La Léthé

This smells a lot different on my boyfriend than me. On him it almost smells like a traditional male cologne... almost. I don't usually like fragrances for men, and avoid testing scents that are described as cologney. They almost all seem to have this synthetic smelling... For lack of a better word, cologney smelling base, but this is really nice on him. I tested it on him first and thought, even though it smelled slighty on the masculine side, that it's a scent I would appreciate more on a woman. It's definitely a very warm scent for sure on both him and me, but on me it loses any facet that gave me that "cologney" impression. The tobacco and musk are the most noticeable. The nutmeg brings a bit of spiced warmth without making the composition smell nutmeggy. From the notes I was expecting a labdanum heavy amber accord, which is my favorite type of amber, and really, I love labdanum just by it's self, but unfortunately, I really can't smell any labdanum popping out. Maybe the addition of black orchid is causing the amber to pull floral in this case. Regardless, the labdanum is blended in too well to stand out. Also I could smell a tiny bit of the hemlock on him, but not on myself. It had a really cool herbal air, but I don't necessarily miss it since I can't smell it on myself. It was only a vague nuance on him anyhow. This fragrance could easily be mistaken as part of the Histoires de Parfums line, because the amber used here is almost identical to the amber accord Histoires de Parfums always uses, and reminds me vaguely of Marquis de Sade for that reason, and even though they're don't smell the same, they have so many similar qualities that I would recommend testing this if you liked Sade.

Review of sample that's been setting in a cool dark place for 8 years. Directly from the dabber: Oh wow. If someone was wearing this and they said it was an expensive niche brand, I would have believed them. It smells better than History De Parfums 1740 Casanova based of Le Marquis de Sade, IMO, though I wouldn't personally wear it. It's like leather with a natural herbal quality to it on a back drop of amber. It's not sweet, but it is very nice.

A brief and beautiful, but dark floral opening, which I'll assume is the orchid. Initially a light floral scent, but then the darkness creeps up... I'd say it's the labdanum followed by faint smell of hemlock that follows. Part of it is almost clinical in its smell, but there is musk and amber lurking in the background. On my skin it's an interesting contradiction of bright floral and dark maybe herbal background. It's green in its way and it's very unusual on my skin. Part of it smells like some herbal disinfectant, and I'd definitely not wear it for every day wear, maybe a very special occasion-but not occasions like a nice dinner, or theatre, or anywhere you need to dress up...more like a special party where you had to dress up as plants or trees and wanted to smell more like plants or trees with a hint of earth.

BPAL uses a note that often smells like peanut butter on me. I think it's the cedar. This starts out with that note, strongly marked, but accompanied by a lovely frankincense resin. From there, it dries through a BO stage that had me itching to scrub, and lands squarely on dry down as a rose/amber/resin combo that reminds me of import oils. It's pretty nice, but the BO stage was too much for me. I like to smell clean, and that was the opposite.