Dita Von Teese Erotique

Got a request to do a review of this one. It took me a few months to track down a sample of it, half because it was curiously hidden away at department stores where I am and half because I felt another mention of celebuscents within months of each other was a bit over the top.

Erotique

Erotique

In Bottle: Leather and smoke with a bath of wood.

Applied:  Erotique reminds me of the word “blunt”, the adjective. It comes in with leather and gives you the dyed soaking version of just that. It smells of smoke instead of incense. The smoked leather is warm, if you need something to remind you of heat in the dead of winter, I think Erotique might help. It reminds me more of a fireplace than leather at times, and at other times it’s overwhelmingly warm leather. I guess the imagery I get from this is less erotic and more comfy. Like taking a nap on a leather sofa in front of a wood burning fireplace. There are other elements of this that come and go, in less noticeable amounts than the leather and wood. There’s not too much else I notice aside from a kick of spice here and there, but what is there is a pleasant enough journey for me.

Extra: Erotique was released in 2013. Dita Von Teese, I had to look up, and discovered she was at one time the wife of Marilyn Manson whose musical stylings confused and frightened an eight year old version of me back in the 90s.

Design: For a fragrance like this, I found the bottle to be a strange juxtaposition. Its shape and color and styling would make me think “sweet and fruity!” rather than warm leathery woods. The cap is also a bit overdone, but I’d be hard pressed to say the bottle didn’t look nice. I just don’t think it looks appropriate.

Fragrance Family: Woodsy Leather

Notes: Rose, incense, leather, pepper, coriander, sandalwood, guaiac wood, cedar, musk.

Maybe it was because I had to take it easy on the fragrances for about a month, or maybe it was ten to twenty fragrances I had tested before I got this one–in a period of about three to four days but by the time I was done with Erotique, I had a pretty awesome fragrance headache. No idea where that came from, the last headache I got was years ago (from perfume anyway). I really don’t think it had anything to do with Erotique, but rather my brain telling me to ease myself back into perfumery. Regardless, Erotique is actually one of the few celebuscents that does something remotely different from everything else. If you must get yourself a celebuscent, try Erotique.

Reviewed in This Post: Erotique, 2013, Eau de Parfum.


Histoires de Parfums 1826

The Histoires de Parfums line has always interested me. I loved the concept behind it and had been meaning to get a sample of one of the fragrances for years. My main hold up was not knowing where to start and what year to order first. I settled on 1826 thanks to a recommendation from a friend.

1826

1826

In Bottle: Strong bergamot and woody presence with a hint of smooth vanilla and spice.

Applied: Starts up with a strong bergamot and tangerine showing that is quick to make way for the floral aspect. I get a lot of lowers, and a bit of spice that creeps up to the midstage making for a complex and pleasant blend that gets slapped with a soft vanilla incense halfway through its progression. 1826 settles into a floral vanilla with a hint of woods. It’s giving off a clean floral vibe. Heck, this thing changes on me like crazy, one minute being a spicy floral and another being a vanilla floral that throws in a clean note out of no where. There’s a dark edge to it with the patchouli too, that settles in the background in the early midstage where it lends 1826 a bit of depth. The dry down is markedly woodsy with a final showing of florals and that elusive, but brilliant vanilla.

Extra: 1826 is dedicated to the last French empress, Eugénie de Montijo, whose birthday is reportedly May 5th, 1826. She lived a very long life given the time period and passed away at the age of 94 in Spain. The Empress, formerly known as María Eugenia Ignacia Augustina de Palafox-Portocarrero de Guzmán y Kirkpatrick, is somewhat understandably more well known as the fashionable wife of Napoleon III, and the last empress of the French court.

Design: Histoires de Parfums keeps a somewhat uniformed look for their bottles. I am a huge fan of uniform looks for series because I can imagine if I were ever wealthy enough to buy an entire series of perfumes, that I could line them up and be a little giddy about how awesome that would look. Histoires de Parfums is one of those bottle designs that would look fabulous lined up in a row and still looks pretty good even if you own just one of the bottles. The box tells you what notes are in the fragrance along with a little blurb about the name of the scent. The bottle itself has a label on the side that gives you the notes you should expect to smell. Simple, functional, and would look awesome lined up in a row.

Fragrance Family:  Floral Oriental

Notes: Bergamot, tangerine, white florals, violet, cinnamon, ginger, patchouli, amber, incense, woods, white musk, vanilla.

I have to admit that I expected a little less punch during the initial spray phase, but the rest of the fragrance smells divine. It’s got a great complexity to it, and it’s quite the shape shifter to boot. It smells great, has a young streak, tends toward a sweet youthful vanilla, though it’s probably not the kind of thing you’d want to recommend for a teenage girl or someone with a teenage girl’s sensibilities. 1826 is definitely a woman’s fragrance and needs a sophisticated nose to appreciate it.

Reviewed in This Post: 1826, 2012, Eau de Parfum.


Lady Gaga Fame

I’m going to make a deal with you guys and myself. I’m going to review this thing, then I will absolutely not mention Lady Gaga or Fame again for the duration of this year. I think we’d all like to move on, and I was almost going to pass on even trying this because of how bored I got with the marketing. So, I promise, this one last post and then no more.

Fame

Fame

In Bottle: If I had any expectations that this would smell anything different than a generic fragrance then I would like to once again concede my disappointment. Fame smells of slightly synthetic honeyed florals and the barest glance of vanillic incense.

Applied: I aimed a spray of this on my arm was fascinated to see the black turn clear. And that was probably the most promising thing about Fame. I will say upfront that if you expected this to be bold, unique, or interesting then you might be in for a let down. Fame starts off with a synthetic blast of fruity florals. I can’t really tell if the synthetic waft I got came from the purported belladonna note or the honey note they used. Maybe it even came from whatever agent they used to turn black liquid into clear liquid. Whatever it is, it smells faintly of chemical and plastic on application. Rest easy though, that stage of it lasts for a few seconds and Fame settles down into a honeyed apricot floral fragrance. It is very apricots and jasmine based with a thick coat of sweet honey. After the very generic mid-stage, Fame dives into a slightly more interesting saffron and incense with florals dry down. The dry down gives off a smoky saffron (smells a bit like vanilla to me) twist to the generic florals, but it’s really late to the ballgame and to be honest, the incense is lightly used which makes the dry down even less noteworthy.

Extra: Fame has been causing a huge buzz in the celebuscent circles for months and I’m particularly happy that it’s finally released and we can hopefully move on from here. Fame was developed by Coty with some sort of collaborative effort from Haus Laboratories. The fragrance was apparently marketed as having new technology including the black liquid and some nonsense about it being “push-pull” where the notes weren’t going to work in a typical pyramid fashion. I don’t know where they got that one because 1) perfumers have already been making that happen for years, and 2) I experienced a mostly linear progression.

Design: What Fame does well is mix Lady Gaga’s style with the design of the bottle. It very much reminds me of her while at the same time forces me to draw some similarities to Thierry Mugler’s designs. It’s Alien-esque, but I think it works well for Gaga’s image. The bottle isn’t ugly, but at the same time it’s not my kind of style as I’ve confessed before that I find most Mugler bottles to be a bit of an eyesore. Still, it felt nice to nice to hold and was easy to use. I’m not going to be buying it for looks or smell any time soon though.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Apricot, orchid, belladonna, jasmine, honey, saffron, incense.

Now, if you’re a huge fan of Gaga, I don’t think my review is going to curb you away from buying this. If you aren’t a fan of Gaga and just want to know if this is anything at like Mother Monster, then I’ll save you a trip to the department store and say, “No”. Fame is very pleasant, not gross or weird, but really generic and easily beaten by more competent honey fragrances such as Tokyo Milk’s Honey and the Moon or for a less gourmand and more floral scent, Aftelier’s Honey Blossom. If you want Gaga branding, go with Fame. If you want an actual interesting and beautiful honey floral fragrance? Seriously, check out Aftelier’s Honey Blossom.

Reviewed in This Post: Fame, 2012, Eau de Parfum.


Frederic Malle French Lover

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.


Parfum d’Empire Cuir Ottoman

Cuir Ottoman was a leather recommended to me by a friend who said that if I wasn’t already obsessed with leather then I would be once I smelled this.

Cuir Ottoman

Cuir Ottoman

In Bottle: Leather, nice and smooth with a warm and soft quality. A bit of floral layering in the back that helps the leather pull away from its often “too strong” personality. The mix is very nice.

Applied: Leather, soft and smooth and yielding. This isn’t too strong or too evident as the florals in this–a jasmine with iris blend–help temper the leather even more. The leather is definitely the star of the show though as it reminds me of a well-loved old leather jacket passing through a field of flowers. It’s one of the better done leathers out there, that actually mimics the real scent very well. It is also a very good balance in almost every category, making this a good unisex fragrance. As the scent heads toward its end stage, there’s a smokiness that amps up that I’m guessing is the resin and incense giving the leather fragrance a smoky quality.

Extra: Cuir Ottoman is very nicely done and really well-balanced. I have no complaints about its composition as it’s just so nicely done. The fragrance was released in 2006.

Design: Parfums d’Empire’s bottle designs seem pretty similar to each other. Tall glass, an accented cap. I can’t complain about the functionality, but the form was a little bland. Still, the same thing could be said about most niche houses. You buy it for the juice and not the design. Unless you’re buying an Agonist perfume, then we all know.

Fragrance Family: Floral Leather Oriental

Notes: Jasmine, leather, iris, benzoin, balsams, resins, incense.

So Cuir Ottoman is definitely worth a shot. It’s a great scent that’s wonderfully composed. But in so far as making me obsess about leathers, we’ll have to wait on that one.

Reviewed in This Post: Cuir Ottoman,  2010, Eau de Parfum.


Comme des Garcons Odeur 71

I had left this one in my stack of samples for too long. Now it’s time to crack her open and get a face full of Odeur 71.

Odeur 71

Odeur 71

In Bottle: Herbal with a distinctly burnt quality to it. I’m thinking the incense with the woods mixed with herbs and spices.

Applied: Odeur 71 is heavy and heady as it starts off with a burnt wood and spice mixed with herbal notes that carries the fragrance up to your nose and makes you wonder if you left something in the oven. It’s a disarming scent, bizarre, a bit repulsive, but at the same time attractive in an indescribable way. It smells of woods more and more as I wear it but the burnt smell also follows it along. The herbs get a bit stronger too, making the fragrance just a bit greener as I keep wearing this, as the fragrance ends with a synthetic burnt plastic-like aroma at the end of it all.

Extra: Comme des Garcons reportedly calls this the “anti-fragrance” said to be inspired by dust on a lightbulb, metal, and lettuce juice. All wonderfully pleasant things to think about but I’m not sure Odeur 71 really delivers that special olfactory experience so much as it delivers a burning synthetics sort of fragrance.

Design: Bottled in a rectangular flacon. The design is less whimsical in my opinion but it is functional and contains just enough quirk to firmly label it as a Comme des Garcons. Nice to look at, but there’s more interesting stuff out there if you were looking at this purely from a bottle 2011design standpoint.

Fragrance Family: Smoky Woods

Notes: Incense, wood, moss, willow, elm, bay leaves, bamboo, hyacinth.

Not the kind of thing I see myself wearing every day as I don’t quite enjoy the mix of herbs and burnt plastic. Still, it’s got great projection and longevity. So if you’re into that kind of thing, hey.

Reviewed in This Post: Odeur 71,  2010, Eau de Toilette.


Frederic Malle Portrait of a Lady

Portrait of a Lady was the talk of Niche Town when it was first released. It took me a while to get my sample of this fragrance but I’m glad that I did.

Portrait of a Lady

Portrait of a Lady

In Bottle: Sour to my nose thanks to the currants with a spicy kick from the cinnamon and clove.

Applied: Sour currants that give way to spicy cinnamon and clove that mixes in with the incense in the midstage. I get mostly smoke from Portrait of a Lady until she keeps aging on my skin and there’s a bit of earthiness that comes up from the patchouli as the scent keeps aging the amber and its warmness rushes up to mingle with the smoke and spice. The rose in this scent doesn’t come up until later in the fragrance where the spicy notes settle down a bit to leave us with a soft, warmed, rose with a hint of spice.

Extra: Portrait of a Lady was created by Dominique Ropion who also created fragrances such as Burberry The Beat, Cacharel Amor Amor, and Armani Code for Women.

Design: Bottled in much the same way as other Frederic Malle scents, in a cylindrical glass bottle. It has a nice weight to it and the simple design makes you focus more on the scent inside the bottle than the flashy exterior. It’s simple and functional for what it is.

Fragrance Family: Oriental

Notes: Raspberry, blackcurrant, clove, cinnamon, rose, sandalwood, patchouli, incense, musk, amber, benzoin.

Portrait of a Lady is a really well done oriental, it smells a bit like an oriental powerhouse but also has elements of a sophisticated modern scent. I especially like the spicy rose present in this fragrance.

Reviewed in This Post: Portrait of a Lady, 2011, Eau de Parfum.


Tom Ford Black Orchid

Black Orchid’s one of the more popular of Tom Ford’s line. It’s a luscious, heady floral that’s billed as an oriental chypre. I see the oriental but I don’t understand where the chypre is supposed to come into play.

Black Orchid

In Bottle: Rich, heady and very strong. If you’re going to whiff up some of this stuff do it slowly and sparingly. It is strong and it will smell very creamy with a heady powdery jasmine and orchid scent. But taking a huge whiff of this kind of destroys its beauty because all you’re getting is a noseful of overwhelming smells.

Applied: Black Orchid goes much better on the skin and even then it should be used in small, exquisite little dabs. This fragrance is not light and it is not meek. It’s loud and full and unashamed of what it is. The first thing I get is this creamy white floral feel then a rolling in of the jasmine and orchid for a lush bouquet of florals that mingles with this powdery cocoa note that also introduces a bit of sweetness. As you continue to wear Black Orchid the rush of powerful fragrances tempers out a little bit, letting me detect a bit of smoky-spiciness. So Black Orchid’s mid-stage is a sweet and spicy floral powder with a layer of cream and a dusting of cocoa. I love its complexity and I love the drydown of dry, sweet woods and sweet amberous vanilla.

Extra: There’s been some rumors that Black Orchid was one of Michael Jackson’s favorite perfumes. While I know admittedly little about the late King of Pop, I do have to say that MJ had good taste in perfume.

Design: Tom Ford’s fragrances are bottled rather similarly, they can be white or black and are often in the shape shown above. The bottles have a very nice weight to them and they also have a simple, but luxurious, look to them. I like it!

Fragrance Family: Floral Oriental

Notes: Jasmine, black truffle, ylang-ylang, black currant, citrus, orchid, patchouli, sandalwood, dark chocolate, incense, amber, vetiver, vanilla, balsam.

While Black Orchid’s heady, creamy, powdery florals isn’t my cup of tea it is a very nice and very complex fragrance that I can see would work rather well for special occasions.

Reviewed in This Post: Black Orchid, 2006, Eau de Parfum.


Creed Angelique Encens

I’m rather sad that so many fragrances that are both beautiful and complex are discontinued. This includes Creed’s classic, Angelique Encens.

Angelique Encens

In Bottle: Creamy tuberose as a minor note–a bit of a surprise for me since tuberose tends to be big with my nose. There’s a lovely heady layer of incense hovering all over this fragrance.

Applied: Tuberose and soft florals with a touch of vanilla and amber. The oriental portion of this fragrance is very noticeable at first but the scent ages into its mid-stage with a lovely incense note coming up and flooding the fragrance. The incense in this is so pure and beautiful that if you enjoy incense, you should definitely look this one up. It’s heady and full and blends beautifully with the amber and vanilla opening. There’s a bit of tuberose still lingering around with a perfumy jasmine note trying to make an appearance but only manages a minor cameo. Though you don’t get much of the opening as soon as Angelique Encens gets started, you do feel that they’re still there. The dry down is more incense with a complete fade of any florals that may have managed to peek through. Angelique Encens is just a pretty classic.

Extra: All right, I got my sample of Angelique Encens dated to approximately 1970s but I can’t be sure as to how old it is. My contact also has no idea how old it is so we agreed on a very vague date for this stuff. The problem with Angelique Encens is that it’s no longer available. Creed discontinued her at some point and are now releasing her on a limited basis. Incredibly frustrating, but I suppose that’s how the exclusivity game works.

Design: Angellique Encens is bottled in Creed’s signature flacon. I’ve held exactly one of these in my life and the feel was very nice. It was heavy and looked beautiful. The price gets me a little but Creed makes up for the price in packaging and, in the case of Angelique Encens, the juice is fabulous as well.

Fragrance Family: Incense Oriental

Notes: Angelica, tuberose, rose, jasmine, amber, vanilla, incense.

I wish they’d bring this one back from discontinuation. I think she’s deeper, more complex and far better than most of the Creeds out now.

Reviewed in This Post: Angelique Encens, ~1970, Eau de Parfum.


Comme des Garcons 2 MAN

Comme des Garcons is one o those beloved niche perfume houses that outputs a wide variety of excellent smelly specimens. While I don’t like the style of their haute couture, I do like the way their perfumes swing.

2 MAN

In Bottle: Smokey with this smooth nutty quality that I presume is coming from the nutmeg. There’s a strong woodsy presence to this fragrance too. Very masculine, very empowering too.

Applied: 2 MAN opens with a woodsey incense that makes me think of old buildings with creaky floorboards. It mingles in that area for a while before it grows a bit more complex, taking in this smooth nutmeg scent as it ages and starts to deliver a wet grassy feel to it that I hope is the vetiver at work. The fragrance itself remains masculine, projecting this sturdy old building quality to it. Despite its powerful notes and what I suspect is a blend of cedar, mahogany and a touch of sandalwood, 2 MAN does all this without amping up the cedar note and smelling obnoxious. It’s strong but light and subtle. It projects a presence instead of simply projecting a smell. It’s a bit difficult to describe except that people will notice 2 MAN but they’ll notice it in a subtle way like you were meant to smell like this instead of an, “Ah, you need to tone down your fragrance” kind of way.

Extra: 2 MAN was composed by Mark Buxton, who was also responsible for a fragrance line that bears his name. He’s also done other fragrances for Comme des Garcons such as Comme des Garcons’ White and Original. You can purchase 2 MAN for a, all things considered, reasonable $120 per 100ml.

Design: Comes bottled in this offbeat flat glass flacon with the fragrance name written on it complete with an upside A that you have to look at the bottle twice to notice. A haphazard ‘2’ is scrawled on the glass and somehow pulls the entire look of this fragrance together. The bottle itself, thanks to how it’s shaped, cannot be stood up like most perfumes, so you’ll have to lie this baby on its side. It’s off-beat. I like it.

Fragrance Family: Smokey Woodsy

Notes: Incense, white smoke, saffron flowers, nutmeg, vetiver roots, mahogany, leather.

On my travels around the internet researching this fragrance and how it reacted on other people I came across a woman bemoaning her husband informing her that the bottle of 2 MAN she got for him smelled like urine then proceeded to refuse wearing it. Her son, being an avid connoisseur of Axe body sprays similarly rejected her offerings. While I cannot account for the tastes of others, I can guarantee you all that 2 MAN does not in fact, smell anything like urine.

Reviewed in This Post: 2 MAN, 2008, Eau de Toilette.