The Most Wanted

Perfume Chat Room, October 31
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Perfume Chat Room, October 31

Welcome to the weekly Perfume Chat Room, perfumistas! I envision this chat room as a weekly drop-in spot online, where readers may ask questions, suggest fragrances, tell others their SOTD, comment on new releases or old favorites, and respond to each other. The perennial theme is fragrance, but we can interpret that broadly. This is meant to be a kind space, so please try not to give or take offense, and let’s all agree to disagree when opinions differ. In fragrance as in life, your mileage may vary! YMMV.

Today is Friday, October 31, and it is Halloween! Happy Halloween, fellow fragrance fans!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is a big deal in our neighborhood. They actually block off some streets in the middle of the neighborhood to keep cars out and allow for safer trick-or-treating. And tonight’s weather is perfect, so I’m sure we will see many kids in costume! We’re ready!

On a fragrance topic, I was delighted to get a request this morning from my niece who is getting married next fall, asking if I would do a workshop to make wedding fragrances for her and her fiancé. I’m so tickled! Of course I said yes, and have asked her to send me the names of some scents they enjoy. Luckily, there’s a niche fragrance boutique nearby that holds these workshops, so I’ll ask one of my daughters (who will be a bridesmaid) to go with me.

I’m very curious to find out what scents the happy couple particularly like. It’s always interesting to hear what their generation does and doesn’t like in fragrance. Our son stopped by the other day to pick up some things, and he smelled great — it was the Azzaro Most Wanted Parfum that he asked for and got last Christmas.

Any thoughts on or experiences with wedding fragrances? Do tell!

Perfume Chat Room, April 25
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Perfume Chat Room, April 25

Welcome to the weekly Perfume Chat Room, perfumistas! I envision this chat room as a weekly drop-in spot online, where readers may ask questions, suggest fragrances, tell others their SOTD, comment on new releases or old favorites, and respond to each other. The perennial theme is fragrance, but we can interpret that broadly. This is meant to be a kind space, so please try not to give or take offense, and let’s all agree to disagree when opinions differ. In fragrance as in life, your mileage may vary! YMMV.

Today is Friday, April 25, and we had a lovely Easter with family last Sunday. My husband’s brother, his wife, their older daughter, her husband and their baby joined us and our three children, so it was quite festive. The roses in my garden cooperated by producing many blooms, and the weather cooperated by staying sunny!

I don’t normally comment much here about masculine fragrances, because my own taste and collection are much more floral than most “masculine” scents (which anyone can wear, of course). But our twenty-something son was wearing a fragrance he had requested and I gave him for Christmas, and he smelled so good! It is Azzaro’s The Most Wanted Parfum, and it came out in 2022. I don’t know who the perfumer is. Top accord is ginger, middle accord is “woody notes”, and the base is Bourbon vanilla. It smells warm and just a bit spicy, with soft sillage. Downright cuddly, without being sweet.

I’m very happy that our son has developed a nose for nice fragrance. He only has a couple, that he wears in rotation depending on his mood and the occasion, but he always smells appropriately nice, in a preppy sort of way. His first fragrance, which I picked out for him, was Davidoff’s Cool Water, which suited him as a teenager (and he could afford to buy it himself if he wanted to, an important consideration). He still wears Chanel’s Paris-Edimbourg. And now he has The Most Wanted. I just wish its bottle wasn’t made to look like the chamber of a revolver, sigh.

Do you have any recent new favorites among more masculine-leaning scents?

Bottle of Bourbon vanilla extract with vanilla bean pods
Bourbon vanilla beans and extract; image from nativevanilla.com
Perfume Chat Room, December 27
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Perfume Chat Room, December 27

Welcome to the weekly Perfume Chat Room, perfumistas! I envision this chat room as a weekly drop-in spot online, where readers may ask questions, suggest fragrances, tell others their SOTD, comment on new releases or old favorites, and respond to each other. The perennial theme is fragrance, but we can interpret that broadly. This is meant to be a kind space, so please try not to give or take offense, and let’s all agree to disagree when opinions differ. In fragrance as in life, your mileage may vary! YMMV.

Today is Friday, December 27, and we’ve had a lovely Christmas Eve and Christmas. And Happy Hanukkah and Kwanzaa to all who are currently celebrating those!

Christmas flowers and an angel

As I wrote last week, our son asked for a new fragrance for Christmas: Azzaro’s The Most Wanted Parfum. It smells great on him, woodsy and spicy. It’s strong, so I advised spritzing sparingly! I asked him how he had decided on that one, and he told me one of his friends had seen his bottle of Chanel’s Paris-Edimbourg, asked him about it, and said he was into colognes. So our son asked if he had any new favorites, he mentioned The Most Wanted flanker, which our son liked. Now he has his own! My husband gave me Guerlain’s Les Légendaires version of Après l’Ondée, as I had asked (and ordered, lol). It’s really lovely.

Do you have any special plans for New Year’s Eve?

Perfume Chat Room, December 20
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Perfume Chat Room, December 20

Welcome to the weekly Perfume Chat Room, perfumistas! I envision this chat room as a weekly drop-in spot online, where readers may ask questions, suggest fragrances, tell others their SOTD, comment on new releases or old favorites, and respond to each other. The perennial theme is fragrance, but we can interpret that broadly. This is meant to be a kind space, so please try not to give or take offense, and let’s all agree to disagree when opinions differ. In fragrance as in life, your mileage may vary! YMMV.

Today is Friday, December 20, and we are almost at the longest night of the year! Not to mention Christmas Eve and Christmas. I went to a shopping mall today for the first time in several months, to pick up a couple of last Christmas gifts, and took the opportunity to stroll through a department store’s fragrance area. I didn’t want to linger, but I did spritz a bit of Tiffany & Co. Rose Gold on one hand. I quite like it — no surprise, as I really love the original Tiffany & Co. and Tiffany & Co. Intense. Thankfully, I don’t feel compelled to buy this one, though I would be delighted if Tiffany would issue a coffret with miniatures of all the Tiffany & Co. flankers! I do love those bottles.

Tiffany & Co. Rose Gold EDP; image from Tiffany

Fragrantica says that the perfumer for this one was Jérôme Epinette, and that the top note is Black Currant; middle notes are Blue Rose and Iris; base notes are Musk and Ambrette (Musk Mallow). I don’t know why the brand feels a need to specify “blue rose”, as there really isn’t such a thing — there are purple roses that look very bluish, but not a true blue rose. And the purple ones smell like other roses, when they have a fragrance.

As expected, this flanker is rosier than the original, but it is still dominated by iris, to my nose. The black currant top note works nicely, now opening the fragrance instead of being one of several middle notes as in the original. A few hours after application, I can still smell the fragrance on my hand and it smells very nice, sort of a soft rosy musk.

Speaking of fragrance and gifts, I was pleased that our son asked for a new fragrance for Christmas: Azzaro’s The Most Wanted Parfum. It was very popular among many perfumistas in 2023, and it sounds appealing: ginger, woodsy notes, and vanilla. I’ll be interested to smell it on him. I know I’m getting one fragrant gift from my husband, since I ordered it, lol! It is the Guerlain’s Les Légendaires version of Après l’Ondée. Are you expecting or giving any particular fragrant gifts?