HS3

Wow. I love Ulrich Lang Nightscape.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I first sampled it, but reading reviews about its icy patchouli, I had to try it. At first sample, it had to be mine. I’ll try to keep this quick and simple.

Patchouli lovers – you need to try it. It’s not like head shop patchouli, but rather a smooth, crisp, woodsy patchouli. I can totally buy into their marketing; a man out on the town, dressed in great jeans, a dark cotton blazer, a white button down, and an air of confidence. It dries into this gorgeously sleek leather/musk/amber with just a gentle touch of citrus to give a tart, bright element. By the way, if you like this, you might like Montale Pure Gold. And if you like Pure Gold, you might like Chanel Coromandel. Nightscape smells nothing like Coromandel, but just saying… if you like one, etc.

Have some pics – great bottle, with a nice feel in the hand. The cap is a let down as it’s just molded plastic, but without a considerable price hike, there’s not much else they could do with it.

There you go! A gorgeous scent and a great bottle. Check it out – Nightscape by Ulrich Lang.

I’d never heard of Odin before, being from small-town Washington, DC and Orlando as of late. Apparently, it looks to be a trendy store in NYC that stocks emerging designers, along with various other high-end stuff and also a newly released EDT line. It goes to show how far a good marketing plan can go for you when a small clothing retailer can release a set of EDTs and get them carried by stores like luckyscent and the like.

The bottles and packaging look gorgeous, though I haven’t actually seen one in person. I recently got the three of them as samples from luckyscent, and have been sampling them from time to time. Nomad is the one I’m sampling right now, and I really do like it. It opens a bit more “perfumey” than you’d expect, probably from a number of synthetic musks and florals. It settles into a creamy, sweetened heliotrope, with a sandalwood/vanilla undertone and the ever-present synthetic musk ringing along.

I could see myself owning and wearing this one though. It seems like a perfume scent that wouldn’t offend, but wouldn’t be boring or run of the mill either.

It’s a pity, but Serge Lutens has decided to pull Douce Amere from its export line, and only offer it exclusively as a Paris bell jar. I’m sure they have their reasoning behind all of their marketing, whether it be their exclusive Paris line, or single year limited exports, but I don’t like it. When I heard that Douce Amere was being pulled, I stopped putting off the purchase and emailed my SA at Barney’s to have her hold me a bottle until their next bag event.

Douce Amere is a gorgeous scent. It combines the familiar sweet, hay-like base of Serge Lutens that is reminiscent of the drydown of Chergui with a crisp, icy anise opening. It has a slight boozy feel to it in the top notes that might remind you of a whiff of Chartreuse liquor. It settles into a comforting, velvety middle with signature SL cues. It’s a great addition to the line, and a pity that it’ll be infinitely harder to get (for those of us outside of Paris).

I guess a set of photos of one tan labeled Serge Lutens is not much different than the next, but Serge does have beautiful bottles, so I figured it couldn’t hurt. Here are just a few that I snapped – nothing fancy, but for those new to Serge, it’s a nice way of checking out the bottle!

Pure Oud by By Kilian. It’s expensive. The bottle’s gorgeous. I have no idea the cost of the actual formula. I want it.
It’s fabulous – it is the most natural, smoothest oud centric scent I’ve tried. I don’t know if that means it is any more or less authentic than other oud scents, but I do know that it’s wonderful. It has magnificent staying power as well. Just a few swipes on my hand and 7 hours later, it’s still going strong. It’s a silky smooth oud trip with touches of scratchy spice here and there to help out. I doubt I’ll buy it in its standard packaging, but the much better $/ml of the 100ml refill is much more appealing. Check out Pure Oud at Luckyscent.

L’Artisan Parfumeur Passage d’Enfer. Passage from Hell. It’s one of my top 5 or 6 Artisans. It’s loaded with a light, shimmering white incense and a great, dry frankincense, all smoothed with just a bit a clean musk. Does it have a slight touch of what seems like bug spray? Sure. It might. That part is not totally unlike the same experience you’ll get with Kyoto by Comme des Garcons. It’s a good bit “lighter” and vastly easier to wear though. When the GF wears it, it’s so unique on her that I sometimes don’t even recognize it and have to ask what she’s wearing. I’d recommend trying this one, but it needs to be sprayed fully rather than just dabbed to get the whole experience. This is also one of the few incense based scents that’s great in all temperatures (and also great to people new to incense scents).

Oh, and I buckled. I ordered the great pyramid Comme des Garcons LUXE Patchouli bottle from Luckyscent. I really need to buy a new digital camera so I can start putting more pics on here (and the GF’s cybershot doesn’t quite cut it ).

When I first got my little sample of Comme des Garcons LUXE patchouli in the mail from Luckyscent, I dabbed a bit on my hand eagerly awaiting a velvety smooth patchouli scent that warranted the $290 price tag. What I got, I didn’t understand. At that point, I don’t think I had smelled many scents with large amounts of fenugreek, immortelle, or the like. It’s such a hard scent to describe. It’s almost like a foody take on what old paperback books would smell like with some vanilla extract smeared onto them. The gourmand quality is really played up in Dior’s Eau Noire (I think the immortelle centric scent that made me an addict).

Fast forward about a year. I was looking through the drawer this morning for something to dab onto the back of my hand to enjoy while I sat at my desk all day. I grabbed the Patchouli and thought to myself, the last time I gave something a while and tried it again, I really enjoyed it. This time, I loved what I got. I smelled just what I had hoped – I rich, earthy fenugreek laced with white pepper and patchouli. It has an ever-present earthy note that is probably from the various wood notes in it (oak, cedar, sandalwood). I’m really looking forward to giving it a full wear rather than sampling on my hand. It very well may earn a spot in my wardrobe. I think I’ll be selling most, if not all, of my Creeds soon due to personal objections to certain strong-arm business tactics they employ, so those proceeds may be suited perfectly for helping a curiously expensive bottle of patchouli into my collection.