Fragrance Reviews
Fragrance Reviews by pluran
Showing all 203 reviews
Diorella by Christian Dior
Diorella is often thought of as the feminine version of Eau Sauvage, but Edmond Roudnitska (the perfumer of both) said it wasn’t the case. Diorella was his most satisfying creation, and he made it clear that it was descended from an earlier chypre he made in 1953 called Eau Fraiche (Dior) - Chanel pour Monsieur (1955) was also based heavily on Eau Fraiche.
Standing outside early evening mid-July, there’s nothing much better to have wafting up into my nostrils than Diorella, especially when it’s mixed with the sublime breeze coming in around me via my lush green environs in the Oregon Coastal Range. Eau Sauvage is an excellent fragrance, but it’s loud, and feels dated. Diorella is a significant improvement all around. Among other things, it’s just a lot clearer, smells better overall, and is always intensely wearable. But far more importantly than that is the fact that Diorella is strange. It’s sublime and strange and pulls you into deep waters. The florals are dirtier than most of what came before it, and it was the first fragrance to break free from the notion that flowers were wholesome. It also has a plump, decadant melon accord that begs to be satiated. Others have mentioned Cristalle and Le Parfum de Therese (both excellent), but Diorella is far more interesting (and strange) than either of those. It’s probably the best thing Roudnitska ever did, and it’s one of the best fragrances ever made. It also fulfills all aspects of Roudnitska's fundamental qualities of a great perfume: character, strength, diffusing capacity, delicacy, clearness, volume, and persistence. Give it time before you think you’ve figured it out, because this stuff is so beautiful it figures you out. For its type - a crisp-green-woody-citrus chypre - it's about as close to perfection as it gets.
Top notes: Lemon, basil, bergamot, melon, galbanum
Middle notes: Peach, honeysuckle, jasmine, rose, cyclamen
Base notes: Oakmoss, vetiver, patchouli, musk
Here’s a big, fully erect thumb coming at you.
Standing outside early evening mid-July, there’s nothing much better to have wafting up into my nostrils than Diorella, especially when it’s mixed with the sublime breeze coming in around me via my lush green environs in the Oregon Coastal Range. Eau Sauvage is an excellent fragrance, but it’s loud, and feels dated. Diorella is a significant improvement all around. Among other things, it’s just a lot clearer, smells better overall, and is always intensely wearable. But far more importantly than that is the fact that Diorella is strange. It’s sublime and strange and pulls you into deep waters. The florals are dirtier than most of what came before it, and it was the first fragrance to break free from the notion that flowers were wholesome. It also has a plump, decadant melon accord that begs to be satiated. Others have mentioned Cristalle and Le Parfum de Therese (both excellent), but Diorella is far more interesting (and strange) than either of those. It’s probably the best thing Roudnitska ever did, and it’s one of the best fragrances ever made. It also fulfills all aspects of Roudnitska's fundamental qualities of a great perfume: character, strength, diffusing capacity, delicacy, clearness, volume, and persistence. Give it time before you think you’ve figured it out, because this stuff is so beautiful it figures you out. For its type - a crisp-green-woody-citrus chypre - it's about as close to perfection as it gets.
Top notes: Lemon, basil, bergamot, melon, galbanum
Middle notes: Peach, honeysuckle, jasmine, rose, cyclamen
Base notes: Oakmoss, vetiver, patchouli, musk
Here’s a big, fully erect thumb coming at you.
18 July 2008
Azzaro pour Homme by Azzaro
I was wild as hell at fifteen, and my black concert t-shirts were saturated with all kinds of things, Azzaro pour Homme being one of them. Waking up was a challenge, but Azzaro PH gave me the bump I needed and always did the job at any time. I still wear it at forty and it’s as good as ever. It’s hale, clean, suitably gray and aloof, but with a laser focus that most fougères don’t deliver. Both are in the matte-black stealth category, and while Rive Gauche pour Homme is excellent, it works on a duller edge. But Azzaro PH never loses its edge, maintaining a sharp connection at all times. It’s still the best fougère out there, and it’s also one of the few definitive paragons of men’s fragrances. If there were an official fragrance for movies like Heat, Deep Cover, and King of New York, Azzaro pour Homme would be at the front of the line.
06 July 2008
Patou pour Homme Privé by Jean Patou
They're completely different fragrances but Patou Pour Homme Privé is every bit as good as Patou Pour Homme, and it's significantly more unique as well. Privé is a fougère (fougère means fern). Fougères are based on an interplay between fresh, herbal, woody and mossy notes such as bergamot, oakmoss, geranium, lavender, clary sage, tarragon, and coumarin. Privé starts off with a sharp, green, pungent galbanum note, along with the usual bergamot, a few drops of mandarin, one of the most beautiful lavender notes in all of perfumery, some oakmoss (it appears fast here), and other mysterious things. The accord is sublime and lasts for a good while until the sharpness fades, leaving the galbanum more leafy green, and the lavender much like it was. But this lavender doesn't smell like regular lavender because it is juxtaposing oakmoss, coumarin (new mown hay), and other things. It's just an integral part of a complex accord that is earthy, sensual, and starting to smell more and more like the forest floor that fougères are intended to smell like. The drydown reveals some mild vetiver and an ever increasing high quality, deep, balsamic and tenacious sandalwood that cools and softens while doing its part to maintain one of the smoothest accords there is. Kerleo must have used the best iris known to man, because the woody, powdery/dusty, violet-like quality it adds to the scent is something you rarely experience in even the best fragrances. It would be nearly impossible to blend a fragrance any better, and Jean Kerleo is one of the few blacksmiths who could do it. The longevity is good, the output is redolent for the duration, and the sillage is always perceptible though never surrounding you like a halo. The best fougéres are hale and clean while remaining suitably grey and aloof, and while Privé is typical of most of these qualities, it stands in a class by itself. It's also sensual, cerebral, magnetic, and as smooth as a beautiful woman's freshly powdered bottom. It's one of the best fragrances I've ever worn, and while there a few others of its quality, I don't know of anything else that's all that similar. Check out Privé. You'll be glad that you did.
04 July 2008
Tommy Girl by Tommy Hilfiger
Clean, green, and beautiful a mountain girl’s radiance in her late afternoon flush. Try the Ventana National Wildnerness via Big Sur, CA in late spring. This scent smells just like certain parts of it. The tea and florals compliment each other, making each more interesting. My girlfriend doesn’t wear a lot of florals but she loves this one. An extremely well made and satisfying fragrance in all respects. Superb.
28 June 2008
Costes by Hôtel Costes
An evocative, well constructed fragrance, crisp and clean with a subtle darkness that reminds me of being in a deep alley in a certain part of Paris. The sun's going down, smell of wet stone, beautiful people and creature comforts not far away. You can take a Mercedes or just walk. Same difference. All is well. Sillage is moderate, sublime. Longevity is excellent. My friend told me this is her favorite skin scent, and I understand why. I don't wear it much because Giacobetti could have handled the spices with a little more finesse, and those spices become a little tiresome. But many people love those spices, and that's good, because it's quality stuff that smells sublime on a woman I know. Clean and soapy with an edge.
20 June 2008
"Vintage" Tabaróme by Creed
I bought a flacon of original Tabarome in Paris. The female companion I was with stated that there were two prerequisites for the wearer. He must have worldly life experience, and be utterly wealthy. She said the fragrance is powerful in that it is exceedingly subtle rather than distracting. It evoked for her an image of elite musty men's clubs in the country, and reminded her of fatherly secure embrace, reassuring that all is well. After wearing it for awhile, it's clear that a good dose of iris provides much of the richness and depth. It comes off a little dry and soapy at certain times of the year, but it's a unique and intriguing scent, and not a bad fragrance overall. It's by far the strongest character from the house.
20 June 2008
Noir Epices by Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle
A dynamite, chic, woody-oriental with chypric undertones. Subtle yet striking aldehydes produce some of the most compelling top notes I know. Sharp, metallic, quick and enduring. No vanilla or obvious sweetness, just intense, vivid spices and the adequate minty-rosy geranium, all glowing softly and evolving like a beautiful dream into the dry, warm, woody base. Cerebral, exotic, elegant, sensual, and ultra-sophisticated; it’s focused, somewhat austere, and within that lies something voluptuous with a heart of gold. The spices remain vibrant and cool as the other side of your pillow, never devolving into the tiresome affability of so many other spice prominent fragrances. It also covers all of Edmond Roudnitska’s fundamentals of a great perfume: character, diffusing capacity, delicacy, clearness, volume, and persistence. Wear it any time, especially when you want to get the job done. Noir Epices (Black Spices) will never let you down. For reference, Noir Epices shares a certain mild rustic commonality with the great JHL by Aramis.
19 June 2008
Jules by Christian Dior
Jules is one of the few resolutely masculine fragrances of any real quality. A previous reviewer described it as “raunchy”, and it definitely is. But this is a good thing. What do human beings smell like? Nice and clean? No. Should perfume smell that way? I hope it's not heading that way. Mama's boys…
Jules is a little dark and raunchy, but it’s also some of the most sublime and uplifting nose-candy imaginable. It’s a leather chypre gone lively. Full of sexy cool-warm notes, it falls firmly in the aromatic fougère category. It manages to disguise some minor structural poverty behind an abundance of mystery, melancholy, and some of the most distinguished top notes in all of perfumery. It’s amazing stuff, full of galbanum, sage, black caraway, black pepper, Russian leather, castoreum, and other goods. It’s deep and woody, full of good greens, lively herbs and spices (the less affable ones), and the appropriate florals to amplify and keep it even darker. Almost all great men’s fragrances contain a solid floral component in their heart notes, and Jules does the same. But the raunch in Jules doesn’t come from indolic florals. It comes more from an accord involving sage, cedar, black caraway, castoreum, and who knows what else, that creates something faintly urinous, sweaty, and flesh-like. And like any good fougère should do, it’s reminiscent of all the good smells on the forest floor.
But that’s too much detail. What it actually does is paint bold dark tones, using accents of rising green to highlight its umbra theme. And more than anything else, it just smells great…and a bit raunchy.
Jules is a little dark and raunchy, but it’s also some of the most sublime and uplifting nose-candy imaginable. It’s a leather chypre gone lively. Full of sexy cool-warm notes, it falls firmly in the aromatic fougère category. It manages to disguise some minor structural poverty behind an abundance of mystery, melancholy, and some of the most distinguished top notes in all of perfumery. It’s amazing stuff, full of galbanum, sage, black caraway, black pepper, Russian leather, castoreum, and other goods. It’s deep and woody, full of good greens, lively herbs and spices (the less affable ones), and the appropriate florals to amplify and keep it even darker. Almost all great men’s fragrances contain a solid floral component in their heart notes, and Jules does the same. But the raunch in Jules doesn’t come from indolic florals. It comes more from an accord involving sage, cedar, black caraway, castoreum, and who knows what else, that creates something faintly urinous, sweaty, and flesh-like. And like any good fougère should do, it’s reminiscent of all the good smells on the forest floor.
But that’s too much detail. What it actually does is paint bold dark tones, using accents of rising green to highlight its umbra theme. And more than anything else, it just smells great…and a bit raunchy.
18 June 2008
Chergui by Serge Lutens Les Salons du Palais Royal Shiseido
This review is under revision.
14 June 2008
Borneo 1834 by Serge Lutens Les Salons du Palais Royal Shiseido
This review is under revision.
28 April 2008
Sa Majesté la Rose by Serge Lutens Les Salons du Palais Royal Shiseido
This review is under revision.
28 April 2008
Chêne by Serge Lutens Les Salons du Palais Royal Shiseido
This review is under revision.
28 April 2008
Cuir Mauresque by Serge Lutens Les Salons du Palais Royal Shiseido
This review is under revision.
28 April 2008
Fumerie Turque by Serge Lutens Les Salons du Palais Royal Shiseido
This review is under revision.
28 April 2008
Daim Blond by Serge Lutens Les Salons du Palais Royal Shiseido
This review is under revision.
28 April 2008
Iris Silver Mist by Serge Lutens Les Salons du Palais Royal Shiseido
This review is under revision.
28 April 2008
Santal de Mysore by Serge Lutens Les Salons du Palais Royal Shiseido
This review is under revision.
28 April 2008
parfums*PARFUMS Series 3 Incense: Avignon by Comme des Garçons
This review is under revision.
28 April 2008
parfums*PARFUMS Series 2 Red: Sequoia by Comme des Garçons
This review is under revision.
28 April 2008
Arabie by Serge Lutens Les Salons du Palais Royal Shiseido
This review is under revision.
28 April 2008
Vétiver Extraordinaire by Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle
This review is under revision.
28 April 2008