Sleuth

Archives 69 gets a high grade for being daring and original. It opens with paprika/pimento contrasted with some mandarin. In the heart the most important notes appear: a blend of prickly camphor and fresh incense. Its prickly freshness challenges ones nose, like pepper does. Also in the heart there's a medium strong 'pink' orchid and a little sweet plum underneath. This is the magical phase of this fragrance. Heck: 9 out of 10! :) But only for the wonderful heart phase. Later, in the dry down I have to downgrade it to a 7.5, which is still good. After the plum and orchid have faded (much too soon), the airy, prickly camphor-incense mix stays strongly. It's lightened by some musk. There's a tiny dose of benzoin and patchouli in the base.

The heart gets a 9 for me because it accesses strange corners of my brain that I didn't expect. It made me think of a swimming pool (well, the good part of the swimming pool): all-pervading prickly chlorine (taking the place of the camphor) joined by sweet shampoo (orchid) and other clean pleasant body care products (plum). Yes it's a clean but strange fragrance.

Let me compare with another fragrance that has incense and that is a bit smoke-like: Comme des Garçons 2 Man. Well, Archives is stranger and more difficult to like. It is very unisex. Archives is the better fragrance, due to nuances. Try this if you like YSL Nu or Lush Breath of God. A challenge to wear. Cool stuff.

Bottega Veneta pour Homme starts really mature due to a heavy juniper note. Heavy because it's boosted by other ingredients, probably the pine or pimento. And Mature with a big M, like Pasha or Santos by Cartier, or how Égoïste can be mature. When the top notes make place for the heart: the pine takes the lead for me, probably given a little more 'body' by the fir and other green-ish notes. Dry down: B.V. becomes a leather scent. A 'black' leather, medium strong at best. The leather is not multi faceted, but is joined by traces of green stuff and is relatively breezy, i.e. not cloying.

I'd like to compare this to Eloge du Traitre, also created by Maisondieu. That one has more patchouli,is woodier, dark-greener and heavier. Bottega Veneta has more leather. Its dry down is easier to like.

E.L.D.O.'s tongue in cheek story for this fragrance is about a man who is past his physical prime and needs a fragrance to get his mojo back. Despite that, this fragrance is rather unisex. Not at all only for older men.

This is also illustrated by the fact that Electrician is similar to Encre Noire (homme), a fragrance appreciated by different age groups. On first sniff I thought this was an Encre Noire clone. This one, like Encre Noire, is also a warm, dark, gourmandish vetiver, but closer inspection reveals the differences. Encre Noire, to me, is vetiver boosted by pleasant synthetics and with a gourmand facet that I don't like. Electrician, on the other hand, I would call a vetiver + opoponax combination with an original chestnut cream note.

Encre Noire has better sillage and longevity, but I prefer Fat Electrician.

This 'bad girl' isn't popular, I'm trying to find out why.

This fragrance's character is in the raspberry and incense. I should say: the bubblegum and incense, because it doesn't smell like a real berry, more like berry flavoring. The incense is a bit hazy. A few hours in, these two notes have subsided enough so that the soft base notes peek out: a little vanilla, lily of the valley and airy musk. Reminiscent of cheap, fresh drugstore edt's, in a good and fresh way.

The reason she doesn't hang out with the cool kids: She's neither this nor that. Not a bad girl, not a sweet girl, not a church girl. At some point the bubblegum blends with the incense, getting synthetic. Not unpleasant, but not appealing either. Want a bad girl perfume that combines sweetness with something else? (it's unisex enough by the way) I suggest you look at Boudoir, Divin'Enfant or Tubereuse Animale first.

Nice touch: lily o/t valley used in an original way. But, try before you buy!

'In Praise of the Traitor' is pine-patchouli fragrance. The opening starts with bay leaf and a little tarragon. Once the fragrance enters the heart, the pine becomes apparent, and to my nose, the patchouli as well. Some clove makes the heart a bit spicier. In the dry down there's again pine and patchouli. There might be some leather too, but I couldn't pinpoint it. I suppose at the end,the fragrance becomes a bit woodier

Compared to other pine fragrances this one has more patchouli. The main note (pine) is made to seem extra dark green, because of the patchouli. I got the same impression from Aramis Havana. The pine note smells more like woodsy pine tree, than like green pine needles. While people see most similarity to Caron Yatagan, I'd like to contrast it with Lutens Fille en Aiguilles: Both Traitre and Fille smell rather woody and dry, but Traitre really shows the patchouli. Fille may be more unisex because it has less herbal notes and perhaps a pinch of sweetness. The herbal notes make Traitre lean towards the masculine side. IMO Yatagan is more animalic, and I also think that Traitre isnt similar to Polo

While I don't love this scent, it's a solid fragrance that's worth considering.