Nishane – Fan Your Flames – I’ve generally been impressed by the offerings from the much-hyped Turkish house. Fan Your Flames is a 2016 release from the brand. This one feels very muddled right from the opening to the dry down. It never seems to come together as a coherent whole. There are only six notes listed, top notes of rum and coconut, mid notes of tobacco and tonka, and base notes of oakmoss and cedar. The main protagonists are the tobacco, rum, and coconut, and they compete against each other. In the end, the smoky, dry tobacco wins out. The rum and coconut seem to want to take it into tropical territory, but it never gets there. The dryness of the tobacco keeps it from being a summer scent. Fan your Flames is a cold-weather scent, but not an overly versatile one. The mossy, woody dry down isn’t very inspiring, and further jumbles proceedings, taking it into quasi fougere territory. Fan your Flames is a beast that lasts and projects; with one spray, you’ll announce yourself to everyone around you for a good 10-12 hours. Ultimately, Fan Your Flames, like Hacivat before it, fails to live up to the hype.
Marc-Antoine Barrois – Ganymede – French designer, Marc-Antoine Barrois, has two fragrances in his collection, B683 and the Fragcomm darling Ganymede. Quentin Bisch is the perfumer behind both scents. After sampling Ganymede a few times, it left me wondering why all the fuss? I can’t say it didn’t intrigue me, because it did. It left me racking my brain as the scent was somehow familiar. Finally, the fourth time I wore it came to me, Ganymede smells like every dentist or doctor’s office I’ve ever visited. It has a medicinal, clean quality that brings to mind antiseptic and the light suede/leather accord that gives the impression that I’m sitting in the dentist’s chair ready for my six-month checkup. I don’t pick up any immortelle or any mineral qualities, but I do pick up some fruitiness and perhaps some herbaceous facets. It lasts forever on skin, 12 plus hours every time. Ganymede is undoubtedly an oddball, and it’s seemingly universal appeal I find hard to believe. Although I think Ganymede is an interesting scent, it doesn’t live up to its “masterpiece” billing, and the associations it evokes gives me pause to recommend; it’s certainly one to try before you buy.
Have you tried any of these scents?