Chanel Allure Homme Sport

Posted on by

It’s been a very long time since I’ve had to worry about where my next fragrance review is going to come from. But my bank of reviewed fragrances has run dry and a collection of new niche and vintage samples is on its way. In the mean time, I dove back into the mainstream and fashion house markets. That is to say, I took out my notebook and went sniffing at the mall. My relocation landed me in a less urban area with available fragrance stores nearby. Which limited my choice to Bath and Body Works’ latest releases, BPAL, Victoria’s Secret’s offerings and what I could get my hands on at Dillards.

Chanel Allure Homme Sport

Chanel Allure Homme Sport

In Bottle: Pleasant and sweet. Homme Sport smells of citrus, deep vanilla, woods and lukewarmth.

Applied: Allure Home Sport starts off with a spray of citrus and aquatics. It smells crisp, clean and refreshing. The fragrance ages rather quickly, approaching its middle with a showing of pepper and neroli blended with a more floral note that helps temper the cedar a little bit. The vanilla is rather apparent to me, lurking in the background like it’s waiting for me to do something about it. At the end it was a vanilla amber with a spicy woods mix. The amber tries its best to warm this up, but it never really gets there. At most, it’s lukewarm. It is kind of cool in some parts, kind of warm in others. It’s like dipping your foot into a swimming pool lukewarm–if that makes any sense at all. Overall, a sporty scent you would imagine would smell of sharp citrus and aqua to give you that, “I’M CLEAN! I’M FRESH!” yelling kind of feel. Homme Sport starts off like that to me, but takes it on a more relaxed, “Don’t worry, you’re clean, but let’s not yell about it”, route.

Extra: Allure Homme Sport was released in 2004 and is obviously the flanker to Chanel’s Allure Homme.

Design: Contained  in a metallic Allure Homme-like bottle. It looks luxurious and masculine at the same time. Good design by Chanel? Pretty much a give in most cases. Actually, Chanel’s had its fair share of stinkers too, but Allure Homme Sport’s bottle design is not one of them. It’s not especially memorable or beautiful, it’s just basic good Chanel design.

Fragrance Family: Oriental Woodsy

Notes: Aldehydes, orange, mandarin, marine, pepper, neroli, cedar, tonka bean, vanilla, amber, vetiver, white musk.

The oriental comes in with the ever present vanilla note that I kept noticing throughout, otherwise, this would have just been woodsy to me. If you’re looking for a pretty laid back, mostly predictable fragrance with a designer name on it, then Allure Homme Sport is probably a good idea.

Reviewed in This Post: Homme Sport, 2011, Eau de Toilette.

Paris Hilton Passport Tokyo

Posted on by

As I’m looking at the couple of drops I have of this thing, I’m currently contemplating the amazing fact I just read on Perfume Posse. Paris Hilton–she of the Reality TV, zany antics, and Hilton Empire stardom–has sold $1.5 Billiondollars of perfume. That makes me just a little bit sad.

Passport Tokyo

Passport Tokyo

In Bottle: Light and citrus with a  bit of cedar and a little touch of sweet flowers. Whoo hoo.

Applied: Forgive my lack of enthusiasm for this one. I’m still reeling (two days after the fact) over the sum of money Hilton’s made on stuff like this. It’s not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but in the same vein, it’s not good either. In fact, it’s only not bad because it strikes a dull chord in my nose and tells me it’s all right, but if I want to be wooed and I’m not already swooning then I ought to get out of its way. Passport Tokyo’s mild and sheer citrus layer is joined by a sweet apple-like scent that blends into a really limp sweet floral woodsy fragrance that smells like it’s been diluted a couple of times. On the one hand, I’m glad the cedar isn’t assaulting my nostrils. On the other hand, I’m really disappointed by how toothless this is. Don’t let the repetition of the word ‘sweet’ fool you into thinking this is going to give you amazing amounts of sweetness. The whole affair is really light and mild.

Extra: Passport Tokyo was released in 2010 as a part of the Passport series of fragrances. The other two in this line were Paris and South Beach.

Design: Kind of garish and seems to be marketed at a much younger crowd. The bottle is clearly not aiming for luxury, but rather for fun. However, I just don’t think an EDT should ever look like that as it’s much more of a body spray packaging choice than something for an actual perfume.

Fragrance Family: Citrus Floral

Notes: Lemon, apple, frangipani, orange flower, jasmine, iris, sandalwood, cedar,musk.

Passport Tokyo’s a bit forgettable and I wouldn’t even really recommend it to anyone interested in a light citrus scent. It just smells watered down. And, come on! $1.5 Billion! Sorry, still can’t get over that.

Reviewed in This Post: Passport Tokyo, 2010, Eau de Toilette.

Frederic Malle French Lover

Posted on by

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.

Elizabeth Arden Sunflowers

Posted on by

Sunflowers has perhaps develop something of a bad rap. Maybe it’s just me. But every time I saw Sunflowers, it was sitting in a bargain bin of fragrances at the thrift store. I always wondered about it, but was never swayed to try it because it sat in the same bin as the likes of other “has-been” celebrity fragrances. Serves me right for being judgmental.

Sunflowers

Sunflowers

In Bottle: A surprisingly pleasant clean floral scent with a nice underlying woodsy amber scent.

Applied: Floral, I get the jasmine and the rose rather quickly with a slight clean bite from the citrus notes. Then I get the cedar and the other woods. The cedar in this is a bit strong and can get kind of loud if I overdo the fragrance but it’s a pleasant reminder that where you find a fragrance shouldn’t let you color your experience with it. Shame on me. Anyway, Sunflowers has a very nice progression to it, there’s nothing overly childish about it and at the same time it’s not trying to be anything artistic. It’s just nice and unassuming, if somewhat strong for my tastes. The cedar gets a bit too loud for me as the fragrance wears on, but I do enjoy the mix of florals and ambery woodsiness that mark the end progression of this scent.

Extra: Sunflowers was released in 1993. It is an extremely accessible fragrance, so if you wanted to give it a try, it should be available almost anywhere.

Design: A rather plain bottle, but then Sunflowers isn’t really about being loud or garish. I don’t particularly like the feel of the bottle or the appearance. It’s a marked step down from other more high-end fragrances, but it isn’t without it’s charm. The little sunflower icon is cute and the bottle is otherwise functional.

Fragrance Family: Woodsy Floral

Notes: Orange blossom, mandarin, lemon, bergamot, melon, cyclamen, osmanthus, orris, jasmine, rose, rosewood, sandalwood, amber, musk, moss, cedar.

Sunflowers was a pleasant surprise. Very nicely done scent with a strong woodsy floral showing. Get it for the fragrance if you like it, but don’t worry too much about the bottle.

Reviewed in This Post: Sunflowers, 2009, Eau de Toilette.

Yves Rocher Ming Shu

Posted on by

Sadly I’m running low on the classics department for fragrances earlier than the 80s. When I first started doing these reviews, I was skeptical about how good the old classics could really be. And sure enough, I fell in love with the old perfumes. Ming Shu, on the other hand, isn’t even that old of a fragrance, but even it has been toned down.

Ming Shu

Ming Shu

In Bottle: Very floral, the water lilies are making quite a loud entrance.

Applied: Funny that the peach doesn’t factor into this at all because I immediately get water lily. Lots and lots of water lilies. They’re slick and floral and fresh. In fact, they’re a bit too fresh and a bit too loud. It’s like I can hardly focus on anything else because Ming Shu is cramming water lilies into my nose. The cedar note comes in a bit later, but cedar to me as always been a bit heavy-handed and it only serves to add to the loudness of the water lilies here. I’m not a fan of this, unfortunately. There’s only about two notes to my nose and neither of them are getting along with me. They end up too overwhelming to me, and too basic at the same time.

Extra: Ming Shu was released in the late 90s. This version and it’s other iterations are a little tricky to find, but not impossible.

Design: Bottle in a pagoda inspired style. I’m not sure how much I embrace this kind of design as the bottle on the one hand looks like a pagoda, and on the other it looks like a pylon or traffic cone. Perhap’s it’s both. I’m not a bit fan of the design.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Floral

Notes: Peach, water lily, cedar, musk.

Another fragrance casualty of the toning down movement. Ming Shu in the 90s was reportedly a much nicer, much more complex, much more likable a fragrance than it is now.

Reviewed in This Post: Ming Shu, 2011, L’Eau de Toilette.

Ed Hardy Love and Luck for Women

Posted on by

Hearts and Daggers was something of a flop on me, but I also had a little bit of Love and Luck for Women by Ed Hardy. And while I haven’t grown to like the packaging in any capacity, I will admit that Love and Luck for Women was a bit of a surprise.

Love and Luck for Women

Love and Luck for Women

In Bottle: Citrus and fruity, quite nice in a fruit bowl sort of way. If you want fruity and fresh then this is the stuff for you.

Applied: Initial flare of citrus followed by a peppery kick thanks to the pink pepper present in thsi fragrance. The scent has a nice clean edge on opening that does rather well when it starts to move into it’s fruit bowl stage. I smell the currants and the nectarine with a mild creamy plum in the middle. The scent is rather pleasant. Not too strong and while it’s generic, it does the fruity genre of fragrances rather well. Love and Luck is a decently blended fragrance and while it won’t win any awards any time soon, it’s one of the better fruity scents I’ve smelled as of late. The dry down gets a bit woodsy but not too much that you would mistake this for anything else but a fruity perfume. Overall, nicely done and extremely wearable with decent longevity.

Extra: I’ll admit, I had initially been interested in reviewing this fragrance once I saw the proposed design for the new Ed Hardy fragrance, Skulls and Roses. Mostly I was inspired because the proposed design was so bad. You can view it for yourself at Fragrantica. Keep in mind that the image is currently a composite of a 3D model and a 2D rose so if the image looks a bit odd, that’s why. Hopefully someone at Christian Audigier realizes that the design looks kind of funny and tones it down a little.

Design: Love and Luck features the tattoo inspired artwork indicative of most Ed Hardy products. I’m not a fan of the design and I find the plastic cap that covers the glass bottle thing kind of annoying to use.

Fragrance Family: Fruity

Notes: Bergamot, blood orange, pink pepper, blackcurrant, nectarine, plum, jasmine, sandalwood, cedar, musk, patchouli.

Love and Luck for Women has a male counterpart that I haven’t tried yet. I rather like this version and think it’s a competent fruity fragrance. Granted there are a lot of competent fruity fragrances out there. So if you’re shopping for a fruity perfume give Love and Luck a sniff, but don’t worry if you don’t fall in love with it. There are many more fish in the sea.

Reviewed in This Post: Love and Luck for Women, 2010, Eau de Parfum.

Estee Lauder Beautiful

Posted on by

A pleasant surprise arrived for Christmas 2011–a book of perfume samples. Many of the fragrances were new and I was just thrilled. Estée Lauder’s Beautiful was one of the first I pulled out and giddily peeled back the flap to smell.

Beautiful

Beautiful

In Bottle: Extremely floral and a bit powdery. There’s no floral standing out, it’s just a big homogenous bouquet at the moment.

Applied: Initial hit of citrus then the floral bouquet rolls into town and takes over the whole operation. From then on, it’s all flowers all the time. Now, I love a good floral fragrance. But the key is balance and moderation. It seems like those are the two things missing from this iteration of Estée Lauder’s Beautiful. I heard the original Beautiful is a far different animal. So don’t turn yourself off from the classic based on what I say about this contemporary version. The florals in Beautiful really do smell like a confused mish mash that doesn’t quite know what it wants to do with itself. The scent seems to suffer a bit from over composition where there are too many ingredients vying for space and there just isn’t enough space to go around. The result is a fragrance that people can distinguish as “flowery”, but no one can truly say what kind of flower. I’m not the kind of person who just likes smelling like a bunch of flowers. I wanted more depth to it than this, but Beautiful settles into it’s explosion of florals in the midstage then ends it all with a bit of cedar at the end as my nostrils continue to burn from the florals thrown at me earlier.

Extra: The first iteration of Beautiful was released in 1985. It has since gone through a few cosmetic changes and some formula changes. I do not have any access to classic Beautiful, which is a real shame as I’d love to see how it compares to this.

Design: The bottle is reminiscent of Calvin Klein’s designs. I want to say Obsession for Women comes to mind when I look at this, but Beautiful is a little easier on the eyes. It’s metallic cap really helps pull it together a little more.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Bergamot, lemon, cassia, fruit, blackcurrant, galbanum, mimosa, magnolia, carnation, chamomile, tuberose, orange blossom, freesia, lilac, narcissus, jasmine, neroli, clary sage, violet, iris, lily of the valley, ylang ylang, marigold, geranium, sandalwood, myrrh, vanilla, vetiver, cedar.

As I looked up the notes list for this one, I found every single source listed an enormous amount of stuff. I just ended up picking out what I thought I could get out of this. In the end, I’m sorry, Beautiful, but you really just smell like flower stuff.

Reviewed in This Post: Beautiful, 2011, Eau de Parfum.

Montale Aoud Amber Rose

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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.

Coach Poppy

Posted on by

In some ways Coach’s progression from its beautiful, durable, everlasting classic bags to the monogram chic bags reflects the direction of the perfume industry. Both things were once lovingly crafted objects made with fine materials have been reduced to faster, larger, and cheaper. So I found it rather funny to be reviewing Poppy, the fragrance from Coach and named in similarity to Coach’s youthful line of bags that feature vibrant colors and–of course–the Coach monogram.

Poppy

Poppy

In Bottle: Smells like a dime-a-dozen candy floral fragrance. Not bad, not too exciting. It hits me right away with the mandarin note and wastes no time digging into the marshmallow.

Applied: Mandarin up top followed quickly by the clean, crisp tones of cucumber. Freesia and the other florals are present in the first minute of the opening and the fragrance evolves more into its floral candy-coated personality near the mid-stage with that marshmallow vanilla thing they did. Poppy settles into its floral candy self for the majority of the rest of the fragrance as the wood notes make themselves known near the very end and in a very faint way.

Extra: I used to be something of a Coach fan and was ecstatic to receive a Coach Wilson bag from the 90s. These days, Coach’s bags don’t interest me too much. I don’t see the appeal of the Poppy line at all and I don’t see the appeal of the Poppy fragrance either, unfortunately. It’s probably another one of those instances where my tastes clash with the company’s aim. But Poppy is like a generic perfume for which I can name several alternatives. If you do need an actual recommendation, the perfume community likens this to Britney Spears’ Fantasy. I can see the connection between the two, especially when the fragrance hits its mid-stage. If you want a personal alternative recommendation, try smelling Bath and Body Works’ Be Enchanted that has a similar progression from refreshing to sweet.

Design: I do like the bottle and feel that scribbly the monogramed look of the Poppy line works rather well for this fragrance and what it’s trying to be. It’s cute and functional and simple. It’s clearly marketed towards girliness and people who like that sort of thing. So in terms of looks, Poppy’s got it down.

Fragrance Family: Sweet Floral

Notes: Mandarin, cucumber, freesia, jasmine, gardenia, water lily, rose, sugar, marshmallow, sandalwood, vanilla, cedar.

A big disappointment in terms of uniqueness but Poppy, like pretty much everything else similar to it works well if you’re into the sweet and flowery fragrances. You can, however, get more affordable fragrances that have a similar aim for the amount that Poppy costs if your chief concern was how it smells.

Reviewed in This Post: Poppy,  2011, Eau de Parfum.