...Somebody? Anybody?

...Is there a doctor in the house? All these Caron boxes and bottles are making my head spin. I took Narcisse Noir EDT as an exampleThere's this white box/studded 1.7 oz bottleThen there's the same bottle in a purple box, sorry for the huge pictureAnd the faux leather one, like in Chanelle's picture here Aaaaand there's the EDC that I had decanted for me from this bottle apparentlyI'm considering an addition to my wardrobe, but it would be nice to at least know what I'm buying!Also, if you know something about difference in scent between the EDT and other concentrations, please don't hesitate to share! I've only tested the Cologne so far.

..."Poison" for Velma and "Hypnotic Poison" for RoxieTheda Bara

...Ahaha apparently all my boys are Knize Ten boys)) ssssmokin'!Now let's see.Dieter Hellstrom looks like a "Grey Flannel" type.Fredrick Zoller would be "Agua Lavanda" by PuigMs. Dreyfus is "Miss Dior Original" (Good Lord, how I loathe this loathsome rebranding!)aand Bridget von Hammersmark is Caron's "Tabac Blond"

..."Iris Silver Mist" for ZolaHow about this gentleman? Professor Fate of Blake Edwards' The Great Race

...Nuit Etoilee by Annick Goutal Perfect for a hazy day of dolce far niente, , cooking steaks with family, sipping on a glass of lovely Portuguese Douro and listening to the wood crackling quetly in the fireplace.

..."AB" by BLOOD for Dr.LecterI'll stick with film noir :)Philip Marlowe, private eye

...Ahhhhhh /faints/Gotta be "Equipage" by HermesHow about Vivian Rutledge (The Big Sleep)

...I must confess to trying but a few celebrity scents, but I have this very dilemma with Chanel. The woman is abominable (to me), but the style is impeccable, and many of the perfumes are pure genius. I prefer to think of perfumes as works of perfumers though, it kind of alleviates the pain of wearing something endorsed by a questionable personality.

...Ahaha sherapop really?It crossed my mind too, but then I saw it was his (Burr's) periodical top 5 so I guessed it was he who did the writing... the weirdly Turinian writing. I haven't read his Emperor of Scent, so can't really judge whether he always writes like this.I'd love to know what's your take on this contemporary Iris thing :)

...I do realise it's kind of old news by now, but I was so caught up IRL recently that I only found out about this whole ordeal a couple of weeks ago. Having read numerous opinions on the topic, I came away with several "questions" or rather examples of perfumers or heads of fashion houses and businesses doing basically the same thing Duchaufour did and yet never getting badmouthed for that. The first thing that pops to mind is Amouage. The state of Oman is guilty of heinous crimes against humanity. It is one of the few countries where the so called female circumcision is practiced to this day (see wiki at your own risk) Countless young women die every year form comlications related to this procedure, which is not voluntary, as well as genital injury sustained due to being wed at an age of 10-12 to full grown men. This is where Amouage comes from. This is the state with which Guy Robert signed his contract for "Gold". And yet little to none is said about the moral dilemma behind wearing Amouage. I wonder why and how Oman is better, cleaner and more moral than Uzbekistan.Want more dirty perfume? Mademoiselle Chanel was a collaborationist during WWII, an antisemite and a homophobe. Not much compared to the state of Oman, right? Let's not forget about Francois Coty then, who personally gave out Jews and families hiding them in his neighborhood to the nazi troops around the same time. Still we admire L'Origan, Chypre et al without second thought. Back to Guli though. Duchaufour might be the mastermind behind her perfumery line, but guess who sews her dresses. Dior, D&G and Gucci are her bespoke tailors to name a few. Louis Vuitton makes her luggage. And I seriously doubt she's their only dictator-daughter moneybag. On a more affordable scale, Nike, Adidas and Reebok make their shoes and T-shirts in Vietnamese sweatshops where the workers are basically slaves in horrid conditions with monthly wages lesser than the price of a pair of those very shoes. I'm not saying that because others have done the same thing, Mr. D can be completely absolved of the choice he made. What I'm trying to imply is that we need to look around before rushing to judgement and picking a scapegoat.

...Ahhh food! I love:Mexican, but it's more like love/hate due to having gained 20 pounds within a year of regular consumption of Mex. Chinese (Dongbei, Cantonese and Sichuan varieties are some of the awesomest).Mediterranean, literally all over the coast on every side of the sea.And the winner is Nuevo Latino. Yumm!

...I too started out as a sherapop review lurker on another site!So here's to the one who made me fell like my indulgence in fragrance is perfectly validated

...Designer: Guerlain and Hermes, also BalmainNiche would be harder to pick, probably L'Artisan.

...Yay for Safari!What about this lady?

...Thanks for the link Cincy. Kind of funny how he writes so much like his idol LT hehe.Anyway, what I was trying to imply in my OP is the question whether there is a new Iris in the industry. Apparently, the success of big Iris centered niche releases (Iris Poudre, some of Chanel's Exclusifs and others) inspired a trend in upper mass market, just like what happened with Oud. These 'iris' notes are everywhere now, but they are definitely not the terribly expensive orris butter, nor the complex molecule compounds which were used in Chanel 19 and the pre-reformulation Dior Homme. This latest Iris can be compared to the latest Musk. Did you notice how they've used the same vaguely Musky aromachemical in a bunch of recent releases (especially those signed by Morillas and Demachy)? Seems like it's the cheapest of the current bunch of musk-like formulas and it renders all perfumes it's used in very similar to each other in their nostril singeing industrial finish. It's impossible to mistake for any other musky compound and it seems to be the go-to musk molecule in the industry today. The same goes for all these so-called Irises in the reformulated Homme, Shalimar Initial and ironically Chanel's own Coco Noir. There's a strange similarity among these scents, a big, hovering, airy, bland accord, vaguely reminiscent of the niche Irises circa 2007 and unmistakably chemical in nature. Again, like what happened with Oud, it seems that niches brought Iris back, some by use of the real orris butter, others by meticulously recreating it from expensive high quality molecules. Fast forward the Oud trend to today - everyone and his dog are making oud perfumes, mostly little chemical woody numbers which claim to contain oud notes. Needless to say, chemists must have been pretty busy churning out the cheapest oud alternative possible. And Iris. Because Iris seems to be the feminine Oud nowadays.I'm a big Iris fan. I love the rootinesss, the funky carrot nuances, the old_lady_lipstick connotations and the lush air of sophistication , but these new Iris-wannabes I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. /end of rant/So, the question remains: whodunit? What's this new chemical stinker being shamelessly passed for Iris?

...Sea, care to elaborate more on those Liang Zi fumes? So far all of the "made in China" fragrances I've encountered have been pretty awful, I'd love to be proven wrong and add something Chinese to my collection.

...Last couple years the upper tier mass market's been awash with releases featuring Iris big time. Things like Shalimar Parfum Initial, Coco Noir, Balenciaga Paris, the multiple reformulated Dior Hommes, etc. Honestly, what is claimed to be Iris in them, is pretty much the same big (new?) aromachemical, isn't it? No way it's natural Iris, not with this foghorn projection and blandness, and definitely not at those prices. Methinks somebody devised this evil Iris-like thing somewhere in a lab and hushed it up. Any info or thoughts on this, anyone?

...I'll risk coming off as Cap'n Obvious :)Jean Desprez Bal a Versailles for the lovely MarquiseWhat about this guy?Ernest Hemingway

...Oh wow Apicius, I've been asking myself this question for a while too. Where oh where are the drinking folks? I'd love to see a thorough wine&booze database with reviews. :lol: I see some very good ones suggested for the whisky crowd, but is there something similar out there for the wine lover?