fragrance | The Scented Hound

August 17, 2016
by The Scented Hound 6 Comments

Cocktails with Carlos – Arquiste’s Carlos Huber Visits Arielle Shoshana

Thanks to Arielle Shoshana, Washington DC’s welcomed answer to the niche perfume marketplace in the Nation’s Capital, we now have some fun events and offerings that weren’t available before. Just this past week, Arielle Shoshana sponsored a Cocktails with Carlos event featuring the founder of Arquiste perfumes, Carlos Huber. The event offered a chance for attendees to get to know the Arquiste line of perfumes directly from Carlos himself. As an added bonus, we were introduced to the two new perfumes in the line, Él and Ella which just launched this week. I do have a problem though, I can’t decide which is my favorite, Él, the masculine fougere which harks back to a 1970’s Acapulco with a sexy twist, or Ella which is a full on floral lovers perfume with just a hint of a dirty!! In either case, I can’t lose with either of these two fantastic new releases.

Carlos and The Scented Hound

The Scented Hound and Mark Behnke from Colognoisseur

A great time was had by all and Carlos is just as nice (and handsome) as all of you imagine.

Thanks to Ari and Arielle Shoshana for hosting this fun event!

August 15, 2016
by The Scented Hound 9 Comments

Madrona by House of Matriarch

WHAT I SMELL: Madrona opens with a moist lavender that’s creamy and lightly sugared. A light leather and birch bring a little bit of sour into the perfume along with a hint of burnt rubber. The initial feel of the perfume is quite outdoorsy and masculine while at the same time it’s also rather smooth with just the right amount of toughness. A smoldering woodiness creates the base which makes the fragrance feel strong and steady. As the perfume develops it begins to soften, while still confident, it adds a dimension of contentment as the lavender becomes more powdered and a woody vetiver begins to take over as a radiant base.

From the House of Matriarch website:

A fragrance born of the Northwest. Dream-inducing lavender fields mingle with towering cedar trees swaying gently in the misted Pacific breeze. An underlying sense of exploration, imbued through a Vetiver base note, keeps this ancient Northwest spirit youthful and exotic. Madrona, whose bark itself look like it was forged of polished bronze, lends more than just a note to this fragrance — it lays the roots of its name.

WHAT IT SMELLS LIKE TO ME: The perfume made for Lewis and Clark…at the journey’s end where the tall trees meet the cool ocean of the Pacific Northwest.

THREE WORDS THAT DESCRIBE MADRONA: secure, aged, solid

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT MADRONA: perfumesilove

BOTTOM LINE: What started off as rather manly, in the end becomes a real comforting and easy to wear scent. The perfume is not large in its projection which makes this a perfect fit for an office setting.

Bone Rating: 3.5 out of possible 5 bones
Scent: Aromatic
Nose: Christi Meshell
Classification: Unisex, but leans masculine
Expense: $120 for 15 ml parfum

August 9, 2016
by The Scented Hound 9 Comments

2016 Artisan Fragrance Salon Award Winners

For a second year, the the Scented Hound was honored to be one of the judges for the Annual Artisan Fragrance Salon Awards. The 8th annual 2016 winning entrants were announced Monday, August 8, 2016. The top rated perfumes were voted as Gold, Silver and Bronze winners…with the top Gold prize going to Esscentual Alchemy’s Little Black Dress. The following is what I submitted regarding this wonderful perfume:

Little Black Dress – buttery florals that are thick and waxy. A light spice adds to the rather rounded perfume. The fragrance thickens as it develops creating a warm and enrapturing and herbaled scarf that moves from the fuzzy to more of a leather. Little Black Dress is a seductive stunner.

Esscentual Alchemy’s Little Black Dress – Parfum Extrait

Little Black Dress was my favorite and it appears that it was for the other judges as well. But don’t get me wrong, it was hard judging so many incredible perfumes. Some of my other favorites included Sonoma Scent Studio’s Winter Woods and El Jardi Secret NU by Urban Nature.

A full list of the winners to include such award categories as, scent seductiveness and uniqueness, can be found at the Artisan Fragrance Awards website.

Congratulations to all of the 2016 winners!