Thierry Mugler A*Men

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Lots of thanks to Undina from Undina’s Looking Glass for the sample of this fragrance. A*Men has been one of those scents that I kept hearing about but never got around to trying.

A*Men

A*Men

In Bottle: Sweet and a bit dusty, I get a lot of woods out of this but at the same time, I’m smelling the gourmand too.

Applied: Sweet upon application, lavender with a bit of milk and honey and lots of caramel. The fragrance introduces its woodsier side rather earlier as I get patchouli mixed with cedar that blends in with the caramel and milky notes. The mid-stage is marked with a noticeable addition of spices and woods, I swear I can smell cinnamon as the fragrance gets a bit more coffee like with this dusty coating of woods following it. The dry down is warm with a sandalwood base and a sweet toffee-like backdrop. I’ve seen people absolutely love A*Men and other people who can’t stand it. I was all ready for a gourmand but I was more surprised by the prominence of the woods in this. It makes the fragrance more oriental in style with a creamy, sweet caramel scent accented with a lot of woodsiness.

Extra: A*Men was introduced in 1996 and comes in two bottle styles. One metallic bottle and a rubber bottle.

Design: I’ve never been much of a fan of Thierry Mugler’s bottle designs. I often found them too chunk or too alien-looking and I can’t say I really like the bottle designs for A*Men either. It just doesn’t strike a chord with my sensibilities.

Fragrance Family: Gourmand Oriental Woodsy

Notes: Coriander, lavender, fruits, spices, mint, bergamot, honey, jasmine, milk, caramel, lily of the valley, cedar, patchouli, sandalwood, tonka, amber, musk, benzoin, coffee, vanilla.

I don’t think I’m that big of a fan of A*Men. I wasn’t sure whether or not I liked the gourmand bits of it, or the oriental bits, or the woodsy bits. It just all melded together into one big “blah” for me, though it does have really fantastic longevity.

Reviewed in This Post: A*Men, 2012, Eau de Toilette.

Illuminum Wild Tobacco

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I was in the mood for something a little heavier today and picked Wild Tobacco out of the samplers of Illuminum. So far the line has offered bright, clean fragrances and I was hoping Wild Tobacco would shift things in a different direction.

Wild Tobacco

Wild Tobacco

In Bottle: Smoky dense, tobacco with a touch of warm clove.

Applied: Looking at the notes, I had expected something sweeter. What Wild Tobacco is is a strong tobacco and clove scent that rises out of the initial application with a big shout to declare that it’s here. I get strong, almost single-minded smokiness from the tobacco with a bit of spicy tempering from the clove. The strength is admirable but the complexity is leaving me somewhat wanting. As the scent ages, the tobacco settles down a bit and I get more clove out of the scent followed by a mild, sweet tonka and a very light cedar note. The scent dries down a sweetened clove and mild tobacco.

Extra: Wild Tobacco was released in 2011, and was meant to evoke the scent of a gentleman’s club. Having never been to a gentleman’s club, I’ll just let it speak for itself. It’s strong and dry, very heavy on the clove and tobacco. Wild Tobacco can be had from LuckyScent or Illuminum’s website.

Design: Still not much of a fan of the packaging or branding. But I still think it would nice if you had more than two of these and displayed them all in a row.

Fragrance Family: Spicy Woodsy

Notes: Clove, clary sage, cedar, tobacco, castor, tonka, labdanum.

I’m not entirely sure about this one. It goes on with a strong tobacco presence but over time, it actually turns into a primarily clove scent. I almost felt like I had put on a tobacco scent and left with a Christmas time clove. If you’re drawn to smoky clove, then you might want to give this one a try.

Reviewed in This Post: Wild Tobacco, 2012, Eau de Parfum.

Disclaimer: The fragrance reviewed in this post was provided to me for free for the purposes of review. In no other way am I receiving pay or compensation for this review. This review was written based upon my personal experiences and opinions of the product.

M. Micallef Vanille Cuir

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Vanille Cuir

Vanille Cuir

Vanille Cuir is the last of the Vanilla Art Collection from M. Micallef. I left this one for last because I had a feeling that I would like it the most. Though after Vanille Orient and Vanille Marine, Cuir has some pretty big shoes to fill.

In Bottle: Smooth, creamy vanilla with an equally smooth leather note that makes this fragrance smell very grown up.

Applied: Rich, smooth vanilla. One of the nicest smelling vanillas ever. It floods into the air and has this instantly relaxing feel to it. I love the opening. Like, absolutely adore it and if I could bottle that, I’d probably have my favorite vanilla and call it a day. All the bergamot, mint, lavender and whatever else that’s supposed to be in the opening isn’t there for me or it’s been too well-blended, and I quite like it that way. But, the pillowy, rich vanilla gives way to a smooth, almost smoky leather scent that makes things seem more dense and grounded. Like wrapping yourself up in a big leather blanket and sprinkling some flowers on top for good measure. After a while, the spices kick in and the leather calms down a little, letting that gorgeous initial vanilla note to return and take the fragrance into this very soft leather, woods and vanilla dry down.

Extra: One of the best selling features of M. Micallef’s Vanilla collection is the fact that they use a really nice vanilla. I’ve smelled plenty of vanillas, many were plastic, boring, or predictable. And a few, rare, vanilla gems really stood out. The bourbon vanilla that Micallef used in this series is one of these gems. It shows in the delicate way the note unfolds and works with the other ingredients to form a beautiful creamy, natural fragrance.

Design: Yep. Still not a fan of the design, but the shape and utility of the bottles is growing on me quite a bit. I still prefer Micallef’s other designs.

Fragrance Family: Leather

Notes: Bergamot, mint, lavender, cinnamon, cumin, orange blossom, tonka, sandalwood, cedar, vanilla.

Leather’s one of those notes that has a lot of people concerned about how it would make them smell. It’s generally been tamed, but I know of some leathers that can smell quite animalistic. Vanille Cuir isn’t one of those. It tempers the leather quite well and mixes the vanilla with it rather expertly. With that having been said, I think my favorite in this line is probably Vanille Marine, followed by Vanille Orient, Vanille Cuir and finally, Vanille Fleur. If you do love vanillas though, you should definitely check out this collection, some samples or the fragrances themselves can be purchased at Luckyscent.

Reviewed in This Post: Vanille Cuir, 2012, Eau de Parfum.

Disclaimer: The fragrance sampler spray reviewed in this post was provided to me for free for the purposes of review. In no other way am I receiving pay or compensation for this review. This review was written based upon my personal experiences and opinions of the product.

Etro Heliotrope

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Etro’s Heliotrope is one of the more unique florals I’ve encountered and makes me question why it took me so long to try an Etro fragrance to begin with.

Heliotrope

Heliotrope

In Bottle: Rich vanilla and florals. I want to think that heliotrope is the prominent flower, but I’m actually getting more ylang-ylang.

Applied: A bit of almond and powdery heliotrope to start off the scent followed by a mellowing vanilla note that sweetens the fragrance a bit. I get the florals rather quickly, and for some reason ylang-ylang is quite prominent for me. Etro’s Heliotrope smells of powdered vanilla and ylang-ylang. It reminds me of vintage things and powder puffs with delicately scented blooms sitting in a pot of earth nearby. The florals smell natural, the vanilla adds a touch of oriental and smooths the fragrance. It’s overall a very pleasant experience.

Extra: Heliotrope is actually a fairly old release from Etro, having been released in 1989. It certainly explains the different approach to composition.

Design: Bottled rather simply, but still elegantly in a glass bottle with a nicely designed silver cap. It looks luxurious without being over the top and feels great to hold.

Fragrance Family: Oriental Floral

Notes: Bergamot, orange blossom, petitgrain, almond, iris, jasmine, heliotrope, rose, ylang-ylang, balsam, tonka, musk.

Etro is a great niche house with a fairly good representation of fragrances. You can find their stuff on StrawberryNET.

Reviewed in This Post: Heliotrope, 2000, Eau de Toilette.

Givenchy Pi

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Having completed a recent move, I am slowly coming back to the smell game and starting off with Givenchy Pi, a men’s fragrance toting itself as a woody oriental.

Pi

Pi

In Bottle: Mandarin with a vanilla and herbal scent up top. A pleasant if somewhat strange combination.

Applied: Mandarin right away with a nice wave of herbs coming in soon after it. I smell the rosemary rather predominantly. Almost as fast as the opening rolls in, I get a big whiff of almonds and vanilla and the fragrance sweetens up almost immediately. It’s kind of a shame that almond and vanilla and generally considered feminine fragrances because if given enough of a chance, Pi could make anyone of any gender smell good. It’s certainly a bit of a change from what I usually see with men’s scents. I rather like that it started off typical enough then takes itself into a sweet vanilla direction. The fragrance wears on with sweet vanilla and almond until the woodsiness comes up and mingles with the vanilla. The end product is a rather pleasant vanilla woods.

Extra: Pi was released in 1999 and has since split into a few flankers. You can still easily find Pi at department stores and even some drug stores.

Design: Serge Mansau strikes again with this bottle design. It reminds me a bit of Ancient Egyptian architecture with its even, straight form and coloring. The bottle is rather hefty, a little difficult to hold, but it is otherwise a beautiful, interesting piece to have.

Fragrance Family: Woodsy Oriental

Notes: Mandarin, tarragon, basil, rosemary, tonka, vanilla, benzoin, almond, brown sugar, cedar.

Pi is like a fragrance exploring the three concepts of fragrance gendering. It starts off masculine, evolves a bit into the feminine, then ends on a rather unisex note.

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

Playboy Play It Sexy

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What classy digs I’ve found myself in today with one of the (surprisingly) many Playboy fragrances. It’s Play It Sexy, a fragrance for women that I guess women can use to seduce men. I’m not sure this will work the way it claims it’ll work but let’s give it a sniff and go from there.

Play It Sexy

Play It Sexy

In Bottle: Sweet citrus that doesn’t hit the right notes and ends up smelling a little synthetic right off the bat. I kind of get some of the licorice note up front too which doesn’t help the synthetic smell of this at all.

Applied: Citrus on opening with a sweetness to it that’s a little bothersome. That synthetic feel of the fragrance isn’t any better on the skin. The fragrance is rather quick to evolve as well as the citrus moshes itself into the florals where I get jasmine and what’s clearly a rose note. The sweetness mingling with the rose is a tad disturbing and is reminding me a bit of how Danielle by Danielle Steel smelled and I did not like that one bit. The licorice note–hilariously enough–is also present throughout this entire fragrance taking this to the next level of unappealing because it’s mingling with everything and in a really poor way. It’s kind of like you’re not really enjoying a discordant juice blend that you decided to make yourself one day and tried to add some random element to it in the hopes of improving upon your wayward culinary attempts. Only said random element only made things worse. The fragrance dries down into a pretty generic vanilla sandalwood which I actually liked seeing as the rest of the fragrance didn’t hit it off with me. I will give Play It Sexy one thing, it doesn’t reach cloying sweetness and it isn’t crazy strong. So while I didn’t like the fragrance, I didn’t feel like I had to run to the bathroom and scrub it off.

Extra: So I don’t think Playboy will be joining the hallowed halls of mainstream designer perfumes any time soon. But if you’re looking for some cheap thrills in perfumery, these Playboy scents are very affordable. They’ll run you a few bucks over an Axe bodyspray but they do smell better.

Design: I really can’t speak for the bottle design for this stuff. It’s like an amalgamation of things I don’t like. Weird animal motif, random gem, pink, bowtie. It’s cute, I suppose. The only thing it’s missing is Comic Sans font and a fairy. The aesthetic just isn’t sitting well with me.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Grapefruit, mandarin, pink pepper, jasmine, florals, licorice, vanilla, patchouli, sandalwood, tonka.

So these fragrances come in a three pack, which is a pretty good deal, but supposedly they are supposed to represent the stages of a woman’s seduction game. The other two fragrances I’ve got are called “Play It Spicy” and “Play It Lovely”.

Reviewed in This Post: Play It Sexy, 2010, Eau de Parfum.

Givenchy Ange ou Demon

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From the other reviews I’ve read, it seems Ange ou Demon used to be something much better than the iteration I smelled. There’s a lot of bitterness for the silent reformulation of this fragrance and I regret not having smelled its original incarnation.

Ange ou Demon

Ange ou Demon

In Bottle: Looking at the notes list, I wouldn’t have pegged any of those to be in this fragrance. My impression is a very sweet rather girlish fragrance. Certainly not one that I could see the likes of rosewood and oak moss being present. This smells like fruity candy basically.

Applied: Very sweet fruity opening that reminds me a bit of Coco Mademoiselle’s very sweet opening without the amber or the powderiness. Ange ou Demon is like a slap in the face with a bag of hard candies. It quickly becomes cloying before it even starts introducing other notes into the mix. As I keep wearing it, there’s a few flowers that come in, none of them very deep but they do add themselves to the fruity candy mixture in the opening so what I end up getting is this sweet flowery mess that doesn’t smell like a high-end fragrance should smell like. Basically, it smells sloppily put together. Like someone mixed two incompatible perfumes together. The dry down doesn’t make things much better as that annoying cloying sweetness sidles up to the vanilla in the base to take Ange ou Demon out to end what was ultimately a pretty banal and semi-annoying performance.

Extra: Seems to me like sometime in the last few years Ange ou Demon went from a more sophisticated spicy floral scent to what it is now as a candy-laden mess. A shame, really, as the previous version sounded brilliant.

Design: I rather like the bottle design even though it can be a bit over the top. It reminds me of a jewel or a geode or something rocky and sparkling like that. The bottle itself is easy to hold and use though so I’m happy with it.

Fragrance Family: Sweet Floral

Notes: Mandarin,  cumin, saffron, lily, orchid, ylang-ylang, rosewood , oak moss, vanilla, tonka.

If there was more to this fragrance, I really missed it. The notes list makes Ange ou Demon sound so awesome. Cumon, saffron, rosewood and oak moss. All hugely sophisticated and beautiful notes but I got none of that. Instead, I got a flower covered lollipop.

Reviewed in This Post: Ange ou Demon, 2011, Eau de Parfum.

Clive Christian No. 1 for Men

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Happy April Fools Day. I only wish I was joking about the prices talked about in this post! No, I can’t be so frivolous as to drop the cash down for a Clive Christian fragrance. Not a full bottle anyway. My wallet is still hurting a bit from the tiny amount I do have just so I could sneak a sniff of one of Clive’s most fabled elixirs.

No. 1 for Men

In Bottle: Citrus and green with a dash of pepperiness thrown in there for a hint of spice. I smell vetiver, and a bit of something herbal. Rather complex from the get go with a distinctive vintage vibe to it. Very nice!

Applied: Starts off on a crisp, sharp lime note with an exotic blend of crushed spices taking the sharpness up a few more notches but never really letting it get out of hand. It makes a good first impression anyway. The fragrance has multiple layers of complexity and is one of those, “So many things I can’t separate them” stories. I’ll try my best through. The fragrance ages into the mid-stage with a steadily amping set of florals. I get jasmine for the florals, a hint of sophisticated rose. It is so well-blended that I can’t pick apart notes and frankly, I don’t really want to pick apart notes. The mid-stage is marked with a beautifully lush bouquet of florals. It is full and heady, with the spiciness that only serves to amplify the florals further. The mid-stage is where I really get that vintage feel. This smells like it belongs in the age of perfume greats. A time when Coty was more than celebrity perfumes and body mists. When Guerlain was family-owned and pumping out fragrance after fragrance of utter beauty. When Chanel No. 5 was how an elegant woman should smell instead of the old granny perfume it’s now known as. That’s what No. 1 for Men is. It’s actually a really pleasant trip to a time where I didn’t even exist. As No. 1 for Men dries down there’s a falling off of the florals but they never truly leave. I get a bit of the vetiver that I got in the bottle settling in at the bottom giving the florals a bit of extra boost as the fragrance digs itself out, leaving you with a faint air of lingering florals, a blend of woods, and a hint of dry vetiver.

Extra: Clive Christian acquired an old perfume house, Crown Perfumery, in 1999 and they have been coming out with stuff like this since. Clive Christian’s No. 1 fragrances are known as the most expensive in the world. This was a title that was once held by Joy by Jean Patou. These days, Joy is much more affordable and sanely priced. As for Clive Christian’s No. 1, it’s price goes up every year. The pure parfum presently sits near $2,500 CAD (Noted on Saks).

Design: As to be expected, the bottle is impeccably designed. In fact, most of the gush I found on this perfume was people talking about the packaging. For $2,500 I would certainly hope the packaging is worth it. One interesting thing to note is the crown design on the stopper was approved by the queen way back in the day. All I can tell you is, this is made of lead crystal, is flawless, glitters, the stopper has real gold on it, the stopper also has a diamond in it for goodness’ sakes. It looks great but imparts a sense of incredulity in me coupled with mild embarrassment. What else did I expect? I mean, it’s a $2,500 bottle of perfume. There is a similar iteration of the bottle design called Imperial Majesty which had better contain the hapless souls of lesser perfumes because the thing costs $215,000 USD.

Fragrance Family: Spicy Floral

Notes: Bergamot, lime, mandarin, grapefruit, cardamom, nutmeg, caraway, artemesia, lily of the valley, jasmine, rose, iris, heliotrope, ylang ylang, cedar, sandalwood, vetiver, amber, tonka, musk.

Here’s the problem with this fragrance and its price point. For most of us, the $1000+ price tag is a major deterrent and the fine folks at Clive’s house know this. They purposefully price this fragrance way out of range to appeal to those wealthy enough to approach this fragrance and casually wave the money out of their wallets. For the rest of us schmucks, digging around in the dirt, we use testers. I judged this fragrance not according to just its scent, but according to its worth as a fragrance in comparison to its price.

To me, the juice in No. 1 for Men is no better than a vintage fragrance. It is certainly no match for an Amouage attar, a vintage Guerlain, or a natural blend from Aftelier. You are better off spending your money elsewhere. And while all of the alternatives I listed are expensive, they are not $2,500 expensive if you care about the juice inside.  This is a very competent fragrance with a beautiful old world soul that I don’t see enough of anymore. But is it worth the price? Honestly? In my opinion, no. I go nuts for perfume, but I draw my cash line somewhere. And that line is no where near the thousands.

Thankfully, if you just have a hankering to smell the fragrances with no desire to own the exclusive bottle, there is a travel set that (as of this writing) sells for $310USD. There are three fragrances  included (1872, X, No. 1 each bottle is 10ml)–paltry amount for $310, but this is the house that puts out perfume which requires you to take out a mortgage in order to afford.

Reviewed in This Post: No. 1 for Men, 2010, Parfum.

Beyonce Heat

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Today we’ve got Beyonce’s Heat perfume. This fragrance, along with J-Lo Glow, are extremely popular and are often asked about. So I’m finally crawling out of the wood works and digging up my notes on it.

Heat

In Bottle: Ah peach up front. Big, synthetic, sweet peach. You know I used to like peach but now that I’m smelling it everywhere, I kind of wish these celebuscents would move onto a more obscure fruit. How about the beloved durian? Noble, spiky, tastes like custard and smells like sewage . . . What?

Applied: All right, so we got sweet peach up front blasting the opening wide open with a big fruity announcement. The background to the peach that digs itself into the mid-stage is a series of barely detectable florals. The fluffy opener leads rather well into a warm cleaned up amber and fruity flowers mid-stage with the sweetness still lingering about even now after the peach is all gone. Heat dries down in a rather expected fashion, keeping that warm amber scent and adding vanilla and soft woods. Heat’s nothing new, it’s nothing groundbreaking, but like all celebrity scents it is a good, decently constructed, wearable fragrance.

Extra: So Beyonce’s first perfume release was a big smash hit. Though most of Heat’s popularity probably has less to do with the juice and more to do with Beyonce’s  name on the bottle. This stuff sells, and it’s okay with me so long as the stuff they sell is at least decently composed–which Heat is. Smell away. Heat has already spawned a few flankers so if the original doesn’t float your boat, there’s Heat Rush and the elixir version of Heat.

Design: The bottle’s shape reminds me a bit of Hugo Boss Deep Red with a few interesting curves  and a few neat little colors added in. I’m okay with the design. It is what it is, though, which is a flashy celebrity bottle. One of the better ones out there.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Oriental

Notes: Red vanilla orchid, magnolia, neroli and peach, honeysuckle, almond, creamy musk, sequoia wood, tonka, amber.

I don’t know if I’m going to be up to smelling those two Heat flankers. I expected a bit more out of this fragrance than what I got. In the end, it’s a celebrity perfume that’s fairly predictable in how it was built and how it plays itself out.

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

Floris China Rose

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Floris is one of those crazy-old houses that no body thinks is really that old. But it is. I attribute this misconception to most people not knowing about the House of Floris. But tune your noses to receive because they’ve got some beautiful stuff out there.

China Rose

In Bottle: Sweet, warm roses with a fruity header and a delicate note of some non-rose floral that balances out the opening.

Applied: China Rose, I think, is a very well-balanced fragrance from the top to the bottom. It starts off with a nice fruity rose note and as the fruits fade you get more rose. This isn’t modern, cleaned up, scrubbed rose, but a more sensual rose of times past that isn’t afraid to get her elbows a little dirty. The clove in China Rose gives the fragrance a spicy, sultry, irresistible charm. This is an oriental rose fragrance, a light one that will hold close to your skin and remain a rose fragrance until its dry down where the rose gives way to the stronger, warmer, clove and spices that dominate the remainder of the fragrance.

Extra: Floris was established in 1730–yes, the 1700s. As far as I’m concerned they are among one of the oldest surviving fragrance houses out there and they are still pumping out beautiful fragrances almost three hundred years later. Keep rocking, Floris.

Design: China Rose isn’t bottled in any special way that sets it apart from the usual Floris bottles. It’s a glass bottle, looks a bit old-fashioned and plain, but suits the purpose just fine. The label is a soft, deep pink bearing the name of the fragrance house and the fragrance name. The fragrance house name is also etched into the cap of the bottle.

Fragrance Family: Spicy Floral

Notes: Raspberry, peach, rose, violet, cloves, geranium, patchouli, amber, tonka, vanilla, vetiver.

Floris tends to do these delicate, soft, intimate fragrances that don’t project or shout their presence and for someone who enjoys going light as much as I do, their perfumes are beautifully balanced with just the right amount of sillage and longevity.

Reviewed in This Post: China Rose, 2008, Eau de Toilette.