June 2008

Tabac Blond by Caron

June 30, 2008

Originally crafted in 1919 for a strictly female audience by French perfume house Caron, Tabac Blond is still a creature of striking, potent glory. It appeals to the dark-eyed minx that lives inside the best of women, and can even overpower a good portion of the wimpy metrosexual excuses for men’s colognes out on the [...]

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Rien by Etat Libre d’Orange

June 30, 2008

Just because someone hands you a bottle of perfume and states that it smells like leather is no guarantee that it does. Rien by Etat Libre d’Orange is described in all its PR glory as a potent leather fragrance, but to me, it’s more peat bog and kerosene than anything resembling a tanned animal hide [...]

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Skarb by Humiecki & Graef

June 29, 2008

When you read about Humiecki & Graef Skarb, you’re likely to be met with a pile of ridiculous crap about how Humiecki & Graef allegedly asked the perfumer (Christopher Laudamiel, who also created the terrific S-eX by S-Perfumes) to create a perfume that approximates “how men cry” . . . which is fine, if you’re [...]

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Equipage by Hermes

June 29, 2008

Hermes Equipage is a bracing retro-splash of woodsy, old-fashioned masculine aftershaves. Warm and spicy, it’s as if some laboratory technician dumped a vat of Old Spice into a vat of English Leather, then tossed in a Brinks truck full of cold hard cash for that special Hermes touch. Equipage is direct and uncomplicated, as confident [...]

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Odalisque by Parfums de Nicolai

June 28, 2008

Odalisque by Parfums de Nicolai is a delicate, strictly feminine fragrance that stays true to its floral intentions. I kept waiting for it to betray its soft lily of the valley principles for a cup of baby powder and two tablespoons of musk, but it never did. While Odalisque starts as a bright, backlit floral [...]

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Andy Warhol Union Square by Bond No. 9

June 27, 2008

I received a promotional packet the other day from upscale niche fragrance company Bond No. 9 New York in regards to their recent Andy Warhol Union Square release. I had previously mentioned their Andy Warhol Silver Factory and New Harlem perfumes, so I must have pinged their radar in that respect — but those mentions [...]

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It’s a Fake Fake Fake Fake World

June 26, 2008

Counterfeit clothing a growing problem “Demand for fake fashion continues to grow at an alarming rate according to a new report from just-style, with captured shipments indicating that around 20% of all athletic merchandise is fake . . . The Department of Homeland Security seized US$155m worth of counterfeit merchandise in 2006, an 83% rise [...]

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Kouros by YSL

June 24, 2008

The Getty Museum website states that “a kouros is a statue of a standing nude youth that did not represent any one individual youth but the idea of youth . . . The kouros embodies many of the ideals of the aristocratic culture of Archaic Greece . . . In a society that emphasized youth [...]

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Thundra by Profumum

June 23, 2008

When I walked into the kitchen after showering this morning, the BF remarked: “Are you wearing some musky thing? It’s kind of strong.” Not really the thumbs-up a fragrance in test-drive mode craves. Oh well, it saves me from shelling out the cash for a full bottle. There’s a nice, warm earthiness to Thundra, plus [...]

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The Center Cannot Hold

June 22, 2008

Weak dollar puts America outside luxury’s “Golden Triangle” “While American buyers are keeping an uncharacteristically low profile, with a beady eye on the miserable dollar exchange rate, other parts of the world are rejoicing in burgeoning markets and have no thought of recession . . . designers agree that it is definitely not, as it [...]

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