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The Big Sniff

560 replies

CountFosco · 21/01/2018 19:57

Welcome to The Big Sniff!

Some of us on the Perfumista threads have decided it might be fun to have a synchronised perfume smelling. The idea is once a week, probably a Sunday, we all try the same perfume and post our opinions here. We’re very friendly so don’t worry if you’re not an expert (I’m definitely not!), the idea is to have some fun.

We’ve contacted The Perfume Society and have wangled a 20% discount on a mixed box of 9 perfume samples (plus a hand cream, some cleanser and a bar of Green and Black chocolate - what’s not to like?). The Box we’re going for this time is The Velvet Collection. All you do is visit The Perfume Society website, Add The Velvet Collection to your cart and use the coupon Mumsnet (we’re original like that!). The box is normally £19 (or £15 if you’re a VIP subscriber), but with our discount it is £15.20, (or £12 if you’re a VIP subscriber of The Perfume Society). There are some other lovely boxes on sale at the moment which come highly recommended by some of our Perfumistas and would make lovely gifts or to keep for yourself not enabling at all oh no

If you are interested then sign up here and get over to The Perfume Society and order your box. We’ll do the first Big Sniff on Sunday 28th January. Oh, and before you eat all the chocolate have a look at the sniffing notes, there’s some on the chocolate as well.

The contents of the box are as follows:
• Atkinsons Pirates Grand Reserve 1.2 ml eau de parfum(full size £120 for 100 ml)
• Floral Street Chypre Sublime 1.5 ml eau de parfum(full size £55 for 50 ml)
• Connock Andiroba Eau de Parfum 1.5 ml eau de parfum(full size £75 for 100 ml)
• Avery‘E’ 4 ml pure perfume (full size £90 for 30 ml)
• Lalique Rêve d’Infini 1.8 ml eau de parfum(full size £72 for 100 ml)
• Map of the Heart Gold Heart v.4 1 ml eau de parfum(full size £150 for 90 ml)
• Ruth Mastenbroek Firedance 2 ml eau de parfum(full size £90 for 50 ml)
• Vince Camuto Amore 7.5 ml MINIATURE eau de parfum(full size £60 for 100 ml)
• Valeur Absolue Rouge Passion 1.5 ml eau de parfum(full size £59 for 45 ml)
• philosophy purity made simple 3-in-1 cleanser for face and eyes30 ml lotion (full size £19 for 240 ml)
• Cochine White Jasmine & Gardenia Hand Cream5 ml (full size £24 for 100 ml)
• Green & Black’s Velvet Edition Orange & Almond Chocolate 100 g

OP posts:
AnotherPinkiePieStory · 28/01/2018 12:46

YES to TCP. Woody but no oud yet. Not sure I smell rum but a strong whisky thought. Maybe an upmarket pirate!?
Do like it but not compared to trying it last week (pre sign-up honest!). Perhaps the truth is in the dry down.

MrsGruber · 28/01/2018 13:27

Am down to a soft vanillary/tobacco skin scent. Pleasant. Think I missed a woody stage whilst out, earlier. Will reapply and pay better attention Smile. First impressions are that this is just too well behaved and genteel for pirates.

CountFosco · 28/01/2018 13:41

I'm down to the vanilla as well. Not masses of sillage really.

Anyone had any rum/chocolate/vanilla perfumes before? My skin seems to love vanilla, the Atelier Cologne Vanille Insensee made me smell like I'd spilt a bottle of vanilla essence on myself. And, as discussed over on the perfumista thread yesterday Mon Guerlain ended with a strong vanilla drydown.

Juniper is the main scent in gin, we've got juniper grove near us and it smells delightfully of gin. Think the notes of rum are probably harder to replicate.

OP posts:
MrsGruber · 28/01/2018 14:37

Think I have a formula for full throttle pirate: 2 parts The Dark Heart of Old Havana (4160Tuesday) - for citrussy sugary booze over the smell of tropical decay and 1 part Vie et Armis (Beaufort) - for gunpower, dark dark leather, and a hint of pepper and spice).

Quite a tough wear though...

lasttimeround · 28/01/2018 15:06

Hmm at this point in the day it reminds me lots of mon guerlain. I guess it's the dry down as count said. I didn't like mon guerlain much so this also gets a meh from me. But having said that I am a huge guerlain fan so a new guerlain has huge expectations to contend with. I'm washing off and back into kenzo jungle which is making me so happy just now.
You are right at this being too well behaved for a pirate. I wanted more booze more sea and salt and man skin. Gunpowder, smoke leather and sweat. Instead mon guerlain but with a more interesting opening...feels a little ludicrous. Piratey guerlain is not.
I like your recipe mrsgruber

Calmwhoknows · 28/01/2018 15:42

I’ve been reading the thread with great interest to see what you would all say. I tested this a couple of days ago (for practical reasons) and had the strongest reaction in months to a perfume. I really hated it! 😨. On me it opened with an excessively strong rum and non-sweet chocolate, quickly followed by unpleasant strong woods. My pirate was a real bully! I smelt like the man on the tube whose pungent after-shave is making everyone think “I should have got into the next carriage”. This stage lasted for an hour or two before drying down to a soft and not very interesting vanilla skin scent.

Count, you were asking if anybody had tried other rum/chocolate/vanilla/perfumes. I have a sample of Chanel’s Feve Delicieuse (my second sample) and hope to buy a full bottle as soon as they start selling them in a smaller size, later in the year. It has fruity top notes, then chocolate (plus to me some minty liquorice) morphing into a caramel vanilla. I can also smell boozy notes although this is not listed. Then there is Madonna's Truth or Dare Naked, which to me is a boozy mint toffee, with florals, vanilla and creamy chocolate notes. Both delightful!

AnotherPinkiePieStory · 28/01/2018 16:07

A no from me! Faded away to a bit of a splodge. Bit gutted as loved it on first go. Maybe different day/ more or less moisturiser. Will stick to dark heart of old Havana as that is my sort of pirate!
I’m still testing SJP covet which is meant to have chocolate but I’m not sure I can detect it. However after hearing you perfumista rave about Knowing, I tried it today in Boots. Really like it and sales assistant asked if I was wearing Tom Ford. She looked shocked when I said Knowing!

CheapTarnishedGlitter · 28/01/2018 16:10

It's become quite interesting on me... right wrist did get vanillery but the left ended up more woody/Spicey. Never had the same thing take two different directions on me like that before!

I wouldn't score this highly for sillage but all in all I'm not too keen so that's probably a good thing. Still considering the scores but definitely a no for FB worthiness.

MrsGruber · 28/01/2018 18:16

Darn it. Got distracted again. So third time lucky. - I'm persisting to try and smell the woody phase.

Calm - I had a quick 'preview' mid week and I got quite a high-pitched synthetic wood (helvetolide???) coming in mid way-through. The weird thing was, it seemed to oscillate in strength. (The note is quite similar to the high-pitch synth wood in OML alpha - but much more dominant in that).

MrsGruber · 28/01/2018 18:54

Yeah, I've found the peek-a-boo synthetic wood note again. It sits very smoothly with the rest of the composition but it is just a bit too higher register for my taste. I've had to look for it though, so it's by no means overwhelming.

Think the vanilla/patchouli/tobacco combo in Hyperbole is more beautiful and more compelling.

And as for other vanilla/tobacco grourmands, landlubbers who would like to wear a velvet smoking jacket whilst eating pattiserie should grab a bottle of 4160Tuesdays The Great Randello.

I find both of these much more interesting than Tobacco Vanille.

MrsPestilence · 28/01/2018 19:40

I'm also getting a Mon Guerlain similarity on dry down. Pirates smells on me like Mon Guerlain smells on some other people, sweet but not pink minger and rather vanilla. The wood note (cedar) is quite similar to Pharrell Williams Girl, with a slight undertone of wet concrete or playdoh. I've had a bath now and the best it has smelt was when I was wet but not washed Confused

Not what I would expect a pirate to smell like.

MrsGruber · 28/01/2018 19:46

It's not the cedar I'm picking up Pest - it's a squeakier woody/musk.

MrsPestilence · 28/01/2018 20:09

It is the Cashmeran that I am picking up. The diffusive, musky-woody scent is reminiscent of concrete (especially the abstract woody scent that concrete gives when hit upon by rain, a cityscape in the rain), also lightly spicy, lightly powdery.

CheapTarnishedGlitter · 28/01/2018 20:10

Pest you might just have cracked it. Wet bit unwashed is one of the best descriptions of a (classic) pirate I've heard!

Judydreamsofhorses · 28/01/2018 20:22

Furious that my box hasn’t arrived. You all sound like you’re having a fab time. No reply to my email, so even more furious!

CountFosco · 28/01/2018 20:22

On me it opened with an excessively strong rum and non-sweet chocolate, quickly followed by unpleasant strong woods.

I got the rum and unsweet cocao which is probably historically accurate but the wood was very fleeting for me.

OP posts:
CountFosco · 28/01/2018 20:26

Madonna's Truth or Dare Naked, which to me is a boozy mint toffee, with florals, vanilla and creamy chocolate notes

This sounds gorgeous. Cheap on Amazon as well. Tempting.

OP posts:
BluebellGal · 28/01/2018 20:27

I sort of like this one today- when I could smell it. It cake and went throughout the day.

I did get some rum later on. It smelt like on a slightly boozy, spicy caramelised pudding on the drydown- with lots of vanilla. I really like Captured by Candlelight and think it’s what Pirate Grand Reserve wants to be like, but doesn’t quite reach its peak.

Who said it smells like playdoh? My DH thought that too! I didn’t get that note at all.

A fun set of notes to sniff out, glad I’ve tried it but didn’t blow me away.

MrsGruber · 28/01/2018 21:00

This is a bit shriller than cashmeran - like the top end of some high pitched ouds.

MrsPestilence · 28/01/2018 21:10

Could be the clary sage. Interestingly enough, people who dislike the scent of clary sage essential oil describe it having a smell similar to tobacco along with an earthly stench. On the contrary, those who like the aroma of this essential oil say that it is balmy, woody and herbal.

I also found a short window of a hint of oud (is that possible? Oud generally shouts).

MrsGruber · 28/01/2018 23:10

Defo not clary stage either - about two octaves higher. And synthetic.

Silverstreaks · 29/01/2018 07:21

Smokey sweet, soft almost talcy on me.
Very light when I was expecting something much punchier. Oh well there goes my preconceived notions (and purposely did not read the notes).
I'd be surprised if I can smell anything at all in a couple of hours but will try.

Motoko · 29/01/2018 08:58

I'm hoping my box turns up today.

MrsGruber · 29/01/2018 10:06

Wonder how we would've reacted if it had been called something else?

I have also been wondering if the colour was natural?

CountFosco · 29/01/2018 10:44

Wonder how we would've reacted if it had been called something else?

Yes, I was hoping for aquatic and animalistic notes but it was pure gourmand (plus TCP Wink).

I know not everyone has received their box yet but when you do try the Pirate and post your opinions here. I suspect some might retry this week as well.

Next Sunday's perfume is Avery E which is a 4ml sample! In the meantime I'm wearing Panda from Zoologist which is about as far away from the Pirate Grand Reserve as it's possible to get.

OP posts:
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