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Browsing by author: Kevin

Parfum d’Empire Fougere Bengale ~ fragrance review

Posted by Kevin on 14 December 2007 34 Comments

Bengal Tiger

I’m often amazed, shocked, confused or amused by perfume advertising. For instance, Parfum d’Empire’s Eau de Gloire pays homage to the great warmonger-plunderer-egomaniac Napoléon Bonaparte; and its latest fragrance release, Fougère Bengale, celebrates the pompous tiger hunts of colonial India.

Before the early part of the 20th century, (truly glorious) Bengal tigers were not endangered; but even if you feel it was acceptable to slaughter hundreds, thousands, of magnificent animals for “sport” (or for body parts used in folk medicines), tiger hunts devastated local economies in India. As huge maharajah-led or British-sponsored hunting expeditions traveled through the Indian countryside — elephants, horses, carriages and marching men damaged farmlands and woodlands. To feed the large numbers of men, women and animals traveling in the procession, provisions and livestock were cheaply bought (or stolen outright) in villages along the route; the tiger-hunting parties often left hunger and poverty in their wake.

What’s next from Parfum d’Empire? Sherman’s March? “Savor the aromas of crumbling marble and smoking timbers, the animalic odor of raging horses…

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D.L. & Co.’s Modern Alchemy Cake Walk Candle ~ home fragrance review

Posted by Kevin on 7 December 2007 17 Comments

Cake Walk Dance posterSome people are affected by “fancy” clothes — the moment they don a hat they become self conscious and tilt their heads in unnatural ways. Put this type of person’s feet into expensive shoes and he or she begins to mince about, or trip over their own feet. Dress such a man or woman in a sleek new suit or dress and you may create a person who exaggerates every glance, augments all movements or ‘gilds’ each gesture.

During my childhood, if my grandmother caught me prancing grandly about in a brand new outfit, she would shout: “Aren’t you high and mighty? Doing the cakewalk!” When my grandmother’s elderly sisters and their daughters would visit us on Sundays or holidays, they would often dress up; they would emerge from their cars with scarves wrapped about their shoulders or around their throats, shaking out their long skirts and patting their hair. As the women walked across the lawn to our door, their high heels sank into the ground, and the ladies crouched down, swayed, and held on to each other or stretched out their arms to balance themselves. My grandmother, her face expressionless, her arms akimbo, would look at this ‘parade’ from the kitchen window and quietly say: “They’re doing the cakewalk“…

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Dirty Boy: Yves Saint Laurent Kouros fragrance review

Posted by Kevin on 28 November 2007 78 Comments

Yves Saint Laurent Kouros cologne for men

No matter where I’ve traveled outside the United States, I’ve heard fellow Americans, also on vacation or on business trips, ridicule the hygienic habits of the locals — “these people” don’t: bathe or shampoo enough, use enough (or any) deodorant, or wash their clothes correctly to remove every particle of dirt and scent…on and on. It’s no surprise that Americans, even many perfume lovers, don’t like perfumes that smell “dirty;” perfumes that contain civet, musk and castoreum come under fire, as do perfumes with a hefty dose of coriander, cedar, cumin, labdanum, costus roots or any other ingredient or mix of ingredients that produces a smell of “body odor.” One of the ‘chestnuts’ of perfume description is “It smells like a cab driver!” (Poor cab drivers, always used as examples of the unwashed.) Recently, someone said the Eau d’Hermès I was wearing smelled like a “bum” — it took just a few seconds to figure out the person was not talking about a street person but a body part: the arse.

Yves Saint Laurent’s Kouros (1981), created by Pierre Bourdon, has been hit hard with the “unclean” rap…

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Old Spice & OS Signature ~ fragrance reviews

Posted by Kevin on 14 November 2007 61 Comments

Old Spice logo

I’m a lucky person; I live with a man (“B”) who cannot be intimidated and who is hard to embarrass. I hope everyone reading this post has such a person in their lives — they come in handy! If I were living alone and developed a case of, say, jock itch (sorry if anyone finds this offensive but I need to make a strong point here), I would never in a million years go to the drugstore, even disguised in a wig, hat, faux moustache, scarf and sunglasses, and buy a remedy; I would order a treatment online and suffer till it arrived in the mail. Thankfully, if I ever do develop such a nasty malady, I have B and I’d say to him: “Would you mind buying me a box of Gobi Desert Jock Itch Powder?” B would go to the drugstore immediately. If he walked into that drugstore and saw that the only employee was an 18-year-old Adonis dressed in Prada from head to foot, B would smile and say to him: “Hi, where can I find the Gobi Desert Jock Itch Powder?”

Robin here at Now Smell This has been asking me to review Old Spice for over a year, and I’ve procrastinated because I was too embarrassed to buy a bottle of Old Spice; sad, but true…

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Ralph Lauren Polo & Polo Explorer ~ fragrance reviews

Posted by Kevin on 7 November 2007 39 Comments

Ralph Lauren Polo fragrance

I’m reviewing the “bookends” of the Ralph Lauren Polo men’s line of fragrances: Polo (1978) and Polo Explorer (2007). Though I’ve bought lots of Ralph Lauren products over the years, everything from paint to jeans to a pair of canary-yellow-and-lime-green cowboy boots (hey, I was 19!), I have only owned (and worn) one Ralph Lauren fragrance: Monogram (1985). I remember Monogram as a quiet, slightly powdery, wood scent with beautiful blue juice. Monogram was suddenly discontinued (some conjecture the blue coloring in the formula caused allergic reactions on skin). Since Monogram, I’ve never been tempted to buy a Ralph Lauren cologne…

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