What Not To Wear To Work

By Tom Last night I was a little bored and decided that I wanted to wear something very daring. So I dabbed on some UNTITLED #8 that I got from ScentBar. It's one of the skankiest things I have in a collection that isn't exactly light on the skank. I love it- I think that it's great on it's own, and also great for putting some of the old-school punch into scents that have been neutered by reformulation. What it is not is work friendly. So imagine my horror when after a vigorous and thorough shower, there was still the next morning a distinct aroma coming from me that said "rode heard and put away wet." Luckily the human interaction today was very light. I hope that tomorrow I'll be back to my fresh'n'clean self. But s it crazy that I want to dab on just a little right now? Just a dab? What are your scents that you find not exactly office-friendly? Let us know in the comments. Image: Luckyscent

In the Pink: smell bent the pink party...and a Draw

By Tom It is well known to you, Tonstant Weader, that I am a fan of LA based perfumer smell bent. They put out scents that manage to be cheeky, fun and cheap as chips, but are also really well done. I have several creations by Brent Leonesio on hand that I reach for whenever I'm going to be facing a trying day. He has teamed with über-chic Pacific-Palisades based Elyse Walker to create a scent for her annual Pink Party, which has raised over 5.5 million dollars for the Cedars-Sinai Women's Cancer Program at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute. The scent itself is all about pink grapefruit, peel, pith and pulp. I adore pink grapefruit on my plate as well as in a scent when it's done well, and here it is. There's also sugar cane adding a bit of brûlée to the party, what I swear is a hint of jasmine and a soupçon of musk adding a final flirty, drrty skirt flick to the scent. I think when another Pivot Table or PowerPoint gets plopped into my lap with a deadline attached I'll have another scent in the arsenal that will take me to my happy-place.. The scent is available at the smell bent website, $55 for a 15ML roll-on with free shipping. Best of all, all proceeds go to benefit those affected by gynecologic, breast and other women's cancers. smell bent has provided a generously sized 5ML sample for one lucky reader. Please leave a comment if you would like to be in the draw. Please note that I can only ship inside the 48 United States; sorry kids, this is on my dime. The draw will be open until 5pm Pacific Time on Sunday, June 19th. my tester was provided by the perfumer

Crank it up: Smell Bent RadioDada scents & a Prize Draw

By Tom Readers of this blog know that I'm a fan of Smell Bent, a house that continues to surprise and delight with little numbers that are lovely and inexpensive enough to spritz with abandon. RadioDada is the latest seasonal collection and perfumer Brent Leonesio told me that he feels that it's his most cohesive. I agree. Fuzzy Teacup is a peachy jasmine with a rather disturbing cream and honey accord. After a while it arrives at an interestingly odd milky tea scent. Not sure I'd reach for it, but it's entertaining. Exquisite Corpse is a bergamot scent with a hint of tuberose with discernible green pepper (happily) less discernible mimosa and finally, dirt. I like dirt. A winner. Mots Vert initially made me giggle with its almost smoky hyacinth, carnation and, yes, rhubarb with vanilla and musk. It totally shouldn't work, but it does wonderfully. Disagreeable Object lists cumin, celery and curry amongst the bitter orange and petitgrain. I was slightly disappointed that the former three were so very light. Those of you who aren't skank-monsters will like this a lot better than I. I did enjoy it, I just wanted more disagreeable. However, my slight distress over "Objects" being too agreeable was short-lived, since Lobster Cellphone was my Hands-Down favorite. Opening with sparkly pink grapefruit (a note that I happen to love, if you don't run for your life), it adds in tomato leaf and finishes with a lovely clean musk. These are available on the Smell Bent website, $6.50 for 4ML travel spray, $20 for 8ML oil and $45 for 55ML spray. I received my samples from Smell Bent Smell Bent has generously offered to send a packet of samples of these five to one lucky reader. Please leave a comment to be entered into the draw. Draw will close at 12:01AM on Sunday the 13th. PST

Love Boat: smell bent Leisure Cruise Part Deux

By Tom The fun (and affordable) line smell bent has added five more scents to it's über-cute Leisure Cruise line: Tibet Your Bottom $ is an incense scent that has a delightfully frigid aspect to it. The spicy incense comes served an a base that can only be called "Sno-Cone". In the ungodly weather back East you might want this misted on you like you were a fern. Chile Vanilla is a vanilla/patch and cinnamon bark; a well -played dance between the spicy cinnamon and the warm vanilla. There's just enough pachouli to keep the proceedings this side of foody. Gaugin Tuan came out on me all Tiare flower and caramel. Bergamot drops in to make it less confectionary, but this one isn't me at all. If you like Tiare (I kind of don't) you'll love this. Never Never Land is a rosy, woody amber with "arid outback" which smells to be a mix of cool vetiver and warm sage. It was easily my favorite of the bunch until I tried.. Tok 'Yo Mama, which is super-tart Yuzu and green tea (which I was told Brent brews himself) and lemony, woody hinoki. This opens bright with peel and becomes a bit boozy, with surprising lasting power. If you would want a misting system of "Tibet" you'll want "Tok 'Yo Mama" by the pitcher with crushed ice. As usual with this line, they're a lot better than the price point and packaging would lead you to believe. Another perfumer might have come up with the very cute graphics, "wink-wink" names and delivered half-hearted juice, most likely at twice the price. Thanks be that Brent Leonesio isn't just another perfumer.. Available at the smell bent website, $45 for 50ML in spray, $20 for 8ML perfume oil. A generously sized sample set of all 5 is $25 I received my sample sprays from smell bent.

Get More Bent: Smell Bent Desperado, Prairie Nymph and Saddle Warmer

By Tom Last year I had the pleasure of meeting Brent Leonesio the youthful founder of the house Smell Bent, which featured fun little numbers that were (and are) not only delightfully affordable but also really, really good. The past week he let me know that he's going in a slightly different direction, adding EdP sprays to his collection of oils. From his original collection, Bollywood or Bust, Violet Tendencies and Commando have become available in sprays as well as three new Western themed ones: Desperado is blood cedar, black seed, opoponax, gingergrass and saffron. It's the darkest and the most "manly" (yes, but I like it too) of the three. While certainly not a clone it definitely has that Lonestar vibe going on. It was pretty much my immediate favorite. Prairie Nymph is honeyed beeswax, carnation, clementine, and soft musk. The opening is very much about the fruit, candied with the beeswax, like opening a jar of home-made marmalade. Then it gets a lovely musk to it. It reminds me a lot of Rich Hippie. Actually it makes me glad I didn't buy Rich Hippie, as nice as it is. Saddle Warmer is white sagebrush, green peach, a splash of moonshine, and trail grass. It's a lovely green sagey thing with the fruity peach nicely balanced by the dry sagebrush. Of course, anything that has a splash of moonshine has my seal of approval.. All of these are available in a travel size of 4ML for $6.50 each or 5 for $25. Full sized bottles are 55ML and will be $45 at the Smell Bent website. He provided me with samples of the six. The large bottle of Commando in my future will be my purchase.

Spring Fling: Smell Bent Limited Edition Leisure Cruise

First things first: The winner of the draw for the Roxana Chocolate solids is varunner. Please click on the "Contact us" button to give us your address. You might remember last October when I reviewed a bunch of creations of young perfumer Brent Leonesio, the Los Angeles based nose behind one of the funnest (to borrow a Steve Jobs-ism) new lines out there, Smell Bent. His line runs on the ethos that perfumes should be fun and more importantly affordable. They're also really good. Just in time for the winter blahs to firmly take hold he has released five new limited edition seasonal "smellies" he calls "Leisure Cruise". They are: St. Tropez Dispenser: Listed notes are jasmine, coconut and musk. At first there's a big wallop of coconut before the jasmine, musk and aloe conspire to make this somewhere between CH I Hate Perfume At the Beach 1966 and Creed Virgin Island Water. Eventually the coconutty suntan lotion portion cedes to the jasmine and it goes more native. Makes me think of Dorothy Lamour. Maybe not the first thing I would reach for (I liked but didn't buy either of the other two), but if you're a fan of either Jasmine or Virgin Island Water you might want to give this a whirl. Monaco Dependent: Orange blossom and opoponax with "greens" are the notes from the website. There's a lovely grassiness to this that balances the other ingredients. I liked this one immediately and immensely; it's fresh green fields and light springy orange blossom would be more effective against seasonal affective disorder than a light-box and a Xanax. I don't know if it's Monaco, but I do know it's me. Brussels Sprouted is greener still: listing "sprouted greens, Himalayan cedar and deep, green musk growing fresh, wet earth". The sprouting greens stop just short of being minty; they really do smell almost like sprouts. When the cedar comes in the scent becomes dryer, then moister when the musk and earth notes drop in. Those of you who react to the earth notes in CB I Hate Perfumes as graveyard needn't be frightened; this is the freshest of the bunch, and certainly the most masculine. Thai'd Down is written of as "sparkling kumquat", mushroom, wood and pepper. I honestly don't get kumquat (although I think I last ate one about 10 years ago..), but there's definitely the blameless scent of fresh button mushrooms with just a hint of citrus. This is perhaps the most challenging of these initially, reminding me of Frederick Malle's Dans Tes Bras, another scent I was not moved enough to buy. But if you sniffed the Malle and lamented that you would have to choose between your phone bill and it this might be right up your cruise ship.. Bollywood or Bust was hands down my favorite. He lists rose, spices and sandalwood in there, but I smell a lot more: I think there's cumin (just a touch, this isn't Serge Noire) and I think a touch of mint or something that balances the darker spices and keeps it more vivacious and less vindaloo. It does get calmer and a little darker as it develops, but leaning in to smell it you'll get that bright opening again. I can see why he called it "Bollywood". It has something of the hyper-stylized feel of a Bollywood Musical; super-saturated with color, full of movement and just a little odd. These are limited editions and I don't know when they'll be history, so if you're curious, act fast. Samples are available at his website for $3.75 each. I received my samples directly from him. My godchild has already told me that she will absolutely DIE if she doesn't get mine so sorry, no draw. Available at the Smell Bent Website and at Luckyscent. $20 for 1/4oz. Image source, Smell Bent.

Get Bent Part 2: smell bent Little Miss Panda, Commando, Mama Cassis and Blimey, Limey... and a Draw

By Tom As I wrote earlier, I had the chance to sit down with the young founder and nose of the house smell bent, which launched last month here in Los Angeles. The brainchild of Sarah Lawrence graduate and self-described "scent obsessed" Brent Leonesio, smell bent was created with the idea that "perfume should be fun and shouldn't cost an arm and a leg". Amen, sistah.. I met Brent at The Abbey in West Hollywood, where he showed me his line. I usually try not to try scents in front of the person responsible for them, in case I hate them. Luckily there was nothing to hate here: even the ones that had names that gave me pause were completely different than what my preconceived notions made me think: Frosting Monster for instance is grassy rather than sweet, Lemon Cowboy is almost equally focused on the saddle as on the citrus, Hungry Hungry Hippies manages to have both a giggle-inducing pot-brownie opening with a surprisingly urbane finish while Lucy Fur (limited, and shouldn't be) has a creamy muskiness to it that delightful. Blimey, Limey starts off, well limey. Limey and sweet, a literal lime-ade. The lime becomes truer as it develops, becoming more peel-like becoming finally tinged with musk. It's very youthful and very fresh. I'm neither of course but I do like that it becomes more suave and less literal as it dries to it's lovely skin musk conclusion. It's not me, but then I opened.. Commando is a handsome blend of tonka and musks that he writes of as being "as close as it gets to wearing nothing at all". Actually, it's as close as it gets to wearing the impeccably clean skin of a child without skinning one to do so. Needless to say I could bathe in this. Mamma Cassis actually made me say "wow" out loud. I was expecting a load of cassis but the initial impression is of fresh chopped mint. Black currants join in but never get too thick, being cut by the mint. A bit of Lemon Cowboy's lemongrass boots seem to stomp in near the end and that's a good thing, taking this from "whoo hoo" to immensely wearable. Little Miss Panda is listed as pikake flower and fresh soil. Pikake is a type of jasmine grown for leis and I have to admit I have no idea what it smells like. I love a good soil smell in perfumes, and this is a good one. Panda is lightly earthy and very green: it gives the impression of bamboo without being too literal. I'm enjoying this line a lot. The price point ($20 for 1/4 oz) is these days the new free and there are quite a few I can see myself wearing a lot of. There's certainly a lot of thought, taste and a fair bit of wit here. For all his youth (and he made me feel about 136 years old, damn him) Mr. Leonesio has a line that's wearable and fun, but not frivolous or over-the-top. One of the things he mentioned he was working on is a cumin scent; I am very much looking forward to seeing what he'll do with that note, and to see what else he has up his sleeve. I will be giving away samples of the four scents in the title of this review; if you wish to be included in the draw, please say so in the comments. Telling me how youthful I am in real life will have no bearing on the choice of the winner. But it can't hurt. Image source, smellbent.com

Get Bent, Part One: Interview with Brent Leonesio of smell bent

By Tom Saturday I was able to sit down with Brent Leonesio, the youthful founder of Los Angeles-based smell bent. I previously had emailed him 10 questions and here were his responses: 1) How did you come to found smell bent? What was your "scent journey"? I got “scent obsessed” about 3 years ago. I couldn’t learn enough about fragrance or smell too many scents. I started with commercial perfumes, but after a while, I was more interested in learning what each note smelled of by itself. I bought my first ingredients last year and started tinkering. I began by trying to copy scents I already knew; it was the perfect exercise to teach myself. I lost my job earlier in the year and tried to find work in the perfume industry. I realized that if I really wanted to do this, starting my own business was the only way it was going to happen. 2) I really like the artwork on the website, who is the artist? I do a lot of the artwork and all of the design work. A good friend of mine also helps out quite a bit with the drawings. I love her style and we have a lot of fun working together. She is also the inspiration for the Little Miss Panda scent as her name is Panda. 3) Name me 3 fragrances that you love, or 3 perfumers that you admire. I love the original Private Collection by Lauder, Cuir de Russie by Chanel, Fuel by Donna Karan, Paris by YSL … I could go on for a while! There are so many amazing scents out there. Edmond Roudnitska is probably my favorite perfumer though; he has authored a good number of my favorite scents. 4) There are so many small perfumers out now; what niche is Smell Bent serving that the others might not be? Give me a sketch of the "smell bent customer". The goal was to bring niche perfume to individuals who might not have ever been exposed to a bottle Malle or Lutens. Niche perfumery has a tendency towards the esoteric and I wanted to lift the veil a little. So far, the perfume savvy have been quick to pick us up, but I’d love to get a few newbies as well. 5) With the regulations about ingredients meaning that classic scents from large houses are no longer what they were, do you see small, artisanal artists like yourself as the future of perfume? I was in the shock the other day when I was looking over the list of “forbidden” ingredients. Citrus, birch tar, oakmoss, jasmine, vanilla - these are staples of the industry. It’s hard to imagine the greats without them. It’s kind of like telling painters they can’t use blue anymore, or musicians B flat is off limits. I find the neutering frightening, but am thankful its reach doesn’t extend everywhere. Perhaps small houses are the future, especially if one ever wants an authentic chypre again! 6) In these days when $100 is the new $50, I really appreciate the price points of your line. Is it a challenge for you to keep prices so low? Sure, making beautiful things that are expensive is much easier than making beautiful things that are inexpensive. But I find the challenge much more interesting and that is integral to my work. The market is oversaturated with a new breed of luxury fragrances, many which seem to be expensive for expensive sake. I wanted to show my customer that spending $20 can be as special as spending $200. I think the timing couldn’t be better either! 7) I noticed that you have some seasonal scents for Halloween; are you going to be doing others for other holidays? Yes, Halloween just went up for October and for November, we’re debuting a holiday line as well. Fall is the perfect time for fragrance and there are so many scents associated with the holidays. 8) I see from your website you do custom scents. I've never had a custom scent made, could you describe the process for me? The custom process starts with a consultation, a getting to know you and your likes, as well as your expectations. From there, an initial batch of scents is mixed and samples are sent to you for review. After discussion about what works and what doesn’t, the final scent is mixed and put on file. From then on, any time you wish to reorder your scent, it’s available to you. 9) Where do you see smell bent in five years? The web is where we started, but I would like to move smell bent into the physical world as well. Ideally, I would love a brick and mortar where perhaps people who aren’t familiar with the brand might find us! 10) Any new scents you care to tell us about? New products (candles, home scents, body products, etc.) The holiday scents will be out in early November. I’m also working on a collection of Animal themed smellies to be included in our regular catalog and hopefully, in the not too distant future, EDP sprays. We seem to get a lot of requests for those! Next time I will review a few of the scents from smell bent, and we'll have a giveaway. Photo courtesy of Brent Leonesio.