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.

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 ).

Tom Ford recently released his new White Musk series, consisting of Jasmine Musk, Urban Musk, White Suede, and Musk Pure. All 4 of them were pretty impressive to my nose. Musk Pure is like a new interpretation of Kiehl’s Original Musk and Serge Luten Musk Koublai Khan, but with a twist. Jasmine Musk is a good take on what the title says, White Suede is a creamy leather with light, sweet musk notes, and Urban Musk (which I found to be the most daring of the bunch), adds a dirty note to the opening and heart and dries surprisingly sweet on my skin. Tom Ford calls this one “carnal.” I talked myself into getting Urban Musk recently at a Tom Ford event at Saks and have been enjoying it quite a bit. My SA threw in a huge factory spray of White Suede as well so I’ll be set with that one as well.

Here are a few shots of Urban Musk… I think they could have done a bit more with the bottles than just make them clear with a white top, but it’s still pretty striking.

Recently, the house of Narciso Rodriguez released a his and hers limited edition version of their hugely popular musc series in EDP form (and a new, different formulation). I was in Saks over a month ago when my SA showed me the limited edition musc for him tester they had from under the counter. She said that they had only gotten 3 bottles, and they had all sold the day they got them. I tried the tester and got the familiar Narciso musc notes, but with a twist. This is like a combination of the musc oil for him and the regular musc for him EDT. It is said to be “a tribute to musk” and it lives up to its billing. It’s by no means a dirty musk – you won’t be howling or wondering whether people will think you just forgot to bathe. Among the listed notes are musk, iris, and pink berries.

A few weeks went by and I got an email from my SA that she had gotten a couple more bottles in and had one put aside for me. It was only $59 (minus the 10% off for a Friends & Family event), but the difficulty of tracking a bottle of this down makes the price a non-factor. It’s no easy feat to find one. I eagerly picked it up (and was also talked into a bottle of the new Tom Ford Urban Musk by the Tom Ford reps on hand during the event… another fabulous musk) and wore it that night.

The bottle is gorgeous as well – it’s similar to the regular musc for him, but the lining inside the heavy glass is metallic. The sprayer is also just as full and sturdy as you’ll find on the EDT. I am by no means a one scent kind of person, but if I was forced to narrow it down to 10, this would certainly be a top contender. I’ll post a few more photos of the great bottle this week.

I really love orange blossom scents. They really seem to agree with my skin and are perfect in summer heat. I wear it to the beach, to work, you name it. My two current favorites are Fleurs d’Oranger by Le Labo and Orange Blossom Cologne by Jo Malone. Naturally, I sought out more to add to the genre. I thought I’d explore the world of Neroli – the blossom of the bitter orange tree, a spicier, slightly less floral cousin to the sweet orange blossom so common here in Florida. I ordered samples of Diptyque L’eau de Neroli and Profumum Neroli from Luckyscent.

Diptyque L’eau de Neroli. It started perfectly – this was it… the bright, light sweet orange blossom scent that I love, with a touch of zing from bitter neroli and verbena. The verbena added something extra in the opening that was gorgeous. In about 10 minutes though, all that was gone. The scent got sweeter by the minute, and creamy (luckyscent says that’s the beeswax talking). It’s a nice scent, but I’m not after orange blossom with a creamy musk base. I want the crisp and tart, but light and floral take. Next.

Profumum Neroli. This started in a huge classic way – traditional EDC notes led by sharp citrus, and less about blossoms. It stays crisp and dry throughout, never veering the creamy sweet way the Diptyque did, but I’m looking for something a bit more about the blossom, and less about the sharpness classic citrus structure.

The search continues!