Perfumes

[Melcombe]

... Terre d'Hermes works well on me but it's even better on my lady so I'll have to pass . . . .

TdH was my surprise find last year.

I like it a lot, but still cling to my Acqua di Parma Colonia Intensa as the default choice when I dont want to impose on others.

TdH is for those days when you're in charge and everyone else needs to know it (I think that's what perfumiers refer to as "projection"?!).

[culverwood]

A loss of exclusivity but better smells for the man in the street - Shay and Blue perfumes are now available through Marks and Spencer.

[Dr T]

A loss of exclusivity but better smells for the man in the street - Shay and Blue perfumes are now available through Marks and Spencer.

Sad but glad - hopefully now I've pointed this out to my wife, my blood oranges will cease to deplete so rapidly!

[Scot]

If you are in the vicinity of a Turnbull & Asser store (certainly Jermyn Street, not sure about elsewhere) you might like to pop in and pick up a bottle of their cologne. It is made by Penhaligon and has a very British feel to it. What is more they are flogging it off at the bargain price of £25 for 100ml. I think the next time I shall go with a suitcase

[Dr T]

Three of the best for Christmas:
Blood Oranges by Shay and Blue -light and refined
Terre d Hermes - when you need a longer lasting perfume
Molinard 2 if you in a situation where you have to travel with the great unwashed

Just a short thank you for all the great advice from LL over the last year.

[Dr T]

Recently while in New York a misfortune left me without perfume. I chanced upon a great find -St Barts by Tommy Bahama. Its light, fresh and has a medium citrus overtone - very nice.

[andy57]

Has anyone tried the Fragrance Customization service offered by Floris that Simon Crompton wrote about last week? I've been a customer of Floris for decades but was unaware of the service. It sounds like it would be rather interesting, with the possibility of a unique result.

[Dr T]

Has anyone tried the Fragrance Customization service offered by Floris that Simon Crompton wrote about last week? I've been a customer of Floris for decades but was unaware of the service. It sounds like it would be rather interesting, with the possibility of a unique result.

I would also be very interested in this - sounds like a great idea.

[YoungLawyer]

My recent discovery has been Guleran's Habit Rouge, which I noticed because this company (http://www.meschaussettesrouges.com) use it on their packages before delivery. Does anyone else have any experience of this scent?

[alden]

Habit Rouge is a classic, very chic and very "Parisian" men's fragrance, best in EdT. It is a staple for me in Fall and Winter. And Guerlain has a full range of products as well. It is a must.

Cheers

[the_good_life]

My recent discovery has been Guleran's Habit Rouge, which I noticed because this company (http://www.meschaussettesrouges.com) use it on their packages before delivery. Does anyone else have any experience of this scent?

It is indeed a classic, launched in 1965 for men who liked their wives' Shalimar, but didn't dare use it (it would be five more years until the Kinks relased "Lola"). In fact, the original ad copy read " "To all the secret followers of Guerlain perfumes you can come out in the open with Habit Rouge for men." Sweet powdery orange and the resinous base of an oriental. Note that the scent ,like all perfumes, has been reformulated and came/comes in a variety of versions from Eau de Cologne (the original, least powdery ), through Eau de Toilette (the standard) through EdP and a rare limited Parfum (this has the highest, vintage-like quality). So Habit Rouge is not Habit Rouge. However, even the more recent versions are still quite decent, which cannot be said of many other reformulations of classics (like the disastrous Patou pour homme, a vicious parody of perhaps the greatest gentlemen's fragrance ever)

[the_good_life]

Has anyone tried the Fragrance Customization service offered by Floris that Simon Crompton wrote about last week? I've been a customer of Floris for decades but was unaware of the service. It sounds like it would be rather interesting, with the possibility of a unique result.

I don't see the advantage, in terms of the logic of perfume construction, of taking a perfectly balanced formula and then tweaking parts of it, or of building a LEGO fragrance from modular blocks.
Decency forbids any comment on the development of this great houses's scents in the last decades, suffice it to say I curate my 1980s Flacons of 127 and 89 with the utmost attention. Sadly, the fragrance houses on Jermyn St. etc. have taken a similar path as its shirtmakers. To me the only one holding up the flag of the English grooming and fragrance tradition in the bottle, rather than as a mere marketing proposition, is Trumper's (as far as it is possible within IFRA regulations)
Whether bespoke in perfume is of the same necessity as in tailoring is a difficult question (Luca Turin famously rejects it), but if it is a personalized perfume you desire, true bespoke it should be - and that is a process as time-intensive and expensive as having a Savile Row suit made (depending on the perfumer, a lot more). Some serious perfumers who offer bespoke are Christopher Brosius (CB I Hate Perfume, Brooklyn), Lorenzo Villoresi (Florence), natural perfumer Dominique Dubrana/Abdessalaam Attar (Rimini - a real steal compared to the others) and Francis Kurkdjian (Paris -you're talking three Savile row suits here).

[Dr T]

Members may be interested in this program
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCJVbnn79RQ
Regretfully I cant locate the other two parts, one is about Hermes Perfumes the other about Chanel -you can see why it costs so much.

[uppercase]

Wow. The Guerlain section in the BBC documentary is fantastic. Real old school.
The contrast to the NY Hilfiger methodology is fascinating. Thanks!

[Dr T]

Spring approaches - a great sent day or night Eau D' Orange Verte from Hermes, something stronger -be careful ladies will borrow this Terre D' Hermes.