![QuercusAlbus]()
QuercusAlbus
Helpful Review
1
Like Mowing the Lawn
An intensely green one undoubtedly. A bit like the mowing-the-lawn smell. Said similar things about Gucci's ~Bloom Aqua di Fiori~, but I wouldn't call it exactly similar to that: that one's a lot ambrier & muskier as well. Yes, the green of this one is a nice sharp pungeant green. The previous reviewer captures it quite well, I do deem, with those moss-on-damp-stone figures. Only just applied it - see how it goes.
Just noticed a previous reviewer's called it musky. I wouldn't say that yet myself - but then 'fume-heads know that musk is the most elusive of all aromata. We'll see. Now that the ~Ceylon~ is now more properly passing I might be able to actually appreciate this. I think the ~Bloom Aqua di Fiori~ is very ^heavy^-ambry compared to this one; and it is in that, rather than in muskiness, that the difference consists. And the green of that one is rather more agressive - it is by far the pricier 'fume after-all. The muskiness of this is of the lighter, and somewhat nectary, variety - I'm beginning to °pick-up on it° now.
Yes there it is, undoubtedly, refracting all that bruised-stem stuff through its lovely olfactory lens.
That tendency of the less-pricey 'fumes to seem at least a little rancid & metallic to the wearer with sustained exposure is manifesting to a degree with this one; but it's keeping within reasonable bounds, I would say. Both CK and Elizabeth Arden do a right good service I do adduce, supplying us with these relatively purse friendly 'fumes that are not by any means contemptible. It's kind of like, maybe, riding a bicycle when one doesn't ^really^ need to use a motor-vehicle: a bicycle ride can be really quite an excellent experience. And there are some ^very^ well-made bicycles. So I'll just continue riding my well-made olfactory bicycle for the time-being, and get back to you when I've done a fair few more miles on it.
Can't resist piping-up again sooner than I intended. It's only because I am beginning to really enjoy this. When I come home with one of this heavily discounted CK 'fumes in my bag I think "ought I really to have done that?" & when it comes to testing it it's difficult not to be cluttered by all the baggage of °wanting° it to be a good deal, and on the other hand overcompensating against that tendency; but I am becoming rapidly convinced now that this is a ^really decent^ budget 'fume. The flowery notes are coming through now; and there is no longer any doubt in my mind that this is a bona-fide squeezing of the utmost drop of true perfumery out of a stringently constrained brief. I see that Alberto Morillas is one of the perfumiers, and isn't he one of the °great ones°? This 'fume certainly testifies to its being so.
No grand déja-vu-scapes with this - but then are we really expecting ^that^ here? It °catches° me in the back of the throat. You know that °catching-in-back-of-throat° effect that you get with a good oakmoss- or orangeblossom-heavy 'fume (not that this necessarily contains either), which I know at least ^some^ pœps also get, and which is to my mind a ^strongly^ positive item - it's saying a ^very^ great deal that a 'fume of this purse-friendliness does that atall. And I'm picking-up on the sandalwood now - didn't discern it at first, it fits in there so very snugly. All my doubts about bringing this one home are now completely assuaged!
... late the following evening ...
Just completed a full-day's run-out of this. Well, it was there in my box for ages, and I kept seeing it and thinking "when am I going to properly try that CK ... what's it called again ... that I plucked out of the rough cardboard box at the perfume shop, & it had a handwritten (but really quite friendly) price-label on it?". Well now I have; and all this time it was an unknown gem just sitting there waiting!
Just one last thing: is ~bamboo~ really a note, or is actual bamboo absolute (or whatever) a true perfumery element? I once read a review of Gucci's ~Bamboo~ that mocked the calling it that on grounds that there is no such note.