Rica Suave: Costamor Tabacca & Sugarwood

By Tom Today is V-day. I don't care for V-day. It seems designed to make everyone crazy. There were people making handbrake turns on Beverly Blvd. to get to the couple selling ratty bouquets and sad balloon arrangements. Which made me think about the reception the men would get upon arrival. I mean, really, ladies and gents, if your sig other was at sixes and sevens or completely skint, wouldn't you prefer a nice backrub or a (even indigestible) breakfast in bed and impeccably cleaned kitchen or candle-lit bubble bath with soft music and a glass of wine or even just a heartfelt "I love you" than some sad handful of posies that look as if they were recently snatched from Forest Lawn? I swear, I need to write a self-help book for hetero males... Anyhoo, I had tickets to the Renoir exhibit at LACMA with my BFF Sue, after which I took her to ScentBar. She had so far been avoiding the place if only because she would want to purchase and the idea of telling the my godchild "sorry kid, I blew the college fund on the Lutens collection" could be a result. But I needed something to write about and needed to show her that she could ask for samples... Costamor is a house created in 2009 by Elizabeth Wright, a California native who is (according to Luckyscent) half Costa-Rican. I've never been there but have had friends who've been and kvelled over the beauty of the place. I can't comment on how well the scents describe the beauty of the area, but the scents are quite good in and of themselves. Sugarwood is sweet and woody with an overlay of jasmine and iris. I do actually know what sugar cane pulp smells like and the opening on this is a fairly accurate simulacrum. There's sweet vanilla and fig in there but it's nicely cut by citrus. If you want to have a vanilla that's not as boozy/blowzy as say Guerlain SDV (which I adore) then this could be right up your alley. Tabacca is on me at first all about the bright apple opening and a brief burst of freshness. The tobacco comes in later, sly but discernible as both cured and uncured. Believe it of not, Western Massachusetts is a place where when I was growing up tobacco was harvested and I remember the scent of it curing distinctly when riding my bike past the barns that ringed my college town hometown. That's not to say that i especially like this. It is for me too demure; it's like a deb who hurriedly applies a spritz of cologne and a stick of Adams Sour Apple gum to unsuccessfully mask a hurried Lucky Strike. I like my tobacco a bit more in-your-face: less demure and more Dietrich. These aren't me but they are compelling, well blended and suave little numbers and since these are only $75 for 50ML if you're in need of a demure tobacco or a self-effacing vanilla you would do well to check them out. At Luckyscent, I believe, exclusively.