Biehl Parfumkunstwerke gs02

I will admit that I was initially drawn to gs02 and the other scents in the latest release from biehl parfumkunstwerke because I was getting tired of picking scents based on their names. The letter and number combo lent some anonymity to the fragrance and made it seem like whatever I’d get, I wouldn’t be influenced by the name chosen by the house. What could get more anonymous than a scent called gs02? So having had no prior knowledge of the scent, no idea what notes were in it and only a write-up by Jeffrey Dame of Hypoluxe and a sample card to go with, I dove in.

gs02

gs02

In Bottle: Sharp and cool, refreshing, especially after walking around outside. Clean, too with a light floral impression on top of a bed of herbs.

Applied: Cool application, somewhat sharp. I get a slight hint of woods, like a slightly smoky wood. gs02 evolves into a smooth light floral with a touch of spice and woods. The longer this wears, the more I get the impression of something darker, like a leather trying to peek around the corner of some trees. The drydown has a smoother woodsy interpretation with less spice, no florals and that elusive leather is no where to be seen. Everything is generally softer on the dry down though very much present. It’s clean overall, fresh on the open, woodsy and supple in the midstage and soft on the dry down.

Extra: This one is a full on niche from biehl parfumkunstwerke and composed by Geza Schoen, the nose behind Clive Christian’s 1872 and other fabulous scents like Eccentric 02 from Eccentric Molecules.

Design: Minimalist bottle design, which for a series of fragrances like this lends towards the luxury and concept rather than takes away from it. These bottles fall into the aesthetic category of, “line them up in a row and stare at them all day”.

Fragrance Family: Woodsy

Notes: Orange, wormwood, angelica, thyme, spices, leather, castoreum, amber, tonka bean, vanilla.

There’s something to be said for the clean, crisp, sharp impression of gs02, though some consider it polarizing. I’ve seen reactions where people said it smelled like body wash. And having used my husband’s body shower now and then, I can attest that the association is definitely there. But gs02 has an understated, underlying complexity that you just can’t get out of a bottle of Nivea.

Reviewed in This Post: gs02, 2013, Eau de Parfum.


Frederic Malle French Lover

French Lover is classified as a men’s fragrance, but why should this earthy and dark scent be exclusive to one gender? I’m happy to be back between the gears of Frederic Malle’s scent machine.

French Lover

French Lover

In Bottle: Fascinating in a dark and earthy way. This is dirt, dust and ruggedness in a perfume.

Applied: Dark and earthy is my first impression. French Lover opens with a strong galbanum presence coupled with angelica and a bit of patchouli and moss. Despite the moss–which I often associate with dewy–French Lover’s moss and other ingredients present a very dry interpretation. This is desert and power. It’s unrelenting with it’s show of strong materials and continues to be powerful way into the endstage. As the scent wears on, it gets stronger with a middle note of smoked greenery. Add in a dollop of cedar, a dash of vetiver and tone down the angelica and you’ve got the final experience as French Lover rolls out with a strong showing of dry woods.

Extra: French Lover was launched in 2007 and composed by Pierre Bourdon.

Design: Designed in much the same way as most other Frederic Malle fragrances. Bottled in a simple, but luxurious to hold cylindrical bottle with a simple black label running along the glass to tell you what you’re getting. All this topped with a black cap. I like the design well enough and the bottle has a very nice weightiness to it.

Fragrance Family: Earthy Woodsy

Notes: Galbanum, angelica, spices, incense, cedar, vetiver, oakmoss, white musk.

Probably the most interesting thing I’ve smelled in a while. It’s not my kind of thing, but it’s a very well-composed fragrance with a lot of personality.

Reviewed in This Post: French Lover, 2008, Eau de Parfum.


Creed Angelique Encens

I’m rather sad that so many fragrances that are both beautiful and complex are discontinued. This includes Creed’s classic, Angelique Encens.

Angelique Encens

In Bottle: Creamy tuberose as a minor note–a bit of a surprise for me since tuberose tends to be big with my nose. There’s a lovely heady layer of incense hovering all over this fragrance.

Applied: Tuberose and soft florals with a touch of vanilla and amber. The oriental portion of this fragrance is very noticeable at first but the scent ages into its mid-stage with a lovely incense note coming up and flooding the fragrance. The incense in this is so pure and beautiful that if you enjoy incense, you should definitely look this one up. It’s heady and full and blends beautifully with the amber and vanilla opening. There’s a bit of tuberose still lingering around with a perfumy jasmine note trying to make an appearance but only manages a minor cameo. Though you don’t get much of the opening as soon as Angelique Encens gets started, you do feel that they’re still there. The dry down is more incense with a complete fade of any florals that may have managed to peek through. Angelique Encens is just a pretty classic.

Extra: All right, I got my sample of Angelique Encens dated to approximately 1970s but I can’t be sure as to how old it is. My contact also has no idea how old it is so we agreed on a very vague date for this stuff. The problem with Angelique Encens is that it’s no longer available. Creed discontinued her at some point and are now releasing her on a limited basis. Incredibly frustrating, but I suppose that’s how the exclusivity game works.

Design: Angellique Encens is bottled in Creed’s signature flacon. I’ve held exactly one of these in my life and the feel was very nice. It was heavy and looked beautiful. The price gets me a little but Creed makes up for the price in packaging and, in the case of Angelique Encens, the juice is fabulous as well.

Fragrance Family: Incense Oriental

Notes: Angelica, tuberose, rose, jasmine, amber, vanilla, incense.

I wish they’d bring this one back from discontinuation. I think she’s deeper, more complex and far better than most of the Creeds out now.

Reviewed in This Post: Angelique Encens, ~1970, Eau de Parfum.


L’Or de Torrente

Being a fragrance addict, I’m supposed to go around being drawn by smells and the fascination of following my nose to the next smell and just enjoying this fantastic olfactory world we live in. But sometimes I’m also bad and gravitate toward a fragrance because of its packaging. Thanks, L’Or de Torrente.

L'Ore de Torrente

In Bottle: Whoa, coffee! Well, this is coffee mixed with sweet lychee and a bit of tart currant but I’m surprised to find the note working so well with those other two elements.

Applied: Sweetness up top with the lychee dominating the scene and dragging a tart blackcurrant note behind it. The lychee in fragrances never seem to completely go away to me until late into the mid-stage. and the lychee in this sticks around but isn’t obnoxious about it as L’Or de Torrente heads into this beautiful sweet amber and roses fragrance with a cup of coffee sitting nearby. The lychee takes its time to fade out during this stage for me and I’m happy for it as that rose, amber, coffee smell is awesome without any fruitiness necessary. The coffee note is dense and rich, and even though the notes look like they might clash, it actually words really well here and I’m particularly fond of the use of roses in this scent. The fragrance reminds me a bit of chocolate roses, a confection that doesn’t always land on my gourmand palette either, but always has this irresistible elegance to it. Now, this stuff is sweet but the rose and the amber help bring it away from gourmand and slot it more firmly in oriental. The final dry down is a vanillic amber scent with a fading coffee trail. I wouldn’t call this delicious, but it does smell fantastic!

Extra: L’Or de Torrente was composed by Jean Jacques in 2001.

Design: So this bottle is a bit flashier than I’d normally like but there’s something so appealing about its color and the leafy accents and the whole look of the thing. It’s organic in a way, mixed with metal and polished to luxury. I can’t quite describe why I find the bottle so awesome to look at it but there you have it. The packaging is certainly alluring to me.

Fragrance Family: Floral Oriental

Notes: Mandarin orange, lychee, kiwi, black currant, magnolia, iris, cedar, coffee, rose, angelica, vanilla, white amber, precious wood.

I can’t believe how well this fragrance works. There’s just enough mixing to make it all mesh together without clashing and the coffee, strangely enough, really holds up the roses and vice versa. I simply love this.

Reviewed in This Post: L’Or de Torrente, 2005, Eau de Parfum.


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.


Chanel Coco

Chanel Coco is resting near the top of my favorite Chanel perfumes list. This fragrance couldn’t be any further from its younger incarnation, the pink and bubbly Coco Mademoiselle.

Chanel Coco

In Bottle: Add in spice for warm, a wispy thread of flowers, and a delicately peeled citrus note. Coco smells warm right off the bat with a bit of citrus to clean it up.

Applied: Coco wastes no time just digging into this. It comes off spicy right away, throwing cinnamon and clove at you to warm itself up as the citrus and wispy flowers quickly give way to the midstage where we’re greeted with a delightfully clean, spicy, warm jasmine and rose complex. A lot of perfumes rely on jasmine and rose together but that never seems to make the combination any less beautiful–particularly when it’s used in such a fine tuned balanced such as in Coco. There is the smallest drop of civet in this during the later half of the midstage. The civet in Coco is so well done and well balanced. I don’t normally like it in perfumes but this civet blends really well with the overarching spicy cleanness that the note adds a depth and sensual feel to the fragrance without making it smell too harsh and alienating. The dry down is an equally spicy amber with a hint of sandalwood and a smooth layer of tonka.

Extra: Chanel Coco was released in 1984 and was composed by Chanel’s in house perfumer, Jacques Polge. It is a little sad to see that when you do a search for “Chanel Coco”, most of the results come back for Coco Mademoiselle.

Design: Like most of Chanel’s other widely popular fragrances, Coco comes in various packaging. If you go for the full service parfum concentration deal you get a glass rectangular bottle so often associated with No. 5. Coco’s bottle has a black seal band running around the neck and a black label.

Fragrance Family: Spicy Oriental

Notes: Angelica, mimosa, frangipani, mandarin, cascarilla, orange flower, Bulgarian rose, jasmine, labdanum, ambrette seed, opopanax, benzoin, tonka, vanilla.

Like with most Chanel fragrances, Coco lasts a very long, very impressive time. She’s a sophisticated lady and entirely wearable considering the era it came out in.

Reviewed in This Post: Coco, 2009, Eau deĀ  Parfum.


Amouage Lyric for Women

Amouage is a luxury niche fragrance house base based in Muscat. Most famous for their very expensive and very decadent Attars, Amouage is well known as one of the most artistic and luxurious fragrance houses in the world. Lyric for Women, released in 2008 is one of their newer fragrances. Lyric for Women

In Bottle: Big kick of spicy citrus upon first application. It immediately reminded me of a BPAL oil. I cannot put my finger quite on which one but I’m going to tentatively say it reminds me of a more complex Lear. At least, that’s what my mind flew to first.

Applied: Lyric for Women only vaguely resembles BPAL’s Lear for the first ten seconds. It starts to smooth out and become more floral, softer, definitely more feminine as the initial spice gives way to a lovely bouquet of jasmine, rose and angelica flowers. The rose is the star in the mid-stage, vibrant but not overbearing. It’s kept tame by a fantastic and very well-done incense note. It’s a beautifully blended fragrance with a clear and fascinating progression as Lyric for Women dries down into a complex medley of clean incense woods and smooth spicy vanilla.

Extra: Amouage is a world famous, luxury niche fragrance house with roots in the Sultanate of Oman. It’s most famous fragrances are the Attars, rich and decadent scents that can run you upwards of $400 for 12ml. Lyric for Women is not one of these Attars but it is beautiful just the same.

Design: I love the bottle. Deep red glass, has a fantastic feel to it. Has a good amount of weight, is easy to hold, and very pleasant to look at with the Amouage seal on the bottle’s glass and the fragrance’s name running along the circumference of the neck.

Fragrance Family: Floral Oriental

Notes: Bergamot, spicy cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, rose, angelica, jasmine, ylang-ylang, geranium, orris, oakmoss, musk, wood, patchouli, vetiver, sandalwood, vanilla, tonka bean, frankincense.

Now, while I love how Lyric for Women smells, I’m not so sure about the cost of the fragrance itself. Running at $300 for a 100ml bottle, if I were to drop some serious cash on an Amouage fragrance, it would be going into an Attar instead.

Reviewed in This Post: Lyric for Women, 2008, Eau de Parfum.