anyone here from PHILIPPINES

Well, I grew up there but haven't been since the late 80's so I can't help you with shopping tips. I know there is at least one other person on this board who lives in Makati. Maybe you can search the member profiles by location?

Rustan's carries a wide range of fragrances which you can't find in Manila's other big department stores,e.g. Chanel fragrances, Thierry Mugler fragrances, Gendarme, Acca Kappa, Acqua di Parma, Diptyque, L' Occitane, etc. A 100ml-bottle of designer fragrance will cost you between PhP3500 and PhP5500. Hope this information can help you.

Hi there Doc Jason!

Well, it seems Buzzcut was refering to me.... I do live in Makati. I've been a member of basenotes for quite sometime now and have contributed a number of posts.

Before anything else, I would like to welcome you to Basenotes, the premiere web resource for fragrance enthusiasts from all over the world. Basenotes have been a great help to me in my decisions with regards to my "little" fragrance hobby. And I hope you will enjoy your stay here and that Basenotes will be of help to you in your quest for the best scents out there.

With regards to your question, Roberto was right in mentioning Rustan's as a good place to shop. They do have a wide array of fragrance selections that you won't find in SM Malls and other department stores. And yes, they have the typical designers scents and they also carry some niche scents like Diptyque, L'Occitane, L'Artisan, Keiko Mecheri, Annick Goutal and a few others that i can't remember. If you are the type of person with deep pockets then you can find some scent there that is to your liking. If i remember it right, the niche scents there would cost you around 5,000 to 6,000 Pesos (US$100) for a 100ml bottle. Some could go even higher.

But if you are the adventurous type and would be game enough to look for the best buys, then I can recommend you a few places to check out. If you are in Ortigas, you can go to Robinson's Galleria. There is a perfume shop there named "Perfume World" (Im not that sure) where you can get designer scents at a much lower price. I see occasional Creeds there and they are also much cheaper.

If you are in Makati, go to Glorietta and check out the basement shops (near North Park restaurant). There are two shops there that sells a variety of scents and even hard to find ones.

I also have other places that i can recommend you but i think you should start from there first. They are very accesible and not hard to find.

Good luck on your scent hunting!

Regards,
John

I picked up Luca Turins link in the London Lounge a few months ago which kind of relaunched me on my perfume quest. From my highschool days to my recent retirement, I have always been a serial fragrance user. Yardleys English Lavender, Old Spice, Old Spice Lime, Revlons That Man, Monsieur Rochas, Elizabeth Ardens Sandalwood, Kanon, Guerlains Cologne Impérial (stuck with this for thirty years) and Vetiver, Hermès Bel Ami and Orange Verte (my mainstay until very recently when I was unknowingly and mercifully sold the long longed for concentrée version).

I love smelling and smelling of good scents but was afraid that detectable personal fragrance in the workplace was distracting and somewhat unprofessional. Now that I am no longer actively earning a living, I wear anything that I pretty damn well please. And there are precious few that I do not like. I do not have any reservations against so called feminine scents either. I can wear Worths Je Reviens as easily as Ralf Laurens Safari. I noticed though that my desire to own a scent is driven by its scarcity (rare or discontinued) or if it reminds me of the sweet odours of home. Sampaguita, ilang-ilang, champaka, camia (white ginger), sangumay (Dendrobium), pandan, pinipig, latik and mango blossom.

Yes! You're the one I was thinking of. I remember you recommended one of the Lacoste scents for hot weather and I made a note to seek it out for testing as it isn't exactly as ubiquitous as, say, ADG.

Have you checked out Ormonde Jayne? I believe she has one called Sampaguita.

As far as rare or hard to find scents, what about Casaque (Jean d'Albret), Ecusson (I don't remember who created this off the top of my head) and the "old" Balenciagas -- Le Dix, Quadrille?

Have you sniffed Hermes' Jardin sur le Nil? It's got a great mango note (not the "Manila" mango note but a mango note nevertheless).

Someone should come up with a gourmand scent with pandan, pinipig and latik notes. (Talk about exotic!)

Yes! You're the one I was thinking of. I remember you recommended one of the Lacoste scents for hot weather and I made a note to seek it out for testing as it isn't exactly as ubiquitous as, say, ADG. [/quote]


Ah yes... I think it was Lacoste Booster that I recommended... and im now down to my last few sprays of this underrated scent.


John

Thanks to Buzzcut. Yes I ordered Ormond Janes sample kit because I saw two items in it that halted me to attention, you know which two. Both of them beautiful scents to be sure, but unfortunately have nothing to do with the real flowers of the same names. I will buy them though inspite, specially Champaka which astounded me with its smell of pinipig, latik and steamed banana leaf. The closest scent that I have ever smelt of the real sampaguita in a packaged fragrance was Giorgio of Beverly Hills. This can knock you down with its intensity though. Not the cloistered colegialas of Intramuros this, but closer to the mini-skirted shrinking halter-topped waifs parading Ermita at dusk. My ideal sampaguita of all time is Van Cleef and Arpels 2004 limited edition Jasmin de Chine. Now that is class.

The rest of the sample kit was pretty good too. Tolu, Taif, Osmanthus. Isfahan has a strong resinous component, reminded me of the sahing you buy at the penny store for application as poultice or caulking for your leaking dug-out canoe. The same smell that the French call acetone which brings me to Un Jardin sur le Nil. You are right definitely not Manila mango, actually more like Indian mango, green at the top and ripe in the dry-down. Fresh lively scent though but unfortunately does not last on my skin as the rest of Jean-Claude Ellenas oeurve (same big heartbreak for the Frederick Malles edition of Bigarade Concentré). I picked it up at the duty-free shops at the Ezeiza airport with my first flask of Orange Verte concentré which I also bought just to qualify for a gift bag of 10 ml each of Eau de Merveille, Rouge and Un Jardin en Méditerranée. The SAs minding those counters there are so ignorant (uninformed and rude) but drop-dead georgeous. Win some, lose some.

A P.S. on the Ormond Jane sample program. I absent-mindedly left out Frangipani perhaps because that is the only one I did not like. It gave off
a whiff of faded, wilted or even dried flower that I personally rather not catch. Again nothing to do with the real flower that is also called plumeria (kalasutsi in Filipino) whose pleasant smell only ever so slightly verges on the heady. And even much less, not surprisingly, with the delicious almond pastry cream of the same name in French cuisine.

Yest there are Creed fragrances available in the Philippines. Although I think it the price for a 100ml bottle would cost around PhP 5,000 ($100). You can find them within the gray market. Fragrance discount stores can be found in Robinson's Galleria, Glorietta. I found a few bottles of SMW, MI, GIT and Tabarome there.


Regards,
John

Where did you get that notion that Creed fragrances can be bought cheap. As a matter of fact, they are one of the most expensive scents out there. They are "niche" scents in that they are not widely marketed as compared to the designer scents. Just check out some posts here in Basenotes regarding Creed scents. You'll get some idea how they are much valued here.

Regards,
John

Creed fragrances are available at WISH, G/F Makati-Shangri-la Shopping Arcade, Ayala Avenue, Makati City.

Thanks Roberto for that info. I guess i'll have to check out that place sometime.



John

Just to give you a historical perspective all you guys from the Philippines, I use to pick up Creeds at a tiny perfumery right beside La Estrella del Norte in Escolta. That was in the sixties when Escolta was still the prime shopping venue in all of Manila. I was young and foolish as you can imagine and did not value it as much as I do now. I used it indiscriminately like water.

Osme,

It really seems that your passion for perfume goes way back. Well, I guess now we Filipinos know whom to ask when it comes to appreciating classic scents here . I would love to see for myself how well made these classic and niche scents are. But the way these fragrances are priced, it wouldn't be practical for a Filipino guy like me here in the Philippines to acquire such expensive scents. But still, Im looking forward in reading more of your posts.


John

Do not despair. Enjoy what fragrances you can get there because no matter what, they are still priced way way lower than they are here. Also appreciate the made to measure clothing set up there because that is something that we here can only afford in our wildest dreams.

hope you guys don't mind the holy necropost batman...

but where else can you buy scents here? i buy from essences and cash and carry but i've been reading up on the net that some of the ones sold in cash and carry are fakes from singapore. any truth to that? i haven't bought the most popular ones so haven't been burned so far.

i should check out that tiangge part in glorietta but wasn't that bombed? also divisoria? uhh... that area is kinda huge... where there to be exact?