Big generic vanilla that chews up all the almonds and covers up the floral tonka mush. Grubby amber on the bottom makes it stiff and unyielding.
Dido’s White Flag came out in 2003–another female English hit, but with better staying power and more sweetness.
Silly sweet rich girl.
Very high end but trend-tired caramelized amber, this time supporting peach hard candy.
A loud giggle, but doesn’t stand out from all the others enough to warrant the price tag.
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This is the other guy in your MFA class–who rolled his eyes at the dude who started every sentence with “Actually…”
He smoked menthols, and cooked you dinner with five spice powder and wrapped his leather coat around you when the weather turned bad, and you never officially dated but once in a while you still get a postcard from Asia that smells of joss sticks.
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A drier 4711, less sweet, less herbal, with twice the lasting power…
…which means twenty minutes rather than ten.
The orange flower is lovely, but it gets eaten up by the bergamot pretty quickly. I like the amber at the bottom–it roughs up the jasmine, but the rosemary and lavender don’t have the freshness of the basil.
If I were stupid rich, I might buy a bottle, but tried and true and cheap suits broke me just fine.
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Chris Cornell joined Alice in Chains on this one.
Unisex, because air has no gender, and water is aromantic.
The ambroxan shifts back and forth between cedar, amber and lemon all day long.
Icy clean, yet interesting.
This one would be a lovely cool splash in the summer, but sharp as knives in the winter.
Some more Air:
I loved the rich fruity floral scent on the peelie, but when I tried it on in the store the amber punched me in the stomach and the patchouli hit me on the head with a hammer.
I got two compliments during my rush to the bathroom to scrub it off, and the guy said “ooh, nice,” when I got home–my shirt cuffs actually smelled wonderfully of peachy rose jam.
So I wouldn’t turn down a mini of this, to save for scarves, but not one for my skin.
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Got this stuck in my head today–
Petrified forest.
The cedar and amber make for a very stony accord, and the nutmeg takes it even earthier, though in a refined, almost preserved, way. (And it does last forever, a few inches above the skin.)
It’s not very exciting, but would pair well with a men’s blue suit.
Some more woodsy blues–
Vanilla amber and marshmallow-y musk.
Maybe there’s some almonds in there, too.
It’s okay, but not anything that can’t be found at Victoria’s Secret or Bath and Body Works.
I’ve sort of fallen in love with Pomplamoose. They’re a husband and wife team who’ve made a name for their transparent (what you see is what you get–no post production mixing) cover works online. Here’s another less quiet Another Day.
Soapy dry rose that settles into a metallic musk that grows and grows and takes over living rooms and puts its feet on the furniture.
The vanilla shows up briefly a half an hour in, but can’t compete with the ambroxan-patchouli that sits like a penny in the mouth and puts Black Sabbath tunes in the head all day.
An awesome and invasive modern take on an old rose.
Rob Zombie’s Dragula might be my favorite metal song, but today I’m feeling this Ella style take of the best revenge song ever:
There’s a pun here, because it opens with a breath of incense, like a burning vanilla bean–
Then it settles to the skin with a sheer dry cedar-y vanilla warmed by amber, and slowly fades to nothing.
I wish it had better performance–I’d love it on the artist with rough hands who eats from bowls they’ve made and has a houseful of rescue dogs.
Here’s more Vanille, with Follow the Sun.
kira a. gold 