tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22300824181181503142024-03-17T20:07:38.985-04:00From PyrgosBryan Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02180684622117941496noreply@blogger.comBlogger847125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2230082418118150314.post-86221118934814085252024-03-17T20:06:00.001-04:002024-03-17T20:06:43.130-04:00Are Green Fragrances Making a Long-Awaited Comeback?In the Hammock by Hans Thoma, 1876Recently on his YouTube channel, Varanis Ridari spoke about what he perceives to be a possible resurgence in commercial interest in green fragrances, mostly in the designer realm. He cites the releases of fragrances like Hermès H24, Coach Green, and Parfum de Marly's Greenley as examples, and mentions that while none of these are exactly a return to the twentiethBryan Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02180684622117941496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2230082418118150314.post-62128146245607932432024-03-14T21:22:00.005-04:002024-03-14T21:25:58.957-04:00Creation Thé Vert (Ted Lapidus)The date for this one looks wrong to me; the frag sites say it was released in 2008, but by that point the IFRA (International Fragrance Association) had already banned a gazillion materials, and had severely restricted the use of Evernia prunastri, otherwise known as oakmoss. Creation Thé Vert contains oakmoss. But I guess brands can choose to adhere to IFRA guidelines, as Pinaud Clubman is likeBryan Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02180684622117941496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2230082418118150314.post-31632770738957741292024-03-12T23:01:00.001-04:002024-03-12T23:01:26.599-04:00Infinity Cassis & Fig (Aubusson)This one is a complete mystery. I happened across it at a rack store and picked it up for next to nothing, and it didn't even have a box. I only bought it because it's by Aubusson, which is actually a pretty good (and very obscure) perfume house, plus blackcurrant and fig are two highly-preferred notes, so that didn't hurt either. Adding to the mystery is that there is literally nothing - Bryan Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02180684622117941496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2230082418118150314.post-52914252469127392912024-03-10T01:21:00.001-05:002024-03-10T01:21:59.638-05:00Replica Lazy Sunday Morning (Maison Margiela)Lazy Sunday Morning advertises itself as being the smell of clean morning sheets and the fresh weekend air drifting on a warm breeze. I smell sweet orange blossom and a sort of transparent laundry musk, rather simple and direct. This fragrance opens with a crisp, silky feel, the first Margiela perfume to smell expensive out of the gate. Jazz Club and By the Fireplace were nice, but too linear forBryan Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02180684622117941496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2230082418118150314.post-44140866029797153342024-03-09T01:35:00.003-05:002024-03-09T01:39:00.343-05:00Checking in on Pinaud's Lilac Vegetal After Three Years in GlassBack in 2021 I decanted my supply of E.D. Pinaud's Lilac Vegetal into the glass bottle shown above. I got it for five dollars at Home Goods, took it to my crib, spent ten minutes washing it out in the sink, and let it dry out completely before decanting. My goal was to see if I could eliminate the plasticky off-notes in LV, as decanting in glass works wonders for Clubman, and in early 2022 I Bryan Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02180684622117941496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2230082418118150314.post-19420244010322488692024-03-03T16:20:00.002-05:002024-03-03T22:03:32.275-05:00Moss+ (Commodity)There is an easy way to know what kinds of fragrances niche brands should offer, and very few of them are in on the secret, but the art directors at Commodity most certainly are. What you might not know about perfume is that there is nothing original anymore. Anyone who tells you otherwise isn't telling the truth. With that knowledge intact, what would be a sure-fire hit that doesn't feel Bryan Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02180684622117941496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2230082418118150314.post-90886939813927485172024-03-02T11:39:00.003-05:002024-03-02T19:19:33.650-05:00Paper (Commodity)Commodity releases its perfumes in sets of three (don't even ask), placing their "expressive" fragrances between the "personal" on one side and the "bold" on the other. Super-duper trite, if you ask me. I interpret "expressive" as referring to a perfume for those who prefer not to have mathematical signs mingling in their wardrobes. You're not taking sides; you're simply expressing yourself by Bryan Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02180684622117941496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2230082418118150314.post-20957524365117372742024-03-01T06:27:00.004-05:002024-03-14T21:28:09.058-04:00Revisiting Jōvan's Ginseng NRG: Is It a Masterpiece, or a Cheap Gimmick?Vintage N⬝R⬝G In 1975, Jōvan released its masculine and feminine Ginseng fragrances, which seemed to endure for the remainder of the decade before their eventual discontinuation. Jōvan is one of those weird drugstore brands that I often think could have been the stuff of greatness, if only it had held on to its best products. I mean that seriously. Grass Oil. Frankincense &Bryan Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02180684622117941496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2230082418118150314.post-46570411553558306992024-02-26T22:31:00.003-05:002024-02-26T22:32:23.779-05:00Nineteen-Eighties Old Spice is Not Like Other Old Spice.I recently picked this up for two dollars from a lady who must've had it in her house for forty years, and to my surprise it smells (and feels) like new! Old Spice Conditioning After Shave, which is a runny balm, smells exactly like the liquid aftershave, but in the eighties formula, which was a touch brighter and spicier than previous versions. Of the 4.25 fl. oz. size, there is maybe 3.75 Bryan Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02180684622117941496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2230082418118150314.post-1675639556022333542024-02-22T20:28:00.000-05:002024-02-22T20:28:22.377-05:00Replica By the Fireplace (Maison Margiela), and the Problem with Linearity in Niche Fragrances Linearity is a blessing and a curse; if the fragrance smells good, it's the former, and if not, the latter. But what happens when a linear fragrance smells neither good nor bad, but just "so-so?" At what point do we decide that linearity is a driver of something other than one's subjective level of enjoyment? At what point is it automatically something undesirable? Replica By the Fireplace Bryan Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02180684622117941496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2230082418118150314.post-61295374323766079722024-02-19T19:50:00.003-05:002024-02-19T20:10:43.590-05:00Reformulating "Down"Photo by JaneArt, 1962, modified & color-corrected by B. Ross, 2024So, the Skin Bracer saga continues. On Badger and Blade the gents are claiming that the current version of Skin Bracer is "weaker" with "more alcohol" and "more menthol" than the version from just ten years ago. There is still speculation that it is discontinued, although some recent comments have firmed up the notion that Bryan Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02180684622117941496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2230082418118150314.post-83456197071918099122024-02-18T11:09:00.000-05:002024-02-18T11:09:10.923-05:00Northern Cardinal (Zoologist Perfumes)Billed as a "citrus" aromatic leather scent, this is another reissued Zoologist fragrance, and was originally just named Cardinal when it first came out in 2022, packaged in a red glass bottle. Why the reboot occurred is beyond me, but both iterations were authored by Rosendo Mateu of Carolina Herrera 212 fame. With that in mind, I approached it thinking it was Zoologist's "safe" masculine, and Bryan Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02180684622117941496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2230082418118150314.post-79627257943664455522024-02-17T14:47:00.002-05:002024-02-17T14:51:36.038-05:00Bat 2020 (Zoologist Perfumes)This fragrance is a reissue of a 2015 iteration by Ellen Covey, famed research professor at the University of Washington. Prin Lomros is the nose for the 2020 version, and I find it to be a pleasant variation on the oft-explored petrichor idea in perfumery. Bat opens with a soil tincture accord that smells wet and mushroomy, like a shovelful of earth after a rainstorm. That first minute is Bryan Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02180684622117941496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2230082418118150314.post-31793935613228697702024-02-13T13:09:00.005-05:002024-02-15T21:01:16.269-05:00Is Skin Bracer Discontinued? Look to Brut for a Lesson on Why We Can't Have Nice Things . . . Recently on the shaving forum Badger and Blade, a member posted a thread asking if Mennen's Skin Bracer aftershave had been discontinued. Apparently SB has become increasingly difficult to locate in brick and mortar shops, with places like Stop & Shop (a grocery store chain), CVS, Walgreens, and Rite-Aid failing to display bottles or marking them all down for sale. Given the nearly 100 Bryan Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02180684622117941496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2230082418118150314.post-89756880566668125512024-02-10T11:01:00.001-05:002024-02-10T11:01:17.348-05:00Wanted (Azzaro)Postmodernism is a bitch. It's an eclectic shit-show of pseudo-intellectual mumbo-jumbo that strives to delegitimize social value hierarchies by disassembling objective meaning in the name of individualistic elan. Think of a water-driven wheel for grinding wheat, stopped by the invisible hand of solipsistic justice to allow for the factory workers to uselessly gawk at how the opposing forces Bryan Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02180684622117941496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2230082418118150314.post-92040269959917722242024-02-06T22:39:00.009-05:002024-02-10T10:59:40.531-05:00Perfume is Prague.Photo by Zoofanatic, color-corrected by B. Ross in 2024I briefly stayed in Prague in 2007, from January to July. I was twenty-five years old, and the last layer of that wonderfully unaffected idealism carried by every college-age person had all but evaporated. That year I had become an adult, a true adult, not some popular notion of what manhood is. I had learned. I had learned that the Bryan Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02180684622117941496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2230082418118150314.post-19322677849256268162024-02-04T08:30:00.001-05:002024-02-04T08:30:39.350-05:00Lapidus pour Homme Sport (Ted Lapidus)Varanis Ridari recently released a video on YouTube in which he states his "Unpopular Opinions" about the fragrance world. One of them was (I'm paraphrasing), "People don't smell with their noses." He astutely pointed out that branding, price, "vibe," and even looks (packaging, etc.) are what most people defer to when assessing if they like or dislike something. The actual fragrances? Secondary Bryan Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02180684622117941496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2230082418118150314.post-19197417452109213782024-02-01T06:20:00.001-05:002024-02-01T06:20:29.457-05:00Rose Prick (Tom Ford)The double entendres that are Tom Ford's fragrance names are funny. "Rose Prick" can mean you got stabbed by a flower or a randy dude, depending on how you interpret it. Today I submit a third meaning: a prick created this overpriced rose perfume. Rose Prick (2020) smells like black pepper, turmeric - yes, turmeric - and roses in the top note. I'd be lying if I said I get much turmeric, Bryan Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02180684622117941496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2230082418118150314.post-91019944435133119742024-01-21T07:34:00.001-05:002024-01-21T07:34:05.109-05:00Snowy Owl (Zoologist Perfumes)An A.I.-Generated ImageWhen I hear about perfumes based on animals, my mind goes to gross places. I imagine civet first, and all the intense funk associated with the excretions of its anal gland floods my nose. From there I drift into barnyard ouds and horses' asses. Eventually I wind up in the south central China exhibit, with bamboo everywhere and the occasional panda peeking out at me. AnimalsBryan Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02180684622117941496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2230082418118150314.post-83610226956928290632024-01-19T17:24:00.004-05:002024-01-19T17:30:45.756-05:00Revisiting Lapidus pour Homme . . . and Adding it to The List.Lapidus Pour Homme is, in no uncertain terms, Eddie Money in a bottle. I recently purchased a 2022 bottle from eBay, and compared it to my 2012 bottle, and I must add Lapidus PH to the list: this is a fragrance that benefits from "aging." Where once the fragrance smelled like one part Kouros to three parts Boss Number One, the split is now even. Letting the bottle sit half-empty and undisturbed Bryan Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02180684622117941496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2230082418118150314.post-16223432060852449322024-01-17T06:59:00.002-05:002024-01-17T13:14:05.504-05:00Is Alain Delon pour Femme the Rarest Perfume?I must confess, I've never seen a bottle of this in the wild, nor have I ever seen it mentioned online. Basenotes and Fragrantica do not have Alain Delon pour Femme listed in their databases, and while Parfumo acknowledges its existence with this blurry photo of a mini, there is no other information about it available. Well, except for this page (link).As you can see, the asking price on Bryan Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02180684622117941496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2230082418118150314.post-74854830030775273102024-01-16T09:18:00.007-05:002024-01-16T09:36:15.200-05:00Moss (Commodity)I approached Moss by Commodity thinking I was in for another bland green chemical "niche" perfume. The ideas of vegan, sustainable, converse-wearing, granola-eating, pearl-clutching, minimalist perfume was iffy to me. I sprayed it on paper, took a sniff, and smelled nothing. Took another sniff, and still smelled nothing. Took a third sniff, and the paper smelled as it did five minutes earlier, Bryan Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02180684622117941496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2230082418118150314.post-80339923534296379172024-01-14T21:25:00.010-05:002024-01-19T23:33:58.848-05:00Why Perfume Blogs DieThe other day I was saddened to find that Shamu, a fragrance blogger known for the twice-retired pourmonsieurblog.blogspot.com, had deleted his blog. He hadn't posted in over three years, but had kept the content up, and I had taken it for granted that it would always be there for me to peruse at my leisure. Now it's gone, likely never to return. Another blog, Bryan Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02180684622117941496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2230082418118150314.post-74781726686765764022024-01-11T21:04:00.006-05:002024-01-11T21:18:55.930-05:00Replica Jazz Club (Maison Margiela)Maison Martin Margiela isn't really a tiny niche brand; it's a major French fashion label with several subsidiary labels, each assigned numbers to correspond with their product lines (the perfumes are number three). It's tempting to think I'm trying something small-batch and kitschy when I look at the little apothecary-style bottles, and must remind myself that I'm looking at a mass market Bryan Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02180684622117941496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2230082418118150314.post-25049873582259183612024-01-10T20:46:00.002-05:002024-01-10T20:46:58.173-05:00Should We "Age" Our Fragrances?Years ago, when I was still a member of the "fragcomm" on Basenotes, I debated the merits of seeking, collecting, and wearing "vintage" fragrances. At that time (between 2011 and 2017), the majority view held that "vintage," i.e., anything released years before as an early-specimen formula of something long since discontinued or reformulated, was simply better, and worth seeking out. For example,Bryan Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02180684622117941496noreply@blogger.com