by Musette
So we’re back in the high heat of summer here, after 10 days of sweater weather and rain. My nerves are shot. One minute I’m schvitzing under an umbrella, considering yet another bourbon-laced iced tea (to combat the heat, dears. Everybody knows bourbon is an excellent heatstroke remedy!)…the next, I’m digging out a hoodie to ward off the chilly rain and considering a bourbon, neat. Then 90s again, with 400billion mosquitoes. Yeah, another bourbon. Please.
So back to my nerves. They were so shot that I just…I just couldn’t pick a fragrance to review! So I turned the lights off, opened the armoire, stuck my hand in the decant drawer…and pulled out Nicolai pour Homme. Huh? Oh, yeah. Now I remember: I got this quite awhile back from an incredibly generous friend (thanks, E) but never tried it. Hey, it was a ‘”Homme” scent. I was a newbie. What can I say? Imperiale was as far across the aisle as I’d gone. But I kept the decant – and I’m glad I did.
March is already laughing up her sleeve – she knows I’mo love this because it has my signature Spring smoochies in it: mint, jasmine and geranium. Designed for men, with that whole ‘homme’ thing, it’s also a pretty, comfy-yet-sprightly feminine fragrance. Very “manly, yes, but I like it, toooo”. Anyway, I would wear this on hot days when I wanted the refreshing scent of 4711 but didn’t want to have to spritz every 11 minutes. It has decent sillage and hangs around a bit without buzzing in your ear. I am surprised to like this so much because I have issues with so much of Patricia de Nicolai’s work – there’s something in the base of the early ones that just hovers on the edge of My Very Last Nerve. They’re beautiful and I can smell the skill and craftsmanship that goes into them but ….you know what they remind me of? Sometimes I get overwhelmed with work and I’m over-multitasking and I’m going on and on and on about something interesting but I’m not communicating it well and I can hear myself and it’s not horrible but it is going to get really irritating in a just a minute and I need to shut the hell up and….. yeah, they are something like that. This one, with that hint of bergamot (I know you’re in there), coupled with the mint and geranium, quiets it down and makes that buzzy base work for me. Then the tobacco comes in and grounds it nicely, making me think of mint juleps on the porch. I would wear this on a scorching-hot day, with a loose cotton shift. And a mint julep. And at $40 for 30ml (on backorder at Luckyscent) it’s practically free! Plug-ugly bottle, though, with that scary chemical beaker on the logo, like a bad Science Fair project.
Notes are: galbanum, China mint, lavender, geranium, jasmine, moss, amber, spruce, cedar, tobacco, benzoin, labdanum
D0 you guys have a line (or a perfume) that irritates you because it’s Reeeeeally Close – But Not. Quite. There?
Also: Gird your Virtual Loins: Swapmania! Coming to a Posse Near You! Wednesday!
I was away in Florida and can’t believe I missed this when it posted! Great review and I’m so glad to see you giving the shout out to Nicolai PH. As you probably remember, I’ve been banging the drum for this one relentlessly for years, and I was starting to become quite concerned that me and Austenfan and Dane over at PeredePierre were the only ones who’d ever worn it. It is, apparently, discontinued (*sob!*) It’s one of my fave Nicolais and scents in general – I get very emotional about it for some reason. Another favorite men’s scent that makes me similarly sad and nostalgic is DK Fuel for Men: can’t remember if you’ve tried that?
Hey, Beauty!
I have not tried DK FfM – heck, were it not for a Certain Beauty I wouldn’t have known about NpH! ^:)^…but I just saw it on Luckyscent, I could’ve sworn it! yes, they’re saying it’s backordered and ships late June…..which is…:-?..NOW!
xoxo >-)
Yes, it seems to be perpetually on back-order on a number of sites, which made me nervous about its fate before. Then I heard that the Paris store did indeed seem to confirm it was headed for the dearly departed list. I do know that Patricia de Nicolai continues to make discontinued scents for certain retailers (for example, The Perfume Shoppe still gets Mimosaique) and there are still bottles of axed faves like Eclipse floating about, so maybe Luckyscent will continue to carry NPH. (I hope so, even though I have two bottles.)
I think you might like DK Fuel. It’s not too masculine and despite the note list, which makes it sound like a hot mess (almond, pineapple, leather, lavender, sandalwood, etc.!!), it has a slate-grey, streamlined chic to it that I think would suit you very well, particularly in your “Don’t Mess with the Queen” moments. :x
which are getting to be 24/7/365, rather than ‘moments’, alas. 😉
xo >-)
Hur hur hur, Illinois mosquitoes, how I don’t miss them! If only we could figure out how to harness them as an alternative energy source…
Strange Invisible Perfumes– the openings of all of them. They’re really lovely, if a little clunky and opaque. L’invisible has a nice ylang and oakmoss tango, Magazine Street with its vanilla and magnolia– but the openings are sharp, medicinal, bitter and downright frightening. Anybody know what the heck that is? Arsenic and witch burps?
I’d love to get L’Invisible, but it makes me grind my teeth and curse for the first half hour, and then it’s gone after about two hours. Which just seems silly.
A lot of the Goutals bother me, too, except Neroli and Ninfeo Mio.
Luckily there are SO many perfumes…so you don’t have to torture yourself. Imo, perfume should be fun – not work!
xo >-)
Well I am now so hopelessly promiscuous in my perfume loves, that nearly everything has something (except the main floor of the department store…) but my pet ‘something missing’ is decent old lady SILLAGE! I am coming around to the likes of Killian and Byredo, with their beautiful and polite waftings, but you are lookin’ at an old gal whose idea of a night out with Mitsouko was to bathe with the soap, spray most available dried-off skin with the EDT or cologne, then dab all pulse points with the parfum when leaving the house!
…and I would’ve been arrested for following you, like a stalker! 😡
xo >-)
oooh, me, too!
For me, it’s ELd’O Tilda Swinton Like This. I’ve complained about it over on MUA, I should absolutely love this perfume, the notes are perfect for me! And it’s pretty good for 5-10 minutes, then something zigs when it should zag and it makes me nauseous. Very sad.
Oh, that’s a shame. 🙁 that’s what happened to me with Drama Nuui. Damn near broke my heart.
xo >-)
Most of the Lauders have this “perfumey” base I just can’t live with. The exceptions being Knowing (well, it has a little) and Tuberose Gardenia. And lavender. I just can’t stand the stuff in perfume.
I can accept it in the perfume – it’s the cosmetics (b-( on a Lauder lipstick b-( – did I mention b-( ?
xo >-)
I read this post this morning and had to go away and think about it… “There’s something, I just know it, now what was it that was driving me crazy with the almost?”
aha! Chergui. Chergui is alllllmost perfect, but whatever is in there that’s wrong, and I don’t know what it is, is Really Really Totally Wrong.
don’t that just stink donkey guts?
xo >-)
Well there I was, last week, complainin’ that mah ‘fridge 4711 didn’t last long enough, than you go an set off a lemming somthing fierce for somthin’ similar that *lasts*?
Cool!
I’ll put PdN’s Homme on my to-sample list, which is far more fun than my to-do list. I love the idea of bourbon, but I like my iced tea neat. Rarely mint, rarely lemon, just gallons of it, here in the land of sweltering 100+F and no rain. I’ve started making decaf iced tea, because I’d been drinking so much. . .and realized I wasn’t sleeping well. I’m slow on the uptake sometimes :D
As for perfume houses that do not work for me–Burberry. I love it on others, and compliment so many people about it. I’ve tried 5-6 different scents from the house and they all turn to bug spray on me. Vile, Raid-like, chemicals. A family member who never notes my fragrance actually asked if I’d sprayed for bugs. Gladly, there are many other houses to love. Be well.
=)) on the iced tea! That happened to me one time – I was drinking a lot of the wonderful iced tea at Duff’s (where I first learned of the beauty of Constant Comment) in St Louis (home of the Sweltering Summer) and my sleep patterns went into the crazy bin! I thought I’d lost my mind – until I put two and two together…:-? I believe they now offer decaf, bless them.
Raid for me is the original Pierre Cardin. I had a friend who bathed in it! b-( Recently we had to spray for ants and oochamagatcha! but it brought back memories of being trapped in a car with him for hours on end……Raided-up to the max!
xo >-)
The CEO has been known to tipple V8 from time to time, but he lives on sweet iced tea. I switched to decaf the first year we were married (uh, that’d be 19 years ago, now…) to prevent insomnia.
V8 and…..:-?
wait.
Just V8?
oh.
You know….he would prolly tipple a little more if he threw in some vodka and a dash of hot pepper. I know I would! 😉
xo >-)
I’ve only tried 2 Annick Goutals, Ninfeo Mio and Un Matin D’orage, but they both have this horrible, sharp, astringent base thing that I can’t stand.
Evil Scent Twin! Those are the only two Goutals I DO like! ;))
xo >-)
A lot of the Annick Goutals make use of a rather harsh woody amber. That may be what you’re smelling.
Great post! The Tauers do this for me as well – they’re unquestionably brilliant and well-crafted, just not quite…me. And MR’s Essence starts off lovely on me, but there’s a certain…screechiness… at some point that just…I’ll still wear it, but not as often as I thought I would when I bought it.
Andy’s scents, beautiful as they are, don’t work for me, either! :(( Luckily, there are a lot of folks who find BIG LOVE there – it’s great because he seems to be a lovely person who is passionate about his craft.
xo >-)
What kind of bourbon do you like, Musette?
Turns out I’m reading this post right after having come back to my desk after buying two bottles: Henry McKenna for the desk (a cheapie but goodie) and Evan Williams single batch for home. I also like Corner Creek, Buffalo Trace and Basil Hayden, although if I am out I’ll just ask for a Maker’s Mark bc they always have it.
I used to make juleps with the mint we grew on our balcony, but my DH looks askance at my drinking so he stopped planting it, the scold.
Bourbon girl here too! I love Woodford Reserve and Knob Creek. Must look out for your choices and give them a try- what a horrible horrible task…;-)
Any perfumes with a bourbon note? Maybe with smoke and cedar?
Shelley should be in on this – she’s the one who is always pairing spirits and perfume.
I drink any bourbon that peeks its head out of the cabinet but I do love Knob Creek. I have been known to sip a Jim Beam and iced tea ever now and then (I am a Philistine but not enough of one to ruin a good small-batch bourbon with anything other than my pinky, swirling it around the rim of the glass)
My dad drank (gasp!) Ezra Brooks! 😮 That stuff will take the nail polish right off your fingertips! My Uncle Kermit drank Old Crow. He lived to a decent age and my pp is still going strong at 90. 😕 maybe I should revisit ol’ Ezra…
xo >-)
Another bourbon lover here! Bulleit is my favorite for drinking on the rocks, but will drink just about any when mixed. Bourbon + ginger ale + lemon = deliciousness!
Ho, yus!
😡
There is something in the newer guerlinade, I think, that dries down into a sickly-sweetness that I can’t abide. Attrape Couer is gorgeous at first then I have to remove it. Sad, isn’t it? :((
I think a lot of us have those reactions to newer formulations from older houses we love. I can’t wear Attrape-Coeur on a bet! b-(
xo >-)
I love most Guerlains as well as Attrape Coeur, but I wouldn’t say that AT has the old Guerlainade base. It’s much more of a modern, sweet amber.
I think I was unclear in my response – I was sloppily attempting to say (very sloppily :”> – that newer formulations from older houses often are fraught with peril for those of us who ‘knew them when’.
There! That’s clear! Clear as mud. ;))
xo >-)
Oh, and Kate, since Wasser took over, I think there’s a much heavier use of musks than there ever was under the Guerlains. I’m not much of a fan either.
What Rappleya Said.
xo >-)
Ormonde Woman. It’s beautiful, unusual, I love it for the first half hour — and then something about it annoys me. It’s not even that it smells bad, it just doesn’t smell like me somehow. I think perhaps the drydown is a little masculine? Too much vetiver or something. I have a bottle so I keep trying. I hope I can convert myself!
Nicolai pour Homme sounds delicious! I never paid any attention to this but I’ll have to, now. My summer perfume wardrobe is pretty threadbare.
I tried ‘that hard’ with Drama Nuui – then I gave up. Saved a little scrab of decant, then got rid of it. You might do the same – Swapmania is coming up on Wednesday – perhaps you’ll find something worth swapping an OJ for?
xo >-)
Great question, Musette! Besides the above mentioned Amouage, I’d have to say Andy Tauer. They are thiiiiiiiis close, but….
P. S. It’s heresy to drink bourbon with anything other than “branch”!
I know. I am a Philistine. 😉
Never been able to get with the Tauers, try as I might. They are well done but Just Not Me.
xoxo >-)
Great post, and cheers to the bourbon-laced iced tea! In terms of a perfume house, I’ve never had too much success with Creed. There is so much hype about that house, about the history of their perfumes (and I fall hard for history). But as much as their fragrances may be well made, none of them have been amazing to me, especially at the price they go for! There is always something slightly off about them, like orange juice that has gone bad. And nothing epitomizes that concept more than “Love in White”. Oh what a horrid back-of-the-throat “off” scent. I spritzed some on out of curiosity after hearing that Angelina Jolie wears it. It was pleasant for about 2 seconds before something nasty reared its ugly head. I don’t know what that note was (and I ain’t pulling out my decant to find out!), but never ever again.
(P.S. I will admit though that Green Irish Tweed is a glorious scent for men)
We had a great Creed ‘event’ at the Chicocoa but I was so slammed that day I don’t recall anything other than the beautiful cloisonne bottles! (though I do remember liking the Napoleon one). I don’t know why but I tend to forget about that line. The Creed line seems to be very polarizing, with fans wanting to burn nonbelievers at the stake! or so I’ve been told…. /:)
xo >-)
Hello there! Great post, as always. I used to love Bond No. 9’s Silver Factory but in the past six months or so, it has just rubbed me the wrong way, in a sort-of sick-headachey manner. I even had the candle, but it all had to go to a more loving home.
And I may be hung up by my ears for saying this, as it’s a much-beloved line run by a wonderful and charming lady, but I cannot seem to wear any of the Sonoma Scent Studio fragrances, try as I might. There’s something in the base that just does not agree with me. Ain’t chemistry a funny thing?
Oh, I am confident all of us have those. Your inability to wear a line is not a value judgement. I think Patricia de Nicolai is a true talent – her work is beautiful. I just can’t wear most of them! I’m wearing Eau Exotique right now and it’s gorgeous – and bugging the hell out of me! :-w
xo >-)
This is my second favourite of the Pour Homme Nicolaïs. ( New York being the winner). I love it, it has quite a bit of lavender in the opening as well. Unfortunately this one is discontinued though I think quite a few online sellers still have it.
I don’t have a house that I admire but that irritates me. Lutens I admire more than I like them on the whole. But a few of his get fairly frequent wear.
One scent that just totally annoys me is Pure Distance Antonia. I won two Pure Distance samples this spring, and while I like M, Antonia needs to find a better home. Even if I would like it I would never buy it. It’s expensive for the sake of being expensive. And Pure Distance M can be recreated mixing equal parts of Eau du Fier and Histoires de Parfums 1740!
As regards the weather, we had the driest and hottest spring on record and have now got proper Dutch spring weather. Rain!
OMG! That’s so funny about the Puredistance M! I hate the idea of expensive for the sake of being expensive – for anything! I was given a sample of the Antonia (thanks, F!) and I found all the excessive packaging to be somewhat offensive, if that makes any sense. The juice is nice enough and while I love elegant packaging, the whole magnetized box thingamajig seems a bit…much. The cost is absurd.
xo >-)
It was the box that did me in as well. It’s over the top. Not even the Amouage sample set is packaged like that.
I like elegant, minimalist packaging like the Malle line, or Chanel even. The Nicolaï line is, as we all know, not packaged awfully well, I do love their fragrances though.
Yeah, I think Antonia is a very nice green floral but the cost is absurd. There’s not even anything novel about it.
Great post, Musette! Yes, especially the more expensive lines like Xerjoff and Amouage tend to have too much going on for me to focus and enjoy the scent. They’re like some expensive Scalamandre wallpaper that is too busy, or good creme brulee an expensive restaurant has messed up putting in too many “exotic” ingredients. I feel like they need to use a little more restraint and let the quality materials shine through. Still others, in the “elegant but nails on the chalkboard allergy thing” category are FK Aqua Universalis, Cologne pour le Matin, Chanel Cristalle and alot of the Hermessence series.
Love PdN though, and will have to try Pour Homme, and I’ve written on my list this week to get clean sort and get ready for Swapmania! Don’t let the mosquitoes bite and have another bourbon for me! :-)
I love the comparison to Scalamandre wallpaper! And who hasn’t had a creme brulee, so perfect in its simplicity, ruined by an overreaching kitchen? b-(
Cristalle isn’t so much ‘nails on the chalkboard’ for me as it’s ‘razor on my Last Nerve’ – it’s gorgeous, but there’s something in there that always puts me on the edge of tears.
xo >-)
Great point on the Amouage, Sherri, and I agree entirely!
I have to disagree on at least two of the Amouages (I’m not a fan of all of them) – Tribute is beautifully rich, perfect for extreme heat and the incomparable Jube 25 is, well, incomparable! The others are largely overwrought, imo. What’s that quote about elegance and restraint ?
xo >-)
Yes, Amouage and Xerjoff both have some really beautiful perfumes: Jubilation 25, Gold, Dia, Iriss, even Lyric and Damarose(from a rose hater’s standpoint). Alot of those follow a classic template or are soliflores. Some of the others are just too much for me; I must not have rich enough taste! :)
I guess the closest thing to what you’re asking is, for me, Eau d’Hadrien. I want to love it, but something in it gives me that back-of-the- throat yucky somewhat allergic feeling
I get that a little bit with so many of the Nicolais. Really beautiful…but there’s just a little sumpin’ in that base…:-?
xo>-)
Francesca, Maybe there is a bit of an allergy thing going on there with the Eau d’Hadrien. I feel the same way about Aqua Universalis, and a couple other Maison FK perfumes which I feel are so elegant on one hand, but are like nails on a chalkboard on another. Do the rest of the Annick Goutals bother you?
Sherri,
I’ve sniffed a few I don’t care for, but Hadrien is the only one that actually bothers me. I wear Eau du Sud a lot (a longtime fave), and I also wear Violette, Muguet, Mandragore, and Petite Cherie with no problem.