L'Artisan Fou d"Absinthe EDP Review

For the longest time, I have been mostly ignoring the whole L'Artisan line. The few that I did try early on I either didn't care for or I hated the fact that most of the line were EDT's. I'm not somebody who owns a lot of EDT's unless they are vintage. EDT's just don't last on my skin, I might get 2 or 3 hours worth of wear if I am lucky. The notable exception thus far has been Havana Vanille, which has sadly been discontinued. But every now and again I do buy sample sets from STC and there was an absinthe sampler set that had been sitting on my wish list for a while. While there was a pretty good sale, I had bought it. So last night and most of today, I have been wearing L'Artisan's Fou d'Absinthe.

While reading the history of absinthe, absinthe has gotten a really bad wrap and didn't deserve the ban that it did and it didn't deserve that long of a ban. Instead of blaming the people abusing alcohol, the temperance movement decided really go after the booze, especially absinthe. But nobody wants to hear a history lecture nor my views on booze.

While I was wearing this before bed, I was wondering where I had smelled this before. I did kind of remind me of Dior's Granville but Granville wasn't really hitting the mark. Then it hit me a two in the morning, it reminded me of the liquid Dial soap. The regular gold colored liquid Dial soap. I couldn't believe it, I really couldn't. But the more that I had wore it, the more that it became the Granville/Dial soap kind of thing. I definitely get the green and absolutely get the pine and fir basalm that gives that Granville feeling to my nose. I keep looking around and others are saying that it is a masculine perfume, I do have to disagree a little bit there. There is a sweetness in d'Absinthe that begs to differ. That sweetness keeps d'Absinthe from being a total masculine perfume. I just can't place the sweetness and what note is doing that but it is there. I would peg this as more of the masculine side of unisex. I find that this would be great for a summer scent but not exactly a winter scent unless I were by a roaring fire in a fireplace.

I am debating if this is worth the price of a full bottle for me since I have Granville on my list for a pine needle note that doesn't go into the Pine-Sol or car air freshener territory . But this is a definite large decant worthy perfume for me. Let's hope that L'Artisan keeps up with the making more things in EDP form because this lasted six hours on my skin.

L'Artisan Timbuktu EDT Review

I've found another decant in my non-reviewed pile that was nearly empty and is begging to be reviewed. I was going through a little bit of a phase with the L'Artisan line in early perfumista days. They smelling as many as I could reasonably afford. This was when I was transitioning between the blind full bottle buys and decants.

The decant of Timbuktu had only 3 sprites left and I gave it a go yesterday. During that time, I kept wondering and saying, "Where have I smelled this before? It smells like something that I already have a full bottle of." Then it hit me. I already own Chanel's Sycomore and Timbuktu is almost identical to Sycomore. Timbaktu is not as dry as Sycomore but still dry and best suited for fall. Timbaktu doesn't have the smoky quality that Sycomore has and I do find that Timbaktu is pretty nice. Lasting power for this is pretty decent, about 4 or 5 hours on skin. Since I have Sycomore, I don't see the need to have Timbaktu.

L'Artisan Mure et Musc Extreme Review

I keep meaning to post but either get sidetracked or don't have an idea. I'm at the point where I am more than satisfied with what I already have and a little bit afraid of trying anything new. There are people in my house that think that I already have too much perfume and threatening to sell some of it. But I have this pile of decants that are begging me to start sampling them.

L'Artisan Mure et Musc Extreme is kind of kicking it off. This one seems to be a little bit of an anomaly in the L'Artisan line because it is a EDP formulation and not the usual EDT formulation that I keep seeing. What does turn me mostly off from the L'Artisan line is the lack of lasting power and how the perfumes feel a little cheap. You can have the finest materials money can buy to work with and yet you don't capitalize on it. I don't know what kind of budget the perfumers at L'Artisan had but Mure et Musc smells cheap. It smells of those urinal fresheners packaged and marketed as perfume. All I get is berries and maybe a little bit of musk. While I do love Courtesan and have a liking for Une Rose Vermeille, I dislike Mure et Musc Extreme.

Can a cheap smelling perfume be fun and smell good? Yes but not when it smells like a bathroom freshener or the latest fruity perfume offering that was created by a 5 year old 10 minutes ago.

L'Artisian Dzongkha Eau de Toilette Review

I haven't had a whole lot of experience with the L'Artisian line and what I have tried, with the exception of Havana Vanille, has left me wanting more. Dzongkha is no exception to leaving me underwhelmed and not happy. At first, I got a blast of dill and celery. Dill and celery may be fine in soup or corned beef but not in perfume. After the initial blast of celery and dill, the iris came out to play with the incense. I've tried Prada's Infusion d'Iris and Chanel's no. 19 Poudre and didn't really like the iris dominant note. With trying Dzongkha, I realized that I do not like iris that plays a staring note. The iris and incense are very dry smelling with no development. The lasting power of Dzongkha is about 4-5 hours on me but projects at least two feet away from my skin. I think that this is the first perfume that I actually dislike bordering on hate.

L'Artisian Voleur de Roses Review

I have been one a little bit of a rose kick and I am wearing L'Artisian Voleur de Roses. Voleur de Roses is not your typical rose scent. It's an earthy rose. What keeps popping into my head is a certain part in the book Anne of Avonlea where Anne and her friends find Hester Grey's lost garden and the book The Secret Garden. But what happens is that I find a lost, dead garden. A completely dead garden. Then, as soon as it starts to rain, the garden only partially comes back to life in the form of roses. Like most of L'Artisian scents, they are eau de toilette and that does prevent me from testing a lot of thier scents. Eau de toilette is difficult for me. Part of it is having dry skin no matter what time of year it is and eau de toilette does have the tendancy to go a little sour on me. Voleur de Roses lasts a surprising 5 hours on my skin. In the last hour, it does begin to go sour but Voleur de Roses disapears on my skin. I have a huge 3.4 ounce bottle of it that is slowly getting used. I am still undecided on if I like it or not.