...Danieq:I will say though, that I bought a vintage Vol de Nuit EdC and I'm not certain that it has it's original character at all anymore. That was an expensive mistake.I got an older bottle of Vol de Nuit EdT and it was a bitter disappointment for me as well. If only the new extrait wasn't so damn expensive...

..."Eau Illuminée" is nice. A melange of herbs, lavender, orris and tonka. Not heavy and pretty unisex IMO.

...Their test was set up in a way that the subjects would only have to tell which vial out of three was different. Their vials contained blends of 10, 20 or 30 odorous molecules. Practically no one could tell apart 20- or 30-component mixtures that differed only by a single component. Some blends were trickier than others; the participants could only tell apart one half of their 20-component blends that were 50% similar. Not always easy it seems! There are many other results that are quite difficult to digest and the math they used to come up with these huge numbers is simply beyond my comprehension. But I kind of agree with their conclusion that humans can distinguish more olfactory combinations than colors or tones. One other interesting thing they mention is that the scent of a rose is produced by 275 components, much more than what their subjects were tested with. Must be very difficult to reproduce this in a perfume, if possible at all.

...I'm not taken by the wood frame design either. I remember reading the official blurb from the company's English web site (www.guerlain.com), which goes like this:The fragrance is showcased in a bottle with clean lines, simply framed in wood for a terribly contemporary allure.It took me a few seconds to grasp the meaning, at first I thought it read 'terrible'.I'm really curious to hear about how L'Âme d'un Héros compares with old Coriolan. Fifteen years apart and surely some tweaking done in the meantime...

...One other curious thing, from the original article in Science, is how different individual participants were in their performances.From the initial group of 28 people, two were excluded because they failed to correctly identify the wrong vial in more than three out of four trials. From the remaining 26 (17 females, 9 males), the worst sniffer was calculated to be able to distinguish between some 78 million odorous mixtures. The best, a whopping 1.03 × 10^28 (ten octillion). Or, written out as decimal numbers:Worst: 78,400,000Best: 10,300,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000Makes me wonder if the ability to tell scents apart is why some people are more likely to become perfumistas... :idea:

...My bottle of Coriolan dates back to 1999, according to batch code. I don't detect any obvious off notes, even though I am generally very picky when it comes to old fragrances. To me, Coriolan projects modestly, not a sillage monster at all, and longevity has always been only average. I haven't tried L'Âme d'un Héros, so unfortunately can't say how the reissue would compare to the original, maybe they improved it using new technology. One reason I think 'old' Coriolan may be worth having is its unique flacon. Brass-plated strips holding the curvy bottle and the cap that you flick to open with your thumb, a very pleasing and beautiful design for a masculine perfume.

...For me, I would say five or six hours easily. Even more when sprayed on a fabric, less when it's very hot outside. It hovers close to the skin after the first half an hour, but never disappears, I can smell it distinctly.

...Sleuth, the drydown of EdJ is mostly neroli and clean musks, plus some other modern molecules probably. It feels soft and creamy, I also get a bit of a ginger aspect from it. The wonderful thing is that neroli lasts and lasts.I'm looking now at the list of notes in the database, and it says "burbon vanilla". Hmmm...that just doesn't make sense. There could be some vanilla deep inside, but I would never describe EdJ as a vanillic scent. I will need to revisit it again, but I stay by my description. Actually, Prada's Infusion de Fleur d'Oranger may be a good reference, though EdJ is built around neroli, not orange blossoms, and is more energetic and unisex/masculine in the beginning.

...Habit Rouge EdP

...One of my favorites is "Cologne Sologne" by PdN.I also like the modern twist on the classical theme in "Eau de Jade" by Giorgio Armani.

...Kind of strange they don't list civet in the notes at F, it's pretty prominent to my nose. Jicky is one of those perfumes I wouldn't smell directly from the flacon or even from my wrist. Patou's Joy is another one. Maybe the note in the modern stuff is not as strong as it used to be, I don't know. What I've learned though is that civet was used in the formulas of practically all french classics (including Chanel No 5, Shalimar etc), just in small doses. It's a fixative and also makes florals to develop better. But everyone seems to agree that companies use synthetic these days.

...My pleasure, Dulcemio :D I personally only had a brief affair with Jicky, but I think it is definitely worth trying. A nice lady, who I was once trading with, sent me a few samples from her vintage collection. There was one particular extrait, if I remember correctly, that was different and very lovely (she only sent me a couple of drops, can't blame her though!) My girlfriend didn't find it offensive on me, and she has low tolerance for civet in general. Granted, I had already learned my lesson at that time and didn't let her smell directly from the vial! The only thing, with all these different variations, and the fact that new versions are being constantly tweaked by the companies, you never know if there is a better variation out there, I often find it frustrating.

...No one mentioned "Jicky" yet, really? Although some say it was named after a girl Aimé Guerlain once met, many historians believe the composition was actually meant to be marketed to men, noting the style of the original bottle and the fact that Jicky was also the nickname of Jacques, Aimé's nephew. Apparently men of the time were slow to accept new trends in perfumery. Philippe Guerlain was quoted as saying “When they realized that Jicky was too modern for men, they decided to target it towards women”. In 1912, first adverts for "Jicky" started to appear in women's magazines, according to monsieurguerlain's web site.This probably makes "Jicky" the first marketing mistake of the type the OP mentions.

...I needed a little dose of good cheer on Blue Monday:

...Looking at my "you have worn" list, it turns out I picked "Ambre Doré " for the Solstice. Okay, that was a deliberate choice on my part, this fragrance feels like a bottled essence of the Sun to me.I wore Holy Water (aka Acqua Santa) by La Via del Profumo on Christmas day. A light and soothing combination of orange flowers with subtle incense, great for a day off. If I say it had nothing to do with the holiday or the fitting name of the perfume, I know nobody's going to believe me."Miracle Homme" by Lancôme for the New Year's day. Haven't worn it in ages, grabbed on an impulse in the morning and enjoyed it through the day. A fresh start for a new year :D

...how can you be so cruel.. to us?

...Sherapop:valandria:I wish I liked Hermes, but everything smells very masculine to my nose - just too masculine smelling on me. I like some of the men's line on men though…. :DEven "24, Faubourg"? That's my all-time favorite...And how about "Calèche"? Another beautiful chypre, feminine and classy.

...:twisted: How about this bombshell: Is it true that fragrance reacts differently on blondes, brunettes and redheads?Probably. True blondes often have a dry skin that lacks the oils needed to hold scent. As a result, fragrances evaporate more rapidly from their skin.Brunettes, on the other hand, usually have skin that holds fragrance well because it is much richer in natural oils.True redheads generally have skin that’s fair and delicate, characterised by fine pores and a slightly higher body temperature. Their skin releases the true notes of most fragrances but its warmth tends to make fragrances fade quite quickly.From "Top 100 perfume questions", as answered by Michael Edwards, the author of Fragrances of the World, a.k.a “The Fragrance Industry Bible”. 29th Edition as of 2013.http://www.fragrancesoftheworld.com/Top100Questions.aspxI know this is not going to change anyone's position in this debate. I will shut up now 8)

...Dear all:If you really want to get answers from the scientific literature, you have to use proper terms for your queries. "Skin chemistry" is not a formal scientific term but a type of jargon used by perfumistas, it will not give you useful hits.A lot of research has been done on how fragrance reacts with human skin. Unfortunately, many of the papers are put by their publishers behind the paywall and/or (predictably) in French. But here's a couple of examples that have free previews of some pages.This one introduces skin thickness, age, the amount of hair follicles as some variable factors (yes, it is the amount of skin hair, and the oils it retains - or loses when washed by cleaning products - that changes the odorant profile!)http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-80340-6_17#page-1 Click on "Look inside" to read the first couple of pages.An example of another study here:http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-2494.1995.tb00110.x/abstractA notable passage: We also present results describing the characterization of skin types using a panel comprised of 80 people (40 females and 40 males); amount of sebum, hydration and pH were systematically measured on different parts of the face, the neck as well as the outer and inner faces of the forearm. The panelists were then classified into different sub-groups taking into account these parameters. It should be noted that the foregoing results were obtained on an ‘average’skin type.A perfumista writing in her blog obviously puts much more meaning into "skin chemistry" than a scientist does. Nevertheless, a researcher in a lab can measure skin differences in the absorption and retention of different fragrant molecules.

...My apologies Sweetgrass, I didn't mean to pick an argument though it may certainly seem that way. I see your point. It is indeed a strange business model to encourage people to pay for membership by offering instant posting of their review when reviews is what keeps the site afloat in the first place. When I started to write my response, I scrolled through other posts using the wonderful "Topic review" function at the bottom of the screen. As a result, I digressed too much. I should have removed your quote when I finished :oops: :( In my defense, I can only say that the technical features of Parfumo are sometimes too advanced for my own good...