Fragrances of Today (my opinion anyway).

It is now 10:55 in the morning, lovely weather today and a fairly good mood as well. I was just outside a few moments ago thinking about my daughter, my future son who is on his way and my wife who are all down in Arkansas for a few weeks. Out of the blue though I caught a whiff of the Original Vetiver I had put on last night around 4:45 in the evening and something occurred to me. Fragrance truly has become a fashion statement rather than a personal extravagance and I too have fallen victim to such trends.

While it's true that I will not wear a fragrance that I don't personally enjoy (why would anyone do that?) I have found that when it comes to big brand-name scents, I look for the, "will this get me noticed?" factor. In my collection of big-brand American scents, I own various kinds such as: Polo Black & Double Black (Deo, cologne and aftershave for both), there is also Tommy Jeans, Nautica Classic, and Banana Republic Slate and Classic. The point I'm trying to make with listing these scents is that they are obvious fashion statements in the big picture. Marketed towards fashionable young men and women who want to be noticed through something that projects an image...and this is not why I was initially interested in fragrance. Alas as stated before, I fell victim to it with the Polo series. Polo Black being the big winner on compliments.

My redeeming factor happened when I was searching for a not-so-well known scent in the States so that I could be set apart from all the Acqua Di Gio and Polo that everyone wears. Terre d'Hermes was that redeemer and over the course of a month it became my signature scent and everyone who knows me, knows me by that scent. It is mysterious yet familiar in it's earth-like tones and I feel like that compliments my personality perfectly. Two other fragrances since have taken me on the olfactory journey that I began searching for and that is what I believe personal fragrance is meant for. I suppose what I'm getting at is don't wear cologne/perfume for fashion, wear it because it makes you happy. Wear it because it takes you back to when you were a child or perhaps even to a place you wish to go. None of us can have the idealistic worlds we want, but perfumery and imagination can bring us closer than we ever thought possible.

Creed - Original Vetiver Review Video

Interlude (Creed Orignal Vetiver Conclusion).

Hello all, just felt like writing a bit this morning since it's been near a month since my Creed Original Vetiver post (which I am actually wearing on my wrist right now). I will soon be reviewing a cologne which I received a generous sample of that lasted 3 wearings but for now I am waiting on the bottle to arrive so I can have an appropriate picture to provide with my review =). It is Dolce & Gabbana's Light Blue. For now though I will finish up from what I had previously started on my Original Vetiver by Creed.

For me, Original Vetiver has become an at-home/car ride scent and it is very very much a staple summertime scent. I honestly cannot imagine wearing or smelling this any other time of the year, it just would not smell right. To sum up the elaborate imagery from the last post, the only other things I have gathered are (keep an open mind here) humidity and spice. Take the smells from my last post and combine those heavy natural scents with a hot and humid summer day. That is the clearest way I can break down the image of, "it's as if the sun appeared and instantly vaporized the moisture from within the foliage and brought it out to hang in the air around you," which is a direct quote from my last post. The spice obviously comes from the vetiver leaf oil and ginger which are used in this scent. Vetiver scents themselves when used in cologne/perfume are generally taken from the root rather than the leaf and thus you get a much woodier result. What seems to happen in this bottle is the leaf tones down the spice/wood and brings a bit of green/fresh grass scent into play.

It simply is remarkable.

The two boys left early that morning. Being so young, it seemed to him that he lived in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains and this trip he was taking with his best friend only brought him closer to what he knew as his majestic home. The promise of morning dew on the fresh grass, mid-mountain with the old log cabin. He remembers the front porch that ran along the entire length of it, the garden that sat in front and the descent which gave way to the small opening in which they began their adventures. As the day passed on the dew would hang in the air, wild apples littered the ground and baked openly in the sun behind the cabin, fallen just a bit too far from the shade of that lone tree. Each time he passed under it, the moisture from the air seemed to hold the scent in place. He remembers the time spent sitting in the open sun next to his friend in what they called the hay-field. The thick green grass waving under the breeze and a clear blue sky spotted with the occasional white cloud. On one side the mountain would slowly tower, it's skin completely immersed in greenery and tall, lush trees...the other was simply horizon made mysterious by an unforgiving forest. Only hindered by where the two boys' two-wheeled machines would take them...never did he realize how much he would appreciate what was before him.

...that is what this scent does for me, and this is why I wear cologne.

Creed Original Vetiver Pt. 1

Hello everyone, please pardon my tardiness on this post but a few weeks ago when I announced that I would review this scent I did not foresee the complexity of what floated within it's beautiful glass bottle. (If you would like to see the full size image, simply click the picture below)

I would like to say that this may be a two or even three part posting for reasons that will be obvious as I go on. First of all let me start with the presentation and functionality of this bottle. It is on a standard of it's own. The atomizer (spray nozzle, pump and tiny straw) should be something that every high-end, complex scent should have, it truly is that brilliant. Just below the pump spring sits lodged a small ball-bearing and it seems to disperse the liquid into the spray nozzle itself in such a way that it wastes nothing. No drips and no raindrop style, large, wasteful sprays. It simply is something you have to see for yourself and I will provide a clip of it being sprayed onto my wrist. Bear with me while I do my best to explain what the smells inside this bottle do for me. Mind you it will be quite detailed. 

The way in which this scent interacts with my skin and different environments is nothing short of astonishing. I simply can't begin to properly describe yet what this cologne does as the hours pass and it settles into your pores. Original Vetiver does not invade you or anyone else's nose, instead it gently opens your olfactory senses for a trip into a multitude of settings, memories and visions. Never have I been witness to a scent that so consistently changes back and forth and then moves on to something else without so much as a warning to it's transition. As any cologne/perfume enthusiast should know, there is always a list of defined notes for each bottle of scent which can generally help a less experienced wearer make sense of what they are smelling on themselves or another and Creed's Original Vetiver is no different because they are extremely proud of their ingredients. I will list the official notes later on but for now I will give my first impressions as well as some family and friend's.

The initial gathered opinions of family and friends have been nothing short of positive. "Rich, fresh, powerful, bright, green, and full of class," in my fathers observation. My brother told me that he caught the scent of woods even and used the word presidential. A colleague and very dear friend from work said, "it seems soft and very personal." When I open the cap I immediately get what I can only describe as the probably the freshest, most green scent possible from a manufactured cologne. As the open air makes contact it's as if the sun appeared and instantly vaporized the moisture from within the foliage and brought it out to hang in the air around you. It is simply incredible the imagery that is provoked upon smelling it before it's even on my skin! It is an instant transport to a sunny field at the base of an old, worn mountaintop of very thick, untamed grass everywhere with spots of decaying blades worked within each patch. I want to point out that occasionally you'll hear people describing things such as wine in such a way that make no sense to the ordinary and because of this, it seems to give them the trait of a fantastically bloated ego or even that of a snob. However, I am here to bear witness that someone truly passionate can appreciate beautiful craftsmanship and complexity and I write this with the absolute unbiased opinion that Original Vetiver is deserving of such notoriety.

I honestly hope you enjoyed reading this first entry on what promises to be the most exciting cologne I've ever owned. Join me next time as I find a way to write a more discernible and comprehensive entry into this amazing piece of work.