Fragrance Appreciation

Originally Posted by amerikajinda

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That is AWESOME!

I must ask -- which are some of your favorite Creeds?
I use to wear the heavier Private Collection scents a lot, like Cuir de Russie, Royal English Leather and vintage (there is also a new one) Tabarome. Lately I have been wearing less assertive (by Creed standards) scents like Royal Scottish Lavender, Acier Aluminium, Bois du Portugal, Green Irish Tweed and Selection Verte. I guess I don't have one favorite, it depends on the mood.

Originally Posted by LabelKing

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Do you decant those Creeds? The bottles for those might as well be dwarf jam jars.
Yes, we decant all the large Creed non-atomizer top bottles as well as our Serge Lutens bell jars into small atomizer bottles I bought on eBay.

Originally Posted by The_Foxx

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Cheers, Dmax! wow, that is a serious collection of Creed. I guess these large collections beg the questions: + just how long does a bottle of cologne "keep," if stored in a dark place (i.e. cabinet)? + How long does a bottle typically last you? Or, a better question might be how many spritzes you take per application for the day?
Cheers to you as well. You look like a lovely couple as usual. In my non-expert opinion, as well as such experts as Luca Turin, fragnances can be kept for years or even decades provided they are protected from light and heat. We keep ours in a wine fridge at about 56-57 F. Some fragnances can start to loose their top notes as they age but the process is usually very gradual, as long as they are stored properly. With concentrated fragnances like Creed I only use 1 or 2 sprays at once. I don't think I run out of any fragnance yet since I get tired and switch between them often.

Originally Posted by Dmax

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In my non-expert opinion, as well as such experts as Luca Turin, fragnances can be kept for years or even decades provided they are protected from light and heat. We keep ours in a wine fridge at about 56-57 F. Some fragnances can start to loose their top notes as they age but the process is usually very gradual, as long as they are stored properly.

With concentrated fragnances like Creed I only use 1 or 2 sprays at once. I don't think I run out of any fragnance yet since I get tired and switch between them often.

I just wanted to point out the name of this guy, if it hasn't before on this thread. He wrote a great book that anyone with an interest in perfumery would appreciate. He goes heavily into the physics and chemistry of scents, but presents it in an amazingly comprehensible way - like the Stephen Hawking of scents.

Originally Posted by HORNS

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I just wanted to point out the name of this guy, if it hasn't before on this thread. He wrote a great book that anyone with an interest in perfumery would appreciate. He goes heavily into the physics and chemistry of scents, but presents it in an amazingly comprehensible way - like the Stephen Hawking of scents.
I have that book. It is called Perfume; a Guide (or something like that), co-authored with L[inda?] Sanchez and very very expensive. As a relative novice, I have only read Turin's work and that of Chandler Burr. I have loved Burr's reporting, but his fragrance reviews are idiotic and if they have any value it is if you are able to rely on the star rating (so far, I have been happy trusting those). Turin, on the other hand, writes great reviews, even if I don't always agree with his rating conclusions. That is ok. The real value of a review is that it gives you a good idea of what a product is like. If he gives you good information, you can draw your own conclusions and not rely on the author's preferences. For that reason, I prefer Turin over Burr every time. Sanchez is more like Turin, though I have had fewer chances to compare her reviews with things I have actually experienced.

Originally Posted by Dmax

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I use to wear the heavier Private Collection scents a lot, like Cuir de Russie, Royal English Leather and vintage (there is also a new one) Tabarome. Lately I have been wearing less assertive (by Creed standards) scents like Royal Scottish Lavender, Acier Aluminium, Bois du Portugal, Green Irish Tweed and Selection Verte. I guess I don't have one favorite, it depends on the mood.

Yes, we decant all the large Creed non-atomizer top bottles as well as our Serge Lutens bell jars into small atomizer bottles I bought on eBay.


Cheers to you as well.

You look like a lovely couple as usual.

In my non-expert opinion, as well as such experts as Luca Turin, fragnances can be kept for years or even decades provided they are protected from light and heat. We keep ours in a wine fridge at about 56-57 F. Some fragnances can start to loose their top notes as they age but the process is usually very gradual, as long as they are stored properly.

With concentrated fragnances like Creed I only use 1 or 2 sprays at once. I don't think I run out of any fragnance yet since I get tired and switch between them often.

Do you sell your Creed decants from your personal collection?

Originally Posted by HORNS

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I just wanted to point out the name of this guy, if it hasn't before on this thread. He wrote a great book that anyone with an interest in perfumery would appreciate. He goes heavily into the physics and chemistry of scents, but presents it in an amazingly comprehensible way - like the Stephen Hawking of scents.
I think Horns is referring to this book: It gets pretty technical very fast. I think someone interested in "the science of smell " and possesing some scientific background is the intended audience. Chandler Burr wrote a book about Luca and his struggle to get the scientific community to accept his theory of how human smell aparatus works. The book uses a lot of the material from Luca's book shown above and is a lot easier to read. It looks like this: [

Originally Posted by dopey

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I have that book. It is called Perfume; a Guide (or something like that), co-authored with L[inda?] Sanchez and very very expensive. As a relative novice, I have only read Turin's work and that of Chandler Burr. I have loved Burr's reporting, but his fragrance reviews are idiotic and if they have any value it is if you are able to rely on the star rating (so far, I have been happy trusting those). Turin, on the other hand, writes great reviews, even if I don't always agree with his rating conclusions. That is ok. The real value of a review is that it gives you a good idea of what a product is like. If he gives you good information, you can draw your own conclusions and not rely on the author's preferences. For that reason, I prefer Turin over Burr every time. Sanchez is more like Turin, though I have had fewer chances to compare her reviews with things I have actually experienced.
There are actually two different versions "Perfumes the Guide" books. One was a limited printing done by Luca alone in 1992-94, not translated into english and expensive, being out of print. It looked like this: The new "Perfumes, The Guide" was released a few weeks ago. It has been updated and co-authored with Luca's second wife Tania Sanchez. It is available from Amazon for about $18 and is well worth the money if if you are interested in fragnances. Couple of things that bother me about the book are the star rating system and Tania Sanchez. Both Luca and Tania are visibly biased towards certain perfume houses. While reading some of Luca's reviews you can agree to disagree and feel he still gave the fragnance it's due, reading some of Tania's reviews I get the impression she did not spend more than 5 seconds smelling the fragnances in question. The star system reminds of Wine Spectator "ninety three and one half points", bullshit. One three star fragnance could have a one sentence reivew and yet another three star is worthy a full page of Luca's attention. It seems obvious he finds one more intersting than the other why are they still rated the same? This is what the new book looks like:

Originally Posted by amerikajinda

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Do you sell your Creed decants from your personal collection?
No. Not really. I like to accumulate.

Thanks. I was referring to the last book you mentioned.

Do you recommend the other two English language books? What about Burr's newest book?

amerikajinda and others:

Where is a place to come by such a great sample set of high end scents like the one that you show there from Penhaligon's?

Originally Posted by Dmax

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The new "Perfumes, The Guide" was released a few weeks ago. It has been updated and co-authored with Luca's second wife Tania Sanchez. It is available from Amazon for about $18 and is well worth the money if if you are interested in fragnances. (snip)

They were interviewed on NPR a few weeks ago: http://studio360.org/episodes/2008/05/09 The crew followed them into a NYC drugstore, and they gave their scent impressions of various products in the store, and it was not limited to perfumes. It made me want to read their book. --Andre

Originally Posted by dopey

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Thanks. I was referring to the last book you mentioned. Do you recommend the other two English language books? What about Burr's newest book?
The Secret of Scent - probably not, for the reasons given above. The Emperor of Scent is fairly entertaining read. It also provides a window into the dysfunctional nature of some of the practices of the scientific community. The Perfect Scent is on my list of books to read.

More Pr0n. Serge Lutens. Mrs. Dmax is really protective of her bell jars. L'Artisan Parfumer

Impressive collections Dmax. Have you any Villoresi?

Originally Posted by Dmax

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The Secret of Scent - probably not, for the reasons given above.

The Emperor of Scent is fairly entertaining read. It also provides a window into the dysfunctional nature of some of the practices of the scientific community.

The Perfect Scent is on my list of books to read.

Thanks for the further reading recommendations, Dmax. I'll have to buy the Emperor of Scent so I can get more knowledge of this industry from a social/behavioral aspect of the industry.

Yes, the book I was referring to was The Secret of Scent. It is pretty technical - but anyone who's taken organic chemistry will have a good base of knowledge to understand it. I will not, however, assume that anyone here is too ingnorant to read it and gain something! That is why I made the allusion to Stephen Hawking - in Hawking's books he is notorious for presenting very difficult subject matter in a methodical and eloquent way so the novice can understand.