Quarry

If I hadn’t worn Calvin Klein Eternity, if I didn't know the Escentric Molecules line, if I didn’t know Iso-E Super as a single note, if I didn’t know neroli as a single note (and love it in Patricia de Nicolai’s Cologne Sologne), if I didn’t find Lalique Encre Noir a more interesting interpretation of this class of modern scents that owe a greater kinship to the chemistry of mimeograph machines than traditional perfume oils, and if I weren’t a woman, then maybe I’d be more attracted to gs03. But since none of these “ifs” apply, I don’t care much for this new product which I suspect will be forgotten in the annals of fragrance history.

Is it just me or has a reformulation virtually taken the legs out from under 24F? Is it a synthetic sandalwood substitution that leaves a bitter, distasteful note amongst all the glorious classic perfume ingredients? The edt is intolerable. The edp I use by spraying it on my bath towel, which helps dissipate most of that funk note. It’s worth the effort to access 24F this way because this full-bodied floral (leaning toward oriental, but not chypre to me), built upon a sweet orange scent, is unlike any other. Thank goodness, Boucheron Femme hasn’t changed so I can wear a happy, orange-rich scent on skin. Perhaps 24F in extrait form is the most laudable formulation. I will have to check that out.

I am so attracted to fragrances with green notes that I often overlook the green qualities that every other reviewer mentions in their first sentence. Philosykos green? I hadn’t noticed. I think of Thymes Fig Leaf & Cassis or Jo Malone Wild Fig & Cassis as green, but Philosykos? To me it's all about being creamy, creamy, creamy fig (with fig being incomparable to any other scent except perhaps that of dates). The coconut adds sweetness without announcing itself individually. Philosykos runs fairly linearly, yet never strikes me as boring, which even the illustrious Lutens Feminité de Bois can be for me. The scent doesn’t throw far from the skin and is so subtle as to possibly be perceived by passersby only subliminally. I would wear Philosykos in regular rotation if my husband weren’t put off by fig in any formulation.

Unlike Eva009 (below), rose has not always been a favorite scent, and I find rosewater downright repulsive. Even fresh bourbon roses are unpleasant to my nose. Wild roses smell wonderful to me, and I think tea roses may have a similar scent—soft floral with sweet, freshly scraped carrot note. (Go smell freshly scraped carrots; the scent is gorgeous and dewey.) I need compensating notes to make rose palatable (i.e., the ambers in Guerlain’s With Love and Stella McCartney’s Rose Absolute). Rose de Mai turns around it rose note with green cassis (black currant leaves). A similar formula made Diptyque L’Ombre dans L’eau successful at a higher price point. Rose de Mai is mildly sweet and very natural smelling. Hard to believe anyone could dislike it, even rosewater haters like me.

This is my most mainstream-like wardrobe staple. Mothers is easy to wear and somewhat generic, but it happens to strike the right chord of citrus, sweet, floral and musk elements to please me on almost any morning. Virtually every time I wear it, my husbands remarks that I smell good.