Andy Tauer Sotta La Luna Tuberose Review

It's no secret that I do enjoy Andy Tauer's work. I might not find all of his offering wearable on my skin but I do like or love most of Andy Tauer's creations and have quite a few. But I have made no secret of the fact that tuberose is one of my nemesis' in perfume. And yes, I willingly tried Sotto La Luna Tuberose. Because I keep hoping with a lot of tuberose dominant perfumes that I will find one that I work for me and that I do love.

I got a sample of Tuberose when I ordered those travel sprays from the Andy Tauer website. I wouldn't have picked out the sample myself so it was a surprise to find it. Ever since I got those 5 samples, I have been playing around with testing out Tuberose and one day, actually put it on skin.

When Tuberose first hits my skin, I don't get out and out tuberose right away. I get a huge amount of methanol and then a huge blast of vegital green and the green is more of the sliced green pepper vibe to my nose. Then the starring note, tuberose, comes out. The tuberose isn't what you find it many tuberose dominant perfume. This isn't Fracas in all of it's loud creaminess. This is a green tuberose. The tuberose is still in this one and still a dominant note. Tuberose isn't interested in being loud, brash, creamy and buttery and that is what seems to make tuberose difficult to me. Most tuberose dominant perfumes, to my nose, seem to just use tuberose and nothing else, no rose, no jasmine, no nothing else. It's nice to see that there are other notes that are in this that stand up to the tuberose and prevents the tuberose from getting overwhelming. In Tuberose, I haven't smelled the famous Taurade that is a common theme in Andy Tauer's offerings. The lasting power is about 6 hours on my skin and that seems to be the norm for my skin in the summer. Tuberose is an EDP and sold at the usual places.

I do have a liking for Tuberose and think it is at least decant worthy for me. I haven't decided if this is full bottle worthy for me. I'm happy right now to have a tuberose dominant perfume that kind of works for me but I think that I will have to spend more time with Tuberose.

The Large Bottles

Here is another post on bottle sizes, I think that it is a second post of bottle sizes, I can't be sure. But there are a few massive ones in my collection. I'm not talking about the 3.4 ounces of anything. Yes, 3.4 ounces can be a lot of perfume but I'm talking the bottles that are more than that. I'm talking those monster bottles.

It is rare to see huge bottles today. Huge as in more than 3.4 ounces in modern perfumery. Dior and Chanel have large bottles of some of their offerings but that is rare. I more often see incredibly large bottles of perfume regularly on E-Bay. The ones I see on E-Bay most often are vintage perfumes and the most common seem to be are vintage Guerlains. I do think that back in the '50's and '60's maybe even before, perfume was considered a huge luxury and you wanted the biggest bottle that one could afford. Now those bottles, even empty, are a pretty penny, if you go looking on E-Bay. Unless you have a really good thrift store, Goodwill or an antique store, you are limited to E-Bay, like I am.

Xerjoff Irisss Review

I'm getting on a roll right now, reviewing things. But like I have said, my unreviewed pile and mostly unworn pile of decants keeps growing and I really need to get a move on with going at it.

I have been meaning to get a decant of Irisss and wear it for quite a while. Now I finally have actually remembered to test it out to see what this one smelled like. I do love Serge Lutens's Iris Silver Mist and was hoping that Irisss would blow my mind when I smelled it. And I was hoping that it would be like ISM. Mind was not blown, the clouds didn't part and the angels didn't start singing.

After I first put Irisss, I got the airy, carroty, earthy opening that I could have sworn smelled just like ISM. I like my iris all carroty and earthy but I wasn't expecting something identical to ISM. Then after a few minutes, there was a shift. Not a huge shift but to my nose, there was a shift. The iris in all of it's glory was still there and dominant, the incense and woods came out to play. In ISM, there is a wood note in there and the wood note is smooth and lends support to the iris. The woods and incense in Irisss is jarring and doesn't quite mesh in Irisss. To my nose this makes, the woods and incense makes Irisss a little muddled and leaves me unimpressed. The lasting power on this is about 5 hours on my skin. For the price tag, I expected a little bit more and better. So now, my Amex can breath a sigh of relief and I won't be looking at Irisss anytime soon.

Tokyo Milk Dark Arsenic

It seems like my pile of decants keeps growing without stopping. So it was time to pick one to wear and review. This time around I chose something from Tokyo Milk. I've never tried something from Tokyo Milk so Arsenic is going to be the first.

At first, all I get is this funky green. I'm not talking like the funky green bite of no 19 but some sort of green. Maybe it's the wormwood in there that is making the green all funky. Next comes the vanilla note which remains until the end. I can't comment on the salt note nor the fennel because I have never consciously sought them out in perfume. This perfume lasts about 5 hours on my skin and for me, it was probably an hour or two too long for my liking. So even though it is dirt cheap, I won't be buying a bottle.

Do I expect the clouds to part and angels to sing every time I try a new perfume? No, I wish that would happen but it doesn't. It's rare that it does.

Lolita Lempicka L'Eau Jolie EDT Review

What was it, a year ago, that I did review the original Lolita Lempicka perfume and loved it. I compared it to L'Heure Bleue and quite possibly very similar L'Heure de Nuit as well; without all of the powder. I guess it was time to see what else the house of Lolita Lempicka has to offer. What is great about Lolita Lempicka's offerings is that they are dirt cheap, and I mean dirt cheap. Dirt cheap isn't a bad thing, there are many perfumes that are great. It's always a wonderful thing to find a great smelling perfume and not have to shell out big bucks for it. So why not check out more of this line?

L'Eau Jolie starts off by being nice. Plain, boring type of nice. I was starting to get a little bummed right off the bat with Jolie. After the first minute, I smelled something fishy, like that I have smelled this before; I knew that I had smelled something like this before. Then it hit me, it was Amouage Reflection that it smells like. Almost word for word. I'm getting the huge aquatic note and I more often than not hate aquatic because I find it overused in mainstream perfume. The aquatic thing stays dominant from top to bottom. Then comes the fruit and flowers. I'm thinking that it is the black currant that is giving off the fruit bit. But I smell more fruit than flowers in this one. Since it is an EDT, Jolie lasted only 4 hours on my skin before mercifully leaving. Having an EDT last for 4 hours on my skin is a pretty big deal but when it's something I don't like, it can't disappear on skin fast enough.

For a perfume that is probably no more than $30 anywhere, I should have probably expected less than more out of this one. Jolie is best suited on tweens and teens, maybe at the very outside, a college student.

Chanel Coco Parfum Review

When The Guide came out, I spent a lot of time reading it. At the time, I was fascinated with the classic Chanels. Then I cam across the review of the original Coco. Either Sanchez or Turin said that it was dated (can't remember which one). So I promptly ordered a 5ml decant of the EDP version, when TPC and STC was still able to sell decants of Chanel. A little later on, I ordered a smidgen of the parfum version because I know that there are differences between the EDT, EDP, and parfum in all of the Chanels. I did find the EDP version to be dated.

Chanel is known for the little black dress and Chanel no 5. Chanel has so many perfumes to chose from and there a many people who don't follow or explore perfume, all they know from Chanel is no 5, Coco Mademoiselle and the whole Chance line. Now on to Coco in parfum form.

Coco in parfum form smells just like Coco in EDP form but it is a little different. I detect a little more powder in the composition. If you are thinking this is a powder bomb, it isn't. The powder is more pronounced in the parfum than in the EDP. I would call Coco, no matter what the concentration, an oriental. Oriental is not what Chanel does very often, they stick mainly to the aldehyde, jasmine, rose, iris mix. The parfum version is a little more mellow than the EDP version but still smells like Coco. But even this version of Coco smells like a typical '80's perfume (Opim, Giorgio, Obsession). Maybe a little less dated but dated all the same.