A brief recap of yesterday afternoon's foray into the big city:
My start to the day was hilarious! As I sauntered up to the window at Holt Renfrew's (Neiman Marcus owned) under blue skies and 85ºF weather here in sunny Montreal (Bonjour mes amis!), I literally ran into a huge sheet of mylar and a pair of man boobs - Marc Jacob's of course - thereby signalling the arrival of Bang. No question that the bottle housing the juice beats anything I have ever laid my eyes or hands on, at least in terms of modernity and appeal . It is huge and looks as if it had been shattered into a hundred fragments and then reconstructed within a bright silver sheath; drop-dead gorgeous! Anticipation climbed enough to whet anyone's fiercest appetite. One, two, three spritzes to under the shirt; one, two to the back of the neck, and another on the right arm for good measure. And....well....nothing but the faintest scent of pepper, a medley note that Terre d'Hermes did so well a few years ago. That one note lingered for a bit, a couple of hours maybe, and made a quick exit by mid-afternoon. All bang and no buck. I was truly disappointed. Think I'll pass regardless of the pretty packaging.
Aqua di Parma is a real beauty though, lots of citrus, lots of white musk giving it a warm bitterness, a long sillage, a deep green drydown. Lots of interest. Lovely, wearable, a good buy. Classy, refined, I wouldn't hesitate twice about this purchase.
Aventus proved to be very different from what I might have expected. I detect tons of wood, some rose, that very dry pineapple/apple note opening, and a nondescript woody dry-down that lasted till bedtime. No sweetness here. The rep advised me that only 800 bottles were to be issued. I didn't bother asking for the price. Out of my league and not exactly my cup of tea. But very well done nonetheless.
So the last stop on my adventure, after a quick beer at a bustling downtown hangout that brews its own (delicious), was a large department store whose name I should refrain from mentioning. You'll understand why. I headed over to the counter where I sought out the Kenzo representative who begged me to test...Indigo. Indigo, I queried surprisingly, what about Boisée? Have you received that? Her eyebrows arched, and she said Well, yes, I have the tester in the stock room but I can't reach that high. Come quickly so you can help me get it down. No need to point out that my knees were about to give way....! She instructed me to pull down That one, no the one on the right. With product in hand (wrapped in a brown, no-name cardboard box), I (we) nervously and gingerly made it back over to the counter, under the watchful eyes of the department manager. What was a customer doing in the storeroom? I read in her eyes. The rep disregarded the situation and opened the box to reveal...TADA....Kenzo pour Homme, the Original not the Boisée. Well, we had attracted too much attendion and the rep no longer wanted to venture back in there again. She asked me to be patient, loaded me up with samples of Power, Indigo, etc., Close indeed, but no cigar. Sorry guys, I would have hoped to offer an advance critique of some kind, but not this time.
And that's all she wrote.
My start to the day was hilarious! As I sauntered up to the window at Holt Renfrew's (Neiman Marcus owned) under blue skies and 85ºF weather here in sunny Montreal (Bonjour mes amis!), I literally ran into a huge sheet of mylar and a pair of man boobs - Marc Jacob's of course - thereby signalling the arrival of Bang. No question that the bottle housing the juice beats anything I have ever laid my eyes or hands on, at least in terms of modernity and appeal . It is huge and looks as if it had been shattered into a hundred fragments and then reconstructed within a bright silver sheath; drop-dead gorgeous! Anticipation climbed enough to whet anyone's fiercest appetite. One, two, three spritzes to under the shirt; one, two to the back of the neck, and another on the right arm for good measure. And....well....nothing but the faintest scent of pepper, a medley note that Terre d'Hermes did so well a few years ago. That one note lingered for a bit, a couple of hours maybe, and made a quick exit by mid-afternoon. All bang and no buck. I was truly disappointed. Think I'll pass regardless of the pretty packaging.
Aqua di Parma is a real beauty though, lots of citrus, lots of white musk giving it a warm bitterness, a long sillage, a deep green drydown. Lots of interest. Lovely, wearable, a good buy. Classy, refined, I wouldn't hesitate twice about this purchase.
Aventus proved to be very different from what I might have expected. I detect tons of wood, some rose, that very dry pineapple/apple note opening, and a nondescript woody dry-down that lasted till bedtime. No sweetness here. The rep advised me that only 800 bottles were to be issued. I didn't bother asking for the price. Out of my league and not exactly my cup of tea. But very well done nonetheless.
So the last stop on my adventure, after a quick beer at a bustling downtown hangout that brews its own (delicious), was a large department store whose name I should refrain from mentioning. You'll understand why. I headed over to the counter where I sought out the Kenzo representative who begged me to test...Indigo. Indigo, I queried surprisingly, what about Boisée? Have you received that? Her eyebrows arched, and she said Well, yes, I have the tester in the stock room but I can't reach that high. Come quickly so you can help me get it down. No need to point out that my knees were about to give way....! She instructed me to pull down That one, no the one on the right. With product in hand (wrapped in a brown, no-name cardboard box), I (we) nervously and gingerly made it back over to the counter, under the watchful eyes of the department manager. What was a customer doing in the storeroom? I read in her eyes. The rep disregarded the situation and opened the box to reveal...TADA....Kenzo pour Homme, the Original not the Boisée. Well, we had attracted too much attendion and the rep no longer wanted to venture back in there again. She asked me to be patient, loaded me up with samples of Power, Indigo, etc., Close indeed, but no cigar. Sorry guys, I would have hoped to offer an advance critique of some kind, but not this time.
And that's all she wrote.
