San Francisco Sniff-o-polloosa Part I

On Saturday, September 12, 2009 my friend Heather and I met up with a Perfume of Life Perfumista, Bergamot (Rachel) in San Francisco's Union Square. Our goal was to smell as many perfumes as we can in one afternoon.

We started out and ended at Neiman Marcus where there was a Creed, Tom Ford, and Guerlain. The Creed counter had a list of over a hundred fragrances Creed has which is overwhelming. The two Creed fragrances that stood out on the paper strips was Flourissimo and Fantasia de Fleur. The Flourissimo was the one created for Princess Grace for her wedding and it was a wonderfully pretty white flower scent. It had an old school vibe to it like a Diorissimo but brighter. It was like Diorissimo because it wasn't a sexy scent, but very well behaved -- surprising since it has a naughty tuberose in it. I could wear this in the Spring and times that I would wear Diorissimo. Fantasia de Fleurs by Creed, was by far my favorite Creed. It was created in 1862, so it is an old school fragrance. It was an over-the-top floral with musk but it was really beautiful to me. These fragrances are available online for 65 bucks or so, so I may end up adding them to the collection at some point. There was 2000 Fleurs, but it was merely a "meh" for me, which was wild because I do like over-the-top florals.

Tom Ford has always been interesting to me. Once I smelled his White Pachouli from the bottle and absolutely hated it and then I tested it on my wrist anyway. White Pachouli settled down and I ended up liking it, not liking it enough to buy, but at least I left with a better impression. The Tom Ford counter at Neiman allows you to try their Private Blend EDP fragrances seperately or in combination. Heather tried Champaca Absolute and Velvet Gardenia, and I tried Tuscan Leather. These are intended to be unisex scents and we found that they had a masculine character to them. They stood out to be very high quality scents. That Monday morning at work, I wore Tuscan Leather to work and it was a really nice warm, smoky, sweet leather scent of a worn expensive leather couch. In some reviews they accuse this as being linear, but it does start out sweet then gets into a more smoky leather. One wonders if I pair Tuscan leather with Champaca Absolute or Velvet Gardenia if it would offer more complexity. Online, some say to pair it with Tobacco Vanille to make it more smokey like that boys club with its solid wood paneling, overstuffed leather sofas, a roaring fire from a fireplace out of Citizen Kane's mansion, aged cognac, cigars, amber tiffany bankers lamps, and carpets with deep, rich colors.

For some reason I cannot get it out of my mind. I am going to see if I can try a poor man's version M7 from YSL which is another leather to love. Chanel 19 is suppose to have leather notes, and I never noticed that but if true it would explain how I love it so.

More from my trip in the next post...