I’m not joking, and don’t call me Shirley.

I just received an invitation via email to the Perfume Expo America 2009 in NYC.  This has to mean that either everyone else declined, or PXA is succumbing to being politically correct, and having to diversify their blogger panel.  If I were to go, I would be “the straight one”.

RL Romance Silver – Flashbacks

Unfortunately, readers, this is one of those fragrances I just won’t be able to be objective or unbiased on.  My history with Romance Silver goes back several years and across oceans and nations.  It was my first designer fragrance, or at least what I’d consider designer now; prior to that if memory serves I was [...]

Armani Code – Not Just For Everybody

I’ve written previously that the mainstream community, by and large, has awful taste, a message that I can reinforce by pointing out consistently high sales of fresh aquatic after fresh aquatic after fresh, bored-to-tears, are-we-there-yet aquatic.  Every now and then, though, we can find something that bucks the trend and Armani Code is the best [...]

Central Park – It’s Easy Being Green

Kicking off the Bond No. 9 marathon, I chose to…choose the fragrances at random, and I’ll be mixing in my as-yet unreviewed fragrances out of my wardrobe and the Bond No. 9 fragrances for your reading pleasure. This also takes a lot of that pesky thinking out of the equation; I now can tell you [...]

Baldessarini Ambre – Easy Drinkin’

While I’ll be the first to admit that for the most part Hugo Boss offerings haven’t done much for me (I’ll also admit my experience with them is pretty limited), I have yet to find a fragrance in their Baldessarini line that I didn’t like. The original Baldessarini (which will be reviewed in the future) [...]

Floodgates

In a stunning development, at least one of you doesn’t find me terrible. That person would be Elena of Bond No. 9, who sent me a press kit for their new creation, Lexington Avenue, as well as samples of about 13 other men’s offerings. So what you’re going to see is a mini-marathon of Bond [...]

Cruel Intentions – Cologne to $$$ to.

With the niche experiment winding down I’m hitting the second of three by Kilian Hennessy, Cruel Intentions, and this one was recommended explicitly for me out of not only the Kilian line but all of perfumery, by the Basenotes crew. Well, how am I supposed to not sample it when you get a recommendation like [...]

Montale Attar

I’m gonna be honest, I won’t be wearing this one again. Had the same oud opening as Black Aoud, just a touch sweeter, and for the next 4 or 5 hours after that I had a headache from the stuff. Then it changed into this sweet figgy fruity thing and more or less faded away. [...]

Cereus No. 7 – BFFs

In my initial ratings just smelling the vials, my commentary on Cereus No. 7 was “I got a big old whiff of Green Irish Tweed right off the bat.” I was so confident today that I’d hit on something that I skipped the solo wearing and wore it side-by-side with the Creed offering. Today’s an [...]

Méchant Loup – Unafraid

Wrapping up the L’Artisan reviews today with Méchant Loup, French for Bad Wolf (think like the Big Bad Wolf). Reviews for this one have always been promising, hazelnut and honey on smoky incense. The nose is Bertrand Duchafour, who I’m starting to respect more and more as a gifted artist. The nut and honey are [...]