Humiecki & Graef Askew, Eau Radieuse, Geste and Multiple Rouge

By Tom I hope all of you had a wonderful July 4th! My July 4th weekend meant wandering around window shopping. Partly because a generous friend gave me a very nice gift card to Neiman's to celebrate my 87th birthday. Sniffing around Neimans Friday didn't make me want to purchase; frankly there wasn't anything there that I could say "I have nothing like this". Saturday was spent at Le Labo, basically chatting with Heather about various stuff. Not much else was open on 3rd street on the 4th so they weren't busy. I did get to smell tiny samples of the Tokyo and London exclusives (I hadn't before) and they are lovely, and grrrr inducing that you can't get them without going there. Sunday I stopped into ScentBar and tried the new Humieckis- this is the company that did Skarb, which sadly went nowhere on me. I've long ago learned that it's not all about me, and sometimes that which went nowhere can become a favorite later on. Askew initially made me think of Gendarme SKY, in that it's extremely clean. Unlike SKY, this is an extremely cold scent; the singing cold of a late spring cold snap. I'm not from Florida, but I know that when a sudden cold front comes in, orange growers will water the plants. The layer of frozen water will actually insulate the fruit temporarily keeping them from being damaged. This is what this makes me think of: buds and bergamot and mint flash-frozen and protected by a layer of brittle ice, and oddly glove leather. In any kind of heat I can imagine this to be the new go-to scent: the only way it could be more refreshing would be if it came with copper tubing and freon. Eau Radieuse has an opening that's the most true lemon I think I've ever smelled: oil, pith, pulp and peel. Within minutes, it almost completely disappears. Later some of the lemon is there, with a whiff of fattiness that must be banana peel. How 'bout them Dodgers? Geste starts with candied violets, which Fran Liebowitz refers to as "the NECCO wafers of the overbred". Well, I like candied violets, especially when laced with the "did she or didn't she" musk as in this. The violets become less confectionery as the scent progresses when something they call "fir resin" starts to assert itself. It stays very close to the skin and I think as lovely as it would be on a woman, on a man it would really sing. In that Daniel Craig as James Bond way; you didn't think from the spec sheet you'd like it at all, but when it walked out of the surf, oh my! At first, Multiple Rouge seems like false advertising. I'm smelling Multiple Vert: I get cilantro, grass and lily of the valley. Then I start to get something fruity, but not any fruit that I can identify as of this Earth. Since what I get is something along the lines of Tobaccomelon and leatherberries I am fine with this. If you looked at the ingredient list you would want to have the insulin on hand; on me this is desert dry and delicious: Vulcan Fruit Salad. For those of you who wonder what I actually got with my gift certificate, I got a proper wallet. No more just jamming my cash into my pockets and cards jammed into a filled to bursting ID case built for two cards. Now although I hate to type it, I think I need a murse. All of these are $220 for 100ML at LuckyScent. Perfumer: Christophe Laudamiel.