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”

My initial review of Dunhill Pursuit reads something like so:

This stuff is great. I got a spray on paper yesterday at Sephora and decided to leave with a 1mL sample spray of the stuff. Wore three sprays, one to the neck, one to the belly, one to the back of the wrist. The four notes that are standing out the most to me are lemon, incense, sandalwood and vetiver. A quick look at the directory confirms three of the four notes are indeed there, and the vetiver note I’m getting could be something else. Initially it’s a bright, orange and sandalwood-laden scent that’s a little too fresh for me. When it dries down, though, you get the most wonderful incense note, deep and smoky, sweet without being cloying. This interacts with the lush sandalwood wonderfully and you get what I find to be a unique incense. Combined with heat from the body you get a marvelous drydown, one of my favorites to date.

Sillage is fair to good, I did get a comment on it at work today. Longevity is good so far as I’m seven and a half hours into wearing it and most of the magic is still there.

What it reminds me of, and the SA agreed, was Terre d’Hermes, only a little stronger, deeper and maybe a bit sweeter in different ways. Where TdH has a note that conjures up images of a mouth-puckering sour lemon, Dunhill Pursuit offers oranges at an incense-smelling church. I like it, I like it more than TdH honestly.

This was the first Dunhill fragrance I’ve tried and I’m impressed thus far.

Now, since then I’ve bought a bottle and given it some more wears.  What I’m encountering is that the incense note that I initially really went for … (More) “Dunhill Pursuit Revisited”