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Browsing by tag: incense

Robert Piguet Casbah, Nasomatto Pardon & Linari Fuoco Infernale ~ fragrance reviews

Posted by Kevin on 18 July 2012 33 Comments

Robert Piguet Casbah, Nasomatto Pardon, Linari Fuoco Infernale fragrance bottles

I do not exaggerate; at this moment, I have SIXTEEN perfumes on my desk that ‘deserve’ reviews…for summer. The best I’ll be able to do (summer is going by fast) is combine these fragrances into four or five reviews; so today I’m writing about three fragrances I like and never got around to reviewing when they were released.

Robert Piguet Casbah

Robert Piguet Casbah (from the Nouvelle Collection and “dedicated” to Morocco) was developed by perfumer Aurélien Guichard and includes notes of cedar, iris, pepper, nutmeg, angelica root, vetiver, tobacco leaf, smoky floral accord and incense.

Casbah is a rich, leather-incense fragrance (it would fit in perfectly with the Comme des Garçons incense line). As I sniff Casbah, I detect pepper, nutmeg, smoke and vetiver (while wearing Casbah, the spice notes sometimes blend with the incense smoke to create the aroma of an exotic, well-spiced dish cooking on a hearth). Casbah is a well-blended incense fragrance; the note that stands out most forcefully is leather (a smooth, semi-sweet leather). As I wear Casbah, I notice a shift from the early “food-y” stage of the fragrance to a more “churchy” incense scent near the end of the perfume’s development…

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Serge Lutens L’Eau Froide ~ fragrance review

Posted by Robin on 31 May 2012 44 Comments

Serge Lutens L’Eau Froide

Serge Lutens’ first “anti-perfume”, 2010’s L’Eau Serge Lutens, was mildly controversial in the perfumed blogosphere. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t much mind either; as I said then, Mr. Lutens can do whatever he needs to do to keep himself interested — and/or to keep his brand afloat and attract new customers in new markets. Now we have the second in the L’Eau series, L’Eau Froide.

L’Eau Serge Lutens referenced clean shirts and cleanliness in general; L’Eau Froide, of course, is about cold water, and the brand’s website mentions “some fresh air in the rusty old water pipes”. That’s marginally more appealing to me than the clean shirts, but only marginally. As it turns out, I like L’Eau Froide much better than L’Eau Serge Lutens, but if you want the ending now — saves time, right? — I’ll add that while I enjoyed wearing it, it’s not going on my buy list.

L’Eau Froide opens on very cold lemony citrus…

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Father’s Day 2012 ~ scented gift ideas, part 1

Posted by Kevin on 29 May 2012 14 Comments

Father’s Day looms; better get shopping! In choosing gift suggestions for men, I’ve tried to provide a wide variety of choices for different personality types. My father was outdoorsy, sporty, and I’ve included gifts for that sort of guy. I live in an organic-loving town, so I’ve recommended products that are just about free of everything deemed harmful (see tomorrow’s post). I don’t have two-legged children, and my four-legged dependents won’t be buying me anything, but I’d be happy with any gift from my lists. If you’re still looking for a gift, here’s hoping something here will suit you and your father.

The Minimalist

Everyone seems to love the simple designs of Malin+Goetz products. For perfume-adverse dads, ease them into fragrance with the light and bright Rum or Lime tonics (30 ml/$48). On the “hair front,” Malin+Goetz offers the Hair Gift Box with a Peppermint Shampoo and Cilantro Conditioner (8 oz each/$42) or naturally fragranced Hair Pomade (2 oz/$20) with meadowfoam seed oil, cannabis sativa seed oil, soybean, yucca and aloe. (This is a crossover product; see the “Homebody” category tomorrow.)

Mjölk (Milk), based in Toronto, represents Scandinavian and Japanese designers. The concrete shaving kit ($98) includes a shaving dish made from soft concrete, a shaving soap, and traditional beech wood brush with badger hair bristles…

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Odin 07 Tanoke ~ fragrance review

Posted by Kevin on 4 April 2012 18 Comments

Odin 07 Tanoke

Odin New York recently released 07 Tanoke, a unisex fragrance. 07 Tanoke was developed by perfumer Corinne Cachen; the inspiration — coastal Northern California.

Odin 07 is a simple fragrance. Though it lists notes of ginger, bitter orange, black pepper, nutmeg, incense, redwood, patchouli, black musk and gaiac wood, it smells of rich, resonant incense. Period. If ever a fragrance conjures the color “black” in my mind, it’s this one; I imagine charred woods, black incense sticks, carbonized nutmegs and peppercorns, and sleek, shiny black vanilla pods and beans. (I do smell bitter orange, but only briefly when the perfume is first applied to skin.)

The character of 07 Tanoke is bolder than Odin’s earlier releases…

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An uncertain future

Posted by Robin on 22 December 2011 10 Comments

Frankincense - a traditional staple of the Christmas story - faces an uncertain future, according to researchers.

Ecologists have warned that the production of the fragrant resin could decline by half over the next 15 years.

— Read more at Frankincense tree facing uncertain future at the BBC News. Hat tip to Abyss, RusticDove & Boojum!

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