I often put a bit of a fragrance on the back of my hand to sniff during the day at work and sample. Today, I decided to grab a random Bond out of my desk drawer at home – I grabbed Astor Place and thought I’d give it some more attention since I’d only briefly smelled it in the store up til now.

When I first put it on, I got a pleasant, but not exceptional plummy fruit note. It seemed nice enough and I thought perhaps it could be something the GF would like when she wanted something light or girly. By the time I had gotten to work, it had fallen flat. I’m not sure exactly what the culprit is, but it’s turned into the smell of shampoo. I lived with a number of girls one year in college, and this is the smell of their just-washed hair while getting ready to go out for the night. I think the freesia may be to blame, but I can’t be certain. What I get now is nothing more than wet Pantene hair. Every now and then, I get a pop of citrus, likely the mandarin sticking its head out for a breath of air.

I wrote most of this earlier and then headed to a meeting. Astor Place did evolve some, but not much. There were a few minutes that I felt like it was going to turn into something better, more tart – but then it settled back into a shampooed head. The juicy mandarin is smothered with the hammering freesia and white florals.

I’m left pretty disappointed for the most part. It’s a pity – the bottle is quite a sight, and the real location seems to be very cool. Perhaps that intersection has a lot of recently washed heads of hair.