Fragrance sniffing day October 6th, 2010

I woke up and went sniffing with a fellow fragrance-head, Sean (superped2 on Youtube), and it was pretty fun. We started off at Saks Fifth Avenue smelling the entire By Kilian line and spraying a few things on. I liked the scent of their newest scent, Rose Oud, on paper but once applied on skin it really didn't work for me. I can understand what's going on and it is a great fragrance conceptually. However, I think the middle-eastern influenced backbone of the scent is perhaps unpolished as I get a medley of rose and oud wood at the same intensity giving the fragrance an identity crisis to some sort. Is it a woody rose, or a rosey oud? Hmm. Considering it is still on my skin after a shower and some harsh scrubbing makes me know the potency is worth another shot since finding a beast for longevity in the niche market isn't that easy. At this point more than 24 hours later it smells like a rosey oud which is lovely.

Another By Kilian fragrance I put on skin was something I thought I would like more: Liasons Dangerouses. It smelled great on the SA and on myself but after perhaps two hours it was a little too faint and close to the skin to impress. I'll chalk it up to being worn on a sniffathon. My palette was quite stressed by the 3 hour mark anyway. It is a very smooth and sensual fragrance that doubtfully would warrant a purchase, but makes me happy to know there are scents out there that smell of such beauty.

After going through the bond line a little I rerealized how much I dislike New Haarlem at the time but hope eventually I'll grow to like it more especially considering that I still have my share of the bottles I split. After that we sniffed some of Jo Malone's offerings. Good stuff if you are into linear scents. Great for layering with each other, from my experiences.

We left Saks and made our way to the boutiques surrounding Union Square in San Francisco. I don't remember the order and some we just stepped into but I'll try and remember what we did. For one, we went into the Marc Jacobs boutique. Bang sucks, plain and simple and I think so because I'm the Sultan. DON'T QUESTION ME! It has a very peppery top and I don't like too much pepper. Bleh. At the Prada boutique we smelled their private collection scents, or what looked like it. Stuff like Myrrh, Iris, and more. Some were nice, some were okay. One was terrible and I dare not remember what it was. After being told some 'interesting' past stories, we proceeded to Maiden Lane and all it's glory of Diptyque, Hermes, Chanel, and John Varvatos. JV has a new offering that smelled bland and uninteresting despite the sleek shiny metal bottle with dog-tag necklace. Diptyque was as inviting as usual but I didn't want to stay and ask too much especially considering I haven't bought anything from them yet and I'm pretty sure the guy there recognized my face from the last Basenotes sniffathon.

At Hermes we had a chance to smell the two newest additions to the Hermessence line: Brin de Réglisse and Vanille Galante. I smelled the latter and moved on. I've smelled vanillas and this wasn't grasping at my attention like a 12 year old girl that has gossip to spill. The former however caught my attention with it's licorice and just different approach to scent compared to everything else I've smelled thus far that day. Mmmmmmmmmmm. I like. The SA's forewarning made me expect MKK v2.0 but was pleasantly surprised with a scent that warranted getting a sample. Looking around I also saw something that reminded me of the classic offerings of Hermes such as Equipage and Bel Ami. The SA graciously retrieved the testers they had and gave me the honors. Think 70's *pointing at Equipage* and 80's *pointing at Bel Ami*, Magnum P.I. I sniff Equipage and instantly think of my dad. I love the scent and spray my hand with it. I spray Bel Ami on a card and don't think anything of it, just another 80's powerhouse fragrance that I can go without. After that however, we talk about THE Eau d'Hermes. We spray and have a blast making comments on how it smells and the SA trying to hold his composure just folds and gets in on the joking. It smelled like an easy-to-wear Muscs Kublai Khan by Serge Lutens! No joke! For those of you that are unfamiliar with MKK, it is a raunchy, dirty scent that smells of dirty sweaty underwear and drugs. Delicious! Eau d'Hermes was cougar bait and we knew it. I expect that to be my first Hermes purchase.

A walk to Neiman Marcus yeilded some varied results for Mr Sample since Creed was OUT OF SAMPLES... The same was true about Tom Ford as well as Guerlain. WTF! I wanted to throw a bee bottle of Jicky at the floor and scream but I held my tongue and thought hmm, I could use a cookie. We took a small break at the NM cafe enjoying some of the best cookies in the city and making jokes about some people walking by. One woman looked like she was carrying an exotic bird until she unfolding it into a scarf. WOW the stuff people have in this city is amazing. After our snack we went back to score some samples of the recent arrival of Guerlain's classic, Cologne du 68 as well as some others for Sean and his buddy. I got Matt to agree with me that Tonka Imperiale smells better than Spirituese Double Vanille even though are not the same, they are both in the same league I'd say.

Our trip to Barneys was fun as always and I made out with a few vials of some new stuff as well as Rose 31 but not before almost getting strong-armed into buying some stuff! The SA's there are hilarious and always uppity, and we always have a blast. So helpful and knowledgeable that I think it's amazing that there are people out there that know MORE than they do. Going back to Rose 31, it isn't my favorite rose scent but I thought I'd have a vial to review in the near future. I like the idea.



After the whole day what fragrance do I remember most fondly? I'll let the pictures do the talking...