Scent Surprise that I like

As I’m sure some of you have noticed, I’ve been spending more time with lower end scents instead of the uber-expensive, trying to scrape some of the niche snob off of me and finding some things that surprise me that I really like in the lower end.  I may not be swooning with joy and declaring it the great perfume love of my life, but every now and then mainstream gets it right, and the price point is almost always preferable.

So while some of these may not be as exciting or fun as the latest Malle or Serge, they do deserve some love for what they do accomplish.  And I need to amuse myself waiting for that new JAR to drop.

Which brings us to Sean John I Am King.  Who, but a man with a monstrous ego, names their scent that?   No surprise that it’s the former P. Diddy.  I have him to thank for that winding up being my office nickname.  Fully expecting to hate this when I sniffed it, I found myself thinking – hey, that’s not too bad. It’s not a Mitsouko or Jicky or anything remotely new and breakthrough on the cologne front, but it’s absolutely wearable and smells pretty great.

Notes are Tangerine, Orange, Cranberry, French Berry, Kir Royal Cocktail, Water Accord, Key Lime Pie, Lemon Crà¨me, Labdanum, Cedarwood, Vetiver, White Moss, Sandalwood.

I’m not sure where that list of notes comes from, I’m not smelling most of them. The fruit in it as a men’s scent makes it interesting on the open, keeping it away from the traditional fougere-wods motif that most mainstream men’s scents aim for and hit until you cry for mercy.  This has a lot of freshness in it, but not in that Tampax Fresh Accord way, more like bubbly fresh air.  Don’t get your hopes up about the labdanum, etc., there’s zero incense in this for me.  It’s like a slightly fruity vetiver cocktail imbibed out in the woods on a clear spring day with a light wind blowing and your nose buried in a freshly showered man’s neck – or something.

My hallmark of whether I like it or not is asking if I’d like to smell this on a guy or would I not?  My answer is yeah, I like it, and I think it would smell great on a guy.  It doesn’t seem to be as unisex enough that I’d wear it, but it just has a nice clean yummy smelling vibe.  I”m thinking this is pretty much what P. Diddy smells like or should. Kudos to him for capturing his whatever in a bottle.

We do have another installment of “Let Patty Buy/Do It so you may not have to,” coming up next week.  I’m going in to get a spray tan.  This isn’t that Mystic automatic thing. This is where you get hand sprayed, which is supposed to be the finest self-tan money can buy.  I’m optimistic that this will be the solution for me.  I like the look of a light tan, but I won’t sacrifice my delicate beauty (!?) at the altar of looking like I’ve been out in the sun.  Have done the Mystic tanning in the past, it turned out blotchy and just gross. Have tried the self-tanners, and the first application of the season goes great, and then it’s just downhill from there as it gets more uneven. It always ends in tears as I have to let it  wear off and start from scratch again.  The few that have worked well always seem to wind up with a streak mark here or there or a spot where too much blobbed on and is darker.  And that look seems worse than nothing.

Look for that next week! And maybe some Carnival Wax reviews, too, since I think I may have twisted an arm to get some samples.  Love the names on them.