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.

Oh man – it’s good to have a new camera. While my Maxxum 7D from ‘04 was nice for its time (rest its little Minolta soul), this new D90 shows that they’ve come a long way since then. I was a big film snob for a while and only used the dSLR just for little here and there photography. I think this new camera will change my mind – it’s a really great piece of equipment.

Enough of that – on to the point. I got my gorgeous new bottle of Comme des Garcons LUXE Patchouli in this past week. Franco at luckyscent personally saw to my order and really did me good for samples on this order. I was thinking about getting it from beautyhabit (another great site!) because of their 10% off sale, but he promised to make up for the difference with samples. I really wanted the pyramid bottle rather than the cube, so that’s all I needed to hear to get it from luckyscent.

I’m still just as enamored by the gorgeous scent in the bottle (it’s sprayed on my arm right now and every time I catch a whiff, I’m more and more pleased with the purchase). I managed to get it at no cost out of pocket because I sold a couple Creeds to pay for it. Creed employs some really bizarre strong-armed tactics and legal threats to maintain their questionable history story and a recent example hit close to home and made me decide to no longer patronize that company. I sold the ones I could live without and kept a couple that I or the fiance really love (hey, morals only go but so far ).

PHOTOS!

I need to set up some new sets and such for photos like Nathan Branch does (incredible photos!), but until then, I hope you enjoy the same ol’ black on plexiglass look. Oh, and for those who wonder, it’s a 2 prong to 3 prong plug converter that’s holding the box up in the first photo – it was handy.

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.

Today’s “scent on the back of the hand” is Aramis Havana Reserva. I had sort of expected it to be a traditional fougere, but what I got was anything but that. I wasn’t completely surprised by what came out, but it held far more interest in it than I’d expected.

It opens with a fizzy bright boozy notes, with a tickle of pepper and warmth of crushed tobacco. It settles relatively quickly into an intriguing rum/tobacco/pepper melody with soft cumin undertones and hints of patchouli. There are elements of a traditional after shave (think Old Spice type), but it’s done in a very well blended, nicely presented package. The long dry down brings great dry woody notes that really balance the whole composition. I likes it. I likes it a lot.

From what I gather, the Reserva is the same formulation as the old Havana, but in a higher concentration. I believe both of the Havana and Havana Reserva have been discontinued, but Aramis has re-released Havana with new packaging just last year. I think Reserva might be something I would only reach for on seldom occasion, so paying the exorbitant prices that are out there for the discontinued Reserva isn’t really in the cards. However, I can really see wearing it to an evening outdoor happy hour on the beach could be perfect. I’ll try out the new Havana release and see how that compares – hopefully it will make the cut and make the much friendlier price of $48 even friendlier.