Faberge Flambeau

Deb from Luvparfum kindly included a couple of decants when I purchased vintage Coty Chypre. One of those decants was Fabergé Flambeau. And as with most things that take me by surprise, my first impression was, “Fabergé made perfume?” The next impression was, “Wow!”

In Bottle: That “Wow” was to denote how very good this was. Green aldehydes and florals were my first impression.

Applied: I could smell the florals in this upon application. Flambeau opens with a green aldehyde, flowing into a beautiful jasmine mid-note that’s joined by a full-bodied and tempered rose. There are florals in here that I can’t pick out, but I don’t mind very much because it all blends together beautifully. Flambeau ages into a gorgeous lush mid-stage that exudes white flowers with slight hints of animalic musk. Nothing too wild on the animal side. It’s only a touch to give the fragrance even more complexity. As it dries down, I get less of the rose and more vetiver with a little hint of amber and bit of woodsiness that’s been soften with time.

Extra: Fabergé’s Flambeau was a little known fragrance initially released in 1955. It has since been discontinued and is quite a rarity. It’s really a shame since it’s such a beautiful scent from a long gone era of perfume. Fabergé had other vintage classics as well, including Woodhue, Tigress, Aphrodisia.

Design: I haven’t held or seen an actual bottle of Flambeau, but going by the photos, the parfum vial is a beautiful elegant glass piece encased in a golden shell with lovely markings on it. Very reminiscent of luxury from the 50s.

Fragrance Family: Classic Floral

Notes: Aldehydes, jasmine, rose, lily of the valley, iris, ambergris, vetiver, sandalwood, musk.

I’m only guessing with those notes. Anyway, if you want to score yourself a bottle of Flambeau, Deb from LuvParfum might have one in stock along with some of Fabergé’s other classics. This includes a gorgeous Woodhue perfume whistle. If not, you might get lucky on eBay.

Reviewed in This Post: Flambeau, ~1960, ???.


Knize Ten

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.


Tauer L’Air du Desert Marocain

L’Air du Desert Marocain has been described as a dry, beautiful oriental that’s reminiscent of a desert breeze. Come on, with a description like that, I had to give her a try.

L'Air du Desert Marocain

L'Air du Desert Marocain

In Bottle: Dry incense with a bit of earthiness and a beautiful hint of woodsiness that comes through this beautifully blended spicy accord.

Applied: Spiciness is up right away with a bit of an incense kick. This isn’t off-putting, too strong and a little bit weird incense. L’Air du Desert Marocain employs a beautiful, clear incense fragrance that’s smoky and classic. It smells like incense should. Delicate but strong at the same time. There’s a bit of floral sweetness that’s balanced out by a smoky bitterness. Sounds like a strange combination but the two, when combined, makes something very pretty. The florals in this help perfume the backdrop to the incense, as well as the woodsy notes and the spices. Everything is so well blended that it’s hard for me to pick out a specific player and I like it that way. The only thing I know is that the incense fragrance in this is awesome.

Extra: Tauer is a niche luxury fragrance house headed by Andy Tauer who not only has his name on these beautiful fragrances, he also composes them. It’s always awesome to see a perfumer heading their own fragrance line.

Design: Bottled in a pentagon-shaped blue glass bottle, L’Air du Desert Marocain looks very luxurious and feels equally luxurious. It has a bit of a lapis lazuli look to it as well. Tauer, however, uses relatively the same bottle design principles for all of their fragrances. Regardless, the bottles are functional and look great.

Fragrance Family: Oriental

Notes: Coriander, petitgrain, lemon, bergamot, jasmine, cistus, bourbon, geranium, cedarwood, vetiver, vanilla, patchouli, ambergris.

Well, L’Air du Desert Marocain lived up to the hype. I really enjoyed this one. As for it making me picture a desert wind–well, I’m not sure about that. It’s definitely dry, it definitely smells good, and it’s definitely got this beautiful classical vibe to it. When you have a perfume that smells so awesome already, I’m not that worried about it living up to its name.

Reviewed in This Post: L’Air du Desert Marocain, 2010, Eau de Toilette.


Soivohle Tobacco and Tulle

Been a while since I reached for the adorable box of samples from Soivohle. I don’t know why it took me this long to come back to them. I love them all but I suppose the other stuff waffling around in the drawer of samplers needed to be dealt with first. I feel like Soivohle is a bit of a palette cleanser after a bunch of chemical fruits. In my notes, it’s wedged between two celebrity fragrances, surrounded by a bunch of fruity ones so it would seem my theory holds some weight.

In Bottle: Lush, complex tobacco and florals with a warm sense of animalic musk and ambergris.

Applied: The tobacco blooms beautifully upon application and it blends in very well with the creamy tuberose note. This is dense and deep and dark. There’s nothing light and flowery and weak about it. It makes a big statement and I love how it eventually evolves into this subtle warm animalic scent without me even noticing. I really enjoyed the opening moments with the tobacco and tuberose. The tuberose lends a bit of help as the fragrance delves into its murkier, muskier undertones with the ambergris lending to that animal quality. There’s so much complexity in the fragrance as it ages on the skin. This smells classic and daring at the same time. Like how perfume used to be done and how it should still be done. The animalic element is just a bit too much for me so while I appreciate it’s complexity, I really can’t see myself ever being daring enough to wear it.

Extra: It should be noted that on Soivohle, the musk mentioned in the notes list below is actually a cruelty-free variant. In that it’s a “hyrax tincture”. Hyrax tincture, for all us grownups, is a petrified stone-like compound composed of urine and feces excreted by a guinea pig-like creature called the hyrax. It’s generally been “aged” for hundreds of years and is perfectly fascinating stuff.

Design: Bottled rather simply but you don’t buy Soivohle or other independent perfumer fragrances so you can admire the pomp and circumstance surrounding the design of the bottle. All you need to know is that it looks great, feels great, and works the way it should.

Fragrance Family: Smoky Floral

Notes: Tobacco, tuberose, musk, ambergris.

I know how daunting the price point for this might look but once again, keep in mind that all natural ingredients are expensive and the complex experience you gain from fragrances like these make up for the price point. You are also paying for higher quality ingredients than what you’d get in most mainstream perfumes and you would likely need to use very little of this stuff to get the same amount of power from your run of the mill EdP or EdT.

Reviewed in This Post: Tobacco and Tulle, 2009, Absolute.


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.


Aftelier Honey Blossom

Aftelier is one of the oldest and one of the most respected natural perfumers. Their fragrances run the gamut of light and pretty to dark and sensual. But no matter what side of perfumery you swing on, you cannot deny that undeniable quality and complex beauty that a natural perfume possesses.

In Bottle: Warmed up honey and a dollop of sweet florals. This makes me think of sweltering summer days spent under an umbrella and gardens full of sweet flowers.

Applied: Beautiful honeyed fragrance that’s supposed to come from the honeysuckle. I’m always very impressed with full-natural fragrances and how incredibly genuine and gorgeous they are. There’s a layer of complexity in this fragrance that you won’t find in a synthetic and this is why I think naturals are so well-respected. I smell honeyed florals, but I can feel the warmth. I can detect the little hints of other ingredients, blending and mixing into the sweetness to make this utterly appealing mix that simply defies description and can be left at, “Awesome!” Wearing Honey Blossom is like taking on a personal scent. It doesn’t sit on my skin and give away that I’m wearing a perfume. It blends in and makes me feel like I could smell like this naturally. There’s something so personal and lovable about this that I can’t do much else but gush about how awesome I smell. The long and short of it? Sweet, warm, honey, floral, and complex. Definitely worth a try.

Extra: Aftelier, the company, was established in 1997 by Mandy Aftel. Aftel has written books about natural perfumery. I have a copy of her Essence and Alchemy but haven’t gotten around to reading it yet.

Design: I have a sample of this as the full on bottle is a bit too steep for my wallet. From what I can see, it’s a squat glass container with a stopper. The sample bottle I’ve got is a cute little glass cylinder with a plastic cap. I see these in supply stores and they never stop being cute.

Fragrance Family: Floral Oriental

Notes: Mimosa, linden blossom, orange blossom, honeysuckle, ambergris, benzoin.

At $150 USD for a 1/4 oz of perfume, your eyes may be bugging out right now. But also put this into perspective considering the quality of the ingredients and how long a 1/4 oz bit of concentrated parfum will last you compared to a 3.4 oz of eau de parfum. And of course, the joy of natural fragrances. After all, natural ingredients are not cheap or easy to come by.

Reviewed in This Post: Honey Blossom, ~2010, Parfum.


Old Spice

Today we’re smelling Old Spice. I’ve smelled new Old Spice (hah) plenty and I’m sure you’ve smelled Old Spice plenty too, so let’s take a minute to appreciate what Old Spice smells like. Just because.

Old Spice

In Bottle: Spicy sweet floral with a citrus palette cleanser, bold for a men’s fragrance I gotta say. This is sharp, clean, sweet and strangely complex. A surprise to me immediately as it adds to its opening concoction a slightly boozy note intermixed with a dash of sugar sprinkled in.

Applied: After the citrus is done its job, the spice lingers around as is to be expected as the fragrance slowly introduces a fantastic miasma of cinnamon and clove with a few powdered flowers tossed in there for good measure. This scent is very dry, like a basket of cinnamon sticks at a spice market sitting near a bunch of burning incense on a hot summer day. It’s dry and warm and comforting with an interesting note of smoothness that comes up to mix with the florals and the spices that I want to say is sweet vanilla. Old Spice is a remarkably complex fragrance that goes through several stages on me but it’s mid-stage–that mix of sweetness, smooth vanilla, dry spices, and incensed florals is truly something else. Don’t turn your nose up at this or you’ll miss out on a very, very respectable scent. When Old Spice dries down, it takes a while to get there, but when it does it introduces a woodsy quality to the spicy floral sweet vanilla incense and warms things up even more with an amber and toasty tonka bean scent. Something this complex is mind-boggling how it could work together but it does! And it’s delightful.

Extra: Unlike a lot of people, I don’t have any early memories of Old Spice. I don’t know anyone aside from my fiance who may have once used Old Spice deodorant. And I kind of wished I did because this stuff is great.

Design: Old Spice’s bottle can be seen above. I don’t actually own a bottle of this stuff though with the affordable price tag, I really have no reason not to. The shape is reminiscent of a cola bottle but it works for this stuff and actually looks kind of nice. I can imagine that sitting on someone’s vanity. Wait, do men have vanities? I’ll just call them sink counter. Bottom line, the bottle works, it looks fine, it’s a good design for what it is and good for what you pay for.

Fragrance Family: Oriental

Notes: Orange, lemon, spices, clary sage, aldehydes, cinnamon, carnation, geranium, jasmine, heliotrope, pimento berry, vanilla, musk, cedar, frankincense, benzoin, tonka bean, ambergris.

Don’t knock it ’til you try it. Old Spice is a confident little classic number that’s been around since 1937. Yeah, the Old Spice really is old and I have to say, it’s aged rather well.

Reviewed in This Post: Old Spice, 2010, Eau de Cologne.


Creed Zest Mandarine Pamplemousse

Zest Mandarine Pamplemousse is the grapefruit scent that should have been. It ranks up there with my other favorite grapefruit fragrance; Guerlain’s Aqua Allegoria Pamplelune as a well done, citrus-heavy scent.  Zest Mandarine Pamplemousse

In Bottle: Light, slightly sweet and lovely bit of tart and sharp grapefruit cutting through the mandarin. There’s a very flowery and clean aura about this fragrance that’s also quite nice.

Applied: Fresh and clean, like a really good citrus soap. As stated, there’s a hint of sweetness lent by the mandarin note that helps out the grapefruit to take it away from too sharp and too tart. The fragrances really do complement one another and I love how well blended and sheer this is. Zest Mandarine Pamplemousse is not a heavy hitting fragrance. It’s light, airy, and not at all heavy-handed. I’ve become quite a fan of the understated scent and there’s a charm to this one that helps me get over how short-lived it is. Zest Mandarine Pamplemousse goes into its mid-stage with a pleasant white floral and woodsy pairing that helps carry the scent out of the citrus opening and into the end stage where most of the fragrance complexity falls off into a very light woodsy scent.

Extra: Zest Mandarine Pamplemousse is a very weak, very short-lived fragrance. A lot of citrus heavy perfumes tend to be like this so if you are looking at a citrus scent that’ll cling to you forever, Zest Mandarine Pamplemousse is probably not up your alley. If you want a light, very sheer, very clean fragrance, this one will do the job.

Design: Designed much like every other Creed fragrance bottle. I still like the heft of the bottle but wish the design was something a little more luxe looking. Especially given the cost of admission that Creed wants to charge for these things. Zest Mandarine Pamplemousse’s bottle is a clear glass with a greyish-white cap.

Fragrance Family: Fresh

Notes: Bergamot, mandarin, grapefruit, white florals, ambergris.

Between Zest Mandarine Pamplemousse and Guerlain’s Pamplelune, I’m going to have to concede Zest Mandarine Pamplemousse as the winner. It’s cleaner, more to my taste, and goes down much smoother too.

P.S. Happy New Year!

Reviewed in This Post: Zest Mandarine Pamplemousse, 2009, Eau de Toilette.


Creed Green Irish Tweed

Quite possibly Creed’s bestselling fragrance, Green Irish Tweed is a little diddy released in 1985. It has steadily remained popular since its introduction and has spawned a number of copycats. Including the often compared, Cool Water  by Davidoff. Green Irish Tweed

In Bottle: Green and clean citrus note up top. It’s just a touch sweet with a lingering background woodsiness to it that makes this smell very masculine from the get go.

Applied: Nicely charming opening with a strong green lemon verbena touched with a sweet clean note to sooth the opening a bit. As Green Irish Tweed starts to dry down, the mid-stage introduces a very pleasant wet and clean quality to it. There’s a violet leaf, iris and slightly bitter ivy scent floating around in here too with a soft woodsiness lingering throughout. The mid-stage is my favorite part. It’s dry down is a bit formulaic with the sandalwood amping up partnered with a really glorious amber note which helps take the fragrance away with it. Green Irish Tweed a sophisticated piece of men’s fragrance though it’s sometimes hard to give Green Irish Tweed its credit because it has spawned a lot of similar fragrances. So many, in fact, that people may have gotten bored of it.

Extra: This fragrance has been described a great deal of ways, from people saying it smells like boring, over expensive trash or the epitome of men’s fragrances. For me, personally, I like Green Irish Tweed. I can’t wear it because it’s such a recognizable fragrance that’s been so well ingrained as a men’s fragrance. That’s not to say a woman can’t rock with Green Irish Tweed on her. I just prefer to leave this one for the men.

Design: Green Irish Tweed is most recognizable bottled in an all black glass bottle that’s shaped like all the other iconic Creed fragrances for men. I do not own a bottle of Green Irish Tweed but I have held one and it, like other Creed bottles, has a nice weighty feel to it with a good shape that’s easy to hold and spray.

Fragrance Family: Fresh

Notes: French verbena, Florentine iris, violet leaves, Mysore sandalwood, ambergris.

Green Irish Tweed is available in a number of different products if the fragrance doesn’t float your boat. You can get this stuff in a deodorant stick, a candle, or various shaving related products. I should probably take some time to warn you of fake Green Irish Tweeds as there are hundreds of counterfeits of this fragrance out there. It gets a lot of press because Green Irish Tweed (sometimes shortened to GIT) sells for a lot and whoever pays for a fake of this stuff usually ends up being out quite a great deal of money.  There is a fantastic thread on Basenotes that goes over a few fake Creed bottles, boxes, common counterfeiter tricks and shows you some tips you can use to tell the difference. As for advice I can give you to readily use:

1. If it’s too cheap to be true then it probably is.
2. Always scrutinize the seller for more details, more pictures, and don’t be afraid to ask questions.
3. Always try to buy from a seller who will offer full refunds on products sold.
4. Check their feedback. All of their feedback.
5. Pay attention to what the bottle and packaging looks like. Anything out of the ordinary should sound off alarm bells.
6. If the scent is weak, different, or doesn’t last then it could be fake.
7. Don’t be afraid to ask other people who might be able to identify if your fragrance is real or fake. Include pictures to make it easier for us to help you.

Reviewed in This Post: Green Irish Tweed, 2009, Sampler Vial.


Diptyque Tam Dao

Indian Sandalwood used to be a very popular addition to fragrances, and other applications everywhere. So popular, in fact, that the sandalwood tree has become an endangered species. Tam Dao is Diptyques homage to the precious sandalwood tree. Tam Dao

In Bottle: Dry spicy sandalwood with a hint of creaminess and a sharp blare of green floating on top.

Applied: Cedar and greenness with a mild hint of sandalwood coming through. The greenness adds a rather jarring experience but it’s a quick fader and it helps with the mid-stage where the spiciness and dry sandalwood shines a bit more. This is a pure, nicely done sandalwood scent. It has a nice and deep aroma to it, a very familiar scent thanks to how much sandalwood is featured in fragrances but I have to admit my disappointment that the scent doesn’t do much else but sit at sandalwood. I can appreciate it for its simplicity though as its focus is to remain simple and pure and present the wearer with a sense of calmness in a dry, spicy, amber-suspended sandalwood fragrance.

Extra: Often you’d think people illegally hunting animals when you hear the word, ‘poaching’. But poaching happens to trees too like the sandalwood.

Design: Bottled in the typical square-ish Diptyque style. That is a square glass bottle with a metal cap. The cap slides off rather nicely, the sprayer works just fine. I’m a big fan of the uniform and simple-looking Diptyque labels which often remind me of a mixture of art deco and woodcuts.

Fragrance Family: Woodsy

Notes: Goa sandalwood, rosewood, cypress, ambergris.

Tam Dao’s longevity was a bit weak for my liking, fading within five hours. It’s  a decent time period but I did expect a bit more from a woods-based fragrance.

Reviewed in This Post: Tam Dao, 2007, Eau de Toilette.