Finally, something about scent

Last week, I received a collection of samples that I've wanted to try for quite some time. So far, nothing has thrilled me.

Ginestet Botrytis had a whiff of rotting teeth in it, which (thankfully) was gone in the drydown. It figures that there'd be something rotten in there: Botrytis cinerea is a fungus that affects many plants, though it is most notable for its use ("noble rot") in sweet wines like Sauternes. I remember being disappointed in this scent, for it was supposed to be similar to Frapin 1270, which I adore. I went through the Shoutbox and found nothing but my complaints about the "bad teeth smell". Some review, this is. Now I'll move on.

L'artisan Parfumeur Mure et Musc: "Boring" and "Why'd they bother with this?" I love L'artisan scents. This was the first time I was underwhelmed by anything from that house. I did make a note, "The drydown is rather nice", but that's not very descriptive. I'll try this one again.

Frapin Caravelle Epicee: First impression was that this was Frapin 1270 "but not as good". Drydown was basically vanilla with a bit of prune/raisin thing going on. Nice, but there's plenty of scents like this. There's supposedly no fruit note in here, so I don't know what's up with my nose. You might want to distrust any of these mini-reviews.

Which brings me to the Guerlain Spiriteuse Double Vanille. Very nice. To my nose, it's Vanilla with pipe tobacco. My first impression was "vanilla! so what?". That other smell, robust, yet dry (and perhaps not even tobacco), was lovely. I still prefer Serge Luten's Un Bois de Vanille, with it's cotton candy burnt sugar smell (which impossibly, smells sophisticated).

Right now, I've got on Amouge Jubilation XXV. First sniff was "Ack! Alcohol!" Then I walked out to the mailbox. I felt like I should have a very expensive gray men's suit on. It smells like so many other men's scents. It gets rave reviews from Now Smell This, but what can I say? I don't like it. That's all. Dick came in, said hello and then asked, "You've got a new perfume on?" I put on very little, but it's sillage, I'd imagine, is huge, if Dick asked me that. I can't smell any of the notes that it's supposed to have. It's just screamming at me with "I'm an expensive men's scent! Look at my just polished shoes!" Shall I scrub it off? Nah. It's not offensive. I hope it fades, but I fear it won't do it fast enough.

I was surprised to learn that it was created by Bertrand Duchaufour, for he's responsible for many wonderful scents, including one of my favorites, L'artisan's Dzongkha. If you type the word Dzongkha into the "search this blog" box, you'll find it comes up alot. Here, I've saved you the trouble.

OMG (something I do not regularly type): Serge Lutens Chergui is now being sold in the United States. Shameless begging: please see the little "Help support this blog" over in the sidebar? Wanting something this expensive is insane. But Chergui is my first love! I do have about 9ml of it left. . .

These reviews were not much, I admit. I'm still hating the Jubilation, which is an awful thing to hate with such a nice name and all. I have about a dozen more new scents to try and hopefully the next bunch of "reviews" are a bit more interesting than these. Maybe this requires my finding the scents more interesting. The winner of this bunch: The Guerlain.

Photo note: Grapes with noble rot. For some pretty serious wine tours, click here.

Addendum: At 5:45pm I had to scrub. I felt like I was being suffocated by the scent of Jubilation! How I scrub: First, I use a Spanish black soap (name forgotten) and then I follow up with Burt's Bees Carrot Nutritive Lotion if I have to wash so much that my hands are dried out or just washing doesn't do the trick. In this case, both were true.

Burt's Bees Healthy Healing Carrot Nutritive Body Lotion (which smells lovely): $9.00 for 8oz.

Amouge Jubilation XXV: $245.00 for 1.7oz.

Addendum #2: Luckyscent has the Chergui for twenty bucks less than Aedes. . .