BamBamNYC

The extrait is amazing and exudes quality. Iris is the strongest note upon application. Some people say Amyris Homme smells designer-y but that’s because soapy clean iris is super popular in designer fragrances.

The iris here smells punchier than typically found in designers. It stings your nostrils when you spray it, but in a tantalizing way. The creamy vanilla keeps it in check. Over the hours, the iris fades away and the gentle woody amyris starts to take over. Something about this trio of notes just works.

Like many of my fragrance loves, this did not impress me at first wearing. However, I kept wanting to smell it again and again. Great for daily wear.

The best marine solinote I’ve come across. Fresh citrus opening into an ocean breeze. Slightly fishy, like seaweed washed ashore, so it can smell disgusting to some folks. It smells like you swam in the ocean and let it dry off in the sun.

Sel Marin does not contain calone, so no egg / melon smell.

This smells like a cat pissed in a bottle of vanilla extract but in the best way possible. The warm spices, clove and cinnamon, bolster the vanilla to the gourmand-but-not-sweet region. When I kept reaching for my Musc Ravageur sample, I knew I had to get a full bottle.

One time, I wore this indoors during the summer and had to head out for an errand. I couldn’t go back fast enough to wash it off. So yeah, never wear this i hot weather.

Tempo smells pleasantly bitter and medicinal like herbal tonics or Angostura bitters. If you like eating bitter melon, chances are you’ll enjoy this.

As Tempo is a patchouli fragrance, longevity and sillage are great. The maté note really shines through and makes me think of yerba maté. After ten hours Tempo smells dusty but do you really need this for more than ten hours?

I reach for this bottle surprisingly often. It has become a sort of “palate cleanser” when my nose has grown tired of everything else. Like many Diptyque offerings, it smells very “natural” and blends into the background as you go on with your day.

Being in the US, I couldn’t easily smell Dior Homme Intense; the places I typically order samples from don’t have DHI in stock. When I first tried Musc Des Sables, I thought “Oh! This must be what DHI smells like, but with better ingredients!” It fit the description of chocolatey makeup-bag iris, minus the lipstick. The patchouli note feels perfectly chosen for this composition—not too earthy, not too aromatic. The iris lends a dry yet creamy texture to the chocolatey patchouli.

Many months later, I walked by a FragNet store (didn’t know they have brick and mortar stores!) and found DHI on the shelf. Of course, I had to try this much-hyped classic. I was sorely disappointed; DHI smelled thin, nowhere as good as Musc Des Sables. I knew then that I have to get a bottle of Musc Des Sables.

While Les Indomedables has many other high-quality and interesting creations, this one feels like the best possible in its genre.