Reviews on several scents - very long

[WhosYerBob]

Yes, I've been on a cologne tear lately. Why? Because I want to start 2010 with my minimalist shaving kit complete and start selling off all the stuff I don't want to keep. How many cologne bottles and samples do I still have to go through? 40+ at last count.

So I've been doing as many as I can per day, based on the longevity of the scents. Here are some more that I've tried recently:

• Royall Lyme of Bermuda / Royall Vetiver - Royall Vetiver is a woody chypre and an excellent example of why I should not rely on just paper testing. (Chypre - pronounced "sheepra" - generally has an accord of bergamot combined together with oak moss.) Straight out of the bottle it smells too spicy for my tastes, but I finally decided to apply it to my skin and was pleasantly surprised to discover that it smells *much* better there than it does on paper. Royall Vetiver starts with a strong lemon / bergamot citrus and cinnamon note that completely overwhelms the vetiver (as in: Vetiver? What vetiver?). As the citrus dries down the cinnamon comes on strong with a medicinal impression (jasmine? orange?) - the vetiver still overwhelmed by the top and middle notes. Finally the cinnamon slowly fades away and the vetiver begins to show up. Very nice!
  
  Rating: Cindy gives it - 8/10; I give it - 8.5/10 (the strong cinnamon note brings it down for me)
  Longevity: 6 to 8 hours
  ​
  From Basenotes:
  Top Notes: Spice, Cinnamon, Lemon, Bergamot
  Middle Notes: Jasmine, Orange blossom, Gardenia
  Base Notes: Vetiver, Vanilla
  
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• Yves Saint Laurent / Rive Gauche Pour Home - Rive Gauche is a woody fougère with a classic male scent. (Fougère - pronounced "fooz-hare" - generally has an accord of lavender combined together with coumarin.) I like the scent, but it has lavender in it which is a no-no for my wife. However, one thing I've noticed is that it doesn't really seem to moderate for me and the individual notes besides the lavender are hard to pick out - almost like a single note fragrance, at least to me. Potent longevity. Not for me.
  
  Rating: Cindy gives it - n/a (she can't be around lavender); I give it - 6/10
  Longevity: 8 to 12 hours
  ​
  
  From Basenotes:
  Top Notes: Bergamot, Star Anise, Rosemary
  Middle Notes: Lavender, Geranium Leaves, Cloves
  Base Notes: Vetiver, Gaiac Wood, Patchouli
  
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• Creed / Green Irish Tweed - Green Irish Tweed (GIT) is a fresh fougère that has been copied many times, most successfully by Davidoff / Cool Water. The two scents are similar - but not identical - with Cool Water having a synthetic "violet leaves" note that appears more naturally in GIT. Either way, the violet leaves within GIT set my teeth on edge and I can't be around it.
  
  
  Rating: Cindy gives it - 6/10; I give it - 3/10
  Longevity: 6 to 8 hours
  ​
  
  From Basenotes:
  Top Notes: Lemon, Verbena
  Middle Notes: Iris, Violet Leaves
  Base Notes: Mysore Sandalwood, Ambergris
  
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• Victor / Silvestre - Silvestre is a woody/fresh fougère. As a pine lover, I was eagerly looking forward to trying this scent as many reviewers had made it out to be the holy grail of pine colognes. Maybe at one time it was, but not for me. I find the scent to be to singular in presentation and to have too much in the way of soapy notes for me to enjoy it.
  
  
  Rating: Cindy gives it - 4/10; I give it - 4/10
  Longevity: 4 to 5 hours
  ​
  
  From Basenotes:
  Top Notes: Lavender, Bergamot, Juniper
  Middle Notes: Pine, Origanum, Rose
  Base Notes: Cedarwood, Vetiver, Musk
  
  =====================
• Davidoff / Cool Water - Cool Water is a fresh fougère that was created by the same scent designer that crafted Creed's Green Irish Tweed. I knew up front that Cool Water had a lot of synthetics, but not having ever tried it, I decided to keep an open mind and buy a sample. The synthetic "violet leaves" - taken in extreme moderation for me (but when is anything in extreme moderation with Cool Water) - are less jarring than the more natural smelling ones in GIT. Overall, I like GIT better and feel it has a more complex dry down, but if I were a starving artist again, Cool Water would be very appealing to me on a pure cost basis - but the synthetics would still give me a blinding headache, so I can't wear it.
  
  
  Rating: Cindy gives it - 5/10; I give it - 1/10
  Longevity: 8 to 12 hours
  ​
  
  From Basenotes:
  Top Notes: Lavender, Coriander, Peppermint, Rosemary, Orange Blossom
  Middle Notes: Jasmine, Oakmoss, Geranium, Sandalwood
  Base Notes: Amber, Musk, Sandalwood, Cedar
  
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• Guy Laroche / Drakkar Noir - Drakkar Noir is a woody/fresh fougère that I had once tried about 20 years ago. Not a bad scent -but also not much in the way complexity. Soapy to my nose after the initial citrus dry down, and not much after that.
  
  
  Rating: Cindy gives it - 5/10; I give it - 4/10
  Longevity: 10 to 12 hours
  ​
  
  From Basenotes:
  Top Notes: Lemon, Lavender, Tangerine Blossom
  Middle Notes: Coriander, Juniper
  Base Notes: Patchouli, Oakmoss

More to come...

 

[Austin]

Thanks for the review. Most of these I don't like with the exception of Rive Gauche.

 

[jakespoppy]

Nice work, Mitch. You've put a lot of effort into this. I like the Rive Gauche, too, but also like the Royall Vetiver for its dark, smokiness.

 

[WhosYerBob]

I like the Rive Gauche, too, but also like the Royall Vetiver for its dark, smokiness.

It's interesting how different basenotes can be affected by the higher notes.

Take vetiver for instance.

Prior to delurking here I was thinking about getting some more cologne, but it would have been a repeat of either Caswell-Massey Verbena or Lime for me - stuff I've worn on and off for over 20 years now and juice I know is safe for Cindy to be around. But then I started reading about this interesting fragrance note called "vetiver"; I didn't know what it was, how to pronounce it, what it came from, how it smelled, or if I'd even encountered it before. But I knew after reading further that I wanted to try it.

Now I *know* what vetiver smells like, really enjoy smelling it and want it permanently in my scent rotation - and I've also come to know it's a marginal scent for Cindy. Creed Vetiver I really like for it's naturalness, but is too soapy for her. We both like Creed Original Vetiver a lot. But I wasn't expecting either of us to like Royall Vetiver because of the spices and cinnamon in it; Cindy doesn't like heavier spicy scents on me, and many of the heavier ones give me a headache for some reason.

But Royall Vetiver doesn't turn either of us off. The cinnamon is juuuust at the marginal limit for me, but she likes the whole scent just fine.

 

[jakespoppy]

I know you have 47 frags on your list of scents yet to review, but while we're talking vetivers here, I suggest you add the L'Occitane Eau de Vetyver to your list, just because it's such a different take on vetiver than all the others. It's not soapy like Guerlain, it's very dark and smoky, more so than Royall. I don't get any cinnamon in it either, but it does have more going on than just vetiver.

Thanks again for the great reviews!

 

[WhosYerBob]

I know you have 47 frags on your list of scents yet to review, but while we're talking vetivers here, I suggest you add the L'Occitane Eau de Vetyver to your list, just because it's such a different take on vetiver than all the others. It's not soapy like Guerlain, it's very dark and smoky, more so than Royall. I don't get any cinnamon in it either, but it does have more going on than just vetiver.

Thanks for the recommendation, Randy - I'll add L'Occitane Eau de Vetyver to my try list!