Fragrance Junkie Central

[Mochapj]

I know there are a few of us on BT that are fragrance addicts, so I thought it would be nice to have a dedicated place where we can share our thoughts.

This is not to take away from the lovely What Are You Wearing Today, Fragrance Edition thread, but more a place to post longer reviews, chat about new brands or releases, and just shoot the breeze on anything good and smelly 🙂

For me, I recently acquired 2 new decants that I've been anxiously awaiting.  Ever since Lachaton mentioned that MMM was releasing a new scent called By The Fireplace I've been itching to get my hands on it.  My decant arrived yesterday, so I'm looking forward to marinating in it this weekend.  Secondly, I recently picked up a tiny sample of Shiseido Nombre Noir.  Supposedly it is one of the most expensive failures in perfume history - made by Serge Lutens for Shiseido back in the 80s.  Of course, with a backstory like that, I was dying to get a sniff 😄

What's new on your scent radar?  Do tell!

 

[Mochapj]

I found something in my vanity this morning that I thought I'd tried before, but I guess not.  It must've gotten misplaced last time I was sorting through my L'artisan pile.  

I think I finally found my perfect ginger scent!

L'artisan Parfumeur Tea for Two

notes: bergamot, star anise, tea, cinnamon, ginger, spices, gingerbread, honey, vanilla, leather, tobacco

Loads of licorice-y star anise and leather at the front.  It blooms into a spicy ginger, tea and tobacco cocktail.  The ginger is practically ginger beer, the tea is smoky like lapsang souchong, and the tobacco is fresh, not burning.  It's a little sweet, a lot spicy, and refreshing yet smoky from the tea.

Love. ❤️

[vchotia]

I tried this a few weeks ago, and I swear that I must have received something else. It smelled rancid, like moldy fruit. I kept reading fragrantica thinking I must not be the only one, but I was! I don't know what happened. I was really hoping for the milky, chai tea that everyone else was mentioning, but nope!

[Mochapj]

Oh, that is sadness 😞

It's always possible that whatever they're pulling the sample from has turned...

[vchotia]

I think I'm going to sample it from another site. It sounds too heavenly not to try again!

[TriesToBoClassy]

This sounds sooo good.

[Libellules]

OMG Lapsang Souchong?! I need to try this!

[Zpsid91]

That sounds delicious!

[Mochapj]

Finally finished wading through my 'want to try' sample pile.

I saved the best (or worst, depending on how you look at it) for very last, but these are final 3 items I sampled.

Botega Veneta Knot

notes: clementine, mandarin, lime, neroli, orange blossom, peony, white rose, lavender, musk, tonka

Smells like clean laundry.  Very fresh, with an orange blossom and peony opening.  Borderline soapiness.  It's a bit too basic for my taste, as it doesn't really develop beyond that generic 'clean' scent.

L'antichambre Fir Balsam

notes: leaves, pine, cedar

This was the unmarked vial.  It smells like fresh, Christmas-time fir trees.  It's sweet and pleasantly projective.  After a while, I get some astringent rosemary mixed with the scent you get after striking a match.  It's a bit resinous.  I love it, but it doesn't last 😞

and lastly...

Etat Libre d'Orange Secretions Magnifique (magnificent secretions)

notes: salt, coconut, milk, opponax, sandalwood, iris, blood, orris

I will preface my thoughts on this by saying, I'm not a prude, but I'm going to try and write this in a way that it won't get deleted/censored or removed.

If you google a picture of this perfume, you can find out all you need to know about what ELD'O was intending for this to smell like (if you aren't already sure what 'secretions magnifique' is alluding to) 

I remember reading about this when I first starting getting into ELD'O, but I had no interest in trying it.  Then, a few months (weeks?) back jemly posted a video review of someone trying it.  When I saw it in a recent TSB I participated in, I couldn't not take it to try.  

So, that said...

This perfume smells nauseatingly exactly like what it intends to, for the first 2 hours.  It smells like the bodily fluids created after having 'relations' with someone of the opposite gender.  I can't for the life of me understand why on earth a) someone would want to smell like that and b) why a perfume house would bother to invent a fragrance like this.  All I can figure is it must be some sort of in-joke I just don't get.

From afar, during those first 2 hours, I can smell the orris and iris (I recall l tried something else recently that had orris in it, and it nauseated me, too)  Once you bring your skin up to your nose and smell it though... it is full on smell of 'secretions'.  WHY??????

I have no clue why I kept it on after that, but I did.  Some time after the 2 hour mark, the 'secretions' fades, and it becomes slightly coconut, with the powderiness of iris still, and some salt/sweat notes.  Also a little dusty/ashy, like the smell of an old can of cigarette ashes.  

The only thing I can say about this fragrance is it is the first time in a long line of scents I have tried, where I felt like I'd been olfactively assaulted.  

[jemly]

ok, so. i've admittedly never smelled it myself but i have soooooo many thoughts on it.

regardless of it's pleasantness--or lack there of--it feels like a logical conclusion. i'm a strong believer in creative outputs stretching limits regardless of success--may it be in fashion, music, novels and, yes, even perfumery--or else we'd stagnate. and it's rare when whatever is on the outer periphery is actually pleasant; it's goal is to challenge, strike up a conversation, while extending the boundaries of what new things can fill up the space between 'familiar' and 'the challenging.'  

so, as i said, it's a logical place for a perfume house to go, and who was going to do it, chanel ? i think not. maybe comme de garçons (in fact, i think they have), but a house like eld'o makes sense too (i wouldn't at all be surprised if i read that this scent is what made tilda swinton up for collaborating with them!). think about fragrance ads. they're ridiculous. and they're almost always selling sex without explicitly saying "make him/her think of sex." but when we really think of how sex smells.......it's not sexy, is it ? it's not rose, nor sandalwood or even something grotesque like ambergris. in fact, these are the smells to cover up the sex smells. it's a rather amusing (and perhaps humbling) contradiction that no one addresses directly, except, now for etat libre d'orange, and hilariously so. this is my sense of humor in a bottle, and if i had the money i'd buy it just to have the bottle on my vanity.

also, fragrantica lists seaweed as a main note, if that gives anyone a fuller idea of this vulgar juice.............

[Mochapj]

I agree that conceptually it's sort of both a logical conclusion and the last place left to go fragrance-wise.  In a sense it almost feels like they are thumbing their noses at the staid and old-fashioned fragrance houses who blatantly use sex to sell, but would never dream of making something that is so overtly SEX.  

However, the cynic in me also thinks it is something repulsive made specifically to see how many people they can rope-a-dope into buying or praising it (not calling you a dope, by the way).  Long story short; marketing genius, IMO.  And I do agree with you on the need for creativity to push the boundaries, definitely.  One of my favorite CdG perfumes is the clear and crunchy smell of asphalt, so I'm certainly on board with the idea of perfumes not always being 'pretty'.  

I guess my thoughts on the matter are thus; I think I'd rather have the sexytimes in order to smell that way, rather than spraying on something which mimics it.  But bravo to them for capturing it so vividly.  It literally called to mind what I can only imagine a brothel must smell like at the end of a long night. 😄  

[jemly]

yeah i understand. but it's hard for me to feel cynical about something that is unquestionably so gross and proudly without shame. they weren't trying to make this good with a wink. there's nothing "winky" about this which i guess is why i'm so amused with it....

i wish we could get numbers of how many people bought this to wear vs. bought to have because of it's novelty, and i don't think buying it for the latter reason is a cynical thing ? maybe, perhaps, i have too much faith in the ELD'O customer 😉

[Mochapj]

Those would be interesting statistics to peruse, definitely.

Long afterwards I went to read some of the fragrantica reviews, and I was surprised.  A fair number of them alluded to it smelling like women (in the seaweed sense, I suppose), but on me anyway, it was like being accosted by the scent of man fluids.  But once that wore away, it was truly a marine scent of clean (not stanky), ocean air. 

And no, I don't think that's it's cynical to buy it for novelty.  😉

[Gwenhwyfar]

Bahaha! Oh, Mocha. I am never going to try that last one. Sick curiosity had me in its grips momentarily, but I quickly thought better of it. The Fir Balsam sounds delightful though; too bad it doesn't last.

[Sprytely]

I have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of this review and you did not disappoint! I'm rolling! lol

[Mochapj]

Oh Spry, I snapped a photo of my face after the first whiff, for posterity's sake...

I was so scared to try this on.  After I opened up the vial, I waited nearly an hour before I actually applied any of it to my body because, UGHHHHHHHH.  

Spoiler

[Sprytely]

❤️ 

[Mochapj]

Tried a few more things... all I have left in the 'to try' bag is a mystery unmarked vial, Bottega Veneta Knot, and ELD'O Secretions Magnifique.  I may have to leave it for last, as I'm afraid that after I try it, I may never want to wear fragrance again 😄

Today's notes:

Chanel Chance EDP/EDT

notes: vanilla, jasmine, iris, white musk

This is an extremely sweet and powdery floral on me.  Smells a bit like potpourri, and after a while it gets a tinge of pencil shaving wood to it.  It has a smell that tickles the back of my throat.

Nishane Pachuli Kozha

notes: hyacinth, ylang ylang, artemisia, chamomile, patchouli, black pepper, leather, honey, incense

This is positively lovely.  It opens with a deep breath of honey and incense.  Then there are hints of dark leather.  The patchouli is a little dirty, but not offensive.  It's got some peppery spiciness.  It veers slightly oriental (ylang ylang?)  Very mellow for a patchouli scent.

Jo Malone Dark Amber and Ginger Lily

notes: black cardamom, ginger, pink pepper, jasmine, orchid, water lily, rose, leather, sandalwood, kyara incense, patchouli, amber

Smells floral, definitely water lilies.  I get a bit of rose too, mixed up with the warmth of sandalwood.  The ginger is a little soapy (like sushi ginger).  It turns creamy and powdery after a few hours.  It ends up smelling like expensive hand lotion.  JM scents are too demure for my taste.

[Libellules]

That is HILARIOUS how Chanel Chance wears on you! I don't get floral at all, but more spicy/sweet. I'm sorry! Pachuli Kozha sounds like it has potential.

[Mochapj]

LOL, no worries!  

My skin must have a weird pH that messes with how things smell or something.

Given that I don't like patchouli, generally, I was pleasantly surprised by Pachuli Kozha.  IIRC, I've liked everything else I've tried from Nishane, too.

[jemly]

jm dark amber and ginger lily was a big hit for me. like...i adore it, though i doubt i'll ever purchase because it's a cologne and therefore doesn't last more than an hour on me. but i don't get soapiness. maybe i need to switch soaps ! 😉

i CAN NOT WAIT FOR YOUR MAGNIFICENT SECRETIONS ! bahhha

[TriesToBoClassy]

I LOVE Dark Amber & Ginger Lily. I got a 100ml bottle and regret not getting a bigger size. I have commitment issues when it comes to fragrances (always have to switch around and sample new things) but I have surprised myself with how often i am dousing myself with Dark Amber & Ginger Lily this winter. Spritzing it twice seems to make it last a lot longer. I should try Nutmeg & Ginger..