Serge Lutens Miel De Bois

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Miel De Bois is one of the last remaining Serge Lutens samples I had and was excited to get to smelling this when I read that it was a woody oriental with no cedar presence.

Miel De Bois

Miel De Bois

In Bottle: Beautiful smooth honey and woodsy scent with a bit of smokiness.

Applied: Miel De Bois opens with a prominent woodsy fragrance with the oak and a hint of smoky honey following it. The fragrance is blended very well, I can’t pick out anything that seems out of place as it all goes so well together. The fragrance gets a bit smokier as it ages with an introduction of the very soft and very yielding floral note to smooth out the wood and honey. Honey in this fragrance is a bit of a garnish in that it isn’t prominent but adds a bit of depth and oriental feel to the otherwise woodsy scent. I get more of the honey as the fragrance ages, but it’s strength is tempered back again by the woods as Miel De Bois goes on.

Extra: Miel De Bois was first introduced in 2005. It was composed by Christopher Sheldrake who also made fragrance such as Chergui and Daim Blond.

Design: Same general design as the other Serge Lutens bottles. You’ll get an elegant and well designed bottle and if you own more than one, you might get yourself a very nice uniform look for your fragrance collection. Bottle is easy to hold and use and sprayer is well done.

Fragrance Family: Woodsy Oriental

Notes: Honey, iris, hawthorn, guaiac wood, oak.

Unfortunately, Miel De Bois has been discontinued and is no longer widely available–not that it was to begin with being a niche fragrance. You may be able to score a bottle on eBay or from another fragrance lover’s collection.

Reviewed in This Post: Miel De Bois, 2006, Eau de Parfum.

Montale Aoud Amber Rose

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Montale released this one in 2010. So it’s a relatively new contender in the world of aouds and I’m happy to see this house embrace aoud with such open arms.

Aoud Amber Rose

Aoud Amber Rose

In Bottle: An incense woodsy fragrance with a core of roses.

Applied: Initially this smells like a sophisticated rose settled down by a bit of smoke and spice. The fragrance evolves into a woodsier floral composition adding a bit of ambery musk to my nose. It’s warm and dry, but quite nicely blended with the rose making itself the star. As Aoud Amber Rose continues to age it takes on more and more woodsy qualities with a tinge of animalism too.

Extra: I have to question Montale’s methodology. Once a year, we get a few new releases from them. And usually at least one of those releases is an aoud fragrance or something closely related to it. It’s at the point where I’ve sampled my share of Montale aoud fragrances and they all start to smell the same with a couple of components taken out or added in. When a house releases what is essentially the same composition with a couple of tweaks, is it really worth it (aside for collection’s sake) to get the next iteration year after year?

Design: I’ll admit, the shiny metal tubes are wearing thin on me. Other niche houses with their simple bottle designs are fairly understandable. They usually have some sort of distinctive aesthetic appeal. But Montale’s bottles started off beautiful with the brushed metal look. But Aoud Amber Rose? Well, it’s pink. It makes me want to tuck it away in a sock drawer for how inconspicuous it looks. Sorry, Montale, I’m not a fan of the color choice here.

Fragrance Family: Oriental Floral

Notes: Rose, saffron, guaiac wood, cedar, agarwood.

There are novels that have been written about the beauty of aoud notes if used well in a fragrance. I’m on the fence about Montale’s many faces of aoud, but overall, I think they do a pretty good job. Aoud Amber Rose is a decent contender, but I have to concede to By Kilian’s Rose Oud as a more complex fragrance. In the end, this stuff isn’t bad, but it’s got some stiff competition.

Reviewed in This Post: Aoud Amber Rose, 2010, Eau de Parfum.

Parfumerie Generale Cedre Sandaraque

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Cedre Sandaraque is, unfortunately for me, the only fragrance I currently have access to from Parfumerie Generale. But judging by how lush Cedre Sandaraque is, I’m going to have to get some more.

Cedre Sandaraque

Cedre Sandaraque

In Bottle: Warm and dusty with a bit of sweetness to it.

Applied: Warm honeyed amber fragrance a touch of sweetness and a delicate tinge of cedar. There’s also a slight tartiness that helps enhance the sweetness of the warm honey-like scent. This is sweet without the obnoxious presence of candy. It’s sophisticated sweet that knows exactly when to stop. It’s an enticing fragrance that draws you in just enough to hook you, not an overwhelming fragrance that gives you what you want and a little too much of it. There’s something about the opening of Cedre Sandaraque that really appeals to me. Maybe because I liken it to the anticipation of satisfaction. It’s like it keeps me there in that giddy stage. It’s really very delightful. As the fragrance ages, a bit more of the cedar comes into the picture adding a dusty woodsy side to the warm honey in the opening. The fragrance dries into an elegant dry and warm woodsy scent. Be careful and go easy on the trigger for Cedre Sandaraque it’s potent and very long lasting.

Extra: Parfumerie Generale is a relatively young company. It was launched in 2002 by perfumer, Pierre Guillaume.

Design: Most of Parfumerie Generale’s bottles are the same. They’re a functional shape, made of good glass and materials with the company’s logo and the fragrance affixed in a circle on the body of the bottle. There’s not a whole lot to say about this except that it has a likable classic rectangle perfume bottle design with a functional form.

Fragrance Family: Oriental

Notes: Amber, praline, cedar, vetiver, resin.

It seemed like it had been a long while since I smelled a really good oriental fragrance. Cedre Sandaraque’s beauty and warmth make me wonder why I ever take breaks from the orientals at all.

Reviewed in This Post: Cedre Sandaraque,  2011, Eau de Parfum.

Parfum d’Empire Cuir Ottoman

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Cuir Ottoman was a leather recommended to me by a friend who said that if I wasn’t already obsessed with leather then I would be once I smelled this.

Cuir Ottoman

Cuir Ottoman

In Bottle: Leather, nice and smooth with a warm and soft quality. A bit of floral layering in the back that helps the leather pull away from its often “too strong” personality. The mix is very nice.

Applied: Leather, soft and smooth and yielding. This isn’t too strong or too evident as the florals in this–a jasmine with iris blend–help temper the leather even more. The leather is definitely the star of the show though as it reminds me of a well-loved old leather jacket passing through a field of flowers. It’s one of the better done leathers out there, that actually mimics the real scent very well. It is also a very good balance in almost every category, making this a good unisex fragrance. As the scent heads toward its end stage, there’s a smokiness that amps up that I’m guessing is the resin and incense giving the leather fragrance a smoky quality.

Extra: Cuir Ottoman is very nicely done and really well-balanced. I have no complaints about its composition as it’s just so nicely done. The fragrance was released in 2006.

Design: Parfums d’Empire’s bottle designs seem pretty similar to each other. Tall glass, an accented cap. I can’t complain about the functionality, but the form was a little bland. Still, the same thing could be said about most niche houses. You buy it for the juice and not the design. Unless you’re buying an Agonist perfume, then we all know.

Fragrance Family: Floral Leather Oriental

Notes: Jasmine, leather, iris, benzoin, balsams, resins, incense.

So Cuir Ottoman is definitely worth a shot. It’s a great scent that’s wonderfully composed. But in so far as making me obsess about leathers, we’ll have to wait on that one.

Reviewed in This Post: Cuir Ottoman,  2010, Eau de Parfum.

Comme des Garcons Odeur 71

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I had left this one in my stack of samples for too long. Now it’s time to crack her open and get a face full of Odeur 71.

Odeur 71

Odeur 71

In Bottle: Herbal with a distinctly burnt quality to it. I’m thinking the incense with the woods mixed with herbs and spices.

Applied: Odeur 71 is heavy and heady as it starts off with a burnt wood and spice mixed with herbal notes that carries the fragrance up to your nose and makes you wonder if you left something in the oven. It’s a disarming scent, bizarre, a bit repulsive, but at the same time attractive in an indescribable way. It smells of woods more and more as I wear it but the burnt smell also follows it along. The herbs get a bit stronger too, making the fragrance just a bit greener as I keep wearing this, as the fragrance ends with a synthetic burnt plastic-like aroma at the end of it all.

Extra: Comme des Garcons reportedly calls this the “anti-fragrance” said to be inspired by dust on a lightbulb, metal, and lettuce juice. All wonderfully pleasant things to think about but I’m not sure Odeur 71 really delivers that special olfactory experience so much as it delivers a burning synthetics sort of fragrance.

Design: Bottled in a rectangular flacon. The design is less whimsical in my opinion but it is functional and contains just enough quirk to firmly label it as a Comme des Garcons. Nice to look at, but there’s more interesting stuff out there if you were looking at this purely from a bottle 2011design standpoint.

Fragrance Family: Smoky Woods

Notes: Incense, wood, moss, willow, elm, bay leaves, bamboo, hyacinth.

Not the kind of thing I see myself wearing every day as I don’t quite enjoy the mix of herbs and burnt plastic. Still, it’s got great projection and longevity. So if you’re into that kind of thing, hey.

Reviewed in This Post: Odeur 71,  2010, Eau de Toilette.

Knize Ten

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Picked up this classic out of the pile today. I had heard of Knize Ten on various fragrance boards and saw it had a lot of love and praise so I was very excited to see how I’d react to it.

Knize Ten

Knize Ten

In Bottle: Strong leather up top with a mixture of notes that reminds me of motor oil or rubber. I know my fiance, whose love of things that smell like car garages would love this.

Applied: Once again a very heavy leather note up top with a few notes that remind me of rubber or motor oil. Just something really heavy and mechanical. This makes me think ‘masculine’ right away as it has a very strong initial personality. If you keep wearing Knize Ten it mellows out a bit, turning into a soft, plush leather fragrance with a hint of floral to back it up. It’s rich, sophisticated and very complex as all classics tend to be. I love it, but I would probably love it more on a man than myself because I can’t see myself rocking this with the same kind of style due to my penchant for lighter fragrances. Anyway, Knize Ten develops into this fabulous comforting leather. The kind of warm, plus leather you can wrap yourself in. The ‘motor oil’ fades so if you were concerned about that aspect, it did fade for me. Also keep in mind that it is hard to pin point exactly what Knize Ten is aside from a really, really good leather. It’s constantly evolving but remains a very nice comforting, luxurious fragrance. The dry down is marked with a warm amber quality and a hint of balancing patchouli.

Extra: Knize Ten is a classic fragrance from the 1920s and it smells like it too. It’s complex and unlike most modern men’s scents in that it has a fabulous balance of notes. It was composed by François Coty and Vincent Roubert.

Design: Fairly simple design choice for this fragrance but it’s a quality-looking fragrance bottle made of quality materials. Feels nice in the hand, has a good weight to it, isn’t awkward to hold or spray and looks simple and tasteful. Overall, a nicely done design.

Fragrance Family: Classic

Notes: Lemon, bergamot, orange, petitgrain, rosemary, geranium, rose, cedar, orris, carnation, cinnamon, orange blossom, sandalwood, leather, musk, moss, patchouli, ambergris, castoreum, vanilla.

Knize Ten is beautiful. I just can’t see myself wearing it, but I can definitely see a man with this fragrance. It’s warm, comforting, and sophisticated at the same time. Not to mention it’s a classic which almost always wins extra points. I’m just not sure how old my sample is.

Reviewed in This Post: Knize Ten, ~2000, Eau de Toilette.

Tom Ford Jasmin Rouge

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Still on the look out for a good Jasmine that exceeds Thierry Mugler’s Alien. I still think that one’s a fabulous jasmine, though it is a bit of a one note fragrance. So in search of a bit more complexity, I looked up Tom Ford’s Jasmin Rouge.

Jasmin Rouge

Jasmin Rouge

In Bottle: Strong jasmine with a bit of buttery leather and a shade of very nice spice and wood.

Applied: Jasmin Rouge is a very strong fragrance. Its initial spray is marked with a powerful but beautiful jasmine note that overtakes the space around you. This is the kind of fragrance that announces its presence so be careful when you go to test it or use it for the first time. As the scent ages, I get a bit more of the spices in this fragrance, the peppery kick being most noticeable to me as the leather amps up with its buttery, soft texture that takes the jasmine and leather dominance all the way to the end where I get a few wafts of woodsiness and spices but it is mostly jasmine and leather I’m getting from this. I almost want to describe Jasmin Rouge as a jasmine and fluffy leather fragrance. It smells like it should be floating in the sky, projecting its glory all over everything within a 100ft radius.

Extra: Jasmin Rouge was released along with two other fragrances to the Tom Ford Signature Collection in 2011. So this baby is still new and if you wanted a hand at a leather jasmine then this might just be your stuff.

Design: The bottle screams Tom Ford design. Some fragrance houses just have a look and feel to their bottle designs that makes their products very recognizable. Chanel has it, Hermes has it, and Tom Ford definitely has it. Jasmin Rouge’s bottle is a pleasing shape and weight in an appropriate red color. It has a very nice sprayer that distributes a great even spray.

Fragrance Family: Oriental Floral

Notes: Bergamot, mandarin, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, black pepper, white pepper, sambac jasmine, broom, neroli, ylang-ylang, clary sage, vanilla, labdanum, leather, wood, amber.

I’m pretty picky when it comes to how jasmine is treated in a fragrance. I know practically every modern women’s perfume has jasmine present in one form or another which only makes me pickier about its usage in a less mainstream interpretation. Thing is, I like Jasmin Rouge just fine. I just don’t know if I love it enough to replace Alien.

Reviewed in This Post: Jasmin Rouge, 2011, Eau de Parfum.

Al Taif Rasasi

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Not sure how I ended up with a little sampler vial of this. Not that I’m complaining. It just looks out of place sitting with the likes of Acqua di Gio and Creed’s later releases. Al Taif by Rasasi is an exotic creature that gives the Amouage house a run for its money.

Al Taif

Al Taif

In Bottle: Beautifully blended rose with a bit of oud and sandalwood. It’s sensual, complex and very warm.

Applied: The rose is what I smell the most upon application. It warms up very quickly as the fragrance takes on this dense and dark oud and a light curtain of sandalwood that seems to stick around for hours on end. It’s hard to describe what Al Taif is exactly beyond a nicely done rose and oud blend. This is something you might have to grow into if you’re not used to complex scents (and definitely if you aren’t used to strong ouds) because the perfume is so well blended but it is also very rich in its oriental personality. The longevity is excellent and the projection, on me, is moderate. This being a perfume oil, you wouldn’t expect any less anyway.

Extra: Rasasi is a United Arab Emerites based company that was founded in the late 1970s. It seems their full bottle fragrances are a bit of an adventure to track down if you live in North America. When people talk about a taif rose, they’re referring to a type of Arabian damask rose. In terms of product accessibility, I’ve found a bottle on eBay but you will have far more luck contacting Rasasi to see where you might be able to score yourself some perfume.

Design: I’ve never held or seen a Rasasi perfume bottle. All I have is a little sampler vial. But based on some images, their bottles are distinctly middle eastern with its intricate designs. They all look luxurious and quite beautiful.

Fragrance Family: Floral Oriental

Notes: Rose, florals, oud, sandalwood, resin.

Aside from the rose and the oud, I cannot give you a more solid estimation of what else is the notes for this fragrance. It’s listing on Fragrantica says ‘rose, florals, resin’, but there’s more in Al Taif than just those three notes. So treat my list of notes as an estimation of what I got out of it as it is not an official list by any means.

Reviewed in This Post: Al Taif, 2010, Perfume Oil.

Montale Wild Aoud

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The Montale line of fragrances is known for its numerous different interpretations of aoud. I find it kind of funny that up until now, I only had non-aoud samplers. But that’s okay, I’m going to remedy that by smelling Montale’s Wild Aoud.

Wild Aoud

Wild Aoud

In Bottle: Whoa, lots of aoud in this one with an underlying hint of warm smokiness. Very nicely done.

Applied: Bergamot with sharp citrus as the aoud comes up rather quickly as the scent heads into its midstage followed by a soft floral presence that lingers in the background of the fragrance. As Wild Aoud continues to progress the florals disappear while the aoud continues to go strong as a clean woodsy note settles into the midstage marked with a progressively smoky personality as the fragrance keeps aging the dry down smells like a warm amber and smoky patchouli fragrance with that–by now–familiar aoud scent.

Extra: I haven’t gone out to seek many aoud fragrances but many perfumistas love the aoud note. Aoud is a resin that forms in the heartwood of Aquilaria trees when they are infected by a certain type of mold. The smell, to me, has a very pungent animalic quality with a hint of sweetness. Unpleasant on its own but mixed well into a fragrance and it can give the perfume a whole different dimension.

Design: Designed in much the same way as many other Montale fragrances. A rather plain-looking metal bottle that is, in this case, a warm dark brown color. It’s functional though not entirely exciting to look at. The most fascinating part of these bottles are the toppers.

Fragrance Family: Woodsy

Notes: Bergamot, geranium, artemisia, aoud, teak wood, patchouli, tobacco.

Wild Aoud is a nice fragrance that showcases the aoud note in it, but given how many aoud based fragrances (many in Montale’s line too) , I do wonder if there are any that interpret aoud in a different way. This makes me want to hold off on committing to an aoud until I’ve tested more.

Reviewed in This Post: Wild Aoud, 2009, Eau de Parfum.

Tokyo Milk Let Them Eat Cake

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Tokyo Milk knows what I love and they better believe it. Stationary, soap, and fragrance rolled into one company? If they had a physical store nearby I’d probably never leave.

Let Them Eat Cake

Let Them Eat Cake

In Bottle: Let Them Eat Cake is a soft cake scent that isn’t overly sweet and doesn’t feature that dreaded burnt caramel note I usually get in gourmand fragrances that focus on baked treats or candy.

Applied: Smells like white cake, fluffy and buttery and very easy to wear and take. Lots of vanilla in this and a creaminess that adds some extra appeal to this already delicious gourmand. As stated, the lack of that horrendous burnt caramel note makes this infinitely better than the typical gourmands of this category. The one downside I see to this? The initial smell goes away all too soon. It doesn’t hold and the top notes with the fluffy white cake is replaced with this slightly less gourmand note when the fragrance hits its mid stage. I get a slight powdery floral in the middle stage and a clean but very synthetic note mingling with the cake scent the longer this wears on me. But the initial fragrance is still gorgeous and absolutely delicious.

Extra: “Let Them Eat Cake” is reportedly a famous quote from the ill-fated Mary Antoinette. The quote, actually, may never have been uttered by Antoinette at all and is actually a widely misquoted phrase. Still, it makes for some fine perfumery.

Design: Tokyo Milk bottles have this wonderful aesthetic about them that makes them cute, classic and functional at the same time. I love the designs, I love the feel of them, and I love the look of them lined up in a row. It’s distinctly Tokyo Milk but so very simple. In short, I just love the bottles!

Fragrance Family: Gourmand

Notes: Coconut, vanilla, musk.

Let Them Eat Cake will make a great fragrance for anyone into Gourmand scents. If you thought Flowerbomb by Viktor and Rolf is good, you definitely have to smell some of this stuff. A lot of people report success with Let Them Eat Cake so you might not experience the weird progression into synthetic clean that I did. I didn’t even mind the progression that much, the fragrance just sort of veered in a surprising and strange direction for me. There’s no telling how you’ll react to it and it is a very well done gourmand.

Reviewed in This Post: Let Them Eat Cake, 2011, Eau de Toilette.