By Kilian Musk Oud, Dark Knight, and In the Garden of Good and Evil- Voulez-Vous Couchez Avec Moi

Snow in the mountains north of LA, seen from Mulholland Drive in Bel-Air

First, let’s talk about the weather. If you are in the US you likely saw on the news that Los Angeles County had a blizzard watch, the first one in decades. Snow levels were expected to fall to under 2000 feet, which doesn’t sound like a big deal, but parts of the Hollywood hills are that high. So we actually got a dusting of (very brief) snow on the Hollywood sign. I had some brief, small hail fall, but mostly intermittent buckets of rain, another heaping helping of which is on the way for this evening (Tuesday into Wednesday.)

Now onto the By Kilians.

I am sort of predisposed to dislike this line because of the founder. Not that he has done anything except be talented, wealthy, handsome, thin, and successful while on a good day I can aspire to one of those at best. He apparently is also nice, which means I don’t even get the moral high ground. But that is entirely about me, and not about him. Some of his scents are glorious. Members of the Posse have written about Dark Knight so much that I needed to get onto Surrender to Chance and try it, and since I like things in threes, add in two others.

Musk Oud is a sly one. It starts out smoky and salty, very much with the oud at the fore. Almost immediately the cooling geranium pops in to tame things, making it a far more civilized affair. But there’s still that beating heart of oud and musk. If Connery’s Bond in a Tuxedo was bottled, this would be it.

If Musk Oud is Bond, then Voulez-Vous is the Bond girl who sadly doesn’t make it to the end of the movie. It starts out with a giggle-inducing simulacrum of milady’s make-up table: a riot of powders, lotions, potions, balms and salves, with an undertone of something that says that perhaps milady isn’t quite the lady she seems. I find this one almost calms down a little too much, but I am rarely about the subtlety in scent.

Dark Lord was, I am afraid, a disappointment. It started off well, with leather and cherries and a boozy darkness that made me think I could trot out the Bond villain trope to continue the mood. But on me this quickly just died. The lashing of leather faded and those boozy, wine-dark cherries sort of fell into vague play-doh territory on me. Then nothing. My skin ate it Like General Koskov ate caviar. (there! I got the Bond villain in somewhere!)

Of these the one I liked best was the one that I would likely not wear out of the house: Voulez-Vous. It’s a giant, pink powder puff of a scent and I love that, but it’s perhaps not the presentation I need to make. Musk Oud opens great, and is very nice throughout, but I already have ones that tread that ground. And no way around it, Dark Lord wimped out.

So my quest to find my By Kilian continues.

By Kilian is available at the usual suspects at $275 for a 50ML refillable bottle, refills for which are $225 (which I think is brilliant) My samples came from Surrender to Chance. Photos are mine and from Pexels