Just popping in

I've been so busy writing my shot-n-sweet reviews that I really haven't had time to stop and think about what I'm doing.

I've found some really good new fragrances and of course, many bad ones. I feel like talking about the good ones!

Cool Water and the series. Really, really awesome in my opinion. I didn't wear Cool Water when I was younger nor do I recall smelling it on other people while I was in school. I just may not have been paying attention.

• Cool Water itself is a marvelous aromatic fougere that's sweet and comforting.
• Frozen is really good and feels more solid (aptly named).
• Happy Summer is more sweet and citrus.
• deep smells like an ordinary cologne (not my favorite of the series).
• sea, scents and sun feels salty like an Erolfa and GIT mixture
• Summer Fizz is loads more citrus in the top, less sweet and plain ol' Cool Water drydown
• Game is very different and is that apple top note in KC Reaction everyone likes

All in all, I'm really enjoying this modern classic. I like collecting things and that's why I wanted to try the whole kaboodle. I can see why some people would be all "Give it up already!" with Davidoff and releasing yet another Cool Water Happy Game Wave Summer Sea Fizz.

The Past Month

Much has happened since the last post:

1. I'm almost at 600 reviews on Basenotes

2. Many more new scents have come in the mail since then to bring me to more than 800 fragrances to try.

3. My decanting escapades are quite enjoyable.

4. Creed isn't as bad as I thought, though certain popular scents are not quite as amazing as people set them out to be. eg. Green Irish Tweed, Silver Mountain Water

5. I'm a sucker for marketing, despite being in the industry as a graphic designer/marketer. I must re-evaluate my position.

6. Bond no. 9 is slowly becoming a favorite brand

7. Boscov's, a preferred local retailer, has declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy

8. I've finally received the custom perfume I ordered from Parfums Raffy and it is not as great as I envisioned.

I will be posting more about 6. now....

Reading and visualization are my greatest skills. However, the connect between the visual/reading comprehension sector of my brain and my olfactory snese seems to... lack substantial cohesion. That is: I suck at figuring out in writing what I want in a fragrance.

I had order thus from Raffy:

3-Lavender
3-Forrest Pine
2-Violet
2-clove
2-tobacco
1-melon
1-Egyptian musk
1 - Vanilla
1-Sandalwood

What I received was... chaotic; much like my thinking in ordering. It was $40 for a custom blend... although I did not expect quality or deviation from my request, it came to me uninspired. When I first smelled my "custom blend" it smelled like potpourri. The melon seemed to dominate the fragrance until I relaized it was the combination of clove and pine that gave an illusion of melon which exacerbated its unwarranted presence.

I did this custome blend totally blind. Now I have a fairly good idea how strong Raffy's oils are and what kinds of questions to ask if I ever wish to do another custom blend....

Or to make my own... which sounds fun!


Oh and if you ever want to order decants from me, here is the address:

http://tonightstars.com/decants/decanting.htm

I plan on trying out a new custom blend once I have suffcient funds....

Parfums Raffy

The kind folks at Parfums Raffy offered free samples of their fragrances. Eager to try new things especially when the words FREE pop up, I immediately emailed them and requested them. They immediately responded and said they'll send me samples of two of their fragrances for men: Dragon and Mogul.

I have posted my initial reaction in a Basenotes thread but I will copy them here.

My initial responses to new fragrances are ones of reminders or other things I've smelled. I haven't given them a full wearing yet but here're my first thoughts:

Dragon: soapy herbal lemon, there's ylang-ylang in this I know it but it seems soapy. Doesn't remind me readily to any scents I've smelled. I think it's distinctive enough to warrant praise.

Mogul: spicy woody leather, like a combination of Fahrenheit's leathery sweetness subdued by Lucky Number 6's overt spiciness. I like Lucky Number Six but the problem with it is its longevity and sillage. I hope Mogul lasts a good while on me. Seems promising.

I will be wearing Dragon tomorrow and subsequently Mogul the enxt day unless I happen to really like Dragon or am too confused by it and would have to wear it a second day. At $78 for 100ml, these look very tempting but i've been eying up Ormonde Jayne's Man and Isfarkand.

Right now, I only have the budget for one new fragrance for the month of July so I will have to be careful. I would like to get something I will like as well as others for decanting. At the moment Isfarkand is in the lead, with some Creeds behind (still testing) and now Raffy's offerings racing up a close third. Familiarity would be a better choice so a Creed fragrance just might win (I wore Royal Water today and I loved it).

Understanding My Obsession

I had recently had some friends over to my place whom haven't been by in a few months. One of them I had... well, warned about my new hobby. I don't know why but I feel a kind of oddness with this hobby. I'm not shy about it, I'm just really unsure how people would take it.

Another of my friends that came by had openly rejected the idea of spending over $120 on a bottle of cologne. That was back in February when I had visited SAK's 5th Ave for the first time and I bought a bottle of Creed's Original Santal which was my favorite of the four fragrances the SA suggested.

The friend I had "warned" simply said, "Eh, it's something to do." He's a cool guy and he understand the collector's mindset. He has a stack of video games that reaches his ceiling! Honestly at first I thought he was wasting his money but now I realize if it's something you like doing, it's a great distraction from the world. He doesn't livein a fantasy and he knows what the world is like and he never let's the fantasy of video games ruin his view on the world.

The other friend who happened to be with me at SAK's saw my perfume collection just looked and shrugged his shoulders and we all proceeded to go our usual hanging out routine of browsing the Internet and playing video games. Now that I think about it, it was a relief that nothing else was said. It was like, "There it is, I have a collection of perfumes. " The End.

I suppose I just needed some... real world acceptance.

Decanting

I now offer decants of all my colognes I have. I highly recommend many of them but read and decide for yourself. :)

I have set up a page here

I have a thread on SomethingAwful's Forums where I sell in the marketplaces as well.

You can post here, email me at the email in the website, post or PM in the SomethingAwful thread, PM via Basenotes.

Decanting! Reviewing! Sampling!

Firstly, I will soon be entering the wonderful world of decanting! I've been so impressed by other who do this and sell their fragrances they have that I just had to try it out myself. Of course, I'll be doing it as not-for-profit as I can but I'd like to see how it goes first. I'll be offering 2, 2.5, 5 and 10ml sprays in plastic and/or glass sprays for reasonable prices AKA at my cost. I have a lot of "strange" stuff to offer and I don't know where exactly I'm allowed to sell them but I'll try. It sounds fun! I'll post a link to a list some time soon.

Secondly, I'd like to post more reviews and thoughts here but I've been using the Basenotes review System too much and have been posting reviews of all the samples I've tried there. According to Basenotes, I have submitted over 200 reviews. I'm not that great of a writer and most of them are short and to the point but they are there. If a fragrance intrigues me (or upsets me) enough I'd probably write more or make note of other external things.

For instance, I emailed Ormonde Jayne about Isfarkand and they sent me a spray sample along with Ormonde Man. That was really cool. Customer service is a HUGE plus for me. If you treat me like I'm either your only customer or as a new customer who actually genuinely interested (which I am) then I'll treat you kindly right back; just like with Penhaligons' which incidentally is also a Brist fragrance house/designer/ I even liked Isfarkand so much I'm thinking about getting a bottle (I need cash first! The dollar sucks!). Also I've been spending money on another hobby: wine, which is fascinating as well but that's a whole other story (which my sense of smell helps a lot).

Sunburn

I learned a hard fact today. After being out in the sun for four hours, the first in a long while, I got sunburned. I did wear sunblock everywhere but I still got it bad in some areas.

After sweating for four hours I went home and showered to get ready for some shopping. I had received a generous amount of decants in the mail that morning an I wanted to try out Eau d'Italie. It's very green and spicy. I kinda like it. It was a roll-on.

I rolled it on my arms and neck. Where I did so on my arms I now have a nice rash on the pulse points (wrists and inside elbow) but nothing on my neck. I'm not sure if it's a reaction to the perfume itself or my skin's just more sensitive right now due to the sunburn.