Yatagan arrived in time for Christmas, and now, time for re-gifting

I want it, because I generously donated bottles of New Haarlem, Jazz, Xeryus Rouge, Signoricci... and paid to send them to basenoters in the spirit of christmas... that's it that's all. ( I realize that mentioning my kind gesture, detracts severely from the warmth and generosity of it, but screw it.. dang.... I want me that Yatagan!)

Enough humility... it's time for honesty!

a.

I have no compelling reason why I should receive such a wonderful gift. I have read nice stuff about this, and I can tell you that if I did not like it, I would re-place it on here to give away like you did. Other than that, you are most generous to do this.

(Hey, it worked before!)

I have been looking all over for this stuff locally, to try smelling it. (I live in a small town.) I really like power frags, and Yatagan seems like the ultimate power fragrance. Check out my wardrobe to see what I mean: Fendi Uomo, Chaps, and Azzaro PH are all present.

You're very nice for doing this. If I don't like it I will repost, or if someone tells me how to decant I can do that too.

I can easily explain why I would love to have this scent, I can write poetry inspired by it, but it comes down to this...

Yatagan is far too powerful for the mere mortal. And much like Excalibur who could only be wielded by King Arthur, Yatagan, that famed Turkish blade, can only be brandished by its master. And his master is I.

Mine hand is outstretched.

Three reasons:

First: I don't have a frag that I really feel has some great leather notes like Yatagan, and I would love to try one.

Second: I would definitely pass it on if I did not like it (as I have many others to family and friends)

Third: I do not have any real stores around here that have some of the greatest frags...I live in a pretty rural area so a lot of my frags have had to be blind buys or time consuming after ordering decants and then buying the ones I like. The closest department store is well over 100 miles away.

Hope you pick me, but I think it's great that you are "paying it forward".

I vote for all my friends who have posted already as well as those who will post after me.

Yatagan is one of my all-time favorite fragrances. Amazingly, it is also one of my wife's favorites! Based upon the reviews, her reaction to Yatagan initially surprised me!

The only reason to send it to me would be to put an end to the surreptitious raids on my fragrance closet. It would be the humanitarian thing to do.

That poor orphan Yatagan!....if you send it to me, it will have found a permanent, nurturing, caring home, who will love Yatagan for who he is.

Yatagan, please come home to daddy!!

No...Yatagan is a smart kid...It wouldn't go back to someone who let it go in the 1st place...

It should come to someone who would accept it and love it for the way IT IS...It should come to MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE......

100% love guaranteed......plus it gets a home for LIFE.....


gupts

You must have me confused with someone else, as i have never put Yatagan up for adoption.

First time it was funny thing close to some perfume donations and|or perfume education.
Right now it sounds like Public Relations Issue of Caron.
Sorry, guys... True perfume classic does not need that.

I have the bottle of Yatagan already, and like it, and I found it in US web-shop for a good price of 30 bucks plus post expenses from USA to Siberia was about 20 bucks... Still I was happy to get it - as there`s no Caron here, in my city.
But even if Yatagan hasn`t been in my collection right now, I better found it in the web or off-line and buy it once again.
Sorry, guys, the world isn`t a gifty place. One should want something badly and then afford it oneself.

Oh i thought you put out Yatagan initially, gifting it to its current owner

My bad......

gupts

I have absolutely no good reason why I should get Yatagan besides I really want to try it. If I don't like it, off it goes to another home.

Yatagan is turning into the proverbial Christmas Fruitcake!

Tried it first time...thought it was repulsive, tried it second and loved it! Would love to add it right next to Kouros in my #2 or 3 spot.....count me in finsfan

Honestly, I am dying to try it, but I don't think I need the full bottle If any of the winners would like to send along a decant (small just to know how it smells) I'd feel like a winner without the need for a bottle.

I was going to suggest that last time, but felt that it wasn't appropriate as I had come upon that idea after I made my bid for the bottle.

I think it would be great if you offered decants of it for the price of shipping + decant container. Er, this is probably against the rules - or is it only wrong to sell decants? Is giving them away for free against the rules?

I know that this is not my say, and I am not trying to nominate myself with this post, but instead of treating Yatagan like a red-headed stepchild or passing it around like a stale fruitcake, what about giving it to someone who already enjoys it and will appreciate it for what it is. After all, this isn't some cheap, dime-store tonic, but a beautiful fragrance from Caron, one of the greatest perfume houses in history.

Just my two cents. But if the move is to split it up into decants, please let us know so I can instead purchase a bottle online. Cheers.

I agree with Nicolas V. The fragrance definitely has its detractors (as do both L'Anarchiste and Pour un Homme), but it has a great many devotees as well. Further, there are many out there who have yet to try this oily, testosterone-fueled, coniferous Turkish beast. Like it or not, everyone should try it once.

Red-headed stepchild it ain't -- that honor belongs to a stinker like Stetson, or perhaps yet another of the watery Tommy clones that just doesn't amount to a hill of beans. Yatagan, love it or hate it, definitely stands alone and proud.

As I recall, this is a big bottle. I tried it before and would really like to try it again - as would many others. To spread the joy, I would take what I need (15mL or so) and pass on the rest in the original bottle.

good luck to all!!!!

Why is this getting so complicated? It's a gift.. of a bottle of Yatagan... (in best Regis voice) This is out of control!

Not that I had any shot (due to my self-centered, self-congratulating post) but please remove my interest from the thread... this is getting far too complicated for my christmas break/downtime Besides, someone will enjoy it more.. I'm sure.

a.

I have never smelled Yatagan, so, unlike those who have tried it before, you would not only be giving a fragrance; you'd be bestowing an entirely new experience. Fragrance is art, but where as other arts are more readily communicable, the ephemeral, physical properties of fragrance make it both more personal and harder to express. Even if one hasn't seen Van Gogh's Starry Night one can get a reasonable approximation of it through prints, posters, even images online: there isn't the equivalent for fragrance. There is no way for me to understand Yatagan without trying it first hand.
Not having tried this fragrance, I can't say whether I will like it or not - indeed, I may loathe it - but it has a combination of notes that intrigue me, and I'd love to take that chance. With this as a given, here are some memories associated with some of the notes I've read being in Yatagan.

Pine Needles

Pine trees are strangely utilitarian creatures while retaining their austere charm. They can seem - and possibly are, though they can hardly be blamed for it - ugly and banale when used as gas station borders, or occasionally bundled up as Christmas trees, and most of all when turned into pieces of ubiquitous pine furniture, but pine trees have formed a distinctive backdrop to some of my favorite memories.
As a child, many of my favorite places had pine trees of different kinds: the tall, solitary ponderosa pines that dotted the Okanagan desert; the - appropriately - Scots pines that shook in the winter winds while I lived in Renfrewshire; the stone pines that dotted the hills during my stay in Devon. The last memory particularly stands out: I'll always remember the sight of a full moon rising over an isolated stand of stone pines.
Pines' beauty is in their shape, form and contrast with their surroundings; their scent is cold and clear as an empty night sky.

Oakmoss

Oakmoss was, for me, a rediscovery of a scent I'd lost touch with, and I suspect every child of a damp climate knows. As we grow taller and loose our inclination to play in the dirt, we loose touch with that lush, earthy scent of wet earth and crushed plant life that comes with digging into the soil with our hands. I smelled oakmoss absolute when I was fifteen, and it reminded me of those memories, but also an entirely different one that happened in between my mucking around days and my oakmoss discovery.
I remember living in Vancouver, age eight and taking a trip to Lighthouse Park with my mother. It was a rainy early fall day, but a warm sun came out and dried things out. There were a few others at the park, but my mother and I discovered a little mossy rock outcropping above one of the larger trails. The sun had dried the moss enough so that we could both lie on the warm moss comfortably, without getting wet. Surprisingly, no-one saw us there, even though all they had to do was look up. Oakmoss may not smell of moss per se, but it definitely smells of that time and that place.

Castoreum

Castoreum is essentially a new one to me; a fragrance component I've only really become aware of this past year, yet somehow, it's redolent of a category of smells that hold a special place in my imagination: the smells you're not supposed to like, yet do.
There's something about castoreum notes in fragrances that tease out a collage of other odor memories: the smell of gasoline from a distance, acrid yet somehow warm and exciting; the chemical, almost uric but not quite smell of new leather; the smell of fresh sweat, clean yet dirty at the same time. Castoreum is all these things to my nose, but takes on the color of whatever fragrance it happens to be in without negating those qualities. In Tabac Blond it's suave and sensuous; in Knize Ten it's the ground bass to the harmonies of amber and incense; in Dzing! it's coarse and masculine, teasingly contrasted with mounds of girlish cotton candy. It's the most reserved animal note, distant from the cleaner, more palatable musk and the more gently human ambergris by popularity and character, and distinctly separate from its closer cousin, the buttery, heated civet.
I love this note, and have, in the past, been directed towards Yatagan as a fragrance that contains it.

Well, those are my thoughts on why I'd like to try this fragrance, and I hope they've come across reasonably coherent.
If I don't like it, I'll be more than happy to keep the fragrance train going, and if I do, I may just decant a small amount and keep the train going simply for the fun of it! Of course, if I really, really love it, it may just have to be abducted by space pirates before I manage to send it on.

I agree with NearFantastica in that this has gotten quite complicated and at the same time, after re-reading my comments, I feel that I have definitely added to this. I have no right telling finsfan what to do with his Yatagan. I feel I came off like a jerk, which was certainly not my intention, and I apologize, sincerely.

I like Yatagan and I want it. So I am going to do what I feel is best: buy a bottle.

Thus, I too will be bowing out (hopefully gracefully), giving others a chance to give the prized Yatagan a new home.

Cheers and the best of luck to everyone else. May she fall in able hands.

Finsfan,
I`m sorry about my previous post.
What I was going to say - repeating a joke does not make it more funny
Asking people to win the same contest you won before does not make the contest more interesting. It`s just repeating the same thing other words.

Good way to spread the information about Yatagan - split it for others. Or find a person who has enough vials and decants to split the bottle.
Good way to make our Basenotes more interesting and funny - create something new for contest Whatever - who is the best person (Holliwood, pop-idols, or politicians) to wear Yatagan?
What musical piece is more Yatagan-sounding? Or what piece of art is Yataganish?
That will be informative and add depth to the ceremony of passing Yatagan further...

Or it is just my thoughts... You could do it your way - as you`re responsible of that bottle of Yatagan

Anyway, I did not mean any bad. Just want to make the Basenotes a better place As you do
Cheers!

Because . . .

It has inspired me to write my first post!

Whats next, first review?

I don't think it's complicated Being somewhat new to the Basenotes community, I have come to realize that there is a lot of generosity here... A LOT... people decant, and send samples, all in the interest of sharing the experience of fragrances they love or find interesting... and I guess what I should have SAID was, "I would LOVE a bottle of this and would love to share the experience with others" but coming from a person who has never smelled it, I didn't want to seem greedy. I don't think anyone meant any offense... I know I didn't.

finsfan,

this is a very good question! When shipping to the US I traditionally take three precautions. I list the contents as 'non-fragrance' items... Ive used everything from 'used cosmetics' to 'used collectibles/glass figurines/model cars, etc etc'. Second, declare a low value (under the $20 range) and third, I always toss in a noisemaker to mask any swooshing the bottles might make (foam peanuts, rice, macaroni usually work)

Aside from that it should be smooth sailing... hope this helps

a.

I'd like it primarily because I'm going into independent perfumery and am trying to acquaint myself with as many scents as possible. The primary problem with that is a poor location (Macy's is the biggest cologne distributor around and that's over an hour away) and limited finances at the moment (ah, school.)

As many others, I too would only take a small amount for myself and pass the rest on. It's just that Yatagan is a classic and I've always been of the mind that one should know what has come before, before trying to innovate, whether it be in the field of perfumery, music, literature, or anything else.

Sam,

There is always the scare of a bottle confiscation when shipping over the border, though Im sure that many US/Canadian basenoters will tell you... these instances are rarities..

That being said, to avoid the unknown, since it is in fact a gift... you might want to send it to US based recipient as it is a safer.. just my two cents, anyway,

a.

Congrats to the winner and congrats to Finsfan....I think this is a great idea, regardless of how you decide to "pay it forward".

Indeed, congrats Galamb. Had it been my contest I would have chosen you as well - your post was insightful and well written. Enjoy!

Thank you!