L’Instant de Guerlain pour Homme

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L’Instant de Guerlain pour Homme Extreme (the Eau de Parfum) version was not an easy animal to track down for me. Everywhere I saw the EDT but no EDP. Regardless, L’Instant de Guerlain pour Homme is widely loved and wildly popular. So, not being able to get a hold of the EDP, I settled for a little vial of the EDT.

L'Instant de Guerlain

L'Instant de Guerlain

In Bottle: Complex medley that’s both classic but modern and easy to wear. It’s hard to separate any distinct notes but it has a great mix of anise, citrus and woods.

Applied: Initial licorice quality of the anise that’s been tempered with a peppery blend of citrus notes that give the impression of a clean opening before L’Instant de Guerlain pour Homme delves into deeper territory with a brilliantly blended mixture of florals, woods and herbal notes. There’s nothing too distinct about this, but I do notice a cedar note bashing around the blend. The fragrance as a whole just blends together in a powder and floral mix that smells fantastic. L’Instant de Guerlain pour Homme is a sophisticated fragrance has a classic quality to it while remaining a modern pleaser. If you want to smell awesome for the office or a special event L’Instant de Guerlain pour Homme won’t let you down. I think what I’m trying to say is, the fragrance is blended well enough to be worn as an every day office scent if you go easy on the trigger and it can also double as a going out fragrance for when you want to leave a good impression. The dry down is marked with a dry woods and powder.

Extra: Now I know why L’Instant de Guerlain pour Homme is so well-loved by the fragrance community. I just wish the EDP was easier to find. It’s a great scent for men. If you’re worried about the floral notes, go out and test out this fragrance to see if you’ll like it. It’s classical personality has turned off some people, but if you can get past the classic scent you’ll definitely smell great.

Design: Reminiscent of L’Instant de Guerlain for women. The bottle has a nice heft to it which is always good. The EDT version has a black cap with some grooves and the EDP version has a black cap that’s colored black  at the bottom. The design itself is great, it feels good to hold, is simple and elegant as well as easy to spray.

Fragrance Family: Floral Woods

Notes: Bergamot, lemon, grapefruit, anise, jasmine, tea, patchouli, lavender, cedar, cocoa, sandalwood, hibiscus, musk.

Now L’Instant de Guerlain pour Homme comes in a few additions. The two major ones you want to pay attention to is the L’Instant de Guerlain pour Homme EDT which was reviewed in this post and the L’Instant de Guerlain pour Homme Extreme edition which is the EDP. The EDP is difficult to track down and has a lot of devoted fans.

Reviewed in This Post: L’Instant de Guerlain pour Homme, 2008, Eau de Toilette.

Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male

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Le Male’s something of a classic for men’s fragrance, I guess. Well, maybe classic is putting it a bit too high on the totem pole. What Le Male is, however, is a very successful, very nice oriental fragrance that many men who prefer something outside of Acqua di Gio tend to enjoy.

Le Male

Le Male

In Bottle: Initial whiff of lavender and spices in Le Male. It’s at once familiar and unique.

Applied: Spicy lavender up top. Le Male’s reminiscent of a fougere fragrance with a major spicy kick. The cardamom, to my nose is particularly strong along with the cinnamon note. It reminds me a bit of this awesome chai tea that I really like that features cinnamon and caraway rather heavily. The lavender helps pull the fragrance together from the get go, as its little whiffs of mint and bergamot that were in the initial spray make way for a warm, dry midstage that sees an introduction of a slight floral sandalwood scent. The dry down is very dry with lavender hints hanging on and its spicy cinnamon making a very good run as the sweet, dry, woods scent of the base takes the rest of the show.

Extra: Le Male is strong and has excellent projection, so watch how much of this you spray on yourself. Especially you guys who wear this almost every day. Your nose may have adapted to the scent from prolonged use and you might be overdoing it a bit. I’ve stood close to a man who overdid the Le Male and it turns this brilliant spicy fougere into a powerful mess. Easy on the trigger and you’ll smell awesome though.

Design: Iconic design from Jean Paul Gaultier of the “torso bottles”. Le Male is packaged in a blue torso bottle resemble a man’s chest and hips. The fragrance itself comes in a tin can. Great for keeping out light and helping the fragrance keep a little cooler, but I can’t say I like having a tin can sitting on a fragrance shelf. Still, the torso bottle is a classic piece of design to some people, but for me, it kind of freaks me out to be honest. Still,as soon as you see these torso designs, you probably instantly think, “Oh, it’s Jean Paul Gaultier doing his thing again”. So if nothing else, it is memorable.

Fragrance Family: Spicy Oriental Fougere

Notes: Artemisia, lavender, mint, bergamot, cardamom, caraway, orange blossom, cinnamon, sandalwood, tonka bean, amber, vanilla, cedar.

On myself, Le Male smells too iconically male. Though it’s a great scent that I really like. It smells like it belongs on a man though and that is probably because of the prevalence of the gender that often wears it. Still, it’s like I always say, if you like this enough then who cares what gender it was made for? Just wear it and rock it.

Reviewed in This Post: Le Male, 2001, Eau de Toilette.

Houbigant Fougere Royale 2010

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Usually when a fragrance company says they’ve taken one of their classics and ‘modernized’ it, big red alarms go off in my head. I’ve never had the pleasure of sampling the original Fougere Royale from 1882 and the oldest vintage I’ve even seen was on an eBay auction of questionable quality. So I went into this 2010 reformulation with as little knowledge of the original perfume as possible–being ignorant of the original fragrance, I’m going to have to say Fougere Royale 2010 is pretty darn good.

Fougere Royale 2010

Fougere Royale 2010

In Bottle: The lavender note is rather strong in this, dominating for the moment over the green herbal quality of the fragrance. There’s a spiciness in the background that blends in beautifully with the rest of the fragrance making Fougere Royale smell  sophisticated.

Applied: Opens with a clear greenness to it layered over a lavender note that’s helping a spicy floral note along that might be the carnation. As the fragrance heads into its midstage the lavender sticks around but also blends in with a strong herbal note that I presume is the clary sage. There’s a lot of complexity in this fragrance but I can pick out a few key notes here and there. Most notable is the lavender, then the sage and a spicy note in the midstage where I get the cinnamon notes. The final dry down is marked with a creamier personality as the tonka and amber notes come up to blend with the herbal and spicy notes. The lavender is still faintly recognizable in the dry down as well.

Extra: Fougere Royale has had a tumultuous past, much like the fragrance house that originally released it. After its release in 1882 it has gone under numerous reformulations. Like with all modern fragrances, any oak moss note is likely to be synthetic or a substitute. The original Fougere Royale was composed by Paul Parquet and was considered one of the first modern fragrances thanks to its use of synthetic coumarin. The 2010 version of Fougere Royale was composed by Rodrigo Floures-Roux (Clinique Happy, John Varvatos Artisan and Artisan Black).

Design: Fougere Royale 2010 is designed to appeal to a more masculine audience with a square-ish bottle featuring cut patterns in the glass. The bottle reminds me a bit of classical fragrances but also remains a little bit of modern appeal. It’s a pretty good design that does the fragrance and its history justice, in my opinion.

Fragrance Family: Aromatic

Notes: Bergamot, chamomile, lavender, herbs, carnation, geranium, cinnamon, rose, patchouli, oak moss, amber, tonka bean, clary sage.

I do believe Fougere Royale 2010 did the best that it could with a notes list from the 1800s that would have been expensive and near impossible to replicate now. I don’t doubt that 2010’s version and the fragrance from 1882 would smell drastically different but the 2010 version is a great fragrance nonetheless.

Reviewed in This Post: Fougere Royale, 2010, Eau de Parfum.

Sarah Jessica Parker Lovely

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Lovely is like one of the few fleeting breaths of fresh air in between the intoxicating aftermath of a fruit and candy explosion at the celebirty perfume factory. That is to say, this fragrance can stand up on its own even without SJP’s name on it.

Lovely

In Bottle: A mix of lavender, woods, and clean amber. Not at all what I was expecting from a celebrity perfume but word has it that Sarah Jessica Parker’s fragrances are usually a cut above the other contenders.

Applied: Lavender on the opening with a hit of citrus. The lavender here is used rather well though it’s definitely not some of the best quality lavender. Still, I can applaud Lovely for having the guts to use the note. Some lavenders wind up too strong, tending to smell medicinal if not used right. I actually like Lovely’s interpretation as it’s a woodsy, clean scent with a twist of herbal. The lavender seeps into the mid-stage as the fragrance introduces a hint of amber and woods as Lovely warms up quite a bit. There’s a certain soapiness to this that keeps things clean and accessible, which only impresses me further. The fragrance is so far being rather risque for a celebuscent but it manages to skirt the territory between highbrow smell experiment and department store safe. The fragrance ages down to a woodsy lavender musk. I dare say this stuff smells almost elegant.

Extra: Funny enough, my first experience with Lovely was in a book. A tester strip of this stuff was wedged into the back of Chandler Burr’s The Perfect Scent. The strip the fragrance was squished onto also makes a great bookmark.

Design: Egg-shaped, pink, easy to hold and use bottle. I don’t know what else I can say about this stuff. The shape is pretty generic and the bottle looks very unassuming. I neither love it nor hate it.

Fragrance Family: Aromatic Woodsy

Notes: Lavender, mandarin, bergamot, rosewood, orchid, patchouli, amber, cedar, musk.

Score another one for the celebuscent team. I try to maintain an open mind about fragrances no matter whose name is on it and I feel like the more I smell, the less impressed I get with celebrity perfumes. It’s because the great majority of them smell generic and synthetic. But once in a while something like Lovely or Cumming proves me wrong and I’ll happily accept that.

Reviewed in This Post: Lovely, 2010, Eau de Parfum.

Oscar Oscar de la Renta

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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.

Agonist Liquid Crystal

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Our friends at Agonist (aka. Those weird glass art bottle people) have a new offer on the table with Liquid Crystal. For those of you turned off by the price tag and bottle design of The Infidels, you might be swayed to like Liquid Crystal a bit more. As for the price tag–well, that’s probably not going anywhere any time soon.

Agonist Liquid Crystal

In Bottle: Sweet citrus, barely there though as the lavender hits up the forefront right away. I smell predominantly sweet lavender. It’s a beautiful lavender though so I’m okay with that.

Applied: The citrus opens this up with a sweet note that’s quite pleasing and does well to help lead in the lavender notes. This is full-bodied, complex, high-quality lavender at its best. It’s like fields of lavender basking on a sunny day. It’s very pretty for a fragrance that’s dedicated to one rather predominant smell. You can tell the lavender is good and blended well with the slightly sweet notes also present in the fragrance. This doesn’t smell like straight up lavender essential oil as there’s some mild hints of clove and oregano that I get from this when the lavender starts to calm down a bit near the end of the show. She’s not one-dimensional, she’s prominently biased  on one note but allows a mixture of other elements to merge and form something that amplifies the beauty of that one note. With that having been said, it is very much  based on lavender and that is what you will smell the most here. So if you hate lavender for some reason, you will probably hate this.

Extra: I’m going to talk about the bottle for Liquid Crystal because the bulk of the money basically goes into the packaging for Agonist’s stuff, it seems. The bottle is handmade, which adds to its value. It’s intricately designed, add more to its value. And it’s a high end niche brand, more value added. So it’s no surprise that you are going to have to pay up a pretty penny for this. I wouldn’t mind if I had a few million dollars laying around and $1,200 was pocket change as the bottle is gorgeous. It comes in two pieces, a stand and the bottle itself, so if you don’t like the melted glass look of the stand, you still have the bottle to display on its own. Though it looks fantastic on that stand too.

Design: Agonist’s bottle designs have been that one polarizing element to their stuff, and while I knew a lot of people who hated how The Infidels looked, Liquid Crystal is an easier to accept design. It’s absolutely intricate, very interesting to look at and makes for an absolutely fabulous conversation starter. “Hey Kay, I noticed you’ve got this weird artsy doohickey on your coffee table.” “Thanks, it’s Liquid Crystal from Agonist.” “Oh, is that what it’s called?” “Yeah, it’s a perfume.” “Really? A perfume? Where’d you get it?” “Oh, I got it online. it’s a bit expensive though.” “Expensive? Like $200 or something?” “Um, $1,200.” At that point I finally admit to myself that I’d never have the spare change handy to justify buying an actual bottle and will settle for refill bottles ($100 for 50ml) and sampler vials.

Fragrance Family: Aromatic

Notes: Bergamot, lavender, english clove, lavandin absolute, lavandin essential oil, oregano, vetiver, coumarine, praline, everlasting flower.

In case you were wondering, yes there’s three types of lavender in the notes. And mixed together, it’s just lovely.

Reviewed in This Post: Liquid Crystal, 2011, Eau de Parfum.

Liz Claiborne Curve Crush (Men)

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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

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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.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Villain

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Villain is one of my holy grails. It’s a clean, herbal fragrance that doesn’t overdo the green or herbal. It’s clean and semi-masculine. Like a really well-behaved aftershave or a white starched shirt. Villain

In Bottle: First thing I smell is a sharp clean white musk with a hint of lavender and lilac floating in the background.

Applied: The citrus comes up faster than the white musk on my skin. It sort of blasts itself into the beginning and settles down as it lets the lighter lavender note come up. I know lavender is polarizing. Too much of it and a fragrance stinks, but use just enough and it adds a bit of much-appreciated personality to the scent. Villain has enough lavender to detect, not enough to make eyes water. The lavender is also toned down by a more predominant lilac note that works incredibly well with the clean white musk. Villain’s lavender evolves into a stronger player as the fragrance ages on me, but it never gets to the point where it overpowers the rest of the scent. Put all this together and you get a clean, semi-aromatic fragrance that makes me think masculine, but that shouldn’t stop you from enjoying this if you’re a woman.

Extra: Villain is described by BPAL as a Victorian lavender fougere.

Design: Villain is designed like all other 5ml bottles from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. It’s set in amber glass with a plastic screwtop. The label on the bottle displays the fragrance’s name and fragrance house.

Fragrance Family: Clean Aromatic

Notes: Lime, lavender, citrus, lilac, musk.

Just realized that it’s been a long time since I lumped a fragrance in the aromatic category. Anyway, Villain is one of the better lavenders I’ve smelled, but I tend toward sissy lavenders!

Reviewed in This Post: Villain, 2009, 5ml Bottle.

Guerlain Jicky

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So Jicky, what do you want me to say about you? Well, I ask because everyone the world over has already said what they wanted. It just seems I’d only add yet another opinion to the already loaded mix of what makes Jicky tick. Ah well, let’s give it a stab anyway. I started off this blog reviewing Mitsouko of all things! Jicky

In Bottle: Spicy lavender, warmed up and dotted with a slight citrus topper in the opening. Jicky is immediately alarming and comforting at the same time.

Applied: Initial flare up of citrus, a big yellow splash in the opening to get you ready for the lavender that rolls in soon after. The lavender really shines with Jicky for me. It’s normally a comforting scent, this lavender, but the Jicky lavender gets a bit indolic at times thanks to what I can only assume is the civet used in this. It’s very heady and frankly speaking, she doesn’t smell “right” but that doesn’t stop her from smelling awesome. For those of you not in the know, “indolic” is a polite term for “smells like poo”. Breathe past that minute note of “off-ness” and you’ll be rewarded with a spicy leathery quality to it. There’s definitely animalic swayings in this fragrance. It’s not soft and tender lavender for sure and if you were to drop this into a soap people would be wondering what’s wrong with you while at the same time wondering how they could get in on it too. This is dirty stuff but it’s classy stuff, and it amuses me a great deal. She doesn’t try to fruit it up or pass it off as some sort of therapy and just for that alone, Jicky should be given a crown. It’s simply you and lavender, leather, spice, and hilarious indole. And you had better take it. Jicky uses that full lavender with an air of sophistication and a sense of daring all the way into the closer where the lavender fades a warmed dusty tonka greets you at the bottom with that ever present indole. Something about Jicky smells familiar but at the same time incredibly lush and hard to grasp. If Jicky could talk, I imagine she’d say, “What? You don’t like it? Then it’s obvious you don’t get it and I’ll thank you for getting out of my way”. Yeah, that’s Jicky. She doesn’t care if you don’t like her. She knows she’s good.

Extra: I love Jicky. I don’t love how she smells because I am a self-professed, shame-faced lover of clean and easy to wear. But I love what she stands for and appreciate what she is. She’s an era in perfume long gone but stubbornly and regally embodied in her bold presence that just refuses to go quietly. She’s one of the few Guerlains that I will probably never wear simply because she’s too much for me. But I can appreciate her all the same. Especially for being so “in your face” with all the fresh, clean, fruity stuff being pumped out today. I find it delicious to imagine a group of bottles, a hundred or so in number, of celebrity fragrances could be placed on the floor in a room. And there might be a bottle of Jicky sitting in the middle, waiting for some unsuspecting person to come by, pick her up and get slapped in the face with all that she is. Never change, Jicky. Never change.

Design: Those of you familiar with the Nahema design will recognize the image above. Though it should be noted that Jicky most definitely came first. Beautiful bottle, classical look, wonderful feel. Pictured above is the parfum concentration placed into an fantastic, elegant flacon. It’s Guerlain at its best.

Fragrance Family: Classic Aromatic

Notes: Lemon, mandarin, bergamot, lavender, orris, jasmin, rose, patchouli, vetiver, leather, amber, civet, tonka, incense, benzoin.

You don’t really need me to rehash the romantic story of Jicky and her creation again, do you? Nah, I’ll just leave this post to say that if you were here and reading about Jicky, and were interested, there is a large online database of information readily available with a quick Google search about the conceptualization of Jicky, where you can get Jicky, and what–if anything at all–has happened to her in all these years since 1889 when she was first introduced. Or you can click here.

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