The Video Store Effect: Parfums de Nicolai St. Honoré, New York Intense and Musc Monoi

I don’t know if y’all have this problem. When I go into a website or a restaurant or store sometimes I just kind of get overwhelmed at all of the choices and sort of shut down. I call it “The Video Store Effect” since I used to get it at our local purveyor of rental tapes (yes, tapes. I am old), Video West. If I went in without a clear idea of what I wanted (or I had one and someone else checked it out) I would stand there all a dither until I chose something I had seen about 25 times but knew at least I would like. Luckily Video West wasn’t Blockbuster so they had copies of things like “Myra Breckinridge” and “Female Trouble” and “Queen Bee” and I didn’t have to fall back on the latest Steven Segall pugilism and pudge epic.

So this is why I often crib from my Posse cohorts and tack onto their reviews. That’s my story and I am sticking to it.

A couple of weeks ago Portia reviewed St. Honoré and I was intrigued (go back and read his review, I’ll wait..) As I had mentioned, back in the Jurassic period I worked in the pastry department at Dean & Deluca and we on occasion sold these- on occasion because they were not something that did well sitting in a pastry case for a few days. it’s a pastry base that’s ringed with with puffy pâte à choux filled with crème chiboust and dipped in caramelized sugar and sometimes chocolate (like in the photo) and the whole thing is filled with whipped cream piped with a special tip. It’s divine when fresh. a few days after, not so much.

I didn’t think from Portia’s description that this would be my favorite, so you notice that this sample is markedly smaller than the other two. St. Honoré is.. interesting. It does have a certain nutty doughiness to it, along with something that smells like the dust burning off the old gas wall heater I had in my apartment on Maple when I would first use it every winter. Then it becomes milky sweetness with a touch of root-beery sassafras. finally it becomes more orange flower and amber and less pastry case, making it much more conventionally wearable, but no less interesting. since you can get a 30ML bottle for $82 it may be in my future

New York Intense is.. fascinating. At first spritz you’d be forgiven if thinking that it smells like about 5 other things that just say “Men’s Scent”. More specifically, rich, older men’s club sort of men. The kind who wear Savile Row and secretly consider the new Bentley just a VW with an attitude. And manages to make that noblesse oblige seem laudable, not obnoxious. Ingredients are (from Luckyscent) Bergamot, Sicilian lemon, cloves, thyme, cinnamon, black pepper, pimento, oak moss, vetiver, amber- but it’s not the notes, it’s the way they come together and when they come in that both refer to that natty old member of The Brook and his younger version who will make that same suit seem as Avant Garde as something from the front stairs of the Met Gala. 100ML is $223, and yes it also comes in the smaller bottle, which I may force myself to be contented with.

Musc Monoi seems to have been discontinued which is too bad. It a simple, summery bland of tiare and super-bright icy citrus peel that later gets accented by magnolia and hints of coconut and banana (just hints, it’s not a daiquiri) and finally, ocean washed skin musk. Of course of the three this is the one that I like the best, and the one that isn’t available at Luckyscent for $82 for 30ML. Let’s start a petition to fix that.

Have you tried any of these? Any of the rest of the line? (a long list, which for me might cause The Video Store Effect.) Share in the comments. My samples were from Surrender to Chance.

Images: My iPhone, Pexels and Wikimedia Commons