Hugo Boss Hugo

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Hugo is your run of the mill fresh aquatic that doesn’t bring much to the table and doesn’t leave with much either. The tide of aquatics has petered out in the latest years as the incoming flood of fruity florals starts dominating the scenes. Some of these are works of olfactory art in their own respect while others are forgettable. And some even regrettable. Unfortunately for Hugo, it was one of the less notable aquatics of its time. Hugo

In Bottle: Green and blue aquatic. Fresh, sharp, and a little bit spicy. The herbal notes up front are paired with pine and citrus.

Applied: The green flare, just a touch sweet before it settles into its spicy woodsiness where the pine is predominant on me. I smell kind of like one of those pine-shaped air fresheners you use for your car. Not unpleasant, I just have a strange association with anything pine scented. Well, perhaps not strange, just persistent. The scent stays with pine as it introduces a few spicy herbal notes into the mix. Hugo takes a turn for the interesting near the complete dry down stage as it leaves its fresh pine-scented herb garden and veers toward a darker, murkier, funnier funky note that’s reminiscent of the blast of aquatics upon application. It’s fleeting though, a one or two second moment that could just be me. Hugo dries down to a benign woodsy, spicy, fresh accord that doesn’t make any presumptions and doesn’t even want to think about standing out.

Extra: Hugo Boss fragrances have largely been a miss for me. The only one I can say I actually like is Deep Red. Even then, I don’t particularly like it that much. I can say nice things about it though. But this fragrance, it’s the generic men’s scent with the all too familiar aquatic citrus opening, the woodsy spicy middle, and the miasma of leftover freshness at the base.

Design: I could give or take with this design. It’s clean and simple and functional. Holding it is easy. Spraying it is easy. Kind of looks like a water bottle which is a bit cheesy but overall, not bad.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Woodsy

Notes: Grapefruit, green apple, pine needles, thyme, spearmint, basil, cedar, rum, jasmine, sage, geranium, clove, lavender, cedarwood, moss, fir balsam, sandalwood, vetiver, suede.

Yeah, I definitely cannot get past the predominant evergreen scent in this. Too much pine, maybe, or maybe I’m just not the kind of person who likes that in a scent.

Reviewed in This Post: Hugo, 2000, Eau de Toilette.

Bleu de Chanel

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Bleu de Chanel is the latest mainstream release of men’s fragrances by the house. If you’ve been following Chanel’s fragrance releases, you might notice they’ve taken a few steps back from their classic style of fragrances and have gotten a bit more mainstream and mass market. Bleu de Chanel is just another indication of that. Bleu de Chanel

In Bottle: Smells like Cool Water by Davidoff. Also smells like Bath and Body Works’ Dancing Waters scent. Heck, while we’re still here let’s throw in a dash of Lacoste Essential. Yeah, I just compared a Chanel to Cool Water, Essential, and Bath and Body Works.

Applied: The truth is, Bleu de Chanel does one thing very, very well. It combines every aquatics based sporty men’s fragrance together to form this  amalgamation of sport men’s fragrances. If you own a bottle of Bleu de Chanel, you could conceivably replace every other bottle of aquatic sporty men’s fragrance you own. It’s just that generic. Bleu de Chanel opens with a sweet, sharp, clean aquatic note that reminds me immediately of aforementioned Dancing Waters, Cool Water and Essential combined together. Let it dry down a bit and it will evolve into a mixture of Dolce and Gabanna Light Blue pour Homme and Acqua di Gio. In truth, it’s got a fresh, spicy, woodsy mid-stage with an aromatic backing. Fairly on par for the course. The last act  is a woodsy base with citrus dashed in there for good measure. Also not particularly fascinating but highly wearable.

Extra: Hard to believe that Bleu de Chanel came from the same house that made No. 5, No. 22, No. 19, Coco, Coromandel, Sycamore. But times change and while a lot of perfumistas are going to be disappointed with Bleu de Chanel, this fragrance is a sign of the times. I hope that Chanel sells Bleu de Chanel very well. I hope it draws in a new following of perfume lovers but keeps the classics around and releases some some fragrances reminiscent of Chanel’s long heritage of sophistication.

Design: Bleu de Chanel is bottled in a gorgeous dark tinted glass rectangular bottle with a metallic cap that’s reminiscent of their Les Exclusifs line of fragrances. My favorite part of this fragrance is honestly the cap. I’m a sucker for magnets, what can I say? The quality of the packaging is excellent, as should be expected with Chanel, and the design is simple but very nice.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Aromatic

Notes: Bergamot, lemon, grapefruit, aqua, peppermint, pink pepper, nutmeg, ginger, jasmine, cedar, vetiver, patchouli, labdanum, frankincense.

I know a lot of perfume lovers are hating on Bleu de Chanel right now. I don’t blame them. I’m just as disappointed with this release as they are. But beneath the disappointment Bleu de Chanel is a pleasant, well-blended, easy to wear fragrance. It really does combine a good proportion of the aquatic sport men’s fragrance genre together to make a coherent and ultimately well-composed scent. I do highly recommend people who are looking for a really good aquatic sport fragrance to give Bleu de Chanel a sniff. It’s a good scent. It just doesn’t smell like a Chanel should.

Reviewed in This Post: Bleu de Chanel, 2010, Eau de Toilette.

BPAL Aizen-Myoo

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Aizen-Myoo is like a flowery grapefruit scent that’s nice and pleasant if you need a spring or summer scent. It has a clean, green feel to it that makes it highly appropriate for inoffensive wear at the office or at school. It’s just a lovely, light, citrus fragrance that does not overdo it on the citrus side. Aizen Myoo

In Bottle: Grapefruit, something slightly sweet and a bouquet of beautiful white flowers. I love the way Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab uses white florals. It’s fantastic in many cases and really gives the fragrance that clean, airy feel without being too heavy.

Applied: Very strong initial grapefruit scent. This is actually yuzu I should be smelling in which a real yuzu has a slightly less astringent scent to it. It smells greener, not as sharp, in other words. But for simplicity’s sake, Aizen-Myoo opens with powerful grapefruits. The black tea comes up after the grapefruit calms down a bit, adding in that nice, dense, tea scent to the fragrance. The cherry blossoms round off the fragrance, making things pleasant and light. The citrus notes in this are front and center. Most of what I get is grapefruit but there’s a sweetness in there lent from the kaki as well. The cherry blossom and kaki do good work preventing the citrus from becoming too much.

Extra: Mikan is referring to the satsuma fruit, a citrus that bears an outer resemblance to a mandarin or orange. It is seedless and edible. Kaki is referring to a type of persimmon.

Design: Aizen-Myoo is bottled in the same way as other general catalog scents from the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab.

Fragrance Family: Citrus

Notes: Yuzu, kaki, mikan, cherry blossom, black tea.

Aizen-Myoo is just a pleasant exercise in simple but nice. The black tea note in this fragrance is one of the more prominent of BPAL’s offerings.

Reviewed in This Post: Aizen-Myoo, 2009, 5ml Bottle.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Baobhan Sith

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Baobhan Sith is one of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab‘s more veteran general catalog scents. Discontinued in 2005, it came roaring back the next year with its tart, grassy citrus and tea scent. This is a well-loved BPAL with excellent longevity and a great fresh, clean personality. Baobhan Sith

In Bottle: Tartness with the mild sting from citrus. I get the slightly astringent white tea as well. Baobhan Sith is a very white, very clean and fresh fragrance. Reminiscent of grassy knolls and ethereal mists. This is a fragrance that makes me think of teatime and, for some reason, cranberries.

Applied: Initial flair of citrus, a very normal thing for me as it seems, before the grapefruit says it’s had enough of me and decides to recede into the background. The white tea is the real star in this fragrance as it dominates for the better part of the scent’s wearable lifetime. There is a very, very mild bite of ginger in this as the fragrance ages, the white tea mellows out and the ginger gets its time in the sun. Fresh, citrus, clean with a really (I mean it) light touch of ginger to round it all out.

Extra: Baobhan Sith (pronounced, “Bow-Vahn Shee”), heralds from Scottish mythology where beautiful women in green dresses wander the mists as bloodsucking vampires.

Design: Similar in design to many other general catalog scents from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. The oils are stored in an amber bottle with a twist black cap. The label is printed with the house name and fragrance name.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Citrus

Notes: Grapefruit, white tea, apple blossom, ginger.

Baobhan Sith is great as a wearable fragrance but also a good room scent if you feel like diluting it a bit in water and letting an oil diffuser do its work. BPAL  fragrances are perfume oils, meaning they are not set in an alcohol base and are therefore unsuitable to be sprayed. Should one attempt to spray perfume oils, they will be met with a drooling, uncooperative stream, and a broken sprayer nozzle. To use BPALs as a spray perfume, you’ll have to find an alcohol base to dilute the perfume in first. You can find perfumer’s alcohol in specialty stores online.

Reviewed in This Post: Baobhan Sith, 2009, 5ml Bottle.