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.

Dior Granville Review

I've been meaning to try and review this and don't know what was stopping me from doing this. I think that I got sidetracked with other perfumes. I haven't had any kind of experience wearing Dior perfumes nor any that are pine dominant. At the time, I was going through a phase were I was getting perfumes that are not available in the United States or the ones that you would have to travel half way across the US to get it. By reading the description on The Perfumed Court, I was intrigued and bought a 2.5ml decant of this. By reading review, I was even more intrigued. Pine needles, thyme, and rosemary is what comes to mind for masculine perfumes and not something you would think would be in something that is marketed to women. Upon first application, all I get is something akin to rubber and pine needles. I find it to be interesting even though I don't exactly like how huge the rubber note is. The rubber note fades somewhat but stays all throughout the wearing. After the larger than life rubber note calms down, the pine needles get a chance to shine. After a while, the rosemary and thyme come out to support the pine but they don't take over. The base notes of woods, and I'm guessing it is either velvetier or sandalwood that are the base that really come out but don't overtake the pine. No matter where I look, I cannot find out if this is an EDT or an EDP. If this is an EDP, the staying power is weak. If it is an EDT, the staying power is decent on my skin because I get about 5 or 6 hours of wear time on my skin. I do find this to be likable but I don't want this bad enough to drag myself halfway across the nation or the world to procure a bottle of this. One reason is the size of the bottles they are kind of like the Chanel Les Exlusifs line before they gave the option of either a 2.5 oz or 6.8 oz bottle. Another reason is that Granville gives off the vibe of Chanel's Sycomore which I already have the 6.8 monster bottle.