Thierry Mugler Alien

Call me a big old stick in the mud but I don’t like very many of Thierry Mugler’s fragrances. Okay, stop hurling rotten fruit at me. I said most, not all. Fortunately for Alien, I love it.

Alien

In Bottle: Alien is a very powerful fragrance, it’s a few notches above Angel and it doesn’t take a whole lot of this to scent the place up. I’m a big fan of jasmine, love the stuff. Would slather myself in it and Alien is like the wish that came true. It takes jasmine and really kicks it up several notches beyond normal to the point that all I smell is metallic jasmine–and that’s while it’s in the bottle.

Applied: Powerful burst of metals and jasmine right up top with a hint of peppery spice to sooth the nose a little. I know, pepper soothing a nose? The jasmine in this is really strong that when you end up smelling the pepper it’s almost a relief in a way. The fragrance continues to age with jasmine heading the way and the pepper and its strange metallic friend disappear. A bit of vanilla drives itself into the middle and lends a slight plastic quality to the mid-stage. I’m not a big fan of fake vanilla when I can tell it’s the synthetic kind, but the vanilla here actually doesn’t do too bad against jasmine. It goes well with the whole quirkiness of the scent. It gives it a bit more personality too so it’s not just powerful jasmine. Otherwise, this is pretty, white, with that little dirty quality that’s present in many jasmines. I can’t say much else in the way of Alien, it’s a one trick pony. But what a trick! If you love jasmine you’ll love this. It’s heady, heavy, very present and projects hugely. The dry down sees the introduction of some other notes, namely woods that help calm the jasmine down a bit.

Extra: Alien is like Thierry Mugler’s declaration that if you wanted to graduate into floral territory, you should do it with a huge celebration and a fragrance that shouts. Like with most Thierry Mugler scents, Alien has excellent longevity and fantastic projection.

Design: I’m not a huge fan of Thierry Mugler bottle designs either, and Alien’s bottle puts me off a little. It’s purposefully meant to be off-putting, strange, and a bit ridiculous. I can’t say I like the angles, the feel of this thing in my hand, or its pointiness. It’s a great strange little bottle, but it’s not to my tastes.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Jasmine, pepper, vanilla, woods.

I’m not a strong, in-your-face fragrance kind of gal. I love the subtle stuff, the stick-to-your-skin kind of fragrance but when I want to go loud, this is the stuff I’m doing it with.

Reviewed in This Post: Alien, 2008, Eau de Toilette.


Liz Claiborne Curve Crush (Men)

I don’t know how Curve Crush managed to squeeze itself into a position so polarizing. We have people on one side loving this stuff while people on the other side are having Curve Crush bonfires and reconsidering the quality of such an idea. I’m with the bonfires on this one. I’m sorry, but I kind of hate this fragrance.

Curve Crush

In Bottle: A strange melange of herbs and sweetness. It’s not sweet like candy sweet but sweet as in “this shouldn’t be sweet but it is” sweet. All this coated with an aqua or marine note which makes me think of Cool Water gone wrong. There’s quite a huge dollop of white musk and moss in this too which just seem to come right out of left field.

Applied: That opening of sweet herbs and the lingering bizarre white musk and moss. This smells like a mess from the get-go, like it wasn’t blended properly and I can see where people are coming from when they say this is very synthetic. I can forgive a synthetic fragrance if it’s done well, but I don’t think Curve Crush for Men realizes there’s a line that shouldn’t be crossed. There’s so much scrubbed, clean, sharp and sterile synthetic notes in this stuff that it smells more like a weird cleaning detergent than a fragrance. The mid-stage is a bizarre blend of that musk and moss stuff along with some plastic violet and spicy ginger situation layered over a persistent cloying sweetness. It heads into its dry down with a moss note so synthetic I can taste it in the back of my throat.

Extra: Curve Crush for Men is a member of the Curve line by Liz Claiborne. Despite my displeasure with this particular fragrance, the other members of the Curve line are decent scents.

Design: I’m not sold on the bottle here but I k now packaging’s not the highest priority when it comes to fragrances like this. The bottle is made of a mottled glass, with a tint on it. It’s got a good weight, the hold of it is decent, the design itself is uninspired and reminds me of an Old Spice bottle with a Flowerbomb tag sticking out of it.

Fragrance Family: Aromatic

Notes: Bartlett pear, muguet aldehyde, basil, coriander, bergamot, ginger, violet, lavender, sage, cardamom, vetiver, musk, moss.

I know this is a budget fragrance, but if you ask me, it’s a pretty terrible one. You want a budget fragrance that smells good and is well-composed? Old Spice. As cliche as that is, Old Spice beats this hands down. Heck, I’d pick Old Spice over a lot of higher end fragrances too. The point is, this fragrance is overly synthetic, uninspired and smells like it wasn’t blended properly.

Reviewed in This Post: Curve Crush, 2009, Eau de Toilette.


Sonoma Scent Studio Incense Pure

Sonoma Scent Studio is one of those awesome independent houses with an excellent selection of fragrances that are magnificently well-blended. I’m a big fan of independent perfume houses, and am happy to see them doing things their own way. The mass market and even the niche market can sometimes be restrictive. So independent is the way to go.

In Bottle: Incense Pure is like a sniff of incense heaven. It’s heady, it’s sophisticated, it’s sensual and deep. The first smell out of the bottle or vial is like an invitation you can’t refuse.

Applied: Incense Pure starts off with an airy but very detectable blend of–well, incense. The myrrh really gets me. Makes me grin from ear to ear even. Incense Pure isn’t like most incense fragrances I’ve tried. This one is tempered, easier to wear, still absolutely lovely with that oh so distinctive incense fragrance but it’s tempered a bit by a woodsiness that digs itself up and bunkers down. There’s a lovely sense of sensuality about this fragrance too and a hint of ambery musk infused with a gorgeous vanilla. This isn’t your sweet, synthetic vanilla either. The incense seems to do wonderful things to vanilla, bringing out its spicy personality instead of relying on vanilla’s surface sweetness. There’s even, to my delight, oak moss in this! And the oak moss does wonders to give the fragrance a beautiful mossy green undertone. As if the incense wasn’t enough, it gets me twice with the oak moss too.

Extra: Sonoma Scent Studio offers Incense Pure in a variety of sizes and for some very reasonable prices considering the quality of the ingredients. You can read up about Incense Pure on their website.

Design: I have a sample of this fragrance, but the bottling looks quite nice. The shape of the bottle is clean and neat. A tall squarish bottle with a gold cap. Keeping it simple is always a plus in my books.

Fragrance Family: Woodsy Incense

Notes: Frankincense, myrrh, labdanum, cistus, oakmoss, Indian patchouli, sandalwood, cedar, ambergris, orris, angelica, elemi, vanilla absolute.

If you’re a fan of incense, you really should try this. Even if you’re not sure whether or not you’re a fan of incense, you should try this. It’s quite the excellent experience.

Reviewed in This Post: Incense Pure, 2010, Eau de Parfum.


That Smell Going Forward

I thought it would be fair to address That Smell’s first year online as a fragrance review blog and what my plans for this little piece of smelly internet will be. We’re growing slowly but I’m pleased with the progress. This is especially nice for me to see considering this is a blog that I keep up and write in for fun.

I’ve met some of you through the comments and have been happy to know you and see what you thought about fragrances and issues surrounding perfume. I hope 2011 and onward brings more of you fragrance fans out to the comment boxes. I would love to hear from more of you guys!

Let’s make a list of future goals and plans because I like lists!

1) Let’s address the elephant in the room first. I will be upfront about where I hope this blog will be headed. It is a small, slightly-amusing, dream of mine to one day make this little blog self-sustaining. Or, in other words, I would like That Smell to make enough money to pay for its web hosting and domain fees because I am currently footing the bill out of my sad and dilapidated wallet. That means, at some point (probably not soon), That Smell may display some unobtrusive text ads. I hope this is not a big deal for my current readers or future readers. For now, however, I am still paying for all this myself and will be doing so for the foreseeable future.

2) I’ve gotten used to the update schedule of 3-5 updates a week and my nose hasn’t slowed down any. I still have lots of notes and  lots of fragrance samples to go through and new perfumes are still being released at an admirable rate. So the update schedule has steadied out at weekdays with 3-5 per week.

3) Over the past year, I’ve mainly focused on accessible fragrances and neglected the niche and independent markets a little bit. It would seem that a lot of people don’t mind this and I do intend to continue focusing on mainstream and accessible fragrances with a couple of smatterings of niche and independent houses in there and the occasional cameo from hilariously bad fragrances that are hard to find or get a hold of (Here’s lookin’ at you, Bruce Willis). But ultimately, it still comes down to what I can get my grubby hands on so hey, the system works so why break it?

And now some possibly interesting statistics about this blog:

As of this posting we have 290 entries scattered across a variety of topics. 232 of these posts are fragrance reviews. The most popular post is The Dangers of Counterfeit Perfumes with 2731 views.


BPAL Fox-Woman Kuzunoha

The full name of this fragrance is The Fox-Woman Kuzunoha Leaving Her Child. Due to space constraints, I couldn’t fit that whole thing in the title above. Regardless, Kuzunoha is a beautifully done clean tea floral fragrance from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. The Fox Woman

In Bottle: Lovely wafty of soft white tea settled with a pleasant bit of woodsiness. The jasmine in this fragrance lends the scent an even more tea-like personality.

Applied: Kuzunoha is one of my favorite fragrances. It’s light and beautiful and airy. The opening is a straight up showing of what the fragrance has, settling first with a hit of white tea followed by gently powdered jasmine. The white tea and jasmine mix well to make this fragrance smell a bit more like jasmine tea than just white tea while the two florals in this scent mix to make a floating floral background. The wisteria and cherry blossom are very light. The cherry blossom making a bigger appearance but it is still largely relegated to the background. The real star of the show here is definitely jasmine. Finally, the teak adds a tiny bit of woodsy presence to the fragrance to round it out. The entire experience is elegant, well-done, and very beautiful. Kuzunoha also benefits from the light approach because it is a very easy fragrance to wear.

Extra: The Fox-Woman Kuzunoha Leaving Her Child is a print by artist, Yoshitoshi Tsukioka.

Design: The Fox-Woman Kuzunoha Leaving Her Child is bottled in a similar way to most Black Phoenix Alchemy lab perfume oils. The glass is an amber color with a square label affixed to the surface of the glass. The label in this case features artwork by Yoshitoshi Tsukioka whose painting of the same name inspired this fragrance.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: White tea, cherry blossom, wisteria, star jasmine, teak.

Big as I am on this fragrance, its longevity leaves a bit to be desired. I’m not surprised by this as most of the notes are rather fleeting in and of themselves.

Reviewed in This Post: The Fox-Woman Kuzunoha Leaving Her Child, 2010, 5ml Bottle.


Dolce & Gabbana Rose The One

Last The One flanker I’m going to do in a while. Rose The One is a member of Dolce & Gabbana’s The One line. This time there’s an obvious relationship to the rose note.

Rose The One

In Bottle: Rather bit of citrus to open it up. The pink grapefruit is rather detectable, almost all I smell with a sweet lingering modern rose in the background. Rose The One is sweet and clean, with a nice use of pink grapefruit up front.

Applied: Clean pink grapefruit opening the fragrance with a slight tartness borrowed from the black currant. The rose note in this fragrance comes up rather quickly in the opening but isn’t very strong and doesn’t do much to overpower the grapefruit. Don’t get me wrong, I love the grapefruit but for a fragrance that tries to capitalize on rose, I would have expected the rose to be stronger. Still, the rose note hangs out rather admirably and I catch whiffs of it along the way. The fragrance settles into the mid-stage with a nice modern rose and lily interpretation with lingering bites of pink grapefruit. I smell sweet peony intermingled with the floral-dominant mid-stage too as warmness washes over the mid-stage and helps to ease that grapefruit out of the way. The dry down is what you would expect of a fragrance ending with the sandalwood and vanilla duo.

Extra: Rose  The One had a fantastic little ad campaign featuring Scarlett Johansson in a rose-dominant commercial. The entire campaign was very soft and obviously trying to capitalize on the modern rose note that’s the namesake for this fragrance.

Design: Once again, Rose The One is designed similarly to other The One bottles with a squat classic shape. Rose The One hammers home that it’s a romantic rose note based thing by being a lovely shade of pink. There’s rose gold as the cap. A rosy pink liquid. Even the lettering is in a deep rosy color. It’s all very lovely and very feminine.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Black currant, pink grapefruit, mandarin, lily of the valley, rose, litchi, peony, Madonna lily, ambrette seed, sandalwood, musk, vanilla.

I’m going to keep going with L’eau as my favorite iteration of The One for now. Rose The One is pleasant enough but at times it’s a strange battle between the grapefruit opener and the floral mid-stage.

Reviewed in This Post: Rose The One, 2010, Eau de Parfum.


Dolce & Gabbana L’eau The One

L’eau The One and The One is a very good example of why you shouldn’t put so much weight into the popular notion that Eau de Parfum and Eau de Toilette smells the same, with EDP lasting longer and smelling stronger. True, that may sometimes be the case but as we’re going to see where with The One and its lighter friend, L’eau The One, that is not always true.

L'eau The One

In Bottle: Fruitier than The One to me, but the mandrin is still there. Despite this being fruitier, it is less sweet than the original making this a much nicer opening ride.

Applied: Fruity opening with a more present note of mandarin but a stronger presence of lychee. The peach is less noticeable and falls off rather quickly. There is less cloying sweetness overall. The fragrance is still very feminine and very sweet but the sweetness has been toned down and the fragrance is doing better for it. The mid-stage is largely the same with less sweetness added in and a warm amber that’s more evident earlier on in the fragrance. The florals are still sweet but there’s a more tolerable cleanness to the scent now that helps L’eau The One be even more wearable than The One. The plum is a bit more tame in this fragrance, giving the fragrance a nice dry floral and fruity smell and without the heavy sweetness. The dry down sees a less prominent vanilla note while giving a green vetiver and woody note in the dry down some more showtime. The result is a woodsy green dry down after a semi-sweet creamy, fruity floral show.

Extra: L’eau The One doesn’t seem to have an official set of notes so it shares the notes list for The One. Some people have noted the presence of an oak moss-like note in the dry down. To me, the dry down smells more like a mixture of vetiver and woods.

Design: L’eau The One is designed in a very similar way to The One. The only discernible differences are the colors and the name of the fragrance. Where The One had a gold cap, L’eau rocks a silver cap. Where The One had black lettering, L’eau uses white. And where The One had a golden-yellow liquid, L’eau is more clear.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Mandarin, bergamot, lychee, peach, jasmine, lily of the valley, white lily, plum, vetiver root, amber, musk, vanilla.

L’eau The One was supposed to be a lighter, fruitier interpretation to The One. But tweak a few notes, dial down a couple, dial up a couple and you get something that smells decently different from the original. There is still enough in this fragrance to connect it to The One, but it is definitely a lighter, less sweet version. To me, the toned down sweetness makes this more wearable and I would pick L’eau over The One if I had a choice between the two.

On an unrelated note, last year on this day in 2010, That Smell saw its first post. Hooray, we’re one year old!

Reviewed in This Post: L’eau The One, 2009, Eau de Toilette.


Dolce & Gabbana The One

Dolce & Gabbana The One is one of those familiar fruity floral fragrances that tends to be smelled everywhere. It doesn’t help that it’s rather popular, relatively affordable, and is highly benign either. In fact, it’s so benign that I would really rather people wore this than Light Blue.

The One

In Bottle: Lychee and peach are the first things I smell along with a bit of mandarin in the top. It’s a classic feminine fruity floral that’s marked right away by that lychee note that seems rather popular in these sorts of formulations.

Applied: The One gets its genre very right from the get go. After the initial sweet mandarin, you’re treated to a fairly standard mix of lychee that tells you right away you’re in fruity floral territory. But The One takes that message one step closer by introducing another favorite of the fruity floral genre; peach. This is a lovely, sweet, lychee and peach opener. It’s not interesting or unique but it’s not trying to lie to you about what it is either. The top notes are a nice introduction to the mid-stage where jasmine and lily head up to the forefront dragging a pleasant sweet plummy scent with them. The mid-stage is one of those sweet floral type deals that remind me of shampoo. As the end stage approaches, I get a slight warming of the fragrance followed by a creamy vanilla note. You’ll note one major predominant theme with this fragrance is its sweetness. There’s a lot of sugar present here but it’s not as oppressive as other sugar-based scents like Miss Dior Cherie or DKNY Delicious Night. This stuff is sweet for sure, but it doesn’t reach critical levels of sweetness.

Extra: Say what you will about Dolce & Gabbana’s fashion, but they do know how to do wearable, easy fragrances. Light Blue for women is one of their most popular offerings and a fragrance I tend to smell almost everywhere and on everyone. Which may have contributed to my desire to smell something else instead.

Design: Very nice bottle. Familiar with many classic fragrance bottles. Most immediate estimate would be Chanel No.5, but The One pulls off its look rather well too. it’s a squat rectangular thing, with an inner vessel that isn’t as well sculpted as a Chanel No.5 bottle, still, the shape is pleasing, the weight is fairly decent, and the hold and feel is comfortable.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Mandarin, bergamot, lychee, peach, jasmine, lily of the valley, white lily, plum, vetiver root, amber, musk, vanilla.

Not my favorite thing in the world, and certainly not the most interesting thing in the world. The closest fragrance I can think of at the moment as an alternative to this one is Gucci’s Flora. A similarly sweet floral. Though I do prefer Flora over this simply because Flora prefers to lean more on a clean concept than a fruity one. Still, The One is an excellent, non-offensive, easy to wear fragrance. You won’t be disappointed if you need something good and easy to wear with this one.

Reviewed in This Post: The One, 2009, Eau de Parfum.


Clive Christian No. 1 for Men

Happy April Fools Day. I only wish I was joking about the prices talked about in this post! No, I can’t be so frivolous as to drop the cash down for a Clive Christian fragrance. Not a full bottle anyway. My wallet is still hurting a bit from the tiny amount I do have just so I could sneak a sniff of one of Clive’s most fabled elixirs.

No. 1 for Men

In Bottle: Citrus and green with a dash of pepperiness thrown in there for a hint of spice. I smell vetiver, and a bit of something herbal. Rather complex from the get go with a distinctive vintage vibe to it. Very nice!

Applied: Starts off on a crisp, sharp lime note with an exotic blend of crushed spices taking the sharpness up a few more notches but never really letting it get out of hand. It makes a good first impression anyway. The fragrance has multiple layers of complexity and is one of those, “So many things I can’t separate them” stories. I’ll try my best through. The fragrance ages into the mid-stage with a steadily amping set of florals. I get jasmine for the florals, a hint of sophisticated rose. It is so well-blended that I can’t pick apart notes and frankly, I don’t really want to pick apart notes. The mid-stage is marked with a beautifully lush bouquet of florals. It is full and heady, with the spiciness that only serves to amplify the florals further. The mid-stage is where I really get that vintage feel. This smells like it belongs in the age of perfume greats. A time when Coty was more than celebrity perfumes and body mists. When Guerlain was family-owned and pumping out fragrance after fragrance of utter beauty. When Chanel No. 5 was how an elegant woman should smell instead of the old granny perfume it’s now known as. That’s what No. 1 for Men is. It’s actually a really pleasant trip to a time where I didn’t even exist. As No. 1 for Men dries down there’s a falling off of the florals but they never truly leave. I get a bit of the vetiver that I got in the bottle settling in at the bottom giving the florals a bit of extra boost as the fragrance digs itself out, leaving you with a faint air of lingering florals, a blend of woods, and a hint of dry vetiver.

Extra: Clive Christian acquired an old perfume house, Crown Perfumery, in 1999 and they have been coming out with stuff like this since. Clive Christian’s No. 1 fragrances are known as the most expensive in the world. This was a title that was once held by Joy by Jean Patou. These days, Joy is much more affordable and sanely priced. As for Clive Christian’s No. 1, it’s price goes up every year. The pure parfum presently sits near $2,500 CAD (Noted on Saks).

Design: As to be expected, the bottle is impeccably designed. In fact, most of the gush I found on this perfume was people talking about the packaging. For $2,500 I would certainly hope the packaging is worth it. One interesting thing to note is the crown design on the stopper was approved by the queen way back in the day. All I can tell you is, this is made of lead crystal, is flawless, glitters, the stopper has real gold on it, the stopper also has a diamond in it for goodness’ sakes. It looks great but imparts a sense of incredulity in me coupled with mild embarrassment. What else did I expect? I mean, it’s a $2,500 bottle of perfume. There is a similar iteration of the bottle design called Imperial Majesty which had better contain the hapless souls of lesser perfumes because the thing costs $215,000 USD.

Fragrance Family: Spicy Floral

Notes: Bergamot, lime, mandarin, grapefruit, cardamom, nutmeg, caraway, artemesia, lily of the valley, jasmine, rose, iris, heliotrope, ylang ylang, cedar, sandalwood, vetiver, amber, tonka, musk.

Here’s the problem with this fragrance and its price point. For most of us, the $1000+ price tag is a major deterrent and the fine folks at Clive’s house know this. They purposefully price this fragrance way out of range to appeal to those wealthy enough to approach this fragrance and casually wave the money out of their wallets. For the rest of us schmucks, digging around in the dirt, we use testers. I judged this fragrance not according to just its scent, but according to its worth as a fragrance in comparison to its price.

To me, the juice in No. 1 for Men is no better than a vintage fragrance. It is certainly no match for an Amouage attar, a vintage Guerlain, or a natural blend from Aftelier. You are better off spending your money elsewhere. And while all of the alternatives I listed are expensive, they are not $2,500 expensive if you care about the juice inside.  This is a very competent fragrance with a beautiful old world soul that I don’t see enough of anymore. But is it worth the price? Honestly? In my opinion, no. I go nuts for perfume, but I draw my cash line somewhere. And that line is no where near the thousands.

Thankfully, if you just have a hankering to smell the fragrances with no desire to own the exclusive bottle, there is a travel set that (as of this writing) sells for $310USD. There are three fragrances  included (1872, X, No. 1 each bottle is 10ml)–paltry amount for $310, but this is the house that puts out perfume which requires you to take out a mortgage in order to afford.

Reviewed in This Post: No. 1 for Men, 2010, Parfum.