A small pile of perfume reviews
Aug. 4th, 2008 09:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beetigerHere are a mix of reviews for recent BPAL scents, plus of small collection of samples from other niche perfumers via Lucky Scent.
Hay Moon: Blended powdery grassy thing. Turns to sweetgrass PlayDoh on my skin in 10 minutes.
Licwiglunga: Too sweet for what it is. Overipe.
Aeronwen: There's nothing really wrong with this sweet-spicy blend, but it's just not grabbing me at all. Smells like an unbalanced woody version of Hetairae.
Clemence: Clovey chai tea. Spice overwhelms all of the other notes. Okay, but not as nice as The Lion for this kind of character.
The Illustrated Woman: Summer Pines, without dirt or green notes, and most important, no ice notes. Wearable.
Yosh Ginger Chao: A sophisticated blend of ginger, less sweet florals, and musk. Very like the personal perfume Loreto made for me in some ways, but better blended. This seems very me somehow, in an upscale sort of way. The black coconut is exotic and woody without being pukey or suntan lotion, like I often get with coconut notes. A tropical I can wear! Bold. I don't think I'd spend $130 on a bottle of it, but I'll use the sample, and may treat myself to a sample set of the rest of the Yosh fragrances.
Mead Moon: Sweet honey note, no fermented notes. Light grassy and fruity notes on top, but no florals. Pretty if a bit singular and not as fizzy as I had hoped.
Escentric Molecules: Molecule 01 and Escentric 01: An experiment in note-isolation, science-geekery perfume, Molecule 01 is purely a dilution of Iso E Super, one of the most common synthetic base notes in perfumery, described as sweet, vevety, and sandalwood-like. I'd never smelled it before. It is in fact astonishingly sandalwood-like as it warms on the skin -- remember, I keep pounds of sandalwood power in my basement --more so than most actual sandalwood oils I've smelled. Smooth and woody, with just a hint of pencil shavings. EM sells this for $135 for 3.5 oz., but the raw material at the Perfumer's Apprentice will cost you only $10.50 for 80 ml.
Escentric 01 is a complete perfume using Iso E Super as the dominant and base note, adding top notes of "pink pepper, lime peel and orris incense". The Iso E Super is definitely still primary. I love how the pepper and woody notes go together . The citrus was a sharp upfront burst which mostly faded pretty quickly, but sneaks back now and again. Every once in a while I still get pencil shavings, though. It's gentler than it ought to be given the pepper note, and I think pretty gender-neutral. I'm wearing the two samples side by side and the complete perfume is definitely fuller in character. An interesting exercise, and I'll wear this sample, definitely. Reviews all say it attracts people like crazy -- I'll see if it works for me.
Escentric Molecules: Molecule 02 is a straight dilution of synthetic ambroxan, one of the key components in natural ambergris (which comes from sperm whales and is very hard to get hold of these days due to regulations). EM describes it as "a fresh, almost mineral smoothness". I can barely smell it at all when I first put it on. It's a modification of the scent of my own skin, but I can't describe well exactly what it's doing. When I go outside and sniff, I can smell a bit more of something, and it's appealing but I still can't describe it. There's a bit of a woody note that is probably really the remnants of the 01 from last night. This experiment does tell me one thing I was curious about -- this is definitely not the component of some ambergris oils (like BPAL's) which gives me a terrible headache.
Escentric 02 adds vetiver, muscone (synthetic musk), orris, elderflower, and hedione (a synthetic jasmine component) to the ambroxone. To me, it smells fizzy and soapy. Don't like it at all. It's probably the muscone I'm reacting badly to.
Biehl parfumkunstwerke is an art perfume house, with a few perfumers invited to go very experimental. Geza Schön, the nose behind Escentric Molecules, also did two perfumes for Biehl. Unlike the simple EM scents, gs02 is a giant pile of green top notes, fruity floral heart, and meditative woody base. It seems fresh and uplifting to me at first, lime with a floral combo that doesn't smell like any flower I can ID but also desn't smell generic. Not sharp at all despite the citrus. Definitely a traditional perfume rather than a BPAL or something. Nice and summery, not cloying at all. Doesn't really grab me, but I could wear it.
Biehl's eo03, by Egon Oelkers, is described as the "extravagant" one in his series.I chose it because the promise of an understated fruity-floral appealed to me. I like white florals but usually find them too heavy for my taste, and I'm feeling all summerish. And sure enough, it starts out with a little of that fruity Bath and Body Works vibe (which I know, is a terrible way to compare high end perfume, but oh well) without being as heavy and cloying as those scents are. It is indeed delicate, and well blended -- the fruits keep coming out different ways each time I come to it. It doesn't feel tropical at all, which is good. I keep coming back to it as the neroli and woods start coming out, and I'm really enjoying this one.
Biehl's mb03, by Mark Buxton, is supposed to be an "incense perfume", dark, provocative, and lush. It's a little spicy and rather butch. I get leather, pepper, and a not-too-powdery amber. No sweetness to it at all, and less resin and wood than I would have expected. Very comforting, though it's a scent I'd rather smell while getting a tight hug from a good male friend than as a scent on myself.
The samples of Hay Moon, Licwiglunga, Aeronwen, Clemence, Mead Moon, Molecule 01, Escentric 02, and mb03 are available for you to purchase. $3.50 each or $25 if you take the whole set, plus $2 shipping in the US.
Hay Moon: Blended powdery grassy thing. Turns to sweetgrass PlayDoh on my skin in 10 minutes.
Licwiglunga: Too sweet for what it is. Overipe.
Aeronwen: There's nothing really wrong with this sweet-spicy blend, but it's just not grabbing me at all. Smells like an unbalanced woody version of Hetairae.
Clemence: Clovey chai tea. Spice overwhelms all of the other notes. Okay, but not as nice as The Lion for this kind of character.
The Illustrated Woman: Summer Pines, without dirt or green notes, and most important, no ice notes. Wearable.
Yosh Ginger Chao: A sophisticated blend of ginger, less sweet florals, and musk. Very like the personal perfume Loreto made for me in some ways, but better blended. This seems very me somehow, in an upscale sort of way. The black coconut is exotic and woody without being pukey or suntan lotion, like I often get with coconut notes. A tropical I can wear! Bold. I don't think I'd spend $130 on a bottle of it, but I'll use the sample, and may treat myself to a sample set of the rest of the Yosh fragrances.
Mead Moon: Sweet honey note, no fermented notes. Light grassy and fruity notes on top, but no florals. Pretty if a bit singular and not as fizzy as I had hoped.
Escentric Molecules: Molecule 01 and Escentric 01: An experiment in note-isolation, science-geekery perfume, Molecule 01 is purely a dilution of Iso E Super, one of the most common synthetic base notes in perfumery, described as sweet, vevety, and sandalwood-like. I'd never smelled it before. It is in fact astonishingly sandalwood-like as it warms on the skin -- remember, I keep pounds of sandalwood power in my basement --more so than most actual sandalwood oils I've smelled. Smooth and woody, with just a hint of pencil shavings. EM sells this for $135 for 3.5 oz., but the raw material at the Perfumer's Apprentice will cost you only $10.50 for 80 ml.
Escentric 01 is a complete perfume using Iso E Super as the dominant and base note, adding top notes of "pink pepper, lime peel and orris incense". The Iso E Super is definitely still primary. I love how the pepper and woody notes go together . The citrus was a sharp upfront burst which mostly faded pretty quickly, but sneaks back now and again. Every once in a while I still get pencil shavings, though. It's gentler than it ought to be given the pepper note, and I think pretty gender-neutral. I'm wearing the two samples side by side and the complete perfume is definitely fuller in character. An interesting exercise, and I'll wear this sample, definitely. Reviews all say it attracts people like crazy -- I'll see if it works for me.
Escentric Molecules: Molecule 02 is a straight dilution of synthetic ambroxan, one of the key components in natural ambergris (which comes from sperm whales and is very hard to get hold of these days due to regulations). EM describes it as "a fresh, almost mineral smoothness". I can barely smell it at all when I first put it on. It's a modification of the scent of my own skin, but I can't describe well exactly what it's doing. When I go outside and sniff, I can smell a bit more of something, and it's appealing but I still can't describe it. There's a bit of a woody note that is probably really the remnants of the 01 from last night. This experiment does tell me one thing I was curious about -- this is definitely not the component of some ambergris oils (like BPAL's) which gives me a terrible headache.
Escentric 02 adds vetiver, muscone (synthetic musk), orris, elderflower, and hedione (a synthetic jasmine component) to the ambroxone. To me, it smells fizzy and soapy. Don't like it at all. It's probably the muscone I'm reacting badly to.
Biehl parfumkunstwerke is an art perfume house, with a few perfumers invited to go very experimental. Geza Schön, the nose behind Escentric Molecules, also did two perfumes for Biehl. Unlike the simple EM scents, gs02 is a giant pile of green top notes, fruity floral heart, and meditative woody base. It seems fresh and uplifting to me at first, lime with a floral combo that doesn't smell like any flower I can ID but also desn't smell generic. Not sharp at all despite the citrus. Definitely a traditional perfume rather than a BPAL or something. Nice and summery, not cloying at all. Doesn't really grab me, but I could wear it.
Biehl's eo03, by Egon Oelkers, is described as the "extravagant" one in his series.I chose it because the promise of an understated fruity-floral appealed to me. I like white florals but usually find them too heavy for my taste, and I'm feeling all summerish. And sure enough, it starts out with a little of that fruity Bath and Body Works vibe (which I know, is a terrible way to compare high end perfume, but oh well) without being as heavy and cloying as those scents are. It is indeed delicate, and well blended -- the fruits keep coming out different ways each time I come to it. It doesn't feel tropical at all, which is good. I keep coming back to it as the neroli and woods start coming out, and I'm really enjoying this one.
Biehl's mb03, by Mark Buxton, is supposed to be an "incense perfume", dark, provocative, and lush. It's a little spicy and rather butch. I get leather, pepper, and a not-too-powdery amber. No sweetness to it at all, and less resin and wood than I would have expected. Very comforting, though it's a scent I'd rather smell while getting a tight hug from a good male friend than as a scent on myself.
The samples of Hay Moon, Licwiglunga, Aeronwen, Clemence, Mead Moon, Molecule 01, Escentric 02, and mb03 are available for you to purchase. $3.50 each or $25 if you take the whole set, plus $2 shipping in the US.
