Samarinda

About a month ago I visited the Providence Perfume Factory and had the pleasure of meeting Charna Ethier who gave me her undivided attention while letting me sample every male scent in her shop. I felt like a kid in a toy store. All the perfumes I sampled were wonderfully composed and I had a hard time choosing just one. I finally settled on a 1 oz. atomizer of Samarinda and she told me this is what her husband wears. I guess we both have excellent taste. Samarinda to my nose and on me opens a little like PDN's New York, my signature scent, and the middle notes are just a prelude to the finish which remind me a little of Andy Tauer's L'air du Desert Marocan, another scent I love. It doesn't get any better than this. Although Samerinda can be worn during any season, to me it should be worn in cooler weather.

Spicy boozey deliciousness. I live right near this perfumery and they produce some lovely scents, this one is so warm and cozy and marvelous. I bought a .3 oz spray but I'll almost certainly be back for more.

350 Discontinued: Old Review I am writing this review over 3 different occasions. Two cool days and having three 1.5-ml testers directly from Providence. I had these stored properly for 15 months and meant to get to them sooner to decide if I wanted a bottle. What was interesting is that each sample smelled differently at opening: one smelled strongly of dead sea life/ plants at the beach(cool day), the second smelled of light vanilla and orange like I remember, but weaker (cool day), and the third one smelled like patchouli the most(cool day). These came from the same batch I imagine, so it’s hard to explain the variability on the opening smell. When I went to the Providence website recently, Samarinda was no longer there. Actually I loved it from the first time I smelled it-it had an exotic punch and was unlike anything else, but it was almost too overwhelming in a good way and I recall trying it the first time ever in a warmer time. But trying it now during a cool coastal summer doesn’t seem right either. There must be a sweet spot for this perfume, not 60-F, but not 80-F either. I think you can appreciate it most in mildly warm temperatures. So I looked around online and found another shop who sold samples of this. I ordered some hopefully “fresh” samples and I am waiting to use them when that mild warm day comes. So, these fresh samples were much better and it seems the scents notes by this brand may deteriorate easily (I keep mine in a cool dark place), due to their more natural nature. I do like it a lot, but I am not of fan of the dusty seashell smell, which scratched my throat occasionally (but maybe it was something else in there). The rest of this fragrence is super. I hope Charna brings it back, without the seashell note. I do wish I bought it years ago(in a different smaller bottle 30 vs 50 ml or their nice oblong travel sized one), as her price point went up(with new branding/ bottle) too much $$$ IMO (it was not cheap before). Now the new travel bottle has a roller ball which is a problem because it introduces skin bacteria and junk quickly and it does affect the perfume smell. I wish she would bring back other options size-wise and Samarinda V2 without the sea (it does not need this note)! 8/10 for uniqueness, despite sea note.

Samarinda is a well balanced, well done perfume with interesting notes. That being said, it is definitely not to my taste. It opens with a very bitter boozey, incense forward medicinal smell, followed by very strong notes of saltwater seashells with that "something died here" scent that seashells give off while they are recently removed from the ocean. A bitter birch tar leather note weaves in and out and never leaves the fragrance. In the final drydown, some warmth and a nice balance of all the notes emerges. The coffee and oak and a few snippets of florals, topped off with a vanilla note dominate the drydown. A very unisex fragrance, again just not my taste.

hummm.. very good... i liked this one from the first sniff. it has that shy orange dropped in cardamom rum. neroli and oak are quite sharp and obvious. but the pepper note makes a nose itching effect! so far no vanilla there but as it calms down the vanilla rises a bit. the rose as well comes up after few minutes, and i guess the salty note is supposed to be the seashells. no leather and no rice notes as well as the Heliotrope. i can still sense the stamp of Providence in here. a nice fragrance