Basenotes - Reviews by PaulSC

PaulSC

United States

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Barbier des Isles by Comptoir Sud Pacifique

This review is currently under revision...

3rd March, 2007. (Last Edited: 12nd September, 2009.)

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Casran by Chopard

Disappointing relative to my very high hopes. In fact, it's the first blind buy that I regret, although it wasn't expensive and isn't awful.

It starts out incredibly thin on my skin, so the first time I wore it, I over-applied and then began to regret this action as a sweet and vaguely fruity note became prominent. It's a scent I know ... it's just like that sweet plum wine one is sometimes served at the end of a Japanese meal.

And then it pretty much stays like that. I suppose a bit of woodiness develops, but I don't enjoy sniffing for it because I find the persistent sweetness unpleasant.

If you want a fragrance that is sweet and light and not floral -- a bit like Pi but cooler and lighter -- this might work for you. But this much sweetness is too much for me.

And yes, the bottle is gorgeous.

12nd January, 2007.

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Grapefruit by Czech & Speake

In my grad-school years, I wore two colognes. Calvin was my "signature" scent, and C&S Grapefruit was on hand for those days when I wanted something different. I loved the latter fragrance back in those days -- an intense blast of rich grapefruit, with a spicy edge that you could almost believe was part of the grapefruit rather than a separate accord. And unlike so many citrus-based scents, this one was fairly linear and had good longevity. In hot weather, it's true, the effect could be overly pungent, but on my skin this effect didn't get out of hand.

Evidently the public had a cooler opinion than mine about this fragrance, as it was discontinued. (In fact, I bought my bottle at a Barney's NY Warehouse sale, and it may have been the discontinuation that put this fragrance on the sale table.)

Today, I wouldn't pay the premium prices it would take to track down a vintage bottle of the stuff. But I've been perpetually on the trail of a perfect grapefruit (or related citrus) scent to replace it. At this point, I've got Terre d'Hermes for the rich, dark side of things, and I'm looking for something lighter and brighter but with decent longevity. Who knows, maybe I'll layer the two someday and be hit with the same waves of nostalgia I feel today when I wear Calvin...

EDIT: It's back, under the name "Citrus Paradisi" -- quite possibly a re-formulation, but just as marvelous as a remember.

10th January, 2007. (Last Edited: 12nd September, 2009.)

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