By Kilian - Musk Oud Review

Oud Exploration Part 1

Welcome back readers, once again its been far too long. Over the past little while (the better part of a year) I've been reading and watching different viewpoints on an exotic scent known as Oud/Oudh/Aoudh. Now from my knowledge, which is still expanding, the scent of Oud comes from a tree fungus known as agarwood which can be raised in either India or Arabian countries. In those cultures it seems to be quite sacred in many different aspects and is treated as such. In comparison to fragrances from the Western (North American) countries, the idea of fragrance from the East is quite different than what most folks like me are used to. I've come to learn over time that French perfumery is not necessarily something used to disguise our body's natural scent, rather it's made with the idea of developing over time with our body to create something truly unique...and for the most part that has been my experience thus far.

Lately I've been lucky enough to start delving into Oud fragrances though and these are truly in a realm of their own. My first two experiences were with Royal Oud from Creed (which I'll get into later) and Eternal Oud By Kilian. I can say without a doubt that Eternal Oud is one of the most unique scents I've ever put on my skin. There's something magical about the way it layers on my skin and along with it's own unique notes it is just absolute perfection. As it turns out, Eternal Oud has two main notes of Rose and Oud which is quite common for most Oud fragrances I've come to find out, but it does something great for me with it's third and final note of Saffron. It's hard to put into words just how much I enjoy that scent when it's fully dried down on my skin.

For those of you who have heard of Oud, both the good and bad, and are interested...let me jot down a few words we can all relate to. Oud seems to have two ways it can turn, one being medicinal/rubbery and the other being natural/earthy/raw wood (like a tree trunk). You will find most note combinations contain primarily Oud and Rose and this is not a bad thing if you keep an open mind. One thing you will learn over time is that because different perfumers use ingredients from different countries, no two roses will smell the same and that can be a lot of fun to explore! The natural/earthy/tree trunk type is a bit less harsh at the start but dry-downs are very daring in that they can smell like a hay-field that has had animals grazing in it. Beautiful in it's own wright but not for the person who wants to smell fresh and tame.

More to come soon and as always thank you so much for reading! Until next time, take care!

-Nicholas.

Creed Tabarome - Unusually Nice

Hello again everyone! After a bit of a hiatus I have decided to take time to begin writing about and reviewing these marvelous fragrances again. Tonight I bring you a fragrance called Tabarome from the house of Creed.

When I first started wearing this I could not help but think to myself that I might never review it because of how odd it seemed at first. Upon first applying it, you are greeted with the strangest concoction of sweet citrus, ginger and clean leather and while it isn't exactly off-putting it will certainly make you think to yourself, "what the hell is this?" The first full wearing I gave it still did not do justice to this supremely ambiguous fragrance.

There is a story behind this fragrance, as is with most Creed's, that I find fairly interesting. The original formulation was requested and made for Sir Winston Churchill and is now known as Vintage Tabarome. Apparently he requested that Mr. Creed create a fragrance which would remind him of his home and what was within it's walls. His fondness of ginger root, tea, pipe tobacco and leather were translated into liquid and blended to his liking and thus Tabarome was born.

This fragrance, as stated before, starts out as one of the most odd fragrances I've ever put my nose to. What should be spicy ginger root is actually turned sweet by a note of citrus thereby confusing an untrained nose into thinking it may be something else while a clean leather note sits in the background giving the entire beginning some ambiguity. It is however around the 3-4 hour mark on my skin where this fragrance comes into its own. The tobacco slowly comes to the top and dominates the sweet ginger and clean leather. It is so deceptive that the first time I experienced it I thought I was actually smelling someone else. It wasn't until I was once again alone for about 10 minutes that I realized I was smelling myself...and I was utterly speechless. The tobacco, leather and ginger hang on for hours and hours, gently wafting around you without ever taking control of your surroundings. Don't be mistaken! This is no synthetic mess, it is a true tobacco scent that is as close to anything as I've ever smelled. The leather compliments it, giving it the old-world feeling that I've been searching for...for as long as I've been wearing cologne. The ginger keeps it from becoming smokey and dry. All in all it is a full-bodied fragrant experience that will live by your side until you decide to wash it off. Truly wonderful.

This fragrance, while enthusiasts may know about it, still remains under the radar and it's clear why. This is a persistent enthusiasts fragrance. It takes a few days of living with it to decipher the beauty blended into this potion but once it becomes clear, it is utterly pleasing. A great fall, winter and early spring fragrance and absolutely bottle worthy. Thank you for reading.

Perfumes or Colognes, Whichever You Choose.

Hi everyone, been a while since I've exercised the literary part of my mind and the past few days I've had a hankering to write and what better choice to write about than my hobby? I had mentioned in few previous posts about  being taken to particular landscapes/settings through my olfactory senses when smelling a particular fragrance and how strongly I felt about the emotional tie it creates.

I recently received two samples, one of which I have been waiting on for 2 months, the other was a surprise. They are from the famed house of Hermes (makers of my favorite, Terre d'Hermes) and a part of a non-designer line called Hermessence. From my understanding, Jean-Claude Ellena, who is the in-house perfumer for Hermes, wanted to create a line of fragrance that dared to set a new bar in design-house fragrances. The entire line is marketed as completely unisex and dares to be different in the light of crowd pleasers. Instead he boldly takes his creations into translations of pure essences of plants and memories of places traveled. He combines memories from his own life and weaves them together, essentially taking one part of the world and harmoniously connecting it with another...just as our world should be anyway.

Upon smelling these two fragrances (I have not finished the samples as they are generously sized) I was instantly transported. Poivre Samarcande connects me with memories of my own life whereas Vetiver Tonka takes me to a place I've never been with elements from different parts of my youth. Both of these fragrances achieve a standard that I believe has not yet been set in the world of designer fragrance and I absolutely must commend Hermes for allowing Jean-Claude Ellena to create these fragrances under their name. These are marketing changers in the long run and testaments to what an imagination can do when given the appropriate resources combined with a mind and talent completely unique. I will do further in depth reviews of both Vetiver Tonka and Poivre Samracande in the days to come.

If interested, here is a link to my youtube channel in which I also review fragrance...though it seems I have a knack for getting lost in my adventurous spirit. https://www.youtube.com/user/gallataki16/videos

Thank you for reading!

Creed Aventus - My Critical Review

Hello readers and fragrance fans alike, thanks for joining me again. It's 5 AM and I've spent the past two days wearing Aventus both on my neck and wrists and it really has just been a pleasant experience from start to finish. Official notes are as follows

Top note: Finest blackcurrant, Italian bergamot, French apples and a burst of royal pineapple.
Middle note: Exquisite roses with a complement of dry birch, Moroccan jasmine plus a hint of patchouli.
Base note: Musk with a touch of oak moss for depth, then ambergris and a dab of vanilla.

A great thing about this fragrance is that it only took one evening for me to get used to. That is to say that I enjoyed it as if I had been smelling it for a long time. While I could not find every note in a single wearing, over time as always I found more and more coming to the surface. From the two decants I've had, it starts out with a seriously authentic pineapple note but the pure pineapple only lasts a few moments. Very quickly a smoky scent comes in that is quite dry, dark and harsh, which as stated in my previous review I attribute to the birch and blackcurrant. After about two hours on me there is a new sweetness though that gradually works it's way in. The scent of the french apples becomes clear and sits beside the pineapple while the blackcurrant continues it's harsh impression making for an overall fresh yet deep and dark fragrance. It is extremely masculine and evokes the feeling of strength. All of this promotes a feeling of energy within me as I catch it drifting around me for the first hour or two. At the ending stages, I detect an awesomely sweet ambergris mingles perfectly with my skin for a clean and natural scent and if the weather is warm, the vanilla is there too.

I have found that this fragrance must be applied while my skin is freshly washed and clean otherwise it turns into a terribly nasty smell...which is quite unusual for me. Another note is that while I have received compliments on this, they have been compliments from afar, point being that when my wife smells this she doesn't give me the wow factor that I was expecting from all the hype. It appears that this is a fragrance to be enjoyed from a distance rather than having your face right up in it. The strength in this fragrance is also quite surprising. On my skin it just goes and goes and...oh wait, yep it's going some more. I can apply it at 9pm and I will still get a compliment at 3-4am and the person won't exactly be, "all up in my business."

If you're into fragrances, give this a try...but do not blind buy because this one is risky business. As always I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog and I hope you join me again soon.

Thank you for reading!

Creed Aventus - Power and Energy

Hello everyone and welcome to an entry that may rival my Original Vetiver and Terre d'Hermes posts. As stated in the title, this is the infamous Creed Aventus. Claimed by the company itself to be the most popular and sought after fragrance in the perfume house's current 254 year life span...and I can quickly begin to understand why. Before I say anything else, this fragrance has been reviewed over and over again, each with a different take on the scent and no two quite the same on overall results. With this fact in mind the first time I sampled it, I thought I knew what to expect as far as top notes go because usually those are quite similar on each person...although at times different notes come through at different times. Aventus shocked me and not in a good way either. It was right around noon and I had worked the previous night but did not shower after work so my skin was still quite dirty. I excitedly took my 3 milliliter decant out of it's packaging and applied two sprays to my wrist. It was god-awful. Dry and pungent, smoky and dirty in the worst way with no hint of fruit as the notes claim. It reminded me of the wooden floor smell of an old rollerskating rink. This was literally the most bizarre fragrance I had EVER smelled and was sincerely disappointed from the start. I continued to smell my wrist on and off for the next hour to the point of having a headache, so I took some medicine and went to bed and it was still so strong that it wafted up through the bedsheet. That night I woke up headache free and got in the shower. Over and over in my head I asked myself, "Take the chance...or go with Terre d'Hermes?" I made my mind up, one more try for the legend that is Aventus...bingo.

One spray inside each elbow and one on the back of my neck to play it safe with my previous headache and I can safely say that I was almost literally blown away. My olfactory senses were so bedazzled that my brain went into joyous overload. Surges of energy were flowing through me as I drank my coffee and smelled the bright, fresh pineapple float into my nose. Soon after it was joined with a dark, smoky smell that I can only attribute to the finest blackcurrant and dry birch combining with each other. Smoky, birch-like pineapple now mingling with rich french apples, another sensory overload in the best way. I got to work with a sensation I had never known. Was the scent actually fueling my adrenaline? Without question, I knew I smelled good...end of story. An hour passed, I'm on the floor stocking my freight, blood pumping causing the fragrance to gently project throughout my entire area. A group of younger folks come within 10 to 15 feet of me, one immediately looks up and points at me, "You smell GOOD! That is you, right?" An older woman at least 20 feet away in another direction looks to him and says, "Yes that's him, I smelled him when I came around the corner and it is amazing." I was blushing profusely and could only say, "thank you," a few times as they continued on their way. I was ecstatic.

Same night, new area which was a little more confined, still stocking freight on the main floor and now aware of how powerful this fragrance is. A group of girls and a middle-aged woman come through but say nothing which is the usual case. However, they wouldn't leave. Two of the ladies kept walking back and forth in front of me over and over again, never speaking to me yet hovering somewhat quietly. A literal 20 minutes went by and they were still there simply pretending to stare at the same shelves time after time. It was when I noticed the time and how much freight I had stocked that I began smiling to myself once again, having to stifle a few laughs. I left the area to take a break with my co-worker and came back to an empty area...almost thankfully.

Folks, I have never experienced a fragrance such as this one. It is quite simply the best personal experience I have ever had with a fragrance. The compliments themselves are nice but they will eventually stop and that is when it is up to you to decide whether it is worth it or not. This fragrance is. Each time I wear it I appreciate it for hours on end. It gives me a boost of energy throughout the night and it just feels good to know that I am wearing and smelling of something that feels as if it is of the highest caliber.

I will bring you a post with how the notes work with each other later on but I felt that this entry was a good start. You can at least imagine slightly now how this smells in the beginning and how powerful it is. I do hope you enjoyed as I know this was a longer post than usual. Please join me again for my critical review of this incredibly refined fragrance.

Thank you for reading!

A Look Back On My Favorites

Hello everyone, I'm back again with an entry that will focus not so much on a review of a specific fragrance but more of what I've learned about my favorite fragrances in my collection. As time has passed I have actually began to wear my fragrances based on the weather and my mood, which the weather has a profound impact on. It seems in my collection/rotation of fragrances I have developed a taste for strong and unusual yet pleasant smells, all very different from each other in terms of scent yet all equally pleasing to myself and those around me. In light of my love for writing about my collection and fragrances I have sampled, I have actually started to approach my coworkers and ask them directly what they think of what I am wearing/sampling that night. To this day I have yet to openly offend anyone with any of my fragrances or receive a terribly negative comment and I believe that is due to the amount of research I put into each bottle before purchasing/sampling. This is why I always tell people that if they want help choosing a scent or even simply get started, to let me know...I am sincerely enthusiastic and glad to help.

Now to start with my first fragrance love, Terre d'Hermes. I have worn this fragrance more than any other in my entire life. It is indeed the first full bottle I have ever gone through and I am now enjoying my second. This fragrance along with one other which I have not reviewed, is the scent I want people to know me by. It's strong and brash in the beginning and then dries down to a masculine scent that keeps going and going. In my review of this fragrance I describe it as having heavy wood and mineral notes and while I still hold that opinion as being the driving force of this fragrance, I have since learned to pick out the more obscure notes that make this one so unusual and likeable. In the initial stage on my skin I can now smell a strong grapefruit note which seems to sit on top of an old-school vetiver note. It makes for a predominately sour and smoky scent that I believe makes this fragrance so powerful and masculine in the beginning. As time goes on, cedarwood comes out and takes over as the vetiver calms down. Along with the cedar, a mineral type of scent described as gun-flint also comes out. I can now make sense of this note because of the underlying smokiness of the vetiver, giving the mineral note a burnt smell beneathe the cedar. The three working together continue to make this fragrance cut through the cold wind of fall and winter. To wrap up on this one, those notes hold true until the end when an effervescent type of scent which I believe now is a note of benzoin comes out. The smokiness now gone, it takes on a fizzy feeling to your nose as the cedarwood becomes sweet and the grapefruit reappears bringing back that delightful sourness which ends in a fizzy-like, predominately sweet with a touch of sour scent. This fragrance is a masterpiece.

On to Original Vetiver from Creed. First and foremost, this vetiver is different from Terre d'Hermes. It is the vetiver leaf and not the root, which gives it a green and grassy scent. When I first smelled this on my skin I simply could not detect a damn thing other than it's amazing green smells that wrote stories in my imagination as time went on. Now that I have had time to wear this over and over again I can now detect the most predominant note on my skin, ginger. Yes, on me this fragrance is a sweet ginger bomb and I love every single moment all the way until it is gone...and then I want to wear it again. Upon initial spray, the vetiver leaf dominates with it's superb natural earthy and green grassy scent for about 30 minutes...and then...oh man this stuff is magic. The vetiver takes a back seat and supports the amazing ginger for the next few hours. I have never smelled ginger in another fragrance and I probably never will simply because I will always have this bottle in my collection. As time goes on the spicy ginger is sweetened with cedar and ambergris and the combination is nothing short of astonishing. The quality of this scent is unrivaled in it's smooth refinement. There are no other words for this second masterpiece in my collection of fragrance.

I will end this entry for now but soon there will be a second part featuring one fragrance that I have wrote about and another which I have not. As always I hope you have enjoyed and if you have any questions about fragrance please feel free to contact me.

Thank you for reading!