L’artisan Parfumeur L’historie d’orange
It’s a orange blossom. This is all.
I think I’m ambivalent about orange blossom as a note. Definitely like it in a blend, but not enough as a soliflore. But the performance on this is pretty good, I was not expecting much since orange blossom is moreso a fleeting note. Projection is good, can easily smell from elbow distance away. The scent is linear, which I believe is the design intent and probably technically difficult to achieve with orange blossom. Also gotta give props to the team for their restraint in not adding any other notes.
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L’artisan Parfumeur Un Air de Bretagne
I swear I know what the opening smells like, but can’t pinpoint the word. Ah! Like 风油精! Or like the other chinese herbal sauves/oils. It’s a sharp and sparkling, and would definitely cut through the awful humidity in Houston right now. I feel quite ambivalent about this fragrance once this settles and lose its sharpness. If this is a good representation of “aquatics”, then I don’t think its a genre that I’m into.
It’s interesting that all my scent memories are of times when I’m in China, aka from when I was really young. Maybe that’s why I’m interested in fragrances that feature flowers from my childhood, like peony, lotus, osmanthus, etc.
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Penhaligon’s Savoy Steam
I really wanted to like this one’s smell. The concept is perfect, the bottle is super cute, and the notes sounded like what I typically enjoy. But alas it didn’t work out :( I love the first 2 minutes of the opening: a burst of light roses, and a quick whiff of the eucalyptus. But then…what I describe as the sulphurous hot spring note emerges and ruins everything for me. Too 闷. As the scent settles, the other nice aromatic notes appear, but always underscored by the awful sulphurous hot spring note. I’m not sure whether this is a unique reaction on my skin, or if its the design intent since the concept is a turkish bath. Luckily the awful note is largely absent at a distance, so this is wearable for me.
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Penhaligon’s Cousin Flora
Citrus and then musk. I feel pretty ambivalent about it, good performance (projection and longevity) for a citrus tho.
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Penhaligon’s Cousin Matthew
Citrus, but a green citrus rather than Flora’s pure citrus. It’s more to my liking. The petit grain shows up after about 15mins, and I looooove the smell of petit grain.But I’m having a hard time justifying the price for a “simple” (not really simple I suppose, since making citruses last is a technical feat) scent. Actually scratch that, I must admit that I considered blind buying Perfumer H’s orange leaves just because there’s not many good petit grain centric perfumes (just searched it up, they don’t seem to sell online? darn) It is my favourite citrus out of all my sampling so far, more so than Le Labo’s Bergamote 22.
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As a bonus, I did a comparison between Penhaligon's Duke and Sohan:
Duke: opens with a blast of fresh rose, which then recedes to make room for the spices. This time I sprayed on warm & slightly damp skin (right after shower) and that really magnified the cumin. So. Much. Cumin. I don’t find it off-putting but it’s definitely not something I want as the primary note. Interestingly the official description doesn’t list cumin as a note. Perhaps its the combination of pepper and leather? After ~5 mins, the spices and rose come into more of a balance. The two notes are blended, but I can still perceive them as distinctive. The rose is sort of sheer…like a jammy rose (so somewhat sweet) that’s been thinned to a glaze consistency. There’s a sharp fresh / green note that returns from the immediate opening. As it settles, the rose begins to be more prominent than the spices, although if I put my nose tight next to it, the cumin is still strong. Actually it seems like the rose and spice alternates in prominence. Overall, this is a cool-weather, uplifting rose for me.
Sohan: it’s a woody rose from the start, more wood than rose. Both note is very smoothly blended into each other and hard to distinguish. It feels somewhat dry. As it settles, the scent gains some transparency, which is more agreeable to me. There’s also some sweetness once it settles, rather than the dry opening. Funny enough, the base is woody with a slight spice tinge. Overall, this is a cool-weather, comforting rose for me, although I don’t like it enough for a full bottle.
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