Animale 1987

Animale is an interesting fragrance to explain. It’s sort of a chypre, it has all the classical stylings of a chypre but with an extra added jolt of pure dirty, animal smell. Oh, don’t get me wrong here. It’s fantastic stuff.

Animale

In Bottle: Heavy, heady, powerful. Three words you’ll probably used to describe animale. Even in the bottle, this stuff is strong. I get civet immediately mixed with a blend of florals. It has that decidedly unique chypre scent to it as well.

Applied: Starts off with a big of bergamot. Barely enough to even detect as Animale develops the civet slowly and carefully but the civet is strong and the civet definitely makes this scent smell dirty and animalic. The animalic notes in this creep up rather than blast you full on right away like it does in the bottle but you’ll be smelling full-on animal before you know it. On skin, civet takes its time at first as the fragrance moves into a mid-stage that’s incredibly reminiscent of a chypre with jasmine making a loud proclamation as the civet creeps in more and more, amping up the volume. The rosewood, adds even more dirty with a little woodsiness in case you didn’t think civet was enough. This is a chypre but it’s a distinct dirty chypre that will march to its own beat if it wants to. As the fragrance dies down, there’s a smooth patch of oakmoss and vetiver layered over that civet note that I had been too distracted to notice. The civet’s used rather well here, but the dry down does bother me a bit with this slick, almost oily scent. I imagine that was the coconut making its way in. So opening and mid-stage are fascinating. End stage is great save for that weird slick scent I got. Still, Animale is fantastic if you like heavy, powerful, heady fragrances.

Extra: Animale, the brand began in 1987 which was also the time that original Animale (reviewed in this post) was created. In 1990 the company was sold, and in 2004 it was sold once again. Sometime during the 1990s, Animale shifted away from being a chypre and became more of a floral oriental. I liked it a lot more as a chypre.

Design: Very 80s! Brings back fond memories of elementary school, and TGIF shows. I’d huddle around this tiny TV with my cousins and we’d watch Family Matters, Full House, Fresh Prince, and a whole host of other family-friendly sitcoms. Long story short: This bottle reminds me of late 80s and early 90s aesthetics and fashion. I think the word I want here is ‘funky’. Not necessarily well-designed as I imagine people these days would consider this kind of aesthetic hideous. The bottle design hasn’t aged well, that’s for sure. As for me, I grew up in the late 80s and 90s so I’ll let someone else harsh on this bottle.

Fragrance Family: Chypre

Notes: Coriander, hyacinth, bergamot, neroli, carnation, honey, orris root, rosewood, jasmine, ylang-ylang, lily of the valley, rose, patchouli, coconut, oakmoss, vetiver, civet, musk.

Now that the review and nostalgia are all over, would I wear Animale? Probably not. The civet really turns me off on the fragrance. I’m a big baby when it comes to civet, almost always I find it too strong and I’m no where near confident enough to rock civet. That doesn’t mean Animale isn’t fantastic. I like it for what it is, but maybe that’s part of the nostalgia talking.

Reviewed in This Post: Animale, ~1989, Eau de Parfum.


Narciso Rodriguez For Her

For Her’s note list might look a little intimidating. I mean, it’s got this thing called Egyptian Musk and some fragrance buyers see the very mention of the word ‘musk’ and are turned off by the prospect of smelling ‘dirty’. But that’s just not what For Her is about.

For Her

In Bottle: Fresh and clean. Also very light. Like catching the scent of soap in a light breeze.

Applied: Clean and citrus like citrus scented soap on the opening with the citrus and soapiness giving way to a warm, very sheer musky scent in the middle. For Her is a light-wearing clean musk so far as the fragrance takes some steps to develop the florals that are supposed to be in the composition. Most of what I smell is the unique quality of the Egyptian Musk and if you’re afraid of it being ‘dirty smelling’ because of the presence of musk then keep in mind that the opening is very clean and the musk is treated in a muted way in this fragrance. It might be the majority of what you smell in the mid-stage but it by no means broadcasts muskiness. I think a lot of people who would normally shy away from musk should try For Her. The dry down approaches with a warming of the musk and a little drop of vanilla to round things off.

Extra: For Her comes in two versions. An EDT and an EDP. I’ve only smelled the EDP and that’s what this review is for. Word on the perfume street has it that the EDT and EDP are different monsters and that the EDP goes on much lighter and is a skin close fragrance while the EDT is louder and has more longevity. Something interesting to keep in mind as you’re trying to decide which to go for.

Design: For Her’s two concentrations come in the same bottle shape. A tall glass cylinder in black or pink depending on the concentration you want. The EDT is a black bottle, whereas the EDP is a pink bottle. These colors are reversed on the boxes so make sure you read which one you’re getting instead of relying on the colors.

Fragrance Family: Clean

Notes: Bergamot, orange blossom, coriander, musk, osmanthus, amber, vetiver, vanilla.

For Her is a very nicely done skin close scent. It’s clean and works the musk in rather well. I actually like this a whole lot more than I thought I would. The EDP is, definitely, worth a considering sniff.

Reviewed in This Post: Narciso Rodriguez For Her, 2009, Eau de Parfum.


Calvin Klein Obsession for Women

Call me crazy, but I don’t like Obsession for Women. I like the men’s version a bit better but both of them fell off my radar and into ‘Eh, don’t like it and can’t get myself to’ territory. Much like how Poison by Dior ended up there.

Obsession for Women

In Bottle: Warm and spicy, very reminiscent of Opium but not as smooth or as smoky. I smell the animalic in this up front too.

Applied: Obsession opens with a slight spray of green citrus which is quickly joined by the civet note. Civet is used well in most perfumes, often as a touch of sensuality and Obsession is no exception. Anyway, after the light citrus and civet open up, the fragrance digs a bit into a fruity jasmine and rose blend dolled up with a lot of spiciness. There must be cloves or cinnamon in there somewhere. Obsession’s projection, by the way, is very good as is its longevity. You’ll be waiting a rather long time for it to dry down but the fragrance dries so naturally into a deeper woodsy floral amping up the civet a little and mingling those spices with a very warm amber quality to it and a slight smokiness that eeks itself into the scene at the very end.

Extra: Obsession was released in 1985 during the crazy trend with oriental perfumes.

Design: Obsession’s bottled in a oval glass with a golden liquid inside. The cap is a rich brown shade. The packing looks nice enough and a bottle of Obsession is definitely easy to ID. It’s clean, it’s simple, it’s pretty good.

Fragrance Family: Oriental

Notes: Green notes, mandarin orange, vanilla, peach, basil, bergamot, lemon, spices, coriander, sandalwood, orange blossom, jasmine, oakmoss, cedar and rose, amber, amber, musk, civet, vanilla, vetiver, incense.

Obsession is a well done perfume. I just want to get that out there, I just don’t like it because I believe it’s very similar to Opium and Opium did this concept better which makes Obsession seem rather unnecessary to me. But then, Opium is stronger, so if you liked it but thought it came on way too much, try out Obsession and see if this will work better for you.

Reviewed in This Post: Obsession for Women, 2004, Eau de Parfum.


Oscar Oscar de la Renta

Oscar from Oscar de la Renta was released in 1978 and is described as a floral aromatic. This fragrance, to me, is like all the good parts of women’s fragrance and men’s fragrance put together to form a very classic fragrance.

Oscar

In Bottle: Sharp green and a bit powdery. I get a lot of the herbs in the bottle with a faint trace of florals in the back.

Applied: Herbs and powder, a bit of a strange mix but not at all unpleasant with the rosemary being the most dominant note. It’s interesting and definitely smells like a classic fragrance. As Oscar settles down the perfume heads into more floral territory with a smattering of herbs and green rosemary while still retaining that classic powder scent. The fragrance uses florals in a sheer way with a hit of spicy carnation to give those flowers a bit more sway. The dry down is probably my favorite part that sees Oscar head into this warm amber and spicy powder finish with a dash of full-bodied patchouli. I know a lot of younger people who will be turned off by the powderiness of this and I will warn everyone that this does smell very much like a classic. But if you’re looking to smell sophisticated, this is good stuff.

Extra: Oscar was composed by Jean-Louis Sieuzac. One its recent bottle designs was done by the famous Serge Mansau.

Design: Oscar’s eau de toilette bottle (pictured) is a tall glass with a black cap and usually silver sprayer. The shape of the bottle is a bit interesting and sets it out from other perfumes by not being a big tall rectangle. The parfum version of the bottle looks more exciting, having a Marc Jacobs Daisy meets Nina Ricci L’Air du Temps style with its flower motif.

Fragrance Family: Aromatic

Notes: Orange blossom, basil, coriander, galbanum, peach, gardenia, ylang-ylang, jasmine, tuberose, rose, rosemary, cyclamen, lavender, orchid, opoponax, carnation, patchouli, sandalwood, vetiver, amber.

I’m loving that notes list and marvel at how well the notes actually work in this fragrance. Oscar is available for purchase almost everwhere with a strong presence at internet retailer sites and can also be purchased on the official Oscar de la Renta site.

Reviewed in This Post: Oscar, 2002, Eau de Toilette.


Coty L’Origan

Sometimes, just because I’m immature, I like to pretend that Coty only came out with the good stuff and all the stuff they’ve made that’s been terrible just simply doesn’t exist. When I think of Coty these days, the first thing that pops into my head is Lady Gaga and everybody freaking out about her up and coming “blood and semen” perfume. I won’t mention our favorite friend from Etat Libre d’Orange but I will say that the Coty of the early 1900s could have taken “blood and semen” and turned it into something beautiful. These days, I kind of hope Gaga at least gets something that isn’t a fruity-floral. Oh, Coty.

L'Origan

In Bottle: L’Origan has that classic smell that you just can’t imitate these days. It’s dense and complex with a varying, slightly discordant mixture of big honking spices and florals up top.

Applied: Spicy on arrival with a floral touch coming up. There’s a very old-world style to the way this perfume goes on and starts to age. People have compared L’Origan to L’Heure Bleue–well,  I should say they compare L’Heure Bleue to L’Origan because Guerlain’s hit fragrance was released after this one. It’s similar in that both scents trail the same sort of fragrance with L’Heure Bleue exhibiting a much colder, more melancholy personality. L’Origan, to me, is warm and much more animalic. There’s a hint of animal in the opening there and I experienced hints of animalics throughout the livespan of the scent. It’s blended very well, though, not overpowering the scent but rather giving it a bit of sensuality and added depth. Another thing about L’Origan vs. L’Heure Bleue, it’s spicier with slightly less noticeable florals and it’s ultimately a brighter scent though its uses of the  spices are very familiar. There’s a powderiness to this that tends to show up in vintage fragrances as well as a heavy dose of clove. As L’Origan approaches dry down it maintains that spiciness the whole time the florals are totally gone but what’s waiting at the bottom is this thick, rich warmness that reminds me a bit of slick metals and mosses.

Extra: L’Origan was released in 1905 and still survives today–though in an undoubtedly heavily reformulated state. As always, vintage is leaps and bounds better.

Design: The original L’Origan was bottled in a flat glass bottle of a squarish shape with the Coty seal on it. I had a warm, amber-like color and was a bit reminiscent of Chypre de Coty in appearance. The modern bottle (pictured) is reminiscent of a flower bulb with a spiky crown for a cap. I have to say I prefer the old style better.

Fragrance Family: Spicy

Notes: Bergamot, orange, coriander, pepper, peach, nutmeg, clove, jasmine, violet, rose, ylang-ylang, orange flower, benzoin, cedar, incense, vanilla, sandalwood, musk, coumarin, civet.

Somehow L’Origan comes out as the happy side of L’Heure Bleue. These two could be best friends, though probably not sisters. I have to say, despite my love for L’Heure Bleue–I like L’Origan a bit more.

Reviewed in This Post: L’Origan, ~1950, Eau de Parfum.


Diesel Only the Brave

I was hesitant to test out this fragrance largely because I couldn’t get over the ridiculous-looking bottle. But hey, the gimmick got to me one day and I said, “Welp, might as well smell that fist perfume”.

Only the Brave

In Bottle: Citrus, something sweet and dirty in the background with a huge cedar note in the foreground. Hooray, more cedar.

Applied: Only the Brave opens up rather sweet to me, smelling a little bit like citrus candy. The candy citrus appeal doesn’t last very long as Only the Brave starts amping up the woods–more specifically–amping up the cedar as it floods the mid-stage, drowning out whatever else may have been in this. I have such terrible luck with cedar and certain wood notes. Only the Brave felt like it was actually punching me in the face with the woods in its composition. I managed to wait it out, getting too-strong wafts of woodsiness as I let the fragrance sink in and age. The dry down is a more agreeable affair with a soft, leathery warm amber fragrance touched with a bit of spice.

Extra: Only the Brave was a collaboration between L’Oreal and Diesel. This fragrance involved three noses for its composition too, Olivier Polge (Balenciaga Paris), Pierre Wargnye (Drakkar Noir), and Alienor Massanet (Tresor Sparkling).

Design: I mentioned the bottle in my opening sentences. Only the Brave comes packaged in a glass fist. I think the bottle design is ugly, clunky, and at times hilarious. Due to its shape, the bottle falls over easily so I imagine most people keep their bottles lying on their sides. Still, the humor in Only the Brave’s fist bottle isn’t lost on me and I can chuckle at it now and then. At the very least, there isn’t a single fairy on it.

Fragrance Family: Woodsy

Notes: Lemon, mandarin, coriander, violet, cedar, labdanum, amber, styrax, leather, benzoin.

Cedar ruins yet another fragrance for me. At the very least Only the Brave is a generic masculine fragrance that I don’t think is particularly unique or fascinating but probably wearable by everyone but me.

Reviewed in This Post: Only the Brave, 2010, Eau de Toilette.


Liz Claiborne Curve Crush (Men)

I don’t know how Curve Crush managed to squeeze itself into a position so polarizing. We have people on one side loving this stuff while people on the other side are having Curve Crush bonfires and reconsidering the quality of such an idea. I’m with the bonfires on this one. I’m sorry, but I kind of hate this fragrance.

Curve Crush

In Bottle: A strange melange of herbs and sweetness. It’s not sweet like candy sweet but sweet as in “this shouldn’t be sweet but it is” sweet. All this coated with an aqua or marine note which makes me think of Cool Water gone wrong. There’s quite a huge dollop of white musk and moss in this too which just seem to come right out of left field.

Applied: That opening of sweet herbs and the lingering bizarre white musk and moss. This smells like a mess from the get-go, like it wasn’t blended properly and I can see where people are coming from when they say this is very synthetic. I can forgive a synthetic fragrance if it’s done well, but I don’t think Curve Crush for Men realizes there’s a line that shouldn’t be crossed. There’s so much scrubbed, clean, sharp and sterile synthetic notes in this stuff that it smells more like a weird cleaning detergent than a fragrance. The mid-stage is a bizarre blend of that musk and moss stuff along with some plastic violet and spicy ginger situation layered over a persistent cloying sweetness. It heads into its dry down with a moss note so synthetic I can taste it in the back of my throat.

Extra: Curve Crush for Men is a member of the Curve line by Liz Claiborne. Despite my displeasure with this particular fragrance, the other members of the Curve line are decent scents.

Design: I’m not sold on the bottle here but I k now packaging’s not the highest priority when it comes to fragrances like this. The bottle is made of a mottled glass, with a tint on it. It’s got a good weight, the hold of it is decent, the design itself is uninspired and reminds me of an Old Spice bottle with a Flowerbomb tag sticking out of it.

Fragrance Family: Aromatic

Notes: Bartlett pear, muguet aldehyde, basil, coriander, bergamot, ginger, violet, lavender, sage, cardamom, vetiver, musk, moss.

I know this is a budget fragrance, but if you ask me, it’s a pretty terrible one. You want a budget fragrance that smells good and is well-composed? Old Spice. As cliche as that is, Old Spice beats this hands down. Heck, I’d pick Old Spice over a lot of higher end fragrances too. The point is, this fragrance is overly synthetic, uninspired and smells like it wasn’t blended properly.

Reviewed in This Post: Curve Crush, 2009, Eau de Toilette.


Davidoff Cool Water for Men

It’s funny to me how Creed priced its Green Irish Tweed (GIT) out of many people’s markets and drove them to a cheaper, albeit, very good alternative in Cool Water. These days when people think aromatic aquatic,they think Cool Water for the very simple reason that Cool Water was more affordable, more readily available, and it pretty much smells the same to most people’s noses anyway.

Cool Water for Men

In Bottle: I’m one of those people who find Cool Water and Green Irish Tweed very similar so I’ll try to vary this up a little but do keep in mind these two fragrances go through the motions in relatively the same way. Cool Water opens with a green, citrus, aromatic backed by a couple of gentle wood notes lingering in the back. It’s herbs, aquatics, and woods basically.

Applied: Citrus is quick to fade with the green aquatics sticking it out while the woods and aromatics work their magic. Cool Water is a fresh, clean, easy to wear and easy to love fragrance that I have a hard time finding fault in. This was one of the earlier aromatic aquatics that lived in a time where the market was less convoluted. It grows on me, keeps me reminded of Green Iris Tweed. But there’s a bit of a difference between Cool Water and GIT, and that lies in the complexity difference between the two. There’s a certain flatness that Cool Water hits during the mid-stage, as if some component is missing from the fragrance as a whole. I want to say it’s missing a refined floral heart like GIT had while Cool Water focuses more on the aromatics and woods side. Whatever’s missing it, it needs to be looked for in order to notice, but I’m still left wondering just what that is. It seems to be the ‘spark’ that sets GIT aside from Cool Water for me. Cool Water chills out in the end stage with a cedar note. The cedar’s threatening me, of course, but it’s not as loud as some other cedars have been.

Extra: Now, I can sit here and ponder the intricacies of these two fragrances all day but being a child of the late 80s and early 90s, I smelled my fair share of both GIT and Cool Water. They’re still both very popular fragrances but they spawned a trend in men’s fragrances that still persists today. The aquatic fragrances family. A family so full of members that I have a hard time telling them all apart.

Design: I’m going to have sigh and say I’m not a fan of the bottle here. The colored glass angle has to be played right with perfume in that the shape of the bottle has to be able to stand whatever color you splash on it. Use too little color and people won’t notice. Use too much and the glass ends up looking like plastic. Unfortunately that’s the case with this bottle, it reminds me of a shampoo bottle.

Fragrance Family: Fresh

Notes: Mint, green, lavender, coriander, rosemary, geranium, neroli, jasmine, sandalwood, cedarwood, musk, amber, tobacco.

There’s two main version of Cool Water (and a huge lot of flankers). One for men and one for women. This review was regarding the men’s version.

Reviewed in This Post: Cool Water for Men, 2005, Eau de Toilette.


Aquolina Chocolovers

How do you round out a week of reviews for one of the world’s most famous and respected fragrance houses? Easy.  Chocolovers. Chocolovers

In Bottle: Very sweet, rather cloying, chocolatey, milky, nutty fragrance with a splash of orange and lemon juice. I didn’t expect anything different from this and it really delivered.

Applied: The orange and lemon curdle the fragrance on initial application and I wholly believe Chocolovers would have been better off without it. Once the lemon recedes you’re left with–well, what else? A smooth, creamy chocolate milk with hazlenut dashed in there for a little added complexity. Chocolovers smells like a candybar. A gooey, rich, wafer-stuffed candy bar that probably has a thousand calories in it, is probably bad for you. Once you’ve eaten it, you aren’t left feeling satisfied but you do feel a little guilty. That’s my experience with Chocolovers. Big strong smell upfront, fleeting feeling of guilt in the back. The chocolate note in this smells as expected, it’s a synthetic and it’s a clearly detectable one which would harm the fragrance’s enjoyability but come on–the thing is called Chocolovers, how serious can it possibly be? It smells all right for what it is; a fun, cute, throw it on during an off-day fragrance. Just be warned, it is powerful. Chocolovers will fade in a few hours to a milky, dusty fragrance that seems to float up out of nowhere.

Extra: I’m not a fan of the Chocolovers fragrance and feel Aquolina got their Pink Sugar fragrance just right with how fun and simple and unapologetic it was. But the Blue Sugar flanker and now this one? They aren’t very original or unique from one another. They are all gourmands of some relative state and they all echo the Pink Sugar base.

Design: Chocolovers’ design is an interesting thing to love. I can’t get past how just how little it cares about being serious. Pink Sugar had a cute little motif. Blue Sugar was subdued and rather boring. Chocolovers just takes literal interpretation to the extreme with its bottle. Little wavy hearts on the glass. A chocolate heart on top of the cap. A red sprayer nozzle. There’s not a single serious thing you can say about this fragrance.

Fragrance Family: Gourmand

Notes: Bergamot, orange, lemon, lily of the valley, coriander, hazelnut, vanilla, malt, musk.

It’s great when the first thing I thought when I saw the notes list was, “Really? Coriander?” The second thing was to look up on Google how many flanker products Chocolovers has and it turns out the fragrance has been made into  body butter. Now that I can see.

Reviewed in This Post: Chocolovers, 2008, Eau de Toilette.


Dior Poison

Poison by Dior is one of those classics from the 80s that I don’t give a whole lot of run time to. Because I don’t like it. I tried to. I came around to Opium and eventually cultivated a reverence for Jicky, but when it comes to Poison, I am still left wondering why. I guess I just don’t like it! But I’m going to review it anyway because it is a well composed beast of a fragrance that remains one of Dior’s most popular perfumes. Poison

In Bottle: Smells sweet in the bottle, almost like cough syrup with a slight spiciness to it that layers over a faint woody presence.

Extra: Whew, Poison! You sure came in loud. There’s nothing quiet or gentle about Poison. She’s big, she’s bold, her volume’s all the way up and she isn’t afraid of share what she thinks. Poison starts off with a sweet plum and blossoms mix with a spicy blast that projects like crazy. The top notes are guaranteed to clear quite a bit of distance around you and create a Cone of Smell sort of thing as the mid stage comes in with a added dollop of spice that’s coated in jasmine, rose, and heliotrope. My favorite friend, tuberose also makes an entrance here. Dragging behind it is a very irate cedar scent. Amusingly enough the cedar in Poison is the type that teeters into loud and obnoxious territory but the rest of Poison is so loud and bold that the cedar smells almost tame on me. Once the sweetness and fruitiness of the opening calm down we get into the end stage where Poison is a spunky lady that smells of incense and sophisticated florals holding onto cough syrup in one hand while she applies lipstick with the other.

Extra: Poison was the original in a rather lengthy line of flankers. In addition to the original, we’ve got Poison Tendre (green), Hypnotic Poison (red), Hypnotic Poison Eau Sensuelle (also red), Midnight Poison (blue), Pure Poison (white). And that’s not including the elixirs. Clearly when Dior decided to go bold and different with the first Posion in 1985, they really hit it big.

Design: Poison’s bottle is in the shape of an apple and the glass is purple. Seems to be a popular motif for perfumes here, apples and forbidden fruits and whatnot. I do like the design of Poison’s bottle, even the blatant use of the symbolism is okay with me because the bottle is beautiful, feels nice to hold and is decently easy to handle.

Fragrance Family: Spicy Fruity Woodsy

Notes: Coriander, cinnamon, orange blossom, honey, pepper, plum, rosewood, rose, tuberose, wild berries, cistus labdanum, carnation, jasmine, heliotrope, cedar, vetiver, musk, vanilla, sandalwood, opopanax.

I’m pretty sure Poison’s tendency to smell a bit like cough syrup is what’s keeping me from this fragrance. But don’t let that stop you, she’s  big and brass and if you’re looking for that, definitely give her a try.

Reviewed in This Post: Poison, 2007, Eau de  Parfum.