Elephants, teddy bears and a virtual barnyard of lascivious beasts featured in a recent episode of Love At First Scent, where I reviewed new releases from Bulgari, Penhaligon’s and Moschino, as well as a UK-based brand called Side Story. Here’s a link to the video, followed by further thoughts on some of the fragrances: Penhaligon’s The Omniscient Mr Thompson, Moschino Toy 2 Pearl, Side Story Pillow Talk, Bulgari Pour Homme edp, Francesca Bianchi Encounters and Bon Parfumeur 001 reviews.
Penhaligon’s The Omniscient Mr Thompson (Fanny Bal) 4:12
Moschino Toy 2 Pearl (Domitille Michalon-Bertier) 15:41
Side Story Pillow Talk 26:17
Bulgari Pour Homme edp (Jacques Cavallier) 33:41
Francesca Bianchi Encounters (Francesca Bianchi) 42:22
Bon Parfumeur 001 (Nathalie Koobus) 49:42
Be warned: Penhaligon’s Mr Thompson gets the thumbs up from yours truly, which means it’ll most likely be discontinued before the end of the year. Putting aside its ridiculous elephant head, it’s an attractively discreet composition, highlighting Bal’s ability to combine subtlety and legibility. With its gentle scattering of roasted nut notes across clean musks, it makes an interesting companion piece to last year’s Diptyque L’Eau Papier by Fabrice Pellegrin.
The new edp of Bulgari Pour Homme is unquestionably streets ahead of most other mainstream masculines, but it is somewhat bulkier and less spry than the edt, making use of — brace yourselves — some woody ambers to bolster the central tea-musk accord. It’s enjoyable to wear, but the edt expresses the original idea with greater conviction.
Finally, I was bowled over by Pillow Talk, the first scent I’ve ever tried from Side Story. The product of a debauched threesome between Shalimar, Muscs Koublai Khan and Musc Ravageur, it flaunts its attributes with total abandon, using an animalic-amber base to tempt any intrepid passersby into its lair. Since broadcasting the video, I’ve received samples of the brand’s other scents, so I look forward to sharing them with you very soon.
Persolaise
[Samples provided by the brands.]
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Might be discontinued. Wish I picked up Ostra when Penhalogins were dumping it on their website. I had 4 in the cart, but I kept shopping for the deals. Well, you know the outcome. Penhaligons used to have the best after the holidays specials. I used to love those big tins they had, and the little ones for the 5mls. I have a few. They don’t offer the deals they used to have. Honestly, after all the PayPals in 4 and the likes, people just buy up the stock beforehand. Boy oh Boy have the prices went up on the secondary markets. I know because my Blenheim Bouquet is getting low. I picked up a 1.7 and a bath body wash splash, what ever it’s called, with the big tin on their site for $57 I believe. Them days are long gone. Going to try and sample before they Ostra it. Miss English Fern also.
I’m not as impressed with it as I was with Ostara, but I’d say it’s definitely worth checking out.
Thanks very much for reading.