Just got a sample in the mail last week of the latest Bond No. 9 scent, Andy Warhol Success is a Job in New York. What up with the name? Let’s just call it Success and have done with the longer bits.
Notes of coriander, cardamom, mandarine, bergamot, jasmine, tuberose, rose, plum, pimento, vanilla, patchouli and amber. This is a spicy oriental, no doubt about that. It starts off bright, a little tart in the top notes, which fairly quickly warms up into a spicy floriental. I’m not sure what part the pimento is playing in this, but it feels a bit aloof from the rest of the composition. That’s not a bad thing, it takes what seems like a fairly routine spiced-up floriental into a neat little kick.
This is warm as can be, the vanilla blooms about 30 minutes in. It’s not a vanilla concoction or necessarily sweet. bit it does fall into a gourmand category with the spices combined with vanilla. It has some references to Chinatown, but without Chinatown’s over-the-top cloying quality. The pimento oddness fades, though, which is a shame. I really liked that part of this perfume. The long drydown is very nice, easy to wear, slightly gourmand, but more in the spicy floriental soft fragrance category, but ultimately not as interesting as the first 30-45 minutes. I stil like it, and it’s a Bond that I would happily wear, though I’m not sure I’d spring the $200 plus for a full bottle. Had it stayed as interesting and unusual as it was at the first, I’d reconsider.
I wish I had more than this small sample so I could give some away. So what is your favorite Bond? Do you find some of them to be too similar?
In love with Lexington Avenue and just sprung for a huge bottle! Second runner up was West Broadway. Chinatown smells unique, but I am just not too much into florals, altho it smells tempting. I am just itching to get my hands on a sample, or even a scent card, of Success–I can’t wait for it to come out!
So-called Warhol expert here, chiming in to explain the wordy name.
When Warhol started his professional career, he was a very successful NY illustrator. “Success is a job in New York” was an article that he illustrated for a magazine. Sorry, I don’t remember which one, but it’s frequently referenced in Warhol bios. Now about the juice: sounds good, and I look forward to trying it. I still haven’t found anything in the Bond/Warhol line that excited me like Silver Factory but I eagerly await each new release.
I love Nuits e Noho, Silver Factory and Lexington Ave. The bottles are so nice too. I only have full bottles of 2 of their scents (price $$$) but decants of many.
My faves are New Haarlem, Chinatown and Silver Factory. And for some very strange reason, I keep playing around with their Saks Fifth for Women. It’s a heavy, brutal tuberose-fest. Sorta like Fracas, only not. 🙂
I’m totally in luv with Lexington Avenue…Nuits De Noho is nice too. I liked Coney Island and Central Park for freshness. Decants are all I can afford…the bottles are beautiful, but I can’t see myself forking over the big bucks for the price.
My favs are Bleeker Street and Central Park. I didn’t care for Harrods for Him. Harrods for her was much nicer.
Oh, I have funny story about Bond No. 9. A few months ago I emailed my son (an NYU student) asking him to go to Bond No. 9 on Bleeker Street and ask for a samples of Chinatown and New Haarlem for “my mom.” I was so sure that would be a great strategy. He wrote me back asking me what the heck I was talking about. You see, I had, um, forgotten to mention that it was perfume, and it all just sounded like gibberish to him.
Too cute!
It must have seemed so very “cloak and dagger.” 😉
There’s something about the basic structure of the Bonds that just doesn’t work for me, though I liked a few before I started noticing it. They start off with such loud trumpets. It gives me a department store feeling that often doesn’t go away even after things settle. They’re brash somehow, which I suppose is appropriate to the whole NYC schtick, but not really what I’m looking for in a perfume.
Am I the only one who has this problem with them?
You’re not the only one. I find them all brash and thin. Can’t think of one I covet and I can’t think of many lines to say that about.
My big bond love is Silver Factory. It’s such a weird, tarted up smoky incense on me, with an edge I can’t place that keeps it from ever getting boring. And the weirdness of AWSF doesn’t fade in the drydown at least not on me.
My favorites are Chinatown and Silver Factory, with a special mention to Lexington Avenue and New York Fling. I’m really looking forward to sniffing Success, sounds like it could be a winner (I love vanilla, spices and florientals!)
I think Chinatown is beautiful and weird, and like it a great deal, although it doesn’t scream ME to myself the way some things do.
(Also, there is something cheap out there that smells eerily similar. I don’t know what it is. I was in the middle of teaching one of my high school English teacher classes when the sillage hit me. “Someone’s wearing Chinatown?” I said. Blank stares. “Chinatown,” I say. “The perfume. Someone in this class has great taste.” Blank stares. “Why would someone wear a perfume called CHINATOWN?” asks one kid.)
I got a sample of Lexington Avenue because I read it was similar, but less flowery-fancy. I didn’t like it as well. The same intense opaque sweetness, but with a note I didn’t care for, and not the same complexity.
I’m about to sniff Silver Factory–have a little sample of that coming.
Oh, BTW all, congratulate me–this newbie sniffer bought her first full bottle since beginning this sniffing odyssey–Feminite du Bois–say mazal tov!
Felicidades!!!
xo >-)
ok, this classroom story is so hilarious.
I can totally see your face change once you smell it. And the whole, “Chinatown?” over and over in different sentences. . . “Someone in this classroom has great taste.”
hilarious.
I have a love-hate thing for Chinatown–it’s totally fascinating and, yeah, at the same time utterly “cloying.” Sometimes I feel like I need to get a full bottle, and other times it’s like “get a grip, girl!”
My favorites are New Haarlem, Silver Factory and West Side, in that order. WS isn’t that exciting, but it’s pretty and imo, the prettiest Bond bottle (I’d take any as a gift, but won’t be purchasing any time soon.) The new one sounds interesting, better than Union Station, anyway.
This sounds interesting!! My favorite bond is Silver factory. Infact I am wearing some today!
I was in NYC a couple of weeks ago and stopped by the Bond No. 9 on Bleecker Street near our hotel. They claimed they did not have samples of this new Bond. I was a bit disappointed, but whatever…
Anyway, my favorite Bonds are New York Fling (highly underrated in my very humble opinion and perfect for warm weather), Chinatown and Lexington Avenue.
Hugs!
I haven’t smelled for many of them, but I bought a small bottle (not the fancy expensive bottle)of Silver Factory. It’s great in the heat, it’s great at night…and warm in the Winter. I too am on the fence regarding Chinatown. Looking forward to the responses…so I know which ones to try out!
I like Silver Factory and am still on the fence w/ Chinatown – New York (I think) is one of those fresh, simple scents that’s nice on days when you just can’t manage anything complicated.
I have to take issue with the name – Success is an Extremely High Paying Job in New York, complete with chauffeur, co-op (paid for) and a House in the Hamptons (again, PAID FOR) is more like it. At least in my grasping little world…
xo >-)
Success is a trip to New York, good hotel, car service, great restaurants and some company is paying the bill.
This sounds like a Bond that might work for me, though I’d wager I’d amplify the vanilla in ’bout 5 minutes, such is my ornery skin.
I only have one Bond I love, and that is Silver Factory-on my DS. It really blooms warm and smokey on him, and is on my gift list for him.
Otherwise, no Bonds for me, though I do admire several on others 😉
I am new to the perfume thing fo rhte most part, and I still like simple florals, so I like Park Avenue and Chelsea Flowers.
I’d spring for a FB of the Chelsea, but I can’t quite shake the feeling that it smells just like something I wore when I was younger…..something that didn’t cost so much! I wish I could remember what it was.
I have the candles in Park Avenue AND Chelsea flowers, though, and I just adore them. I do think they’re over priced, but it’s a nice presentation, and the candles are very fragrant.
I got my sample of Success last week, too, and at first sniff it reminded me somewhat of Lexington Avenue, though I haven’t had a chance to really wear it yet, and I’m sure that once I get to wear the two side by side I’ll realize there isn’t anything similar about them.
My favourite Bond is New Haarlem (coffee coffee coffee!), with Great Jones a close second and So New York bringing up the rear.