Could this be the start of a regular feature? Below, you’ll find all the mini-reviews I’ve posted on Twitter since January of this year. I’ve decided to re-publish them here on Persolaise.com partly for the benefit of readers who don’t follow my tweets and partly to satisfy the completist geek in me. In case any of you are wondering, you can find me on Twitter @Persolaise.
Nuit Andalouse from MDCI (Cécile Zarokian; 2013)*
Mixes gardenia & orange blossom into a rich, buttery unguent. Not original but very seductive.
Cuir Garamante from MDCI (Richard Ibanez; 2013)*
Disappointing. Heavy leather of the clichéd, faux-Arabian variety. Strident sandalwood base.
Gulbadan from Tola (Dhaher Bin Dhaher; 2013)*
An interesting animalic floral, until it starts becoming more and more like
Montale‘s
Aoud Cuir D’Arabie.
Misqaal from Tola (Dhaher Bin Dhaher; 2013)*
An 80s masculine gone horribly wrong. A castrated
Antaeus, with a gag-inducing mega-dose of dihydromyrcenol.
Musk Begum from Tola (Dhaher Bin Dhaher; 2013)*
Pumps out synthetic musks with little finesse. Stick to
Serge Lutens‘
Clair De Musc or
Amouage‘s
Musk attar.
Anbar from Tola (Dhaher Bin Dhaher; 2013)*
Masha from Tola (Dhaher Bin Dhaher; 2013)*
Starts with dry spices and eventually becomes a faint Tom Ford Tuscan Leather. Not especially Arabian.
Shahzadah from Tola (Dhaher Bin Dhaher; 2013)*
A familiar Arabian rose: pink petals + leather + woods. One of many such scents. We don’t need any more.
Pear & Olive is what it says on tin: curious mix of orchard fruit & oily earthiness.
L’Ombre Cachée from L’Antichambre (2013)**
One of the better offerings from L’Antichambre. Heat glowing off charcoal and cinders. Mono-dimensional, but enjoyable.
The soon-to-be-reissued Jour De Fête from L’Artisan displays a pretty almond-incense facet, but it’s much too quiet and it dies v quickly.
1899 from Histoires De Parfums (Gérald Ghislain; 2013)**
Lots of similarities between
Spicebomb and
1899. Both rely on high-pitched, woody juniper.
Bel Ami Vetiver from Hermès (Jean-Claude Ellena; 2013)*
Bel Ami Vetiver is exactly what it says: Bel Ami (ie lemony citrus & spicy, furniture-polish-wood) + vetivert.
Perfume Calligraphy Saffron from Aramis (2014)*
A suitably dry, woody, sandy, leathery, bitter-sweet saffron rose… but is it a bit too quiet?
Yellow from Azagury (2014)*
Lemons and limes give false sense of security before ‘sweaty armpit concealed by cheap deodorant’ appears. Stay away!
Pink from Azagury (2014)*
Nasty stewed vegetables beneath a top note of melons. A failed attempt to create a savoury marine scent. Awful.
Wenge from Azagury (2014)*
Another perfume cliche: the Arabian leathery rose. This one smells very low-quality. Rapidly loses wearer’s interest.
White from Azagury (2014)*
Cheap-smelling, incense + orange blossom oddity. Loud and unpleasant. Probably trying to be an Amouage. But failing.
Green from Azagury (2014)*
Another fake-sandalwood, pseudo-Arabian mess. Condescending and uninspired. Please can we move on from such stuff now!
Black from Azagury (2014)*
Black is in fact pink, in a strident, sugary, plastic, cheapo-citrus way. Probably wants to be a floral. Then again, who knows?
—
Persolaise
* sample provided by brand
** sample obtained by the author
Oh, yes please! Was quite unaware of these as Twitter is not for me. So please continue being a 'completist geek' and keep collecting these sparky snippets here.
Gimmegreen, thanks for the thumbs up! I'll endeavour to publish a similar post every few months or so 🙂
I love the idea of Twitter reviews – sometimes a perfume just isn't interesting enough to warrant a full review or I'm uninspired by it even though it's good. Too bad I don't use Twitter often enough by way of posting updates, but I do receive notifications when you post on Twitter so all's good by way of reading material! 🙂
Vagabond, thanks for the encouragement. And yes, I know what you mean about Twitter reviews. It's a fun discipline too, trying to say as much as possible in 140 characters.
Please do keep posting your Twitter reviews here – I'm not on Twitter (or Facebook either, come to that!) & don't plan to be but I have just laughed out loud at your "Yellow" review – great stuff, Persolaise, thank you!
No problem, Carolyn. The twitter round-up will be back soon 😀
I really like this idea of Twitter reviews. Thanks.
Renata, thanks for taking the time to let me know.