The first stop was the Chanel boutique at 400 N Rodeo Drive, to pick up a bottle of Égoïste Pour Homme. The boutique had only two 100ml bottles left, and someone else came in to buy one of them during the first 5 minutes that I was there. 
The fragrance counter at this boutique is very well stocked, with the bottom shelves displaying the non-Exclusifs and the upper shelf displaying each of the Exclusifs. The SA working there (a Mr. Greg Ochoa) was very helpful, and we spoke for a while. According to him, the newer Platinum Égoïste was mostly created for the United States market, and its sales have been eclipsing those of the original Égoïste for some time now. He said neither one is in any danger of being discontinued, although the original Égoïste is becoming more and more difficult to find. After whiffing a bit of the Exclusif Coromandel (which I consider to be the best one, even though it goes sour on me in drydown 
), I decided to score the last bottle of Égoïste and walk on further South.
Before reaching Wilshire Blvd, I veered off to the left onto a cobblestone hill at the Southeast corner of Rodeo Dr and Dayton Way. There I went into Porsche Design for another crack at Porsche Design The Essence. After burning some leather-scented incense in the small, makeshift everso shrine just outside the door, I went inside. I found lots of overpriced luggage, watches, and windbreaker jackets, with the fragrance area in the back. This juice is still not making it for me. Sure, it smells good. It's fresh and smells "cold," but this is still pretty mediocre compared to all the other fragrances out there. Porsche needs to either give this up or hire a decent nose (who probably drives a Citroën or Fiat) to make a good product for them. So I moved on further South ...
... to Barneys on Wilshire Blvd. After saying hello to some of the SAs, I went like a rutting elk straight for the Serge Lutens Muscs Koublaï Khän. The Serge Lutens SA was named Jasmine, and she accommodated me by giving me a good spray on the top of my left hand. I had prepared myself for comparison that afternoon by wearing Kiehl's Original Musk Blend No. 1 on my upper left arm. MKK has a strength and "bite" to it that the Kiehl's is lacking. The other salient difference I detected was the almost complete lack of soapy, floral drydown which is very apparent in both the Kiehl's and Le Labo Musc 25. In contrast, I found the MKK to be very linear, and not nearly as unpleasantly fecal as I had been led to believe. This was musk the way I wanted it to be, a fertile animal which remains an animal and doesn't morph into a bottle of laundry detergent within half an hour.
While I was there, I also revisited Chembur in the Byredo line. I gained a new appreciation for this scent which I hadn't had before. The incense here is very good, and it seems to remain good through to drydown without completely killing off the nutmeg and other notes. Longevity here is really pretty good. Still, $195 for this juice just seemed a little steep for what it offered. I've reserved judgment until I try it more.
The Frédéric Malle SA there (Rebecca) introduced me to the relatively new fragrance Geranium pour Monsieur. This comes out of the gate very bright and sharp, with the mint and peppermint notes taking center stage. There is also a very slight sense of camphor present here, although not overpowering. The middle notes have a bit of a peppery feel to them. And although clove is listed as a middle note, I didn't find it to be particularly strong. Altogether, I would say the fragrance notes here work well together. I'm not a big fan of mint, however, so I didn't consider this to be a viable purchase for me. Before leaving Barneys, I scored myself a mandatory bottle of MKK, along with samples of Chembur and Frédéric Malle Vetiver Extraordinaire.
Not wanting to run a gauntlet of aggressive, underfed Bond No. 9 SAs, I opted to skip Saks Fifth Avenue and move on to the 4th floor men's fragrance counter at Neiman Marcus, also on Wilshire Blvd. There I discovered that this part of the store is basically abandoned by the assigned SA between 6pm and the weekend closing time of 7pm, so it's a good time to test items if one wants to be left alone. This was when I discovered three of the new fragrances from the Maison Francis Kurkdjian line:
Lumière Noire pour Homme: An odd concoction, where the rose note seems to always be taking a back seat to something resembling a mild, pleasant swimming pool vinyl note. Drydown moves toward a powdery ... ummm ... swimming pool vinyl.
This might be caused by the reported mugwort present. All I know is that it reminded me of when I used to patch my parents' aging swimming pool with a tube of xylene goo.
Aqua Universalis: Very mild, watery scent with the same constant powdery note described above. There is definitely bergamot in here, along with a mild sense of non-oceanic water (i.e. no sense of salt or seaweed, etc). It's pleasant enough, but nothing special.
APOM (A Piece of Me) pour Homme: The orange in here is apparent, although it came across to me more as a generic sense of fruitiness. The aforementioned powdery note is also present here, made relatively stronger by the extreme mildness of all the other notes. (I suppose I could also have been reaching nose fatigue by this time.)
In my opinion, none of these fragrances seem to be worth the asking price ($110 for 2.4oz Aqua Universalis, and $130 for the same size of the other two).
At that point, I collected my 2-bottle stash for the day, and went home. Incidentally, it's good to note that free street parking near these stores on Wilshire Blvd loosens up after 4pm if one parks just South of Wilshire Blvd on the West side of McCarty Drive. The 2-hour parking zone there is only patrolled from 8am to 6pm, so if one parks just after 4pm it's essentially free parking for the whole evening. So after 3 hours of leisurely sniffing, one can have a leisurely dinner.
The fragrance counter at this boutique is very well stocked, with the bottom shelves displaying the non-Exclusifs and the upper shelf displaying each of the Exclusifs. The SA working there (a Mr. Greg Ochoa) was very helpful, and we spoke for a while. According to him, the newer Platinum Égoïste was mostly created for the United States market, and its sales have been eclipsing those of the original Égoïste for some time now. He said neither one is in any danger of being discontinued, although the original Égoïste is becoming more and more difficult to find. After whiffing a bit of the Exclusif Coromandel (which I consider to be the best one, even though it goes sour on me in drydown ), I decided to score the last bottle of Égoïste and walk on further South.Before reaching Wilshire Blvd, I veered off to the left onto a cobblestone hill at the Southeast corner of Rodeo Dr and Dayton Way. There I went into Porsche Design for another crack at Porsche Design The Essence. After burning some leather-scented incense in the small, makeshift everso shrine just outside the door, I went inside. I found lots of overpriced luggage, watches, and windbreaker jackets, with the fragrance area in the back. This juice is still not making it for me. Sure, it smells good. It's fresh and smells "cold," but this is still pretty mediocre compared to all the other fragrances out there. Porsche needs to either give this up or hire a decent nose (who probably drives a Citroën or Fiat) to make a good product for them. So I moved on further South ...
... to Barneys on Wilshire Blvd. After saying hello to some of the SAs, I went like a rutting elk straight for the Serge Lutens Muscs Koublaï Khän. The Serge Lutens SA was named Jasmine, and she accommodated me by giving me a good spray on the top of my left hand. I had prepared myself for comparison that afternoon by wearing Kiehl's Original Musk Blend No. 1 on my upper left arm. MKK has a strength and "bite" to it that the Kiehl's is lacking. The other salient difference I detected was the almost complete lack of soapy, floral drydown which is very apparent in both the Kiehl's and Le Labo Musc 25. In contrast, I found the MKK to be very linear, and not nearly as unpleasantly fecal as I had been led to believe. This was musk the way I wanted it to be, a fertile animal which remains an animal and doesn't morph into a bottle of laundry detergent within half an hour.
While I was there, I also revisited Chembur in the Byredo line. I gained a new appreciation for this scent which I hadn't had before. The incense here is very good, and it seems to remain good through to drydown without completely killing off the nutmeg and other notes. Longevity here is really pretty good. Still, $195 for this juice just seemed a little steep for what it offered. I've reserved judgment until I try it more.
The Frédéric Malle SA there (Rebecca) introduced me to the relatively new fragrance Geranium pour Monsieur. This comes out of the gate very bright and sharp, with the mint and peppermint notes taking center stage. There is also a very slight sense of camphor present here, although not overpowering. The middle notes have a bit of a peppery feel to them. And although clove is listed as a middle note, I didn't find it to be particularly strong. Altogether, I would say the fragrance notes here work well together. I'm not a big fan of mint, however, so I didn't consider this to be a viable purchase for me. Before leaving Barneys, I scored myself a mandatory bottle of MKK, along with samples of Chembur and Frédéric Malle Vetiver Extraordinaire.
Not wanting to run a gauntlet of aggressive, underfed Bond No. 9 SAs, I opted to skip Saks Fifth Avenue and move on to the 4th floor men's fragrance counter at Neiman Marcus, also on Wilshire Blvd. There I discovered that this part of the store is basically abandoned by the assigned SA between 6pm and the weekend closing time of 7pm, so it's a good time to test items if one wants to be left alone. This was when I discovered three of the new fragrances from the Maison Francis Kurkdjian line:
Lumière Noire pour Homme: An odd concoction, where the rose note seems to always be taking a back seat to something resembling a mild, pleasant swimming pool vinyl note. Drydown moves toward a powdery ... ummm ... swimming pool vinyl.
This might be caused by the reported mugwort present. All I know is that it reminded me of when I used to patch my parents' aging swimming pool with a tube of xylene goo.Aqua Universalis: Very mild, watery scent with the same constant powdery note described above. There is definitely bergamot in here, along with a mild sense of non-oceanic water (i.e. no sense of salt or seaweed, etc). It's pleasant enough, but nothing special.
APOM (A Piece of Me) pour Homme: The orange in here is apparent, although it came across to me more as a generic sense of fruitiness. The aforementioned powdery note is also present here, made relatively stronger by the extreme mildness of all the other notes. (I suppose I could also have been reaching nose fatigue by this time.)
In my opinion, none of these fragrances seem to be worth the asking price ($110 for 2.4oz Aqua Universalis, and $130 for the same size of the other two).
At that point, I collected my 2-bottle stash for the day, and went home. Incidentally, it's good to note that free street parking near these stores on Wilshire Blvd loosens up after 4pm if one parks just South of Wilshire Blvd on the West side of McCarty Drive. The 2-hour parking zone there is only patrolled from 8am to 6pm, so if one parks just after 4pm it's essentially free parking for the whole evening. So after 3 hours of leisurely sniffing, one can have a leisurely dinner.
