Perfume Pen Pals: Humiecki & Graef Bosque and Eau Radieuse, and Etat Libre d'Orange Like This


Katie,

Discretion got the better of me and I passed on Humiecki & Graef Clemency (the mother's milk one). But I'll soon have the other six. The few mentions of them on Basenotes mostly mock H&G's marketing campaign. (It seems like almost no one has bothered to smell them.) The marketing is very silly and European, yes, but sillier than Diddy suggesting you'll get laid if you wear I Am King?

That's the thing with these Basenotes fellows, tell them a fragrance represents the melancholic smell of a man's tears and they'll snicker their asses off, but tell them it'll make the girls go wild and they all reach for their wallets. Conversely, I guess I'm the target market for tears more than I am for sex. We all have our gullibility.

Dan


Dan,

So you're telling me you've splashed out on full bottles of most of the H&G things? Probably wise to skip the mother's milk one.

Katie


Katie,

Yes, full bottles of six H&G's, along with Tilda Swinton/Etat Libre d'Orange Like This. They all arrived on Saturday, but I wasn't here to sign. And now the post office tells me they're lost. Or not lost, but on a truck somewhere. They just don't know where. With any luck, they'll show up today. Or tomorrow.

Dan


Dan,

Hope the post office sends out a search party for Tilda and the H&Gs. Of course once you get them, chances are high you'll be bemoaning that they weren't lost forever.

Katie


Katie,

Very funny. You obviously know me and now you're using your knowledge to make cute little wisecracks. And yet it's a fair cute little wisecrack. It's too early to speak definitively but I've got Like This Tilda Swinton on one arm and H&G Eau Radieuse on the other and I can't quite decide which arm to saw off first.

I had feared Tilda would smell like pumpkin pie and, thankfully, it doesn't. But it does smell like ginger, a lot, the potency of which somehow pushes it into bug-spray territory. It smells like a spice rack and a pesticide rack. And, sadly, this is my favorite of the two.

Eau Radieuse smells like the sell-out of the H&G line, a tropical aquatic that pretty neatly reproduces the smell of unripe banana. But who wants to smell like unripe banana? Not me. Not right now at least. I'm going to shower.

And here's Alicia's response to Tilda Swinton...

Me (holding out my arm): What do you smell?

Alicia: Christmas.

Me: Anything else?

Alicia: Yankee Candle. And ginger or nutmeg or something spicy, not exactly Christmas cookie but Christmas. Yankee Candle Christmas.

Me: Ugh.

Alicia: Did you get something else?

(Wait until she smells that one.)

Dan


Dan,

Love is patient, love is kind, love has a gas mask.

Katie


Katie,

Based on the lack of buzz on the blogs, I suspect they're not selling like gangbusters, but I say Humiecki & Graef is a first-class line. Other than that aquatic one, I'm liking them all, especially Bosque of late (buffalo grass, musk, grapefruit, saffron, vetiver, primrose, narcissus). It smells both sweet and odd and I've worn it three days in a row.

All hail Bosque! Okay, only me hail Bosque. I can't stop wearing it, KP. And my hesitation in saying that with even more enthusiasm is whenever I begin to describe what it smells like, I realize it doesn't sound good, not even to me.

Plus, I don't think you'd like it (a big blast of musk runs beneath everything). So I'm celebrating Bosque alone. Which is ironic because I think it's supposed to smell "intimate." I'm being intimate with myself, which is no sin. Except I guess it is. I'm in quite a pickle with this Bosque.

Even Alicia has noticed my new routine. After smelling it on me several days in a row, she said, "You really like that one, don't you?" It was the kind of question that carried no judgment and yet because it also included not even a passing compliment, it was greeted defensively. I didn't want to talk about it. And I still don't.

And here's why: I gather Bosque is H&G's crowd-pleaser, not only because of all the musk and its accompanying sinus-clearing, steam-cleaned, bracingly fresh freshness (crowds love to be fresh), but because it's marketed as "a fragrance about contentment".

I'm not the target for contentment. I'm more content with apprehension, which means Bosque is perfect for me because my fondness for its fresh contentment makes me apprehensive.

In its defense, Bosque isn't all clean. It also features buffalo grass and vetiver and supposedly some florals that are so pale and quiet, they smell like they're coming from the perfume on the person across the room from you.

But mostly, Bosque smells clean, like emerging from the chlorinated swimming pool of a desert resort, surrounded by miles of dry grass and nothing else. It's chlorine and dead grass and while I can't defend such a thing, I'm hooked on it like it's heroin. Which, I think, is also a sin.

Dan

19 comments:

  1. This was a laugh. :)
    And I think I'll be skipping H&G for the time being. Just to be on the safe side.

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  2. Ines, I'm with you. This is the most effective piece of anti-advertisment I've ever seen.

    I do, however, sympathize with Dan. I know the feeling of somehow liking a fragrance that you suspect - or even know - that no one else will like. There's self doubt involved here.

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  3. "love has a gas mask" hahahaahaa!

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  4. Those basenoters can be super harsh once they get on a thread roll. You know, I fully embrace the H&G marketing/aesthetic. I appreciate all strange forms of expression, and strange themes, especially for fragrance. You know how Dan once said he "isn't obviously anything!" Well, I think that also falls into the H&G aesthetic.

    I, unfortunately, have not smelled any of the H&G or the ELdO Tilda (who seems like she could star in a H&G marketing campaign). But I really want to.

    speaking of, Tilda. I love her. She is such a breath of fresh air, and to me, everything about her says, ". . .and then again, you can just be calm and do something that is true to yourself." As opposed to the desperation, bitterness and cougar jokes that are so pervasive in popular culture for the 40+ women demographic. Did you know she is going to be 50 this year? amazing.

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  5. Dan, your fondness for Bosque's apprehension-provoking fresh contentment (huh?) has twisted my brain into knots. I plan to retreat back to bed, wearing something something decidedly anti-fresh. Like Femme. Or Tabac Blond. Or maybe I should just dig up a sample of vintage Bandit.

    Okay, I do confess to having somewhat liked H & G Geste when I tried it last year. They claim that it has some naughty bits- "dirty and clean, rough and gentle" per the Lucky Scent description. But I remember clean, powdery musk and violets. Much better than unripe bananas.

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  6. It's ironic how when I finally endorse something, everyone runs away. It's a good thing I never pursued marketing.

    And, melisand61, I only get powdery violets from Geste, too. According to H&G, its inspiration is "a mature woman in love with a young man." It doesn't say which one prefers powdery violets. Perhaps the smell emerges from the union of the two, in which case it's obvious they're waiting until marriage.

    In addition to Bosque, my favorites from the line are Askew and Skarb, the first evoking "an abundance of fire and explosion" and the second "the bittersweet smell of sorrow." So Saturday night and Sunday morning, I guess.

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  7. Dan -- I remember being okay with Skarb. Not thrilled enough to rush off to the store (I mean, my laptop) and purchase it, but I wouldn't say no if someone offered to douse me in it for a day.

    But I also liked the Etat 'Like This', so who can trust my opinion on anything? I must have a weakness for ginger in a fragrance (who knew!?), because I went kind of weak at the psychological knees when I first sprayed it on. The intro is a warm, spicy blast of gingerosity, and the pumpkin/immortelle combination intrigued me, especially as I'm not ordinarily a fan of immortelle.

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  8. Nathan, I remember reading something you wrote about Skarb, that you preferred Christophe Laudamiel's earlier S-ex. Which I do, too. It's one of my very favorites and, to me, the H&G line (all created by Laudamiel, I think) can't help but seem like a slight comedown .

    And, yes, if you love ginger, Like This is your Elysian Fields. Suspecting my first response was incorrect, I've put it aside and I'll wait until I'm in a ginger frame of mind. Which might not come until autumn.

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  9. dea, with you on loving mysterious, arty presentations - for whatever! I much prefer that to having everything spelled out for me. And second your emotion on Tilda. She is so singular, so self-determined. Fascinating for someone in her line of work, where doing a red carpet appearances without mascara is the highest form of rebellion.

    m61, bed is the perfect place to wear Femme.

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  10. Wait a minute. Deep within the progression of entertaining missives is the endorsement which Dan then refers to as marketing death here in the comments? And he likes it because it is not something that slaps him/ties him up...it is simply...oh, dear...nice?

    (Well, okay, if dead grass and chlorine translate as "nice." But the point remains. I think.)

    I don't think being hooked on it is the sin. Coveting it from thine neighbor's closet, perhaps...or thieving it from the shelves of the one store you can find it in...

    Perhaps you need not confess your satisfaction with contentment beyond this blog. You can wear Bosque with wary happiness, knowing your partner person is neither repelled nor attached...it's just you, and a feeling suspiciously like satisfaction...

    I think that was a particularly long way of saying "He tried it! He liked it! Hey, Mikey!!" It's okay, right? We don't always have to wear something that demonstrates we know where the edges are, and are dangling ourselves out there over them?

    BTW, mention grass, and I'm out in search of a sniff. :)

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  11. Oh, but it's not the "nice" that works as anti-advertisement - I'm ok with nice, more than ok, actually. I have more than a few nices in my stash. I'm a middle class girl. I like nice.

    It's more the "I shouldn't like this, but I do -" if that's the feeling Bosque evokes - I'd rather not wear something that seemingly provokes scent(-ex)istential agony.

    Katie and m 61 - thrilled to learn that Femme is decidely not fresh and also perfect for bed as I ordered a bottle of it unsniffed Friday. I had planned on getting Madame Rochas which I used to wear in my mid-late 20's but I decided on Femme instead based on the descriptions of it. Wow - the middle class girl didn't succumb to nostalgia but tried something new. Which gives me license to go back and order Madame later.

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  12. Junelady and ScentScelf, one of Dan's defining characteristics is a tendency to over-think things. As he wrote early in our correspondence:

    "To insist I stop over-thinking is to insist I give up my entire personality. Without over-thinking, I'm a haircut and a shirt. I hardly exist."

    For Dan, existential agony is pretty much on the cards for no matter the scent of circumstances. Please don't let that put you off from trying Bosque.

    ScentScelf, I your thought: "We don't always have to wear something that demonstrates we know where the edges are, and are dangling ourselves out there over them?"

    Too right. We can practice the perfume version of ahimsa, the Yogic concept of non-violence, which includes non-violence to self. We can be tender and loving to ourselves, wearing gentle, "nice" perfumes. In that mindset, today I'm wearing L'Artisan Côte d'Amour.

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  13. There's definitely an upside to people who over-think things - especially when combined with wit, as in Dan's case: It's interesting and entertaining to read their thoughts, so to speak.

    Also, I'm not unfamiliar with over-thinking things myself. According to some.

    I'd love to try Bosque - vetiver is me, and so is chlorine. It sounds to interesting to pass. If there are samples avaiable out there, I will try.

    Tender loving kindness is important. Difficult, but important. It's one of those things that we get to practice our entire lives. Lucky us ;-)

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  14. Aw, shame. I luuuuuuurve Like This. I just bought a bottle and I've been wearing it day after day, I think it's gorgeous in its ginger-and-pumpkin-pie-meets-burnt-plastic ways.

    The H&G, though? I swear, the stuff nearly sent me in dry heaves. Yuuuurgh *shudder*

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  15. Six', there's a perfume, a person and an ice cream for all of us.

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  16. Katie,
    Wiser words have never been spoken. But all the Ben&Jerry's Cookie Dough in the world are mine, all mine.

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  17. Dan -- Yes! S-eX. Skarb feels kind of like a practice run for S-eX (even though it came after), and I agree that Laudamiel's H&G work is a bit of a comedown when compared to the smooth groove of S-eX.

    I'll patiently await your second go-round with 'Like This'.

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  18. Six': my poison is Ciao Bella Malted Milk Ball Gelato. Or any homemade ice cream.

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  19. I know this is an old thread sorry, but I was thrilled to discover this guy Dan's take on Bosque as it is such a similar experience to mine. I wrote a massive essay on Bosque and published today: http://smellythoughts.wordpress.com/2012/12/17/bosque-humiecki-graef-the-essay/
    Have you had a chance to try it again Katie? Has anything in the H&G line took your fancy?

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