John Varvatos Artisan

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Artisan and Artisan Black are two of the very few men’s fragrances I’ve smelled and actually wanted to own. Artisan is my favorite of the two for a lot of reasons. But the main thing, it doesn’t rely on smelling primarily “marine and sporty” or “aromatic and woodsy”, which is something I have to commend Artisan and other men’s fragrances that avoid those two genres  for. Artisan

In Bottle: Orange blossoms that makes me think of freshly cut, sweet oranges. Very simple opening but it’s surprisingly pleasant and vivid. I quite like that.

Applied: Again, orange blossom opening with the vision of a fresh, juicy and sweet orange. It lingers for a bit before a little hint of spice kicks in and takes Artisan into slightly more familiar men’s fragrance territory. The thyme is also in there as Artisan evolves on the skin making this smell a bit more masculine as it continues to age and introduces a wet, green woods note and sharp citrus note in the middle that mingles with the spicy thyme and lingering orange blossom from the opening. Artisan doesn’t last very long on me, unfortunately, as it dries down a light green woodsy scent in the end that sticks very close to the skin. This is probably my favorite men’s cologne at the moment.

Extra: John Varvatos is a fashion designer that focuses primarily on men’s clothing. The name was started in 1999 with its first release in 2000, making this a very young fashion house indeed.

Design: Artisan is set in a glass bottle molded to look like it was woven. It gives the bottle a sort of tropical island, handmade, anthropologist kicking it old school and living out of a tent kind of feel. The texture on the bottle alone is enough to want you to pick it up and play with it for a while. The bottle, however, is quite heavy and a bit awkward to hold but you can’t argue with that awesome design.

Fragrance Family: Citrus Woodsy

Notes: Sicilian clementine, tangelo fruit, Mexican tangerine, aromatic thyme, Spanish marjoram, Greek lavender, North African orange blossom, Indian plant Murraya, orange-infused jasmine, Nigerian ginger, Chinese ginger, purple ginger, Kephalis wood, Geaorgewood, Belleambre, musk Serenolide.

You can’t look at that notes list and tell me it doesn’t at least intrigue you a little bit. Artisan is a great mix of notes but most of all it’s a really, really good fresh and masculine scent.

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

Creed Green Irish Tweed

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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.

Banana Republic Classic

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Banana Republic has a surprisingly nice selection of fragrances that usually tend to sit on the simple and easy side of things but that doesn’t discount them from making some pleasant on the nose scents that are versatile and pretty easy to wear. Banana Republic Classic

In Bottle: Classic smells like a green, clean machine. Reminiscent of the sticky sap of a banana tree. But it’s really just a fantastic blend of limes and leaves.

Applied: Jolt of green citrus that harkens in the clean and fresh immediately. Classic reminds me of  how fresh laundry and clean clothes should smell. I know people out there like the smell of clean laundry and there’s quite a few fragrances that can pass themselves off for that. Classic is one of them. No one can accuse you of being smelly with this on as it’s so incredibly inoffensive. Nothing more than fresh, clean citrus at first with a subtle hint of florals as the fragrance progresses. The white florals balance the citrus as Classic heads into its dry down of gentle white musk and sandalwood.

Extra: Banana Republic is a mid-range fashion brand. The term Banana Republic also refers to unstable countries whose chief means of finances tends to be some sort of agricultural product. The two are obviously not related.

Design: Classic comes in a rectangular bottle with a metal cap affixed to the top. The cap and the sprayer are a type of brushed metal. No thrills or frills with Classic. It’s just simple, easy to hold, and can be purchased in the slightly larger 125ml version rather than the usual 100ml you often see.

Fragrance Family: Fresh

Notes: Lime, mandarin, bergamot, orange, grapefruit, white florals, musk, sandalwood.

Classic came out in 1995 and is a generally lovely fragrance for office and other purpose wear when you don’t want the other person to know you’re wearing perfume. I can often feign a pleasant smelling soap with this stuff. The other thing about Classic is it tends to have terrible longevity on me. We’re talking on for an hour and gone before you know it. I assume this is due to the predominance of citrus in the fragrance but it’s only a guess.

Reviewed in This Post: Classic, 2010, Eau de Toilette.

Bath and Body Works White Citrus

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What can I really say about White Citrus that hasn’t already been said? White Citrus is one of Bath and Body Works’ more simple compositions that’s billed as a modern take on a classic citrus fragrance. Not sure what they mean about a modern take on a classic citrus as this just pretty much smells like a citrus perfume. Nothing classic about it. But it is very good.  White Citrus

In Bottle: Sharp citrus, tangy lemon zest and a bit of sweet tangerine. There isn’t a lot of sweetness in this but there’s a tiny amount that helps to balance out the tartness a little bit.

Applied: Big white florals and citrus fragrance. Heavy emphasis on the citrus. I mostly get the lemon zest out of this fragrance which is tempered a bit by the lily and freesia present in the fragrance. The freesia helps calms the tartness of this scent a little with its floral sweetness as White Citrus lays on the skin like a clean, sheer coating of freshness. This is a nice, competent citrus-based scent with a good level of initial projection. However, due to its citrus-heavy top notes, the fragrance doesn’t last very long or project very far on me so I end up having to layer, layer, layer. White Citrus remains predominantly floral and lemon until it calms down near the end by introducing a barely noticeable and very sheer woody scent on the exit.

Extra: White Citrus is also available in a white variety of other products from Bath and Body Works. This includes lotions, body mists, travel size items, hand soap and probably much more. So if you’re worrying about the scent fading fast, get the lotion, the shower gel, and start layering. For those of you interested in this fragrance and want something that lasts a bit longer, Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs’ Whitechapel is a citrus-heavy perfume oil that has a few familiar components to White Citrus.

Design: White Citrus is bottled in much the same way as other Bath and Body Works eau de toilette fragrances. A no nonsense rectangular glass bottle with a design printed on the front. In White Citrus’ case, the design on the front appears to be some sort of explosion of green, or a graphical representation of a halved green citrus fruit.

Fragrance Family: Fresh

Notes: Lemon zest, tangerine, grapefruit, mandarin, lily of the valley, apricot, freesia, waterlily, ginger flower, woods, musk.

I had a small bottle of White Citrus lotion and quickly grew tired of it. A nice clean and fresh fragrance is good for an average day but White Citrus wasn’t as pleasing a citrus-based fragrance as I had hoped.

Reviewed in This Post: White Citrus, 2009, Eau de Toilette.

Anna Sui Secret Wish

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Secret Wish makes me feel a little bit silly. It’s probably because I’m not a big fan of fairies so the fairy sitting on the cap tips this typical fruity fragrance right into the “no thanks” pile. It smells nice, sure. It’s pretty generic though and then there’s that fairy. Secret Wish

In Bottle: Big, sharp, citrus with a hint of fruitiness. Similar to Dolce and Gabanna’s Light Blue but with a melon helping out the citrus instead of an apple.

Applied: That big flood of citrus again, the lemon in this is behaving. After the nice sharp blast of lemon and citrus, Secret Wish washes into the fruity ocean with a big sweet pile of melons and currants adding to the fresh lemon opener. I’m getting a weird sticky sweet scent with citrus now which isn’t all together unpleasant but at this point, I’m thinking Light Blue pulled this idea off a little bit better as Light Blue had a tartness that I really liked. The tartness is a lacking factor in this making this seem almost syrupy sweet. The dry down is a similarly sweet fruity affair with a clean warmth to it. I have to say, despite the lemon being tame in this fragrance, I preferred Light Blue. It was more refined.

Extra: Anna Sui is a fashion designer from Detroit who has several very popular lines of clothing including a children’s line. She several well-known fragrances aside from Secret Wish. One of the most popular is Dolly Girl.

Design: Bottled in a green-blue glass container, Secret Wish has a  cap that has a fairy sitting on top. This is a really nice fragrance for a younger audience and for people who like girliness, fruity scents, and pretty bottles with fairies on it. It just misses the mark with me though.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Fruity

Notes: Lemon, melon, currants, pineapple, amber, cedarwood, musk.

Reviewed in This Post: Secret Wish, 2008, Eau de Toilette .

Hermes Eau d’Orange Verte

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Eau d’Orange Verte is a fresh little number that doesn’t smell like the year it was released. In 1979, the House of Hermès unleashed this simply constructed, but beautiful little idea. Eau d'Orange Verte

In Bottle: Fresh lemon and mandarin combine to make a really nice, juicy orange-like scent. This smells like orange trees, it smells like someone taking the skin of an orange and squeezing out a spray.

Applied: Orange and lemon, very pretty, a little sweet but mostly sharp citrus. But not that annoying too-sharpness that I get in other fragrances with a lemon note. Methinks this lemon is a bit more tame and I like that. this smells like a pleasant airy citrus, fresh fragrance. There’s a brief  introduction in the equally brief mid-stage where a slight fruitiness peaks through and then dissolves into a beautiful very close and intimate green scent with patchouli. There’s not a whole lot of surprise or complexity in Eau d’Orange Verte but some simple fragrances get it just right and the fragrance is excellent no matter how simple it is.

Extra: Hermès dates back to the late 1800s as a French high fashion house with its headquarters currently in Paris. You might know them better, in the fragrance world anyway, from their very popular Terre d’Hermès scent.

Design: Eau d’Orange Verte comes in a beautiful and very thick textured orange box that you open much like a shoebox. There’s no silly flaps to get in the way here. This is one of the better packaged fragrances with the bottle inside being a green tinted glass with a rounded plastic cap. It was particularly delightful to note that Eau d’Orange Verte’s bottle is refillable. Meaning, once you’re done with the juice, you can easily unscrew the sprayer and refill the bottle with more Eau d’Orange Verte or use the bottle for another fragrance.

Fragrance Family: Fresh

Notes: Lemon, mandarin, papaya, mango, oakmoss, patchouli.

Being an Eau de Cologne, Eau d’Orange Verte is a very light fragrance that you’ll need to layer or go heavy on the trigger for. I go through this stuff like crazy, which is probably why the scent comes in soap and other flanker product forms as well as a gargantuan 200ml bottle.

Reviewed in This Post: Eau d’Orange Verte, 2009, Eau de Cologne .

Burberry The Beat

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I’ve been wearing The Beat almost every day for about four months now and I think it’s time I finally gave her a review. She’s pretty, though more coveted on the shelves than on my skin because she’s a very typical scent in that ‘smells so fresh and clean’ type of way.  What I mean is, I wanted The Beat–badly–when I saw it on the shelves. It smelled excellent whenever I tried it. But now that I own 50ml of the stuff, it’s a forgettable scent in how ordinary it is. The Beat

In Bottle: Pink pepper with a mandarin kick and a cedar underbelly. The Beat uses a light handed approach to cedar so that I can smell it but it isn’t overpowering like other fragrances that tend to blast the cedar out like some sort of Deus ex Machina of the perfume world.

Applied: Pink pepper, sharp citrus and cedar immediately on application with the citrus sticking it out for a respectable amount before fading as it lets the cedar settle in close to the skin. This cedar that sticks to my skin plays a major part in not  overwhelming me with the cedar-y goodness. As The Beat ages, it grows softer, a little more floral with a brush of tea and a gentle smudge of iris layered over bluebell. It makes The Beat smells very fresh, very spring and summer with how bright and cute and vibrant it is. The dry down is a typical affair, with that close to your skin cedar blended in with an earthy cleaned-up vetiver.

Extra: The Beat is perhaps most well-known for having fashion’s “It Girl”, Agyness Deyn, be the face for the fragrance. It’s supposed to evoke an edgy, hip, alternative young audience. They got one out of three right so that’s okay. There’s nothing edgy or alternative about The Beat. It’s very pedestrian. Lovely, well-behaved, but ultimately pedestrian.

Design: The Beat’s bottle design does much better than Burberry Brit (that tartan brick of a thing I can’t seem to stop complaining about). The bottle is a nice clear glass with the Burberry tartan. The juice inside is a very lightly toned pink and the cap is a pretty metal affair with a dangly bit hanging off the side of the bottle with a metal plate that reads “Burberry” on it. Cute, lovely little bottle. Definitely not something I’d be tempted to build a wall  out of like Burberry’s other design.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Floral

Notes: Bergamot, mandarin, pink pepper, Ceylon tea, cardamom, bluebell, iris, white musk, vetiver, cedar.

Funny that the tea came through so lightly in this fragrance because if it had been a little heavier, I would have been a little more in love with The Beat. But as it is, it’s a good “standing in the elevator” fragrance with a well-behaved cedar note.

Reviewed in This Post: The Beat, 2010, Eau de Parfum.

Annick Goutal Un Matin d’Orage

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I don’t know why I keep chasing fragrances with that dreaded lemon note that goes all sharp and dominates fragrances all the time. It’s like I’ll hope that one day, my views will shift and all of a sudden the note will work on me or smell good to me. For now, Un Matin d’Orage is a lost cause thanks to the lemon that hates me. Un Matin d'Orage

In Bottle: Very nice, light and airy citrus-based fragrance with a pretty white floral bed and a touch of dry spiciness added in. Beautiful in the bottle, very easy to wear and quite nice on the nose. Especially given my recent brush with Sécrétions Magnifiques.

Applied: A fantastic dewy floral immediately rushes up. For a few seconds, this is one of the nicest and most pleasant florals I’ve ever smelled. So clean and clear and crisp and beautiful. The florals are accompanied by a series of green leafy notes. Then the lemon has to come in and ruin my day. It amps up like it usually does, flooding the entire fragrance field with its too sharp citrus that it destroys all other smells and I end up with something reminiscent of lemon cleaning solution once again. It’s very sad as the beautiful floral opener would have made a fantastic every day scent. The dry down sees the typical mellowing out of the lemon but it clings on until the bitter end when that gorgeous floral opening has gone to parts unknown and all that remains is this irritating lemon and a faint ozone note.

Extra: Un Matin d’Orage means Stormy Morning in French. It’s a fragrance made to invoke the crisp and fresh feel of a garden after the rain. Unfortunately for me and my arch nemisis, that stupid lemon note, this is less a garden after a rainstorm and more like a sharp crack of lightning.

Design: Un Matin d’Orage is packaged much the same way as other Annick Goutal fragrances. it is available in a ribbed bottle with gold lace that bears a paper sign with the fragrance’s name on it.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Floral

Notes: Magnolia, jasmine sambac, Sicilian lemon, champac, perilla leaves, ginger.

While Un Matin d’Orage’s opener is one of the most pleasant florals I’ve encountered yet, this fragrance doesn’t separate itself much from Annick Goutal’s other offerings. It’s nice, to be sure, but it’s not so unique as I would mourn the lemon ruining this fragrance on me.

Reviewed in This Post: Un Matin d’Orage, 2005, Eau de Toilette.

Peace, Love and Juicy Couture

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Peace, Love and Juicy Couture is the brand new Juicy perfume released this year. It’s got a hippie flare to it that makes it as cute as original Juicy Couture and Viva la Juicy. But that could just be the bottles talking. Did I mention I’m coming around to loving those bottles? Peace, Love and Juicy Couture

In Bottle: Green with a capital G. Peace, Love and Juicy Couture smells like the rind of a lemon mixed with various green notes and what I swear is a beautifully done iris.

Applied: Initial greenness leads the way with that nice lemon lime scent. This isn’t juice, it’s rind we’re talking about here. Sharp, green, fresh, crisp rind that envelops the opening and slowly fades into the mid-stage where Peace, Love and Juicy Couture turns to a bright, happy green floral with more emphasis on the hyacinth with a little punctuation on the iris. The lindem blossoms give this fragrance a nice, feathery softness to it. The green floral quality of this fragrance reminds me of Chanel Cristalle. That crisp, spring-like scent that lifts spirits. After having spring in autumn, Peace, Love and Juicy Couture splashes up the soft linden blossoms and dries into a very slightly earthy and woodsy patchouli.

Extra: I don’t think I give Juicy Couture enough of a chance when it comes to some of their fragrances. I’m not a fan of their apparel but Juicy Couture, Peace, Love and Juicy Couture, as well as Viva la Juicy are very well done scents.

Design: Bottled in a similar fashion as Juicy Couture and Viva la Juicy. Peace, Love and Juicy Couture features different decorative elements while keeping the same basic bottle concept. Dangling from the neck of this perfume bottle are two cute and colorful tassels.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Earthy

Notes: Lemon tree blossom, hyacinth, apple accord, black currant , sambac jasmine absolute, star magnolia, Malibu poppy, honeysuckle, linden blossom, orris extract, patchouli flower, musk.

This fragrance is clearly inspired by the 60s but I don’t  smell the 60s in this scent aside from that slightly earthy patchouli. The lasting power in this fragrance is unremarkable as it is quite a quick fader.

Reviewed in This Post: Peace, Love and Juicy Couture, 2010, Eau de Parfum.

Guerlain Eau de Fleurs de Cedrat

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Eau de Fleurs de Cédrat is probably one of my favorite Guerlain fragrances. So it’s a good bit of fortune that I came upon it recently at La Signature at Disney Epcot in Florida. Eau de Fleurs de Cédrat is a classic from 1920 that is available at better stocked Guerlain counters, but more exclusively than Shalimar. Nothing wrong with you, Shalimar.  I just see you everywhere. Eau de Fleurs de Cedrat

In Bottle: Lemons! I hope you like lemons because Eau de Fleurs de Cédrat is a big lemon tree. Green and crisp and citrus and fresh. Lacking the notable Guerlain base but still so lovely all the same.

Applied: Sweet lemon candy is a strange introduction into Eau de Fleurs de Cédrat but it’s a welcome one as the fragrance matures immediately into a cool lemon. As this is a pretty simple mixture with low concentration Eau de Fleurs de Cédrat is a fleeting scent, even on clothing. It’s even more fleeting on the skin. After the lemon candy dissolves a bit, the lemon dominates the scene and an hour later, you’re left with a soft light, floral quality that’s just barely there and extremely fleeting. Don’t wear this if you want longevity. This fragrance has no base stage and I hesitate to say it may not have much of a mid-stage either. Wear if you want a quick fresh burst of fragrance from a sophisticated lemon-like note. I’ve had trouble with lemon notes in other fragrances so I was pleased to note that cedrat is not lemon necessarily but a close relative that smells much better on me. The cedrat in Eau de Fleurs de Cédrat is a lovely, soft, crisp little thing that won’t overstay its welcome or yell the entire time it’s there.

Extra: Eau de Fleurs de Cédrat is pretty much what its name suggestions. It’s a flower and citron. It’s not trying to be anything else and if you do expect more complexity, this isn’t the place to look. The cedrat is similar to a lemon but has an icy and more candy-like fragrance. It smells remarkably similar to a lemon, but in a fragrance it couldn’t behave more differently.

Design: Eau de Fleurs de Cédrat comes in a bee bottle design as a 100ml bottle. Lovely molded glass with bee designs on the glass itself. It both looks and feels luxurious , which is why I adore the bee bottles so much.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Citrus

Notes: Citron, white florals.

La Signature, also known by many Epcot patrons as, “That store that sells really expensive French perfume that I’ve never heard of”, is probably the best place to go–short of Paris–for a big selection of Guerlain fragrances and their cosmetics line. I don’t  use their cosmetics but the amount of Guerlain perfumes they’ve got there is fantastic.

Reviewed in This Post: Eau de Fleurs de Cédrat, circa 2008, Eau de Cologne.