I’ve been exploring fragrances featuring saffron, and in my quest for a bottle to fill that category I stumbled on a video from TLTG glazing this new Hawas offering as a great twist on the BR 540 DNA. So I ordered a decant which arrived today. And… woof, I *really* did not like this. There is something in the open that is completely unbearable - like a burning plastic smell, and not the good kind. I resisted the urge to wash it off, and it was pretty much an hour before that note kind of faded to the background. Along the way, there was a very sharp mineralic saffron that wasn’t doing the composition any favors either. At about 90 minutes in, thankfully the projection was dying down a bit, and I was left with an actually pretty pleasant mix of warm spice including much less mineralic saffron, aromatics, a touch of green notes including a kind of piney vibe, and some woody amber. If I had to give a rating just for the mids and dry down, I guess I’d give it something like a 6 / 10. But with that harsh open, this one’s getting something more like a 4.5 overall in my book. This might be one of those fragrances that you go nose-blind to, so it’s really hard to say exactly what the longevity is - but definitely after about four hours, it was barely a skin scent. I also got a decant of the new Trajan Noir to battle against it - I was underwhelmed by that one as well, it had a sour note that lingered well into the mids that I really didn’t enjoy. So TLDR, I’m disappointed by these releases and the search for saffron continues. I remember enjoying the OG Trajan so maybe I need to revisit that or just give in and get BR 540

Part 2: Every Fragrance Gets Better With Endless Maceration or Maturation THE MYTH: “If a fragrance smells weak, harsh, or disappointing, spray it a few times and put it away for months. The longer it sits, the better and stronger it will become.” THE REALITY: Maturation and maceration are real parts of perfume production. But that doesn’t mean every finished bottle needs months in your closet or that fragrances keep improving forever. A fragrance changing with age is not automatically a fragrance improving. THE EXPLANATION: First, let’s separate the terms. Although usage varies, maturation commonly refers to resting the fragrance concentrate before dilution. Maceration commonly refers to resting the mixture after the concentrate is blended with alcohol. These are controlled production steps, with timing chosen for the formula. Frédéric Malle makes this distinction in its explanation of perfume manufacturing. That is different from buying a finished bottle, spraying it ten times, and putting it away with the expectation that it will transform. A freshly compounded perfume may benefit from an appropriate resting period. Manufacturers can carry out that process before filtration and bottling, as Carrément Belle describes in its production workflow. A retail bottle should generally be ready to wear when you buy it. Can a bottle smell different later? Yes. But wearing it later alone doesn’t tell you why. Temperature, application, your nose, and testing conditions can affect the comparison. Sometimes you also become more familiar with the fragrance and notice details you missed initially. Meanwhile, age and poor storage can work against a perfume. Frédéric Malle warns that daylight, heat, and extreme temperature changes can damage it. Leaving a fragrance somewhere hot to “speed up maceration” works against proper preservation. I’m not dismissing anyone who says their bottle smells better after a few months. That experience can be real. What I question is turning that experience into a rule for every fragrance or promising that time will fix any disappointing purchase.

I had some travel to Houston for a big photo shoot this past week, and I found myself with a bunch of free time Friday morning. I hit the usual spots: Aura fragrances - lots of good stuff. They have a bunch of Initio gragrances in right now for less than $200 on the 90mL bottles, which is a phenomenal price. But it's a bit more than I had budgetted for myself, and I have a lot of other things I want to buy. it would have been an impulse purchase, and I'm trying to keep that to a minimum this year. But they did have Hermes Bel Ami for about $85. I'm a huge fan of Hermes, and this one is one I hadn't smelled before. No tester, so I decided to hold off on that one as well. I ended up at Nordstrom's since it was close to the gig, and just popped in, hoping I could maybe find Bel ami in the store and do the test spray. They actually had it, and the lady running the counter was nice enough to make me a 2.5mL sample. Wearing it today, I'm really impressed. It takes me right back to my childhood. It's the smell of my Dad's downtown office, where I would sometimes spend the weekend doing homework and hanging out in the library. It's spice and leather with a bit of rose and oakmoss. And although it's an EDT, it has lasted on my skin all day. I put it on around 8am this morning, and here at 7pm, I am still catching faint whiffs of it. I am definitely becoming a fan, and that price point at Aura isn't terrible. I may be picking this one up.

Once upon a time Vetiver and Patchouli got married. Gourmand and Blue and Freshie weren’t invited to the wedding. At the reception Spices were served in Wood mugs covered in Leather. Vetiver and Patchouli later had a baby. They named it Private Label.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdFfpDqMkiX/?dlrf=MWNhOHIycnRoOW13bg== Lol