Perfume Pen Pals: biehl.parfumkunstwerke gs02



Katie,

I've mentioned biehl.parfumkunstwerke gs02 to you a few times, worn it a bunch, and I think I love it. It's my new favorite perfume, even though I bought it a year ago. There's a dominant smell that makes me feel good about my place in the world (and, believe me, that's quite an achievement for a single smell), but I don't know what it is. I'd assumed it was tonka bean, because of gs02's resemblance to other things with tonka bean, but I'm not entirely sure. I desperately want you to tell me what I'm smelling when I get all giddy every time I spray it on.

The gs02 effect: enhances everything -- even breakfast.

Maybe it's a combination of tonka and leather, I don't know. I just don't know and I want to know! Because I'm about to add it to my list of all-time favorites and if I don't know what I'm smelling, I'll have nothing to say at the press conference.

Dan



Dan,

Right off the top, I pick up the faintest hot/cool spice, like cinnamon crossed with anise. It's fresh. Then the warm stuff comes in, transparently, not baroquely. A couple of people on LuckyScent compare it to Chanel Egoïste, a baroque smell if ever there was, but I can see where they're coming from. gs02's spiced leather/amber could be a long-leftover forensic sample of Egoïste.

While gs02 does seem familiar, nothing comes immediately to mind that resembles it in its quiet complexity. I'll keep pondering. All I can advise you to do in the meantime is to buy up gs02.

Katie



Katie,

Thanks KP! Whatever I love about it does come out of the leather but the perfume and its combination of accords are odd enough that I couldn't quite isolate anything else.

Dan



Dan,

Okay, I've just isolated the “anything else”. It's pot. Gs02 smells like a sport cologne version of pot. Well, not exactly, because that would be Cannabis Rose by Fresh.


But there is a slimline, low-cal hempiness that smells rich and herbally-fresh at the same time.

Katie



Katie,

Really? Marijuana? I don't smell that, but it's probably because my exposure to marijuana has been very limited, especially for someone who's lived in San Francisco most of his life. For me, marijuana is a blurry accord.

I think gs02 is my favorite winter scent, although one on which I've received zero compliments. Except from myself. Do those count? (My therapist says they do.) Maybe I'm off my rocker, but all the attention Geza Schoen gets for that Molecule bullshit versus no attention for this little masterpiece of his is as if the Beatles made their name from "Octopus's Garden" while no one talked about Revolver.

Dan


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18 comments:

  1. Oh man, I was all set to run to luckyscent.com and order me up a sample of this'un - but then Katie mentions Egoiste - one of my least-favorite scents. Chanel must hate men, or think we're stupid, cloying and boring. Maybe Coco Chanel implicitly put that into a rider somewhere to get back at all the guys who done her wrong.

    Then the pot thing - again, a non-starter for me. I associate the smell of pot with disorientation and paranoia. And, while this would make for an interesting scent gambit on a first date, perhaps not in my best interests.

    I'll probably try this anyway for the name alone and weigh in again later. Come back to the five and dime, Coco - all is forgiven. I even fed the cats....

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  2. Who needs compliments when you love your own waftage? Your therapist has it right. Perfume self-affirmations. I'm good enough, I'm smart enough and doggone it I smell good.

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  3. What?! Stupid, cloying and boring? Egoiste is one of my FAVORITE scents. I'm not a man, of course, but I wouldn't mind smelling it on one.

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  4. I'm on Team Egoïste with you, Elisa. But at the same time, I'm concerned that I overstated the Egoïste comparison to you, Stefush, because the reference was an attempt to conjure gs02's warm leather spice, rather than the Chanel's thick floral creaminess. gs02 is nothing if not beautifully transparent. And Dan didn't buy my pot reference. Did I just renounce my review in my effort to encourage you to try gs02?

    For those of you who do love a little doobie in their fume, check out Geza Schoen's new one, Kinski (inspired by actor Klaus Kinksi in "Nosferatu"). It smells like a (party) hearty blend of marijuana and Clinique Aromatics Elixir, a good thing for fans of either of those scents. And the bottle looks like merch from the band KISS. Nostalgia all around! (I might sound a little teasy-weasy, but Kinski does smell good.)

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  5. Haha, "perfume self-affirmtions", m61!

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  6. That herbal-fresh "hempiness" you mention is exactly what I get out of Fresh's Cannabis Santal, incidentally. Not pot - the smell of which makes me borderline nauseous - but something vaguely sweet, earthy, woolen, and bohemian.

    I have yet to smell any of these Geza Schoen performance art pieces, but this one sounds the most promising. Molecule 01's success with the anti-perfume crowd makes me suspicious, but I would like to sniff it at some point to see what the fuss is about.

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  7. This sounds interesting... I sniffed Cannabis Rose and Cannabis Santal but neither one smelled like weed to me. In fact they didn't smell like much at all.

    Anyway, out of curiosity, have you tried the new Bond no.9 scent? It's just called "Andy Warhol." I didn't seek it out but I came across it today and I like it!

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  8. Reading this, I'm reminded how seemingly insignificant, obscure things can cause us to become obsessed:

    The other day, I was walking past the supermarket aisle selling deodorants, bodysprays(I'm looking at you Axe!) and other mass market under-$7 EDTs,and was surprised at how impressed I was with an unknown men's EDT named Ultima.

    I was almost ready to buy up 3 bottles of the stuff, but then I remembered how much space I had left in my perfume wardrobe & put the bottles gently back,but not before spritzing firmly from the tester bottle onto my hand & enjoying the next hour of my day...


    No marijuana accord in this one!

    Oh yeah: the Axe 2012 Final Edition is one of the best in their lineup that I've smelt thus far.

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  9. Laura, I've not yet encountered Andy Warhol yet.

    Darryl, that full-on guff of pot smell turns my stomach a bit, too. But bohemian earthy-sweet I can handle.


    Dom Perrier, your tale of finding olfactory delights in the supermarket is an inspirational one for perfume obsessives everywhere. When we all end up in the asylum we'll be picking up bits of twig and leaves, breathing deeply of them, then sighing happily. Now, step away from the Axe...

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  10. Confession time: I'm compelled to sniff the Axe Dark Temptation shower gel every time I pass it in the drugstore aisle. Mass-market dreck it may be, but that doesn't keep it from smelling fantastic. Hell, I'd rather wear Dark Temptation than half of the Chanel line.

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  11. Dark Temptation is right, Darryl! I'm going to seek it out the next time I'm at the drugstore.

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  12. Darryl,

    Dark Temptation is too much chocolatey confusion to me: unsure whether it wants to become a dessert or a sexy thing.

    I actually rated the lime green one & the blue one(can't remember their names) higher than this one, hyped up though it was by the recent Perfume documentary.

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  13. I forgot to add that a perfume can be both a dessert & a sexy thing, but if Dark Temptation was trying to be that, it fails.

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  14. DP and Darryl, I love how you hardcore connoisseurs leave no smelling opportunity unsniffed. You're working high/low, like true believers.

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  15. Well, now I just don't know what to think, Katie. When you say a perfume is 'milky' are you referring to the essense in the Milkyway, 1970's downtown Amsterdam? There was hempiness, and browniness smell then. Did they bottle it? I just saw a series on TV, PBS, The Botany of Desire, that covered Cannibus Sativa superbly. I understand it has changed. A great series.

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  16. Darryl--

    Which half of the Chanel line is inferior to Axe?

    Dom--I" forgot to add that a perfume can be both a dessert & a sexy thing, but if Dark Temptation was trying to be that, it fails."

    Example, please.

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  17. Angel, of course! And Lolita Lempicka(to some,but not me)...and L...and who can forget KP's review of Shalimar : 'a dessert from the 1950s..' + undeniable sexiness

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  18. NadineisthatU - naw, re "milky", I'm referring to the stuff that comes out of a cow. But you make a good case for bottling 1970s Amsterdam.

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