No Disassemble Charlie No. 5: Walk Like A Man, Talk Like A Man, Smell Like a Man (?)

*Currently listening - "Centrifuge" by Pomplamoose
* Current perfume - Gucci Flora

For as much as I like "perfume" - ok..."womans fragrance", I (in general) have a big problem w/ 90% of the "mens fragrances" I have sniffed. I feel that they all smell of newly varnished wood, mosquito spray and testosterone. Not the good sort of attraction inducing pheromone/testosterone, mind you. NO - what in my mind THESE guys smell like.....


CLEARLY my mind/scent connections were formed in the early '80's!

Now, I'm married to a pretty unfussy dude, who's pheromones smell JUST FINE to me, seeing as that he didn't own a bottle of cologne until we'd been married for two or three years. Let me rewind, "pretty unfussy" is actually underselling Al's chill factor; until Carolina basketball is on or Mike Krzyzewski's mug is anywhere within his line of sight.

Smells of hamsters and elderberries!

Al owns one fragrance: Hanae Mori, which he actually picked out for himself, after my DRAGGING him to the Sephora at the Galleria in Houston. THANKFULLY Al shares my weariness of most "male marketed" fragrance. His chosen scent has notes of jasmine, lemon, lavender, vanilla and chocolate. I LOOOOVE jasmine. (Yeah, and screw you nay-sayers...flowers are MANLY! Plus...there's probably some florals hiding in YOUR man's fragrance too! ;-) ) Al only wears his cologne on special occasion and I don't push it. (I never, never, EVER push any issue for that matter....) Really though, this isn't one that I push. I like that I can smell it lingering about the day after a special night out, on a scarf that he only tends to wear with his "nice coat", or that I can smell little tinges after he has his "Pink shirt" (brand, not color - my idea...not his) dry cleaned. If I find myself really missing him during the day and I'm home, I find myself going to the medicine cabinet and taking a whiff from the bottle. To me Hanae Mori smells like a good hug, single malt scotch and a sarcastic smile!

Earlier this week I was out on a fragrance sample finding expedition, that was mixed in with a pink Christmas tree ornament procuring trek. The ornament procuring trek was a success, the fragrance sample finding (which are for two upcoming posts) was a bust. Clearly no one in Boston wants to smell (EVEN JUST A LITTLE) of frankensense, myhrre or red peppers. Thankfully I was able to order small samples of what I was hunting for from Lucky Scent. With the sample finding in the stores a bust, and had already sniffed the three fragrances I wanted to seek out for my own personal use, I needed a new project; "Oh! I can find Al a daytime scent!" (My husband is quite hard for me to shop for, compounded by the fact that he's a December baby. I'm always tempted to gift him with about 20 books...but who has THAT kind of time for reading? So I must seek alternatives.)

After sniffing and sniffing and sniffing lots of things that smelled of newly varnished wood, mosquito spray and testosterone; some hamster and elberberry, and a couple of eau-d'euro-giggilo's (you know, I'm letting my overactive imagination to the explaining here...), I came across two scents that I could imagine Al wearing: Eau d'Orange Verte and Eau de Pamplemousse Rose, both by Hermès, both marketed as Unisex. Interesingly enough, that morning I had read an "Elle" article discussed on Now Smell This discussing how more and more mens' frangrances have a "unisex" appeal. (Click here to read the article.) To me, the perfect unisex scent would evoke the scent representation of Ziggy Stardust...WHICH. WOULD. BE. AWESOME! Wait...does "unisex" = "androgyny"? (Maybe there's too much glitter! There's never too much glitter. Which is besides to point, because once glitter is introduced, you're stuck with it. Glitter is like...well...never mind...)

For the record, the Pamplemousse Rose was quickly rejected by Al. (I'll be gifting the sample to another displaced Southerner for whom I think it would be PERFECT!) I was all set to make a purchase of the d'Orange Verte...but I stopped...must test more things on Al - which have been procured over the past several days. I'd love to say what they are, but I can't. That would spoil the surprise! I WILL, however, share the results...and maybe where he ranked them. I'm sure Al really appreciates this. This should be simple...devoid of something say....lollygagging. You know...baseball...very all American male. Lot's of varnished wood. "You throw the ball. You hit the ball. You catch the ball. GOT IT!?!"