Paloma Picasso: Minotaure (1992)



I still remember quite vividly the first time I saw and sampled Minotaure at the local mall, back in 1995. It reminded me of key lime pie, and to this day that is the association I make. Minotaure is, quite simply, "that key lime scent." And it's incredibly good.

The scent opens with fresh citrus and perhaps a hint of fruit, with some floral stuff buried way down in the mix. The base is vanilla and amber, and there may even be some cedar lurking in the background. It's hard to tell because the two most prominent notes are the citrus and the vanilla, so like I said, "key lime pie."

The projection is average, but unfortunately the longevity is not great. I need to reapply the stuff every three hours or so if I want to keep the scent going. It's worth noting that Laura Biagiotti's Roma Uomo (1994) is a 99 percent accurate clone of Minotaure, with slightly better longevity.

7/10 stars.

Versace: Eros (2013)



I enjoy everything about the Versace Eros experience: from the heavy, blue, engraved bottle with the standard Versace face-of-Medusa logo (yes, it's Medusa, she's on the Sicilian flag, Gianni Versace lived near there, it's a long story) to the blanket of sweet scents the make up the fragrance. It's wonderful.

The initial spray is immediately sharp and full of citrus, mainly lemon. But running up right behind the lemon and quickly overlapping it is the green apple with a hint of mint. Yeah, that's what I said too: how do you get away with mixing tart lemon, sweet apple, and spicy mint? Quite effectively in Eros, apparently.

Holding all of this down at the base is a very nice mix of vanilla and tonka bean, which are richer than the top notes, but still sweet, so the overall fragrance is very much "dessert" not "dinner." Still, I don't find it to be cloying, and I chalk that up to the way the underlying vanilla-ish mix keeps everything working together.

I've gotten many compliments on Eros, so the projection must be pretty good. And after four hours since application, it's still going strong with no signs of letting up, so the longevity gets an A+ from me as well.

Eros is light and sweet enough to use in the spring and early summer (it might get too oppressive in summer's full heat), and definitely lush enough to use in the fall, but probably not dark enough for winter. Very versatile, though. Love it.

7/10 stars.

John Varvatos: Oud (2014)



It was probably inevitable that John Varvatos would eventually get into the oud game. This rare oil has been all the rage for the past several years -- Hugo Boss, Versace, Armani, Remy Latour, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Ralph Lauren have all released oud fragrances since 2013 -- and the core Varvatos DNA already lends itself to including oud. 

This composition is lovely, very rich and complex. The oud has an almost bitter or sour edge to it, and if they hadn't gotten the balance right, this fragrance would flat out stink. But they've surrounded the oud with some sweet tobacco, leather, and incense, then sprinkled it with a spice mix of clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, and pepper. Naturally, there's some amber and cedar in the dry-down to give the whole thing a strong base.

And throughout the whole experience, there's the oud, smelling a little out of place and pulling against the mixture of sweetness and spice with its sour, almost sweat-like quality. It's fantastic. (When I sprayed it on a card, about 20 minutes later I kept getting whiffs of the old classic Aramis fragrance, if that helps provide a reference point.)

The bottle (with its shiny plastic gold netting) is ostentatious, and the giant box it comes in is totally unnecessary, but they're going for a certain vibe here so let's just enjoy it.

Like most Varvatos scents, this one isn't a beast in either the projection or longevity department. I can still smell it on myself after about three hours, but it's definitely faded by then and needs reapplication. Aside from that, I love this scent and will wear it frequently in the colder weather.

7/10 stars.

John Varvatos: Dark Rebel Rider (2016)



The bottle really tells you all you need to know. It's wrapped in a tiny leather jacket, complete with zippers, as though it may very well just flip you off, jump on its miniature motorcycle, and head off into the sunset. That's an appropriate description of the scent overall, I think. It's leather, leather, and more leather, with a bit of harshness and in-your-face attitude.

The leather smells almost burnt, a little bit smoky and perhaps a tad bitter. It's a nice twist, and I think it makes the leather smell more authentic, because it's not getting buried in sweet notes. After the leather, there's a hint of dark chocolate (also on the bitter side), as well as a vanilla streak that becomes more prominent as the scent dries. 

There's also some patchouli in the base that opens up in the dry-down, and that's basically where the final scent leaves you, in a patchouli/vanilla duality with the occasional waft of the original bitter leather to remind you how this whole thing started.

It's a nice scent, but as a darker fragrance, it doesn't have huge projection, and it doesn't have longevity beyond a couple of hours. I applied four or five sprays in the morning and needed to reapply at lunch time. Two and a half hours later, it's mostly a vanilla skin scent. For some people, that's a deal breaker, but I'll still use this scent and enjoy the couple of hours it gives me.

6/10 stars.
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