Southern California BN Meetup

We had a small group from SoCal today--three of us from the Los Angeles area (me, Astaroth and arwen_elf) and one from further south (BlackCat). We met at a halfway point in Orange County called South Coast Plaza. Arwen_elf and I carpooled and arrived a bit early, so we went into Bloomingdales and sniffed:

Varvatos Rock--light and fresh citrus that is not aquatic--quite wearable for men or women
Tom Ford Grey Vetiver--very a nice but not ground-breaking citrus-vetiver, a great alternative to other light vetivers such as Guerlain Vetiver or CDG Vettiveru

Soon after, we met up with BlackCat and Astaroth at Wolfgang Puck Bistro near Macy's--we had a lovely lunch and yummy desserts, enough to fuel us for some marathon sniffing! We breezed through Macy's and smelled:

Armani Idole--completely forgettable female light-woody fragrance, an EL Sensuous wannabe. This will probably make it to TJMaxx soon.

We moved on to Saks, our first major stop. The fragrance testers are all crammed into one smallish area with a long counter, so we sprayed some strips and left them out to settle. In the meantime, BlackCat was contemplating her first spray on skin (I will let her fill in the blanks here!). We smelled:

Natori Natori--beautiful classic feminine, a subdued but luxurious floral with a beautiful creamy drydown, and the bottle is really great too!
Bond No.9 Fire Island--I REALLY don't understand the buzz about this one, unfortunately. Instead of oiled, suntanned skin, I smelled BO and rancid florals. Not for me!
Chanel Egoiste--what can I say, it is one of my favorites, and it smelled great on our male test subject, Astaroth
Hermes Gentiane Blanche--yummy bitter green EDC, and the gentian is a fantastic alternative to one of my favorite bitter green notes, galbanum
Hermes Pamplemousse Rose--refreshing and CLEAN grapefruit, and no rose to be had. BlackCat remarked that the name actually means Pink Grapefruit--of course! Very nice.
By Kilian Liaisons Dangereuses--juicy and jammy liqueur-like fruit over a generous floral heart and a sweet vanilla-amber drydown, rather delicious
Jo Malone Vanilla & Anise--light and pretty vanilla gently spiced with peppery anise, relatively long lasting considering it is an EDT

We made our way into the mall, which has some great boutiques. We stopped at Lalique, drooled over their gorgeous perfume bottles, and sampled:

Lalique Encre Noir pour Elle--forgettable feminine chypre, could barely smell it on the paper, but what we did smell was simplistic and forgettable
Lalique Encre Noir--fabulous dry vetiver fragrance, nutty and complex, drying to a common but lovely Ruh Khus type smoky vetiver base

We then rushed over to Chanel to sniff the Exclusifs (which some of us had already tried). They had all but Cuir de Russie and Bois des Iles on display, and we smelled most of them. The standouts for me were:

Chanel Bel Respiro--fresh green and bracing, with a light floral musk base
Chanel Sycomore--refined vetiver, a bit like Encre Noir, but less dry and not as overpowering

We backtracked a little to visit Hermes, and did alot of sniffing there, especially the Hermessences. The ones I paid most attention to were:

Hermessence Vanille Galante--indolic lily fragrance with hardly any vanilla that I could detect, not for me
Kelly Caleche parfum--less "tomato stem" than the EDT, with stronger soapy leather and good longevity

Then we made a quick stop at the YSL boutique where we tried:

YSL Rive Gauche--classic, well composed and balanced male fougere
YSL Kourous--my first time smelling this frag, and I think it is actually much more feminine than I expected. It reminds me of some very civetty women's orientals such as the opening in Krizia's Teatro alla Scala

BlackCat had to leave early, but the rest of us continued on to Nordstroms, and this is where we hit the jackpot. There are too many to list, but here are some:

The entire Tom Ford line, including the new Musk series. Urban Musk seems to be the best to my nose. We also tried Arabian Wood, Oud Wood, Tuscan Leather and Tabacco Vanille.
The limited release Mugler A-Men pure malt--really nice alternative to A-men because it is much less tarry. Still very sweet, though.
Guerlain boutique offerings including, Sous le Vent, Vega, Liu, Derby, Attrape Coeur, Philtre d'Amour, Chamade parfum and numerous others which I can't remember! I was smitten with Attrape Coeur, a complex floral with oriental leanings, and also really liked Sous le Vent, a green citrus.
Creed, most of which was not my style, but I found Love in Black to be WEIRD in a really good way.

We went back via the Jo Malone boutique, and I bought a small bottle of the Vanilla & Anise

Phew, I'm exhausted--I'll let the others chime in on their thoughts and purchases. I had a great time meeting BlackCat and arwen_elf for the first time, and seeing Astaroth again for the first time in many months! And we had a GREAT SA at Nordstrom's (Lynda)--she really knew her way around the Guerlains!

RE Encre Noir pour Elle, I was so tired when I posted, did I mention it was forgettable? LOL

I guess a better thing to say is, what Natori is, that is what I expected ENpE to be--a full-bodied feminine floral chypre, but perhaps a bit drier due to its kinship with Encre Noir. It was a grave disappointment, and does not measure up to the men's at all. Perhaps there is a chance there was something wrong with the bottle, but who can say. It is hard to imagine that Lalique would put out something so grim after a blockbuster like EN.

They did not have the new by Kilian products at Saks--but I'll let BlackCat fill in her impressions for what we DID smell!