Scatterings

Finally beginning to plow through the cigar box full of samples. My testing procedure: Two drops of the fragrance on a strip of watercolor paper. (Watercolor paper is far superior to the premade strips usually used. It’s designed to hold particles of pigment, forever. It holds perfume molecules for weeks, and allows you to really evaluate the base notes.) Concurrently, apply to skin. Sniff skin/paper alternately.

My skin burns through a scent at least twice as fast as paper, and sometimes the scents are completely different, especially in niche/artisan fragrances. (I know, I know, this isn’t exactly what you’d call news, is it.)

Anyway, here are a few, grabbed blind from the cigar box:

Coze (Parfumerie General ): Opens with a slight tang and a little confusion. A green note, or is it something else? (Offically, this is built around a seed oil exclusive to PG, Canapa Sativa. Maybe that’s it.) Then it becomes what so many of the niche scents become now: woody.  A little research reveals wood, coffee, pepper, smoke, a little cocoa. I smell the wood; coffee wouldn’t have occurred to me; no pepper, no smoke, so far. It smells like many other niche scents I’ve tried.

However, on my skin this opens very differently. A nutty warmth. Wood right away. There’s the pepper, and I think it’s black pepper.

After a few hours (blotter only) I can smell the coffee. It reminds me of the coffee note in Ineke's Field Notes from Paris. There’s a little bit of cocoa, too. The next morning, what’s left on the paper is a slightly musky wood. A nice scent, nothing wrong with it, but nothing really new, either. Perfumer: Pierre Guillaume.

Orange Star (Tauer Perfumes): Opens on paper a little soapy, and more like orange soda than orange blossom. The fruitiness continues on: orange orange orange. 

Howevah: This is why perfumes must be tested on skin. It’s very different. The bases come up much faster, and they’re needed. In this race, skin wins; the fruity orange, which is a little off-putting to me, fades much more quickly as the resins bloom into a recognizable Tauer fragrance.

I think we need a holiday perfume to replace Caron’s Nuit Noel, the old war horse that has held this role for decades. This could be the one. It reminds me of a pomander, with all the orange and spices. 

Hmmmm….(a quick perusal of Perfume Shrine's review reveals that the idea came from a soap Tauer makes and gives to his friends at Christmas -- I didn’t know this, honest! My nose must be improving, some. “Official” notes include a “fresh citrus accord” lemon grass, orange flower, an ambergris base, tonka and vanilla. There are spices in there too, though, hence the pomander comparison.

The next day, on the blotter, the spices and ambergris note persist, with a hint of orange blossom. This is where Orange Star really, uh, shines. Perfumer: Andy Tauer.

L’Ombre Fauve (Parfumerie General, Private Collection): Roughly translated: “brown wild beast.” On paper: This one reminds me a bit of Shalimar, but it’s not nearly so polite. What rough beast -- very well-named.

On skin: an odd opening, some more-bitter-than-usual citrus, over in a flash.  Morphs almost immediately into a chocolately incense-y amber underlaid with animalics, most notably an in-your-face musk. Woods, vanilla. Patchouli, definitely. A Shalimar/Habanita for the new millennium. Dries down heavy patchouli. 

The next day, on paper, it’s all vanilla and that heavy, slightly catty musk -- I’m wondering; is it real, a real animal musk? Is that possible?

A quick visit to the website; to gain access to the “Private Collection” area, one has to submit a username and password (which doesn’t actually get submitted, so you’re locked out, SoL. If this isn’t a broken link, then it’s just silly; who do I have to know to...never mind.) 

Very limited distribution. A fall/winter scent, imho. Perfumer: Pierre Guillaume.

Coming soon: Agent Provocateur (what a surprise!) and Parfums di Nicolai’s Eau Turquoise. And, finally, Nuit de Tubereuse.

Full disclosure: I bought these samples from LuckyScent.


photo © Sazykin, used under license from Dreamstime.com.