Men's Fragrances

[MetroBulotDodo]

Since we're talking about these animal scents I'll quote this MBD post that has been haunting my dreams lately. Since I started messing with doing my own extractions and buying oils from the Attar shop nearby, I've been obsessing over buying some extracts and the animal kit from this place. I've been told that the actual extracts are illegal for perfumers to use, not sure about the legality of selling them individually, maybe Italy doesn't care.

T-BONE: my new best frah-j-friend. (JOGU's *out* for sleeping until 4 and making it impossible for us to meet at Barneys to sniff perfumes.) I asked for the "didactical kit of animal scents" for my Christmas present! And, well, I was given something else. Perhaps someone is scared I'm loopy enough to start dousing myself with the fossilized urine/dung of the fuzzy, cute Rock Hyrax (whose closest animal relation is the elephant, btw!)

I've been thinking about this damn thing for months now, and I'm sort of hoping that, um, you - or anyone else - could buy it and report back on it because I'm pretty sure the kit is five (really) expensive bottles of pee and poo. Of potentially sublime pee and poo (and - I forgot ambergris) and puke...

Maybe we should consider going halfsies on it, T. PM me 'cause I think you're just nutty enough to go in on this with me...at least I hope so.

Who wants to go in on a "tasting" of some Oud essential oil?

MBD

[MetroBulotDodo]

I'm looking for something with metallic notes. I want to smell like a robot factory after a bunch of ninjas busted up the place, with plenty of molotovs, grenades, and gunfire exchanged during the fight. Since that's a tall order, I went ahead and looked for anything with metallic or "cold" notes and have samples of these on their way to me:

Skye X - how did the Blood Concepts stuff work out?

If you want scary metallic notes, you *have* to try Secretions Magnifiques by E'tat Libre d'Orange (though to my nose, it doesn't smell of blood in any way, more like steel left in an abandoned Rust Belt factory...something I *like*.) SM is even more a divisive fragrance than Musc Kublai Kahn, in my opinion, because it swings more wildly between WTF and appealing (to me, it's both.) Despite the supremely hokey names of E'tat's fragrances, I bought the "prestige deluxe coffret" recently because I wanted to try it and another fragrance E'tat makes that smells of ashtray and lavender. (It's actually quite nice.)

M/Mink by Byredo, which I an others have mentioned here, has a super strong metallic to it, too. Some people find it (really) off-putting, but I can't help but like it because it reminds me of the ink sticks used in Asian calligraphy I'd find around the house as a kid.

I bought a huge bottle of M/Mink so if you want a luckyscent size sample, I can make one and put it in the mail. Just PM me. : )

Someone asked about smokey leather recently. The most smokey leather I've found thus far is Mona DiOrio's "Cuir" - (I still haven't found anything that even comes close to her Oud Intense in terms of Oud-like. Too bad about the price, though.)

Stuff I've acquired/sampled/liked recently:
Bulgari Black (rubber note is not as overwhelming as I was expecting). Wonderful, dark and totally affordable - *that's* the most surprising thing you can discover about a fragrance these days...
layering Serge Lutens Ambre Sultan/Santal Mysore(more like "caramel")/& Fleurs d'Oranger. Hot DAMN, but such an expensive proposition. A friend who was sniffing with me that day - he's been suffering Aedes to pay $$$ for Histoire de Parfum's Jules Verne forever - switched on the spot.
layering Serge Luten Fumerie Turque and Daim Blonde. This is a major 1+1=3 situation because on their own, neither FT and DB is something I'd pay SL prices for.
Serge Fille en Aiguilles. Smelled this on a man recently. Reaction: holy SH*T.
Nassamotto Black Afgano: has that amazing sticky, sweet-smell-of-death note to it that characterize Tauer's Pentachord White and Amouage Opus V, which I've mentioned here before. Black Afgano is backed up with an incredibly deep, viscous herb base (though not hash.) Thumbs up, but I realized that the "death" note can also be a little too heavy and even distracting on the wrong days.
Reassessed and now love Amouage Jubilation XXV (for men) and CDG 3: Kyoto on me (was previously an Avignon girl.)

Next up on my sample list are tobacco and hay fragrances. I like Dzing, though I think L'Artisan can be a little watered down. Am excited to try Caron Tabac Blonde and Back to Black By Kilian...what else should go on that list?

MBD

[Dane]

Odori's tobacco is excellent...if you can stand the hideous bottle and ridiculous price (tip - they often pop up at TJMaxx).

For hay - Chergui is nice, although it has changed a lot over the years.

Funny article - Iris Apfel wears Yatagan! Most guys I know don't even have the balls to wear this one.

http://intothegloss.com/2012/01/iris-apfel/

[aussy]

mbd, I want to try black afgano so bad but price even for samples

I've officially sampled the entire CDG incense line. What a great bunch of scents! Only one that I wasn't feeling was Ouarzazate. Smelled like a traditional albeit more faint masculine cologne, not 'nichey' as one would expect.

Zagorsk is great in its coldness and definitely conveys a mood, but can't imagine it for every day wear. Kyoto, Avignon and Jaisalmer are all very wearable. Kyoto has this underlying fresh sweetness to it, like biting into a cold white grape or drinking ramune soda. Needless to say its a very Japanese scent. Smells like my grandma's clothes?

Avignon is exactly how everyone describes it, straight Catholic incense with a slight dry sweet note to it to soften things up. Its very warming and romantic but also a bit desolate. I'll have to pick up some funky essential oil to try layering with this. Just a touch of fermented cat pee would make this, as Dane said, a 'whole fragrance'. I think its simplicity is great for daily use though.

Jaisalmer surprised me. Even though it didn't last very long, I kept going back to my wrist to smell its woody wonder. I'll need to wear it again to get a better picture.

[Dane]

^ funny, Ourzwhatever is the one that appealed to me the most...I guess I'm not as much of a fan of incense, but of the whole "feeling" in general, what with the dried fruits and florals.

Black Afgano, along with the rest of the Nasomatto series, are general, synthetic duds in my humble opinion. They charge a fortune for something that took virtually no creative effort or cost of materials, aside from the fancy tops on the bottles.

An aside on their packaging - the bottles are off-the-shelf, and the labels peel off shortly after being handled. Unacceptable in a high-end niche label imo.

[aussy]

ahah, yeah I had to google the correct spelling, I was just going to say ouzaatratrefjksa originally

Thanks for saving me the money. Though, the lucky scent ad copy of it might win me over one day. And MBD's description, 'sticky, sweet-smell-of-death', how can I not? I'm now determined to find something that captures this for me. Maybe I should just camp out next to some roadkill for a day...

[Dane]

Descriptions can be a dangerous (and expensive) thing...no one, ever, can accurately describe a scent that everyone agrees with, which is why I always tell people to ignore me and smell for themselves...who am I to tell you what is good and what you should spend your money on?

Have I spoken of Tubereuse Criminelle yet? To some - a soapy floral, the me, mothballs, camphor, meat, mushrooms, menthol, and corpse. You have to use your imagination a bit, but I find it to smell of decay.

...luckily, it has also been added to the Lutens "export" line this year for a limited time, so those of us not in Paris can access it.

[t-bone]

Ah speaking of "not in Paris," I will be there soon, where should I be looking to find/sample/buy some fragrance oddities?

[Dane]

Ah speaking of "not in Paris," I will be there soon, where should I be looking to find/sample/buy some fragrance oddities?

Serge Lutens for sure. He has a collection of perfumes only sold in that one store, and unavailable for shipping outside europe. They come in beautiful bell-jars with glass stoppers. Iris Silver Mist (rooty paper), El Attarine (apricot, spices, wood); La Myrrhe (sunny resins), Sarrasins (jasmine leather), and Rose de Nuit (dark rose) are all stunning.

Pretty much every other brand sold in Paris can be purchased elsewhere.

[jogu]

lol was just gonna mention vistin the serge lutens . one a my friends is in town from uk and brought me a sample of the latest lutens frag " de profundis " . it smells like violets and a lil incense to me and the color is purpley kinda like that gum and mints called violet . smells nice not my thing tho however it does smell very high quality , just kinda too strong for me and too floral . i like sweet better

[Dane]

It's supposed to smell like a chrysanthemum. I don't know what that smells like. Perfume is nice though, but can be a bit jarring to wear after the first 20 minutes.

[Patroklus]

http://blog.stylesight.com/vintage/louis-vuitton-signature-scents

i predict that it will smell like any given chanel fragrance and will cost too damn much

[Dane]

http://blog.stylesight.com/vintage/l...gnature-scents

i predict that it will smell like any given chanel fragrance and will cost too damn much

I wouldn't lower Chanel to LV's standards...let's say...Dior. ;)

[MetroBulotDodo]

Odori's tobacco is excellent...if you can stand the hideous bottle and ridiculous price (tip - they often pop up at TJMaxx).

For hay - Chergui is nice, although it has changed a lot over the years.

Funny article - Iris Apfel wears Yatagan! Most guys I know don't even have the balls to wear this one.

http://intothegloss.com/2012/01/iris-apfel/

Dane - no way about the Yatagan! I wear this sometimes - I have a massive 4.2 oz bottle of it that will last for the rest of my life, undoubtedly. It is without a doubt, the sort of fragrance that you have to spray yourself with daintily, lest you smell like the entire cast of dynasty squeezed into an Eastern European elevator. (Given that there is waaaay too much for me, PM me if you want a sample, and I'll stick one in the mail.) And yes, I like boozy, masculine scents, just as I like scents that make your skin smell like the best, most perfect version of your own skin.

Beardown - a couple of scents that I think you'd really like, if you like minimal. There a couple of scents from Frederic Malle that are minimalist wonders: L'eau d'Hiver by Jean-Claude Ellena, which smells like the fresh fallen snow, with shavings of frozen iris root and frozen geranium petals strewn over top. I favor this over Black March because the, um, mud note is missing. Living in Chicago, I could do without the smell of dirty, road-side snow, two weeks after the storm.

The second is a little stronger, and took, for me, a few wearings to realize how comforting (and nuanced) it is: Dans Tes Bras ("in your arms") by Maurice Roucel/Frederic Malle. The name of this scent is perfect - for me, it's what I imagine a 7 year-old kid would smell around him after he'd been picked on in school, had cried and was now falling asleep in the arms of his mother who was brushing the hair out of his eyes. Just sayin'. As for actual notes, you'll have to look that up. It's a really unusual smell!

Samples of these two scents are hard to get because Frederic Malle is only sold at two places in the US, but I have a big bottle of Dans Tes Bras. I enjoy sharing anything I feel fanatical about (or have too much of!), so, just give the word, Beatdown, and I can put a sample in the mail.

(Ellena is, in general, the go-to person for minimal these days since he's currently into creating scents with a bare minimum of very high quality ingredients. He's the in-house perfumer for Hermes, but the stuff he makes for them is a little more dense. He also started The Different Company, where his daughter Celine is the in-house perfumer. They make De Bachmakov, which is another oft-discussed scent here, which you should also try.)

Two others from L'Artisan, whose fragrances others have mentioned as something you'd like: Dzing! (light sawdust and light flowers) and my #1 suggestion for you, and a personal favorite: Traversée du Bosphore ("Crossing the Bosphorus".) To my nose it is a skin fragrance that smells ever-so-slightly of saffron and my favorite sweet, floss halveh. It's a Turkish confection that is pistachio paste (the halveh part) spun into threads, like cotton candy, though the fragrance itself has only a hint of airy sweetness. If it means anything at all, it's so perfectly light that when I see or think of the name, my mind can't help replacing 'bosphore' with 'stratosphere.'

Also, the code MUA still works for free shipping at the luckyscent website for US residents, including for orders of samples only! Without it, shipping is ridiculous, like $9.95 or something. Don't listen to Shahx3 - he doesn't know what he's talking about!

MBD

[Dane]

^ nothing hotter than a pretty girl wearing a butch cologne.