Binxcat's Purrfect Fragrance

Montale Parfums Paris - Intense Café EDP Intense Café is an oriental vanilla fragrance that released in 2013.   A number of my friends in the fragrance community have spoken highly of this fragrance and, being a coffee fiend (both the note and the beverage) I wanted to try it.   I ordered a sample from Luckyscent and… I don’t even know where to begin with this.   It’s rare that I draw a complete blank when writing a review.   I should say here that I tested this fragrance for four days in a row.   And I am lost.   What I mean here is that I was anticipating a glorious coffee fragrance.   What I experienced on each of my trials was not a coffee fragrance in any way. When I take in the very opening of Intense Café, I get a strong, bitter, somewhat spicy or medicinal floral.   It is not identifiable as a specific flower.   The floral intensity softens after about an hour and in comes a rose.   The rose is mixed with a resinous...

Twisted Wonderland Perfumery - Never Sleep Again (Perfume Oil) Never Sleep Again (“Never Sleep”) is the second Twisted Wonderland fragrances I’ve tested.   (You can read my review of What’s In The Hookah here: https://binxcat4ever.blogspot.com/2018/05/twisted-wonderland-perfumery-whats-in.html ).   Never Sleep is very different from What’s In The Hookah but no less enjoyable. I selected Never Sleep to test based on the notes.   Oh, I a am a fan off coffee in fragrance!   Combined with the touch of vanilla and dark chocolate, Never Sleep is a gourmand lover’s delight.   While Never Sleep is a “what you see is what you get” scent, the lack of development is not a flaw.   From the initial whiff, I get a gorgeous, lush coffee.   It is a dark roast and freshly ground.   The bit of vanilla adds just the right amount of light sweetness.   The dark chocolate compliments the coffee and vanilla in an almost bakery frosting kind of way.  ...

January Scent Project – Vaporocindro The notion that art imitates life is as old as Aristotle (the notion of an inherent memetic nature) and yet it has been conversely proffered that life imitates art.  With Vaporocindro, I would argue that that the perfumer, John Biebel (an artist himself) has managed to demonstrate that both art and life are inextricably bound together. Vaporocindro opens with a gorgeous, airy lilac laid over a fresh green leaf.  I sense much of the same soaring upward green that he gave us in his juice Eiderantler.  There is a crispness to the lilac/green that I can only assume comes from the apple; although the apple is not detectable as an individual note to my nose.  There is a delicately handed hint of turmeric and black pepper spice that serves to warm the juice without becoming overbearing; though you know you smell spices.  With the opening, I get the beginning hints of a warm, rich, old mahogany with teases with a touch of leathe...

4160 Tuesdays The Dark Heart of Old Havana.  I reviewed this fragrance in another group after I made the decision to purchase a full bottle based on the sample I bought. (So I'm not going to do another full review here.) I do want to say that I adore this juice. It transports me to what I imagine Havana would be like for me. The air heady with the sweet scent of the sugarcane crop; the fruit in the market stands; the wafts of coffee in the early morning; and the men sitting smoking their cigars and playing dominoes while the drinks flow like water. "Based on Sarah McCartney's memories of a 1998 trip to Cuba, The Dark Heart Of Old Havana is an all-night adventure through the winding alleyways of the city that has long captivated literary imagination. McCartney has loaded The Dark Heart with the fixtures of a Havana adventure: sugar, tobacco, fruit, coffee, warm bodies, alcohol, exuberance, and recklessness, for a scent that never sacrifices its adventurousness just to ...