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Cuba by Czech & Speake - Thumbs down

I know what you mean when it comes to desiring some funkiness. My choice when it comes to this is Penhaligon's Elixir: it has some rummy, musty, smokey notes that are addictive to me. It smells like a beer-stained leather couch in an old frat house on the day after a party, but I like it!

Well-said! Elixir is a long-time favorite of mine. To me it is exquisitely addictive, and likely largely because it is melange of the notes you describe so much better than I ever could!
 
I just recently got the C&S sample pack. The Mimosa, I did NOT like!

However, the Cuba is a fantastic scent, at least with my chemistry. It's definitely EARRRRRRTHY (animalic?), but I don't smell poop, anus, arse, rectum or any other back end of anything. It's definitely really strong in the opening, but settles very nicely on me.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I really like most their fragrances a lot. Like everything, it's quite subjective. I'm wearing the Dark Rose today, even though it's technically a feminine scent. You can stop me! I'll do it again! :laugh:

BTW, are there any other scents besides Cuba that are similar but more "agreeable" to most noses out there?
 
Thanks for writing this up!

You may be in the minority, but you have me and quite a few other folks for company in your minority status. C&S generally really speaks to me!

Funny. I really disliked Mimosa for a long time. (I would not wear it even now. It seems distinctly feminine.) Then one day it occured to me that I would really, really like that scent on a woman. So not I really like it, too. Really took me a while to be able to stand it though. Pretty weird the way the sense of smell works.

Re scents like Cuba: Not sure what scents are like Cuba but more agreeable? Havana is in the same spirit as Cuba to me, but does not really smell like it. There are various tobacco scents. Creed Virgin Island Water maybe. CB I Hate Perfumes At the Beach 1966, maybe. The latter do not have tobacco, but that have at the beach or on the islands feelings. a

Why C&S of all houses calls Dark Rose a feminine rather than unisex is one of the mysteries of the scent universe! I think Dark Rose works great as a masculine rose!

I just recently got the C&S sample pack. The Mimosa, I did NOT like!

However, the Cuba is a fantastic scent, at least with my chemistry. It's definitely EARRRRRRTHY (animalic?), but I don't smell poop, anus, arse, rectum or any other back end of anything. It's definitely really strong in the opening, but settles very nicely on me.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I really like most their fragrances a lot. Like everything, it's quite subjective. I'm wearing the Dark Rose today, even though it's technically a feminine scent. You can stop me! I'll do it again! :laugh:

BTW, are there any other scents besides Cuba that are similar but more "agreeable" to most noses out there?
 
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BTW, are there any other scents besides Cuba that are similar but more "agreeable" to most noses out there?

Thanks for writing this up!

You may be in the minority, but you have me and quite a few other folks for company in your minority status. C&S generally really speaks to me!


Re scents like Cuba: Not sure what scents are like Cuba but more agreeable? Havana is in the same spirit as Cuba to me, but does not really smell like it. There are various tobacco scents. Creed Virgin Island Water maybe. CB I Hate Perfumes At the Beach 1966, maybe. The latter do not have tobacco, but that have at the beach or on the islands feelings. a

Robbie - I am very much in agreement with you on Cuba - I think it's great!

It does have the same vibe as Havana, but I also think of Kouros when I wear it. There's some of that same funkiness in both, but Kouros has a "honeyed" dry down, as some have put it. I could not wear either of these very often, though.
 
I, too, have been playing my way through a set of C&S samples, promising myself a bottle if I connected with one of them. Making up my mind on just one, though, is going to be a problem. So far, these three have all spoken to me.

Cuba. I put it on with trepidation due to the negative comments. Because I was looking for it, I could identify the initial notes that some might interpret as "fecal", but to me that was a medley of two or three distinct elements that immediately brought to memory a sun-baked day in the Texas Hill Country enjoying the heat on the scrub junipers and the limestone soil, my horse's saddle waiting on the fence rail and a cigar in my shirt pocket. From there, it keeps evolving, at moments reminding me of another fragrance... I just can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe it is partly the frankincense peeking through reminding me of church, but I think it is some accord from a cologne from the '70s. But Cuba is playful, with bits of mint, more tobacco, dark rum, rose and others rising, then falling, then rising again. Then the spiced wood is found supporting the whole.

O&C. The lavenders in this are just grand. Fuller and softer than Royal Scottish. And the wood/moss base is in perfect harmony with them. I am just not sure about the amount of peppermint in the opening and middle. I would prefer that to be a bit more restrained.

F&M. Not your typical oriental. I immediately get a chamomile/basil/green herbal hit, with citrus wafting up intermittently. Then mint and the woods and lavender start to rise, along with myrrh. At some point, I get a distinct hit of the frankincense, but in general, that blends into the background. The middle unexpectedly gets a bit floral and becomes a mild citrus (with elements form Floris Cefiro), but that is not prominent for long. On my skin, I get a long-lasting chamomile/wood/myrrh/frankincense?/earth that stays close to the body, but which I can enjoy the hint of even the next day when I awake.

So far, I am not a great rose fan, but can wear both No.88 and Dark Rose on certain days. I have only briefly sniffed the other samples.

Fun stuff.
 
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O&C. The lavenders in this are just grand. Fuller and softer than Royal Scottish. And the wood/moss base is in perfect harmony with them. I am just not sure about the amount of peppermint in the opening and middle. I would prefer that to be a bit more restrained.

Absolutely agree with this. I really dislike O&C for its torrential floods of peppermint. It really dominates the lavender, which is wanted I wanted from this scent to begin with.

This was not the worst, but the most disappointing scent in the C&S line.
 
I love Cuba. The complexity is great....smells like a fresh bar, lol. But seriously, I do get a little ashtray-esque tobacco scent for a brief time, but it goes away fairly quickly for me.

My wife loves Cuba on me.

She is going to NYC in a couple of weeks and plan on picking up a full bottle--Merry Christmas too me....unless one of the haters has one for sale!
 
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