St. Clair Scents — Part II: Gardener’s Glove, Frost & First Cut Reviews

Gardener’s Glove, First Cut & Frost. Photos from St. Clair Scents. Collage is my own.

Gardener’s Glove, Frost, and First Cut encapsulate the philosophy and world of their creator, Diane St. Clair, who was profiled at length in Part I. On an olfactory level, they are nature-based bouquets (with roughly 80% natural raw materials or essences) that embody the smells of the world around her — the gardens, flowers, meadows, grass, hay, woods, and earth — but they are also extensions of her artisanal philosophy, a philosophy which has made her gastronomy and the Michelin world’s Queen of Butter:

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Areej Le Doré Russian Musk

Today, I wanted to take a closer, more detailed look at Russian Musk, the new parfum from Areej Le Doré. Though my mini review in the New Releases post covered the broad basics, I always think specifics are more helpful, particularly for a fragrance like this one which will automatically, inevitably, be judged and compared to its much-admired, popular predecessor, Siberian Musk.

Russian Musk parfum. Photo & source: Russian Adam.

Russian Musk is a pure parfum with the following note list:

Top notes: Russian Fir and Pine, Lemon, Bergamot, and Mandarin;
Heart notes: Orange blossom from Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt and France; Indian Sandalwood, Tonka bean, Nutmeg absolute, Clove and Cinnamon;
Base notes: legally-obtained wild Siberian deer musk, co-distilled by Russian Adam; Agarwood (oud) oil from Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Burma and Thailand; Rose absolute, Fossil Amber, Patchouli, Vetiver, Cypress, Tree Moss resinoid, and Oakmoss absolute.

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New Releases: Areej Le Doré Russian Musk, Russian Oud, Indolis, Walimah & Walimah Attar (+Mini Reviews)

Areej Le Doré and Russian Adam have launched a new series of fragrances, including the long-anticipated upgraded version of his celebrated Siberian Musk. There are five fragrances in total, if one counts the concentrated attar version of one of them as a separate entity which, in my opinion, it really is. The five releases are: Russian Musk, Walimah Parfum, Walimah Attar, Russian Oud, and Indolis. Today, I’ll give you the basic run-down on launch, the scents, their notes, the sample situation, packaging upgrades, and even include mini reviews or pre-reviews for some of the fragrances.

Collage: my own. Photo source: Russian Adam.

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A Guide To Vintage Parfum d’Hermès — Part II: EDTs, Parfum & Dating Bottles

Today, we’ll continue to explore vintage Parfum d’Hermes, looking at its scent over the 1980s and 1990s. I managed to make the comparative analysis much shorter than I had anticipated, so I’ve included the technical bottle, packaging, and dating analysis here, thereby avoiding the need for an additional Part III. Let’s get straight to it.

Vintage Parfum d’Hermes, 1980s and 1990s EDTs. Note how the scarf has a small Parfum d’Hermes bottle on the upper right side, in-between two of my bottles. Photo: my own.

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