Perfume Pen Pals: Tom Ford Private Blend Italian Cypress


Katie,

I'd be lying if I said I didn't love this Tom Ford Italian Cypress. I've had it on since noon and I can still smell it. And it smells unbelievably good. It doesn't evolve much but it softens, which makes a big difference. (The first 30 minutes or so is a little rough going.)

It's not far from Hinoki, but rounder. It's a round-faced Hinoki. In fact, everything Nathan Branch wrote about Italian Cypress is spot-on correct. I much prefer it over Micallef Gaïac, which begins soft and then rots.

Italian Cypress would also smell nice on a woman. I keep reading about how masculine it is, but it's only cologne-y in the very beginning. Ten hours later, it's a soft smoky wood. Friday night and I'm smelling myself. Something's obviously wrong.

Dan


Dan,

OK, I suppose I stand corrected on Italian Cypress being too masculine for you. Guess you're not tip-toe-ing through the niminy-piminy tulips all the live-long day after all. Or always wearing some arch olfactory commentary on uncomfortable sex in a rented car. Sometimes, you choose to wear some straight-ahead guy stuff.

Good to know you can count on Nathan Branch, at least. Although his favorite road trip fragrance is Le Labo Labdanum 18, which is more my thing than yours. He's got a point of view for both of us!

But it's this "ten hours later" jive that makes me do an impatient little huff like Rodrigo produces when he realizes no-one's going to give him any food off their dinner plate. Give me readily-apparent beauty, any day!

Dan


Katie,

I only said it still smells great after ten hours. But it smelled great after one hour, too. It only smelled a little harsh at the very beginning.

And I will not have my tastes pinned down! I sent a sample of Chanel Coromandel to my only other perfume friend, Beth, and she hated it. And after she said she hated it, she said, "You obviously like heavy scents!"

I don't obviously anything! Except I obviously like things I like. And even that gets dicey some days.

Incidentally, I love that your Britney Spears Hidden Fantasy YouTube review is both your most-watched video and your lowest-rated video. That's the future. Once you get popular, it's tough to keep all the hoodlums in line.

Witness that "scar lol" comment from BeautyIsGone. What the fuck? And then the chick writes, "I was just trying to help"?

I was just trying to help??? In what fucked-up world does "scar lol" qualify as "just trying to help"? I'd want to ruin her. I'd want to say something so cruel that she'd remember it for the rest of her life. That's normal, right?

Dan


Dan,

Heh. "scar lol" isn't as zesty as the classic "you have a head like a square box" comment I got from one of the inexhaustible supply of angry Britney fans.

Hey, I just noticed that I signed my last email to you "Dan". Is that normal? It must be, because you didn't even notice.

Maybe the borders of my identity are melting, and I'm not even aware of it. I guess that's how that works.

Katie
(identity recovered)


Katie,

Indeed I had noticed you signed off with my name. But I didn't say anything because I felt guilty. I remember ex-girlfriends complaining about losing their identities with me and to think it could also happen with perfume friends, well, that's just ridiculous. Also, because I forgot to make a joke about it.

I find I'm now reading your video comments looking for people talking about your eyebrow scar. Your scar is now part of my amateur sociological study. I'm just fascinated that people would write about such a thing in a comment box.

It's not even a matter of manners. If you were missing an arm, I'd expect everyone to have a little fun with it. But a scar is such a small thing.

Dan

10 comments:

  1. ha ha ha,
    "I don't obviously anything!"

    i'm stealing that.

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  2. Yeah, I noticed the Dan thing. I thought - wow - they have been writing to each other so long that they can finish each other's sentences AND write their own emails to themselves. Excellent! Or that maybe there was just some editing mixup.

    I too plan to steal the "I don't obviously anything!" I might even add a little foot stomp to that.

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  3. Easily distracted this morning. I decided to look for the You Tube video review and I somehow wound up watching a bunch of people, including some very brave guys, doing the Beyonce Single Ladies Dance. I just loved the guy in the black leotard. This is going to be an unproductive day.

    So I finally made it over to your Hidden Fantasy review. I was fascinated by the obsession with your scar and the comments about it being a gang sign. And I'm sooo glad that you're starting your own gang. I'll join the Fluffies any day. Weapon of choice, high-powered atomizer.

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  4. Yeah meliand61, good weapon! It's really only young teenagers who are concerned that I seemingly flaunt an "imperfection", because they're at the age where physical appearance insecurity runs high. And my goodness, YouTube is a black hole of seductive trivia. My triggers are Kate Bush and kitten videos. Oh, and my newest discovery, the "Look at Life" short films from 60s London, like this one:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B92MnoPVtGs&feature=related

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  5. SoS - the beauty of "I don't obviously anything" is that the foot stomp is implied.

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  6. Kate Bush!!! Haven't thought of her for many years. And now I need a nice cup of tea.

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  7. "But it's this "ten hours later" jive that makes me do an impatient little huff like Rodrigo produces when he realizes no-one's going to give him any food off their dinner plate."

    I am *so* with you on that, but, like Dan said, Italian Cypress doesn't take ten hours to become lovable -- only the usual fifteen to twenty minutes. Then all that initial prickly porcupine sourpuss making face smell is forgotten as it morphs into a sun-warmed plank of Italian wood.

    I hear you giggling back there . . .

    Hurrah for Labdanum 18!

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  8. Nathan, Lab 18 gives Dan the prickly porcupine sourpuss-making face. And he practically has a toddler tantrum seizure (the way he describes it, anyway) when he wears Frederic Malle Musc Ravageur.

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  9. My tolerance for strong sweet powdery perfumes is similar to my tolerance for people showing off baby pictures. I can put up with them for awhile but then I have to leave the room. Lest I start making faces.

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