This past Saturday I had the pleasure of chatting with Yosh Han, the San Francisco-based perfumer.  She was at ScentBar debuting the first scent in her new “M” line, Sombre Negra.

I’m a big fan of her other fragrances, so I was interested in her take on what she considers a darker shade of grey.  I’m s sucker for a smoky leather scent, and this one delivers big-time.  If you’re a fan of scents like what Bandit used to be then I think you’re going to be very pleased with this one.  I know I could happily bathe in it.  But I’ll let her explain:  (From the LuckyScent)

“I launched a Limited Edition Sombre Negra exclusively with LuckyScent in 2010. That fragrance to me was dark and edgy. Very dense. I wanted to explore the idea of shadows and their mutations so I decided to create a new edition of Sombre Negra. The new M:001 Sombre Negra incorporates citrus top notes that reflect a flash of lightening – a spark of fire that quickly vanishes but casts new and elongated shadows. Rose, tonka and orris were added to give it some depth and fullness. Nutmeg and cumin give the fragrance a kind of vegetative musk and suede element to an otherwise smokey and leathery fragrance. It is still very masculine but Sombre Negra is also the ‘boyfriend fragrance’ that women are falling in love with and keeping for themselves.“

There are going to be fights over this one..

$130 for 50ML at LuckyScent (where I asked for and received a sample) and certain Barney’s stores

Indie perfumers smell bent has introduced a new series of  six scents they call “vocabulary” which are designed to be worn alone or in layers:

Floral certainly isn’t going to be accused of false advertising.  I smell (I think) a touch of muguet, a hint of jasmine and a little heliotrope.  I’m glad they didn’t get too over-the-top here; it’s very pretty, and works well with a spritz of

Dry, which isn’t quite truthfully named.  It’s a spicy, balsamic incense that’s more dry in the sense of dry martini than dry desert.  No bad thing that.

Musky is (shockingly) my favorite, with its fruity immortelle base.  I loved it alone but especially liked it layered with

Green, which had notes ranging from sweet fresh-mown grass to bitter celery.  I love green in scents and this tickled my green fancy.

Woody is interesting.  It doesn’t get to “wood” in the conventional way by using cedar or something, but the odd combination of notes (root beer, amber and spices) actually remind me of the smell of freshly cut wood that I remember from the wood shop class I was forced to take in school.  Since that smell and a rather misshapen wastebasket were the only good memories I took from that class I might let this one sit on the shelf and stick with

Citrus, which is bright and aldehydic, taking the usual juice and peel of the fruit and introducing an interesting bit of the pith.  I could see this as the “type O” of the group: nice on its own but perhaps even better when used to add interesting layers to any of the other five.

As usual, these are $7 for a 4ML travel spray or $49 for a 50ML edt.  They have a package of all 6 in travel size for $33 with free shipping at the smell bent website.  I received my samples from the perfumer.  Artwork is from smell bent.

I’ve been trying to revisit some of the things I already have and have re-fallen in love with this one.  Back in Sept. of 09 I wrote it was “a super-suave combo of the galbanum and the mandarin with tobacco, with the flowers peeping up later before settling into the animal notes and the hay-like coumarin. On me it’s not so dirty, but decidedly sexy in a your-skin-but-better kind of way: as elegant as a Savile Row Suit with a bit of retro-smokiness”

The notes for “Wilde” are listed as “Galbanum, Red Mandarin, Violet, Rose, Night Jasmine, Blond Tobacco, Oakmoss, Coumarin, Musk, Civet and Ambergris”.  It also has incredible lasting power; easily 24 hours and works in both heat and chill (we’re getting both right now, 80 in the day and 50 in the evening).

Best of all, it’s still only $50 for an ounce of Eau de Parfum, at their website.  I love finding something new, but in this economy it’s nice to rediscover something that’s already in the house, and if I didn’t have this one, at this price it would be a guilt-free indulgence.

So what if anything in your cupboard have you rediscovered lately?  Let us know in the comments.

My review is from the bottle I purchased.  Image from Opus Oils

By Tom

Yes, I’m venting.  Here are things I’ve witnessed in the past 48 hours that make me want to slap people.

This is the intersection of Beverly Blvd. and Santa Monica Blvd. near my apartment.  Note the red light, and the sign reading “No Turn On Red”.  You can’t see it well but on the further pole it a second sign as well as a red arrow.  Note the grey Audi ignoring all three.  Drives me totally bats.  Every once in a while BHPD sets up a sting operation; I wish they’d do it every day, especially since I actually cross the street there.

To the man who parked his Mercedes (Not that the make matters) in front of a fire hydrant to get into Starbucks (one that has parking in the back): I wasn’t in the there, but I can imagine you were just fuming at the delay.  I hope West Hollywood Sheriff got there before you got your latte.

To the guy in the suit and tie at the local Koo Koo Roo who got a water glass (small, clear disposable plastic) rather than one for soda (larger opaque re-washable ones): you drank four glasses of Powerade before sitting down with your water to eat, then hurriedly drank three more before leaving.  Really?  It’s less that two dollars.  You clearly aren’t starving; isn’t stealing soda a little pathetic?

There are five outdoor tables on the patio of the BH Market.  To the two of you bypassed the tables on the sidewalk in front of Whole Foods, where you have actually purchased your lunch, and took two of them at the BH Market, where neither one of you could have been bothered to even go in and buy a soda.  Without even offering your extra seat to the elderly lady who had actually been shopping there and just wanted to eat her cottage cheese in the shade.  You’re coming back as a dung beetle.

To the young woman who got pinched in a sting operation using your dead mother’s handicapped parking pass while going to the gym, and upon being caught had a giant self-righteous hissy-fit that the officer confiscated it and wrote you a ticket.  We should hold you down and have Stephen Hawkings back over your knees in his motorized wheelchair.

Can you tell it’s week three of the New Years resolution to lose 20 lbs?  For the safety of the greater LA Basin I may have to have some cheesecake..

Feel free to chime in with your pet peeves in the comments..

Photo: my iPhone

By Tom

Winter is the time that I really start reaching for the ambers. I love ones like Ambre Sultan, which seem to pulse with their own heat. A good amber for me is so comforting and sensual it’s almost post-coital. It’s liquid afterglow. But I don’t think of them as hot weather scents. In a baking LA summer day I’m likely to be thinking “get off me”, which would be pretty much my reaction to a boyfriend when it’s truly hot. (I know, you’re thinking “how does he remain single?”..)

But this is the winter that wasn’t. We’ve had two days that were in the 60′s and one day of rain and the rest in the high 70′s, with no end in sight. I know the east is doing the same thing. While it is a pleasant thing to be wandering around in only a polo shirt and jeans in January, the lack of rain and snowpack will affect out ability to actually flush our toilets come summer..

But worse, what amber can I wear? Without thinking “stay on your side of the bed, bub.  and you’d better not snore..”?

Enter Isabey and L’Ambre de Carthage.

It starts off blissfully cool with bergamot and a sharp, rather brittle labdanum.  It’s bracing and quite lovely.  It slowly starts warming as it adds jasmine and incense and finally, like a clever seducer slips in the warmth of the amber and musk.  It even makes me want to stick around and cuddle.

It’s listed as a man’s scent and I would be thrilled to smell it on one (that isn’t, you know, ME) but like all really great men’s scents I think women could totally rock this.  I’d love to hear how my Scent Twin finds this one..

$160 for 100ML ay Luckyscent, where I asked for my sample

Image: LuckyScent