprinkle their fine ingredients with the perfume equivalent of sugar.

Wood & spices? What wood & spices? The only spice I get to begin with is anise, which makes it more gourmand than spicy, a sweet licorice scent refreshed by the cool, minty freshness of anise. In the drydown I get a pleasant honey note, so it's more like anise sweetened by honey than licorice. Honey with a touch of spice - anise and cinnamon, maybe. It's not unpleasant, in fact it's a boozy, comforting, rich, warm, fairly "dark" sweetness, but I miss the promised woods.

I think I could love this concept if it was made by some other perfume house. As it is, it's too perfumey/generic/vintage-styled for my taste. I love leather scents, with the exception of vintage leather scents. This has a similar powdery/dry/sharp/sour vibe as Bandit. Not as bad as Bandit, not downright unpleasant, and at least I do get a little leather out of it, but it's like a great scent hiding in a conventional vintage costume. I think I like my scents a little more raw, with detectable notes.

It starts out with a fresher, cooler, lighter, less sweet version of the licorice in Very Male. More like traditional men's cologne anise, but not quite. I don't know where I get the licorice/anise from and in the drydown it disappears, turning into a more fennel-like scent. Green and spicy/herbal/aromatic, a quite classic masculine scent.

I don't know about "very male" since it's basically a sweet licorice scent. In the drydown it's more classically boozy/woody and masculine though. Very warm and comforting scent.

I have a couple of Angel dupes that I find absolutely delicious, but I was dissapointed with the original. It starts out nice, sweet/creamy/spicy/fresh, but in the drydown it's much more thin and flat and stale than the dupes. It has that cool, perfumey vibe and is almost green rather than gourmand. It might be the patchouli I don't like. I much prefer A Men which has the full, round body of the dupes.

I tried this one on my quest for rhubarb scents, but I didn't get any rhubarb out of it. What I got was a nice, fun, girlie fruity/floral with fresh green and citrusy notes (I'd say mandarin) and vanilla-y sweetness.

It does smell like rubber, like a sweeter and more wearable verison of the CdG Synthetics series (Garage and Tar, mostly). I don't mean "more wearable" as a compliment though, it also makes it less interesting. And it's very faint and fading fast on my skin. I need to try it more though.

A very pleasant oriental, spicy incense scent, dry and hot like the North African desert.

At first I like it, a very pleasant incense scent, quite exotic and quite sweet. Unfortunately it goes sour on my skin with time and and up with a note resembling mosquito repellant. It's not the first CdG to do this to me. However I have only tried it once and I need to try it more.

I was recommended this, as in "those who like x also like y" so I went to the local perfume store and sprayed some on my wrist. I was sceptical to the vanilla scent I got from the bottle, but once on my skin it developed a dirty, naughty, almost barbecue-like musk note, likte Muscs Koublai Khan. Other than that I get spicy woods like cedarwood or sandalwood and vanilla out of it. On the test strip it's much fresher, citrusy almost, without that animalic note.

This was recommended to me here, as in "those who like x also enjoy y", so I went to the loacal perfume store and sprayed some on my wrist. It was not a very good recommendation for me though. It's ok for a floral, without the harsh note I get from so many florals, rather mild and vanilla-y sweet, but not very memorable. On the test strip it has a nice freshness it lacks on my skin.

I get perhaps mandarin and vanilla and a little spice, something that could be a nice scent if it weren't also oddly stale and bitter, like some green herb or spicy/herbal floral. Maybe the freesia? It overrides the rest of the scent and the result is very stale and flat, like fresh cut grass mixed with cream, a bad combination.

The nicest thing I can say about this scent is that it's unobtrusive. It smells like nothing and is hardly detectable. Cool and clean and perfumey, perhaps slightly floral, that's it.

At first I liked it as a fresh, light, refreshing citrus fragrance, but as it dries it turns more and more artificial, like some horrible cleaning agent. It might be because it's not actually citrus but green apple. Apple scents are always horrible and artificial on me.

I got a sample of it and was disappointed that it does not actually smell like peonies. Back then, I did not know of Angel so I thought it was a soliflore which ought to smell like peonies. I found it too sweet and generic. Later, I have tried Angel and I do not like it either, it dries too sharp and thin for me. I much prefer the full, well-rounded spiciness of A Men to any Angel variety. But then again I'm biased against this one since I don't usually like florals.

I have a sample vial named only Boss Edition, but I think it must be this scent. Anyway, to me it's just a dull fresh/aquatic/citrusy men's cologne of the kind I can't stand.

Starts out with lovely, dry oriental spices and a hint of (floral?) sweetness. Dries down to a wonderful skin scent, hardly smellable, just a warm, dry, spicy, ambery, salty aura.

Not my cup of tea. Both aquatic and floral, two scent categories I don't like. Like salty sea spray with ylang ylang, mostly. Nothing special.

It does not smell good. It does not smell exactly like sex or sweat or bodies either. Actually, it smells quite a lot like barbecue (not bad either, just not very perfumey). Yet, it's completely addictive and utterly sexy. I can't stop smelling it and I get a purely visceral reaction (no, it's not a gag, I promise) to it. Animalic and instinctual. I want to lick my skin where I put it on. And not in a oh-my-good-it-smells-like-tasty-barbecue-I'm-hungry kind of way.
I can't really describe what it smells like, it's irrelevant. Don't wear it when it's important that people are neither disgusted nor turned on by you. Wear it out clubbing or home alone or with someone.

I do love the opening, it's very soft and creamy with hints of animalic leather, like blond suede indeed. But it also has a sweet fruit note and it dries to an almost soapy fruity/floral, very generic, with none of that lovely suede softness.

So many ingredients I love and yet all I get is a boring, cold (or cool), a little minty/anise-y/eucalyptus-y traditional man's cologne. Which I guess is appropriate. But I love Ambre Russe so madly and I haven't tried anything quite like it, so this was quite a disappointment.

So many great ingredients but it all adds up to a boring, nondescript floral/fruity feminine perfume. I'm sure those who are into that kind of fragrances will adore it, but for me the only interesting part is the sweet red berry opening.

It's just wonderful! I can't describe it, I just know I have my nose glued to my wrist. Which is really not necessary, since it has great sillage and staying power. I love amber and this is the best amber I've tried. Quite dry and strong and masculine, with a boozy opening from the champagne and vodka notes. The drydown is mostly warm, powdery, wonderful amber, supported by black tea and leather and spices. Mmmm, addictive.

Mmm, warm, sweet, spicy, exotic, woody, boozy, dark. I really love the rum and saffron notes. It's a bit like a stronger, better, spicier version of Liquid Karl, the perfume Karl Lagerfelt made for H&M. The "warm bread" note in that one is evocative of the warm, cosy sweetness of Idole. The only problem is, each time I put my nose to my wrist to smell it I get a vague hint of vomit, it's that sweet and musty. When I continue smelling it it goes away and I only feel the lovely spices and woods and rum but it is a bit offputting...

Very sweet, even sweeter than L'Artisan Parfumeur's Safran troublant. An enveloping, golden, powdery foody/vanilla comfort scent. Not the spicy saffron single note I was hoping for.

A sweetened and slightly smoky tea, not as fresh as most tea scents which is good for a change.

Surprisingly sweet, although not quite as sweet as Laura Tonatto's Safram. It doesn't smell like saffron in cooking or baking, the spice scent I love so much. Instead it has the sweet, warm, powdery, perhaps a little amber-like scent of other saffron fragrances. Cosy, but not very edgy or interesting.

I really like it at first, it's sort of boozy and woody and full-bodied enough to be slightly "foody" without being sweet. A masculine foody perhsp? But it fades fast and turns into a more traditional clean/alcoholic masculine scent.

An interesting evocative, mostly leathery scent. It's sort of like a more subtle, refined and "clean" version of the leather scents I have tried, that papery dry yet warm and comfy note. I was hoping to feel the ginger and saffron but I don't mind a lot that I don't since it's such a nice, slightly masculine scent evocative of times past.

Not my cup of tea. Too fresh and aquatic for me. Almost melon-y, although it is lotus and mango. It might be well done in it's genre, it just doesn't do anything for me. Too perfumey. I don't want my scents to smell "clean".

Fresh and green vetiver bite. I enjoy it, but it's quite one-dimensional, boring almost, and my skin has a way of turning the sharpness of vetiver sharper and sourer with time, to something like mosquito repellant.

I sampled this hoping for the rhubarb note but alas, no rhubarb. Or maybe the tiniest hint of rhubarb in the opening, but it soon mellows to a rose scent. I'm not into florals and I find roses especially offputting so this is clearly not for me.

Yum yum, I love amber, and I love the warm, enveloping, foody sweetness of this scent. Such a comfort scent, but also very sensual, not some sticky, girlie dessert scent.

A nice warm oriental not unlike Sandalo. It has more notes going on and is more perfumey though, not quite as warm and rounded. I like the herbs and spices but something in the drydown feels a bit more generic and less oriental than Sandalo.

I didn't think I liked sandalwood, but I enjoy this scent very much. I don't know how much it actually smells like sandalwood, it doesn't smell like the sandalwood in essential oils and incense and such. Sandalo is a much more refined and perfumey and subtle sandalwood. A classical and elegant rendering of a warm exotic oriental.

I had heard things such as unwearable and eccentric and dark and melancholic about this one but I don't know. It does smell like a damp stone church marinated with old incense, but sweetened and fully wearable. Not as dark and grim and bitter as I expected, it's like the concept of a messe de minuit scent lightened and made into perfume rather than just presented as-is. Still, I like it a lot, it's just not all that eccentric and bold.

This smells just like a nondescript vintage floral not aged gracefully. A little sour/sharp/musty/sweet. Sin? Nah, maybe Punishment.

A nice warm, cosy roasted coffee scent with a hint of licorice. Perhaps a little sweet and musty though and it has no throw or staying power on me - I put on quite a lot and had to smell my skin closely to feel it.

It reminds me a bit of wood coffee, actually. They're both sweet and sort of musty, while at the same time quite masculine/boozy/woody. Nomad tea is not fresh on me. It's smoked black tea with rum rather than iced green tea with citrus.

Surprisinglys delicious, it starts out sweet with the spiciness of tar. It dries to a drier scent, more leathery perhaps, dusty city street in the heat. And definitely gasoline and rubber tires screeching. I was going to say surprisingly wearable, but after the initial sweetness has faded, not so much. But fascinating, very fascinating.

I didn't expect to like this much but wow! It smells exactly like the pickled ginger you get with sushi! I love ginger but I often interpret ginger notes as citrus, it's funny how this scent with citrus but no ginger in it smells exactly like ginger. Much more intense and peppery than expected, I expected soemthing bland, fresh, light, slightly citrusy.
It has a certain artificial/clean vibe going on that I'm not so fond of and after the pickled ginger topnote has vanished that's what I get - the expected "soda" scent. Too bad, but I really love the opening.

I don't really get fake leather out of this... But it has a certain fake/plastic/cool note. Combined with a more common and wearable warm/woody/spicy/smoky note. Quite enjoyable. A nostalgia scent, somehow, evocative. Childhood memeories of rubber and plastic toys rather than fake leather... I feel this will grow on me, it has that skin-scent-quality of leather perfumes.

A quite warm and musty garage scent, not cool and damp as one might expect. I detect leather, plastic, oil and gasoline. Perhaps wood and dust as well, concrete? It dries to a sweet, warm, woody scent, almost like licorice, with hints of incense or smoke.

I didn't expect to like this, I just wanted to try it. I'm not a fan of "clean" scents and this is no exception. I mostly get the nail polish, but I'd rather say nail polish remover. Maybe some washing powder too, cold wet concrete, steam, disgusting artificial fabric softener scent... I'd say laundromat rather than dry clean, but on the other hand I've never been to a dry clean.

Mmm, a warm comforting spicy wood scent. Very red, yes. It's quite a bit like a smoother, sweeter version of Les Nereides: Oriental Lumpur actually. It even shares the same soapy clean undertone, which makes it smell expensive and masculine. It's a scent I really enjoy, but don't really feel I can pull off. A flawlessly, effortlessly elegant businessman in a casually worn designer suit could. I still try, even though my girlfriend for some reason find it repulsive.

At first it was a green grass scent but as soon as it dried it morphed and lost all of its freshness. Instead, there's a faint musty, murky, sweet scent clinging to my skin. I'm afraid it almost smells like puke, something rancid like that. I guess it's a good thing I don't like it since it's discontinued.

I like it better than 53, probably because it has more natural notes and is less "clean" and "cool" and "fresh", although it is that too. Faint and artificial and nondescript but if I inhale deeply a get a whiff of something intriguing. Perhaps a hint of woods and leaves and the slightest touch of incense? A little sharper than 53.

A light, cool, fresh, artificial scent. I can't make out any notes, and I guess that's the point. It's a bit like a lighter, more mainstream version of the Synthetic series, a synthetic scent that's not offensive and smells like nothing in particular. I don't really like this kind of "cool and clean" scent, to be honest I'd rather smell "dirty". Too nondescript and fresh men's cologne-y for my taste.

Very fresh and green. It sometimes borders on too acidic sharp, but mostly stays enjoyable. I don't find it synthetic or nondescript, in fact I think it's one of CdGs most natural scents since it's so herbally green. The only note I can pick out of the ones listed is perhaps the bitterness of vetiver, that might be the note bordering on too sharp. It reminds me of the drydown of the lovely Sherbet Rhubarb.

This is exactly the type of vintage scent I don't "get". Sort of sour/dry/bitter/musty and nondescript. I can't really pick out notes but I wouldn't oppose to pepper or carnation being in it. This type of vintage scent just isn't wearable for me, it will never become a skin scent, never comfortable, just stay sharp and strange and offputting forever. "Sophisticated" maybe, as in "my perfume smells like Perfume and not like anything pleasant because that would be cheap".

My rhubarb note obsession lead me to this one (yes, there is rhubarb in it although this note listing doesn't say so) and yes! wonderful, juicy, tangy rhubarb in the topnotes. Unlike the fresh, green rhubarb in CdG's sherbet rhubarb this one is sweetened by gingerbread and creamy vanilla. The rhubarb note in itself is tart and crisp though. The drydown, after the rhubarb is gone, is a nice foody comfort scent. A must-have for a rhubarb lover like myself.

I found the peach blossom opening delicious and just a little exotic. Unfortionately, the drydown was a pretty dull floral for a non-floral person like me. Too bad since the bottle is so pretty...

This was my first perfume (not counting drugstore scents). I wanted to put one on my wishlist and this was the only one I could find that I liked. It is sugary sweet, almost like candied violet leaves or violet flavoured sweets rather than like fresh violets. Other than that a sweet, girlie floral. Not bad, but I wouldn't use it nowadays.

I picked this up for about $5 at a sale, I thought it was worth the price, no more, no less. Today when my nose is more refined I appreciate it more because I actually pick up the notes like bread and spices. Before I did I thought it was sort of nondescript and I still find it a little plain.
It's a soft, warm, round, sweet, golden scent without edge. A bit too musty for me, without being interestingly animalic musty. Not decidedly sweet and foody, not very spicy, without citrusy freshness, perhaps a little boozy, in short a scent with very round edges. A little too round for me, but still a nice comfort scent.

This was my second perfume bottle (except for drugstore scents), from before I became a complete scent junkie hunting scents on the internet. Back then, I wanted to wear perfumes but had a difficulty finding anything I liked in the local department stores.
This one ended up on my wishlist because it smelled like a true jasmine single note to me. I had no idea of the concept or the exotic ingredients in it. Today, when my taste has evolved away from florals and feminine scents in general, I get other notes than jasmine out of it. In the beginning I find it a bit too green, sharp, cool and perfumey. Then it dries down to pretty much a single note jasmine, but I don't find it as true and lush as I used to and I never wear it anymore.

Too sharp for me, one spray is far too much, a bitter vetiver-like single note that lasts and lasts on your skin and chokes everyone around you. It reminds me mostly of mosquito repellant, I'm sad to say.
I asked for something by CdG unsniffed because I loved the concept of unisex and unnatural perfumes, but the best thing about this one is the metal bottle. I have since found several other CdG scents which I love, and my nowadays more trained nose can detect something in 2 that could be a sort of intriguing, beautiful, cool-toned scent with magnolia and ink, if it weren't completely drenched in that loud, bitter, herbal/chemical single note.
I also find it rather boring that it stays the same. On my sister I could even smell it too strongly the day after she put some on to try, after she had showered and all.
I honestly don't understand how someone could call it feminine or beautiful (and I do wear masculine scents and shy away from florals). I've sniffed 2 Man and I liked that one better, it's subtler and softer and warmer, a completely different scent.

Mostly fresh and citrusy. To me it's a bit too sharply cleaning agent-citrusy, it starts out with an alcoholic blast almost.

Cool and cucumbery, starting with a sharp, metallic edge, almost like some kind of polish

Very sweet and mellow, but yes, it does have a smoky or tobacco-y vibe. Definitely sweet cherry tobacco though. Unfortionately it's fading very fast.

I don't really like the ocean or the smell of it much. I think it mostly smells like rottening seaweed and seafood. I much prefer lakes and streams. Demeter's Ocean sure smells rottening, but not like the ocean, more like a compost pile. After about a minute it changes into a bitter vetivery scent much like the drydown of Firefly. Utterly horrible, just like decaying plants.

Wow! smells exactly like a slimy old mushroom fresh from the forest with pine needles and earth and moss still clinging to it! It is actually kind of gross as a scent, but very fascinating. It may work for layering with a fresher, greener forest note to add more depth.

Mmmm, warm and cosy and woody and boozy. Not exactly fiery though. It reminds me of Comme des Garcons' Palisander, the same warm, red wood note and it even has a more subtle version of the same soapy clean undertone that makes it smell like some expensive masculine perfume.

This is supposed to smell like wet soil and rottening leaves and it does.

No ripe, red tomatos anywhere near. Green tomato vines is the closest it gets, drying to a more musty scent.

Sweeter and perfumier than other green grass notes I've tried. I think it has a more true grass scent in the throw though. Sharp and aromatic, like tall grasses in bloom, perhaps slightly dry and yellowish.

This smells quite sharp and medicinal to me, not moist and mellow like the air in a greenhouse.

I wouldn't say snow, it's rather warm and powdery, but very natural, earthy. Frozen earth is the closest to snow I'd go.

Musty, but not like books or paper, more of a natural mustiness. Actually, it smells quite like their mushroom scent.

A strong and natural scent of rain-drenched earth and wet green herbs.

This is supposed to smell like chilly night air, and yes, it has a very cool and fresh vibe like that. It also has a quite sharp and bitter wood or herb note that reminds me of vetiver. It's quite a lot like "hurricane" or "thunderstorm" scents.

It starts with a fresh green tea note and dries down to a little musty scent that reminds me strongly of In The Library. It reminds me of mushrooms. Where's the smoked tea? L'Artisans Tea for two suits the name better...

To me, Mr. Hulot's Holiday is a pretty average aquatic. Salty, faint and fresh. There's supposed to be a little leather in it, but I don't get that. It has a certain sweetness though, it's not a fresh, cool blast of masculine ocean spray cologne, but a more mellow and pleasant scent. I'm just not friends with this entire scent family.

Starts out fresh and green - tea and bamboo - but it is a quite perfumey fresh and green. In the drydown I get a hint of spicy cedar, but it vanishes, leaving not quite a scent but rather a soapy feeling in the back of my throat. Not a winner for me.

If you like vegetables and herbs in your scents, this might be just your thing. For me, cucumber in a blend makes my stomach turn. The best thing about it is that I get a hint of wood in the drydown.

Oriental Lumpur really does smell like spices. Not like spicy perfume, like cooking spices. Harissa, sambal oelek, chilli, curry... I find I enjoy it on a hot day, instead of wearing something cool and fresh (I'm not much into cool and fresh scents generally). It's red hot and spicy but at the same time "clean" - it almost has a soapy quality underneath the spice, like an oriental soap market next to the spice market. Normally, I would find the combination off-putting, but I don't. An addictive scent.

I love this scent! It has made me want to try out every single scent with rhubarb as a prominent note. It's such a juicy, tangy, fresh, green, true rhubarb scent, it makes my mouth water... And I'm no even that fond of eating rhubarb. It dries down to a green scent not unlike CdG 3.