tiptoe through sephora

I know it's not fair to write disparagingly of eau's beloved after only putting them on under an hour ago but nobody said life or supermarky were fair!

rochas man: less of a chocolate mess than A*men, but not much

matsuhita (sic?): male - - - is that male (sic) meaning, female? if I had to ascribe a sex to the androgynous canteloupe it would be female.

gucci ph, well, a woody fragrance, nothing to sing about but not awful. would not kill cockroaches and deter cher in a post apocalyptic battle for survival, as would serge lutens Cedre, but it might keep moths away... it's certainly not drawing me in like a moth to a flame. I guess the word "meh" applies! In this context it's high praise.

gucci envy - opoponax and tom ford it must be... um. . . never mind . .. (and I just purchased this one blind for only $10. such an idiot not to try it first, but I guess I just am longing for as rosie odonnel would say my tommy's embrace again...) I seem to remember that the rest of the notes on this read like a typical overloaded olfactory house of horrors, smells like a ladies perfume to me, besides. I'll have to stick with the tom ford crotch scent of black orchid.

versace dreamer: dry cleaning fluids with a glazing of Sweet'n'Low mixed with our old friend Woolite/Gendarme. Gendarme with implants.

chanel pour mssr - it's stronger than the rest, and it's the most genteel. biiiiig deal! as charles jourdan sings in the actually pretty tedious movie itself, "Gigi": It's a bore!

I know I tested too many there are even a couple more on me I think...

But I really seem to just hate designer fragrances, too many notes, no character, too much of a blast of something like tuberose to them, this white noise element that is so abrasive, like inhaling ammonia, ALL OF THEM here have it except maybe the chanel. also tried matsuhita very male but . . .. in this context might as well not have even, can barely percieve it in its place where I knew I sprayed it. It's not designed for a nose exhausted by these others and that's ok cause I couldn't be less interested in it anyway.

"I guess we should have gone STRAIGHT to Peck and Peck after all!" - as edith massey says in "polyester"

It's not like I haven't had dismissive thoughts about things I came to love, but I can't possibly imagine warming up to any of these.

I don't know they just all gross me out. It's true dreamer doesn't smelll ike gendarme anymore but. . . doesn't smell at all practically but it certainly starts off similar, woolite like.

also, anything with chocolate just disgusts me, even cdg spicy cocoa which I used to defend. even profumo chocolate frais, it doesn't matter if it's niche or not.

envy now doesn't smell so feminine, but it did at first...

I did say I was posting within an hour of spraying.

anyway . . . it doesn't have to come from barney's but from sephora, there really isn't anything for me there including fresh which is separated in its own little niche. I shouldn't be so downputting I suppose. sorry! I also really can't stand most Creeds. For me many of these fall into a class of "traditional" that I just totally can't relate to. And, just cause when they drydown they aren't so bad, that . . . seems only a function, for my palatte (sic), of their being pretty much over with. too many notes! too harsh and sweet at the same time.

definitely my "smells like" comparisons are off cause my knowledge is still scant. when I say amen really I mean any men's fragrance with chocolate, but aren't they really all basically post amen variations? I just can't stand the prototype. And Amen is a men's fragrance in this way: too many notes, chaos. If the niche scents had not come along, I would not be into wearing anything. and it's definitely not about their being exclusive and expensive, it's about their having identity and real beauty, to me at least, which. to me, these kinds of men's fragrances absolutely do not. I mean if you put down some scents as "old lady" this is a similar kind of distaste I feel for these things.

You would have to admit, I think that the dreamer and gendarme are quite similar in the opening?

I would have expected that lured in by the niche stuff, I would eventually develop an appreciation for the rest of the fragrances that have held sway for however long... but it just doesn't seem to be turning out that way. But again, I've only been trying things other than mark birley for about 5 months now, but. . . and if you look at the pyramids of these designer frags, they often are really dense with elements. its like mixing every color together, you end up with little or no color in the end.

I have tried it. . . still kind of a designery frag to me, I do like bois d'argent though.

From all I hear about it, I'm still wondering if M7 might be one I will like! they had no ysl at sephora.

I just also want to say, I am certainly not alone in not liking what's found in department stores and sephora and the like. Pals on MUA tell me their hubbies feel the same way and I've spoken to a number of people who also don't like "traditional" fragrances for men. This certainly doesn't mean we like anything niche. I can't abide anything of dyptique I've tried yet, for instance.

Also, I fail to see a difference between dismissing an entire class of product for bearing the stamp of 'post AdG/Boss freshness' and dismissing most designer and traditional house fragrances, both pre and post Amen, for just being too much. While I don't like them myself, I can certainly understand how soooo many people today seem to prefer the 'fresh frags' to the whole lot of overbearing "legitimate" blends out there, new or old. I suspect a lot of people who fall into that category would be drawn to niche scents if they were more aware of them, which they aren't ever going to be shopping at macys, sephora, etc.

Finally, a lot of people just purely and simply hate cologne. I used to be one of them. I think a lot of these folks experience sephora exactly as I do, but would be pleasantly surprised by something like l'artisan mure et musc, and many others, as I have been.