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New Byredo M/Mink Launch September

post #1 of 59
8/30/10 at 3:34pm
Thread Starter 
I know Byredo doesnt get huge amounts of love but thought this sounds interesting

" The new Eau de Parfum M/Mink from Swedish brand Byredo and French creative team M/M was created based upon three ideas: Asian ink, a photo of a Japanese calligrapher and a utopian concept drawn on traditional Korean paper, by Mathias Augustyniak. This scent, which is firstly that of ink, is transformed gradually to the idea of ink, before finally arriving at a scent that will remind you of the ink that is most precious: the blood that flows in our body. Discover M/Mink in eau de parfum and soap in advance preview at colette! From September 13th "

Theres a promotional booby pic that goes with the schpiel but thought Id best not post incase some of you more sensitive souls had a fit of the vapours
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post #2 of 59
10/6/10 at 5:45am
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Has anyone tested this one?
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post #3 of 59
10/6/10 at 5:53am
I asked for it this Saturday (in Stockholm) and was told it should be at the counters here the 9th.
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post #4 of 59
10/6/10 at 6:01am
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Originally Posted by Milou View Post

I asked for it this Saturday (in Stockholm) and was told it should be at the counters here the 9th.

Thanks for the info! Could you be so kind and let us know your opinion after you have tested it?
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post #5 of 59
10/6/10 at 7:53am
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Originally Posted by GGA View Post

Thanks for the info! Could you be so kind and let us know your opinion after you have tested it?

I can get back to You in a couple of days, hopefully.
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post #6 of 59
10/11/10 at 6:59pm
This is one is odd. My first impression is that the saline aroma of Secretion Magnifiques joined the animalic musk of MKK, and with that strange marriage they tied up a sharp honey aroma, similar to the one found in Miel du Bois from Serge Lutens. It does smell like an animal, mixed with something dirtier and something sligthly honeyed, woody and spicy. It's more like a conceptual aroma i think, and it seems to match with the conceptual work of MM
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post #7 of 59
10/11/10 at 10:24pm
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Thanks for your review rickbr! The desciption for M/M ink looked very interesting, but I was afraid of it being too weird and less easy to wear. All the other Byredos have been relatively easy to digest (so to speak), but sounds like they have finally done something which is out my range...
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post #8 of 59
10/11/10 at 10:36pm
I tried this at Barneys last Friday and thought it was interesting and worth another look.... I didn't get the ink, but I only smelled it on paper.... As of now, the only Byredo I am considering is Baudelaire....
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post #9 of 59
10/12/10 at 7:48am
Quote:
Originally Posted by GGA View Post

Thanks for your review rickbr! The desciption for M/M ink looked very interesting, but I was afraid of it being too weird and less easy to wear. All the other Byredos have been relatively easy to digest (so to speak), but sounds like they have finally done something which is out my range...

GGA, i'm not still sure how the weirdness in this one can be hard or easy to wear. Maybe if you like aromas in the MKK/SM and Miel du Bois direction, you'll like it and find it easy to wear. I'm not a good person to tell it, since these three fragrances are in my most hated list at this moment lol
But it's really out of the lazy range that byredo produces, where they try to sell you something mass market with niche prices, which is quite revolting to me and it's my principal critique to this brand.
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post #10 of 59
10/12/10 at 7:06pm
I am really excited by this but also extremely trepidatious, too. It could be great or it could send me fleeing.

Ink, honey, skank? Sounds right up my alley. Secretions Magnifique and Miel de Bois? Scary. MKK I find nice but just not captivating.

I'll echo Rick's complaint about Byredo's prior releases, however. They smelled pretty inane to me, though Pulp was okay if one wants to smell like bumbleberry pie. The fact that they'd do something so strange sounding really surprises me, but I'd rather an interestingly awful fragrance than one I can forget.
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post #11 of 59
10/13/10 at 12:22pm
I'm excited to try this.
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post #12 of 59
10/16/10 at 8:59pm
Byredo's new Ink fragrance called M/Mink is gothic and maybe a little punk type fragrance and I really like this one. The fragrance is essentially notes of: black ink, cold dark patchouli, animalic honey, soft leather, and a touch of amber. If I had to compare this fragrance to anything else that I've smelled it would be a combination of CDG #2 and Parfumerie Generale L' Ombre Fauve. It has that animalic sour note that comes from honey and this is surrounded by coldness of patchouli. In my opinion M/Mink is at its heart a patchouli fragrance but the opening notes are of ink and the basenotes have that sour honeycomb scent and amber. The longer the scent wears the more the amber comes out, but the patchouli never really leaves the mix and this is not really sweet at all.

My SA at Barney's called it a masterpiece and I realize he was trying to hype the new fragrance of the week, but I agree. It could be a masterpiece! My lady friend agrees and she has to have a bottle now. It is definitely my favorite fragrance from Byredo. M/Mink is the essence of in-your-face, mischief in the night, niche perfumery that I love to discover every now and then. M/Mink appeals directly to an animal instinctive quality, but there is a soothing quality like the comfort of perfectly fitting black leather gloves. I suggest you give this a try if you like patchouli, leather, or dark mysterious slightly sweet things. It is a dark beauty.
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post #13 of 59
10/16/10 at 9:17pm
I tried this again yesterday, this time on skin. The Barneys SA was kind of apologetic when I sprayed it on. It is rather off-putting when you first sniff it. But it really is not sweet at all and, yes, is skanky. I liked it more and more as the day went on. I need to get a sample so I can wear it over several days or so. Buzzlepuff's description above is very good.
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post #14 of 59
10/16/10 at 11:23pm
How long do the ink notes last Buzzlepuff? Are they anything like the ink notes in Encre Noire?
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post #15 of 59
10/17/10 at 7:54am
Thanks for the review Buzzlepuff! Now I'm even more eager to get my hands on this thing.

Does anyone know where they sell samples?
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post #16 of 59
10/17/10 at 7:57am
Barneys just called me the other day to let me know its in. Should get down there this week to try it.
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post #17 of 59
10/17/10 at 10:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeperez23 View Post

How long do the ink notes last Buzzlepuff? Are they anything like the ink notes in Encre Noire?

Mike - the ink note stays prominent through the first half of its evolution and becomes a patchouli /ink blended essence to the fragrance. There is a little warmth to the fragrance from the amber base, but coupled with the patchouli and ink this leaves more a slight leather feel more than sweetness. They use ink here in a similar way as Encre Noire. Encre Noire is for vetiver what M/MInk is to patchouli. This fragrance is not for everybody as it has a dark edge to it - But it is worth a try.
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post #18 of 59
10/17/10 at 10:36am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sugandaraja View Post

Does anyone know where they sell samples?

The Perfumed Court lists samples and decants available.
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post #19 of 59
10/17/10 at 10:51am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Furriner View Post

The Perfumed Court lists samples and decants available.

Thanks a bunch! They're either really quick or I'm really unobservant ( or possibly some mixture of the two ), as I just looked for it two days ago on their website.

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post #20 of 59
10/17/10 at 11:33am
It isn't listed on the homepage with the new stuff... you have to pull up Byredo by brand name, and there it is! LOL. It's also there if you click "New to Store" on the left.
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post #21 of 59
10/17/10 at 11:46am
I tried this at Barney's (in SF) yesterday. I didn't get much ink at all nor much of the phenylacetate of Miel de Bois, just the smell of a fairly dirty animal, but then I didn't wear it all day. I had a couple of aunts who kept a bunch of unspayed cats. Their house smell like this.

What really impressed me is that Byredo was willing to put out something weird. So many of the recent releases have been safe and boring, even from houses like Diptyque and Serge Lutens. Even Etat Libre d'Orange's latest, Like This, is a snoozer.
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post #22 of 59
10/17/10 at 2:32pm
I tried this one again today and I am still liking it very much. But, this is a strange fragrance that many will not like. I does smell a bit skanky. The opening note is Adoxal which is a metallic, salty lemon meringue note and this leads into a very ink like note with cool patchouli. Honey essence gives it a bit of muskiness and a gentle drydown with amber that combined with patchouli and honey gives a soft sueded feel. This blog tells more of the history of this perfumes creation and has some visual imagery that indicates the look they were going for. The photo below is part of the image campaign to represent the fragrance and I think it does a good job of describing how it smells. It is definitely a splash of ink onto bare skin. A sexy smell, I think.

More info on how this fragrance was created is here: http://coutequecoute.blogspot.com/20...is-byredo.html



coutequecoute.blogspot.com/2010/09/mmink-eau-de-parfum-by-mm-paris-byredo.html
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post #23 of 59
10/23/10 at 12:47am
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Originally Posted by Buzzlepuff View Post

If I had to compare this fragrance to anything else that I've smelled it would be a combination of CDG #2 and Parfumerie Generale L' Ombre Fauve.

Fabulous! This actually sounds rather promising If M/Mink's skanky-ness comes from the honey-patchouli combo (no civet or heavily indolic flowers included) perhaps it isn't that scary after all. Has anyone else has tried this one? Furriner, have you already been able to wear it?
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post #24 of 59
10/23/10 at 3:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by GGA View Post

Has anyone else has tried this one? Furriner, have you already been able to wear it?

I've only sprayed it once on me at a store. I've not been able to get a sample yet.
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post #25 of 59
11/4/10 at 12:18pm
Wore this today, from a sample.

Wow, what a freaky scent. I get the animal skank, the slight watery/mildew/salt water accord and the ink. I don't smell honey, but then sometimes I'm anosmic to honey. I would imagine many people would find this sort of revolting...in an avant garde sort of way. I love these type of scents, but this seems to push my olfactory boundaries to their very limit and perhaps because of the sharpness of the salt water smell (honestly, it smelled like dirty mop water) I sort of felt a bit unclean after a couple of hours wearing it. Perhaps that was the art directors intent?? I felt similarly towards Oud 27 by Le Labo and because of this memory link I kept getting whiffs of myself and smelling oud, even though I know this scent has no oud.

I need more time to play around with this one. But for now, it is not instant love...it is, rather, this fascinating little strange creature who's language I do not speak.
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post #26 of 59
11/4/10 at 12:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeperez23 View Post

Wore this today, from a sample.

Wow, what a freaky scent. I get the animal skank, the slight watery/mildew/salt water accord and the ink. I don't smell honey, but then sometimes I'm anosmic to honey. I would imagine many people would find this sort of revolting...in an avant garde sort of way. I love these type of scents, but this seems to push my olfactory boundaries to their very limit and perhaps because of the sharpness of the salt water smell (honestly, it smelled like dirty mop water) I sort of felt a bit unclean after a couple of hours wearing it. Perhaps that was the art directors intent?? I felt similarly towards Oud 27 by Le Labo and because of this memory link I kept getting whiffs of myself and smelling oud, even though I know this scent has no oud.

I need more time to play around with this one. But for now, it is not instant love...it is, rather, this fascinating little strange creature who's language I do not speak.

Sounds like my kind of fragrance! I need to try it ASAP!
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post #27 of 59
11/4/10 at 1:09pm
Being an animal lover, I really need to try this. Barneys, here I come!
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post #28 of 59
11/4/10 at 3:39pm
I'm saving up for a bottle.
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post #29 of 59
11/7/10 at 1:30pm
I really like the concept, but I don't find the result very wearable for me. It feels cold and strangely lifeless, despite it being so animalic. It's mostly stale and dirty.

I'd like to enjoy this, because it's cool and kind of artsy, but there's nothing for me here.
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post #30 of 59
11/11/10 at 4:15pm
Agree on most reports - strange, cold, weird, interesting.
After something like two hours I find this scent very sensual - no, sexy - in a strange but captivating way. Cant stop stroking my nose against my underarm. But the metallic opening I find repulsive. Forgot how repulsive, and retried some on just before eating today. When lifting my fork to my mouth even my stomach revolted from the smell of almost bloodlike cold iron coming from my arm. Couldnt belive I did this to myself, again. Now at the drydown I remember why. Yes, this one is odd.
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post #31 of 59
11/11/10 at 7:48pm
I have worn this fragrance many times now and it's still fantastic on me. My girlfriend wants her own bottle now - she loves it too. It is dark, but sexy as hell. She is a writer so the ink associations work well for her and I really am drawn to cold incense smells so it works for me. But I can not figure out all of the weird associations everyone is getting from this scent.

Is this a Rorshach Test for the olfactory brain. In fact they use a graphic on the box that looks like a Rorshack test image. Smell this scent and who knows what might emerge from the depths of mind. M/Mink is weird, yes and it is cold, shimmering and slightly animalic and warm. Smells like ink, black leather, cold incense . . . animal fur. It is very alluring in a primal way because it is hard to identify. When I smell this fragrance I do NOT associate it with blood, stagnant water, sharp metal objects nor any skanky smells, etc. But the odor is so different and "outside the box" that it probes some boundaries of what is known and accepted so it can easily extract all kinds of impressions from the depths. It's a Rorshach Test for smell. Who knows what may pop into mind when you sniff it.
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post #32 of 59
11/12/10 at 10:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeperez23 View Post

Wore this today, from a sample.

Wow, what a freaky scent. I get the animal skank, the slight watery/mildew/salt water accord and the ink. I don't smell honey, but then sometimes I'm anosmic to honey. I would imagine many people would find this sort of revolting...in an avant garde sort of way. I love these type of scents, but this seems to push my olfactory boundaries to their very limit and perhaps because of the sharpness of the salt water smell (honestly, it smelled like dirty mop water) I sort of felt a bit unclean after a couple of hours wearing it. Perhaps that was the art directors intent?? I felt similarly towards Oud 27 by Le Labo and because of this memory link I kept getting whiffs of myself and smelling oud, even though I know this scent has no oud.

I need more time to play around with this one. But for now, it is not instant love...it is, rather, this fascinating little strange creature who's language I do not speak.

Yes, not much ink, but dirrrrrty. Very brave of Byredo.
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post #33 of 59
2/3/11 at 1:45pm
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post #34 of 59
2/3/11 at 1:48pm
I've been wearing this for the first time today. I am not too impressed at all, it's so-so at most, and when thinking about the price of this fragrance I'm actually pissed off.

Of course it smells interesting in a way (Duh!), like everything with big amount of animalic ingridients does. Big deal.

M/MINK brings to mind some of the (animalic) independent perfumes I have tried. It's put together with ingridients that should make hell of a sensual perfume - and fails miserably.

M/MINK is a simple and fairly unbalanced blend of inky/acidy civet, bitter smell of cheap patchouli incense sticks and aldehydic/cold metallic overtones of adoxal.
This smells alot like some perfume I've tried in the past, that I hated very much, but just can't get it to my mind right now what that perfume actually was. (I'm thinking it might be the very first version of M. Storer's Monk, which was absolutely horrible and badly made civet-incense)

Byredo has very stylish and classy image as a house but when it comes to their perfumes, it falls a long way from being good. I mean, just take a look at M/MINK for example : When talking about animalic perfumes, Jérôme Epinette has a few lightyears to go until he reaches the ones like Sheldrake, Roucel, Laudamiel...

Epinette belongs into the bench and not in the playing field, with Storer, Ava Franco and many others of that kind.

And really, 95euros for 50ml??? No, no...


M/MINK for it's price; it's just ridicilous.


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post #35 of 59
2/4/11 at 3:09am
Pigeon, my whole impression of byredo parfums are what you described: just image, high prices, but fragrances far from good. They`re okay, and M/Mink seems a little better than the rest of the line, but for the price they charge, which is almost the same of a 200ml of chanel exclusif, they aren`t bottle whorty at all
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post #36 of 59
2/4/11 at 8:48am
I have given this a couple more wearings and it is just vile. It makes me almost nauseous and very uncomfortable wearing it. I won't be trying it any more.
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post #37 of 59
2/4/11 at 10:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeperez23 View Post

I have given this a couple more wearings and it is just vile. It makes me almost nauseous and very uncomfortable wearing it. I won't be trying it any more.

It's up there with Secretions Magnifique if you ask me...
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post #38 of 59
2/4/11 at 3:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tott View Post

It's up there with Secretions Magnifique if you ask me...

I don't think so. You see, Sécrétions Magnifiques is actually exceptionally well engineered. I hate the way it smells in the end, but it's well, or even masterfully made fragrance technically speaking.

M/MINK is a sad violation, nothing else. Just a ridicilous and lousy attempt to please margin.
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post #39 of 59
2/4/11 at 3:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by PigeonMurderer View Post

I don't think so. You see, Sécrétions Magnifiques is actually exceptionally well engineered. I hate the way it smells in the end, but it's well, or even masterfully made fragrance technically speaking.

M/MINK is a sad violation, nothing else. Just a ridicilous and lousy attempt to please margin.

I was speaking strictly in terms of smell and wearability from a personal perspective. I don't really care if they are beautifully crafted or not in this case...
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post #40 of 59
2/6/11 at 8:31am
Well thanks to the lovely PetrucciJC I was able to experience this yesterday. I'm wearing it again now and just wanted to share some thoughts... it's really excellent if you're into strange fragrances. On me it registers as jet black, inky and leathery, with the slightest sneaking hint of something coniferous (which purifies and cleans up the more animalic notes) and incense-y which almost takes all of the animal qualities and gives them a muted polish, like black with a matte finish all supported by earthy patchouli. It's animalic but if one were to base his ideas of this on what he reads here alone, I would avoid trying to imagine what else it smells like. It's its own creature. Actually the only thing I know of that resembles it even remotely is Montale's Black Musk which has a similar black leathery animal vibe though I'd say Black Musk has more of it.

This is one direction of modern perfumery that really gets me going... It's striking, even daring, creative, and unique but wearable, IMHO.

wearing this more I can't help but think that some of this inky feel is due to a tree sap accord which gives this almost a natural cleanliness.
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post #41 of 59
2/7/11 at 11:18am
Quote:
Originally Posted by nthny View Post

Well thanks to the lovely PetrucciJC I was able to experience this yesterday. I'm wearing it again now and just wanted to share some thoughts... it's really excellent if you're into strange fragrances. On me it registers as jet black, inky and leathery, with the slightest sneaking hint of something coniferous (which purifies and cleans up the more animalic notes) and incense-y which almost takes all of the animal qualities and gives them a muted polish, like black with a matte finish all supported by earthy patchouli. It's animalic but if one were to base his ideas of this on what he reads here alone, I would avoid trying to imagine what else it smells like. It's its own creature. Actually the only thing I know of that resembles it even remotely is Montale's Black Musk which has a similar black leathery animal vibe though I'd say Black Musk has more of it.

This is one direction of modern perfumery that really gets me going... It's striking, even daring, creative, and unique but wearable, IMHO.

wearing this more I can't help but think that some of this inky feel is due to a tree sap accord which gives this almost a natural cleanliness.

I agree nthny. I think it is quite fantastic, and don't find it to be skanky/animalic/revolting/etc.
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post #42 of 59
2/27/11 at 7:33am
I just spent a few days trying this. I really love it. M/Mink opens up with a highly realistic note of Japanese ink (AKA sumi), which smells a bit like charcoal. It then goes into a honeyed patchouli phase that reminds me a little of the sugar+patchouli combination in Kilian's Straight to Heaven. While the sillage smells like dry, sweet patchouli, if you smell the fragrance up close, it smells like electrical circuits on fire. It's anything but boring.

Finally, about an hour or two later, the honeyed patchouli is still there (mostly in the sillage) while up close, M/Mink takes on a metallic tinge, that smells a bit like blood. I'd liken it more to pennies though.

The whole way through, M/Mink is really captivating. Surprisingly, it's wearable too. It's unique, sensual and comforting, but stimulating and weird. Unfortunately, it doesn't work too well with my skin chemistry, but otherwise I'd be buying a bottle as soon as possible.

Final notes: I don't find that the opening notes smell like ink per se - they smell more like "sumi ink," which smells like charcoal. Granted, there are what I'd call inky overtones, that remind of the ink used in a fountain pen. As for the animalic qualities of this fragrance, well, it's pretty tame. I don't really see any of the similarities to MKK, but that's just my nose. The civet is blended in with the patchouli so well that it almost goes under the radar.
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post #43 of 59
2/27/11 at 9:29am
I totally agree with L'Aventurier, Pettruccijc and nthny opinions of M/MINK - I love it. Yes it is close to the edge with its weirdness, but the beauty of it wins out in the end. The overall effect of the scent is extremely sexy. It is provocative and has a stealthy, hard to find aspect to it that I like. Odiferous unpleasantness can occur when you test it too close up and don't give it a chance from a slight distance. Sometimes it is easier to smell it on someone else so you don't get too caught up in the individual notes. You can oversmell this thing and miss the point of it in my opinion. When you deconstruct it into parts - yes some smell off a bit. But the mix of the parts into the fragrance, smelled from just off the skin and not too close, is very intriguing.

I appreciate the fact that not everyone will "get" this fragrance.
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post #44 of 59
2/27/11 at 9:31am
We know that the Perfumed Court carries Byredo samples, but they're $6+ a pop. I emailed Byredo directly and they're sending me three free samples.
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post #45 of 59
3/15/11 at 12:05pm
I had a sample of this for the last three weeks and I honestly cannot recognize it from the descriptions above!

Quite simply this is a bitter, acrid pine scent and smells like a revolting toilet cleaning PINE DISiNFECTANT.

This is a pine scent. PINE. Not, ink or honey or incense or any of the other claims. Last time I put it on I'd had enough and I tried to scrub it... but could still smell it the next day. It's HORRIBLE and inspired revulsion in a family exposed regularly to weird and wonderful perfumes.

Also, I am deeply suspicious of the marketing and images of abstract expressionist daring and poetic nonsense about 'ink'. A lot of people are gonna fall for all that and think they're buying something arty and daring. I urge people to use their noses with this one!
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post #46 of 59
10/6/11 at 12:20pm
I'm resurrecting this thread - but I dont see M/Mink in the database. I got a sample from Barney's.

To me, it smells almost entirely of the putrid-swampy part of Secretions Magnifiques (a distant relative to the swampy florals a la Bas de soie). It is a note to which I must be hypersensitive. I love SM as a conceptual perfume, it is unwearable but makes an intelligent point. M/Mink smells like the unsuccessful, less interesting brother of SM. It is unwearable, but what point does it make? Making a disgusting, unwearable perfume, per se, doesn't sound creative, especially if this has already been done before and the shock value is lost.

The ad notes talk about ink - which doesn't seem a worthy conceptual idea, even provided it does smell like some type of ink. Somebody mentioned Japanese ink. Indeed, it's hard to imagine those Japanese poets creating the most serene haikus while having to smell these fumes. Or perhaps this was the point, but I doubt.

cacio
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post #47 of 59
10/6/11 at 12:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cacio View Post

To me, it smells almost entirely of the putrid-swampy part of Secretions Magnifiques (a distant relative to the swampy florals a la Bas de soie). M/Mink smells like the unsuccessful, less interesting brother of SM. It is unwearable, but what point does it make? Making a disgusting, unwearable perfume, per se, doesn't sound creative, especially if this has already been done before and the shock value is lost.

Not too appealing huh?
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post #48 of 59
10/6/11 at 1:10pm
I have 2 samples at home, and this one is revolting, it induces me to vomit, every time I try it.
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post #49 of 59
10/6/11 at 3:00pm
I'm not a fan, and was horrified by the first-sixth sniff, a couple of months later, persuaded to try on my skin...not as bad. I think I could work on the right skin. And probably male skin.
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post #50 of 59
10/6/11 at 10:33pm
It's really not that bad - people are being melodramatic. Plain ol' pure indonesian vetiver is a more offensive smell to most noses than this. My g/f thought it smelled nice on me when I wore it, and I thought it smelled odd but fantastic.
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post #51 of 59
10/6/11 at 11:29pm
Sculpture:

I usually love vetiver perfumes, so I'm really curious to smell Indonesian vetiver in its original state and understand how perfumer can coax it to smell good.

As mentioned, I suspect I am hypersensitive to certain notes. If she likes M/Mink on you, though, I'd be curious to hear what your girlfriend says when you wear Secretions Magnifiques, or, without going that far, Eden or Bas de soie. Eden, which is not as sharp as Mink, has been in production for a couple of decades, so somebody must be wearing it somewhere.

cacio
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post #52 of 59
10/6/11 at 11:49pm
Cacio,

I'm curious as to what note it is. Have you ever tried Skarb? Many seem to sense a shared note between Skarb and Secretions. I do too, actually, but only VERY slightly and the watery note in both is not what bothers me in SM anyhow, it's that wet dog musk note. Argh! Other than that wet dog musk, I actually quite like the smell of SM. There's a beautiful metallic iris present - the same metallic iris that's in Amouage's Reflection Man, actually.

I've not tried Eden or Bas de Soie so I'm not sure there, but I guess my g/f is a bit more accepting than most women as she likes Narciso Rodriguez on me, M7, Skarb, Jubilation XXV, L'Anarchiste, and many other controversial scents!

Indonesian vetiver is very very smoky. It makes Encre Noire seem tame. It's actually a quite nice smell, imo, but it does get pretty sour on the skin as it dries down, and it definitely needs to be paired with something to counter that.

The only note that bothers me in M/Mink is the terpenic pine note that seems to persist forever. I think it's a result of the raw labdanum note, a green and terpenic frankincense note, and.. I don't know, something else. It smells like black spruce oil but black spruce doesn't last that long on skin. Surely it's some synthetic, and I wish it was toned down some, as it intrudes on the beautiful raw beeswax and dry amber and frankincense accord, which is the beating gilded heart of this perfume which is wrapped in inky dark flesh.
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post #53 of 59
10/7/11 at 7:40am
I have not tried skarb, so that's another one I definitely want to smell.

The note(s) that bother me is the swampy, metallic brackish note that Luca Turin calls "bilge", that is, brackish water that has become putrid in the bilge of a metallic boat (of course, we might be talking about two notes, the putrid and the metallic). Which has similarities with a dirty rotten rag, as when you leave out a rag drenched in water in the hot summer of the US south.

SM and M/mink have it quite prominently, Bas de soie is tamed down a bit and registers between that and a metallic iris. In fact, when you talked about metallic iris, I thought about BdS. If you like these notes, you should definitely smell it. Eden has no metal, just some swampy putridity, together with tropical flowers and greenery.

cacio
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post #54 of 59
10/7/11 at 1:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by SculptureOfSoul View Post


The only note that bothers me in M/Mink is the terpenic pine note that seems to persist forever. I think it's a result of the raw labdanum note, a green and terpenic frankincense note, and.. I don't know, something else.

That's a good point. I've always been intrigued by this fragrance and I've been trying to wear it myself many times but there's something that really disturbs me when I get in close continuative contact with this composition. You say it's the tenacious terpentic pine note but I more asssociate Mink's unbearable weirdness to the synergy between the completely desweetened beeswax note and something chemical. The latter IMO happens to be the Byredo's signature that in Mink it's pushed to the limit.
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post #55 of 59
10/7/11 at 6:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cacio View Post

I have not tried skarb, so that's another one I definitely want to smell.

The note(s) that bother me is the swampy, metallic brackish note that Luca Turin calls "bilge", that is, brackish water that has become putrid in the bilge of a metallic boat (of course, we might be talking about two notes, the putrid and the metallic). Which has similarities with a dirty rotten rag, as when you leave out a rag drenched in water in the hot summer of the US south.

SM and M/mink have it quite prominently, Bas de soie is tamed down a bit and registers between that and a metallic iris. In fact, when you talked about metallic iris, I thought about BdS. If you like these notes, you should definitely smell it. Eden has no metal, just some swampy putridity, together with tropical flowers and greenery.

cacio

I wholeheartedly agree, these scents (including Skarb)all have that note and when I encounter it, it's very difficult for it not to 'stick out' when I wear it - I blame Secretions Magnifiques for traumatizing me with that accord. One other fragrance that also has it is Fahrenheit 32 by Dior. Blech.
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post #56 of 59
10/7/11 at 7:02pm
mike:

ouch, another one. I have only smelled fahrenheit 32 briefly on paper, and didn't immediately perceive it. But then i'll want to resmell perhaps waiting for the drydown.

I'm impressed by how sculpture and alfarom can distinguish among the swampy effluvia of putrid water. But then, bacterial decomposition of organic materials is known to produce hundreds of aromatic compounds. To me, it's just: putrid poisonous water, do not inhale/drink.

cacio
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post #57 of 59
10/7/11 at 11:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cacio View Post

I'm impressed by how sculpture and alfarom can distinguish among the swampy effluvia of putrid water. But then, bacterial decomposition of organic materials is known to produce hundreds of aromatic compounds. To me, it's just: putrid poisonous water, do not inhale/drink.

I'm into challenging fragrances, definitely. LOL I guess what you call "putrid poisonous water" is what I call (in this case) "bodily fluids" or "organic smells of animalic/human derivation". Just like in Secretions Magnifique they resembles the cathegory of fluids like saliva, mucus, blood, tears, semen....or beeswax. We can't say blood stinks, or mucus stinks they more lay in the limbo of unpleasant almost "adourless smells". I more perceive them as cloying than properly disgusting.

I don't get this effect from F32 though.
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post #58 of 59
10/8/11 at 5:48am
I sort of see a distant link between Secretions and M/Mink, but I found Secretions horrid and M/Mink kind of pleasant. They both have a quality that's both bodily and metallic, but I find Secretions is cold, dry, and well, kind of naked in its foulness, M/Mink smothers the quality in warm, animalic honey-patchouli and an incense-y drydown.

I enjoyed M/Mink but found myself let down by the drydown. Far from being too weird, I found the notes of the drydown all too familiar from a number of Comme des Garcons: that dry, woody, astringent incense note that wears rather light. I'd rather buy 2Man if that's what I wanted. If the deliciously odd metallic-stony meets sweet-comforting meets skanky-animalic mix of the top carried on to the base, I'd have seriously considered buying M/Mink.

Still, it's the most creative thing I've smelled from Byredo.
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post #59 of 59
10/8/11 at 6:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sugandaraja View Post

Still, it's the most creative thing I've smelled from Byredo.

That's for sure!
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