SMF

Love them all... the Truefitt & Hill one is pretty good, too, as was the (no longer around) Coates. Haven't tried the D R Harris. I shall stroll past their shop on Monday and, who knows, I may find myself drawn in YET AGAIN. Damn.

Has the GFT Violets formula changed that much, Michael? It's still one of my favorite creams. Yes, it has. I am VERY BITTER about it. Not that they had much choice (the damned EU decided the ionones that gave it its unique violet fragrance might also give someone, somewhere, a bit of a rash if they...

I don't know the Lime, but I agree re the original Old Spice and the Clubman -- timeless classics, as good or better than "designer" stuff sold at 10 or 20x the price... (I'm pretty keen on the Clubman Special Reserve, too, come to think of it. If they ever stopped making Knize Ten, I'd kn...

Heart Note = Clover...? Who'd have thought it? Shaved with the stuff - the original tallow - this very morning *smirk*. Still. It won't last. I only have six pucks left. (The only thing I ever stockpiled and I am very glad I did. Wish I'd stockpiled Trumper Violet shaving cream BASTARDS BASTARDS tho...

Curious thing for Acqua di Parma to do -- but then since they were bought by LVMH they've [usual rant]. They are perhaps a bit late to the oudh party, though. It's been rising flavour of the month since at least 2008. Not surprisingly: it's an unfamiliar note, something new, to the Western nose, and...

Your sense of smell isn't going. Very few fragrances are the same as they once were. (1) Cheap accountants cutting costs with inferior materials and (2) health freaks banning materials in case someone gets a rash.

Clubman's pretty much unchanged. Few others are.

RazorRamone wrote:Not sure of the reformulation date with New York.

Not sure quite when. Within the last couple of years. Shame.

Nice list, Sam. I didn't notice any grunting...

A heads-up on Patricia de Nicoläi's New York: it's fallen victim to IFRA and the rest of the oh-so-sensitive industry gobshite. Even Miss Nicoläi couldn't save it. Damn. But there it is.

Ah, KAV. The only man here to whom I accord superiority in almost instantaneous thread-drift even when it's a thread one started oneself. I hope he's off writing a book. The guy has The Knack. Give him my regards.

Sam wrote:The Absolue is the winner of this bunch

Hate to say I told you so... actually, no. Can that. I exult in saying I told you so. Did I tell you so? I'm too tired to check. Wear it in good health. I'm going to take a squirt right now.

Yes, way back when it was new and so was I. Haven't smelt it since then but I recall it was at odds with the rather sportily suggestive bottle, which conjured kipper-tie chaps, E-Types and obliging gels in white patent knee-boots, hot pants and far, far too much eye makeup. In the bottle lurked an i...

bargepole, if you pop back in, I am thinking it is one of these (the regular L'instant or the Extreme version) or Tauer's L'air. Thoughts? Very different beasts, Sam. L'Instant & the Extrème version are both sophisticated, beautifully-designed almost-gourmands, saved from the Yum Yum Club by a ...

Very fine composition. The dryout is notably cacao but without excessive sweetness. I think it (and it's older brother l'Instant) are a couple of the best masculines of recent years. I wear it often and with a certain sadness as I had met several times the main hand on the tiller, the exquisite -- b...

Sam wrote:Wearing back to black today then. Not a big vanilla guy. Coromandel is about all I can handle. Barge any comment on staying power and projection of the absolue vs the cologne in the Soir?

The Absolue lasts longer, with a deeper note, but both are pretty durable.

P.S. Back to Black is pretty damn amazing, too. What Tom Ford's Tobacco Vanille could have been if it had kept its nerve and not fallen off the tightrope between old-fashioned masculinity and metrosexual oopsie-la.

Dear Mr. Bargepole wanders in and out of our realm here as you know...very unpredicable as to when he might show up. Gordon Like a sort of Poltergeist or revenant, you mean? Hmmm... I shall have to practice my soughing in the breeze though diaphanous is probably beyond me. Without a moment's hesita...

My own feeling is that the short-brush-with-backbone-for-soaps thing is about mistaking what's going on. The short dense stiff brush will pick up more soap in the first place, which makes it look richer, quicker. "Wow" we think, "This is going really well, and I've only just started l...

jww wrote: For those interested, here's a link to the photo I tweeted yesterday morning after the demolition work was done on the porch.

http://yfrog.com/h09tcprj

*Shrieks* But it's PERFECT! Don't change a THING.

I like the "two different scents" comment of your sister. She's spot on. That strange steamy, slightly hissy opening dissipates fast to something not unlike old Brut (if old Brut had had a bit more class). I found Sartorial really grew on me. Wearing it at the moment, indeed.

Shaved someone else? Well of course I have. I remember the first time; we were in Paris and--

Oh. You mean another guy?

No.

And definitely no film at eleven, either.