Histoire d'Eau

I bought this blind, based on reviews here. It just got delivered from Amazon, about $15 for 2.5 oz. As people commented on Amazon, it leaked in transit, but only a tiny bit. The container is very... hmmm... 1960s i guess, reflecting the 60s fascination with plastics which were new and amazing then, especially acrylics, and the clean futuristic look of fashion and furnishings in the mid 60s. It is a bit tricky to spray. The spray head has to be rotated (it has on and off positions). And pushing in the middle didn't work. Eventually, while carefully aimed away from me, i got it to work. However, the scent is not plastic modern. I haven't given it time to develop fully, but, wow! It is a rich, deep, heady oriental like i haven't smelled in ages... because i love orientals, but i've been trying to get into lighter and more contemporary scents lately. Today Histoire d'Eau is giving me a load of warm spices, ylang2, and sweet amber. I don't smell the citrus, just as i never do in Shalimar perfume (S's EdTs & outliers don't count, as far as i am concerned :-p) I'm not a musk fan, so I was surprised that i kind of liked the musk in Hermes Un Jardin... series. I'll see if it turns up with the leather in HdE's dry down and how i feel about it. = Edit = The musk didnt show up until *many* hours later. It wasnt a horrible musk, but not special like Hermes. I never smelled the leather :( = End Edit = To comment on what 'awesomness' said, i am finding that many fragrances are quite unpredictable on me lately, too! One day Narcisco Rodriguez for Her smells like old foam rubber and another like roses; one day Bvlgari Omnia smells like nasty RiteGuard deodorant and another like Indian spices. I'll see how HdE and i get along. But i can say that HdE is feminine, adult, and *potent*. So don't spray this on and immediately walk into an elevator or climb into an automobile with others :-) = Edit = I have worn this several times now. So far it always smells as wonderful as it did the first time, richly spicey, heavy ylang2, warm and enveloping. Definitely a success, and a special occasion scent. = End Edit =

I am slowly making my way through Sebastian and his Roumanian friend's list of 19 awesome cheapies. This arrived today all the way from Israel and it is an instant love! I am running a bath to wash off the Only One Intense I am wearing so I can fully rock this. I can't believe the last review before mine was in August of 2020! So this is a rare treasure. It is ambery and mysterious and was reminding me of something which I have now identified: Elixir Des Merveilles- another beloved fragrance of mine. This one is a bit more animalic and I can't wait to experience the drydown. I personally think the bottle is cool as well- reminds me of the 80's. I wish fragrantica still let us edit our reviews so I could write about that later- I really hate the massive overhaul they did on their site. Editing is the absolute KEY for all artistic endeavors. What idiot would have disabled the editing function available to users? It's as bad as Facebook which used to be fun back in 2009-15, and it got steadily worse over each of those years as well. Here is a fun fact from my own experience: someone at Facebook came to dislike my best friend and I supporting each other's posts on difficult posts that might, say, discuss topics which no one wants to hear about although they should. Well, they made my friend unsearchable to me and me to her. We simply do not exist for each other on FB any longer. If I find a post with her in it, her name is black instead of blue. For a time, she thought I had deleted her! Now I detect a fear factor in this censorship committed by the overlords. The PTB at FB just do not want certain things discussed. And, imagine, we have a 1st Amendment here in the US protecting free speech! Not sure why this fragrance site is now censoring our ability to edit..

I just got my 40 ml bottle and I’m sooooo stoked! First off the bottle looks awesome! Yeah it’s plastic, but so cool! To me it looks like a citrus press with a juice reservoir in the shape of an orange. Then the scent! It is addictive! So so so yummy! I’m testing this against Godet Mondanité (which sadly isn’t on Fragantica yet) and I keep going back to this one, even though Mondanité is absolutely delicious and has more silage. I think I too got a bottle of a weaker batch, because the scent fades to somewhat of a skin scent fairly quickly, but what is there is pure awesomejuice! It opens with zesty orange.. it’s syrupy rather than juicy.. more specifically it smells like a somewhat medicinal orange juice and zest syrup that has dried up and gone somewhat bad, cause it has this somewhat yeasty booziness to it. I can’t explain, and it probably sounds horrible, but it’s so so good! At the same time there’s something animalic from the leather, something reminiscent of aniseed, which is probably a mix between the cardamom and mandarin orange.. beeswax is there too.. it’s warm and fresh and spicy all at the same time and I can’t stop sniffing!! I’m obsessed and rambling! This may replace Shalimar as my signature scent. I’m in love! I need another bottle 😂 It somehow reminds me of SJP Stash even though the two fragrances are very very different 🤔

Sweet amber and wood shavings, the cedar plays out here but resembles sandalwood b/c of the beautiful mix with the sweetness of the amber. Very woody. I'd say orange blossom over orange citrus b/c again the sweetness of the wood/amber combo. Sure the ylang ylang can add to that. Not a ylang ylang fan but it is not a bother here. Well blended into the other beautiful notes to evolve as something completely different. I keep mentioning sweet but this is not the cloying candy sweet but rather the lumber store after a rain sweet. Cardamom is present but do not dismiss if you don't like it b/c i promise it's only there if you know to look for it. This one makes me happy. As soon as i opened the box, i got a whiff of something that made me instantly smile. Very close to what Tam Dao does for me but a bit sweeter and less straight up wood, again given by the Amber. So i think i may have found a favorite amber perfume after a very long search. Always loved the note but it's never been done quite so perfectly with my next favorite note, WOOOOOOOOD. Im a nutmeg/pepper girl, wish i got more with this one but i think for layering with another heavily spiced beauty this could be a winner. My only regret is i got the small bottle. Going back for a bigger one. :)

Sweet amber and wood shavings, the cedar plays out here but resembles sandalwood b/c of the beautiful mix with the sweetness of the amber. Very woody. I'd say orange blossom over orange citrus b/c again the sweetness of the wood/amber combo. Sure the ylang ylang can add to that. Not a ylang ylang fan but it is not a bother here. Well blended into the other beautiful notes to evolve as something completely different. I keep mentioning sweet but this is not the cloying candy sweet but rather the lumber store after a rain sweet. Cardamom is present but do not dismiss if you don't like it b/c i promise it's only there if you know to look for it. This one makes me happy. As soon as i opened the box, i got a whiff of something that made me instantly smile. Very close to what Tam Dao does for me but a bit sweeter and less straight up wood, again given by the Amber. So i think i may have found a favorite amber perfume after a very long search. Always loved the note but it's never been done quite so perfectly with my next favorite note, WOOOOOOOOD. Im a nutmeg/pepper girl, wish i got more with this one but i think for layering with another heavily spiced beauty this could be a winner. My only regret is i got the small bottle. Going back for a bigger one. :)