Misses

Typically I write reviews about perfumes I love and avoid discussing those I find disappointing. I decided to be more balanced and let it all hang out – by every so often writing quick blurbs on some I find complete misses.

Big Disappointments

Tokyo Milk, Poe’s Tobacco
Notes: tobacco, tea leaves, amberwood and autumn apple.
I had high hopes for this. There’s very little tobacco. It’s mostly a sweet mishmash of apple and unidentifiable florals – sweet one’s – like hyacinth and car air freshener.

Tokyo Milk, Lapsang Su Chong
Notes: winter moss, asuka rose, sandalwood and black currant.
Again, high hopes – completely disappointed. This doesn’t smell like tea much at all. It starts off smelling like a generic mens cologne then dries down to a cheap smelling moss. I haven’t tried any other Tokyo Milk perfumes and given the two I’ve purchased I won’t be trying others.

Ineke After My Own Heart
Notes: bergamot, raspberry, crisp green foliage, lilac, sandalwood.
Lovely bottle, box and marketing, however, the juice is not high quality. If you are looking for a lilac fragrance just save your pennies for Frederic Malle En Passant or perhaps find the long discontinued Jean Patou Vacances. After My Own Heart smells like generic lilac air freshener. Headache inducing artificial cloying disaster.

Ineke Evening Edged in Gold
Notes: gold osmanthus, plum, angel’s trumpet, saffron, cinnamon, midnight candy, leather and woods.
I should have known when I read “midnight candy” listed among the notes. Evening Edged in Gold is not a nice osmanthus perfume but instead an overly sweet lollipop dunked in scotch. Bleck.

Not Bad but Not My Thing

Maitre Parfumeur et Gantier Secrete Datura
Secrete Datura is mentioned often on the perfume blogs and fora so I thought I’d give it a try. I expected something along the lines of Serge Lutens Datura Noir. Secrete Datura is not an indolic, tropical rendition of the datura flower but instead a very soapy concoction. I mean soapy – like Ivory or Dove soap. Now, I might like this if I had been looking for a soapy fragrance…but I wasn’t. In time I might decide I like Secrete Datura, but I need to get over the soapy shock.

L’Artisan Fleur de Liane
This is simply a matter of personal taste. Surely Fleur de Liane is a high quality fragrance just one that isn’t to my liking. Fleur de Liane is green and watery. I visualize a pond with water lilies – like Claude Monet’s Water Lily painting. There’s a lot of algae and moss in this pond.