Bought myself a b-day gift: samples!

Just bought a ton of samples for my upcoming birthday (August 30th). I haven't gotten new samples in so long (or any new bottles, for that matter) that this is going to be a real treat!

Here's what I decided to get for now. Feel free to add any thoughts about any of these. I hope that some feedback might help me with the wait but I fear it will only add fuel to the fire, even if the comments are negative.

Amouage Opus I
Amouage Opus II
Amouage Opus III

my Duchaufour kick:
Paestum Rose
Baume du Doge
Sienne L'Hiver
Al Oudh

and now O. Giacobetti
Fou d'Absinthe
Passage d'Enfer
Costes
Idole de Lubin

and a bit of an Antoine Maisondeau experience:
CdG Laurel
EldO Eloge du Traitre

been interested in Ulrich Lang so i picked them all up:
Ulrich Lang Anvers
Ulrich Lang Anvers 2
Ulrich Lang Nightscape

and finally, the rest:
Olivier Durbano Amethyst
MCDI Invasion Barbare
Divine L'Homme de Coeur
Domenico Caraceni 1913
Gianni Campagna EDT (looking for a TdH substitute)
Humiecki & Graef Skarb
MPG Parfum d'Habit
Parfum d'Empire Aziyade
Parfum d"Empire Wazamba


and last but not least...

EldO Secretions Magnifiques


Needless to say I'm looking for more spicy and/or woody autumn and wintery scents, and also wanted to experience some of the oddball scents out there (e.g. Secretions, Skarb, Sienne l'Hiver).

Hopefully this will arrive by my b-day on Monday!

Thanks for the well wishes, guys.

I'm really psyched about the Ulrich Lang scents. They seem to be a bit different and unique, but still rather modern.

The other scents I am most curious about are Aziyade, Skarb, Opus II, Wazamba, Sienne L'Hiver and L'Homme de Couer. I really hope I get the cola vibe in Aziyade!

I just got back from a wonderful out of town birthday vacation with my girlfriend and came home to a mailbox full of samples. This weekend just keeps getting better!

One question though: They forgot to include my sample of Parfum d'Habit. I double checked everything.. it was on the invoice but not in the package. Do you think I should contact them and mention this? I feel bad as they sent everything so quickly and the other samples are all intact, but still, I did pay for it and most of all, I just really want to smell it! What do you think?

I must say, after a quick cursory sniff of each in the vial, here are the ones that immediately jumped out at me as smelling the most interesting and pleasing to my nose:

Amouage Opus II - I actually had to spray a bit of this on a card as it came in a spray atomizer that couldn't be opened. An amazing bay/lavender/floral christmassy experience that doesn't come off as generic to my nose in any way. The accords may be somewhat "typical masculine" but they are done in such a beautiful and ethereal way. A lot of naturals in the opening, this is one of the most natural smelling Amouages I've yet tested.

Costes - smells like a wonderful rose spice cinnamon mix. You can smell many layers all at once, just sniffing the vial. I picked up a large dose of a really nice cedar note. Yummy.

L'Homme de Couer - smells very pure and clean. Makes me think of the smell, and feel, of a late October night as the cold descends and the first snowfall approaches.

Skarb - it smelled surprisingly sunny and bright and fresh. A hint of wormwood perhaps but mostly a sunny chamomile and the suggestion of dry earth. Am very curious to see how this one develops because it doesn't smell much like I was expecting based on the descriptions. Heavy and flat are just not words I could associate to what I smelled in the vial.

Baume au Doge - orangey, yes, but not in a bright and uplifting way. I couldn't smell a specific spice but it does smell "spiced" and a bit cold and depressing. This could be a great winter scent if it manages to be a bit dark and cold/distant without being too dreary or depressing.

EldO Eloge du Traitre - from sniffing only the vial I get a wormwood accord that smells a LOT like the opening wormwood accord of Yatagan. It smells just like it, actually, except colder and greener, with all of the dry and brown elements of Yatagan removed. Could be a great winter wood scent.

MCDI Invasion Barbare - I was fearing I'd love this one and I think my fear may come true. This smells absolutely exquisite. The initial sniff really took my breath away. The last thing to really hit me like that was Amouage Reflection, which is now my #1, and this was almost as intriguing upon an initial sniff. Not quite as 'prettified' as Reflection, but it smells very good, smooth, suave, rich, and yet a bit herbal to balance it all out. Really look forward to testing this further.

Wazamba - very green woody and incensey but the apple/fruit notes really add something. My g/f smelled it and said it smelled just like Christmas and I kind of have to agree. Seeing as I'm looking for a great Christmas-esque scent or two, that's a very good thing!

Secretions Magnifique - Smelling this in the vial was quite the experience.. an anticlimactic experience, that is. I was all prepared for the spirits of dead dogs that died at the hands of sociopathic serial killers to come soaring out at me but what I got was a rich coconutty, irisy floral with a milky texture and a hint of salt. The texture IS a bit weird, but it works wonderfully with the accord. There is maybe a hint of something 'unpleasant' in the background, a hint of bilge or seaweed or something but it is so far in the back that it simply serves as a great counterpoint to the rich/sweet coconut/milk/iris accord; it is used in the way civet can add so much depth to floral notes. Thinking that I was just fooled by the pretty topnotes - many mention that it smells good for a second or two when they first apply it - I tried applying some to a card and got pretty much the same thing. No dead dogs, no blood. Just a milky floral with a hint of a semen like accord. It's really quite beautiful.

Nope, I got them from Luckyscent. Has anyone else had experience with Luckyscent forgetting a sample?

Well, the Amouage Opus samples are listed as coming as a "1ml spray." The odd thing is that two of them came in a little glass atomizer while one of them (Opus 1) came in a half full plastic 2ml atomizer.

There were a few other oddities. The EldO Eloge du Traitre came as an official 2ml vial (as did the EldO Rien sample I ordered from them a long time ago), while the Secretions Magnifiques sample came in the usual 1ml glass dabber vial.

The L'Homme de Couer sample came as an official sample, which looks to be about 2ml big (nice!) and oddly, both L'Artisan Al Oudh and Fou d'Absinthe came in half full 2ml plastic atomizers.

Thanks for the birthday wishes, all. Actually my birthday is today, the 30th.. was just forced to celebrate earlier due to my g/f and my schedule.

Some new thoughts on more of the scents, and a few revised thoughts, too. Please note that these are all based off of testing on paper!

Wazamba - good but the fruitiness in this is a bit syrupy. Actually, I noticed this in Aziyade and also in Fougere Bengal also by this house. They all have a syrupy sweetness to them. I prefer my sweetness lighter and airier. Hopefully they'll really transform on skin. The only other scent from PdE that I had tested earlier, Iskander, did NOT have any kind of thick syrup sweetness. It was a rather dry herbal orange blossom.

Aziyade - you can smell the lemon and a sort of cherry/pomegranate note along with a big dose of syrupy sweetness. It sort of smells like a glass of cherry coke with a fresh cut lemon nearby. Ok, maybe not a glass of cherry coke, but a box of the pure, undiluted syrup concentrate. The scent does smell very lush and could call to mind the scent of a sultan's feast with his harem nearby. I'm just hoping the spices come out more on my skin, as I thought this was one I would love. I really want to like it (the notes list is still amazing.. I mean, c'mon: pomegranate, crystallized date, almond, orange and prune, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, Egyptian cumin, carob, frankincense, vanilla, Madagascar vanilla absolute, patchouli, musk, cistus. Yum!) edit: I also pick up a liquor like note in the opening. I understand the comparison some have made to margaritas.

Idole de Lubin: This really smells like coca cola to me in the opening. There's a hint of some rum in there, but I have to stretch my imagination to get the "Captain and Coke" vibe, and that's just as well as spiced rum is definitely not my thing. I had a sample of this long ago and found the cedar note in the drydown to misbehave on my skin - it ended up smelling vaguely of vomit - so I'm hoping that won't be the case anymore. So far I like it a lot more than I remembered liking it last time. (You might be wondering why I'd order a sample of something I've tried and didn't like. Well, I've really come around on some of Olivia G's other creations.. I really like Dzing! now and think Navegar is an understated masterpiece, and my nose has changed so much that I thought I should give this one another chance, especially after seeing it recommended in the "smells like cola" thread. I love the smell of cola!)

Ulrich Lang Nightscape - a silvery, cool patchouli indeed. Patchouli for the 21st century. This one seems like it will be minimal but excellent.

Al Oudh - a rather flat smelling oud/rose combo. Despite smelling a bit flat on paper, it does smell good. There are hints of M7 in here, too. It smells a bit like some agarwood chips I recently picked up. It smells good but, on paper at least, it doesn't seem to break any new ground or rise above other similar scents.

Sienne L'Hiver - cold, brooding and introspective. I don't know how else to describe what I smell on paper. There is a hint of something sweet and thick that smells like white chocolate. Something cold and thick that smells like a woody/rooty orris note. It feels like I should be able to see my breath while smelling this. Rather enchanting as an atmospheric piece. Not something you'd wear for anyone but yourself.

Durbano Amethyst - a huge dose of pepper in the beginning practically obscures the raspberry and grape notes. It smells like a huge dose of iso e super and was irritating my sinuses, although it didn't smell bad at all. Actually, the juxtaposition of the airy/ethereal/peppery iso e and the sweet, yogurty, thick berry notes was really really interesting. There is a bit of a mineral accord ala Terre d'Hermes, too, which makes complete sense as this scent is supposed to represent the amethyst gemstone. On paper, after the pepper dies down it becomes a light and airy berry and vanilla with hints of mineral still present. Interesting although a bit feminine. I look forward to having my g/f test this.

Gianni Campagna - Terre d'Hermes with reduced citrus. Sadly, the iso e super does not seem to have been reduced, which I was hoping for, as it's just too much for me in TdH. I love the scent profile but it irks my sinuses every time I wear it. Maybe it's not just iso e but whatever else contributes to the mineral note, I'm not sure. Hopefully on skin this will fall somewhere between Red Vetyver and TdH, as that is what it smells like on the card. Perhaps it will be enough of a tweak to be wearable for me.

Passage d'Enfer - I just noticed that on the card, a few hours after applying, it shares a strong similarity to the sweet gingery note in Dzing! Not entirely surprising as these are both by Olivia Giacobetti. Yes, there is a definite similarity between the two. That same accord is tweaked heavily but present in Navegar, too, providing that subtle spicy sweetness that seems to hide in the background throughout the whole development of the scent. I happen to love that accord and wouldn't mind it showing up tweaked, in the same way Creed re-uses but always slightly modifies their ambergris accords, in more scents of hers. Anyhow, the scent starts with a light and airy lily note that is slightly soapy and I picked up only hints of incense. Not as feminine as I thought it might be.

Amouage Opus II - still amazing to me. After the wonderfully bracing, cool green and yet spicy golden opening (the artemisia and absinthe) that is tinged with whisps of a purple note weaving in and out (the wonderfully rendered lavender) the heart becomes a cool spicy floral. A nice dose of cinnamon that is modulated by the florals but the florals never really come front and center. The florals fade in the drydown as a dry woody note begins to emerge. This dry woody note smells amazing - it smells of the paper of old books. Not musty, just dry and comforting. The whole scent still has a cool air about it but there is a hint of warmth that keeps growing as the base emerges. It evoked thoughts of heading out into one of those cold and windy winter days, perhaps to do some christmas shopping, then coming home and being surrounded by the scent of the Christmas tree over in the corner, cinnamon sticks in your warm cider, flowers on the mantle over a crackling fire. Now free of your obligations and any reason to head back out into the blustery cold you curl up on the couch under a blanket and dig into an old book, the sound of the whipping wind against the windows now a comforting white noise reminder of just how lovely this moment, and newfound warmth, is.

I should add that I really didn't care for Opus III by Amouage. An intense white floral with an odd opening that was a bit haylike but very sweet, which segued into an indolic and tropical white floral (death by ylang ylang!). While I don't personally describe scents in these terms, I have a feeling this is one many would describe as distinctly "old lady."

Updated thoughts on Skarb after my first skin sampling:




I don't really get melancholy in this scent at all. Yes, there is a watery accord, and it smells like very pure water - hyper real, almost - but this is juxtaposed against the light and dry earthiness of the carrot seeds, myrrh and lovage. The chamomile provides a bright, slightly lemony floral sweetness, and this note lasts for a long time. It smells golden, almost straw-like. Later, it fades a bit and the lovage becomes more noticeable adding a slight saltiness to the scent. It smells pleasantly of fresh sweat. The myrrh and carrot seeds suggest dry, perhaps clay rich earth, and come out even more further into the drydown. The myrrh also provides a bit of a brown sugar note, and earlier in the development the fusion of notes presents something like a bread accord. The addition of the brown sugar note there is welcomed and makes it smell delicious, if not traditionally gourmand.

In some ways the scent calls to mind Sel de Vetiver. They both are salty, airy, slightly citric, and smell of sun baked skin. Sel de Vetiver is more ocean side while Skarb is more dry autumn meadow. Both are, however, quite beautiful and natural.

I do feel like I have not perceived all that the scent has to offer though. The aquatic notes were like nothing I've ever smelled and I did seem to go lose track of them rather quickly, only to pick them up randomly here or there for the first hour or two. I guess melancholy could be construed in the opening through those aquatic notes - it did conjure up the image of the dry meadow finally getting much needed rain. One of those quick but torrential downpours. Melancholy more in the sense of mourning the transition of autumn into winter than a human melancholy, though, imo. It's really beautiful.

Here are some images that the scent called to mind for me:

Haha. This here is proof that 180s can and do happen in regard to fragrances, as I now love Opus III and have it in my top 10, and am seriously pining for a bottle. I don't get nearly as much ylang ylang as I did before, and that's a good thing!

That's an excellent recommendation Rick, and I know that for a fact because I recently did get a sample of Fille En Aiguilles unexpectedly from a very generous BNer and absolutely love it - more so than Wazamba even. The pine sap note in FeA is so astoundingly accurate and evocative. I love it!