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.

The latest scent from PdN is Patchouli Homme. I don’t necessarily think the name is appropriate. While it certainly has plenty of patchouli, there are so many aspects to it that some other notes might feel upstaged by that name. I wore Bois 1920 Extreme today with the Patchouli Homme on the back of my hand to experience through the day. After a few hours with the two, I think they’d even layer pretty nicely. The fern characteristics of the Bois 1920 really mix well with the Patchouli Homme.

PH transforms quite a bit on skin. It opens with a sharp, tenacious lavender note with a very classic feel to it. Only minutes after, it begins to mellow and fill out. Notes of vanilla and amber bring it all together in its heart. The drydown takes another big turn, and the end result to me still heavy on lavender, with wisps of incense and patchouli and a slightly sweetened vanilla base in the background. All in all, it’s a really dynamic, well crafted scent. It behaves through its evolution and has a gorgeous, velvety heart and base. If you’re a fan of lavender, fougeres, or patchouli, it’s certainly worth a try!

I tried it at Saks yesterday and while it was interesting and evolved quite a bit, it was a bit over the top and would be hard for me to pull off. It opened with a tart Juicy Fruit gum note that lasted for quite a while… I even had two other SAs there laughing when they made that connection. I took the card with me (along with a few other various scents that I’d sprayed on cards… all neatly separated of course), and left it in the car when I went back to work. Hours later, the car smelled strongly of it and it had overpowered the others, so kudos on tenacity and lasting power. It had dried to a sweet, almost powdery (I’m guessing from the amber note/accord) floral thing. It’s not bad, but I think it would be immediately cloying and a bit much to handle if slightly over applied or worn in humid heat.

Miller Harris L’Air de Rien

This is a fantastic, vanilla sweetened, ambery scent with just the right amount of “dirty” musk. It really evokes the 60s aura that it purports to do (the whole Jane Birkin thing). It’s completely addicting and hard to stop smelling when you put it on. The initial few minutes take a couple times to get to know, but once you do it’s hard not to love it and the dry down is a lovely dusty amber. There are ever so slight touches of potpourri and patchouli hiding in the background that just add to the complexity.

This is a perfect scent for evening moments spent close to someone you love. It evokes sensuality, comfort, and an inviting familiarity. It’s really quite nice once you get to know it. I owned a bottle for a while, but ended up parting ways with it. The first while is so jarringly animalic that I just couldn’t wrap my mind around it long enough to get past that.

Andy Tauer Incense Rosé

This started as a sharp scent with a considerable amount of complexity to it that I wasn’t sure if I was sold on. However, I wore it once and found something in it that I really liked. Then my girlfriend mentioned that she thought a rose and incense scent would be incredible… DING, I grabbed the rest of my sample and told her to try it. She fell in love with it, as did I. It’s now her favorite fragrance and I really do enjoy it. It’s intoxicating.

It shares the base of L’Air, but adds the jammy, sharp rose to the top with some more incense notes throughout. It’s really wonderfully crafted, has a perfect sillage that only informs but does not overwhelm, and is unlike anything else. It’s since become her “power fragrance” and will always bring me a smile and good memories.