Guerlain Coriolan vs Guerlain Derby (and JHL and Envy)

[jakespoppy]

I don't think I'd heard of Guerlain Coriolan until Texbilly mentioned it recently. Then I saw some on ebay, put in the first bid, and no one else bid on it. Must not be widely known, as most frags get at least one bid which almost always beats mine.

I wanted to compare the two, as I thought at first whiff they seemed very similar, so today I wore Derby on one hand/wrist, and Coriolan on the other. They do smell very similar for the first half hour, with their mostly lemon/bergamot opening, although Derby has a bit of animalic (civet?) in it from the beginning. After that first half hour, the difference becomes very noticeable. At that point the Coriolan, to me, has a fairly light, "green" smell, and reminds me more of Gucci Envy, while the Derby has more of an un-sweetened cinnamon smell, with a touch of clove, with the animalic smell still present, and reminds me very much of the new JHL by Aramis.

I enjoy comparing the frags side by side this way. I did it a few times for the purpose of identifying those I prefer more, but now find I just enjoy doing to to see what's going on with them generally. Obviously, I have to be careful and not overdo the applications, to avoid "dueling scents", and I have to be careful about what I pair, for the same reason.

 

[Austin]

Agreed Randy. Classic scents are often imitated but never replicated. Kudos for finding these great scents.

 

[jakespoppy]

Thanks Andrew. I would have never heard of these, or many others, if it weren't for B&B. I've enjoyed discovering many "new" scents that have been around for a very long time. I guess for those of us who enjoy the search, it's a good thing that so many of them are no longer readily available in mainstream venues.