30 Days of Scent, Day One: Yves Saint Laurent Parisienne

As inspired by Veggiewolf at Eating Monsters, I’m going to work my way through 30 scents in my own wardrobe and review them. I’ve been collecting for quite a while, and between bottles, decants, and samples, I’ve got more than enough fragrances to do it. Several of them don’t get much wear, though, so I’m going to see if I can make it 30 days without any repeats.

For day one, I’ve chosen Parisienne by Yves Saint Laurent ($39-65, Sephora), released in 2009. It bears noting that mine is the original eau de parfum, not the eau de toilette that was released in 2010, which has a slightly different composition. The original concept of Parisienne was as an update to Yves Saint Laurent’s 1983 megahit Paris. I don’t want to take anything away from Paris, because it’s widely regarded as a classic, but to me, the rose accord in it is a bit screechy, and the huge projection makes it very much a product of its time.

Parisienne opens with a mix of cranberry, blackberry, and vinyl. On me, though, the fruity top notes are rather fleeting, and the vinyl exists only to give a certain edge to the rose-violet combo underneath. Typically, I’m one on whom the top notes just disappear, but with Parisienne it’s a little more subtle. The vinyl is listed as a top note right alongside the cranberry and blackberry, but while I get a few minutes from the fruity notes, the vinyl sort of hangs out in the background, quietly adding a slight edge to the floral heart.

Underneath that opening, the heart is more rose than anything, but with a distinct violet note and a hint of peony. To be entirely honest, all the peony does is give it that slight sweet lift, much like it does to the dark, ambery rose of Stella by Stella McCartney. The powdery character of the violet gives this scent a distinct “expensive makeup” vibe, like that odd half-scent, half-taste that you get in your mouth when you put on certain brands of lipstick. Parisienne holds on to its heart notes better than most; even hours later, as the woody drydown is starting to kick in, I can still smell traces of rose and powder.

The base is made up of vetiver, musk, sandalwood, and patchouli. Normally I have to be a bit careful with patchouli, but it’s not very prominent here. Instead of being the biggest note in the scent the way it is with fragrances like Chanel Coco or Thierry Mugler Angel, the patchouli almost disappears in Parisienne, there only to give it an extra boost of staying power. The most pronounced components in the drydown of Parisienne, for me, are the musk and sandalwood. By the time it gets to that stage, though, it’s been going for hours, and is pretty close to the skin.

Parisienne is a scent that to me is more contemporary-casual than dressy. It’s a jeans-and-high-heels kind of scent, one that I’d wear on a meeting-for-drinks date, but not out to dinner someplace fancy. Being a denim-and-heels kind of person, I find myself reaching for it on a regular basis, and if I had to name my top 10 out of my current collection, this would most likely be in it. I’d rate it a solid 8/10.

For Ethan: Reasonably priced colognes that don’t smell cheap

I had a question from my friend Ethan in Virginia. “Do you have any suggestions on less expensive colognes that won’t make me smell like garbage? Not that I intend to go cheap, but I’m seeing some pretty steep prices.” And you know what? The guy’s got a point. Fragrances are expensive, and not everyone can go as high-end as they’d like. I know I’ve got a lot of samples in my collection that I can’t dream of owning in a full bottle. Sometimes, you just can’t spend what you’d like to on fragrance. That doesn’t mean there’s not good stuff out there. Here’s a list of fragrances readily available at the mall for under $75 that don’t smell like a locker room.

Euphoria Men by Calvin Klein ($46.99, Perfumania) is a fresh, spicy scent with a hint of sweetness. It starts off with Sichuan peppercorn and ginger, mellowing into an herbal-woody heart of black basil, sage, and cedar, before drying down to a rich base of amber, patchouli, suede, and redwood. This is a very confident scent that hangs fairly close to the skin, not needing to announce itself to the whole room, but it makes for a fantastic-smelling hug.

The entire Yves Saint Laurent L’Homme line is good, but the original L’Homme ($25 for the mini, bottles starting at $52, Sephora) is a true classic. Ginger, spices, and bergamot dominate, giving it a clean freshness that smells elegant without being sporty. La Nuit de L’Homme and L’Homme Libre are also very good choices, but try out the original first.

I wouldn’t bother with Victoria’s Secret’s original Very Sexy For Him. It’s overplayed and a little bit banal, much like many of their women’s scents. It’s as if it were trying to be Armani Code and missed, and unless your skin chemistry does something spectacular with it, it’s going to read as pretty boring. Wear it if you must, but never on a date.

The other two, Very Sexy For Him 2 and Very Sexy For Him Platinum (above; $42, Victoria’s Secret) are a lot more interesting. I particularly like the way the violet leaf and pepper play off the oakmoss in Platinum. The violet leaf makes it green, the oakmoss makes it deep, and the pepper keeps it all from going too heavy.

L’Occitane is bad about discontinuing their best stuff (I’m still mourning their Notre Flore collection!), but their Eau des Baux ($55, L’Occitane En Provence) is a very good choice. It starts off spicy, with cardamom and pink pepper, before drying down to cypress, incense, vanilla, and tonka bean.

Burberry Brit for Men (starts at $60 at Sephora, but check TJMaxx/Marshall’s/Ross type places first, because I often see Burberry fragrances there at a significant discount) is a very sophisticated, quietly masculine, confident scent that reminds me of what a modern Sherlock Holmes might wear. The spices in it are very fresh, giving a manly vibe to the prominent rose note.

A few honorable mentions:

• Calvin Klein Eternity Aqua, $56, Ulta. Very typical “blue cologne,” so you kind of know what it’s going to smell like before you spray it, but it’s a good example of its class, very well blended for the price.
• Thierry Mugler Cologne, $60, Macy’s. Very typical citrus aromatic, very unisex, but smells very fresh and clean. Be careful of Mugler’s scents, though, in that you HAVE to try them on skin before buying. I have a couple of fragrances by Thierry Mugler, and they either do really well or really badly, depending on the wearer’s skin chemistry. There isn’t much in between.
• L’Occitane Cedre & Oranger, $75, L’Occitane En Provence. This one would have topped my list if it were $20 less, but at the very top of the price range, it’s a little high for what it is, another citrus-and-cedar blend over a vetiver and musk base. At a $50-55 dollar range, I’d rank it as excellent, but at $75, it’s merely good.
• Abercrombie and Fitch Fierce, $44, abercrombie.com. I have to mention this one because of its popularity, but I was around when it was new, and it just smells like eau de sleazeball to me. If you buy into the whole Abercrombie and Fitch aesthetic, it might be one you’d like, but I just can’t get behind it. It’s not poor quality, but the image the scent evokes for me is of creepy guys who are too impressed with their own six-packs and bad pickup lines to respect “go away,” so I’m really not a fan. If you’ve ever seen Lizzie Bennet Diaries on Youtube, think George Wickham.
• Dior Fahrenheit, $50.99, Perfumania. This is a well-known leather scent that’s been around a while. If it works well on you, it’s very sexy, but if it doesn’t go well with your skin chemistry, it’s going to smell like you’ve been out doing yard work, all sweat and gasoline and fresh grass. Don’t buy this one without trying it on your skin first.

There are some good options out there that don’t involve triple-digit prices. For the most part, you get what you pay for in fragrances, but there are some very good mid-priced scents out there. And don’t underestimate places like Perfumania,  Ross, TJMaxx, Marshall’s, etc. You can get the real deal without paying a fortune, if you’re smart about it.

Fragrances to Try From The Men’s Counter This Summer (And Which to Pack Away)

Those of us here in Charlotte are definitely feeling the heat lately, and the scents we wore over the winter are just too much for the 90-plus degree weather we’ve been having. I know I’ve packed my heavy hitters away until fall comes around. If you’re a fan of fragrances marketed to men, you’re having even more trouble, because those tend to project even more. So what do you wear when it feels like your shoes are about to melt to the pavement, and you feel like you’re sticking your head in a furnace when you get in your car to go for lunch? Here are a few good choices for summer wear that won’t make you feel like you’re suffocating.

Prada Luna Rossa (starting at $62, Sephora) is a fantastic citrus herbal for daytime. It’s fresh, and yes, it’s somewhat sport-inspired, but it has enough going on with the lavender, mint, and sage that it’s not going to smell like random drunk frat boy, and the ambrette seed and ambroxan give it a rich, fresh-spicy drydown. Like many Prada scents, it’s got a little bit of a soapy character, which means people are going to be thinking that you smell clean, rather than that you bathed in cologne.

(Bit of a quibble: originally, cologne referred to several very specific light, citrus-based scents, such as Maurer & Wirtz 4711 Eau de Cologne, released in 1792, and Guerlain Eau de Cologne Imperiale, released in 1860, both of which are still on the market. Then it came to mean a concentration of fragrance, roughly equivalent to an eau de toilette, but as the 20th century wore on and people got more and more used to gender-specific marketing, it became common to refer to “perfume” as for women and “cologne” as for men. Even though they’re commonly referred to as colognes, men’s fragrances generally come in eau de toilette–that’s roughly “water that goes with the outfit,” not “toilet water”!–or eau de parfum, just like the ones marketed to women.)

Tom Ford Grey Vetiver (starting at $90, Nordstrom) has a little bit of a sharp coldness from the combination of vetiver and citrus, but there’s a woody style to it that keeps it firmly grounded in “classic” without crossing into “smelling like grandpa” territory. This is one that’s in that perfect spot between “casual weekend scent” and “too formal for the office,” making it a great scent to wear to work.

Declaration d’Un Soir by Cartier ($80-108, Neiman Marcus) is my very favorite fragrance from the men’s counter for my own wear. The pepper note is what really makes it, keeping the rose from being too feminine and the sandalwood from being too heavy for hot weather. It may well be the perfect fragrance: genderless, seasonless, and appropriate for any occasion, but responsive enough to one’s own skin chemistry to make it one’s own. My friend J and I both wear it on occasion, and while I get mostly wood and pepper, the rose note that fades into the background on me stands out beautifully on him.

Bath and Body Works’ Paris For Men ($29.50 regularly; 50% off right now for their semi-annual sale) is going to be by far the least expensive on this list, but not because it’s poor quality. It’s got a sort of marine quality that gives it some freshness, but the violet and lavender notes in it soften the scent up, keeping it from going into “generic blue-bottle cologne” territory. Do me a favor, though, and wait about 15 minutes to let the top notes settle out before passing judgment on it, because it opens a little bit fruity, but it settles out almost immediately. This is one that has fantastic lasting power but doesn’t fill up a room, which is much appreciated in hot weather.

 

Versace Eros ($62-108, Macy’s) is a great one for summer evenings. It has enough of a green, herbal character that it’s not going to be stifling, but the vanilla makes it a great one to cuddle up with. It’s a fantastic date night scent.

L’Homme Libre by Yves Saint Laurent ($52-85, Sephora) is a fresh-spicy scent, slightly green from the addition of violet leaf, with an earthy vetiver-patchouli base. This is one that I can see being worn year round, but it really comes into its own in the summer, as a break from all the various citruses.

Now, on the other hand, there are also some scents I’d recommend putting away until the weather cools off a bit. Not that they aren’t fantastic, but they just don’t work in the heat. Here’s a list of a few you might want to hold off on until the seasons change:

• Armani Code. To me, it’s the sexiest men’s fragrance ever made, and even though I’ve always laughed at the old bit about “panty dropper” fragrances (seriously, what kind of douchebag says that?), if I’m already into a guy and Code sits well on his skin, I can’t get enough. However, the leather and tobacco notes in it make it really hard to pull off in the summer. Wear a spray or two when you go out at night if you must, but it really comes alive in the fall.
• Viktor & Rolf Spicebomb. Too sweet/warm spicy, and it projects so much that in this heat, people will choke. Just don’t.
• Paco Rabanne 1 Million. Or, hey, how about instead of packing this one up until the fall, you just give it away and don’t wear it anymore? This one is played out, and I’m almost as sick of it as I am of Le Male.
• Bond No. 9 New Haarlem or its cheaper smell-alikes, Rochas Man and Michael Jordan Legend. There’s nothing wrong with a rich coffee-vanilla scent, and in cooler weather, there’s nothing quite like it. Very sexy, very unique. However, it’s too heavy in hot weather, and it feels sticky and stifling.

I hope this gives you some ideas of new scents to experiment with this summer. It’s OK to have fun with your scent, regardless of your gender, and it really is best to change it up from time to time, especially when the weather changes.