All Invited! ♥ ♥ ♥ Sniff 'n' Speak Saturday, Feb 6, 2010 ★★★ ANIMALICS

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!!! I KNOW which one I am going to talk about!!!!

Q., on that other thread I suggested leaving Fragrantica alone, without dragging its name into more things that they can stand. Please?

O.K., now I'm confused.

Is it going to be animalics, or obscure frags? Or obscure animalics?

Last year at about this time I was skeered of animalics, now I think they're my favorite group!

For a noob... Which are considered animalics? Muscs, for instance? I think I have none... :/

Baldufita, I'm not sure there is complete consensus on the definition of animalic, but usually it seems to refer to scents that either come from animals (e.g., civet and castoreum, most of which are synthetic these days) or that smell like animal (to wit, the barnyard accord of Dzing or Bal a Versailles) or sweaty humans.

Musk traditionally came from the musk deer, but it hasn't for a long time; what's referred to as "musk" these days can range from very animalic (MKK!) to very clean (usually "white" musks).

I hope others chime in on the definition--I'd love to read their thoughts as well.

I will whip out my MKK with CB Musk. Stay clear!

Oh boy. My samples of Aoud Cuir d'Arabie, Bandit, and Cuir d'Iris should arrive by then. Hooray!

I'm traveling from Frankfurt to Dusseldorf on February 6th, will I be thrown off the zug wagen if I'm sporting Bal a Versailles?

LOL at Ruggles -- probably not, if it is used with moderation. You knew the answer all along!

I think I have a wax sample of MKK and Dzing!... Might be the right time to test them... Thanks BlackCat!!! It is very clear to me now...

I may sit the animalics out this year. Maybe not. I never know until the day arrives. I don't have much that is skanky, which is what I think of as animalic. For me, fresh white floral musks do not count!

Ooh! I'd like to participate. I have recently topped up my reserves of the original Musk Ghazelle

Tra-la! My annual excuse to stink out the whole village! Yay!
But which of my stinky skanky darlings to choose? Oooooooh so many treats!

SKANK???? Did someone say "SKANK"???? Where do I sign up??

('Though ackshully coriander is what skanks the most on me and doesn't RULLY count, does it?)

Vintage Rumeur or Scandal skanky enough, ya think ?

Chaya, from what I hear about vintage Rumeur or Scandal, yep, definitely skanky enough!

Hmmmm, can't decide. Should I go cumin (Femme Rochas, Kingdom), indoles (Amoureuse), or other animalics (Une Rose, The Party in Manhattan, Bal a Versailles, Dzing)?

Or maybe all together? (Maybe not--I think that would run me afoul of air quality acts.)

Love me some skank!

Oy, we should have met for a cup of coffee in Frankfurt. Here's a useful phrase for the train ride :
Herr Schaffner, ich brauche eine Fahrkarte für meine Zibetkatze!
(Mr. Condcutor, I need a ticket for my civet cat)

I am resplendent in Miller Harris's skanky spanky L'Air de Rien.
Oakmoss, vanilla and musks create something seeeeeeeriously cosy. This smells like your own warm body when you're all snuggled up inside the duvet on a Sunday morning.

Obviously I love it.

I opted to wear Mona di Orio's Nuit Noire today instead of my intended Musk Ghazelle.
The cardamom topnotes give this a wonderfully animalic skank - Nuit Noire is very, very beautiful and masterfully constructed. It echoes the great perfume works of the early 20st century.
I wrote a detailed blog about it yesterday, and it has become my latest rave.

Oh, Dimi-
NN is DEFINITELY skanky enough-
But my patients would bitch like hell today, LOL !

Black Cat- I'm actually going in your avatar-
Madame X.
I adore it , and wear it like a second skin.
3 more reasons to wear it :

Luca loved it on me.
Mr. Malle poked his elegant nose down my neck and admired it .
I sent some to Vero years ago, and she liked it so much, I gave her a big bottle last year for her birthday ;-)

Hi, I haven't posted on this thread for awhile. I've missed you guys. I hope everyone is healthy and happy!

I have picked one of my favorites for S'n'S Animalic day - Castoreum by AbdesSalaam Attar Profumo (La Via del Profumo).

Looks like we might be snowed in today so Chloe and Gabrielle Rose may suffer the brunt of this powerhouse.

I don't know if it's skanky or not, but Montale Dewmusk (my choice for today, from a sample) is pretty skanky on me... I might go scrub it before I go out... lol

I love animalics and crave them. Skanky musks, civet, castoreum and ambergris are all wonderful.

It's hard to decide what to wear for an animalics SnS... Chanel No 5 edc is very musky and skanky, Jicky is an obvious choice, vintage Antaeus with its castoreum overdose is perfect, Versailles PH is brilliant. Maybe just pure castoreum? If I had Nuit Noire I would join Dimitri, it really is something extra!

Ooh! What a fabulous selection Quarry! I look forward to reading your comments later on.
Nuit Noire in the meantime has now softened and bewitched me *sigh*

The 80s powerhouse Balenciaga Portos today for SnS. Chock full of beastly leather and other animalics wearing this 800 pound gorilla is a trip into the heart of darkness and would scare the hell out of a vat of testosterone. :::flexes muscles--voices Tarzan yell::

I love me some skank! Decided on Bal a Versailles, but had a hard choice this morning between:

AL Madame X
AL Chypre Noir
AL Film Noir
Heeley Cuir Pleine Fleur
The Party in Manhattan

Will have to work some of the above in later today. For some reason, the Bal a Versailles appealed most early this morning.

I haven't got much that's animalic to choose from, so I went with a sample of Jicky edt. It's my favorite formulation of Jicky (though I haven't tried the eau de cologne) because it's the brightest and most refreshing, with just a hint of the skanky civet. And it's surprisingly long lasting, too. Brilliant, brilliant stuff. Jicky was love at first sniff for me, and I'm glad I still feel that way. I guess I can invest in a full bottle now.

I also was tempted by patchouli because I've been craving the scent of pure hippie patchouli oil (I don't have any). I know it's not animalic in origin, but patchouli smells like a clean warm stable to me, which is animalic enough for me, so I may go with Keiko Mecheri Patchoulissime later -- thanks to Ubu for the decant of the only patchouli fragrance I know that is also delicate and pretty.

I see some great choices above. Today I'm wearing Enlèvement au Sérail from Parfums MDCI. It has a nice animalic top note which is blended with floral notes in such a way that it doesn't feel like a big black cat is sitting on my shoulder, the way some animalics strike me. Not that there's anything wrong with that! Enlèvement is warm and embracing, like a fur coat.

Have a great day, everybody!

I'll do Bal a Versailles later in the day since it seems a popular choice and will be fun to share/compare thoughts on vintages, concentrations, climates, etc. Alas my leathery samples have yet to arrive, but if they do today or soon I'll post on them as well.

Right now I'm in Encre Noire but I love layering with this dark vetiver so I spritzed a bit of Saffron James Nani from a gifted sample to make a killer jasmine-vetiver. It's indolic if not pure animal--and there's some musk in EN, but not until the base. Loving this combo.

Hi all,
just stopping by to announce that I'm stinking up the house today in gorgeous Bandit. I rarely have the right occasion to wear it since I work with young kids and I feel it's a little too potent for their noses. This is the one scent my own kids never compliment me on, and I suppose they have a point...

I love it though. Couldn't stand it on my skin the first time I tried it, and I so wanted it to work. The opening was far too sharp with all the aldehydes and begamot, which is what really stands out on my skin. I sort of forgot about it for a while, and decided to try again. You could say it was love at second whiff.

Now, a few hours after applying, I get the feeling of a brand new biker's jacket, fitted, of course to suit the female biker, rather than a soft, worn glove. It's a bit raunchy too! This is leather heaven.

Eau dHermès for me today. It's been a while since I've worn this, and today I'm realizing it owes a lot to Jicky for its being. While by no means an exact replica in composition, they do share a similar fresh, aromatic top followed by warm stank, lots of it. I'm not sure if there's a true animalic note in Eau d'H, but the spices it has (I'm getting a lot of cumin, to name one) do a fine job of standing in for one.

As is typical of most Hermès scents, Ed'H is well-crafted. It does not radiate; it sits secretly, intimately on the skin. A study in contrasts, it has facets both cool and warm, refined and frankly sexual. As it dries down it develops something tangy, almost salty, that evokes the fresh sweat of lovers lying spent, in a room where slanting rays of sun move over their bodies as they drift off to a hard-earned rest in each other's arms. Oh la la!

Chanel No 5 edc it is today, a real musk fest compared to modern formulations...

Spritzed on some Musc Ravageur after sauna, very warm and spicy, the musk will kick in later...

This morning I put on AbdesSalaam Attar's (Profumo) Tcharas. I figured with Civet and Castoreum it should count for animalic. This is one of my all time favorites.

I wear MKK, the benchmark skank and perfect for my leave-me-alone mood today.

A stinky, stanky, skanky animalics Saturday to all! I guess someone should open a window...LOL

I started off in Cuir de Lancome, from a sample . This is the fourth time I've worn it, and it still just doesn't sit right on me. I don't know if it's the saffron or the hawthorne, or just something about the combination of notes, but it smells very sharp, and masculine on me...not the good kind of masculine, just un-feminine. I was sure I'd love this. .oh well. I'll set it aside for another try at another time.

I showered Cuir off, and now wear my second skin, that is Chanel Cuir de Russie (EDT). As Quarry described of the vintage version, this les exclusivs version is smooth, smooth, smoooooth leather and luxury. Mmmmmm.

Smelly Sister to Lessa in BAL A VERSAILLES for Skanky SnS....was gonna switch to Kingdom or even La Nuit (waves to Wolfie) for c'est soir but this stuff lasts forEVER.

And it's only the Cologne!!

I misread the thread and thought that last Saturday was Sniff'n'Speak. So I jumped the gun and wore Muschio Nero by i Profumi di Firenze. It's an unusual and intriguing musk with notes of opium and bitter woods. It is very dark and mysterious. I want a full bottle so bad! Unfortunately, it's not available in the US.

So for the real Sniff'n'Speak today, I am wearing Cuir Mauresque. It's right up there in my top 5 leathers. Like most fragrances that bear the Serge Lutens name, CM is not simple. Take pure leather and add amber, musk, cinnamon, mandarine peel, orange blossom, aloe, cedar, nutmeg, clove and cumin. You get a complex blend of pure sexiness. I love this SO much! Every year I hold my breath when the choices are made for the limited editions into the export range so I can scoop up a bottle!

I was this close to putting on one of my usual skank-loves. (Adding several to try from the above lists.)

However, after reading this thread, rather than go barnyard, B.O., or indolic, I thought I'd push myself more into less worn territory for me: the leathers. The lovely Dimples sent me some vials of beautiful leather frags early on in my BN time. At that time, they had presence, but I didn't find them all that wearable on me (except for Tabac Blond parfum). I've increased my appreciation of the leather note, but I still feel like it doesn't sit quite right on my skin.

So today, I'm wearing Bandit, Cuir Mauresqque, Cuir de Russie, and a few drops of the precious TB parfum (presumably pre-reformulation). It's like Lays--you can't have just one!

First takes:
Bandit: This EdT (apparently the sharpest of the Bandits) is kicking my butt with the aldehydes and a sour-pot note, which I think is the galbanum. I think I'll follow trikkirikki's lead and take a sniffing break.

Cuir Mauresque: leather, orange, and a whiff of gasoline that is making me a bit queasy. See Bandit, supra.

Cuir de Russie: beautifully balanced, luxe, and mellow. Let's see if I can get past the iris-prominent portion.

Tabac Blond: So wonderful, I can't even describe it. Definitely more leather than tobacco.

Since I am civet averse, I am starting easy with Jicky EDT.

Maybe we will upgrade to a stronger formulation later.

In honor of SnS, my cat puked on the bed.

I was going to wear Imari, my warm, musky new-old gem from Avon. Then I saw Quarry and Pomander in Cuir de Lancome, and, having never tried it, I thought I'd give my lil decant its first wear today. But after reading Pomander's account, I decided I wasn't feeling overly adventurous. There's nothing worse than walking around in a fume that doesn't feel right, and today I was not in the mood to take a chance. Cuir de Lancome will be saved for another day.

Then I saw Trikkirikki and Blackcat in Bandit.



This is my third time wearing Bandit. Like Trikkirikki's experience, Bandit was not love at first sniff for me, either. The first time, it was one of five scents mingling poorly on my arms from a testing day at the Perfume House early this summer. Bandit stood out as being the most tenacious. I decided it deserved a closer look, and Tao graciously provided me with such.
The second time, and my first full wear, I was sort of uncomfortable in Bandit. It smelled intriguingly like a dangerous man's dirty leather jacket but felt like it belonged on someone else's skin.

There have been, since I began really fuming it up a little over a year ago, three scents that have haunted me, in a sense. You all know the type-- they hang around in the back of your mind, puzzling, enticing, tempting, daring you to challenge yourself and figure them out. Of my three, Bandit has been the quietest, the least persistent. And today it just felt right. A fume synergy day. And before I even put it on, I inherently knew that today, Bandit would take me. Its boozy, dirty leatheriness no longer makes me feel uncomfortable.

It makes me feel badass.

Oh don't you all smell scandalous!

I had my spicy rose and strange cumin with an unfamiliar animalic note... the luscious rose was fresh as they come, and it was just balancing that smell of sweat... very interesting, but I was working up a sweat shoveling snow: it started wafting so heady and strong, I couldn't wait to shower soon as I finished.

So now that my evening's mine again, I'll be purring away in Bandit. I've noticed that this one changes depending how much I'm wearing. Just a dab seems to work best. Then the sophisticated talc powder is less prominent and the leather has time to breathe. This one has never had the wild quality it has for others, always seems very civilized, even downright domesticated - because of the powdery dryness. On my skin, this beast is on a leash.

I'm definitely gonna explore more leather frags... I'm starting to realize just how sexy this note can be... not the hot sexy, but the cool collected sexy... Lauren Bacall would totally wear leathers.

So my batch of samples that had some new (to me) leathers did arrive today, but I had to go into work. Nevertheless, I managed to try a smidge of Bandit edp and Cuir d'Iris for a few hours and then I wore Oud Cuir d'Arabie on my wrists and sprayed my much loved Bal a Versailles edt from the 'drobe on neck and chest and forearms and went to work (yes I know I'm crazy).

First, Bandit: Not sure what the fuss is about. Sure it's really strong and green as it opens, but I think I prefer Cabochard, which I already own. It's an herbal leather on me if that makes sense. I'll have to resample I think and get to know it better.

Cuir d'Iris by PG. GORGEOUS!!!! Like L'Heure Bleue dressed up for for a leather bar (or at least spilled in a Coach or Hermes bag). Definitely need to spend more time with this sample to see if it goes on the wishlist. It's a sweet leather and reminded me of Knize Ten a bit... will have to try them side by side.

Oud Cuir d"Arabie by Montale: such high hopes... such disappointment. It's a fine scent, but not the powerhouse I was looking for. I expected M7, Antaeus, and Black Aoud all rolled into one. I got a rubbery band-aid opening and then a great "true" leather smell with watered down oud (no rose) but the volume was turned way too low. Could it be an anosmia? Skin chemistry? Desire outstripping reality? I'll sample it again to be sure, but this was a thumbs down for me. By true leather I mean it smelled like real leather, but only faintly. Others seem to find both the leather and the oud overpowering and scary in this, but after the opening it was pretty banal for six plus hours. Boohoo.

BaV edt: From my collection and I'm soooo glad I own this. It's in heavy rotation with Sublime edp, Coco edp, Shalimar edc, and Opium edt this winter (femme orientals are fab!). It's the most animalic of these, and to be honest, while not too leathery, it was the most animal to me of all that I wore today. I get why it's considered "skanky" but it just seems to be "alive" to me. It's musky, a little BO, floral, a little wet fur, and yummy creme brulee. I'd love to try vintage and/or the parfum sometime, but I think I read somewhere that the edc is actually the skankiest.

Sunnyfunny, how noble of your kitty to contribute to our cause!

After work Sat, I basked in Cuir Pleine Fleur all afternoon. This is becoming a favorite for me! Finished the evening after my shower in Madame X. Just couldn't leave out the Madame for the occasion.

Lessa, I know, and how very intuitive of her, it being animalic day and all.

EM, that's awesome that you're digging Bandit, too! That dry talc powder accord you described surprised me again last night, after I had written my blurb. It certainly does announce itself. It's not my favorite part. The last time I wore Bandit I remember trying to make sense of it, and I tried again last night, and the best I can come up with is that Bandit feels very masculine to me, up to that point. So maybe this bad boy has a softer, more romantic side. But it's not, in comparison to other fumes, either soft or romantic. I don't know. It feels incongruous to me. It's not necessarily a bad thing, though, because most fumes feel very linear, to me. I can't usually tell too much of a difference between any given stage, and the ones with a "Whoa, that came out of left field!" stage are fascinating to me. Chamade has it, from wet, floral opening to sweet, oriental middle; Ambre Narguile has it, from sweet, spicy, ambery middle to cool, floral drydown, and Bandit very clearly has it, too.