I write this with still-shaking hands, the events described below are no more than ten minutes old.

Saturday was a day for rest and relaxation, or so they say.  I was lounging on the couch in nothing more than a pair of underwear when the serenity was abruptly ended.

THUD! THUD! THUD THUD THUD THUD!, went the door, loud, determined, forceful, even angry knocks over and over. I quietly got up and went into the bathroom where the clothes from last night still lay and put them on, listening intently at some scattered conversation at the door. I could pick out the words “Office Depot”, and could hear two voices, which meant there were two guys outside and they were looking for me. Oh hell, what have I gotten myself into. For a full two minutes the door was assaulted with closed fist, and then I heard another sound. A police radio. My fear turned into confusion as I didn’t believe I’d done anything to get me on the wrong side of the police.

I must’ve been a sight to see, wrinkled red shirt, wrinkled blue jeans, wild unkempt hair from sitting on the couch watching MythBusters episodes. I unlocked the door and stepped onto the porch in bare feet. The officer whose eyes I met did not look amused.

“Good morning.” obviously said in sarcasm as it was 3 in the afternoon and I looked to all intents and purposes like I’d just gotten out of bed.
“Good morning, sir.”
“Are you…Brian?”

Who?

“No sir, I’ve seen some mail for him but my name’s Daniel.”
“I see, and you obviously do not live with Brian.”

Now, I’m so frequently mistaken for being gay that I was almost offended that he assumed I was straight. As ludicrous as that … (More) “The Palisander Conspiracy, Part II: The Mystery Of M7”

Months ago, Basenotes’ mikeperez23 was kind enough to mail me a sample of CdG Series 2 Red: Palisander. However I never ended up seeing it, and was quite disappointed that it either had been lost in the mail or stolen from my mailbox.

It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I found out what happened to it.

June 20th, 2008 (or thereabouts)

There was a man, let’s call him Mister P, though his name is actually…

James P.
1416 S 3rd St
Louisville, KY 40208

But this mysterious Mister P used to live at the address that I live at now, and on that fateful day he got the mail, including a padded envelope from Miami, Florida. Not realizing that it was not for him, but perplexed nonetheless, he opens the package. Inside is a tiny glass spray bottle, with one word on it in black on a white label.

PALISANDER

Mister P stared at the bottle, and bottle stared back at him as bottles are sometimes known to do in late June when you’ve had a few. He calls a few friends and asks them to come over and help him with a problem. Let’s call them Dick and Jane, since I really don’t know their names this time. They enter his small apartment and sit down across from him at the kitchen table. Mister P turns to them with a look of concern.

“This was in the mail, it was supposed to be for the new tenant at 1420.” He then reveals the tiny bottle, and the confusion was well-nigh palpable. Mister P looks at Jane and Jane looks at Dick and Dick looks at Mister P, then they alternate and look at the other person like a clichéd action movie. After a minute or two … (More) “The Palisander Conspiracy”

One of the more ubiquitous sights on Basenotes is a thread to the effect of “Given what I already have, what else do you all recommend I get?”   I just commented on one of them a few minutes ago, and I’m responsible for three or four of them myself.  One of them had several people suggest Antidote by Viktor & Rolf, the same perfumers that make the ladies’ hit Flowerbomb.  Now, these recommendations were from members whose opinions I value quite highly, so I took it to heart and committed the name to memory in case I wandered into a sample of it.

And wander I did, into Von Maur at Louisville’s Oxmoor Center, where they had a display of Antidote, and that beautiful bottle.  It is seriously one of the most stylish bottles I’ve got, pictured to the right.  But a pretty bottle is only part of what Antidote offers.

The opening blast is big and strong, a host of woods and spices.  It’s full, lush, even sparkling is a term I’d use to describe it, as it definitely has a sort of effervescent sensation to the nose.  The main players throughout are sandalwood, cinnamon, and vanilla.  Despite the massive note pyramid, I think these three are the great majority of the scent.  It is sweet yet robust all at once, and remains so for about six hours when a base of amber becomes more prominent.  This is also when the fragrance becomes slightly less masculine, but still an excellent evening wear fragrance.

The closest thing out of my wardrobe to this one is Original Santal by Creed, lovingly referred to as “The Bombay Flamethrower.” The best thing I’ve found to layer with this is, unsurprisingly to serial readers, Aramis Havana.  What I find with this “Havantidote” … (More) “V&R Antidote – Sovereign Specific”

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 wearing Avatar by Coty, which I’ve only ever seen at Wal-Marts.  That said, you may come across with an idea as to what it’s like, yet.

Romance Silver starts out with a very well-done suede note, one of the first good attempts at suede in the business.  For those that aren’t familiar with the smell of suede, it’s probably because it’s more or less an invention by perfumers.  It’s a spicy note that has both ozonic and woody elements.  So it’s a slightly different take on your traditional fresh scent, and when combined with the other notes in the composition Romance Silver is unarguably masculine.  There are some wild, fruity elements to it as well, but on the whole the composition is rather tight, it’s tough to pick out individual notes.

The scent is linear, no progression to speak of in my experiences with it.  Projection is weak, but I’ve received a few compliments with it.  Longevity is outstanding, it stays on clothes for a long, long time.  As in days/weeks.  On skin I still get a good 8 hours.

Knowing what I know and have tried now, would I recommend it to myself?  I honestly don’t know, and that’s why I’m withholding a recommendation either way, except as always that one should try it if one sees it.  I mean, it is in my top 3 of the 2003 releases, below Un Jardin En Mediterranee and Gucci Pour Homme but above Burberry Brit (not … (More) “RL Romance Silver – Flashbacks”

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 example of that in recent years.

2004 had Armani generally doing their own thing, the Armani Prive collection was seeing more love than anything else, their last mainstream attempt (Mania) failed to impress the masses.  So they went to an up-and-coming perfumer named Antoine Maisondieu (It seems that serial readers of the blog will have heard the name before, generally in glowing terms) to commission their new men’s perfume.  Maisondieu opted to go the route of an oriental, something that Armani had never done in mainstream fragrance.

Suffice it to say that Black Code, as it was called, was an unmitigated success story.

Code is really quite unique, a kiss of citrus gives way to spice, smoke, and warm tonka bean, though it’s not a typical tonka as it’s slightly altered by the presence of Guaiacwood, which gives the whole thing a distinct formal tone.  The initial blast is strong and masculine, with lemon and olive flower being the main players.  As it dries down, it picks up a detectable “warmth” from the smoke and tonka bean.  It projects very well for such a mainstream scent, and longevity is decent at six hours.

Why, then, is Code so frequently cited as a cliche?  I suppose every cliche has a basis in fact, and the fact is Code is extremely popular across the nation (and in worldwide circles for that matter), and has very good odds of being found (overapplied) in a middle/high school environment.  Simply … (More) “Armani Code – Not Just For Everybody”