In the summer it’s eye-watering: all the hot sauces at the taqueria–tabasco, nopales salsa verde, pico jalapeño–uncorked and spilled over the table.
In the winter it cools down, becomes herbal, sweet bell peppers with a touch of rose on a base of cedar and metallic musk, but it’s no less potent.
Xeryus Rouge came out in in the mid nineties, along with this sweet spicy tune from Cuba.
Herbal Essence shampoo and towels.
A splash of citrus, some lemony herbs and a bit of sterile musk. Mild projection, mild longevity.
It’s marketed as feminine, but would make a good first scent for any pre-teen.
Here’s a nice clean kid-friendly song, also from 2007.
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.
Herbal-sweet and sheer, and comforting, without any overt invitation.
Opens with a taste of upscale hipster lavender vodka, then the neroli blooms, delicate and sugary with a faint twist of grapefruit zest.
Stays at elbow length for an hour, then settles to the skin with rainwater musk.
Too fragile for summer, but it would sparkle in the snow.
This cover is equally as delicate.
Opens loud with bright green basil and sweet coriander spice–then slides into flowery honey tobacco with some good patchouli funk.
A few hours later it morphs into leather with smoke and soft civet musk, and stays there for the rest of the day and evening, filling the room.
Joint is a powerhouse, but a refined blend rather than blunt force. No true cannabis/hemp notes, but there’s a dank ganja accord that’s really nice.
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Old school “sir” in the best way.
A brief peppery lavender deluge, then alpha fennel seeds with a caveman club, and some very gentlemanly leather and juniper on the bottom.
Handshake projection at first, then settles quickly to an herbal skin scent until he gets physical and heat warms up the spice again.
This guy does exactly as he pleases. He’s usually polite about it, but not always.
This classic came out in 1978, too.
Musky lavender and green flower buds project loud at first, but neroli calms it down. There’s a prickly mess of flowers in the middle, then it bottoms out in the woods.
Not sweet enough for me, but I bet it’s nice in the rain.
Right now, M.I.A. is the Brit with the best rhythm.
I like blood oranges, and this is a nice ripe one.
Opens with a bright hit of sweet juice then settles to peel, with a breath of green underneath. Sits two inches above the wrist for an hour or two, then fades to candied citron and sandalwood on the skin.
It’s a little pricey for the lack of longevity and projection, but maybe not for a citrus aficionado.
Blood Orange is amazing and this video is a giggle. The costumes are brilliant–I keep wondering what scents they all might be wearing–
“Fresh and sensual” according to the tagline, but I get grapefruit pith and greenhouse at first spray, then it settles into vetiver an inch or two above the skin for an hour.
Oddly dated, but pleasant–it’s how I’d imagine the interior of an old VW bug that’s been decomposing in a retired philosophy professor’s back yard would smell like–full of weeds and nostalgia.
This scent was supposed to be inspired by Haiti. I don’t really feel that, but the closest I’ve been was Jamaica, and it smelled like bus fumes and curry.
Twa Fey (Three Leaves) is a very special Haitian folk song–this is a gorgeous version by Emeline Michel.
Unusual and interesting.
Opens with a blast of fruity-booze-pepper-smoke, then settles into a really nice herbal–almost medicinal–leathery rose.
The usual feminine notes are switched up, jasmine given muscles and a short-back-and-sides haircut, sweet amber sheared sharp, carnations with teeth.
I’d huff it on a guy in a big way, but I’ll wear it too, with chunky shoes and a rough sweater, in the fall.
This alternative hit (also from 1989) mixes funk and sweetness with an easy groove.
kira a. gold 