Voulez-vous coucher avec Moi by Kilian

So, I only have Voulez-vous coucher avec Moi, Liaisons Dangereuses Typical Me, and Intoxicated left. Looking at the three, I am most excited about Intoxicated, then Liaisons, and Voulez-vous I could be without, so I'll get that one out of the way first.

Voulez-vous coucher avec Moi is a terribly long name to write, so from here on out, it's Voulez.
Voulez has notes of tuberose, gardenia, ylang, mandarin orange, neroli, orange blossom, sandalwood and vanilla. Someone at Kilian really likes florals. But not me. Good Girl Gone Bad was bearable, but this scent opens with something reminiscent of old fragrances. My head immediately went to Tresor by Lancome, an old flanker of something Dior, even something old-schooly like Shalimar (but not the same scent at all). Voulez is DATED. It smells like the perfumes elderly ladies wore when I was a child. That's over 25 years ago.

This isn't Voulez-vous coucher avec Moi, this is "Grandma let me sleep in her spare bedroom filled with dried old flowers". Heavy set amber base, they've used an oil only to make the perfume last, and then macerated all sorts of flowers and made a sticky, floral concoction. I have to wash it off, this has onset a headache.

Good Girl Gone Bad by Kilian

 

The samples from Kilian I have received wouldn't be my own first choice. Most of them are floral, so my expectations for Good Girl Gone Bad aren't high.

Notes of osmanthus, rose, orange blossom, tuberose, jasmine, narcissus... Honestly, I am anything but stoked. I can only hope that the white cedar and amber will save the day.

Good Girl Gone Bad is a complete surprise! Fresh, light and not at all a heavy floral. Drying down, it reveals floral notes that remind me of a Tom Ford scent (Neroli Portofino Acqua?).

The scent becomes somewhat soapy and has a very straight forward note of creamy osmanthus and orange blossom that isn't overpowering.

Do I like it? Honestly, no, because I despise floral scents, but I cannot look past the fact that it is bareble. 

I have to say, yet again, the the scent doesn't seem luxurious. It smells like a fancier French marseille soap. If you like feminine, delicate and non-invasive florals, this would be perfect. It is very pleasant to the nose, but too boring and yes, floral, for me... NEXT!

Love Don't be Shy by Kilian

 

So, let the journey of trying my first Kilian perfume begin. Not only that, but I have twenty plus samples to go through! I honestly just pulled a fragrance out and got the one I have heard most about.

Love Don't be Shy...

Notes of marshmallow, orange blossom, neroli, honeysuckle, amber and rose, promises something sweet and floral, so not my usual cup of tea, but hey, per theory I shouldn't like Delina Exclusif either, but it is one of my faves.

From first spray, Love Don't be Shy is intimedating with it's insanely reddish hue. Note to self, do not wear with light clothing. Secondly, I immediately get a marshmallowy sweet note that is surprisingly not overwhelming. Love Don't be Shy reminds me of something, but I am unsure, which fragrance. It is floral too, but not overwhelmingly so. Love Don't be Shy is very romantic, but I am still unsure if it's verging on being a little juvenile?

One thing is for sure though, it isn't just verging on something synthetic, it is in fact scratchy to the nose as are most synthetic fragrances (to me). I apologise to all lovers of Love Don't be Shy, but if I had to smell it with closed eyes, I would say that you have sprayed a generic body mist in a mall. Think expired Victoria Secret mist.

I sprayed once more needing to give it a second go. A slight opening of rose and marshmallow, the rose isn't rose-ing, but gives the scent a red floral note. I am honestly bored.

I see why people like it, but the hype has been hyping the wrong fragrance.... NEXT!

Poets of Berlin by Vilhelm Parfumerie

Yet again, I was influenced by Anne Lauren. She is, and has been, one of the very few influencers, who make me do blind buys even though I should know better by now. She has never steered me wrong (perhaps only once), but the second time had to come at some point. Unfortunately, that day has arrived with Poets of Berlin.

First off, I have been hunting down retailers of Vilhelm Parfumerie, to try their scents, but even though I found Galilu in Warsaw, they didn't have Poets. I did, however, fall in love with Mango Skin. So, I put Poets to rest.
Lately, I've been selling out fragrances that I don't wear, and when I tell you that I hit "purchase" as soon as I got notified that Poets was being sold second hand in a 10 ml bottle... I honesty didn't even check if I could get it cheaper anywhere else (luckily, I did). So, it finally arrived after two weeks of waiting (one con about second hand shopping, not everyone ships the next day). Aaaand, well, I am glad that I have it in my collection, no regrets, but I am very happy that it's only 10 ml.

Poets, from first spray, reminds me of one of my latest purchases, Ajayeb Dubai Portrait, which was actually a blind buy too (you live and you.. don't learn). Ajayeb was a succes, whereas Poets has a quality that makes it bad. So, Poets has the same exact opening of fruitiness as Ajayeb. It is actually uncanny, how similar they are. Ajayeb has a more warm and tropical fruitiness (think Lamar), whereas Poets is more stinging. Sour. Almost bitter. I do not, for the life of me, get blueberries. Neither the smell of them, the illusion of them or a representation of how blueberries taste. My Ajayeb has not macerated yet, so it might smell different in a month or two, but at this moment Ajayeb and Poets are sisters, not quite twins, but definitely sisters.

You know me, I spray, smell, then write. I've been writing this review based on the fragrance on my wrists. I just sprayed it behind my ears and... The opening notes were completely different! On my wrists it has become greener, up in the air, it is sweeter and fruitier. It might be a slightly stuffy nose, but after complete dry down, Poets and Ajayeb are just too uncanny. This review is long enough, but I think I'll do a review with the two fragrances on each wrist.

Oud Maracujá by Maison Crivelli

Another note found on my phone, but this time it's from November last year, so not as long ago, as SUGI.

All I remember is that it was a strong, sharp scent that I never had the need to revisit. However, I really should, because I had the same experience with Hibiscus Mahajád, which is one of my biggest prides and joys in my collection now.

From November 21st, 2023:

I am so excited to try Oud Maracuja! One, because lately, I've been craving tropical, juicy and fruity perfumes, two, because Crivelli are beast performing fragrances and I absolutely adore my Hibiscus Mahajád.

I am, however, a little weary, because the notes in Oud Maracuja are not for the faint of heart!

Leather and oud are both very strong and charismatic. The right dose will infatuate you, too much and you will be appalled. 

On paper, I am met by leather and a fruity note, immediately. The fruity note disappears quite fast and all I'm left with is the leather. I gave the paper strip another spray, and in all honesty, I am not that thrilled. All I get, is a simple, monotonous leather fragrance.

Not too excited to try this on skin, but this is how it went...

Well, and I actually never got to try it on skin! So I will have to bite my tongue and give this another go!

So continuing on, from November, Oud Maracujá, on skin, reveals a sultry note of leather. Fruitiness is not far behind and the scent opens surprisingly well. Whilst drying down, I get a hint of something sour. Not like that of maracuja (passionfruit) or another fruit, but something gone bad. We haven't entered pickle territory, but we are quite close. I was very hopeful when I sprayed it (not on my wrist, but on the inside of my elbow), because a fruity leather scent was revealed, but it quickly strayed and became weird, for a lack of another word. Something is off balance.

I just watched a Monika Cioch video where she mentioned Oud Maracujá as a luxury perfume worth every penny, but I am not at all getting the scent that she is. At all. Close to my pulse point, I get a green leather scent, void of any fruitiness. Have I had a too long of a hiatus from reviewing fragrances? I feel like my nose is broken!

I sprayed my pulse point yet again, stuck my nose immediately in (not even scared of the alcohol) and to my surprise, I got a light, airy and delicious scent. A little fruity, no leather, no alcohol, no pickle. Waiting for the scent to evolve to something bad again, I am surprised that that never happens. I am so confused. Oud Maracujá is now the scent I was hoping for, or at least expecting.

A couple of minutes in, I get some sour notes, some harshness, but not as bad as in the beginning. I'm honestly going to leave this review here, and revisit the scent once more, at some point.

Monocle Scent Three: Sugi by Comme des Garçons

Source: Hypebeast.

This will be a short one. It's one of the many old notes I have on my phone that I am trying to get through. I smelled and dotted down some points back in October 2021... Yes, indeed, almost three years ago.

The sample is long gone and I can only add these, very few, remarks today: if I recall correctly, SUGI was a fizzy scent, like that of Remarkable People and On A Date (but not as sweet).

From October 4th, 2021:

A very fresh opening, almost bitter. It smells exactly how a classic gin and tonic tastes - fresh slice of lemon, bitterness from the quinine, bubbles from the tonic, a juniper note from the gin.

It changes a couple of minutes in, becomes more spicy, maybe slightly woody.

And that's all I have on SUGI.

Cockatiel by Zoologist

Source: Lulua.

Hi, hello...

Remember me? I don't either... Since I last posted, so much has happened that I don't even know where to begin reviving this blog.

To my surprise, I have gained some followers during my hiatus, so thank you - and to you all who kept following me, THANK YOU!

My love for perfumes never faded, but I suddenly didn't have any time to try, write notes, and review perfumes, as I did before. Since my last post, I have accumulated more than a hundred samples. I have also bought many new perfumes that never got their time to shine as a "new in".

I won’t dwell any further, as my blog can have limitless characters, but Instagram cannot, but I’m happy to be back. As mentioned, I have a million samples to try, among others, the long-awaited fragrances from Zoologist. Can you believe, I haven’t yet tried any of their scents? 

The amount of juice they sell now-a-day in a sample is abysmal – I am lucky if I manage to make a coherent review of them at all.

First on the list from Zoologist is Cockatiel – a fruity, powdery and sweet-woody fragrance. Notes of rhubarb, raspberry, champagne, cashmeran, gaiac wood, musk and vanilla, sound mouthwatering! I am loving the fruity and fizzy scents like On A Date and Remarkable People. So how did it go?

With the very few drops in the sample, I have only sprayed one wrist. To my surprise, Cockatiel is very sweet and not that fruity, if at all. I don’t get any tartness from rhubarb, no fruitiness from the raspberry, forget about fizziness from champagne! All I get, is a powdery sweet fragrance, balancing on being juvenile. I get a hint, just a smidge, of patchouli in the base.

I sprayed my wrist one more time, twice, and stuck my nose in, to really experience the scent. That was a mistake. I might as well have stuck my nose into a pickle jar!
Sour, plasticy, bitterly floral. I cannot get the scent of playdough out of my nose, and the fragrance I experienced before, though not perfect, is very missed now!

Not off to a great start coming back, huh?