Hot Enough for You?

Today I am (shockingly!) doing a review of a couple of fragrance samples I was sent recently by the lovely Musette. I thought this’d be a fun juxtaposition of two scents – one of which sounds very masculine (while we’re stereotyping) and one very feminine. I’m in the heat dome in the southwestern U.S., although there’s plenty of that going around worldwide this week, so this has been a pleasant diversion.

Frederic Malle Uncut Gem has notes of ginger, bergamot, mandarin, angelica root, nutmeg, leather, vetiver, frankincense, amber, musk. Apparently it’s based on Maurice Roucel’s personal cologne, their website’s blurbage says “an unapologetically manly scent” that also “plays with the tired codes of masculinity while extracting their telluric force” which … what? Telluric is a word I had to look up (it means of the earth or soil; someone busted out their thesaurus, didn’t they?) Also, “Uncut Gem” makes me think of that Adam Sandler movie, which I’m not sure is a plus in this instance.

Anyway, unsurprisingly, is this gorgeous. It immediately made me ponder how terrible generic mass-market man-frags can be, whatever woodsy nonsense they put in the base that’s like fingernails on my olfactory chalkboard. In Uncut Gem I get an herbal-cocktail cologne at the top, mostly leather and vetiver in the middle, drying down to a dry vetiver musk on the skin.

By traditional perfumery standards, okay, sure, this is a masculine, but I’d happily wear it. It’s more a vetiver cologne vibe, but nobody’d smell it on me and make the assumption that I accidentally put on something hairy-chested from the men’s counter at Macy’s. I got whiffs of it throughout a very hot day and thought it was lovely and refreshing and surprisingly long-lasting without being obtrusive. I got just a ghost of it the next morning, and I’m wearing it again on yet another very hot day, and it’s perfect.

On the more traditionally feminine side of the fragrance spectrum, Tiziana Terenzi’s Kirkè is “a lush bouquet of sweet fruit” including passion fruit, raspberries, pears, heliotrope flower and musk. Tom gave this the thumbs down on his recent review, calling it “fruit salad and old sweat,” which frankly sounds potentially right up my alley as I said in comments. Musette saw that and promptly sent me her sample so I could try it out for myself!

As Tom said, this thing is basically fruit salad, I think maybe with a lot of added sugar syrup. You know what it doesn’t need? The powdery sweetness of heliotrope, but that’s what comes next, on top of the fruit. Just when I was starting to question my life choices, though, the powder settles and something raspy like sandalwood (rather than the sweat Tom got, sadface!) shows up.  In the drydown the fruit takes on an almost over-ripe aspect, like the smell of a very ripe cantaloupe that’s sitting right on the line between deliciously fragrant and a bit too far gone.

That probably all sounds pretty terrible, but honestly? As it cranked out that overripe fruit + raspy wood thing for hours, I kept sniffing at it compulsively. I don’t want a bottle, but I thought it was kind of an interesting ride and it didn’t fill me with regret.

So, are you in a heatwave right now? What’s a fragrance that you can’t quite make up your mind about loving or hating, or one you’ve changed your mind about?

images via Pexels