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Olympic Orchids Night Flyer

Nose: Ellen Covey

Notes: earthy notes, banana, mineral notes, tropical fruits, musk, resins, vetiver, leather, frankincense, sandalwood

Night Flyer (the former Zoologist Bat) is a very intensely earthy smell, like the inside of a fusty cave. There's a ton of geosmin, the "wet dirt after rain" molecule, plus a choking, harsh note like dried sweat.

I find it unpleasant. There might be a nice perfume underneath somewhere, a more classically animalic/furry musk situation, but for me it's drowned by the sweat.

I get no tropical fruit at all. It's all bat cave.

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Beaufort Fathom V

Beaufort Fathom V

notes: green notes, soil tincture, juniper berries, black currant, tangerine; lily, mimosa, jasmine, thyme, black pepper, ylang-ylang, ginger, cumin; oakmoss, salt, vetiver, patchouli, incense, atlas cedar, amber

Despite the Tempest-inspired name, Fathom V isn't really a marine scent. It's a classic 60's-style green floral chypre, in the same vein as YSL Y (1964), L de Loewe (1972), or contemporary retro-style green florals like Tom Ford Vert de Fleur or Vero Profumo Mito. In other words: ladylike garden fragrances, spring-fresh and dewy-green, yet somewhat heady and nectarous, with a darker mossiness around the edges.

Fathom V doesn't smell at all like lily to me -- I would have sworn there was a crisp, breezy orange blossom in the opening, and a lot of hyacinth in the heart. As green floral chypres go, it's not on the extreme ice-cold green side like Chanel No. 19; there's more emphasis on airy, tender florals and dark mossy depths. (Though there is indeed a pleasantly sharp sparkle of leaf-green galbanum in the opening.) And it's got a modern sensibility, so there's none of the heavy, formal aldehydes that make many vintage floral chypres feel too dressy to wear. Fathom V is just breezy, dewy florals and shadowy green depths all the way down.

Beautiful. Maybe not as original as the marketing would suggest, but an excellent example of one of my favorite fragrance genres.

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Serge Lutens Vitriol d’Oeillet

Nose: Christopher Sheldrake

notes: carnation, clove, pink pepper, nutmeg, lily, paprika, ylang-ylang, wallflower

Supposedly this is a "fierce" take on the gentle carnation, but let's be real, carnation is a soft scent, and there's nothing wrong with that. Vitriol d'Oeillet is all carnation, all the way through, with a lovely monochrome palette of peach-and-rust ranging from lotion-y delicacy to spicy sparkle.

It does feel crisper and more modern than century-old carnation classics like Bellodgia (which has a very old-fashioned heavy aldehydic top note). There are subtly overlapping facets -- a touch of warm nutmeg, a whiff of the realistically cloves-like spicy scent of real stock flowers -- and an overall soft creaminess from ylang-ylang.

Carnation scents are still criminally underrated. Carnation's subtle warmth makes it perfect for unisex, gently spiced, "my skin but better" personal auras -- perfume for people who don't like screechy "perfumeyness". Vitriol d'Oeillet is my favorite thus far. Not much vitriol to be found here, but plenty of finesse.

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Dame Perfumery Chilehead

Dame Perfumery Chilehead

Nose: Jeffrey Dame

notes: chile pepper, lime, peppermint, thyme, celery, cumin, bergamot; galbanum, artemisia, ylang-ylang, geranium, neroli; vetiver, birch tar, oak moss, civet, castoreum, musk, patchouli, myrrh, labdanum, sandalwood, olibanum

Chilehead opens with fresh, piercing lime, followed by a realistic hot chile note.

it settles into a very pleasant but hard-to-place dusty sage-green chord — a bit woody, a bit animalic, very consonant with the “Sonoran desert” theme of Dame’s perfume collection. it also reminds me of the drydowns of vintage Bernard Chant compositions, like the desert-earthy vibe of the gloriously weird 70s gem Halston.

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Kerosene Canfield Cedar

Nose: John Pegg

notes: cedar, sandalwood, teak, tobacco, pepper, musk

Wow, this is a great, spicy sandalwood opening, full of warmth and sparkle. Then it settles into delicious warm woods.

Canfield Cedar is easily my favorite cozy-woods spicy-warm scent. It's not as plush or feminine as, say, Bois des Iles or Trayee, and not as syrupy as Femininite du Bois; it's just good wood, friendly and warm and richly fragrant.

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Masque Milano Hemingway

Nose: Fanny Bal

notes: ginger, rhubarb, vetiver, leather, cedar, patchouli

Hemingway opens with juicy, tangy fruit — I guessed pineapple — plus an underlying smokiness and darkness that’s slightly unwholesome.

Then I get a lightly bitter, woody vetiver note a few minutes in, and that’s mostly what dominates going forward.

Vetivers are mostly very similar — they smell of vetiver roots, dusty and bitter — and this one is as good as any but not remarkable.

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Masque Milano Terralba

Nose: Delphine Thierry

notes: lemon, clary sage, tangerine; myrtle, thyme, curry tree, immortelle; cypress, mastic, juniper, cedar

Terralba is a light scent, evocative of the Mediterranean. There’s some juicy citrus in the top, with a substantial woody herbal base that sticks around and doesn’t get too harshly synthetic.

This kind of citrus-and-cypress summer scent is always delightful but you only really need one, and Terralba isn’t clearly ahead of, say, Un Jardin en Mediterranee or O de Lancôme.

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Masque Milano Romanza

Nose: Cristiano Canali

notes: artemisia, orange blossom, angelica, narcissus, hyacinth, anise; jasmine, violet leaf; myrrh, cedar, patchouli, vetiver, amber

Romanza is a beautiful, delicate, narcissus-dominant spring floral, with detectable myrrh sweet-spiciness in the base, and maybe a touch of ashy or dry-branches darkness.

It reminds me of Diorissimo in spirit tbh; that inexpressible tenderness, that evocation of the first soft breeze of spring. Of course, Romanza is built around narcissus rather than muguet, and it’s not as syrupy-rich, but the feeling is similar.

Also like Diorissimo, Romanza has a breath of civet floating above the flowers, buff against the pale yellows and pink-purples. Adds an old-fashioned perfumey feel.

The other vintage scent that Romanza brings to mind is Futur, a 60s spring floral with a similar butter-yellow/pale-purple/beige palette. But Futur is clear as a bell and sharply aldehydic, while Romanza is softer, more nuanced, and sits on a richer base.

Over time Romanza reveals a mellow, yellow, narcissus-and-amber-and-civet glow that goes close to the skin and lingers as the spring flowers float away.

Romanza is basically a hazy, retro, narcissus-heavy floral reverie, but more scuffed-up and wearable than its actual vintage inspirations. The myrrh and animalic touches make it a bit earthier and deeper than spring florals usually get, while still retaining the poignant loveliness of the first mild day in April. A spring floral with heart, guts, and a functioning sex drive; one of the all-time greats.

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Givenchy Vetyver

notes: bergamot; coriander, vetiver; sandalwood, cedar

Smells like a dark, wood-paneled study. a bit winy, and somehow...Indian? maybe I’m getting a lot of spice and sandalwood.

I love it. Much richer and deeper than other vetiver scents. There’s clearly some kind of resin in the base. Not sweet, but caramelized.

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Prada Infusion d’Iris

notes: orange flower, neroli, orange, mandarin; iris, galbanum, mastic; incense, cedar, benzoin, vetiver

Wow, I knew this was supposed to be delicate, but it’s barely there at all.

It's very one-note. There's a pale, wan, chalky iris that's maybe a little touched with "coolness" from mastic. it's pleasant, but I wish there was more of it.

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L’Artisan Parfumeur Patchouli Patch

Noses: Bertrand Duchaufour & Evelyne Boulanger

notes: patchouli, caraway, star anise, white musk; osmanthus, iris; sandalwood, vetiver, cedar

This is the dusty, powdery, even crumbly facet of patchouli. It’s almost like the cocoa-patchouli dust of Coromandel, but without any overt cocoa. Dusty pistachio green. Interesting but feels more like a fraction of a perfume than a whole one.

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Jo Malone Leather and Artemisia

Nose: Yann Vasnier

notes: absinthe, leather, cypriol, orris

Leather & Artemisia does smell satisfyingly of wormwood — except it’s also sweetened. it’s a candied-bitter scent, with a touch of freshness. surprisingly addictive.

No leather though. within half an hour, the green burns off and we have a sweet woody iris, with that waxy “ballet-studio” or “old-fashioned purse” feel that I’m not fond of.

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Jovoy Psychedelique

nose: Jacques Flori

notes: citrus; patchouli, amber, labdanum, geranium, rose; vanilla, musk

Psychedelique is rich, ambered, chocolatey villain patchouli.

After a sweet opening, within a few minutes the herbal, camphoraceous, dark-green character of the patchouli comes out. I love this stage; it’s dense and truly plant-like.

An hour in though, Psychedelique warms up and becomes chocolatey again. it’s a smooth, rich, sweetened, slightly boozy “men’s club” smell, which isn’t a genre I generally go looking for. I can’t fault the execution though — it’s clearly got lots of real patchouli oil, and the toffee-like sweetness is nicely balanced. It’s potent and lasts forever, and agrees surprisingly well with food (I wore it during Thanksgiving dinner.)

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Serge Lutens Chene

Nose: Christopher Sheldrake

notes: oak, birch, rum, cedar, immortelle, beeswax, caraway, thyme, tonka

Serge Lutens (and his longtime collaborator Christopher Sheldrake) are at their best, in my opinion, when they just take a simple good smell and run with it, staying very canonical but amping up the intensity. Mandarine Mandarin is orange-spice done right, Un Lys is lily done right, Chergui is clove-y hay done right...and Chene is rum-and-woods done right.

It's a rollicking, intense, warming good time, intensely oaky, pleasantly boozy, and just sweet enough to be addictive, in shades of coppery brown.

An hour or so in, it's also animalic, with a lusty, salty, hot-breath effect that I find very satisfying. It's "sweaty", but only in the somewhat abstract perfumery sense that actually smells good, and it sits on a nice dark leathery backdrop. All the boozy sweetness is gone in this phase, leaving more of a barbaric-splendor effect.

If you like the traditionally masculine "wood-paneled study" sort of perfume -- warm woods, leather, sippin' liquor, the occasional taxidermied furry animal -- Chene is one of the best, if not the best. There are other animalic leathers (Djedi being the original masterpiece and Aramis a classic stalwart) and other warm ambered woods (Canfield Cedar still has my heart) and there are infinite, often tediously heavy, brown Dad's-Study concoctions built around patchouli and/or tobacco -- but Chene is special. Warm, bright, friendly, never weighed down with goo, and perfectly balanced between civilization and wildness.

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YSL Paris

Nose: Sophia Grojsman

notes: rose, mimosa, hyacinth, geranium, green notes, nasturtium, orange blossom, hawthorn, cassia, bergamot; rose, violet, lily, linden, ylang-ylang, lily of the valley, jasmine, iris; iris, musk, heliotrope, sandalwood, oakmoss, amber, cedar

Paris has a reputation as a big syrupy rose, but I found it more like the ultimate powdery, ladylike pastel symphonic floral.

There's rose, yes, but at least as much violet and lily-of-the-valley. The effect is soapy, but also multifaceted, with a dreamy delicacy complementing the brisk dry powder-blue cleanness.

If anything, Paris is a little bit like Calandre but more complex, or like a modern version of YSL Rive Gauche without the slightly squishy overripe peach or the mossy undertones.

It perfectly expresses "Paris" as seen by Americans as the ultimate domain of romance and fashionable elegance. It's Pepe le Pew chasing his beloved through a pastel fantasy of Frenchiness.

It wins my heart even though I wouldn’t ordinarily seek out this style of scent. Surprisingly lovable. Worth a try!

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Parfums Dusita Erawan

Parfums Dusita Erawan

nose: Pissara Umavijani

notes: herbal notes, petitgrain; hay, clary sage, lily-of-the-valley, liatris, vetiver; vanilla, oakmoss, cedar

Erawan is named for the multi-headed elephant mount of Indra (and symbol of Bangkok). It's a lovely meditation on hay, from a distinctly green opening through a chewy, golden, twiggy middle section, and finally falling into a caramelized, almost chocolatey finish.

Thanks to a visit from the Reformulation Fairy, it's now quite sheer throughout, but clearly still contains some real hay absolute. It's mellow, pleasant, maybe masculine of center.

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Comme des Garcons Kyoto

Comme des Garcons Kyoto

nose: Bertrand Duchaufour

notes: incense, cypress, cedar, vetiver, teak wood, immortelle, coffee, patchouli, amber

Kyoto is a great example of minimalist real-deal cedar; refreshing, woodsy fragrant conifers, over what feels like a standard synthetic cologne structure, bright and zippy.

Over the next several hours, a dry woody incense emerges, making Kyoto one of my favorite of this Duchaufour-Buxton style of 2000s-era minimalist incenses. Never harsh, just peaceful smoky simplicity, a perfect fit to the Japanese-inspired theme.