...Jasonmurphy:From my opinion, the following are the worst smells: calcium hydroxide fumes, rotten meat, cat and dog feces and skunk secretions. Luckily there are perfumes that can help us forget the horrible smells.Hello Jasonmurphy, ads are not allowed at Parfumo. Please respect this.

...Drseid:Great discussion. Come to think of it I do have samples of the two Crown scents in question and both of them were very rough around the edges as well when I sniffed them (and in truth neither appealed to me but for different reasons than English Fern). That said, while it has been a few years since I sniffed those two samples, they seemed to have a lot more of the fern than I got with "English Fern" and none of the geranium that was all over the place (in my opinion) with the Penhaligon's. Sartorial was a much smoother release that was a lot easier to wear than either of the Crowns, for example. A sample of Fougere Royale is on the way to me that should arrive this week, so it will be interesting to see how English Fern compares to that one as many consider FR a (or even *the*) reference fougere...The modern Fougère Royale can hardly be seen as a Fougère reference, rather as a reference for hiding away the rough side of Fougère. BTW one of the Crowns made me spend a day in hospital - due to an allergic reaction.

...Drseid posted a review of "English Fern" recently under the title "This can't be the original formula". He comes to this conclusion since what he smelled appeared to him amateurish and not what he would expect from a classic fragrance from 1910.I think such conclusions might very well be based on the nearby presumption that a classic accord which has survived the times must be something brilliant, a highly refined and elegant composition and maybe outstandingly beautiful. "If God gave ferns a scent, they would smell like Fougère Royal" – this famous sentence which came down to us from Paul Parquet might support such opinions. Actually, only few people can give us a record of how Paul Parquet's "Fougère Royale" from 1882 and many of its followers originally smelled like. Some leftovers are kept in the secret caves of the Osmothéque in Versailles. Luca Turin was invited to smell Fougère Royale there, and in his book "The Secret of Scent" he reports that it gave him impressions of visiting a bathroom: scrubbed black and white tiles, damp white towels and fecal aromas - "someone else's shit". You could blame Turin for straining after effect, but to some extent, I can reconcile his impression with my own fougère experiences.I had the chance to test the discontinued "Buckingham" and "Crown Fougère", both by Crown Perfumery, and the still available "Fougère" by Harry Lehmann. Harry Lehmann is a traditional Berlin perfume manufacturer. The business was founded in the 1920's and they still use many of the traditional formula. For details, look into the Parfumo Travel Guide. These three perfumes gave me an idea of what the classic fougère accord must smell like.The use of the denomination Fougère is widespread. In its broadest sense, more or less everything can be called a Fougère, as long as it has something herbal in it and is not completely oriental. This use - which would even include a vanilla fragrance like Guerlain's Jicky - is not what I am talking about here.What I experienced in those classic fougères was a very sharp herbal spiciness in the olfactory neighborhood of the aromas of fennel, celery, aniseed, eucalyptus. There is also a reminiscence to the smell of bales of dusty cloth, the dressing in there, and the picture of somebody wearing a sports jacket which indeed implies a link to the idea of masculine elegance. But the classic fougère accord is not beautiful, it also has something repelling. If you get too much of it, it can be even nauseating, maybe due to excessive use of cumarin. And the sharpness in it can really hurt. My theory is that Fougère was supposed to hurt! At some point in history, the use of perfume became more and more a privilege of the ladies. Surrounding oneself with beautiful fragrances became something effeminate, and perfume loving men were considered effete persons. The most amiable flowery fragrances have always been sold as ladies' fragrances. Even today some leftover machos at least in some societies categorically refuse to wear perfume since they regard such as unmanly. At gay sex parties everywhere around this planet you are very likely to be refused admittance if you are surrounded by a fragrance other than your own bodily odor.Fougère is a cultural expression of the development of gender. If beautiful fragrances are for ladies, effete men and mollycoddled boys, then any use of fragrance must hurt to be acceptable. It is pure masochism: many men punish themselves for using fragrance. They enjoy perfume only if by doing so, they can demonstrate that they can take pain. This is why we have After Shave. Applying a sharp alcoholic chemical to freshly shaved skin hurts a lot, and for this way of using fragrance, there is even the justification that the lesions need to be disinfected! Using After Shave and no Eau de Toilette might tell something about a man's personality.Now, let's count two and two together: the masochistic use of fragrance by so many men plus Turin's impression that Fougère Royale has something to do with toilets. Isn't it comprehensible why Fougère became a success?One could write the history of perfumery under the aspect of overcoming strict gender roles, starting with Paul Parquet's Fougère Royale. It is a good sign that this masochism cannot be found any more in nowadays sweetish orientals the style of Le Mâle or One Million. I am not through with the classic fougère accord. Is it reactionary to use it? Or is there a way to transmute the masochism of the past into something different? There have been a number of releases in the last decade that involve the classic Fougère accord. These Fougères are different. They all have in common that they try to hide away the pain, more or less successful. What is left is a kind of detachedness, a rather relaxed insight that not every accord has to submit to the idea of beauty in order to evoke elegance.Find out for yourself, here is my shortlist:#1 "Tina Farina Charme - Stier for Men"On the fresh side and with poor longevity. My number one because it fades away before the pain sets in.#2 "Fougère" by Harry LehmannPresumably the closest to the original still available.#3 "MPH" by Washington TremlettNice with a special emphasis on lavender which is very well detectable as such.#4 "Sartorial" by Penhaligon'sStressing the textile aspect of Fougère with its declared reference to a Sartorial's workshop.#5 "Jaques Zolty"Maybe a bit opulent but very fougère.#6 "Fougère Royale" by HoubigantReformulated re-issue of the original Paul Parquet fragrance. Very stylish flacon, and a refined and modernised Fougère. The air of light elegance betrays us – this cumarin bomb can become nauseating. If it just hadn't Eau de Parfum longevity!#7 "Vétiver de Frédéric" by Frédéric HaldimanGreat Vetiver with a discerible fougère touch by a great perfumer. Sadly, discontinued.#8 "Buckingham" and "Crown Fougère" by Crown PerfumeryAn authentic experience - if you can find them.Sorry I haven't tested English Fern yet, so I can neither agree nor dissent with Drseid's impression.

...Today, Parfumo International is one year old.I just want to say a big Thank you! to everybody who supported us, especially by contributing so many excellent perfume reviews and forum posts.So, it is time to give you a feedback about Parfumo's progress.When we started this project, it was not clear at all that this site would attract people. Whereas the German Parfumo was more or less the only perfume community in the German part of the web for a long time, Parfumo International has to compete with at least two other big and successful sites that have been around for many years.A clean design and lots of cool features is what Parfumo had to offer initially, but from the first day after go-live it dawned on me that only excellent service would make people feel at home here, and so we tried to do just this.Success came very soon. The news was spread among the Facebook groups and by word of mouth. We soon found out that quite a few people were discontent with some shortcomings they had experienced elsewhere and so decided to try Parfumo. Many of those who joined in were serious perfume lovers who asked for a site where their own ideas and quality standards were met. By now, Parfumo International has gained its own unique profile. We are focussing on perfume reviews – sharing one's own experience of fragrances with others. Besides that, the forum offers lots of opportunities for perfume discussion as well as to socialise, and so, the Parfumo International community sprouted. We invite users to take some effort, and to take their hobby seriously. Both newbies and experts are welcome here, and all can learn from each other. What I am really proud of is that the atmosphere on this site is extremely friendly and supportive. We reap what we saw, and I think it was a good decision to try and be as friendly and supportive as possible instead of setting strict rules or being bossy. The moderators team formed lately was asked to follow the same policy.I consider Parfumo International still an insider's tip. We currently cannot compete with the traffic on the older community sites – but shouldn't we see it as a matter of quality before quantity? I am happy and thankful that the Parfumo International community is so active – and considered its small size, more active than the German Parfumo. I feel we are still in the phase of forming a high quality community site which will eventually be well-known to a more general audience. Parfumo International is growing, and even strongly. We have days with more than 1000 people visiting Parfumo International, and the last month brought one new visitor's record after another. I think we are on a good way.So, what are our plans for the future?Don is currently working hard on the database. As already announced the process of adding new perfumes and corrections of perfume data is being worked over. The general idea is to let the whole community take part in this process more actively simply because the number of suggestions has grown in a way that we can hardly handle them on our own. Suggesting new perfumes, checking the suggestions and finally approving or rejecting them will generally be a matter of the whole community in the future. There are so many ideas for new features and improvements but it is essential that the webmaster will be relieved from the work of approving perfume suggestions in the long run. We have to get it going.I wish everybody a happy new year, and I am really curious about what 2013 has in store for Parfumo!

...My top 5 2012 are:#1: "L'Homme Infini" by Divine#2: "Myrrhe & Délires" by Guerlain#3: "Calycanthus Brumae" by Acqua di Stresa#4: "A*Men Pure Shot" by Thiery Mugler#5: "Guerlain Homme L'Eau Boisée"

...Hello English speakers!For a nice Christmas poem in "Denglisch", go here:http://www.parfumo.de/Benutzer/Michelangela/Blog/Eintrag/When_the_snow_falls_wunderbar

...AromiErotici:I have never, ever run into any human being who was felled by either wearing classic ingredients or being near someone who was.Sorry Aromi, I am the first then. Testing the discontinued Crown Fougère and Buckingham gave me one day in hospital.

...Yes, please reward the reviews that you enjoyed reading, and maybe also drop a line as a comment. Everybody who takes effort in contributing his or her thoughts in a review deserves some feedback!Also: taking some effort in writing good quality reviews is a very good way to encourage others to do the same! We invite everybody to share his or her thoughts on perfumes, and no matter if newbie or expert: every personal style is welcome and should be respected as long as it shows some engagement. We can all learn from each other, and in the end, quality will prevail.Time to give you an update about Parfumo's current status:The number of visitors is slowly, but steadily increasing. Especially now before Christmas we have a new visitor record every few days. Currently 1000+ people are visiting Parfumo.net at each day.I also look at the new users queue, and I have the impression that we are now attracting new users more regularly. I think we are on a good way.Our visibility in Google searches will continue to be a problem for a while. I guess, Parfumo.net is rather an insider's tip! We rely on the support of all of you, so please spread the word and recommend this site to the people you know.

...My favorite fragrance for around christmas is: "Orange Spice"

...Drseid:Wow, my first time patrolling the forums here and look what I find, an albeit old thread, but a thread indeed on my favorite from Micallef, Yellow Sea. I always thought this one never got the attention it deserved. Quite the classy scent that has a somewhat similar vibe to scents like Dia Man from Amouage (another favorite). I am happy to own a bottle already, but if anyone finds excess stock or a sample, I strongly recommend getting a sniff if at all possible because Yellow Sea is Micallef at her best, IMO.And don't miss the others of the Sea series:Black see: a dry amber with a discreet appealWhite Sea: a light and elegant herbal patchouli reminiscent of the vintage Givenchy GentlemanRed Sea: Orange blossom and rose blend into a red berry style perfume, spiced up with something dirty (cumin?)

...Sherapop:Take Jean-Claude Elléna's early versus his later, minimalist works. The guy created Van Cleef & Arpels "First" and Balenciaga "Rumba", for heaven's sake! So clearly he is capable of piling up the notes, but he no longer chooses to do so.Elléna writes in his book that he limits himself to about 200+ fragrant ingredients now, and I got the impression his criteria are the grade of how well an ingredient fits in with others, the usability for his artistic plans but maybe also simple likes/dislikes. He gave me the impression that he would like his minimalism to be regarded as a kind of Altersweisheit (wisdom that comes with old age).

...I find some of the old perfumes too complex, especially mens' colognes. If you put every herb and spice you find in your kitchen into your tomato sauce, then the outcome will not be very satisfying - and I think this also applies to perfumery.But it is the result that counts. A perfumer should try to create something unique that goes beyond the enumeration of scent notes. In the end, it doesn't matter if this is achieved with 10 or 100 fragrance ingredients. It he hits that spot, then we have nothing to complain about, but if he misses it, we might accuse the result of being poor for using only few ingredients, or for being an over-complex mishmash.

...Dolby:Finally came round to visiting a place in London that I had wanted to check out for ageshttp://www.soane.org/Thanks for this tip, Dolby. My last trip to London is ages ago - I should give it a thought and come over for a few days.

...Unfortunately, my flat is too small for full grown hifi equipment. In one room, I have some nice components by NAD with a pair of simple Mission compact loudspeakers, and in the other room, I have a mishmash of a 20 year old Nakamichi receiver, a Technics standard CD player of the same age, a 35 year old Technics turntable player (fully automatic!), and still a 20 year old Onkyo cassette player. I am proud of my homemade boxes: 2 little steel blue bass-reflex columns with small Fostex full range speakers. They are also about 20 years old, and I should find the time to replace the speakers and redo the cablework.

...Cryptic:Gojira:Serge Lutens hasn't released on yet.Apparently, Uncle Serge has been working with oud for a while, but hasn't released anything because he is afraid of the material being banned by the IFRA. He talks about it here:http://www.fragrantica.com/news/Serge-Lutens-Interview-Answers--2728.htmlI don't believe a word!They are all talking about working on oud scents pretending they use the wood, but in the end they come out with something from Givaudan or Firmenich! And this is IFRA-safe because these companies are the IFRA!

...The German city Solingen near Cologne has a small but attractive sight: the Museum Plagiarius! This place is dedicated to piracy of products. They get their exhibits from the German customs authorities as well as from a fairly large number of companies who have to cope with that problem. At Plagiarius, they have everything twice. Next to the original you see the copy, and the range covers harmless coffee pots but also highly unsafe motor saws and even motor bikes.Last week, a special exhibition was opened: Farina Eau de Cologne – 220 Years of Fight Against Plagiarists. It is a complete room full of old and new perfume bottles, but also historical documents that show the history of their chagrin.Farina is said to be the world's oldest perfume house. They date their foundation back to the year 1709 when the Italian immigrants Johann Baptist Farina and Johann Maria Farina settled down in Cologne. Amongst many other products and services, they started selling their Eau de Cologne, as it is called now, under the brand name "Johann Maria Farina gegenüber dem Jülichs-Platz" (opposite the Jülich square). The trouble began more than 80 years later when a certain Wilhelm Mülhens began selling his Acqua Mirabilis in Cologne, and he also used the name Farina for it! Allegedly, a mysterious Carthusian monk named Franz Carl Gereon Maria Farina had given him the formulation as a wedding gift, along with the approval to use the name. Other ressources indicate he had found an Italian named Farina in nearby Bonn who he acquired the name from, and who had nothing to do with the Cologne perfumers.It took the real Farina many decades until the annoying competitor finally and forever changed his brand to "Eau de Cologne- und Parfümerie-Fabrik Glockengasse No. 4711 gegenüber der Pferdepost von Ferd. Mülhens", after a lost court case. It was a Pyrrhic victory – Wilhelm Mulhens very soon had sold the name Farina to a large number of persons who all started their Farina Eau de Cologne businesses. A meticulous list shows the use of the many variants of the name Farina: Bill and Bob Farina, opposite nearly all squares of Cologne, and of course, the Cologne Cathedral!Historical perfume bottles are an interesting sight, no matter if copy or original. Sometimes, it is gross forgery, sometimes it comes very close to the original. The choice for this exhibition obviously was made by Farina itself, it is anything but neutral. There is one point where I cannot follow: the presentation of an artificial and sculptural Farina perfume bottle shaped like a human's head. Next to it, as alleged plagiarism, they show us the completely different looking JPG Kokorico bottle, with its product name turned to the back side of the display cabinet. Does that mean, according to Farina, only they are allowed to sell perfume in a head-shaped bottle? In the end, these exhibits do not only tell us about abstract legal claims and strange forgeries. Behind all this, there is human tragic. What does it mean for a family of entrepreneurs if they cannot get rid of this problem over centuries?As a customer, I want Farina to give us new perfumes, and leave the old and new quarrels to lawyers and historians. Their re-release of Russisch Leder in 2011 was a good sign. Anyway, the most sustaining memory of this exhibition was the faint smell of Farina Eau de Cologne that lingered in the room. On my way back home, I found out that it layers well with the perfume I was wearing (Sartorial), providing both freshness and a considerable depth. And of course, it is far better than 4711!Please don't blame me for plagiarism – here are my ressources:http://www.plagiarius.com/museum_plag.htmlhttp://www.rheinische-geschichte.lvr.de/persoenlichkeiten/M/Seiten/M%C3%BClhens.aspxhttp://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_M%C3%BClhenshttp://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_M%C3%BClhens

...Today, my bottle of "L'homme Infini" by Divine arrived! I will give it some time before I post a review.

...Cryptic:A long bike ride sounds great, Apicius. I would love to do something like that this weekend while the crazy shoppers are trampling each other for bargains. In case you're not familiar, the Friday after Thanksgiving in the US is like an unofficial national shopping holiday. Is there any equivalent in Europe, I wonder?Not really. Germany is a federal republic, and sometimes there is a holiday in one state but not in the other. So, on these occasions people who have holiday often go to nearby cities without holiday for shopping.

...Thanksgiving is not a holiday in Germany, but I had a wonderful day nevertheless. It was rather cold but very sunny, so I took my bycicle and went out to the countryside, I am just returning from my 5 hrs trip and I feel really good and full of energy!

..."Guerrilla 2"