Just a friendly reminder that today is an election day for those of us in the United States. I don't care who you vote for, but now, more than ever, is an incredibly important time in our nation's history to get out there and participate. If you can take the time to vote in the Gourmand Wars and endlessly debate the merits of one vanilla fragrance over another, then you can take the time to participate in the electoral process and have a say in the things that really matter. See you at the polls!

So I gave in to the hype and ordered a few travel sizes from the new House of Cosmo that arrived last month. I liked Polaris so much I went ahead and ordered a bottle - and here we are a month later and my bottle arrived. Polaris comes in a Smokey gray bottle, click cap but the presentation box seems to have a magnetic closure (the interesting to give the box and not the bottle a magnet, but whatever). I got two free sample sizes with the order. Since these literally just came off the line I’m going to let them macerate for a bit but I’m excited to add Polaris to my year-round roster. Very pleasant lightly fruity, geranium-sweet ginger with a hint of warm cardamom, aromatics and tanginess. Gives me YSL L’Homme Le Parfum vibes. Projects very well for several hours then becomes a nice skin scent for hours.

As promised continuing to test my ATH samples and today we are wearing Whore Blue. The initial opening is a blast of sweet resin and Nutmeg. At 15 minutes I am still getting a resinous sweet scent with some undertones of creaminess. At 30 minutes I am starting to pick up on the Tobacco notes blended with the Nutmeg and Elemi. At 60 minutes into the wear the Vanilla and Tonka have made their appearance and have provided another layer to this scent profile. The dry down of this fragrance is a scent profile of Vanilla, Musk, and Amber (my favorites) but with a slightly pungent undertone coming from the Tobacco and Vetiver. Performance: The projection of this fragrance is good with it creating a scent bubble of about 2 feet for about 2 hours. The sillage is also good with a scent trail of about 2+ feet for about 2+ hours as well. Longevity on my skin is between 6 to 7 hours with the fragrance becoming a skin scent after about 3+ hours. Due to the slight pungent undertones of the dry down, I would not consider this FBW, but will definitely continue to wear my decant. I have found out that fragrances which I find too complex and unwearable at first do change with time.