ThomC

By now I know this drydown progression inside out: first this somewhat artificial but nice cherry of one of those cheap little children's cherry lollies (who actually says "artificiality" is negative?) - but then the small but subtle hammer of change winks through: the cherry artificiality disappears within ten minutes, cherry pipe tobacco comes through, a certain seriousness. Careful, now begins the interesting part of Bogart's Homme.

Intermediate explanation: I actually like to make a bow around all these "Homme" fragrances, they are namely like trimmed to inconspicuousness, to what many men imagine under men's fragrances. It is often the consensus that bores me. And yet, there are always those that stand out. Bogart Homme is one of those. But that's only because the people behind Bogart often have the balls to want to be different in their (Ted Lapidus, too) fragrances. It's that wispy Bogart quirkiness that I like immensely. And look: Homme is also such a candidate, only more serious, but clearly less Dior Sauvage consensus.

Okay back, the cherry past, it comes out after what feels like thirty minutes, a distinctive and strange earthiness - a bit like freshly dressed mortar. Stony, Dry, Gray, and great on the skin. Of course, typically Bogart-like very long sticking to the skin.

I have really come to appreciate this fragrance, wore it every day for a week, from rather naja to great! And think today that he belongs to Bogart's top 3 fragrances with. The price for it is a joke. What the heck!

The music to the fragrance: "harvester of sorrow" by Metallica [1988]

Was a recommendation from Kai "Tuyau" on YouTube. Well, the guy has a hunch, I like his judgments and he was totally blown away by KALAN. I in good mood then souped ten milliliters. Of course: thick and long and full speed - typical PdM. The here incessantly quoted blood orange does not open up to me - rather a certain oriental sweetness with fermented windfall fruit. As a non fan of lists of various individual aromas I remain true to myself and leave it at highly subjective impressions. These say: I just don't like him! He has an insane penetrance in the drydown, something cheaply smoky. It reminds me of a mixture of a 70s crocheted ceiling living room in a bath and egg with smoky stuffed animals on the sofa. The wet laundry smells of strange soaking attempts, yes - I can smell the orange, but one soaked, one spent, one musty. And then this smoky one in the Kalan! Brrrr. Don't get the wrong idea: I like smoke as a fragrance, yes. Depends on the smoke. Pipe tobacco - cool! Revolving cigarrettes a la Halfzware - great! Only this flavoured filter tipping stuff I hate like the plague. And something that also the Kalan of it. Altogether an unhappy pairing, the area of application for me not exhausted. Date? Nope, too weird. Home alone at night? Too messy. I'm frph that there's only 10ml of it. PdM has nicer scents, that's for sure

"Boa!" it escapes every time I smell him. There is hardly a more intense, long-lasting, beautiful and at the same time ugly scent that can match this "Dhanal Oudh Nashwah" from my beloved Rasasi. A fragrance that polarizes extremely, that keeps the tension - and I love that. A fragrance charged with the strangest associations - but I always come back to it: old discotheque or boozing bar with dubious to pathetic characters. Towing shed of people who have come into the years. Five beers a day, sparse hair, beer tails, faces with bad skin that look like the classic one-pack-a-day. Later double grain to corn cola. Probably located somewhere in St. Pauli, the "Golden Glove", but it never closes.
And the Dhanal smells of such a shed: of the ashtrays that have just been brushed out, of beer glass rinsing, of old counter wood that has been pulled over with sweat and beer, of the imitation leather seats of an Opel Kadett C series. Only with "Oud" he has little to do.
It is striking, it is dense, it is not beautiful and - precisely because of its associative ugliness - it is beautiful again! A Yin and Yang of love and indecision. Certainly not an everyday perfume, nor a perfume with which the gentleman should date a lady. I, for one, prefer to wear it alone. Undisturbed. No pressure to justify myself. At most wear it in company for fun scent advising, but never to make a statement. It smells too tiring and spelunkily to me in the long run. You can get one of these three times a year, because it lacks a little bit of multidimensionality and it wears out noticeably. Such a surprise effect is only the first time!

My old man had worn this fragrance from 1988 to 1989. And I had to put up with him when I was 12 years old. Because he always wore it too much and thought: a lot is good. This scent had eaten into my young brain at times, had accompanied me everywhere, in the passenger seat, during visits, at home. It was his attempt to dress up for the ladies after the divorce. He had never really worn perfume before. Looking back, I have to say: "Drakkar Noir" was not a bad choice, it had corresponded to the spirit of the times, had style, was shrill. I just had to smell it again after more than thirty years. A self-check, if I would recognize it again after such a long time.
No, I didn't really. Anyway, no memories came rushing back. And yet it seemed familiar. But I don't like it, because it smells like a cheap man, it scratches my nose, it smells like flashy 80s fashion, like pushiness. I just smell, without any recognizable single scents. And it lacks the "whistle", the twist in the brain somehow, which makes me say: I want to wear this. Nope! The bottle stands in the bathroom with the felt billion others as a monument to a vanished spirit of the age. A warning and a reminder at the same time. That's okay. But not anymore

In short: This fragrance is a sensation!
I think there's some interesting stuff in the mainstream chains at the bottom of the shelves. That which does not interest the mainstream so much. Good for me - I'm not the Prada L'Homme type (which, by the way, I find frighteningly moderate, other topic).
It was this autumn that boredom drifted along on Düsseldorf's Königsallee into the fragrance shop with the D. Just look, smell, buy nothing. The floor shelves, at the bottom where nobody looks - they were unknown flacons. One was blue, with a silver cap. Alyssa Ashley "OUD" for him. Never heard of it, never worn it. Okay, oud's an argument, you can get to that...
Opps, what's that, please? Smell again. Gross. Disturbingly beautiful! What's that, please? And why is this scent at the bottom of the floor dust and my hate scent Prada L'Homme at eye level?
Nah, the blue things of Alyssa Ashley have less to do with OUD - more with the fat load of incense and various incense sticks, almost sticky, a little bit musty, definitely a niche, yeah! And what a.
Weeks later a small perfume tasting (I call it that - coming from the wine world...). Of seven niche scents that would be blindly handed out, this most disturbed and polarized Alyssa Ashley OUD. And yet it was easily recognized again and again by laymen. Ha! If this is not an indication of successful handwriting...
I'm researching: Perfumer is a certain Luca Maffei - a young Italian. He has probably not yet created great mainstream fragrances - apparently he feels quite comfortable in the upscale niche. I order some samples of his creations, I am interested in his style.
Maffei, I read at Parfumo, has created some fragrances for Perris Monte Carlo, a noble blacksmith, including the "OUD IMPERIAL". The madman: Maffei has created his own Dupe with Alyssa Ashley OUD. Anyway, I only smell hair-fine differences between the two, in general it fits together like Düsseldorf and Altbier, but Maffeis version of Alyssa Ashley only costs a fraction. And those who take the trouble to read the comments on Perris Monte Carlo's "OUD IMPERIAL" will remember: the expensive original (is it the original at all or is Ashley the original?) also polarizes the community. Strike!
Conclusion: If you want to attract attention, if you want to polarize, if you want something different - you buy the blue Alyssa Ashleys "OUD". I've been throwing warriors on the net. Gladly - I buy everything on.