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.

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 .

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.

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.

Bond No.9 Chelsea Flowers

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There aren’t a whole lot of things I can say for Bond No.9 as a perfume house or as a business. However, I can attest to how well-sealed their fragrance samples are. Getting that little stopper off the vial should be classified as an Olympic Sport only to be played by the most determined of fragrance junkies.  Chelsea Flowers

In Bottle: Light, airy flowers, slightly sweet and very floral. Entirely pleasant but not very original. Chelsea Flowers is rather nice for an inoffensive wear to the office.

Applied: Light and green, small and subdued white floral opener with a nice mist of sweet peony. Its mid-stage is a pleasant bouquet of rose and peony with that same mist of green freshness. This smells like freshly picked flowers, or flowers that just bloomed on a hopeful spring. A gorgeous fragrance by all accounts and purposes even if she isn’t all that exciting, she’s very well done. Dry down is a nice enough floral with a very faint woodsiness lent by a tame sandalwood note.

Extra: There is a lot of talk about Bond No.9’s more recent business antics in relation to them disallowing decants from selling decants of their fragrances online. To get a Bond No.9 fragrance sample on the up and up these days you will have to visit a Bond No.9 counter and hope the people working there like you enough to hand you some of the candy-like wrapped vials of perfumy goodness. Further adding to my distaste of this company’s policies is the legal wrestling they did with Liz Zorn of Soivohle over her use of the word “Peace” in one of her fragrances.

Design: I’ve always found Bond No.9’s bottling to be a bit silly looking. I see these things and all I see are stars. Which reminds me of the Hollywood Walk of Fame decorated in pop-art designs. Not highly unpleasant but not my first choice for perfume design. Holding one of these bottles, I’ll admit, feels luxurious and they are an interesting shape and have nicely done colors. I just can’t say a minimalist like me would be swayed much by the design decisions, nice and bold as they are.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Peonies, tulips, hyacinth, magnolia, rose, musk, sandalwood, vetiver, tree moss.

Don’t let my distaste for Bond No.9’s business antics to turn you away from Chelsea Flowers as a fragrance. This is a very competent and versatile white floral.

Reviewed in This Post: Chelsea Flowers, 2008, Sample Vial.

Estee Lauder White Linen

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White Linen is one of the most universally recognized fragrances. It was and still is everywhere though its popularity has waned a bit in recent years, White Linen is still one of the perfumes I associate instantly with clean, soap and aldehydes. White Linen

In Bottle: Big, bright and loud. White Linen wastes no time building up suspense. It comes roaring out of the gates smelling of soapy aldehydes right away. Just so you know what’s in store.

Applied: The aldehydes in White Linen is probably one of the first things anyone will smell in this fragrance as they are incredibly predominant. Those aldehydes coupled with a drowning rose note make this fragrance extremely recognizable to me. I can understand why someone wouldn’t like this. On the one hand, you’ve got soapy sparkly aldehydes. On the other, you have a dewy, slightly sticky red rose that are coming together like two fragrance forces on the battlefield. The aldehydes in White Linen do not get any meeker as the fragrance progresses. They stay up front as the scent turns into a rose so scrubbed and soaked in soapy water that it sparkles as it wilts in a bed of powder. During the middle this fragrance does a very strange thing in that it introduces the civet on me in a bed of otherwise clean. So in between smelling like sparkly soap, I get a waft of something just a bit off. It’s a bit distracting but highly amusing. White Linen is a powerful fragrance that will project like crazy. A lot of people also find her overbearing so if you are going to use this stuff, ease up on the trigger finger. Fresh until the last moments, this fragrance dries down like freshly wetted perfumed soap.

Extra: White Linen is probably one of those recognizable classics that people either love or hate. I tend to see the hate for this more often and I can see why people are repelled by it. If you want to see what the fuss is about but can’t quite figure out White Linen, its flanker, Pure White Linen is a softer, easier to wear, and more muted version.

Design: White linen is bottled in a bent frosted glass bottle with a metal cap. It’s a pretty iconic looking bottle with a fine design though the frosted glass always makes me think of Avon.

Fragrance Family: Adehydelic Floral

Notes: Aldehydes, citrus, peach, rose, jasmine, lilac, iris, lily-of-the-valley, ylang-ylang, cedar, honey, amber, civet, sandalwood, tonka.

Probably the only time I’ll smell distinct civet in a fragrance and it was hilarious the first time I detected it in White Linen. Here I am, enjoying a bed of aldehydes and rose then all of a sudden something smells a wee bit off. Like a tiny fart, the civet makes this fragrance worth a test just to experience a bit of civet’s power.

Reviewed in This Post: White Linen, ~1980, Eau de Parfum.

Guerlain L’Ame d’un Heros

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L’Ame d’un Héros, the Soul of a Hero. A part of Guerlain’s Les Parisiennes line, L’Ame d’un Héros is a bee bottle exclusive of a previously discontinued scent. It is billed as a men’s fragrance but smells versatile enough for both genders to pull off. LAme dun Heros

In Bottle: Fresh and crisp citrus and aromatic scent with a touch of woodsiness in the bottle.

Applied: Opens with lemon and sage and that dry, citrus sophistication of bergamot. L’Ame d’un Héros crashes into the mid-stage with a smooth and excellently blended heart of green aromatics with a juniper dominance. The dry down is a fantastic, subdued dry resinous fragrance. This isn’t like the many different mainstream fragrances that are billed as masculine or sporty. L’Ame d’un Héros is similar in concept but the execution takes it a few steps up. As with most Guerlains, it is a well-blended and complex mixture that just makes it smell better.

Extra: L’ame d’un Heros is a remake of Guerlain’s 1998 men’s fragrance, Coriolan. Coriolan is discontinued and it smells very similar to L’ame d’un Heros except for its strength. If you are looking for a lighter, more refined and subdued scent, L’ame d’un Heros is your fragrance. If you want power, projection and confidence, go get yourself a bottle of Coriolan. It should also be noted that Coriolan is much cheaper and is becoming more and more scarce on the second hand market.

Design: L’Ame d’un Héros like the rest of Les Parisiennes is bottled in a beautiful iconic bee bottle.

Fragrance Family: Woodsy Aromatic

Notes: Sage, neroli, bergamot, lemon, wormwood, cypress, juniper, basil, ylang-ylang, amber, patchouli, woods, vetiver.

I personally prefer the scent of L’Ame d’un Héros over Coriolan–but only because L’Ame d’un Héros is a quieter fragrance.

Reviewed in This Post: L’ame d’un Heros, 2008, Eau de Parfum.

Chanel Platinum Egoiste

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Platinum Égoïste is the well known Chanel men’s fragrance that many people claim exudes confidence. I can’t say it exudes confidence so much as it’s a pleasant, professional, quality fragrance. It’s loud but not shrieking, it’s pleasant but not boring, and it’ll last ’til the end of time. Platinum Égoïste is a clean, soap-like, aromatic that’s so versatile you’d be hard pressed to find a time when you can’t wear it.  Platinum Egoiste

In Bottle: Aromatics up my nose. Help. My very first reaction to this was that it smells very familiar. It took a few moments before I realized it. Holy hell, it smells like my fiance’s soap or shampoo.

Applied: Aromatics that mix together to make that masculine soap and shampoo scent. This is like Prada’s d’Homme but done much louder and a bit better. It’s clean, fresh, very familiar to the Acqua di Gio crowd but much more expensive and sophisticated while at the same time being pleasant and approachable. As Égoïste ages, it turns into a sharp lemon and aromatic which eventually fades back into a nicer, less abrasive floral heart with a pleasant touch of aqua. The dry down is a light, crisp cedar and musk. To get anywhere near the dry down you have to wait hours. Like with most Chanel fragrances, the scent stays on you for a long time. Which makes this a great office fragrance that you don’t have to worry about touching up. So long as you go light on it because while this stuff smells pleasant, sophisticated and approachable it is also extremely strong.

Extra: Platinum Égoïste sometimes gets accused of being boring or overpriced for what it is due to its similarity to Acqua di Gio fresh and other fairly typical aqua fragrances. I don’t smell Acqua di Gio in this, it has a very subtle sophistication to it that a pure AdG clone tends to lack. As for overpriced? I’d have to point to Creed’s Virgin Island Water or Green Irish Tweed if we’re banking on that argument. There’s an overarching feel  to Platinum Égoïste that sets it in the same mood as Acqua di Gio, but to me, there’s a bit of spin in this stuff that also sets it aside. It smells better, more expensive, and better made. In the end, if it smells the same to you as another fragrance then don’t buy it. As for me, I love it.

Design: Comes in a nicely made rectangular glass bottle with a metal cap. Has that nice weighty feel that most Chanel bottles have. Simple, elegant, not at all gaudy or over the top. Just minimalist and lovely.

Fragrance Family: Aromatic Fresh

Notes: Lavender, rosemary, petitgrain, clary sage, geranium, galbanum, vetiver, cedarwood, labdanum, treemoss.

Reviewed in This Post: Platinum Egoiste , 2009, Eau de Toilette.

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.

Annick Goutal Mandragore

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The best thing about Annick Goutal fragrances for me is the fact that they all tend to have this lovely light, garden flowers type of smell. The kind of fragrances that take something mainstream and improve on it. Like Guerlain often did. Mandragore

In Bottle: Fresh bright citrus, cooling mint and a lovely sweet anise note. Very fresh, nice amount of citrus and thankfully, no presence of lemon as fresh scents do tend to use that note as a crutch. Mandragore gets its freshness from mints and other citrus instead which I am very grateful for.

Applied: Citrus, mint, herb and a lot of anise. I’m really impressed with the mint and other herbal notes in this. They’re crisp and green and extremely refreshing. The anise sweetens and spices up Mandragore quite a bit. The fragrance remains fresh and bright with gentle wafts of spiciness coming in and out as the fragrance ages on my skin. The citrus leaves the fragrance some time during the mid-stage but the freshness doesn’t suffer from it. Mandragore uses those herbal aromatic notes to freshen things up instead of citrus. I’m really impressed. The dry down is a great fresh herb and woodsy ending. Unfortunately, Mandragore doesn’t last a very long time and needs to be reapplied more often than other eau de parfums. But the scent is absolutely lovely.

Extra: Mandragore is one of Annick Goutal’s more popular fragrances and with good reason. It’s got enough freshness to be a fantastic office scent, is excellent for places where you might need your scent to go on light and it’s quite a good unisex scent too. That is, if you don’t mind or like the feminine bottle design.

Design: Bottled in the same way as other Annick Goutal fragrances, in a ribbed glass bottle with a gold ribbon tying the fragrances name to the bottle. Mandragore also comes in a butterfly bottle. These things are round glass bottle with a butterfly topper. Finally, Mandragore can be purchased in a square bottle. Which is just that, a square-shaped bottle with a metal cap. Standard look if you would prefer something a little simpler in design.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Aromatic

Notes: : Bergamot, star anise, peppermint, sage, ginger, black pepper, boxwood, mandrake powder, ciste roots, labdanum.

I really love the bottles Annick Goutal presents their fragrances in. Not simple but very elegant and classic in style. Lining these things up is a great past time if you’re insane like I am.

Reviewed in This Post: Mandragore, 2008, Eau de Parfum.