Abdul Samad al Qurashi - Musk a Ajeeb Oil

I mentioned in a review here that I had bought some samples of Abdul Samad al Qurashi attars and oils from TPC. I really enjoyed the oud-rose attar I tried, but the two musks perplexed me. As a westerner, perhaps I have some preconceived ideas of what musk smells like, and admittedly my exposure to musk (as much as I thought I liked the note in perfume) is in reality quite limited. My benchmark of musk is probably Serge Luten's Musc Kublai Khan, which is considered to be fairly hardcore by many perfumistas' standards. So what was it like sampling Musk a Ajeeb oil? Well firstly, the sample vial contains an oil that  is thick, viscous and the colour of dark treacle. I used the wand on the vial to try to scoop out some of the oil and it clung to the wand like a gloopy tar. When applied to my skin, it stained it a deep orange, ambery colour. I was wearing a long sleeve shirt at the time and I was a bit nervous of staining the sleeves. So what did it smell like? Honestly, I'm finding it very difficult to find suitable words. Weird comes to mind. For the first hour, it didn't even smell like musk to me. Being an oil, there isn't really a definable progression of top, heart and base notes. However, the opening was very peppery, and of all things, minty. I really wasn't expecting that. It actually smells like a fougere, with prominent herbs and lavender. The strongest note to me was geranium, loud and clear, and again, I just wasn't expecting Musk a Ajeeb to smell like this. After a while I started to detect some musk, but it smelled more like a sweet, dark, syrupy cola. The tone of this oil is complex, dark, spicy, minty, even vaguely animalic, without me being able to say exactly why. Underpinning all this is a disturbing sweet note, which as I said, is a bit like cola, yet I am sure it is the musk. I also detected some floral notes later on, and there is a point where it became slightly dryer and more earthy, but overall, I found it to be quite sweet and strange. If this review seems confusing, I apologise, but I am confused, because I have never smelled a perfume like this before. Is it a dirty musk? Again, I'm not really sure. The musk is very intense and sweet, yet beneath it all I couldn't help feeling like there was something a bit disturbing and hidden. I couldn't quite pinpoint it, but it's there.

I really need to test Musk a Ajeeb oil a bit more. This is only my initial impression and perhaps with repeat wearings I will get my head around it. In a way it is quite exciting because I have discovered a perfume style and a style of musk that I haven't encountered before, although initially I don't know if I really like Ajeeb, but perhaps time will tell. Another thought crossed my mind - I wondered if this contains real musk tincture? As I'm almost certain I haven't smelled real musk before, I have no benchmark for comparison. I know it isn't ethical to use real musk in perfume, but I have read a number of Middle Eastern perfume websites that seem to suggest they use real musk. Whether this is just marketing speak I don't know, but this musk was strange enough to suggest to me that perhaps this is the case. If any of you have tried any strange musks, I'd be interested in reading your impressions. 


Image credit: www.1st-art-gallery.com

Ormonde Jayne - Isfarkand

I haven't had much exposure to the Ormonde Jayne line. It seems to have some fervent fans, but doesn't appear to receive a lot of blog time. I won a sample of Isfarkand recently through a small competition I entered on Nathan Branch's website. The perfume notes, according to Ormonde Jayne's website, are lime, mandarin, bergamot, pink pepper, vetiver, cedar and moss. Looking at those notes one would be led to believe that this is a fairly conservative men's fragrance and yes, it turned out to that way for me, albeit with very high quality ingredients. But that is not necessarily a bad thing. Not all perfume has to be (or should be) weird or forceful. Sometimes it is just nice and comforting to encounter and wear a fragrance that is just well made, sophisticated and versatile. And that is exactly what Isfarkand is. On my skin it opened in a style reminiscent of French Lover, by Frederic Malle. There's loads of pink pepper, with an almost gunpowder-like aroma, along with some citrus that was spicy and green, more like galbanum than the normal bright citrus opening one very often expects. The cedar was very prominent on my skin quite early on and Isfarkand felt to me very dry, dusty almost. It was almost incense-like in style, with some subtle, herby notes in the background which may have been the vetiver and moss. The dry down was very pleasant,  woody and mossy, and was rather refined and restrained. I detected a smidgen of sweetness which I thought smelled like sandalwood, but I can't see the note listed, so perhaps I am wrong.

I think Isfarkand would be a perfect office scent, quite sophisticated and refined, very well made, but ultimately a touch boring for me. Nevertheless, there is nothing wrong with it and would make a perfect Fathers day gift I think. Not totally me, but certainly no dud either. 

Serge Lutens - Bas de Soie update

As I mentioned on the weekend, I tried the new Serge Lutens release Bas de Soie, on skin, and my initial impressions can be read here. What I said at the time was that I thought it developed on my skin as a leather scent, rather than the described iris and hyacinth accords. Well, today I decided to spray Bas de Soie on a blotter and I was immediately overwhelmed by a prominent hyacinth note, extremely bold and quite feminine. It's amazing how this didn't show up so distinctly on my skin. I can also detect Iris, although quite a strange one. I have read a review that describes Bas de Soie as an ultraviolet rendition of hyacinth and iris and I must admit, on paper it is a bit oddball. On my skin I found it hard to perceive this and as I said, it felt like a cross between a soapy Spanish leather and a Russian leather. Weird. I've had a eureka moment, but I still feel quite confused. On paper Bas de Soie is forceful and brash; on my skin it is more subdued and very nice. 


Image credit: physics.weber.edu/carroll/archimedes

Chanel Antaeus

If anyone has been reading my blog articles, one might have noticed that I have reviewed very few (if any) mainstream perfumes, concentrating mainly on niche releases. That probably says more about my current perfume journey rather than a possible perception of my snobbery. I won't lie to you, a lot of mainstream releases leave me stone cold, but I do sample a fair amount of non-niche perfume and Antaeus is a stand-out example of how in my opinion a designer/mainstream perfume ought to be. Ok, this was released in the early eighties, a long time before marine/acqua/sports fragrances hit the scene, but it still smells incredibly good. I've read that Antaeus has been reformulated, and those who owned it prior to that swear that it has changed, and not for the better, but to be honest, I doubt I've even tried the original and I still think it is amazing. I've also read that many people find Antaeus dated; very much an eighties fragrance. Again, to me it doesn't really come across as powerhouse eighties at all. Granted, it isn't a wilting flower, but it doesn't smack you across the head and say: "look at me, I'm a banker-wanker with loads of dosh who does blow and power lunches" either.

The notes for Antaeus, according to fragrantica, are lemon, lime, coriander, myrtle, clary sage, bergamot, thyme, basil, rose, jasmine, patchouli, castoreum, labdanum and oak moss. although more commonly, I've also seen beeswax absolute listed and even cedar and sandalwood. To me, Antaeus smells primarily like a lead pencil, pencil shavings and that smell you used to get at the bottom of an old-fashioned pencil case. To me therefore, this is all about cedar, and a pencil note that smells like lead or graphite. However, most sites that list the notes don't mention cedar at all, but I thought that this is possibly the best rendition of cedar (without resorting to men's cliches of cedar) in a perfume that I've encountered. So if Antaeus doesn't contain cedar, then am I clearly confused and deluded? Anyway, that is what I smell and I'd love to know if any of you who are familiar with Anteaus also think it contains cedar. 

Moving on, that smell of pencil case and pencil shavings is an incredibly evocative and nostalgic trip down memory lane. It takes me right back to early primary school (not sure what you call it in the US) and memories of being handed out our quota of pencils for the school term, and the smell of sharpening pencils in those big old rotary sharpeners that used to be fastened to the desks (at least in my school they were - if this dates me, so be it!). I loved those early school days, the thrill of learning to write and draw, before it all got too serious. The beeswax smell is very noticeable to me too and it blends beautifully with the warm woods smell. I do detect patchouli (which I think may be that lead/graphite accord I get) and I think a touch of sandalwood, which adds to the woody vibe. I must admit, looking at the list of notes above, I don't detect half of these, and I do test Antaeus quite often. I don't detect even a sniff of jasmine, rose or basil, but there is a slight herbal powderiness to Antaeus that I think is the oak moss. A question to you all - how well do you know labdanum? Because again, I don't know if I can detect it, although perhaps it is so well blended that it is a case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. There is a distinct leatheriness to Antaeus as well, particularly later in the dry down, but it is not overwhelmingly leathery.

I don't know if this post does Antaeus any justice. Perhaps my confusion about its notes detracts from how good it actually is. I think if I was to buy any of the mainstream Chanel Men's fragrances, Antaeus would top the list. I know there are some others of note, particularly     Pour Monsieur and Egoiste (actually I own Egoiste, but anyway) but I think what I like most about Antaeus is that for me certainly, it smells like nothing else on the market. It is distinct and compelling.

Samples confusion

This is a slightly silly post, but does anyone else feel slightly overwhelmed with both their samples/perfume collection and obsession? I'm sure my collection is by no means large, but for me I am really struggling to keep on top of my samples. My drawers are crammed full with atomisers, carded samples, vials, boxed sets, you name it. I don't have a very good system of keeping tabs of what I've got! Even more worrying is that it really takes me quite a long time each day to decide what I want to sample. If I have new stuff to try, it is quite easy, as I just work through it fairly systematically, but when it comes to perfume I have tried at least once before, it takes ages to decide. I'm finding it even trickier in summer, as a lot of the perfume I like seems to be better suited to the cooler months. This situation hasn't curbed my desire to sample more though. If it weren't for my limited finances I think I'd be ordering new stuff every other day.....


Image credit: buddingba.files.wordpress.com

Serge Lutens - Bas de Soie

Bas de Soie is the latest export release by Serge Lutens, which was destined for international release sometime in August. Imagine my surprise then, when walking into my local Fenwick department store this morning I saw a tester of Bas de Soie on the shelf. So of course I tested it immediately. Now, I had briefly read about its launch, but hadn't paid all that much attention to it, so I was approaching it with no preconceptions. Now, I am not a perfume expert by any means, but I think I have a reasonably good nose, and after an indistinct half an hour of weird florals, which my wife told me reminded her of a hair conditioner called Sheen, it dawned upon me that this was actually a leather fragrance. When I got home tonight, I started to read up a bit more about Bas de Soie, which seems to be a release for the ladies, and translates as silk stockings! What surprised me even more was that the primary notes in Bas de Soie are Hyacinth and Iris, not a mention of leather. In fact, Uncle Serge is releasing another perfume, a non-export, called Boxeuses, which is actually the leather fragrance. I'm seriously confused folks. On my skin, this is not remotely feminine, although admittedly it is decidedly floral for the first half hour or so and I definitely had it down as a leather fragrance, sort of a halfway point between a Spanish and a Russian leather; it smelled quite a lot like saddle soap to me. I love an iris note and I did not remotely detect iris in Bas de Soie. If anyone has tried this yet, I'd love to get your opinion on how it played out on your skin.

I'm not going to do a full-blown review of Bas de Soie, save to say that I really liked it. In fact, I thought it was the best Serge Lutens release in a long while. I know a lot of people loved Fille en Aiguilles, but it did very little to float my boat. L'eau Serge Lutens did even less for me. But Bas de Soie definitely has something folks. I'm sure it will please some and not others, as Uncle Serge never fails to do. I have seen reviews of Bas de Soie by Octavian at 1000fragrances and Denyse at Graindemusc, both of whom seemed to get the interplay of Hyacinth and Iris, albeit in a fresher, almost metallic style, so maybe it is just me who is deluded! Anyway, I think Bas de Soie is definitely worth a try.

First encounters with Laura Mercier

 The picture tells it all for me. Until a couple of weeks ago, I didn't know that Laura Mercia has a perfume line, or two, if you split it into the main line and the gourmand line. I'm not into makeup, but every time you go to a good department store anywhere in the UK, you are bound to see a Laura Mercier concession and that was all I knew. Then I read a review about Minuit Enchante and how nice it is, so I thought I'd have a closer look the next time I went into one of my local department stores. Well, Fenwick doesn't seem to stock Minuit Enchante, but they did seem to have most of the rest of the line. Now it seems that Laura Mercia perfumes are marketed mainly at women, so instead of spritzing at lunchtime, for fear of disturbing work colleagues, I sprayed a number onto paper strips. So my initial impressions as jotted below are not based on proper wearing. Even so, I was pleasantly surprised by what I tried. Admittedly some were obviously feminine, but there were at least a couple that I thought could be easily pulled off by a man.

Ambre Passion Elixir - this is my initial favourite. As the name amply describes, this is amber from top to bottom, no question about it. Amber is evident from first spray and it is a lovely amber which, to me, is in the style of Ambre Sultan by Serge Lutens. It's not quite as herbal and intense, but even so, it does bear more than a passing resemblance and I liked it a lot. I need to test it on skin now and see how it develops.

Vanille Gourmande - this is a lovely little number that seems to have some tenacity; It sprays quite dark on paper. This isn't overly complicated, but starts with some florals (lily and heliotrope) and the vanilla is joined by amber and sandalwood later on. There is just a touch of smoke or incense in here to prevent the vanilla from becoming too sweet and cloying. I'm reminded quite a bit of Vanille Exquise by Annick Goutal, although less smoky. 

L'heure Magique - this was quite feminine, and it reminded me a little of Kelly Caleche, with a subtle leather note. It also smelled quite musky, in a clean, slightly powdery way.

Eau de Lune - this was the most overtly feminine of those I tried, and seemed to me like a very nice, subtle, fruity floral. It was fairly restrained and also a bit powdery. Definitely not me, but I'm sure many women would like it.

Neroli - this one surprised me the most. I was expecting it to be a straightforward orange blossom scent, and in a way it is, but I was amazed at how strong and indolic it opened. It reminded me very much of  Serge Lutens' floral style, with amped up but very pure flowers and the two most obvious associations are with Fleurs d'Oranger and Fleurs De Citronnier. It lasts incredibly long on paper; I can still smell it clearly well over 24 hours later. I really like this one too.

I'd be interested to find out if anyone has tried Laura Mercier and what you think of the line. I thought that for a line that specialises in makeup, its fragrances were very well-executed and quite interesting.