Maison Francis Kurkdjian Absolue Pour Le Soir: Absolument Pour Le Soir

As Absolue Pour Le Soir touched my skin I immediately had a feeling of deja-vu. Something familiar but at the same time pleasing and intriguing. It took me a few more minutes to realize that the skanky/animalic opening of this composition bought to my mind of a sort of mash-up between Musc Ravageur and Muscs Koublai Khan. Don't get me wrong, Absolue Pour Le Soir is not exactly similar to either of the aforementioned fragrances but it surely shares with them the dirty-sexy vibe. It opens with a strong animalic note enriched by benzoin and cedarwood but where Musc Ravageur introduces lavender and turns really soon into a gourmandic spicy vanilla and Muscs Koublai Khan settles into a "cleaner" musky rose, this one stays pretty dark and mantains the intitial skunky vibe throughout. Honeyed rose and smoky frankincense make their appearance in the middle phase adding extra boldness and a dense syrupy aspect.



Overall I'd say that APLS represents a step forward among dark muscs and brings this kind of fragrances to a brand new level where the challenging animalic nuances are enriched by incredible refinements and details. Not for everybody, but if you think MKK is too challenging/rough and Musc Ravageur turns too soon into a gourmandic vanilla, Absolue Pour Le Soir could be a valid option, if not a step forward. Personally I rank it among my favorite compositions in its genre.



Rating: 9/10

Jean Desprez Bal A Versailles EDC: A Skanky, Naughty Girl.

I usually approach reviews for this kind of classic compositions trying to avoid the usual note explanation. I generally prefer to give an overall idea of what the fragrance smells like and always suggest to any "real" perfume lover to not miss the chance to experience such classic beauties.



Here we go...



Take vintage Shalimar and deprive it of a little sweetness being careful, at the same time, to manitain a solid dose of spicy and powdery vanilla. Add the skanky aspect of Kouros (the urinous honey note plus the civet plus the greased hair musky vibe) and refine it with a consistent orange blossoms note on top. Et voilà. AMAZING stuff! 



As a friend use to say, Bal A Versailles EDC is like a skanky naughty girl.

Classic but not aged. 

Terrific lasting power and great projection. If moderately applied does great also on a man. If you'll ever experience a skankier EDC, please, drop me a line..

.

Rating: 8.5/10

Guest Reviewer Of The Day: Darvant

Welcome to my "Guest Reviewer of The Day" column. My aim is to invite friends, reviewers I particularly appreciate and people who inspired and supported me over the years to participate to my blog. They will review a fragrance, something they particularly care about and share it with all the readers...Please note all the reviews in this section are posted with the authorization and collaboration of the authors.

Today's guest is one of the top ten most active reviewers at Basenotes, master of the grotesque fragrance and friend, Darvant.

From his biography...

"I've gradually learned to appreciate *the real meaning and the evocative power of the fragrance* along the way of my life, when the summers of my youth flew away and the scent of my beloved on my clothes used to fill with bitter-sweet memories my empty heart. When the whiff of a *particular fragrance used to resurrect for a while the vision od my departed good friend and together with him the happy seasons of the past. 

Today *I'm a fragrance collector who enjoys each time to choose the right smell for the occasion, being it a special or an ordinary one, a moment to be spent in a club or at work. My real name is Ettore, I crave for dark and mysterious fragrances and love to travel around the world with a parfumed wake on my back..."

Darvant's gift to Nero Profumo is...

Salvador Dali Pour Homme: Danse Macabre 

Suggestions apart, this oriental fougere is one of the few real draculesque, almost macabre scents out there, a juice (as already written somewhere by others) to be worn with caution for secret unmentionable rendez-vous. Try to smell it, in the main part of its development at least, it’s disturbing, metallic (the initial smell reminds a bit of urine), bloody, rancid but crude at once (i know the sensations are opposite but I perceive them both). As soon as the base notes are set down, the scent becomes sweeter but still sinister, projecting the smell of a retro and bohemian deep lounge bursting of baroque objects, pictures, mirrors and antiques ,becoming then so tarry, churchy, leathery, old fashion and in my perception spicy, as a magic ritual potion full of wings of bat and nails of dragon. 

It's told they have blended more than 100 ingredients. The scent reminds me of the taste of a typical barbarian sweet cake from south Italy, Calabria to be precise, prepared with blood of pork. Who follows my reviews on Basenotes knows my passion for naughty dark potions. This one, emphasis apart, is something olfactory grotesque as an obscure hooded fellow whose you detect under hood white eyes without a face. The problem is that this potion for 3/4 of its development is almost off-putting, strangely and marvellously off-putting. I figure in my mind some old desolate aristocratic theatre but paradoxically (it depends from the level of development) even a huge bare basement where you feel a presence somewhere behind a pillar or an heap of tires. 

This scent is not particularly viscous or dense but is anyway cold as a stone and dark as dark ink or better it projects the colour of its bottle, dreadful and appalling with those gigantic lips. Something to wear just in specific occasions and when you feel in a certain mood, like a solitary dead man walking in this strange life out but I wouldn't dare to use it on a first date expecially if you get there moody and dark clothed, as she could run away scared to death by your dangerously kinky aurea.

I read somewhere Dalì Pour Homme has the smell of some acid fruit and insects in decomposition down the pit of a red-violet latrine. Specially at the beginning the smell of urine and addle fruit comes to mind. In the cold, distant, separated top notes the scent contains anise, basil, clary sage and citrus-lavender. It anchors the smell to 80's and since the starting the scent is heavy but dry-herbal. I perceive a sort of animalic vibe yet from this stage and this element is in contrast with the aromatic greeness of the first whiffs in a twisting botanic-animal game of complexity. This corporeal feel is perceivable throughout the trip by the inquiring nose. The heart of the scent expresses nocturnal flowers as lily of the valley, jasmine and obscure geranium. The situation keeps on being for a while a metallic and impersonal affair but is destined to evolve slowly in a sort of more obscure, deliciously stuffy, smoother and decadent stage. The baroque dry down is indeed woody with vanilla, amber, dirty musk and leather which make the scent oriental and mysterious though holding an averagely dry temperament. Good Longevity.

Rating: 8/10

Review: courtesy of Darvant. For other reviews by Darvant click here

A Handful of Kouros.

Kouros


I remember those times when designer's fragrances used to be bold, intense, unique and even challenging. I remember those times when we used to wear a perfume to add an extra touch to our personality or simply to fully express it. I remember those times when we all used to smell different. Today it seems that this concepts have been slightly modified. We're all supposed to smell "clean", "inoffensive", "aseptic", "unoriginal". We're filled with anonimous fragrances, "blues", "light blues", "aquas", "fresh aquas". Why don't we all start dressing in white and get a barcode tattooed on our necks?

Kouros is a fantastic alternative to the above scenario and one of the most recognizable scents ever. A dirty, intriguing and extremely compelling fragrance that smells exacltly like a male's greased hairs and his sweaty body while he's wearing an intense animalic musky perfume. Sadly, or happily as the case may be, there's only one like Kouros. Be careful with dosage, this is very powerful.



Rating: 10/10

Kouros Fraicheur

Nothing much to say about Kouros Fraicheur as basically this composition does what the label says. Don't get me wrong, this is not a "sport" take on Kouros neither an "aquatic" version. It's instead a slightly smoothered Kouros (yet mantaining all of its hallmarks) enriched with pineapple in the opening and with a gentler drydown. Simply amazing!



Rating: 8/10

Kouros Cologne Sport

"Kouros Sport" which is to say "a lighter Kouros" which is to say "Kouros without its characteristic, infamous and controversial note" which is to say" Nicole Kidman after the plastic surgery" which is to say "not as fascinating as she used to be".

Overall this is a pretty decent/pleasant fragrance, but way too pale to mantain the mesmerizing power of the original version.

Rating: 6.5/10

Body Kouros

First of all don't let the name Body Kouros misleading you. This composition has absolutely nothing to do with Kouros besides the fact that they're both great fragrances. A well refined, magistrally balanced and incredibly wearable anisette / liquorice composition enriched by a restrained dose of incense. A great alternative for those of you that can't stand Lolita Lempicka Au Masculin's exasperating power. Recommended.



Rating: 7.5/10

Serge Lutens Muscs Koublai Khan: Fecal Attraction

Please everybody forgive me but I don't get any fecal, sweat, rancid, camel-like, disgusting kind of thing here. It's surely not a clean musc in the opening and can result quite challenging to someone (a lot of civet and castoreum) but it's awesome. This is MUSC as it should be (at least IMO). Not too rough or rude but neither polite and surely fascinating. Maybe it's because I generally don't like white muscs but I can't find a single weird thing in MKK. I simply like it from the beginning to the very end. Unfortunately I don't know many people who would wear Muscs Koublai Khan on a regular basis and if I'll ever meet one I'll make everything is possible to become at least friends. In the drydown it turns to be a bit cleaner and sweeter (rose) with loads of animalic notes that make sure that the scent doesn't get too polite. I don't see any particular complexity here but a magistrally and superbly crafted "kinda rough" musc. And really, I don't understand the post-coitum / orgiastic thing. If you smell like this after you had sex I'm Koublai Khan.

Rating: 9.5/10

Les Nez L'Antimatiere: Scented Antiparticles

Intriguing name + intriguing concept + experimental fragrance + talented perfumer...what you'd expect? I was ready for a big disappointment but I had (somehow) to change my mind.

L'Antimatiere opens with an almost disturbing blast of pure alcohol (maybe due to the lack of top notes) that quickly evolves in a bizarre mash-up between a sort of "unscented lipstick" note and slightly sweet sawdust. In this phase the fragrance is barely perceptible yet not very pleasant. After an hour or so, something starts to change and you realize that ambergis is clearly playing its main role giving the fragrance a sense. This is the best part where L'Antimatiere claims your attention with its subtle "musky" charm. This effect is going to last for many hours as this composition is barely perceptible but very tenacious.



Overall L'Antimatiere is more of a smell than a proper fragrance. It reminds me of the good smell of unscented skin that only some people have. Subtile, almost undetectable but unique and fascinating. Now, my point is this: who would spend money on a pricey fragrance just to smell pleasantly unscented?



I can't say I don't like this composition but "the experiment", IMO, it's only partially successful but this is still something to experience. 

Lasting Power: more than 8 hrs

Sillage: Well, while someone says this fragrance stays close to the skin I more believe L'Antimatiere to have a "bizarre" sillage. You think nobody will notice it, instead everybody think "you-smell-good-even-when-you-don't-wear-a-fragrance".



Rating: 7/10