Scent/Fragrance of the Day thread

[dieworkwear]

@dieworkwear did you ever find your perfect coffee fragrance? I've heard good things about the ava luxe sample I've got inbound.

Ooo, let me know how that goes.

I emailed Legendary Fragrances about buying a sample of Barista, which is often touted online as being one of the best, but they never got back to me. And I'm not down for blind buys, so ...

Other than that, I like:

Kerosene's Follow. This smells like cheap diner coffee sweetened with sugar. I mean that in a good sense, cause there's a comforting and familiar quality to it. But it's not that uber rich, silky, smooth coffee. It's a cheap diner, or one of those places that sells $5 sandwiches along with your coffee, and the place isn't that well lit.

Bond No. 9's New Haarlem. Everyone knows about this. Breakfast coffee with syrup and pancakes. Delicious and kind of Christmas-y.

AbdesSalaam Attar Profumo's Milano Caffè. Spicy, oriental, rich, and a bit chocolatey (IIRC). All natural though, so it doesn't last that long. But great.

By Killian's Intoxicated. My favorite at the moment. A bit like Turkish coffee. It's smooth and smells like roasted coffee, but it accented with cardamom, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Piotr Czarnecki's Shihan is similar, but the cinnamon is a bit overpowering that one, making it spicier than I think a "true" coffee fragrance should be.

There may be one more I'm forgetting here, but those stand out to me. Would love to try Barista though. LMK now Ava Luxe goes.

 

[hendrix]

I'd love a recommendation for a good unisex jasmine scent and another rich, complex tobacco scent - I would rather it lean towards green or incense rather than heavy on the spicy (Serge Lutens) or sweet (Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille).

Try Guerlain Habit Rouge Sport - don't worry about the name, it's basically a nice Jasmine scent with rose and bitter orange, with a very silky whiff of the original in the base. I think it's discontinued recently but Habit Rough L'eau is said to be very similar.

I'd be interested in hearing about other recommendations too as "Jasmine and Cigarette" sounds very appealing to me too.

 

[hendrix]

The New York Times had an article recently titled "The New Softies," which is about this trend for more transparent, synthetic, almost odorless scents. An excerpt:



I've been trying some things lately from Aether, a Parisian company that I think really falls into this category. Synthetic, simple, very modern and transparent. Almost smells like the leftover from some soap or laundry wash. A scent that almost doesn't smell like a scent at all.

Muskethanol is the most distinctive of the three I've tried so far. It's marketed as smelling like sand, but I don't know what that's supposed to mean. I get a bit of tea mixed with achar, which is a salty Indian pickled condiment. It's slightly oriental, spicy, and salty.

Ether Oxyde is their ISO E super and ambroxan. It's a bit woody and salty aquatic. And like much of the line, very faint. I think this may be my favorite of the three -- a bit more wearable and true to the line's intended spirit than Muskethanol, but still smells interesting.

Finally, I've been sampling Carboneum. It's the least interesting to me of the three, but I suspect it would be the most broadly appealing. There's a bit of guava, lavender, musk, and soft woods. Something here smells a bit like baby powder.

The line is nice, and reasonably priced at $120/ bottle. But I'm not sure how I feel about these sorts of odorless fragrances. Dior's Bois D'argent has that clear, billowing cloud feeling, but projects a little more. Helmut Lang Cuiron is also very soft and wearable without being nearly odorless. I also like Mendittorosa's Alfa, which smells like Bois D'Argent to me without the occasional mustiness.

I guess for guys who like scents without wanting to smell like they're the cologne guy, this fits in nicely with that lifestyle. I'm tempted to get a bottle for work, but man -- it's pretty odorless and stays close to the skin.

Like to cited NYT article if anyone's interested (although Aether isn't mentioned).

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/14/style/perfume-that-smells-like-nothing.html

For me I don't think it's the odourlessness that's the attraction, it's more the idea of linear fragrances that bring out a more singular focus. I don't really want a complex-smelling fragrance - by that I don't mean that it should have hardly any ingredients, I mean that I don't particular want to be able to pick apart notes and such, or have the fragrance change from beginning to end too much.

 

[James1051]

The New York Times had an article recently titled "The New Softies," which is about this trend for more transparent, synthetic, almost odorless scents. An excerpt:



I've been trying some things lately from Aether, a Parisian company that I think really falls into this category. Synthetic, simple, very modern and transparent. Almost smells like the leftover from some soap or laundry wash. A scent that almost doesn't smell like a scent at all.

Muskethanol is the most distinctive of the three I've tried so far. It's marketed as smelling like sand, but I don't know what that's supposed to mean. I get a bit of tea mixed with achar, which is a salty Indian pickled condiment. It's slightly oriental, spicy, and salty.

Ether Oxyde is their ISO E super and ambroxan. It's a bit woody and salty aquatic. And like much of the line, very faint. I think this may be my favorite of the three -- a bit more wearable and true to the line's intended spirit than Muskethanol, but still smells interesting.



Finally, I've been sampling Carboneum. It's the least interesting to me of the three, but I suspect it would be the most broadly appealing. There's a bit of guava, lavender, musk, and soft woods. Something here smells a bit like baby powder.

The line is nice, and reasonably priced at $120/ bottle. But I'm not sure how I feel about these sorts of odorless fragrances. Dior's Bois D'argent has that clear, billowing cloud feeling, but projects a little more. Helmut Lang Cuiron is also very soft and wearable without being nearly odorless. I also like Mendittorosa's Alfa, which smells like Bois D'Argent to me without the occasional mustiness.

I guess for guys who like scents without wanting to smell like they're the cologne guy, this fits in nicely with that lifestyle. I'm tempted to get a bottle for work, but man -- it's pretty odorless and stays close to the skin.

Like to cited NYT article if anyone's interested (although Aether isn't mentioned).

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/14/style/perfume-that-smells-like-nothing.html

I like "skin scents" and "office scents." They travel well, while the big loud fragrances tend to be isolating. Its part of the reason those 2 new Hermes musk-based oils which you posted about recently sounded so appealing. (By the way they don't seem to be available yet in the US. Aren't even on the Hermes website. But that will change.)

All natural fragrances (Profumo/Abdes Salaam; Hiram Green) are wonderful alternatives to the synthetic experiments like those offered by this new line.

 

[dieworkwear]

Going through a few more samples today:

Heretic Parfumes' Holi Water: The company's name, Heretic, supposedly refers to their nonconformist approach to making perfumes -- using all natural ingredients, instead of synthetics (apparently being either all natural or all synthetic/ "using aroma molecules" makes you avant garde). Holi Water was inspired by the Indian Holi Festival. Among the notes listed, I mostly pick up coriander (obvious for the spiciness), cedar, sandalwood, patchouli (again obvious for the incense note), and champaca flower absolute (which pulls everything together). This is more of a floral-incense accord mixed with some woods, maybe a bit of vanilla and tonka bean in the background to smooth everything out. It's nice, but like with many naturals, disappears quickly unless the basenotes are especially heavy (like Attar). Despite the warmth in the fragrance, I can see this being a good summer scent with a camp collar shirt. So long as you're OK with things drying down quickly and having very little projection. After about an hour, this is basically a skin scent.

Monsillage's Aviation Club: The more I sample fragrances, the more I think I become keenly aware of how different scents, presentations, and marketing copy can appeal to different people. Aviation Club is by Isabelle Michaud, and it's advertised as being inspired by some now-defunct, old-school gentlemen's club on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. It comes in a nice looking bottle, it's priced around $100, and seems to offer people something a little different, a little more unique, than what you'd find at the mall without being overly weird. This does smell like a gentlemen's club -- I get warm leather, a bit of tobacco/ cigarette smoke, some amber, and a faint hint of coffee. But mixed in there is also your typical fresh florals with lily of the valley, some cedarwood and lemon, spicy black pepper and cardamom, and some patchouli. Really, it can smell kind of generic -- like a masculine, woody-spicy cologne -- and you wouldn't get the whole backstory of a gentlemen's club until someone pointed it out to you. Which kind of seems perfect for people who want a unique, crowd pleasing niche fragrance without delving into weird civets or whatever. This is the sort of fragrance you'd find being sold alongside fancy stationary. It's nice, much better than things you'd find at the mall, but also pretty vanilla. Stays close to the skin too, which I imagine works better for guys who are worried about everyone smelling them. I just don't know if it appeals too much to people who are interested in fragrances. For this same sensibility, I think I would go back to those Eccentric Molecules and Aether type scents. Same purpose, but a bit more interesting.

Hiram Green's Dilettante: Basically the opposite of Aviation Club. It's a rich citrus floral, sweet and thick like the other scents I've tried from this company. There's orange blossom, woods, honey (or something syrupy), and a dose of dirtiness. Not fecal or animalic, although the opening is borderline, but just something dirty. Maybe indolic? There's a hint of over ripe flowers here, a bit of musk. I don't know when I'd really want to wear this, but it's a compelling fragrance. Opening is a bit of a bomb, but the mid and drydown are nice. The only one I've sampled from this company that I would consider buying.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

The New York Times had an article recently titled "The New Softies," which is about this trend for more transparent, synthetic, almost odorless scents.

[...]

I guess for guys who like scents without wanting to smell like they're the cologne guy, this fits in nicely with that lifestyle.

I am thinking that these scents have a lot to do with a continuing dominance of that aspirational white minimalism which infects lifestyle publications.

If one wanted to go further, down a more speculative route, one might argue that this could also reflect a movement beyond just gender ambiguity to post-human / android sexlessness (with perhaps a whiff of racial purity and the return of fascism-lite...). But that might be just a load of... non-scents.

Ba-boom-tish.

I thank you.

 

[dieworkwear]

I am thinking that these scents have a lot to do with a continuing dominance of that aspirational white minimalism which infects lifestyle publications.

If one wanted to go further, down a more speculative route, one might argue that this could also reflect a movement beyond just gender ambiguity to post-human / android sexlessness (with perhaps a whiff of racial purity and the return of fascism-lite...). But that might be just a load of... non-scents.

Ba-boom-tish.

I thank you.

I don't know about that racial purity thing, but agree with you about this fitting in with the vogue for minimalism. That plus:

1. I think this makes for compelling marketing copy, which is useful when you're pitching scents over the internet. More compelling than saying you'll smell like Paris or a barbershop. It's more conceptual and abstract, and thus intriguing.

2. People, especially in the US, are very afraid of smelling like something in a heavy way. So these transparent, almost odorless scents give people an opportunity to wear something without feeling like they're stepping on people's toes.

 

[hendrix]

I think also some oblique references in classic scents just aren't really present today, e.g. masculine barbershop fragrances - people aren't necessarily going to make that connection between lavender/green smells and the fresh-smelling working professional. Someone who smells like leather probably doesn't play polo in their spare time. Incense is probably more associated with hippies than it is any particular religious ceremony. Etc etc/

People probably don't see scents as providing that much in the way of identity, so there's more interest in the abstract.

 

[dieworkwear]

Really? I see lots of barbershop, outdoorsy, leathery, pine-like fragrances that are are marketed towards people's gender identities.

I mean, guys dont really wear fragrances. But the stuff that's popular seems to often be about gender identity.

 

[losrockets]

DWW, your new title kills me.

(that wasn't there before, was it?)

 

[dieworkwear]

DWW, your new title kills me.

(that wasn't there before, was it?)

Ha, I didn't even notice that.

 

[HORNS]

For the ideal jasmine and tobacco, I recommend La Via del Profumo’s Tawaf and Tabac, respectively. I love his Tabac and find it the perfect-smelling tobacco, but since it’s all natural it is fleeting.

 

[L'Incandescent]

I wore Jubilation XXV today.

 

[James1051]

For the ideal jasmine and tobacco, I recommend La Via del Profumo’s Tawaf and Tabac, respectively. I love his Tabac and find it the perfect-smelling tobacco, but since it’s all natural it is fleeting.

Both wonderful. The Tawaf truly is fleeting. Tabac, for me, will go 6 hours pretty easily. The Tawaf delivers indoles by the bushel, but delivers none of the powder that one commonly encounters in fragrances, masculine and feminine, built around a jasmine note in the middle. Wonder what accounts for the difference?

The Profumo I've returned to most in recent months, other than the Tabac, is his tabac-tuberose-vanilla combo, Palermo Don Corleone. Goes about 6 hours with discrete projection. A non-gourmand vanilla that is flat out beautiful.

My 10mL split of that one is nearly drained, time to spring for a bottle. $55 for 15mL, about double that for 33mL. Not bad by today's inflated standards.

 

[brokencycle]

I picked up a bottle of green irish used from Costco thanks to the kind poster in this thread. Now I won't have to worry about fakes.