Rochas, Balenciaga and my cheapskatery :)

Anyone else had this experience?

A while ago I tried New Haarlem - as a big lover of coffee and chocolate I was very interested to smell this highly lauded scent rendition. I was duly impressed. It is quite lovely. But just how lovely? Perfection? Not quite - just insofar as, I wasn't sure that it suited me perfectly. That said, if it had been 30, 40, 50GBP I would have plumped for a bottle. But 130GBP? Nope. I was tempted, but nope.

But ah, what's this? There are other scents that are, if not quite as good, then 9/10ths as good? And available for much, much less? Great - 9/10ths as good for 1/10th of the price looks like a fair deal to me.

First port of call was Cristobal pour Homme. I tried this on a strip and to my obviously by-then-addled nose it really smelled identical to NH. Bought it. And - yech! God only knows what I must have been thinking. My memory doesn't let me pin down the notes but I can remember a terrible artificiality, a kind of plasticky vileness that I thought was horrid. It sort of smelt like a nice, sweet, gourmandy scent that had been wrapped in three layers of clingfilm and left to sour in the sun.

So then I tried Rochas Man and had the almost exactly the same experience! A very, very unpleasant rubbery, plasticky quality. I sort of vaguely detect the mocha but really it's just a dismal and calamitous fragrance.

So, for me, it just goes to show: ya pays yer money and ya takes yer choice ... guess I'll just have to wait till the next time I'm in NYC, eh ...

Ah, you're quite right about that, the title is a bit misleading. I have to admit, I palmed the Cristobal off on my stepdad and he likes it a lot

Never tried Balenciaga PH, but I did try Le Dix the other week and that was pretty sensational, up there with Arpege etc (if you like that sort of thing).

I certainly have, in fact I own it and it's nice, probably more complex than NH with that anise note in it, a little less sweet, but very good, gourmand yet sombre.

There is a fair point to be made about Bond No. 9 not being a terribly original house (perhaps Chinatown is an exception), or even, I would say for the majority of their scents, a particularly good one. Where the hell they get the cheek from to charge so much I don't know. They claim to use only very high-quality ingredients, but then, what do Annick Goutal use? Serge Lutens? Guerlain?

I once attended a seminar on business in which one of the speakers, who sold luxury chocolates, described how when they doubled their prices once they doubled their sales - 'if it's expensive it must be good'. Do we think Bond are trying to exploit the same psychological trick?

Ahah! I hadn't spotted that one! (I think because when I tried Aqua Motu my nose was so obliterated that I could barely smell it at all). I shall have to investigate this .

Dull and watery is absolutely right. Can I add characterless?

Perhaps they are inspired by the idea that can come across as tasteful by being minimalist? But if that is the case, and if they are supposed to be inspired by NYC, then something has gone wrong. A scent family inspired by NYC should be loud, self-confident, diverse, bold.

So you -have- met my ex-girlfriend then