EitherOr

I don’t want to bore anyone with my very amateurish note distinctions and descriptions, that‘s why I only want to focus my review on the things I feel when I smell Musc Ravageur, because that’s what’s unique to me and only me.

Musc Ravageur was always trying to enter my home. Today it happened after countless amounts of samples and having to small-talk my way into getting another spray on my wrist. I adore this perfume - instant grace that I only feel when my girlfriend or cat kisses me.

I wish they sold the opening of Musc Ravageur separately, maybe as a kind of a summer cologne. Nonetheless, Musc Ravageur ravages in summer, yes, it expresses its masterpiece formula just like how catnip catches another feline victim. Musc Ravageur will be my signature scent and I could live happily to the end of my days if this would be my last perfume.

Frederic Malle's perfumes don't really speak to me - no perfume really seems to fit into my style - either too harsh, too light or too heavy (maybe its my 21th century nose, well, probably), but this was one of the perfumes that immediately reminded me of something very positive to me, a shower gel. It's by far not any shower gel, it's Aesops Geranium Body Cleanser. A shower gel so expensive, no person with an average income (like myself) is tempted to buy, but if you have an attentive girlfriend like I do you might get the chance to get Aesop stuff as a gift. Geranium Pour Homme smells just like the shower gel and I might buy the perfume just because it smells like it. If I wouldn't have the shower gel I probably wouldn't like the perfume. A very weird statement, I know, but please, try the shower gel and tell me that it isn't the best shower gel you've ever tried and tell me that this perfume is only worth the money if you own the shower gel, because they're both made for burning your monthly loan (another thing I love, maybe that's why I got into perfumes).

A perfume so vain that it is challenging to win it over for yourself. Before my trip to France, I had already smelled Ganymede, but it was November and my nose seemed to have been numbed by all the sweet perfumes (my preference has now completely shifted to fresher scents). On vacation now, around 30 degrees in mid-July, I encountered Ganymede in a small but very fine perfumery and it blew me away. The heaviness of the metallic/leathery notes seemed to have transformed into various woods, and the mandarin as a top note stood out clearly for the first time. I then bought the 30ml bottle and within two months I used it up. For my birthday at the end of summer, my girlfriend bought me the 100ml. However, as I was using up the 30ml, autumn was already dancing in, and somehow more and more of the freshness disappeared, and it now smelled just like I had first smelled it in November. Luckily, summer will be here again in half a year.

The only problem is the bottle - both bottles (30 and 100ml) became leaky after a few trips. My girlfriend has the Tilia (also by Marc-Antoine Barrois), and this problem has not occurred with it so far.

A very beautiful, fresh and musky orange blossom perfume. Reminds me of my last vacation in France, because the apartment I stayed in provided a Savon De Marseilles soap that was also titled Fleur d'Oranger. Pretty much overpriced, but I will probably buy it in a few months when the summer has arrived.

While I was visiting Berlin with my girlfriend last December I was painstakingly searching for the fragrance of my dreams. Fighting through countless of sniff tests at the KaDeWe and a very chic "niche" perfumery, I stumbled upon Parfums Lubner, where I found a section of Toskovat perfumes. I tried every perfume they had and picked the (subjectively) best one of them - Present Gambit. The opening is what really caught me - fresh pineapple, some sweet ambergris but still very strong. The dry down is like an oil painting of the opening - faded away, but the colours are still present. Behaves like a modern perfume, smells like a reimagined perfume of the past. Another weird and beautiful fragrance that some people seem to love and hate.