Sunday, February 28, 2010

SOTD: Mall Sniffs, including Atelier Orange Sanguine


We went to the mall again. Well, Himself went to have the car lovingly washed and waxed, and I went to the mall again. As usual, sniffing ensued:

Chanel Cristalle Eau de Parfum: For just a moment, sniffing the bottle, I thought that I might have to take back my insistence that the Eau de Toilette is the Cristalle and that the Eau de Parfum is an over-buttered imposter. When I sniffed the sprayers, the "real stuff" smelled thin and a little urinous, and the imposter smelled deeper and more grounded.

But sprayers, of course, mean nothing; they probably mean even less than paper strip tests. I sprayed the imposter on my hand and within minutes the nice grounding turned into, yes, too much butter. I can't speak to how it compares to the most recent formulation of the Eau de Toilette, but it doesn't begin to compare with my bottles, which are only a year or two old.

(Yep, bottles; Cristalle is the only perfume for which I have a backup bottle. I have two 15ml minis, one 1.7 ounce in use, and one 1.7 ounce in the fridge. This is a violation of my anti-hoarding principles that I have yet to successfully rationalize. However, I suspect that someday I'll be punished by cracking the fridge bottle and finding that it smells of mildew, onions, or cabbage - it's in the fridge.)

Atelier Orange Sanguine: I ran into a display of Atelier fragrances, a brand that I don't recall seeing before. Oolang Infini and Bois Blonds on paper were unexciting, and I still don't have a summer orange, so I chose Orange Sanguine to spray on.

I was hoping for a slightly bitter and sophisticated orange, but still with some juice. I got Orange Crush - childhood nostalgia synthetic orange. I actually liked it, quite a bit, but I just don't think that I can consider paying high-end niche prices for it.

Tom Ford Italian Cypress: I stared blankly at the Tom Ford display for a while, debating whether to try Italian Cypress or Velvet Gardenia, and whether to break down and just buy Velvet Gardenia. While I was at it, I was enough of a troublemaker to assure two women who were judging the fragrances wet that they're likely to utterly transform in the wearing process. (The saleswoman had told them the same, but they were still judging them wet, so...)

I went with Italian Cypress. After a couple of hours with it, I think that I've eliminated it from the list of purchase candidates. It seemed aggressively sharp and sour, and the nice soft woody base that I remember from before never really came. It may be that it mixed badly with the others - its sappy sharpness mixed with the buttery sharpness from Cristalle EDP and the synthetic sharpness of the Orange Sanguine making a clashing mismash. But, frankly, anything that talks me out of craving a nearly-two-hundred-dollar fragrance is a good thing- as long as I haven't yet bought the fragrance.

Conclusion: Surprisingly, the winner from today is Orange Crush - er, Orange Sanguine. It's on my hand, and every time I prop my chin on my hand while watching leftover recorded figure skating, I get one of those "ooh, that's nice" moments. Perhaps I'm being unfair to it, and quite certainly I'll try it again.

Photo: By Claudius Tesch. Wikimedia Commons.

6 comments:

  1. Agree with you about the Cristalle EDP - I sold my bottle of the EDT to a man in Canada who was desperate for the 60ml size, but am rather regretting that.

    Never thought I would like Italian Cypress on account of the word "cypress" which rightly or wrongly is shorthand for "aromatic blokey" to me. Glad for your wallet that you didn't love it.

    The orange one sounds most curious. A bit like Boss Orange but without the fur? Which would definitely be the right way to go.

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  2. I really want to find a good citrus scent-- I'm not sure why it should be so hard! I want it to not be boring and cliched like so many masculine scents; realistic, but not too "juicy,' like you say; and the thought of anything synthetic like you describe causes involuntary mental whiplash.

    Howev-ah. I must get my hands on some "Cristalle" soon, since it's all the rave, although how sad am I to learn the good stuff may already be come and gone!!

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  3. flittersniffer, yep, the Cristalle EDP seems like a quite reasonably attempt to make it a bit less fresh and airy for winter, but one that failed. Butter was a mistake; maybe dry wood would have done the job.

    Yep, I'm going to hide from Tom Ford scents for a while. I can't afford to fall in love, and when I do, it's an undependable once-every-X-wearings love.

    I never tried Boss Orange so I can't say. Should I?

    LCN, yes, what's the deal with citrus? I specifically want _orange_ - there's enough lemon out there that I don't particularly crave it. (Well, I do want grapefruit, too, now that I've gone off Fresh Hesperides.)

    I hoped to like Parfumerie Generale Bois de Copaiba, and I might someday as an acquired taste - the way that I slowly like increasingly bitter olives. But I'm not there yet, and anyway, it's a dry bitter orange, not a juicy one.

    Theorema may have permanently solved my winter orange problem, but summer remains.

    If you've never tried Pacifica Tuscan Blood Orange in the solid, it's very much worth trying. Especially since it's dirt cheap. (About ten dollars for the little tin, I think.) The liquid is not the same - it's "very good for the price". I'd call the solid just plain "very good". But it still doesn't hit my orange craving _quite_ perfectly.

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  4. Well, I wanted to love "Theorama," since the straight-up "Fendi" was my signature scent for a decade in the 90's, but it's got that gourmandy sweetness that I no can do. But I'll try the Tuscan Blood Orange-- bless Pacifica, and their big, loud, smelly goodness!

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  5. DO NOT TRY BOSS ORANGE. YOU WILL NOT FEEL UP TO POSTING FOR DAYS IF NOT WEEKS AFTER.

    : - )

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  6. LCN, I think the gourmandness (gourmandese? gourmandosity?) of Theorema must be suppressed on my skin - I don't get any at all unless I layer it with something else. It's _there_, because when I layered it with CdG Tea that time, it went all gourmand, but it's normally hidden from me.

    Thanks for the warning, flittersniffer. :) I'll refrain. Or I'll save the knowledge in case I desperately need to suppress perfume purchase urges.

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