Fragrance Reviews by likouala_man

Finally, my bottle of Erolfa arrived! I'm still figuring it out, and it smells a bit different each time I apply it. I can definitely see the resemblance to Imperial. The one thing that really stands out to me is the Coriander note! It is prominent and very sharp and strong. We eat a lot of freshly prepared curry in our household and the coriander note here is startling. I immediately thought 'curry'! Now this is not the way Erolfa is normally analyzed, I know, but that is how it hit me. I think it is largely the coriander which provides the pungent 'tangy' note described by so many (or perhaps the coriander blending with someone else). All in all I love this once the coriander settles down a little and integrates. Then all is lovely. The combination of creamy house-notes from Creed and the tangy stuff is pure magic to me. I love it. Clean, fresh and dirty all at the same time.

Lorenzo Villoresi Vetiver, I've been waiting a long time to get my hands on this one. I consider myself a vetiver lover (I have tried many of the heavy hitters MPG RdV, FM Extraordinaire, Goutal, Carlo Corinto, Givenchy vintage, etc). I wasn't put off by the astringent raw blast of RdV, but the strong herbal onset of LVs vetiver smells initially to me like rotting lettuce! Sorry, but that is what I got, just very very herbal green but not in a nice way. Then as the frag settles down and opens up, a wonderful transformation happens. It isn't the vetiver that diminishes, but some other 'green' herbal note in the top notes that thankfully evaporates away. As the notes get properly oriented to each other, a harmonious whole eventually emerges, and this is lovely. It is warm woodsy, soothing, slightly spicy, yet with the raw strident vetiver note never far away. I actually like this vetiver note, and LV just gets better and better as the hours pass. The vetiver turns slightly sour/bitter near the end, when all else is gone, and it must stand alone, but this may just be my skin. For me it is a fragrance designed to smell good only after about 30-40 minutes, and then increasingly good or another 5 hours or so, but think of the design genius this requires! It isn't a matter of a pleasant but short lived accord that thrills right out of the bottle. The real delight is in the long lasting wood-vetiver accord modulated by supporting green and spicy notes. This ranks up there with RdV and Vetiver Extraordinaire as the 'amazing three' in terms of potency, longevity and vetiver_trueness. And it lasts a good long time. Did I mention that the Givenchy Vetyver (vintage but recently re-released in France is VERY good too). You're lucky if you ever see it outside of France. But back to LV Vetiver, two thumbs up for being the wild and lovely thing it is!

I first smelled this sitting on an airplane between Cameroon and Gabon in Central Africa. It was enchanting then and that impression never left me. I love the blast of lavender at the beginning and the long vanilla musk drydown. I've smelled guys who overdo it with this one; it was pretty heavy. So watch the number of spritzes! It's true that it's relatively simple, and quite 'old', but for all that a classic and a pleasure to wear. You can get it inexpensively on EBAY!

Royal Water is a comfort fragrance for me. I've gone to it and then gone away from it several times over the years. There is something there that keeps me coming back. It has gotten the 'you smell great!' reaction from several friends who appreciate beauty and that says something. I'd like to always have a bottle of this around. I like the seamless combination of citrus, floral and musk. It is lively and enchanting.

MdM was too sharp and exotic for me. It hurt my nose! I just could not 'love' it. I tried it for a few weeks and then sold it. Etro is an interesting house, though. I still have a bottle of Palais Jamais that I smell from time to time.

Yerbamaté is very complex. The others have exhausted the analysis of 'notes' so I'll just be poetic about how this fragrance makes me feel. I find it soothing and centering, evocative of high windy heights, and the smoke of campfires in the forest. It's a thing of beauty, artistic in the extreme. I don't get much 'powder' from this one, just a lot of 'clean', 'green' and tea-incense. An enchanting marvel; I hope I don't run out anytime soon.

LV's Piper Nigrum is simply wonderful. It should be called Pepper Cream, but Piper Nigrum is definitely cooler! I have sampled a pretty good range of so called 'niche' fragrances, but nothing has held my interest like PN (and his 'brother' Yerbamaté). The ingredients in both of these are unusually 'raw' and 'natural' (certainly you have noticed how these adjectives keep coming up in descriptions of Villoresi fragrances). I find the Artisan fragrances anemic by comparison (and I have tried many of them: 'Tea for Two' is the best of the lot and my wife likes Té pour une été.)Similarly the Creeds are complex and beautiful but fleeting (and who can argue with the genius of Green Irish Tweed, Bois du Portugal, and Imperial). Still, I've ended up selling off (or wishing I could sell off!) many of my 'niche' fragrances over the years but I'd never sell my PN or Yerbamaté. Never!