Scent/Fragrance of the Day thread - Page 723

And that's why I gave up brewing beer when I was in college

I really love the guidebook that Turin and Sanchez wrote because it's a labor of love by them and you can tell that they are just having fun with it all. That said, their taste just like anyone else is subjective and they take into account what anyone else takes into account - like price, the personality and history of a perfumer/house, and what emotions a scent evokes within them. For example, they hate, HATE Mona di Orio and Creed. They also seem . . . perturbed . . . by Le Labo but Turin gives Patchouli 24 the highest score available because it reminds him of a dank room he would sit in in while in Moscow. Whatever . . . He also gives Chanel Pour Monsieur Concentree ONE FUCKING STAR. Why? I think he feels a betrayal that Chanel would tinker with the history of one of his all time favorites - even though the original has always existed, but I think it's more of a tainting of it's legacy, or something.

That being said, I think Turin is quite self-deprecating considering his influence on the fragrance world. To me, he's seems to have this attitude of Kathy Griffin "On The D List" when he's on the A List.

Exactly, LOL.

Agreed! More than anything else, tinkering put me in touch with certain individual notes in a way I hadn't before; now I can sense them more easily in other fragrances and appreciate how they work and what they "do" for a scent. So, even if you don't end up with something you love, I think you'll still find it valuable.

I guess what was most frustrating for me was that ultimately I found Parfumery is 9 parts chemistry, one part art/creativity. For example, most of the things we really like in a scent are not necessarily from a real essence or note we can obtain or use in a casual way. For example, that lovely fruity peachy note in Mitsouko is NOT a peach note/essence, but some chemical compound that when done with other stuff gives the "effect." Likewise, there is no tobacco or leather in Tabac blond, just an assortment of chemicals that give that effect. That "leafy green" in YSL Rive Gauche (women) is no plant essence... but some random molecule. Same as aldehydes and so much else.

Probably wearing Cristalle edt today for warm spring day (high of 68!) but haven't sprayed it on yet.

^^ And amazingly, there's no rose in Guerlain Nahema.

Alexander McQueen Kingdom for me today. Amazingly, there are no real notes of unwashed lady parts in this.

Exactly. We will approach a scent based on other scents we like or dislike... it's impossible to avoid associations or start from scratch. You'll choose a citrus because you like citrus scents, and use others as points of reference. Even beyond the fact that most of these have large amounts of chemistry involved, also the sites that list "notes" aren't really accurate. Again, they are sort of approximations that we can understand... look at the "recipe" for Tabac Blond (which I've posted on this site) and then the "note pyramid" and it's two totally different things. So, as I joked above (from my experience!) we think we are mixing something "new" that we haven't smelled before, and then VOILA it comes out as a flat, dull, something that you've smelled... before!

I'm not intending AT ALL to dissuade home tinkering, as it's fun and (as I said) will really "train" your nose for certain big notes. I just don't want people to get frustrated or waste too much money, as it can become consuming. I stopped early. but only after realizing it was going to take a lot more than I could do in order to get anything I'd really want to wear. IT's like when your dad comes in with that Bird Feeder that's not as good as the $12 at the Home Depot, but he spent 95 hours and $800 worth of material to make.

Do it for your pleasure of the PROCESS, NOT in anticipation of the results. Learn from my many long strings of expletives, spilled juice (damn bergamot stain on my rug WON'T come out), and angry neighbors wondering WTF is that reeking coming from my house?

Dior - Pure Poison. "Layered" with remains of Tobacco Vanille and Lavender Palm.. very nice!

Yep, it's the zen of it all that I like and is consistent with all other things I've become obsessed with and their common denominator has been an endeavor which is personal, individual, and "in my own head".

Rach, you'll appreciate this - my wife was trying to explain to our Japanese friends my tendency to get obsessed and heavily involved with hobbies, and they nodded their head and said something which my wife translated to me as "maniac".

Today: Satori Iris Homme

Yep, they have these in Japan. These are the guys with the $25,000 stereos to play John Denver records on or NASA-quality camera lenses to take photos of passing passenger trains.

Luckily we parfumistas as held in higher esteem with the poncy queens and old ladies with crocodile diamond birkins and LV chopsticks (special editions ONLY for the VIPS!) So, no worries.

Wish the timing had been better and I could have joined you for a drink. New term starting and I'm also coordinating several committees... so I couldn't more than about ten feet from my desk all month.

I wore Jicky edt today - seemed a fitting Easter scent, and it was 90 degrees here today. I forgot how much I like this. It's really very modern for a scent from the 19th century (I wonder how close the scent I wore today compares to the original). It can be fleeting, but I sprayed generously and it's lasted all day.

Yesterday, Antaeus
Today, Shalimar

Montale White Musk for evening out. A musk that is quite light but not arid, crisp without being too "fresh." A violet note on top gives it a nice hint of warmth and kick. I think it would change a lot depending on body chemistry; one some the musk gets lost and it becomes too "soapy," (violet/geranium/powder) but on others the musk and violet stay without powder and it gives a lovely skin note.

Not worth the $$$ at full retail, but I got my bottle in a trade from someone who hated it, so I like it quite well. Since I used up my bottle of Keiko Mecheri musc ages ago, I've been without a "clean" musk.

I've tried a number of concentrations and vintages and I find them all good (meaning... FOUL.) Unlike Diorissimo, Miss Dior, and others, through the reformulations even though obviously it's changed, it's not become all that "pleasant" in the process. SO, I think what we have today and enjoy is relatively in the ballpark of what was there originally. Again, if you try some of the old Chanels, Diors, or Givenchys, you'd see what time and reformulations can do to it (Gardenia, for example, or sacre bleu! L'interdit.)

There are a couple of explanations: first, in his blog (when he had one), Turin put forth his preference for the larger houses, claiming in short that the niche houses were - excepting Lutens, Nicolai and Malle - poseurs. In most of the nicheys he found a faux-naif aesthetic with a hideous markup, and noted that it was a lot to pay for 'first drafts'. "At least, with a big house, the brief has been fought over by every competent perfumer in the world." (paraphrased) Sometimes I think he's out to knock a niche perfumer off his or her pedestal, should he or she make the attempt - God help you if you call yourself a "Master Perfumer", because you immediately get compared to Jacques Guerlain and told, in effect, to sit down and compose a few Shalimars before you try wearing that title again. So, anything niche is automatically viewed through a skeptic's lens.

Second, Turin has been an unapologetic devotee of French perfumery as practiced by Chanel, Caron, and Guerlain, and has been unstintingly critical of Guerlain's post-LVMH output, even calling out J-P Guerlain for messing with Laurent's Shalimar Legere. In fact, most reformulations are harshly punished as in the case of Tabac Blond (originally he recommended this as one of the best leathers out there) which was more of a re-write than a tweaking. But in that he's not really consistent because everything gets reformulated at some point. How badly a scent goes off the rails seems to be a mitigating factor, though. But, back to the original point: if it's not of the French school - you have a very steep hill to climb.

Finally, and this I didn't quite get until recently: sometimes he writes from memory, and other times they test - on paper. Their position is that scents can smell good on paper but go badly south on skin, but the inverse is never true. The latter, as I'm told by people I trust, is precisely the case with the MdO line - they smell awful on paper but open up on skin. I sniffed a few Orio's a while back and thought they would be right up LT's alley, but if he only tested on paper then it was highly likely that he threw the smelling strip across the room, looked up the price of her bottles, and her claim to apprenticeship and other marketing prose, and immediately marked her entire line down to 1 star, tout court. Although, even now, I giggle at his "Loud civet fart" when describing Nuit Noire (iirc). So, you have to smell good on paper, AND on skin, to get good marks.

Tuscan leather all weekend, Le Labo Rose today

Today: CdG Harissa