Lime margaritas and leather in a perfume cocktail inspired by the history of a famous New York City street. Classicism done with a modern twist, and with the goal of subverting gender rules. Those are just two aspects of Christopher Street, a citrusy leather chypre from Charenton Macerations. Another way of describing it would be to call it a clear labour of love, as evidenced by every single one of the many details on the company’s website, from its lengthy examination of the famous street whose history and vibrancy inspired the scent, to its creator’s hard work in trying to replicate just one of the numerous elements in the fragrance. After all, how many people spend two years profiling the smell of people’s skin on a particular street, using “a modified hairdryer motor and a GC-MS fiber”?! Yet, that is precisely what Douglas Bender of Charenton Macerations did. As someone with slightly obsessive, perfectionistic tendencies myself, colour me thoroughly impressed by his efforts.
Category Archives: Fragrance Genres
Piotr Czarnecki Sensei & She ♥ Sensei

Photo by Daniel Fox. Source: petapixel.com . http://petapixel.com/2013/05/25/photographer-captures-abstract-photos-showing-lava-up-close/
Imagine for a moment that the mighty Nile were a river called Sensei. It would begin with a small trickle of boozy rum that flows into three parallel streams made of stewed fruits, dark tobacco, and coffee. The small streams run past large banks of cinnamon and incense, sweeping up their essence as they all merge into a massive river of sticky balsamic resins which quickly flows out to the sea. There, they dissolve and vanish in waters made up solely of cinnamon amber. That is the essence and development of Sensei.
Van Cleef & Arpels Orchidee Vanille
Van Cleef & Arpels entered the prestige “niche” market in 2009 when it debuted its Collection Extraordinaire. Orchidée Vanille (hereinafter just “Orchidee Vanille”) was one of the six fragrances, a vanilla soliflore with subtle floral and gourmand accents that I found to be surprisingly pleasant.
Orchidee Vanille is an eau de parfum created by Randa Hammami. The official description for the perfume as provided by Neiman Marcus is as follows:
An intoxicating journey through the Indian Ocean and Asia, Orchidee Vanille explores all the richness of vanilla.
A floral, gourmand fragrance with a subtle blend of fruity notes (mandarin orange and litchi), combined with tastybitter almond and dark chocolate, and accented with sensual European flourishes of Bulgarian rose and violet notes. The vanilla pod is faceted with woody cedar and balsamic tonka bean and notes of transparent white musk. Continue reading
4160 Tuesdays The Sexiest Scent on the Planet. Ever. (IMHO)
“The Sexiest Scent on the Planet. Ever. (IMHO)” is quite a name for a fragrance, and a tall order to boot, subjective humble opinions notwithstanding. I personally don’t share the sentiment described in the title, but “The Sexiest Scent” (as I shall call it here for reasons of simplicity and speed) from 4160 Tuesdays is not a bad perfume, and has some enjoyable aspects. I can’t say the same for 4160 Tuesday’s other vanilla scent, The Dark Heart of Old Havana, which I shall cover in a different review. Continue reading




