NickZee
Dependent

I came across this amusing comment in the forums recently:

Originally Posted by DULLAH

Figment is completely unwearable in all ways, unless we find a situation where we need to smell like a vacant lot overrun with weeds and urine, next to a cold greenhouse full of pesticides, bleach, wet potting soil/vermiculite, and tons of shrill chemical fertilizers.

I sympathise with this comment to an extent. Daring fragrances can alarm the senses because the brain is trying to determine if the smell is safe.

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Originally Posted by NickZee

Leather was what got me into fragrances. I wanted to find a fragrance that smelled like the interior of my car.

There are several great leather note categories represented by Bel Ami, Tuscan Leather and Royal English Leather. These three are the most popular of their respective "teams", though not necessarily the best.

Dior Leather Oud, Montale Aoud Cuir d'Arabie and MPG Parfum d'Habit are the great lone rangers in the leather world.

Zoologist

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Originally Posted by NickZee

There's a very real difference between something that SMELLS natural and something that IS natural. Naturals are inferior to high quality synthetics and I will try to explain why.

A natural ingredient is very complex, so some facets will reflect the beautiful door the relevant note is famous for, while other facets will carry bitterness, earthiness and other elements that the perfumer or the user don't want to be there. High quality synthetics address this problem by separating

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Originally Posted by NickZee

I have experienced fragrances becoming richer and smoother with age many times over. I assume this happens for countless reasons, but perhaps I can speculate that:

1). The mixing process creates a lot of chemical reactions that produce volatile, unstable long chain molecules that breakdown with time into simpler molecules that no longer accent the fragrance with chemical resonance

2) The perfumer will need to overload the volatile topnotes to ensure they are present

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Originally Posted by NickZee

I review a lot myself, but ultimately the reviews should be moderated by the reader if the reader doesn't know who the reviewer is and what their preferences are. The best reviewers, of which we have maybe 2 or 3 on this site, are so good at describing a fragrance that even when they personally dislike a fragrance you can determine that you will like it, or vice versa! I myself am too lazy in my reviews to achieve this but occasionally I try. I review mainly to keep track of my own thoughts,

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