Relax by Davidoff + Swaps

[lunabee34]

I absolutely love this perfume. My dear, dear executrix sent it to me, and I put off trying it because I was afraid from the way the bottle looked that it would smell like a generic old man cologne. OMG, I was so wrong. So so wrong.

Description: Top notes are mint, lavender, tarragon, bergamot and lemon; middle notes are bay leaf, patchouli, jasmine, vetiver, heliotrope, anise, cedar and geranium; base notes are leather, tonka bean, amber, benzoin, oakmoss and vanilla.

This is what Luca Turin led me to believe Hermessence Vetiver Tonka would smell like. Lies, lies. Hermessence Vetiver Tonka was such a disappointment for me. Relax is a beautiful, powerful vetiver that's nicely rounded out by the tonka which gives it a creamy, vanilla underpinning (with none of the candy, sugar, dessert bullshit in Hermessence Vetiver Tonka).

I don't get any of the other notes outside of vetiver, patchouli, and tonka (and the patchouli is very minimal). It reminds me a bit of my beloved Chanel Sycomore, but it's more masculine than Sycomore IMHO. I've worn this constantly since testing it and am so happy that executrix sent me a partial big bottle! Whoooo!


Swaps

Anybody interested in swapping for any of these, let me know. Any perfume fine to swap; doesn't have to be BPAL.


Armani Code
2 Alien by Thierry Mugler samples
2-3 ml sample Guerlain Angelique Noire
Eau de Cologne Crepe de Chine F. Millot full bottle

BPAL
Fire for the Step-Mother's Daughters
Sin
Olokun
Tamora
New Orleans
Incipient Madness
Florence
Good
Arcana
Dee
Lexamin de Minuit

Comments

[saintbounty]

I haven't tested / bought a BPAL fragrance in a long time; I love the synaesthetic concepts behind them but a lot of them smell(ed) kind of same-y to me. Maybe it's time to make a return.

[lunabee34]

I completely agree with you re: sameyness. I think that many, many of them smell very similar to each other, and once you figure out which smell family you like, you can pretty reliably pick out a BPAL that you'll like. But, yeah, very few of them smell drastically different from each other. So far, the only BPAL I've smelled so far that seems completely different from all the others is Incantation.