Grapefruit pith and rotting tree bark. There could be some sour berries in there, too.
Shady and dark, like the person wearing this would try to sell me a bridge in Brooklyn or offer me some magic beans.
Christopher Walken is my favorite weird bad guy.
Opens with a gasp of L. L. Stardust Midnight’s iris musk then breathes fermented raspberry jam and spruce.
Nice, but sadly finishes quickly with AXE body spray cedar.
This is my favorite Raspberry Jam at the moment.
This smells like everything else at Macy’s, but with a glass of red wine rather than a caramel frappe or a peach smoothie.
Bergamot and black berries on the top, jasmine and tuberose in the middle, musky patchy vetiver at the bottom.
This song came out in 2017 in Italy, same as.
Nice flirty cantaloupe and jasmine, with a smart woody tonka bean ending.
A good “young-adult” scent that doesn’t take over the entire house, street and neighborhood on the way to the high school–a safe blind buy for your favorite teen-thing this holiday.
And five points to House J. Couture for the “Bows before Beaus” line.
I love Lizzo.
Artificial cherry, and the dregs of cheap wine.
A bit of cigarette ash, too.
The ElDO ad copy is a big story about parties and shoes and iris centerpieces, and I get the booze and the hangover, but this scent has been done already, and better–without the feet–in Lolita Lempicka’s Sweet.
Here’s a much better Cherry.
Boozy pineapple fruit dipped in herbal honey, garnished with minty patchouli–but then some dank tobacco weirdly dirties up the sweetness.
It’s an odd mix, like Jimmy Choo Man put on silk argyle socks and Birkenstocks.
Maduro is an ode to a famous box of Cuban cigars from 1961. Despite Fidel Castro’s ban on rock music the same year, Los Zafiros were quite successful.
Cloud pops open with herbs and artificial pears, then some sweet mushy stuff wiggles in the middle over a solid base note of woodsy chemical musk.
It’s got a hook–I keep going back to sniff the peelie–but it’s just too synthetic for me to want to purchase.
Kind of like a lot of Ariana’s songs, actually.
(Ugh. I’m old and crotchety. Girl can belt it, and I do like this one.)
Might be the nicest amber musk I’ve ever tried, but I think I’d need to be a bit less girly-girl to pull it off properly–this one falls more into the laid-back dude territory of unisex.
At first, plums–not the pale juicy kind, the dark prune ones, with that blue rime on the thick skin–drink smoky black currant tea with honey, while wild roses bloom in the distance. Then the amber kicks in with masculine wood, warming up some musky benzoin for several hours.
Quite nice, and projects louder and longer than any other Fort & Manle I’ve tested so far.
A mellow 311 cover–
Opens with fresh peaches and jasmine that gets mixed into a fruit salad and white flower arrangement–in an elegant Martha Stewart catered way.
Lasts for three hours at arm’s length, with musk anchoring a bit of rose on the skin for several more.
J’adore was special when it came out in 1999, but it’s kind of everywhere now, so it seems generic.
(In 2011 Christian Dior launched a massive advertising campaign with the iconic video featuring Charlize Theron and this song, to huge success.)
Crisp watermelon on top and even more delicious in the middle–buttery sweet soft floral–but on me, this quickly fades down to a muted version of Light Blue.
Nice, but needs more of the frangipani.
(Bit of trivia: The almond custard “frangipane” was named for the Marquis de Frangipani, whose family line went back to Roman times.)
And I just discovered that Halsey’s real name is Ashley Frangipane, which made me laugh.
kira a. gold 