more perfume sampling
Sep. 11th, 2022 07:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kindkitI've had to slow the pace of my testing a bit, because seasonal allergies have given my skin a tendency to break out in hives etc. It's not specifically triggered by the perfumes (though I had what may have been a minor allergic reaction to one scent), but in general they seem to prime my skin to react to other things.
Partway through this round of testing, I gave up my game of not reading the scent notes beforehand. I'm just not familiar enough with enough notes to make it worthwhile. It's more useful to me to have some idea what I'm supposed to be smelling.
My experience with Jardins de la Bergamote, Psychedelique, Oud for Greatness, Hacivat, Invasion Barbare, Tonnerre, Coeur de Noir, Fathom V, Vi et Armis, Lignum Vitae, Seahorse, Marquis de Sade, and Myrrhiad under the cut.
Jardins de la Bergamote, by Nilafar du Nil (Eau de Parfum in a vial, bought from Luckyscent)
Luckyscent notes: Bergamot, Petitgrain, Lime, Grapefruit, Neroli, Vetiver, Musk, Ambroxan.
In the vial, it's pure bergamot.
On me there's a burst of lovely fresh bright citrus that fades fast and soon turns into a sugary orange-candy note. I've been experimenting with trying scent on both the back and the inside of my forearm, and top notes and especially citrus last noticeably longer on the back of my arm. The citrus (which was initially very juicy, more like a whole fruit than the peel I associate with bergamot) lasted a little over 5 minutes on my outer arm, less than that on the inner arm. The sugaryness fades by about half an hour in and is replaced by the more floral neroli, and at the same time a saltiness and musk begin to come out. And that's how it continues--nice enough, if too sweet for me initially, but nothing very exciting.
Psychedelique, by Jovoy (Eau de Parfum in a vial, bought from Luckyscent)
Luckyscent notes: Luckyscent notes: Citrus, rose, geranium, amber, patchouli, cistus labdanum, vanilla, musk.
In the vial I get a ton of amber and something honey-ish, a floral of some kind, and a hint of patchouli that I don't particularly like.
On me there's a lot of amber, but a drier note emerges almost immediately that tones it down a bit, plus there's that patchouli--not intolerable but I am iffy about patchouli at the best of times. By 30 minutes it's mostly amber and some kind of wood note, with the amber not terribly sweet but a bit sweeter than I'd like, and an intermittent patchouli. I liked it well enough on the drydown, with the amber and patchouli balancing each other enough that it was never too too sweet nor too patchouli, but I didn't love it. (Note: this was part of a sampler; since I don't like patchouli this isn't a scent I'd have ordered specifically, although it's not as patchouli-heavy as the name might imply.)
Oud for Greatness, by Initio (Eau de Parfum in a vial, bought from Luckyscent)
Luckyscent notes: Lavender, Saffron, Nutmeg, Natural Oud Wood, Natural Agarwood oil, Patchouli, Muscs.
In the vial I got wood, white musk, and a lot of amber.
On me it was surprisingly bright for a few seconds, with some powderiness from the lavender to balance all that amber. It started to disappear, which some scents do on me, so I applied a lot more and quickly regretted it when a very animalic note reminiscent of cat pee started to come out. By about 5 minutes in it was quite strong, and along with the powdery amber it smelled like something peed in a perfume shop. (I looked this up eventually and found that animalic/urinous is not uncommon with oud--can somebody with more knowledge confirm or deny?) After about 15 minutes the cat pee note started to fade, and by 30 minutes it had turned into a salty skin musk, with that amber still going on. The patchouli began to make itself known, deeply resented by me because I really wanted to experience the oud, for better or worse.
Some woodiness emerged close to an hour in, and the amber-ish whatever mostly disappeared. Alas, the cat pee note reappeared intermittently, as well as an unpleasant sourness unwashed-skin smell that lasted about an hour--this seems to be a thing that musks do on my skin sometimes. I kept the scent on and the eventually drydown was mostly wood, perfectly fine but not worth waiting through that opening.
Hacivat, by Nishane (Eau de Parfum in a vial, bought from Luckyscent)
Luckyscent notes: Luckyscent notes: Bergamot, pineapple, grapefruit, jasmine, patchouli, cedar, woody notes, oakmoss.
In the vial I got bergamot and an intense, though not very sweet, floral.
On me it was mostly floral and peppery, with the citrus fading almost instantly as citrus is wont to do on my skin. In less than a minute it turned into old lady perfume. After about 5 minutes it reminded me more of overperfumed hotel soap. I washed it off after half an hour.
Invasion Barbare, by Parfums MDCI (Eau de Parfum in a vial, bought from Luckyscent)
Luckyscent notes: Grapefruit, bergamot, violet leaves, white thyme, cardamom, lavender, ginger, cedarwood, vanilla and musk .
In vial: Dry wood, patchouli, something green and squishy, something citrusy. (Note: As is probably obvious, I tried this one while I still wasn't reading the notes first. What smelled patchouli-ish to me was probably the cedarwood.)
On me the dry wood note expanded like crazy almost immediately, especially on the back of my arm. On the inside of the arm the scent was sweeter, greener, and more floral. The spices start to emerge after 10 minutes or so.
This scent unfolds a lot for the first half hour or so, with a certain amount of shifting dominance between the cedar, the spices, and the sweetness of the vanilla. And that's pretty much how it continued, with the vanilla getting stronger around the 6-hour mark. This is perhaps not a cutting-edge scent, but I like it a lot and I'm considering buying a bottle. It works well on me.
I have some other Luckyscent samples untested, but in the mean time I received new samples from Bloom Perfumery in London which I was very excited about. Bloom sends all their samples in atomizer vials, so there are no "in vial" notes for these. Using an atomizer seems to give better results on my skin--top notes are more noticeable and longer-lasting.
The Bloom samples I tested first were all from the British company Beaufort--a lot of oceanic, piratey scents I was very excited about because I'm very into Our Flag Means Death at the moment and would happily smell like a gay pirate.
Tonnerre, by Beaufort (Eau de Parfum in an atomizer bought from Bloom)
Bloom notes: Top: gunpowder, lime, smoke; Heart: birch tar, blood accord, brandy, sea spray; Base: amber, cedarwood, fir, sea salt, virginia cedar
Beaufort notes: Top: lemon, gunpowder, brandy, sea spray, blood, bergamot, ginger, cypress; Heart notes: lime, grapefruit, bergamot, blond wood; Base notes: dark amber, fir balsam, atlas cedar, birch, cistus.
On first application, there's a firecracker-y smoke and bright citrus. The smoke is very very intense but it works well with the lime. Alas, the lime fades very fast on me, but the smoke also dialled down a bit as more salt began to emerge. Soon there was a marked difference in scent between the inside and outside of my arm: inside it faded quickly down to a whiff of smoke and salt and something like skin musk which might be the blood accord. The outside of my arm kept more of the smoke and the birch tar scent was noticeable there too.
After about 30 minutes the ambery sweetness began to come out alongside the remaining smoke, and sadly, the result on me (as on some others, judging by online reviews) was barbecue sauce. I think the salt notes might have balanced it more but they faded quite quickly on me. After a couple of hours it got less barbecue-y because the smoke and amber became more distinct as separate notes. But I really didn't get much of all the other notes I'd have liked to try.
My initial test of this was in the evening. I'm going to re-try it again when I can wear it all day and see what happens.
Coeur de Noir, by Beaufort (Eau de Parfum in an atomizer, bought from Bloom)
Bloom Perfumery notes: Top notes: ginger, ink, rum; Heart notes: leather, old paper, paper, vanillin; Base notes: birch tar, cedarwood, tobacco
Beaufort notes: Top: bergamot, lemon, black pepper, rum, ginger, ink; Heart: leather, suede, lavender, dry woods, paper, vanilla; Base: cedarwood, incense, tobacco, birch tar, labdanum.
On me, the first notes I got were ginger and birch tar, with the tar better balanced by the ginger than the smoke and tar were in Tonnerre. The rum comes out quite soon, as does the cedar and a kind of dark note that is probably the ink. It all works very well together.
On the inside of my arm the scent soon becomes a smooth mix of ginger and a dry papery note, held together by tobacco. The ginger stays brighter on the outside of my arm and the tobacco is slower to emerge; in either case the initial smokiness fades and mellows fast. Rum becomes more dominant about 10 minutes in, and the differences between the inside and outside of my arm are less noticeable. There's a lot of back-and-forth as this develops, with the dominant note changing but the essential mix remaining the same. The paper note emerges after 15 minutes or so: dry old paper, nothing musty. The whole scent is noticeably dry despite the vanilla throughout. I wouldn't call this "gourmand" in the bad (heavily sweet) sense: to me it's more like a storeroom than a bakery.
Between 30 minutes and an hour the tobacco became more dominant--unburnt pipe tobacco, not smoky or acrid. I don't really get leather from this scent at any point, although the sort of idea of leather is there--but that's been my experience with "leather" notes in a lot of perfumes.
After a few hours it dries down to mostly cedar and tar. I'm not as intrigued by the drydown as by the first hour or so, but this is a very good scent on me. My favorite of everything I've tried in the first two batches. Will probably buy a bottle of this.
Fathom V, by Beaufort (Eau de Parfum in an atomizer, bought from Bloom)
Bloom notes: Top notes: blackcurrant, green leaves, juniper, tangerine; Heart notes: black pepper, cumin, ginger, jasmine, lily, mimosa, thyme, ylang-ylang; Base notes: amber, atlas cedar, frankincense, moss, patchouli, sea salt, vetiver
Beaufort notes: Top: juniper, tangerine, blackcurrant, green leaves, earth, aquatic; Heart: thyme, lily, jasmine, ylang, ginger, cumin, black pepper, mimosa; Base: patchouli, vetiver, moss, salt, frankincense, atlas cedar, amber.
On first application, it was overwhelming hothouse flowers and greenery. I got a bit of the juniper and tangerine, and the spices after a minute or so, but it's very very dominated by the flowers. I kept this one for about an hour and a half before finally washing it off, and while the pepper, ginger, cedarwood, and a herbal quality emerged, the floral never ceased to be dominant. And after a while the floral developed a kind of sickly quality, like wilting flowers in stale water. Definitely not for me.
Vi et Armis, by Beaufort (Eau de Parfum in an atomizer, bought from Bloom)
Bloom notes: Top notes: black pepper, cardamom, tea; Heart notes: black tea, incense, opium, smoke, whisky; Base notes: birch tar, cambodian oud, oud, tobacco
Beaufort notes: Top notes: cardamom, black pepper, black tea, grapefruit; Heart notes: whisky, frankincense, opium flower, red fruits, ylang ylang; Base notes: tobacco, birch, oud, amber, cistus labdanum, caramel, sandalwood, patchouli, atlas cedar
On first application this was mostly a strong but slightly stale pepper, like old pre-ground pepper in a jar, with hints of citrus, tea, and tobacco, plus a weird smell of old cardboard (which mercifully disappeared after a couple of minutes). A hint of red fruit, like dried cherries, comes out soon. The tobacco note here is a cigarette tobacco rather than the sweeter pipe tobacco of Coeur de Noir.
Within about 10 minutes the smoky-tobaccoey stuff became predominant, with enough sweetness that it risked turning into barbecue sauce but never quite did. The tea just holds things together on the right side. Within a couple of hours it all fades on me into a pleasant, incense and tea sort of thing.
(The reviews of this intrigue me, because there's a lot about how WILD and UNRESTRAINED and VULGAR this scent is, and that . . . is not my experience.)
Lignum Vitae, by Beaufort (Eau de Parum in an atomizer, bought from Bloom)
Bloom notes: Top notes: black pepper, caramel, ginger, juniper, lime, madeleine cake accord, mandarin, pink pepper, sea spray; Heart notes: gaiac/guaiac wood, oud, vetiver; Base notes: amber, frankincense, hot sand accord, moss, musk, sea salt, vanilla
Beaufort notes: Top: black pepper, red berries, madeleine cake, mandarin, lemon, bergamot: Heart: juniper, ginger, lime, frankincense, caramel, lignum vitae wood, guaiac wood, vetiver, peppery agar; Base: sand, sea salt, amber, frankincense resin, moss, musk, vanilla.
(Note: Beaufort's written description says this perfume is about “wood, metal, and salt” inspired by the materials used to create marine chronometers.)
The immediate notes on me are pepper, ginger, plain biscuit (the closest comparison that comes to mind it the Lattemiele biscuits sold at Trader Joe's), and something a bit animalic/skanky that fades in about 15 minutes. Cakey and caramely notes become more pronounced over the first half hour or so, and they baffle me, because they don't fit with Beaufort's supposed idea for the scent and the also don't work well with the other notes.
After about half an hour it grows more ambery, with a hint of wood. It's a nice enough soft scent, more feminine than I expected. And that's pretty much where it stays. I don't get most of the listed notes, and if it weren't for that distinct biscuit/cake note I'd suspect I'd been given the wrong sample. Beaufort needs to look at its life and its choices on this one. I'd have really enjoyed trying the fragrance I thought it would be.
And that's all of my Beaufort samples, but I got some others from Bloom because the shipping was a flat rate, so I figured I should go for it. I haven't tried nearly all of them, but here are the ones I have.
Seahorse, by Zoologist (Extrait de parfum in an atomizer bought from Bloom)
Bloom notes: Top notes: ambrette seeds, cardamom, fennel; Heart notes: clary sage, neroli, sea salt, tuberose; Base notes: algae, ambergris, sea weed, vetiver.
I was hoping for fennel but never got it. This was a light sweet floral initially from the neroli, then what I think was the tuberose began to come out, a much stronger floral with a creamy note. And then came what I guess were the ambrette seeds, which google says can be musky and animalic--the scent developed a bit of a "skin" note and, much more unfortunately, a hint of wet dog. Clean wet dog, but even so.
Unfortunately the wet dog thing grows, and for a while I get dog in a flower shop, and then, as the aquatic, salty, and green notes emerge a bit, dog splashing around at the seaside, with an abandoned bouquet floating on the surf. I kept it on for a while because there was just enough vetiver to intrigue me, and eventually both the dogginess and the floral faded to tolerability, but what was left was just a nondescript sweetness. The aquatic element, which was what I was there for, didn't last either.
Marquis de Sade, by Etat Libre d'Orange (Eau de parfum in an atomizer, bought from Bloom)
Bloom notes: Cistus, labdanum, rockrose [Google tells me that cistus and rockrose are the same thing, and labdanum also comes from the same plant but is an absolute from the resin rather than from the whole plant]
On me: I took one sniff and swore loudly. There's something in here that is absolutely FOUL on me. Animalic, fecal, with a note of burning chemicals. As I said in a previous post (because I needed to share this immediately), I think they call it Marquis de Sade because it wants to hurt you.
If I kept my arm well away from my nose, I got just a whiff of woody herbalness, but if I gave it a sniff from closer than about a foot away, all the badness came back. The chemical smell faded after a bit and it turned what I guess can be described as slightly less awful: imagine a dead rat atop a pile of dog poo, sprinkled with herbs.
Also, this is the scent I may have had an allergic reaction to: my lips went numb, anyway.
I gave it 15 minutes and then I washed my arm repeatedly with lemon soap. Then I took a shower and washed my arm repeatedly with cedar-scented soap. Then, when after I dried off it still wasn't gone, I did a few more rounds of washing with lemon soap and then I put on some Invasion Barbare to cover up the last remnants.
I very much suspect that this is to do with my skin chemistry, because literally no reviews I've seen of this mention anything like it.
Myrrhiad, by Pierre Guillaume Black Collection (Eau de Parfum in an atomizer, bought from Bloom)
Bloom notes: Black tea, licorice, myrrh, vanilla
On first spraying there's a quick, lovely whiff of myrrh and whiskey, and then, bizarrely, a chalky, artificial-mint smell that makes me think of dried-out Pepto Bismol. I guess, somehow, that's the licorice? Luckily this fades after 10-15 minutes, and it turns to a dry vanilla (pipe tobacco vanilla rather than foodie vanilla) with some myrrh and maybe a hint of black tea. This myrrh is a bit incense-y for my taste, and I normally like myrrh, but the vanilla balances it out well. And that's how it stays, with the vanilla ever more predominant. I wish there was more myrrh (without too much of the incense quality) and more tea. I wish the licorice had been star anise instead, and that there was maybe some wood. It's odd because I do like this scent a lot--I tested it this afternoon and I'm still sniffing my arm every so often--but it's just not very interesting. Hopefully at some point I'll discover something with a similar base but more complex.
And that's it for now!
Partway through this round of testing, I gave up my game of not reading the scent notes beforehand. I'm just not familiar enough with enough notes to make it worthwhile. It's more useful to me to have some idea what I'm supposed to be smelling.
My experience with Jardins de la Bergamote, Psychedelique, Oud for Greatness, Hacivat, Invasion Barbare, Tonnerre, Coeur de Noir, Fathom V, Vi et Armis, Lignum Vitae, Seahorse, Marquis de Sade, and Myrrhiad under the cut.
Jardins de la Bergamote, by Nilafar du Nil (Eau de Parfum in a vial, bought from Luckyscent)
Luckyscent notes: Bergamot, Petitgrain, Lime, Grapefruit, Neroli, Vetiver, Musk, Ambroxan.
In the vial, it's pure bergamot.
On me there's a burst of lovely fresh bright citrus that fades fast and soon turns into a sugary orange-candy note. I've been experimenting with trying scent on both the back and the inside of my forearm, and top notes and especially citrus last noticeably longer on the back of my arm. The citrus (which was initially very juicy, more like a whole fruit than the peel I associate with bergamot) lasted a little over 5 minutes on my outer arm, less than that on the inner arm. The sugaryness fades by about half an hour in and is replaced by the more floral neroli, and at the same time a saltiness and musk begin to come out. And that's how it continues--nice enough, if too sweet for me initially, but nothing very exciting.
Psychedelique, by Jovoy (Eau de Parfum in a vial, bought from Luckyscent)
Luckyscent notes: Luckyscent notes: Citrus, rose, geranium, amber, patchouli, cistus labdanum, vanilla, musk.
In the vial I get a ton of amber and something honey-ish, a floral of some kind, and a hint of patchouli that I don't particularly like.
On me there's a lot of amber, but a drier note emerges almost immediately that tones it down a bit, plus there's that patchouli--not intolerable but I am iffy about patchouli at the best of times. By 30 minutes it's mostly amber and some kind of wood note, with the amber not terribly sweet but a bit sweeter than I'd like, and an intermittent patchouli. I liked it well enough on the drydown, with the amber and patchouli balancing each other enough that it was never too too sweet nor too patchouli, but I didn't love it. (Note: this was part of a sampler; since I don't like patchouli this isn't a scent I'd have ordered specifically, although it's not as patchouli-heavy as the name might imply.)
Oud for Greatness, by Initio (Eau de Parfum in a vial, bought from Luckyscent)
Luckyscent notes: Lavender, Saffron, Nutmeg, Natural Oud Wood, Natural Agarwood oil, Patchouli, Muscs.
In the vial I got wood, white musk, and a lot of amber.
On me it was surprisingly bright for a few seconds, with some powderiness from the lavender to balance all that amber. It started to disappear, which some scents do on me, so I applied a lot more and quickly regretted it when a very animalic note reminiscent of cat pee started to come out. By about 5 minutes in it was quite strong, and along with the powdery amber it smelled like something peed in a perfume shop. (I looked this up eventually and found that animalic/urinous is not uncommon with oud--can somebody with more knowledge confirm or deny?) After about 15 minutes the cat pee note started to fade, and by 30 minutes it had turned into a salty skin musk, with that amber still going on. The patchouli began to make itself known, deeply resented by me because I really wanted to experience the oud, for better or worse.
Some woodiness emerged close to an hour in, and the amber-ish whatever mostly disappeared. Alas, the cat pee note reappeared intermittently, as well as an unpleasant sourness unwashed-skin smell that lasted about an hour--this seems to be a thing that musks do on my skin sometimes. I kept the scent on and the eventually drydown was mostly wood, perfectly fine but not worth waiting through that opening.
Hacivat, by Nishane (Eau de Parfum in a vial, bought from Luckyscent)
Luckyscent notes: Luckyscent notes: Bergamot, pineapple, grapefruit, jasmine, patchouli, cedar, woody notes, oakmoss.
In the vial I got bergamot and an intense, though not very sweet, floral.
On me it was mostly floral and peppery, with the citrus fading almost instantly as citrus is wont to do on my skin. In less than a minute it turned into old lady perfume. After about 5 minutes it reminded me more of overperfumed hotel soap. I washed it off after half an hour.
Invasion Barbare, by Parfums MDCI (Eau de Parfum in a vial, bought from Luckyscent)
Luckyscent notes: Grapefruit, bergamot, violet leaves, white thyme, cardamom, lavender, ginger, cedarwood, vanilla and musk .
In vial: Dry wood, patchouli, something green and squishy, something citrusy. (Note: As is probably obvious, I tried this one while I still wasn't reading the notes first. What smelled patchouli-ish to me was probably the cedarwood.)
On me the dry wood note expanded like crazy almost immediately, especially on the back of my arm. On the inside of the arm the scent was sweeter, greener, and more floral. The spices start to emerge after 10 minutes or so.
This scent unfolds a lot for the first half hour or so, with a certain amount of shifting dominance between the cedar, the spices, and the sweetness of the vanilla. And that's pretty much how it continued, with the vanilla getting stronger around the 6-hour mark. This is perhaps not a cutting-edge scent, but I like it a lot and I'm considering buying a bottle. It works well on me.
I have some other Luckyscent samples untested, but in the mean time I received new samples from Bloom Perfumery in London which I was very excited about. Bloom sends all their samples in atomizer vials, so there are no "in vial" notes for these. Using an atomizer seems to give better results on my skin--top notes are more noticeable and longer-lasting.
The Bloom samples I tested first were all from the British company Beaufort--a lot of oceanic, piratey scents I was very excited about because I'm very into Our Flag Means Death at the moment and would happily smell like a gay pirate.
Tonnerre, by Beaufort (Eau de Parfum in an atomizer bought from Bloom)
Bloom notes: Top: gunpowder, lime, smoke; Heart: birch tar, blood accord, brandy, sea spray; Base: amber, cedarwood, fir, sea salt, virginia cedar
Beaufort notes: Top: lemon, gunpowder, brandy, sea spray, blood, bergamot, ginger, cypress; Heart notes: lime, grapefruit, bergamot, blond wood; Base notes: dark amber, fir balsam, atlas cedar, birch, cistus.
On first application, there's a firecracker-y smoke and bright citrus. The smoke is very very intense but it works well with the lime. Alas, the lime fades very fast on me, but the smoke also dialled down a bit as more salt began to emerge. Soon there was a marked difference in scent between the inside and outside of my arm: inside it faded quickly down to a whiff of smoke and salt and something like skin musk which might be the blood accord. The outside of my arm kept more of the smoke and the birch tar scent was noticeable there too.
After about 30 minutes the ambery sweetness began to come out alongside the remaining smoke, and sadly, the result on me (as on some others, judging by online reviews) was barbecue sauce. I think the salt notes might have balanced it more but they faded quite quickly on me. After a couple of hours it got less barbecue-y because the smoke and amber became more distinct as separate notes. But I really didn't get much of all the other notes I'd have liked to try.
My initial test of this was in the evening. I'm going to re-try it again when I can wear it all day and see what happens.
Coeur de Noir, by Beaufort (Eau de Parfum in an atomizer, bought from Bloom)
Bloom Perfumery notes: Top notes: ginger, ink, rum; Heart notes: leather, old paper, paper, vanillin; Base notes: birch tar, cedarwood, tobacco
Beaufort notes: Top: bergamot, lemon, black pepper, rum, ginger, ink; Heart: leather, suede, lavender, dry woods, paper, vanilla; Base: cedarwood, incense, tobacco, birch tar, labdanum.
On me, the first notes I got were ginger and birch tar, with the tar better balanced by the ginger than the smoke and tar were in Tonnerre. The rum comes out quite soon, as does the cedar and a kind of dark note that is probably the ink. It all works very well together.
On the inside of my arm the scent soon becomes a smooth mix of ginger and a dry papery note, held together by tobacco. The ginger stays brighter on the outside of my arm and the tobacco is slower to emerge; in either case the initial smokiness fades and mellows fast. Rum becomes more dominant about 10 minutes in, and the differences between the inside and outside of my arm are less noticeable. There's a lot of back-and-forth as this develops, with the dominant note changing but the essential mix remaining the same. The paper note emerges after 15 minutes or so: dry old paper, nothing musty. The whole scent is noticeably dry despite the vanilla throughout. I wouldn't call this "gourmand" in the bad (heavily sweet) sense: to me it's more like a storeroom than a bakery.
Between 30 minutes and an hour the tobacco became more dominant--unburnt pipe tobacco, not smoky or acrid. I don't really get leather from this scent at any point, although the sort of idea of leather is there--but that's been my experience with "leather" notes in a lot of perfumes.
After a few hours it dries down to mostly cedar and tar. I'm not as intrigued by the drydown as by the first hour or so, but this is a very good scent on me. My favorite of everything I've tried in the first two batches. Will probably buy a bottle of this.
Fathom V, by Beaufort (Eau de Parfum in an atomizer, bought from Bloom)
Bloom notes: Top notes: blackcurrant, green leaves, juniper, tangerine; Heart notes: black pepper, cumin, ginger, jasmine, lily, mimosa, thyme, ylang-ylang; Base notes: amber, atlas cedar, frankincense, moss, patchouli, sea salt, vetiver
Beaufort notes: Top: juniper, tangerine, blackcurrant, green leaves, earth, aquatic; Heart: thyme, lily, jasmine, ylang, ginger, cumin, black pepper, mimosa; Base: patchouli, vetiver, moss, salt, frankincense, atlas cedar, amber.
On first application, it was overwhelming hothouse flowers and greenery. I got a bit of the juniper and tangerine, and the spices after a minute or so, but it's very very dominated by the flowers. I kept this one for about an hour and a half before finally washing it off, and while the pepper, ginger, cedarwood, and a herbal quality emerged, the floral never ceased to be dominant. And after a while the floral developed a kind of sickly quality, like wilting flowers in stale water. Definitely not for me.
Vi et Armis, by Beaufort (Eau de Parfum in an atomizer, bought from Bloom)
Bloom notes: Top notes: black pepper, cardamom, tea; Heart notes: black tea, incense, opium, smoke, whisky; Base notes: birch tar, cambodian oud, oud, tobacco
Beaufort notes: Top notes: cardamom, black pepper, black tea, grapefruit; Heart notes: whisky, frankincense, opium flower, red fruits, ylang ylang; Base notes: tobacco, birch, oud, amber, cistus labdanum, caramel, sandalwood, patchouli, atlas cedar
On first application this was mostly a strong but slightly stale pepper, like old pre-ground pepper in a jar, with hints of citrus, tea, and tobacco, plus a weird smell of old cardboard (which mercifully disappeared after a couple of minutes). A hint of red fruit, like dried cherries, comes out soon. The tobacco note here is a cigarette tobacco rather than the sweeter pipe tobacco of Coeur de Noir.
Within about 10 minutes the smoky-tobaccoey stuff became predominant, with enough sweetness that it risked turning into barbecue sauce but never quite did. The tea just holds things together on the right side. Within a couple of hours it all fades on me into a pleasant, incense and tea sort of thing.
(The reviews of this intrigue me, because there's a lot about how WILD and UNRESTRAINED and VULGAR this scent is, and that . . . is not my experience.)
Lignum Vitae, by Beaufort (Eau de Parum in an atomizer, bought from Bloom)
Bloom notes: Top notes: black pepper, caramel, ginger, juniper, lime, madeleine cake accord, mandarin, pink pepper, sea spray; Heart notes: gaiac/guaiac wood, oud, vetiver; Base notes: amber, frankincense, hot sand accord, moss, musk, sea salt, vanilla
Beaufort notes: Top: black pepper, red berries, madeleine cake, mandarin, lemon, bergamot: Heart: juniper, ginger, lime, frankincense, caramel, lignum vitae wood, guaiac wood, vetiver, peppery agar; Base: sand, sea salt, amber, frankincense resin, moss, musk, vanilla.
(Note: Beaufort's written description says this perfume is about “wood, metal, and salt” inspired by the materials used to create marine chronometers.)
The immediate notes on me are pepper, ginger, plain biscuit (the closest comparison that comes to mind it the Lattemiele biscuits sold at Trader Joe's), and something a bit animalic/skanky that fades in about 15 minutes. Cakey and caramely notes become more pronounced over the first half hour or so, and they baffle me, because they don't fit with Beaufort's supposed idea for the scent and the also don't work well with the other notes.
After about half an hour it grows more ambery, with a hint of wood. It's a nice enough soft scent, more feminine than I expected. And that's pretty much where it stays. I don't get most of the listed notes, and if it weren't for that distinct biscuit/cake note I'd suspect I'd been given the wrong sample. Beaufort needs to look at its life and its choices on this one. I'd have really enjoyed trying the fragrance I thought it would be.
And that's all of my Beaufort samples, but I got some others from Bloom because the shipping was a flat rate, so I figured I should go for it. I haven't tried nearly all of them, but here are the ones I have.
Seahorse, by Zoologist (Extrait de parfum in an atomizer bought from Bloom)
Bloom notes: Top notes: ambrette seeds, cardamom, fennel; Heart notes: clary sage, neroli, sea salt, tuberose; Base notes: algae, ambergris, sea weed, vetiver.
I was hoping for fennel but never got it. This was a light sweet floral initially from the neroli, then what I think was the tuberose began to come out, a much stronger floral with a creamy note. And then came what I guess were the ambrette seeds, which google says can be musky and animalic--the scent developed a bit of a "skin" note and, much more unfortunately, a hint of wet dog. Clean wet dog, but even so.
Unfortunately the wet dog thing grows, and for a while I get dog in a flower shop, and then, as the aquatic, salty, and green notes emerge a bit, dog splashing around at the seaside, with an abandoned bouquet floating on the surf. I kept it on for a while because there was just enough vetiver to intrigue me, and eventually both the dogginess and the floral faded to tolerability, but what was left was just a nondescript sweetness. The aquatic element, which was what I was there for, didn't last either.
Marquis de Sade, by Etat Libre d'Orange (Eau de parfum in an atomizer, bought from Bloom)
Bloom notes: Cistus, labdanum, rockrose [Google tells me that cistus and rockrose are the same thing, and labdanum also comes from the same plant but is an absolute from the resin rather than from the whole plant]
On me: I took one sniff and swore loudly. There's something in here that is absolutely FOUL on me. Animalic, fecal, with a note of burning chemicals. As I said in a previous post (because I needed to share this immediately), I think they call it Marquis de Sade because it wants to hurt you.
If I kept my arm well away from my nose, I got just a whiff of woody herbalness, but if I gave it a sniff from closer than about a foot away, all the badness came back. The chemical smell faded after a bit and it turned what I guess can be described as slightly less awful: imagine a dead rat atop a pile of dog poo, sprinkled with herbs.
Also, this is the scent I may have had an allergic reaction to: my lips went numb, anyway.
I gave it 15 minutes and then I washed my arm repeatedly with lemon soap. Then I took a shower and washed my arm repeatedly with cedar-scented soap. Then, when after I dried off it still wasn't gone, I did a few more rounds of washing with lemon soap and then I put on some Invasion Barbare to cover up the last remnants.
I very much suspect that this is to do with my skin chemistry, because literally no reviews I've seen of this mention anything like it.
Myrrhiad, by Pierre Guillaume Black Collection (Eau de Parfum in an atomizer, bought from Bloom)
Bloom notes: Black tea, licorice, myrrh, vanilla
On first spraying there's a quick, lovely whiff of myrrh and whiskey, and then, bizarrely, a chalky, artificial-mint smell that makes me think of dried-out Pepto Bismol. I guess, somehow, that's the licorice? Luckily this fades after 10-15 minutes, and it turns to a dry vanilla (pipe tobacco vanilla rather than foodie vanilla) with some myrrh and maybe a hint of black tea. This myrrh is a bit incense-y for my taste, and I normally like myrrh, but the vanilla balances it out well. And that's how it stays, with the vanilla ever more predominant. I wish there was more myrrh (without too much of the incense quality) and more tea. I wish the licorice had been star anise instead, and that there was maybe some wood. It's odd because I do like this scent a lot--I tested it this afternoon and I'm still sniffing my arm every so often--but it's just not very interesting. Hopefully at some point I'll discover something with a similar base but more complex.
And that's it for now!
no subject
Date: 2022-09-12 04:31 am (UTC)Sympathy. I tried BPAL's Y'ha-nthlei once and ended up smelling like a pretentious fish tank.
no subject
Date: 2022-09-12 03:36 pm (UTC)That is a beautiful turn of phrase.
no subject
Date: 2022-09-13 12:25 am (UTC)The BPAL aquatics that worked for me were the salty, oceany ones. I loved Jolly Roger and I loved Mary Read about 75% of the time (the other 25%, the patchouli became too much).
I'm beginning to think that in a lot of scents "aquatic" means "damp floral." Or at least that's what it translates to on my skin.
no subject
Date: 2022-09-13 01:28 pm (UTC)This is 100% correct. It's the 90s-style calone overdose. Melon-y dampness.
no subject
Date: 2022-09-12 04:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-09-13 12:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-09-12 07:45 am (UTC)Oh yay! I've not tried Coeur de Noir yet but it sounds great.
Unfortunately the wet dog thing grows, and for a while I get dog in a flower shop, and then, as the aquatic, salty, and green notes emerge a bit, dog splashing around at the seaside, with an abandoned bouquet floating on the surf.
Unfortunately this sounds like I need to try it.
no subject
Date: 2022-09-12 03:39 pm (UTC)https://www.fragrantica.com/perfume/Yohji-Yamamoto/Yohji-Homme-1999-648.html
Just fucking gorgeous, and I think it has some of the complexity you're looking for and not finding in Myrrhiad. I have a treasured bottle I am using up very slowly.
no subject
Date: 2022-09-13 12:39 am (UTC). . . it would be just my luck to fall in love with something that's not made anymore, too.
no subject
Date: 2022-09-13 06:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-09-13 12:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-09-12 03:47 pm (UTC)https://www.fragrantica.com/perfume/Comme-des-Garcons/Comme-des-Garcons-2-390.html
I don't know if it'd hit the spot for you -- probably too incense-y for your tastes -- but you might find it interesting to smell anyway. I've not smelled anything quite like it.
no subject
Date: 2022-09-13 12:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-09-13 09:17 am (UTC)It's got this amazing combination of smelling very dark (the herbal/earthy/inky) and very bright (the aldehydes doing the waxy/snuffed-candle thing and the citrus and sharp spices) at the same time.
The Wackness of Oud
Date: 2022-10-15 03:01 pm (UTC)