Pretty Woman by Barbara Orbison: Because Pretty Man Would Sound Silly

October 30, 2010

On the website Ms. Orbison says about designing Pretty Woman, “It has been a life-long dream of mine to create a fragrance that speaks to women everywhere.” I hate to contradict the lovely and talented Ms. Orbison but she has created a fragrance that speaks to me and last time I checked I wasn’t a woman. In truth what she has created is a beautiful underrated and undiscovered gem appropriate for anyone who loves great fragrance.

Fragrance Review Montale Black Musk : A Child Is Born In Paris

October 29, 2010August 12, 2011

The new Montale release Black Musk smells like the love child of Black Aoud and Musk to Musk. This isn’t a bad thing especially if, like me, you like both of the fragrances whose DNA make up Black Musk. In many ways Black Musk is an improvement on each of the originals as it seemingly manages to meld the two into a whole better than the sum of its parts.

Clive Christian C For Men: Upon Further Review

October 28, 2010

On a Saturday morning at the Bergdorf-Goodman breakfast at the Sniffapalooza 2010 Fall Ball, Victoria Christian stepped to the front of the room to present both of the new Clive Christian fragrances. With her white gloved assistants spritzing the fragrances into the air and using antique wooden fans to waft them throughout the room I closed my eyes and waited for the scent to hit my nose. As C for Men met my synapses I realized I might have missed something special as a mix of leather and woods wrapped around saffron sent me a classic masculine oriental.

Creed Spice and Wood:Olivier Creed’s Marriage Of Equals

October 24, 2010

Spice and Wood was created by Olivier Creed and as his inspiration he took the romance of Antony and Cleopatra. M. Creed chose to pair notes from Italy and Egypt in each phase of Spice and Wood to create an olfactory marriage of the historical lovers’ countries of origin. I’m not sure how much it really represents the masculine and feminine ideal in the end but the one thing it does do is live up to its name, Spice and Wood.

Parfums DelRae Panache: Yann Vasnier’s “Third Plume” + Draw

October 23, 2010October 24, 2010

As I enter the latter days of 2010 I begin to consider which perfumers have produced a body of work which will have me consider them for my perfumer of the year. With Coup de Foudre, Bang and now Panache I can tell you Yann Vasnier will be on my short list as I consider who will receive that accolade. M. Vasnier has fashioned his own panache quite brilliantly.

Tauer Perfume No. 12 Eau D’Epices- Orange Spice?

October 21, 2010

The most recent release No. 12 Eau D’Epices has been a “work in progress” which has been finally released as a finished fragrance. I didn’t have the opportunity to try Eau D’Epices in its different embryonic stages and as such have only become acquainted with it in its mature form. That mature form seems to have taken some themes from an earlier Tauer Perfumes release of 2010, Orange Star, and added some more depth to them making Eau D’Epices a more complete fragrance than Orange Star was for me.