Frederic Malle | The Scented Hound

It is definitely harder to write about something that you don’t have strong feelings about. If you either love or hate a fragrance it seems that the words just flow. As the following scents will be put to rest in my samples box because they don’t invoke love or hate, I thought I would try something different and so some very short reviews. I’m not sure how helpful they may be, but let’s give it a shot!

HOTHOUSE FLOWER BY INEKE

WHAT I SMELL: Ineke’s Hothouse Flower opens with a burst gardenia and green tea. The fragrance then blooms into a warmer gardenia with hints of fig.

Hothouse Flower Notes: Earl Grey Tea, green foliage, cypress, gardenia, galbanum, fig, frankincense, guiaiacwood, musk, corn silk

WHAT IT SMELLS LIKE TO ME: very grandmotherly

Bone Rating: 3 out of 5 possible bones
Scent: Floral
Classification: Feminine
Expense: $95 for 75ml EdP

SANTALUM SLIVERS BY KEROSENE

WHAT I SMELL: Kerosene’s Santalum Slivers opens with sweet juicy orange, like orange concentrate orange juice. It then turns to more of an orange/lemon cleaner like composite.

Santalum Slivers notes: vetiver, musk, sandalwood, bergamot, grapefruit, lemon, orange, rose, pepper, hay, cucumber and cedar

WHAT IT SMELLS LIKE TO ME: a very clean house

Bone Rating: 3 out of 5 possible bones
Scent: Citrus Aromatic
Classification: Unisex
Expense: $140 for 100ml EdP

GERANIUM POUR MONSIEUR BY FREDERIC MALLE

WHAT I SMELL: Frederic Malle’s Geranium Pour Monsieur opens with a blast of camphoric mint…strong, strong mint. It’s very powerful and overwhelming at first, almost toxic in its volume. When it dies down it becomes a bit spicy and warm. It’s a familiar scent that seems powered through chemicals.

Geranium Pour Monsieur notes: mint absolute, peppermint oil, Chinese geranium oil, rhodinol, anethol and floralozone, CO2 and cloves oil, white musk, ambroxan, sandalwood, resinoid incense and Siamese styrax benzoin

WHAT IT SMELLS LIKE TO ME: classy barbershop tonic

Bone Rating: 3 out of 5 possible bones
Scent: Oriental Floral
Classification: Masculine
Expense: $240 for 100ml EdP

BOTTOM LINE: All of these are semi-interesting compositions that just don’t work for me. Hothouse Flower is not for men and Geranium Pour Monsieur would not work for most women. Santalum Slivers is nice, but there is something there that leaves me a little cold, but I do love Kerosene’s artful bottles!

So what’s all the fuss about? Musc Ravageur is a fragrance that evokes the either “I love it” or “I hate it” responses by those who have tried it. It’s also one of those fragrances that have been described as dirty, sexy, sensual (and many other things in which I won’t go into detail). Of course, given the discourse and the descriptors I too had to give this a try. And I can see what everybody is talking about. The first thing that comes to mind when I put this on is the phrase “plastics are the wave of the future!” There is truly an artificial plastic petroleum aspect to this scent. It’s heavy and it’s a heaviness that fills up your lungs. Musc Ravageur starts with a bitch slap to the senses. It’s moist and musky with hints of vanilla. As the slow dry down takes place, out comes more of a warmed peppered base. It mellows ever so slightly but not enough to take away it’s oomph. I would have a hard time seeing a woman pull this one off, because I think of this really as a man’s fragrance because of its heaviness. In going back and reading what I have written so far, you would think that I don’t like this. Wrong. I love it. It’s a fragrance that gives you power. There is nothing shy about Musc Ravageur, so much so that this may have to go on my wish list for a full bottle.

From the Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle website:

Sensual and sophisticated. Powerful yet perfectly controlled. Dramatic and mysterious. MUSC RAVAGEUR is a grown-up perfume, an uncompromising Oriental, which trumps current fads. Its explosive departure of bergamot, tangerine and cinnamon is set against a lusty backdrop of vanilla, musk and amber. No flowers, just a refined and exalted skin scent.

Bone Rating: 5 out of 5 possible bones
Scent Type: Oriental
Classification: Unisex
Expense: $165 for 50ml EDP