Day: May 18, 2008

May 18, 2008

Aramis Havana – The Legend & The Tragedy

A sad truth in the fragrance world is that the public, by and large, has awful taste. Mainstream garbage like Acqua di Gio is regurgitated endlessly by the media, the marketing teams, and the public itself. A fellow Basenoter once commented on the fact that he was once locked in a meeting with 10 Indian men; 6 of the 10 were wearing AdG. Nothing against Indians either way, I do find the demographics to be very interesting on this stuff (maybe the subject of a future post). What I’m getting at, eventually, is while AdG will probably be selling well into my twilight years, you can not find Aramis Havana in any retail store. Not in North America anyway, if you want it you’ll have to do a bit of traveling, to South Africa or one of the other handful of countries that still receive it. Or, you can pay a premium on eBay or one of the fragrance retail websites, upwards of $80 an ounce on average, which is higher than many niche label fragrances.

So when I was posed the offer to buy about 1.5 oz of the stuff for $55, I couldn’t really pass it up. Thank God I didn’t. Part of the reason I was initially interested in the stuff is it had a lot of notes I liked by themselves. Then again, it has a ton of notes, the most I’ve encountered in a fragrance. Havana features top notes of Coriander Seed, Anise, Birch Tar, Juniper Berry, Tangerine, Grapefruit, and Orange, middle notes of Bay Rum, Cumin, Jamaican Pimento Berry, Pepper, Jasmine, and Hyacinth, and all of that is sitting on a prominent woody base of Tobacco, Patchouli, Cedarwood, Myrhh, Labdanum, Oilbanum, Tonka bean, Vanilla, and some other assorted exotic ouds. So there’ll be pretty … (More) “Aramis Havana – The Legend & The Tragedy”