It's a very satisfying fragrance, but one that demands a little work - it's sharp and grainy and challenging, then slowly sweetens over a very long time. I've discussed it before - I was dubious, and then I was undubious, and then I declared it a grumpy day comfort scent, and now I own it. Woohoo!
It's a scent that I wear for the basenotes rather than the earlier stages - what I refer to as a drydown scent. Serge Noire is my main example of this category, and I recently learned that Tocade is one, too. I particularly enjoy these scents - the faint hint of the basenotes makes me love an opening that I don't really like, and then the destination that I do like keeps on growing, as if rewarding me for giving the opening a chance. Like dessert after eating my greens.
Review Roundupl: Is here.
Image: By Carol Wycoff. Wikimedia Commons.
A basenotes scent! Good description, I'll have to remember that. Serge Lutens Boxeuses is like that for me.
ReplyDeleteYes. A drydown scent... I have a few of those, too, where the last development is the whole point of wearing the thing: vintage Arpege, Mariella Burani, No. 19. In fact, I tend to suffer a bit through the first couple of hours of Arpege - it's rich to the point of "Oh, I ate way way way too much!" But that drydown... OOoh.
ReplyDeleteMy vintage No. 5 is similarly glowing in the drydown, although the heart is gorgeous too.
I might have to get out the IT sample and play with it some more. I liked it but was not compelled.
Howdy, kj! Boxeuses, huh? I haven't tried that one, yet. (Another lost sampling opportunity! I need to.
ReplyDeleteYo, Mals! Yes, aren't the drydown scents somehow so much more satisfying? I'm not logical in saying that - I surely ought to prefer the ones that I love all the way through, but it seems that I like a scent better when it has something I'm not crazy about, to contrast against the ones that I am.
ReplyDeleteYes, try IT again - it took it a while to win me over. And, hm - No. 5 has never yet won me over, but maybe I should give it another try with the basenotes in mind. I don't have any vintage, but I do have a tiny bit of three- or four- year old extrait?