Sample Of The Day - April 2012

I always post my reviews on my blog, so I'll abreviate them here
I actually tried four samples today! (My day off work!) one on each hand for a half day wearing...

2 x Montales and 2 x O'Driu's

I'm not a Montale fan at all, even though I would really like to be, but I thought I'd review this two properly and give them a fair wearing. I ended up liking them more than I thought by the end of it!



Aoud Lime opens with Montale’s classic oud accord – a sharp and pungent gluey oud. I use the word “gluey” because it reminds me of an intense industrial glue, other people describe it as “bandaids”… it’s medicinal whatever it is.
Once you are familiar with the Montale oud accord it becomes pleasant, always predictable and yet very comfortable. Although as always it's flat and linear compared to other more complex mixes.
My problem generally lies with the surrounding notes in the Montale ouds. Whilst I’m more than happy to sniff away at the linear oud accord, the rose (which is the next dominating note in Aoud Lime) is always extremely dull. I found this in Aoud Queen Roses also. It is classical, soapy and completely uninteresting. There’s nothing peppery, earthy or even “full” about the rose accord. It is instead reminiscent that of basic rose essential oil or scented soap.

The saffron is much-needed in this composition and thankfully it’s on par with the rose in intensity. The saffron provides a lovely fragrant warmth and gives Aoud Lime a dusty texture.
I have tried this once before and I am enjoying this more second time round. I think I’m just taking it for what it is and going in with low expectations.
I feel like if I owned this, it would be a basic enough composition for me to reach for it if I didn’t know what else to wear. It is pretty much these single three notes, in a pleasant, strong, long-lasting oud dominated fragrance. Nice.



Dark Aoud is a little bit more up my alley.

Here the sandalwood is bone dry, aged and dark. The reason I ordered this sample was because I heard someone say it smelt like a crypt, and now I can’t get that image out of my head.
Dark Aoud opens with a blast of dark, dusty, and bizarrely subdued sandalwood. I say subdued because Dark Aoud feels completely devoid of topnotes and it feels as though the basenotes are instantly present. It feels like you’re smelling “into” the fragrance because of how powerful yet muted the wood accord is. Basically, it is a potent sandalwood completely devoid of any sweetness. It creates an atmospheric mass of dark matter around you when it’s on the skin and it radiates a smoky coolness.

The oud is much more subdued, almost non existent in Dark Aoud, completely the opposite of the other Montale oud offerings I’ve tried. This instead is all about the wood. It probably sounds extremely boring, and honestly, all I’ll say is it’s extremely simple. However, I find this one accord much more intriguing than the three in Aoud Lime.

Dark Aoud doesn’t smell like a fragrance, it instead smells like an atmosphere… a surrounding scent, or maybe the scent of a place you’ve just been still hovering on your skin. The whole time I’m thinking of this “place” I’m still thinking of the crypt image. If you’re not familiar with the smell of sandalwood like myself, I’m sure the fragrance is much more interesting than it needs to be.
It reminds me of walking into a library or a museum and going “It smells wierd in here…” – Dark Aoud has that kind of muted, old smell.

I've put this one on the wish list as I've figured it's the only Montale I'll ever like. I'd have it more for a novelty factor as for a fragrance it feels ridiculous :') But I'd probably wear it over and over.

Lol, turns out there's actually no lime in Aoud Lime :')
They're not scary! Haha, generally I find them dullllll. But I've been trying to... "broaden my horizons" recently and try appreciate things I normally wouldn't. So my sampling recently has been pretty experimental.
I wish I discovered this thread sooner. I'd be clogging it up every day!

For a nose that is not very used to oud, MONTALE - Aoud Lime was just what forfreddie said, "Nice, a go-to fragrance." Easy in the Summer, nothing special.

Nice review forfreddie! I've never been interested in Montale's and don't plan on ordering samples from this house anytime soon. The notes description, reviews and me not liking Oud as a note really put me off from many offering's from the house. If I ever come across some Montale's I'll for sure check them out just for curiosity sake. Hope to hear more sample reviews from you and others!

Mimi; thanks for starting this thread!

forfreddie; thanks for some great reviews! l agree with Mimi about being a little scared of the ouds. But l like Montale as a house, because the projection & longevity of their fragrances are almost always outstanding on me. And many folks seem to forget that they don't only do ouds. lntense Tiare, Jasmin Full, Crystal Flowers & Sweet Oriental Dream are some of the best fragrances that l've tried; no oud to be found anywhere in these.

Thanks everyone, thought I'd start with something everyone was familiar with.


That is true, their power is very impressive. And I have been meaning to check out some of their non-ouds. I was recently recommended Sandflowers as a bizarre salty skin scent, sounds great I've heard a lot of their florals and sweet fragrances are verging on unbearabley over the top! I will have to give them a try as I really want a Montale!

As for my sample of the day (no doubt there will be lots of them), I recieved a sample of Batucada with my last L'Artisan purchase. I had no real desire to try it and it's been sitting here for months, so I thought I'd give it twenty minutes to impress me....



Batucada opens with sour limes that pretty instantly falls on top of a creamy coconut type of note, but the coconut is nothing more than a mere hint, along with a single mint leaf.
The whole feel is really sweet, it smells exactly like a cocktail. It has that cool, liquid feel to it with a boatload of brown sugar, chopped limes and sprigs of mint.
Some florals have come in now 5 minutes on, yet again, just a gentle wisp of tropical petals. Some banana-ry ylang-ylang provides some more solidified creaminess to the translucent leading notes.
There's a fresh ocean note running through it which to be honest, is actually pretty good! I like that. Its quite beachy without the suntan lotion, fresh and uplifting.

To be honest though, the linear Batucada smells like it came fresh out of a designer house and to be honest, there is absolutely nothing interesting in this at all. It is just blended nicely, and it is what it is a simple, fresh summer scent.
Im really trying my best to write about this as a serious fragrance, I could imagine spraying this out a Lynx bottle and wouldnt give it a second thought.
Pleasant, but nothing you havent already sniffed before

LOL! Now if it smelt like that I might be more interested.
Batucada is one of those scents you'd buy someone if you had no idea what they liked becuase it is so un-emotional there is nothing to like or not to like.

for freddie; Batucada sounds similar to Acqua di Gioia, which l will admit to liking. Have you tried that one, & if so, how would you say they compare?

Mimi; LOL!

Interesting you picked these!
I was only smelling APOM Pour homme in store the other day.
Even though it is such a simple (and on paper not very interesting) scent, for some reason, it comes across as though there's a lot more to it than there actualy is.
I was kind of compelled to keep sniffing it. I don't think I'd ever own it, but it's quite fascinating none the less. There's no doubt it's exceptional quality, but just a few key notes and you have some much more complex than it needs to be!

Well, this evening, I've been sampling 2 more O'Drius. My terrible reviews are much too long to post on here. So I'll link to them here incase you care to read them in full.

But the short and fat of it is:



Linfedele 1003 opens bitter and herbal as with all the O'Driu's. After a short amount of time it's personality comes out which is (very simplified here): A pine/galbanum fragrance. There's much more to it than that of course but it is cool, bitter green and pretty masculine. It has sparks of frankincense and myrrh in the base, along with a very smoky leather in the middle which at some points gives it a kind of Lonestar Memories feel, and at others a Boadicea the Victorious Complex bitterness.
Once settled, it's much easier to wear. A very complex fragrance.



Whereas 1003 is cool and crisp, Linfedele 1004 is hot and quite sweaty. With the same herbal overtones, underneath is a huge heat of damp chilli, cinnamon, overipe cardamon, cumin. The medicinal vibe familiar from 1003 is instead radiant from the cloves here where they remain quite prominant throughout.
There's also some bready notes in here. Whilst it all sounds quite savoury and foody, the huge O'Driu herbs completely take it away from that.
Really complicated, hard to wear, but yet again, after a long time on the skin it's much easier and familiar. It ends as an intense spicy oriental.

Both fascinating!

I just wanted to pop in and say they are only similar in that they both have citrus qualities. Whereas I get more orange/aquatic with AdG, Batucada is like a bold Hawaiian cocktail, coconut/lime...it is pleasing though, I don't regret purchasing it. Very sweet and maybe cloying in super high heat.

Ah I forgot to comment on this question. I haven't tried the AdG, but there's a pretty decent comparison by the sounds of it

Thanks starship! Now you are making it sound like Virgin lsland Water , any similarities there?

Today I sampled Wild Hunt by CB I Hate Perfume in water perfume.
I have tried this before already but gave it a good wearing earlier
I absolutely love the opening of this, it's really filthy upturned earth with a true to life vegetal skank of freshly sprouted mushrooms.
A linear combination of mushroom, soil, withered leaves and broken twigs that's about as literal as a forest floor fragrance can get.
There's a slightly sweet creaminess in the base that may be fig, but it's very subtle and just "perfumes" the fragrance so it is a little more wearable.
Unfortunately longevity is pretty poor and the fragrance after only ten minutes or so is extremely subtle even when applied generously.
Still, a fantastic fragrance! Filthy, literal, fungal, yet bizarrely refreshingly and beautifully familiar. A must try for anyone into vegetal-skank :P

Hello all! I am currently gorging on samples. I try one or two of my decants each day. Today I had to work so I tried a new one from Yves Rocher Moment de Bonheur -- it came with a recent purchase as a "wet wipe" and I rubbed it on. It's not really my thing, as it's quite light and even right after applying I had to sniff my arm to smell much. It was vaguely sweet and had a greenish rose. Poor sillage, poor longevity. Maybe it would be better if sprayed liberally, but it didn't interest me enough to investigate further. Notes listed included patchouli, which I love, but could not detect in this at all.

So home from work and wanting something MORE...and picked Ormonde Jayne Woman. Wow, this is interesting. The opening has a very brief citrus note, then I get a vaguely syrupy medicine type smell which fades away but is still somewhat detectable after an hour. The woods here are pronounced and beautifully done, and evident right from the start. I am not smelling much in the way of flowers though jasmine and violet are listed as notes, and this could definitely be worn by a man. It has average projection, and not yet sure of longevity. I like this one!

Today I was in the city and sniffed the new By Killians, Water Calligraphy and Bamboo Harmony. These are the ones from his new China-inspired collection in the red-lined boxes. They share a similar limpid watery quality, but they're actually quite highly concentrated and strong, not the weak scents you'd expect from that description.

Water Calligraphy smelled to me like a more highly concentrated L'Ombre Dans L'eau, cassis and rose with a touch of grapefruit over watery greens.

I ended up trying on Bamboo Harmony (what a terrible name...). It had that mix of clove and candied cinnamon that always reminds me of Christmas candles, but mixed with citrus. This was over a jammy fruity rose and a decent white flowers accord. But somehow the whole thing maintained a sort of green lily-ish watery quality throughout, even breaking out into an interesting fruity resin/oakmoss green at the base. It was an interesting ride, but not really what I'm into.

I also finally smelled Spicebomb. More clove + candied cinnamon = Christmas candle, but with a smoky depth to it. I was hoping for better, but it was worth getting a sample. I'll try it on for real some day...

Bond No 9 I Love NY Earth Day (from a hidden tester) was way better than expected, a decent cheesy indolic tuberose/gardenia white floral with leafy green undertones over a creamy base. Very 80's without being too loud, kind of like a green-tinted Giorgio Beverly Hills, maybe, but don't quote me on that...

Their Central Park West was another white floral, this time with pink-ish fruity supporting notes and a spiced soapy musky base. Again, waaaaaaaay better than their current fruity florals. As much as everyone seems to love to hate Bond No 9, rich, highly concentrated florals are an easy way into my heart. Just when I think I can quit them, they pull me back in...



My one purchase for the day came from In Fiore, a tiny little shop way off the beaten path that I happened to walk past and had never heard of. Apparently, they're best known for their spa products, but they also have a nice selection of natural perfumes in solid beeswax form. I usually have terrible luck with lines like this, all simplistic lavender scents and the like, but In Fiore proved to be much more conoisseur-friendly than that, with a few ouds (made from natural oud!) and a couple of rather difficult vetivers, as well as a proper attar of rose suspended in sandalwood. I ended up choosing Fumee d'Ambre, which smelled to me like what you'd get if you set Ambre Sultan on fire and let it smolder and smoke for a while, eventually putting it out with vanilla pudding. I'll do a better review once I've worn it a few times.

All in all, not a bad afternoon...

Mims, having read your review for Lumiere Noire Femme, I think you would much prefer the Elixir (extrait de parfum) of it. Do sample it when you bump into it!

Today l tried Champagne de Bois by Sonoma Scent Studio, from a sample sent by the lovely Mimi.

The opening, to my nose, is sweet, woody, almondy, orangey & slightly spicy. Apparently there are aldehydes here, but l do not detect them. As the scent develops, l get soft wafts of jasmine underpinned by a sweet, woody amber. The amber steadily becomes more buttery & thick as the hours pass, & reminds me very much of Amber Absolute, with a similarly tremendous sillage. l get a compliment from the female Post Office clerk, who smells it as l pass a package to her through the window for posting. She adores it & asks for it's name, which l am happy to give!
The scent is still going strong after eight hours when l go for a shower, & for the first time ever, l can still smell traces of it afterwards. l think this would last a good twelve hours on me without the shower, which is excellent on my skin.

l don't really get the "champagne" associations, as the aldehydes were lost on me. And although there is definitely a woody aspect, for me this is primarily an amber fragrance, with impressive projection & longevity. Thumbs up!

Today l tried Vraie Blonde by Etat Libre d'Orange, another of Mimi's samples, & the first from this line that l've tried.

The opening smells to me like the cherry of cough syrup mixed with that of pipe tobacco, with perhaps a little coconut thrown in. A few moments later, this morphs into a very champagne-like aldehydic accord, which hums along nicely for a while. l then get hints of peach along with a sneeze-inducing pepper note. After 90 minutes, it has all faded into a powdery musk, & is all but gone after 2-3 hours.

l was quite impressed with the authentic champagne effect in the heart of this fragrance, but otherwise it's really not for me. l am a "vraie brunette" after all! And the longevity is shockingly poor for a niche brand. Thumbs down for this one.

Vanille 44 by Le Labo



Fragrance Notes: Mandarin orange, vanilla, guaiac wood, incense and bergamot.

I enjoy vanilla based fragrances, so this was a no brainer and I had to get my hands on a sample of this and with the high price tag, it better be amazing. Other vanilla scents that come to mind that I love are Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille, Guerlain Spiritueuse Double Vanille. At first try…I had to double check the label to see if I was sampling the right fragrance and to my surprise I was. This isn’t your typical vanilla based fragrance. The mandarin orange and bergamot does stand out with the vanilla in the background. But after about 20 mintues the vanilla comes out to play. I was surprised. This is a great vanilla scent, no doubt about that. Only one issue came to mind when I was sampling this. If I were to wear this and let’s say someone with Spiritueuse Double Vanille walked into the room. My scent just got overpowered. Compared to other vanilla scents that I have tried. This is a very light and fresh take on vanilla. It’s very well done and blended to excellence. Le Labo is known for their great scents and this is no slouch. The quality, longevity and silage of this fragrance are awesome. It’s worth a sniff, but a full bottle…Only time will tell.

Tabac Aurea by Sonoma Scent Studio



Fragrance Notes: Cedar, sandalwood, tobacco, leather, vetiver, patchouli, clove, labdanum absolute, tonka bean, amber, vanilla, musk.

If you like tobacco fragrances, then this one should appeal to you. I mean if you’re looking for something that smells like cigarette, cigar, or pipe tobacco, this is it. For me this scent took a little time to develop; but the first 10 minutes is overpowering. So easy on the trigger, you know who you are out there. It opens up with leather and earthy notes but the tobacco gradually blossoms over the first 20 minutes and then lasts throughout the drydown. Tabac Aurea is a drop dead gorgeous tobacco fragrance. One of the best I’ve tried and it’s nothing like what I’ve tried before in a tobacco fragrance. It’s so well done, it feels as if it’s vintage. It smell and feel natural, like this was created in a time where there were no regulations about making a fragrance and perfumers are free to create their masterpieces at ease. Tabac Aurea is not solely a masculine, it’s effortlessly unisex. This is one to check out if you’re into tobacco based fragrances.

Attachment 13114

Chastity Begins @ Home reminds me initially of Smell Bent’s discontinued Exquisite Corpse. There’s that bizarre unappetizing bergamot note but thankfully instead of the pepper and tuberose, there’s an indolic jasmine and green herbal notes and old fashioned rose. It has that overripe quality of Charogne but not as extreme (and as yummy!).

So there’s a jasmine (not the kind I like), a soapy rose, some green herbal notes and bergamot. It sounds like quite a plain opening but as I said, there is something quite “off” about it. It smells very old fashioned and actually quite classical, but this more traditional quality comes through a little later down the line.

Back to the traditional quality, as the initial top notes burn off and we go into the heart of the fragrance, the oakmoss begins to show up. At this point, Chastity Begins @ Home reminds me slightly of Mitsouko… Mitsouko without the peach, and made by Chanel (slightly more traditional and soapy). I hope that makes sense? It doesn’t have the complexity, but the notes are similar – bergamot, jasmine, rose, oakmoss, vetiver, a little bit of spice/herb. The leather in CB@H is synthetic and plasticky, and I guess makes it more modern? But the whole feel, is quite old-fashioned still.

I actually am reminded of a scented body cream with this. It smells like a very slightly medicated body lotion and once I got that association in my head I couldn’t let it go. The florals fade slightly, the bergamot disappears, and the oakmoss, leather and woods remain, but with a strange overtone of body cream. Chastity Begins @ Home is certainly interesting, and so different from what I expected. I wouldn’t consider it dirty, or naughty, but instead quite a classic floral chypre, but done with a modern/synthetic edge. I’m glad I got the chance to try it

Though I'd do a couple mini reviews from my recent sample haul

Hermes Vanille Galante- I'll get straight to it, I'm disappointed. I was debating between this or Vetiver Tonka as one of my Hermessence's to try and decided to go with this one since it contains vanilla and I'm a sucker for it. It starts off with a huge dose of florals and within minutes the light and airy vanilla starts to appear, but ever so quietly. The vanilla is not what I expected, its light, soft and very feminine. Knowing J-C Ellena I should've known this was to be a transparent scent and it was. The scent has this banana like accord in the mid and this scent turns into a skin scent withn about 30 minutes. For some reason, this scent trys to encapture what most other J-C Ellena perfumes are, which are authentic, complex and very attahced to nature. This trys ever so hard to be unique and it failed. This is overly feminine and for the asking price, is not worth it. I'll give it that its qulaity, but the ingredients and the construction of it is not ment for each other and although J- Ellena is a master perfumer, he shouldve went a different direction with this one. Overall this is not my cup of tea, its overly feminine, sticks close to the skin, is overly complicated even though it shouldnt be and is definetly not worth the asking price. A pass for me.

Hermes Ambre Narguile- This is more like it. Gourmand is my most favourite category and this is the definition of what a proper gourmand is and should be. The authenticity and lasting power of this fragrance is evoking. Althouhg quite linear, this evokes a apple pie smell and is is blended so well, it almost makes you want to eat it, literally. This starts off with a blast of sickly sweet but very authentic honey. Tobacco and amber help to compose with the honey and stay throughout the life of the fragrance, especially the tobacco. There is little change from top to base, which may be a good thing for some, but bad for others. To me I enjoyed it and absolutely fell in love with this fragrance, although its not one I would wear everyday since it wouldnt work in certain scenarios, but very few can match the beautiful composition Ellena managed to create with this masterpiece of a gourmand. This is already one of my most favourite fragrances, and I will most definetly get in on a split or at least buy a 15 ml travel spray. Please go try this, especially if your into gourmands.

canuck21, I agree with you on the Vanille Galante - although I like it quite well, it is a little floral for some. And it is not a vanilla bomb at all.
I love ambre narguile!
Nice writeups!

Yesterday (during the downtime) l tried Vol de Nuit extrait, from another of Mimi's samples.

From the start, this strikes me as a very "retro" fragrance, classically dense with florals, bitter galbanum & animalic notes. Over the first hour, the florals become smoother & creamier, & there are hints of the forest floor beneath. This aspect begins to dominate at this stage, with salty moss & ambergris coming out to join the flowers, & this is the part l most enjoy. From this point on, l begin to get the same "doughy" note that l disliked in Dans Tes Bras, & this persists in linear fashion, fading out around eight hours after application.
This is certainly a very serious & "grown-up" perfume. l must admit that on the first wearing it didn't feel like "me", but l sense that it's one of those that might reveal different facets of it's character on a different day or in different weather. This may account for the disagreements on whether this is a chypre or an oriental. l've read a few differing notes lists for this one, but to my nose there's definitely galbanum & oakmoss in there, making this a green-floral-chypre, at least on my skin.

l did notice that rare (for me) phenomenon when l got into the shower this morning, of the perfume suddenly springing back to life in the steam, just moments before being washed away. A quite enjoyable surprise!

Today, I've been wearing one not listed in the BN database, Boozywood by CJ Scents.

CJ Scents is apparently a member of MakeUp Alley who started an indie perfume line. She uses high concentrations of oils diluted with coconut oil.

Boozywood is theoretically a mix of wood, resins, and vanilla, but to me it smells mostly like the chemical heliotropin. That's not a bad thing though, as heliotropin is a dense, layered, distinctive smell all on its own. Heliotropin is the foundation of the loukhoum perfume genre, a sweet powdery smell that's like marzipan mixed with boozy cherry with rose undertones that dries down to a sweet tobacco leaf smell with vanilla undertones. Pairing it with the coconut oil was a stroke of genius - the coconut plays beautifully with the almond smell.

Really, this is a bit too simple to make me want to go further into the CJ Scents line, but it's clever and it smells good and you could do a lot worse for $9 for a small bottle...

I am sampling Parfums de Nicolai Rose Pivoine today. It starts as a bright pink rose but quickly changes into a soft (pink again) peony scent. I smell more peony than rose. It feels clear, transparent, and very natural actually--like a blossom on its green stem, but without the stem, because I don't perceive explicit green notes. It reminds me of Dyptique Eau de Rose.

Thanks catnip, but this is the April thread! The May thread has already been started, do continue to post your impressions there.

Teardrop, thank you! Apparently, I have been more distracted than I thought....

I received my 5ml sample of this perfume from an ebay seller. Is this extrait de parfum, an oil? Thank you.