The Top Shelf: English Breakfast by Mark Buxton
 By TomA few weeks ago I was at ScentBar and tried Anat Fritz, on the bottom shelf of of the mens section. Since what I was going to write about this week sort of flamed out I'm going with plan B; one from their top shelf which holds the lightest and most approachable ones. English Breakfast is light and approachable in spades. It's clean with a capital "K". It's not that it's bad, mind you. It's s nice bright bergamot with s hint of dry woods. But I find that when you have to start making up stories of English businessmen on the bullet train to Kyoto eating a bento box and contemplating his day then you have a scent that isn't saying it for you. Since the scent has been marked down from $140 to $110 for 100ML perhaps I'm not the only one who feels that way. At LuckyScent, where I asked for the sample, and where I'm going back to the lower shelves. Labels: Mark Buxton, Tom |
posted by Marina |
12:00 AM
16 Comments:
I love that you "say it like it is"
Thank you for that. :)
Hmm, if you ask most people what An English Breakfast is, they'd say bacon, eggs, sausages, fried bread and mushrooms and possibly several other delicacies (Black pudding/baked beans/fried tomatoes), washed down with a pot of strong tea.
Strangely enough, I wouldn't mind smelling a perfume that summed up the glories of the artery-hardening Great British Fry-up (also known as The Full Monty). Didn't a survey somewhere discover that men's favourite scents were bacon, and baking cakes? Could be a winner. (Or could be the world's best way to get chased down the road by dogs.)
abigail-
thanks!
Wordbird-
I was hoping at least for the tea...
I've been unimpressed by the Buxtons I have smelled. They all seem to smell like traditional men's bergamot colognes, with minor variations.
Interesting about the markdowns.
Tama-
It is interesting, and a lot more in line with what I personally think they're worth.
English Breakfast? That's a very daring name if we contemplate the odours that are to be associated with that meal: fried bacon, white bread toast, fried eggs, beans, blood sausages or Cumberland, and sometimes broiled mushrooms and tomatoes, heavy black tea with milk...of course, one can think and remember many more refined versions of this peculiar culinary creature, but that is the fundamentalist's English Breakfast list of ingredients.
It is hilarious that a fragrance shoul share its name with a cloud of pork, butter, and the famous Brown Sauce.
eem-
I think I would have liked it more if it actually had some of those smells in it. Like Kolnisch Juchten that has that fatty rounded smokiness to it.
LOVE these pithy little reviews that make me laugh!
Tammy-
Thanks!
This didn't do much for me either. I'm disappointed in MB, who has made some great scents. Maybe he needs another person to creative direct for him? IIRC I didn't love-love-love any of these.
I did smell one other that was on a lower shelf, and liked it far better. I think I'm a lower shelf sort of chap.
I have not smelled this, but I love the bottle!
I like a good tea scent as well as anyone, but at these prices I want more than a whisper of bergamot. Oddly, there is no bergamot in English Breakfast style tea as far as I know, did they mean to call it Earl Grey and just forgot?
Donna-
I don't know. It's not tea-like at all.
dear tom, i've just read about Jeu de Peau by Serge Lutens, to be offered to the public in early 2011, and it is said to have notes of buttered toast. I thought of your post on English Breakfast: would these smoke and fat hints become in some way a 'masculine gourmand' vs. the 'feminine' ones, the ones with the toffee, 'burnt caramel', fruits? Is this a trend?
I think the smell of perfume is very nice. Its model is very nice and not so expensive. It’s a brand name and includes quality. English breakfast word gives to it unique name.
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