Aedes samples.

So a few posts back I talked about the samples I ordered from Aedes. Well, two of the seven I didn't receive. They were Carthusia - Via Camerelle and Dyptique - Eau Lente. The other five came in the package, though, along with house sample sprayers/vials of:

Parfum d'Empire - Ambre Russe, Cuir Ottoman, Eau Sauve, Equistrius, Fougere Bengale, Iskander, Osmanthus Interdite
By Kilian - Full range of his seven scents
Dyptique - L'eau L'eau and L'eau Neroli
Aedes de Venustas

How insanely generous of them. I'm assuming on their behalf that they sent me all this because they ran out of stock of the two samples I asked for. And I'm totally fine with that, though I was really looking forward to trying Via Camerelle.

So this thread is basically my (initial, at this point) impressions on these, along with the others I was sent, and some samples from a couple months ago I haven't shared my perceptions of with you.

Aedes de Venustas - initial memory of something from childhood. I think of Superplay, and the lady my mom and I would go see who lived near the old Superplay building. Smells fruity and spicy, but I can't tell what fruits are going on in this. It's also done in a way that isn't abrasively spicy or fruity, like I found in PdE's Aziyade. That's an aspect of it that seems to make it boring to me, or at least - I feel like it's missing something. Not much change in the fragrance over time. Wears close to skin. "Safe." Something I'd love on a woman, but probably not on me. Though it's linear and a little too quiet for my taste it's made of good ingredients and done well. It has a 7 right now.

L'eau Neroli - didn't wear this but sprayed it on some tissue. Found it to be very unentertaining. Orange and neroli! I'm not really a fan of light citrus EDC scents like Chanel's new Allure Sport Cologne. I'll give it a skin test eventually to be fair.

L'eau L'eau - Same as above, but a little more depth to the fragrance. I will give this a wear sooner than neroli.

A Taste of Heaven - I've never had a fragrance make me say oh my God this is IT. I guess I like fougeres, because this and a couple others of these samples made me say the same thing. Lavender goes quickly but I don't mind, as I can still smell the memory of it when I smell what it has become and it mixes in. It becomes this amber/vanilla/patchouli(?) concoction with a couple other elements I can't pick out. Sillage and longevity are insane with this one. Too bad it's so damn expensive. I probably won't buy a bottle because of that. But OH MAN. 10.

Straight to Heaven - not bad. Hard alcohol and patchouli? I mean, it's well constructed, but I think I need to spend more time with it to really "get" what's so special about it. If this is Kilian's heaven, he must be an alcoholic. Even the name hints at a sort of brash character - where Taste hints at the subtle beauty that can be found in a paradise like that, this one feeds it all to you at once and takes you straight there. It's like a full out assault on your senses from heaven. I'm not sure I agree with that. But that's merely interpretation, at 1:30am. Will update.

Equistrius - oh my GOD this is IT. Picked it out randomly to wear on my chest to classes today. Wow. I can't remember what I like about it so much so I will be wearing it again. It's like, white and heavenly. I felt as though I'd gone straight to heaven! 10 for now.

Daim Blond - dominating sugary apricot with musks that I have a hard time smelling the "wholeness" of and some very subdued spice character so subdued I can't get it above the apricot and musk. I think I'm one of those people who can't smell certain types of musk. Weird. Didn't stand out to me as too interesting but I liked it. 7.

Sables - I wish I hadn't read about this one before trying it, and WHY did i do it with this one out of any other, but some comments about maple syrup and bacon.. damn. That is literally all I get. Roommates and girlfriend said it smelled like old woman. I can't give it a fair review. Right now.

More to come tomorrow. Highly recommend checking out Equistrius. I hated PdE before because all I'd smelled was Aziyade. So glad I happened to get these.

Osmanthus Interdite - reminds me of a more feminine Silver Mountain Water, no printer-ink note. I get lots of floral(the osmanthus I guess), tea, and rose. I love the use of rose by PdE when they do. My girlfriend doesn't like rose scents. Black Aoud is the most vile thing in the world to her. But she loves this one and Eau Sauve. So do I! Nice for summer, probably not bottle worthy though as I find SMW more masculine and fitting to me.

Cuir Ottoman - I have a problem with this one because it gave me a headache almost immediately. There are a certain few fragrances that do this to me. Another one is John Varvatos Vintage. I don't know what combination of notes happens to give me such pounding headaches - I don't get migraines and pretty much never get headaches. Is this a chypre? Is it a combination of leather and something else? Someone please tell me, I'd really like to know. I don't like jasmine either, sorry. I tried to wash this off as fast as I could but it wouldn't come off. Couple hours later it dried down very nicely and wasn't headache inducing. It'd be unfair to rate it.

Le Nuits d'Hadrien - inoffensive light scent. citrus floral almond? That's what I got for two hours, whereafter it became completely imperceptible. Lame.

Cruel Intentions - woody oriental + earth vetiver? Similar to StH in a sense, no booze. Became a skin scent on me, not what I expected. I think I need to retry this as I could be messing this one up. It's smooth. Certainly not bad. I feel like a few of Kilian's scents smell very similar.

Fougere Bengale - this is just a perfect combination of everything in this. I feel like it's perfectly balanced in each aspect of its character. I don't think it's too foody, but I definitely get foody from it as it progresses. Drydown reminds me of Himalaya a little. Amazing sillage/longevity. For some reason I only want to give it a 9 and further wearing will probably enlighten me.

I think Parfum d'Empire is my favorite house now. Wow. The subtext of the scents are great too.

Iskander - Amazing citrus over subtle woods type. Starts like how Issey Miyake should have been - not nearly as synthetic and sharp - and dries down like MI without a marine aspect. An ambery sweetness in drydown. By drydown it is almost as though you had been wearing a completely different perfume before. Total change, impressed me. Just starting to die out after 8 hours. I'm going to stop the number ratings, as they are kind of arbitrary and irrelevant. (hate the name, by the way.)

Prelude to Love - Ripe citrus floral. Slightly fem but still wearable. A soft orange starts to show itself as it dries down and the lemon citrus subsides. Times I would sniff my wrist and I would be reminded of lemon-scented polisher/cleaner, though. I like perfumes a little darker, with deeper bases than this, but I find this perfume attractive - just not for me. Can be likened to light romantic foreplay, where Kilian's Love is flat out sex(not animalistic, though as you'll read).

Ambre Russe - OMG!!!!!!!!!!!! so good. Vaguely reminds me of a fizzy dr pepper soda. Deep and poetic - beautiful. Not abrasive/herbal like Sultan(though I do love that about Sultan). Can't stop smelling wrist, seriously, hot damn. Slight smoke and incense in this. So good. Wow.


I haven't retried StH yet, no. Probably will tomorrow. I retried Equistrius and Taste of Heaven..

Equistrius opens with this weird note that is like a mix between fresh printer paper and milk. I wore it on my chest again and was at work for the duration of the scent, so it was hard to analyze accurately. Light and ethereal. Still good. Taste of Heaven is still blissful to me. I am going to have to compare it with Gris Clair on the other wrist soon. Different fragrances but somewhat similar enough for me to make a comparison on which I'd rather have.