May | 2012 | The Scented Hound

I pulled out my box of samples and found a tester for Hanae Mori hiding on the bottom of the box. Hanae Mori was once part of my full bottle collection, but it’s been years since I have worn it. It’s funny how your tastes change. I still believe that this is a wonderful fragrance, it’s just now a little too sweet for my taste.

Hanae Mori is considered an oriental floral scent. It goes on very fresh, very fruity and as I mentioned before very sweet. It’s a pretty linear scent that does tone down a bit as you wear it, but it never really leaves the sweetness of the base. Maybe I’ve just become annoyed with Lily of the Valley as I’m finding anything these days with it as an ingredient to be problematic for me. Now, I always found the EDT version was perfect for wearing in the summer. Surprisingly, with the floral notes associated with Hanae Mori that it would fit a woman more than a man, but it really does fit a man well. Hanae Mori is a great scent, just not for me at this time.

From the Hanae Mori website:

The first rush of HM is superb lemon, fine lavender, blackcurrant and green notes.

Then a deeper impression of iris, jasmine, Bulgarian rose and Lily of the Valley is revealed.

In time, warm vanilla, appealing amber, hearty moss, rich cedar, sandalwood and Tonka bean are present.

Bone Rating: 4 out of 5 possible bones
Scent Type: Oriental – Floral
Classification: Unisex
Expense: $50 to $70 for 50ml EDT & EDP

Inspired by australianperfumejunkies review of some of the Parfum d’Empire line today, I decided to pull out some of my untested samples and give it a go. Since summer is approaching, I thought I would try Iskander. Lemony, citrus freshness in an initial blast, bright and sunny are how I would describe my first impressions with the scent. There initially is almost a barber shop clean aspect to the Iskander. Now I’m not typically a fan of citrus scents so I wonder if I’m going to like Iskander. I find then that the initial citrus blast dissapates and out comes a very light spice, maybe the coriander?. But I don’t consider this a spicy scent by any means. The fragrance soon mellows into a lovely warm, yet fresh, citrus, amber and oakmoss scent which evens out the initial sharpness of the scent. The is an underlying tonality in this fragrance which is similar to the other Parfum d’Empire scents that I have tested; it’s a smooth and silky finish that I find incredibly luxurious. It sits at the scent’s base tying in all of the ingredients for a layer that blends so well on the skin. I don’t know what this is, but so far the Parfum d’Empires scents that I have tried all are equaled in their beauty even though they are composed so differently. I’m not sure yet, but I believe that Iskander might just be my 2012 summer scent.

Iskander Notes:

citron, mandarin, grapefruit, estragon, coriander, orange blossom, oakmoss, amber and musk

UPDATE: Iskander got to me, I had to buy a full bottle!