So I didn't know really what to call this thread, and I don't even know why the hell I'm writing this thread...
On Thursday I was getting ready for work. I had a jonesin' for something with tobacco and was trying to decide what to wear. I decided against Burberry London, so I figured I'd take the bottle off of my bathroom "rotation" shelf and replace it with something else. I don't know what the f*ck I was thinking (I can be a spazz), but what I did was stupid-- I decided to try one of my "cocktail" bartender moves and I threw the bottle of London up in the air, from one hand to the next with a spin. I failed to catch it with the other hand and it went spiraling toward to hard concrete floor that has already claimed the life of my Vettiveru bottle (RIP) and a few smaller items...
Somehow, the bottle survived. I deserved to have it break into a thousand pieces for flinging it so carelessly-- my floor is unusually merciless. The cap went flying. The nozzle top whizzed off. Even the bezel that goes around the nozzle got knocked free by the force. I couldn't believe it but the worst damage was a very, very tiny chip in the outside of the glass on the bottom corner. Somehow, the goofy little cloth "jacket" that encases the bottle saved it. I guess London was wearing its helmet on Thursday and lives to ride another day.
Well, the scent I chose to wear was none other than Aramis Havana (current reissue). I bought a bottle a few months ago and am still feeling it out. It's complex and I wouldn't say it's in my comfort zone yet. i figured I'd give it a go at work because our hotel was hosting a huge Eastern European ethnic music festival and I wanted something manly and swarthy in case there were going to be a bunch of hot swarthy babes there... I was trying to plan ahead.
Well, the one thing that always gives me pause in any scent is when i see "cumin" listed in the pyramid. Cumin notes often freak me out and often make me paranoid. I once got a terrible reaction from Declaration Essence, and I've never really had a lot of confidence when wearing anything with cumin in it since then. I saw cumin listed in the notes of Havana-- and it does smell a tad bit raunchy along with being refined. I was feeling pretty sure that I could safety pull off Havana without smelling like I needed a bath...
Well, unfortunately I got to work and the bar was PACKED. As I walked past the service bar I thought to myself," Maybe I'm crazy, but something stinks in here." I moved around trying to get drinks for people and I couldn't escape this nasty stench. I knew it wasn't me-- I'd just showered and put on deo and a spray of Havana before coming to work-- still, wearing an untested scent can make you feel so paranoid. Yes, something was definitely smelling foul. I can't describe it as anything other than "obese man funk"-- that sour, drool smell like a child's toy that has been covered in rancid slobber. I looked at the first stool by the service bar... Obese man--check. Short-sleeve shirt-- check.
I'm usually pretty tolerant of other people's smells and usually I don't even notice them, but this was something so palpable I had to hold back vomit. I looked at one of my coworkers and casually asked "Hey, does something in here smell or what?"
My buddy looked at me and said "Galley" which is our code for "Let's go back in the kitchen where we can talk amongst ourselves about people at the bar where they can't hear us." Turns out, it was the fat guy who was causing all the problems. He'd been sitting there for over 4 hours and stinking up the place for that long. He'd been playing music before that and had worked up quite an array of vapors. Not to pick on the guy, but it was almost comical how bad he smelled and how diffusive his BO was. You could seriously smell it 15 feet away. I had to hold my breath every time I walked by the dude. I purposely tortured my waitresses by making their drinks slowly, thereby forcing them to stand near the guy for long periods of time at the service bar.
At least I knew it wasn't the Havana that was the culprit, and my coworkers actually asked me if I could put on some more of it to combat the reek of "Fatmanstew" as we called it. The guy finally left at 9 pm and we were all so relieved. Still, the smell lingered in our noses for a while. A coworker texted me later after she left to tell me that the horrible smell was still in her head. Later when I got home, I had to get the nosehair trimmer out and trim my nosehairs just to make myself feel clean again...
Moral of that story-- I don't know if there is one. I'm not trying to rag on that guy, but I really hope to god that when he left today he wasn't flying on a plane-- I can't imagine being next to a funk like that on a flight. I'd be out the door JetBlue style at 30, 000 feet, parachute or not. I guess sometimes it's preferable to be a guy who wears too much cologne, rather than the guy who doesn't shower. Yuck.
The whole day almost ruined Havana for me, which would have been unfortunate. Today I wore it again, and it meshed in my head with memories of Thursday and I keep reimagining that phantom funk. Have you ever had that happen? You wear a good scent in a stinky environment, and every time you wear that scent afterward, your mind reconstitutes the bad things in addition to the actual scent.
I just needed to purge all that. And to add that we are so lucky that Aramis has reissued Havana. I'd have liked it if they'd released it in the original bottle, but at $50 it's just a flat out steal. In some ways it reminds me of Creed's Baie de Genievre with its warm clove/cinnamon feel and juniper notes. I think it takes a little patience to discover it-- it can seem on the surface to be a typical 70's/80's Aramis old school kind of scent (it's odd that it was released in the mid-90's, just can't fathom that). As it settles in, the earthy tobacco comes to the fore and the whole thing is just so complex and powerful. The most masculine scent I can imagine. Underneath that is a soapy patchouli/olibanum accord that reminds me of Jo Malone's Amber & Lavender. This is really the opposite of a fussy scent. It's something I imagine that "Most Interesting Man in the World" from the Dos Equis commercials would wear. I want more of Havana. I wish they would release a shower gel of this scent so I could get the full experience of washing my hair with it. Current top-fiver for sure.
I'm going to keep a vial of Havana in my pocket when I go to work. And a clothes-pin in the other.
On Thursday I was getting ready for work. I had a jonesin' for something with tobacco and was trying to decide what to wear. I decided against Burberry London, so I figured I'd take the bottle off of my bathroom "rotation" shelf and replace it with something else. I don't know what the f*ck I was thinking (I can be a spazz), but what I did was stupid-- I decided to try one of my "cocktail" bartender moves and I threw the bottle of London up in the air, from one hand to the next with a spin. I failed to catch it with the other hand and it went spiraling toward to hard concrete floor that has already claimed the life of my Vettiveru bottle (RIP) and a few smaller items...
Somehow, the bottle survived. I deserved to have it break into a thousand pieces for flinging it so carelessly-- my floor is unusually merciless. The cap went flying. The nozzle top whizzed off. Even the bezel that goes around the nozzle got knocked free by the force. I couldn't believe it but the worst damage was a very, very tiny chip in the outside of the glass on the bottom corner. Somehow, the goofy little cloth "jacket" that encases the bottle saved it. I guess London was wearing its helmet on Thursday and lives to ride another day.
Well, the scent I chose to wear was none other than Aramis Havana (current reissue). I bought a bottle a few months ago and am still feeling it out. It's complex and I wouldn't say it's in my comfort zone yet. i figured I'd give it a go at work because our hotel was hosting a huge Eastern European ethnic music festival and I wanted something manly and swarthy in case there were going to be a bunch of hot swarthy babes there... I was trying to plan ahead.
Well, the one thing that always gives me pause in any scent is when i see "cumin" listed in the pyramid. Cumin notes often freak me out and often make me paranoid. I once got a terrible reaction from Declaration Essence, and I've never really had a lot of confidence when wearing anything with cumin in it since then. I saw cumin listed in the notes of Havana-- and it does smell a tad bit raunchy along with being refined. I was feeling pretty sure that I could safety pull off Havana without smelling like I needed a bath...
Well, unfortunately I got to work and the bar was PACKED. As I walked past the service bar I thought to myself," Maybe I'm crazy, but something stinks in here." I moved around trying to get drinks for people and I couldn't escape this nasty stench. I knew it wasn't me-- I'd just showered and put on deo and a spray of Havana before coming to work-- still, wearing an untested scent can make you feel so paranoid. Yes, something was definitely smelling foul. I can't describe it as anything other than "obese man funk"-- that sour, drool smell like a child's toy that has been covered in rancid slobber. I looked at the first stool by the service bar... Obese man--check. Short-sleeve shirt-- check.
I'm usually pretty tolerant of other people's smells and usually I don't even notice them, but this was something so palpable I had to hold back vomit. I looked at one of my coworkers and casually asked "Hey, does something in here smell or what?"
My buddy looked at me and said "Galley" which is our code for "Let's go back in the kitchen where we can talk amongst ourselves about people at the bar where they can't hear us." Turns out, it was the fat guy who was causing all the problems. He'd been sitting there for over 4 hours and stinking up the place for that long. He'd been playing music before that and had worked up quite an array of vapors. Not to pick on the guy, but it was almost comical how bad he smelled and how diffusive his BO was. You could seriously smell it 15 feet away. I had to hold my breath every time I walked by the dude. I purposely tortured my waitresses by making their drinks slowly, thereby forcing them to stand near the guy for long periods of time at the service bar.
At least I knew it wasn't the Havana that was the culprit, and my coworkers actually asked me if I could put on some more of it to combat the reek of "Fatmanstew" as we called it. The guy finally left at 9 pm and we were all so relieved. Still, the smell lingered in our noses for a while. A coworker texted me later after she left to tell me that the horrible smell was still in her head. Later when I got home, I had to get the nosehair trimmer out and trim my nosehairs just to make myself feel clean again...
Moral of that story-- I don't know if there is one. I'm not trying to rag on that guy, but I really hope to god that when he left today he wasn't flying on a plane-- I can't imagine being next to a funk like that on a flight. I'd be out the door JetBlue style at 30, 000 feet, parachute or not. I guess sometimes it's preferable to be a guy who wears too much cologne, rather than the guy who doesn't shower. Yuck.
The whole day almost ruined Havana for me, which would have been unfortunate. Today I wore it again, and it meshed in my head with memories of Thursday and I keep reimagining that phantom funk. Have you ever had that happen? You wear a good scent in a stinky environment, and every time you wear that scent afterward, your mind reconstitutes the bad things in addition to the actual scent.
I just needed to purge all that. And to add that we are so lucky that Aramis has reissued Havana. I'd have liked it if they'd released it in the original bottle, but at $50 it's just a flat out steal. In some ways it reminds me of Creed's Baie de Genievre with its warm clove/cinnamon feel and juniper notes. I think it takes a little patience to discover it-- it can seem on the surface to be a typical 70's/80's Aramis old school kind of scent (it's odd that it was released in the mid-90's, just can't fathom that). As it settles in, the earthy tobacco comes to the fore and the whole thing is just so complex and powerful. The most masculine scent I can imagine. Underneath that is a soapy patchouli/olibanum accord that reminds me of Jo Malone's Amber & Lavender. This is really the opposite of a fussy scent. It's something I imagine that "Most Interesting Man in the World" from the Dos Equis commercials would wear. I want more of Havana. I wish they would release a shower gel of this scent so I could get the full experience of washing my hair with it. Current top-fiver for sure.
I'm going to keep a vial of Havana in my pocket when I go to work. And a clothes-pin in the other.
