Katie,
I'm curious if you've tried Profumum Roma Santalum. At first, it smells as much like myrrh and cinnamon as it does sandalwood. It goes on slightly sharp and medicinal, though not to the point of irritation, and then softens and ends up smelling a little like some of the sweeter Profumums. I don't love it but I don't dislike it either and I can imagine enjoying it especially on cool winter evenings.
What say you, KP?
Dan
Dan,
What say I is, yeah, Santalum looks of interest -- I'd like to try it. I'm surprised I haven't already, what with my sandalwood safari last year which ended in a purchase of Etro Sandalo.
Katie
Katie,
My final verdict is this: Santalum is okay. It attempts something similar to Le Labo Vanille 44, a kind of balancing act between sweet/creamy and spicy/incensey, but it's not nearly as successful.
One because its notes don't both blend and maintain clarity (Santalum is more a case of "and now this, and now this, and now this..."), and two because it has the same ending as almost all the Profumums I've tried, a sort of depressing artificial sweetness, like NutraSweet cotton candy.
Having said that, I just ran into my friend Diane and her first words to me were, "You smell great!"
So I smell great, KP, and yet I'm not entirely happy. If that isn't an indictment of this whole perfume rigmarole, I don't know what is.
Dan
Dan,
Just sprayed on the decant of Santalum you sent. It's sandalwood curled up around the edges with a menthol tinge. It's a little savory and oddly waxy. It gets a smidgeon barnyard as it ambles along. It's in the same bailiwick as Etro Sandalo, though the Etro has that great sour petrol opening which develops into “animal skin”.
Pitting them against each other in a perfume dance-off, I can see what you mean about Santalum's sweet sayonara. Sandalo stays resolutely un-sweet, while Santalum ends up smelling like an herbal teabag. The kind of teabag that was the last one in the box, so it ended up shoved in another box with three other leftover teabags, so none of them taste the way they're supposed to.
Not that that's a bad thing. Because I can still drink uncertain herbal tea, and Profumum Roma Santalum still smells very nice. But I still prefer Sandalo.
Katie
Katie,
I've been gradually trying the rest of the Profumum line and I'm beginning to understand it.
There's a good deal of giddy online chatter about how potent they are, how they have an unprecedented amount of perfume oil, how they stain your clothes and persist through showers (and probably lab-emergency safety showers, too), which reminds me of reading about The Who in the Guinness Book of World Records, how they were officially the loudest band in the world. Which was kind of exciting. When I was nine.
Plus, Profumum is no Who. Wearing Fumidus yesterday (relentlessly smoky vetiver, a gigantic field of burning grass) was like Guinness reporting that instead of The Who, some anonymous Canadian band was the loudest in the world.
I like Santalum, but the rest? Uninteresting music played loudly. And they're very expensive, too. When it comes to perfume, those extra decibels aren't free.
This morning I'm wearing M. Micallef Vanille Aoud, which isn't quite bad but a little shocking and sickening in its blending of sweet creamy vanilla with oud. It's like a See's candy filled with meat.
Do we want this? Stained clothing and meat candies? Sometimes I think I'll never be happy.
Dan
I am quite certaily NOT open for meat-filled candy!!!
ReplyDeleteThere has to be another way to happiness...;)
mmmmmmm, chocolate covered liver pate. Creamy centers are great.
ReplyDeleteOn second thought, hold the pate.
Well, the Profumum Santalum certainly holds its ground. I can still softly smell it on my skin from yesterday. The Etro Sandalo has long faded.
ReplyDeleteI don't listen to loud Canadian bands and I prefer my chopped liver served separately from my chocolate. But every once in a while, I crave a sillage-throwing, stick-to-your-skin beast like Ambra Aurea. Or Dulcis in Fundo. Because sometimes ya just gotta smell like a Creamsicle. Dipped in vanilla. With whipped cream.
ReplyDeleteMelissa, you must be the funnest friend your friends have!
ReplyDeleteMelissa, those are the times I think that I will have to get me some Thierry Mugler's Angel. Probably way less classy than the fancy stuff mentioned in this thread that sound like Greek to me - but it's my modest idea of a perfume that's simply too much of everything - and sometimes that's exactly what I need to combat the greyness of everyday life.
ReplyDeleteAnd, by the way, other suggestions for relatively mainstream scents that are just too much in a good way would be highly appreciated :-)
ReplyDeleteActually Melissa is the funniest friend I have! Definitely the best smelling one.
ReplyDeleteJunelady, one of my best perfumista guyfriends wears Angel as his guilty pleasure. He's way smarter and classier than I will ever be. He rarely curses and I have trouble making it through two sentences without a stream of profanity flying out of my mouth. Actually, I think that he wears the super-fancy Angel Liqueur de Parfum. Or maybe he wears all of them. If I wore any of them, I think that I would wind up being arrested or something. Publicly. On an episode of Cops. But on other people, Angel smells fab.
ReplyDeleteon Cops--hiding under the kiddie pool!
ReplyDeleteJunelady, nothing's going to be as crazy with a scoop of crazy as Angel in terms of too much of everything, but I nominate these as edging towards "de trop":
ReplyDeleteDior Hypnotic Poison
Tom Ford Black Orchid
Lolita Lempicka Fleur de Corail
Lolita Lempicka L
and 2 in the niche dept:
Keiko Mecheri Loukhoum du Soir
Anne Pliska
I've never admitted this, but I quite like angel. Story time!
ReplyDeleteMy parents are lovely people who go on weekends to the farmer's market, which also includes a crafts market. When I'm in town they take me. Once when I was very young a woman at the crafts market was giving out free scrubbings with her homemade rejuvinating hand scrub, in the hopes that people would then buy containers of it.
It came in many scents. I chose the one called "angel" for my free scrub, because I thought it might make me smell angellic. I'd never heard of Thierry Mugler, of course.
My hands were so soft all day, and smelled really lovely to my sensibilty at the time. Now Angel reminds me of that. I smell it fondly. =)
That said, I don't think I'd wear it in public. At least not soon after spraying.
Great to know that I'm not the only admirer of Angel - although a somewhat ambivalent one.
ReplyDeleteMelissa, I too have my doubts that I could pull it off, as I'm not exactly fashionably edgy or cool or anything, but I still might have to try anyway.
Last friday I was at a meeting, the chair person was the director of one of my country's government agencies, a woman around 60. Short and slim with long, long unruly hair that she wore down, red lips (at 8 a:m), edgy black glasses, corsage type blouse showing cleavage - and finger nails that were painted red and metallic grey - like one finger red, one finger grey etc. - and there was this scent in the air......that was Angel - and of course it came from her! Wow! This was another occasion where I wondered if Angel is for me - but on the other hand - why not let her attitude be an inspiration to just go for it?
Katie - thanks for the suggestions - will look into them - actually, I already own Hypnotic Poison which I "innocently" bought for myself as a Christmas presnt 3-4 years ago thinking it was rather low key and pleasant - ha ha - it's all relative what we think of a scent, isn't it? One person's I-dare-not-wear is another persons ah-how-comforting-and-understated.
Xayrax - it just goes to show that labels do mean a lot when we judge something. If we don't know what it is, how others perceive it, we can approach it with an open mind.
Melissa - interesting how we fear that wearing the "wrong" scent will push us over the edge image-wise in other people's minds - a sort of scent-psychological-projection thing going on.
ReplyDeleteIf I wore Angel my fear would be that people would look at me and think: "Arrrhhh, she tried, let's give her points for trying".
Heeeey April Wine is not some anonymous Canadian band -- they are Canadian superstars! :o)
ReplyDeleteMy own favorite sandalwood safari -- Sandalwood cologne by Trumper + Chanel's Bois des Iles
Katie -- I'm dying to try the newest Malle -- will you do a review? Have you had a chance to smell it? The notes sound incredible. Our local Malle counter in Toronto doesn't have it yet, Aedes is selling it online but only in the 100 ml size.
Love,
ooloi82 (Jelena)
Gypsy Bride/Jelena - Haha, Dan confessed to me that he was a big fan of April Wine as a young'un.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to try that Trumper Sandalwood. I am warming to Profumum Roma Santalum, but as you've indicated, who has time to properly consider anything with Frederic Malle Portrait of a Lady is being dangled before us?
I've smelled it sprayed liberally on a Malle blotter card, and demanded of various Malle employees that they describe PoL most exactingly, complete with hand gestures. And a few of my correspondents who've been lucky enough to try it have been reporting in. I can't remember when I've been so filled with anticipation for a perfume. Dan keeps gloomily predicting that it will be all downhill once I actually wear it. Maybe, but the frothing as I await PoL is so enjoyable.