Frapin: L’Humaniste

I was a little skeptical. "Fresh" is not something I'd feel inspired by at this point, and most reviews I've seen, told me so. So I got down to sampling it, giving it a few full wears. Well, it smells safe.

The peppery citrus opening is pleasant, but isn't exactly a breakthrough. Then there's a medicinal, over-ripe berry sweetness that didn't go quite well with me. Too further close the doors, I don't particularly enjoy the herbal smell of (a WHOLE LOT of) thyme which seems to permeate through all of L’Humaniste The scent then transcends into a slightly woody vanillic dry-down.

If you like thyme, chances are, you will find it familiarly pleasant.

Tom Ford: Black Orchid

By Joey,


Black Orchid is one of the few scents that vow me out of the vial. And it still does from my 30ml decant. It’s also a really popular scent that many women (and men) love. It’s unusual but pleasant, bold and exotic at the same time like an orchid flower. Or a really feisty Asian woman.


Black Orchid opens up with a fruity nuance of mango, tamed and smoothened up by coconut milk, the exact scent that you’d get when you eat thai mango rice after layering the mangoes with coconut milk. The coconut leads into the exotic scent of the orchid: a sharper, mustier vanilla with a tiny touch of wood. If you ever smelled an orchid before, this drydown is very close to it. It is also a dead ringer for the now discontinued and extremely rare Orchid from the now discontinued Yardley Fragrant Gardens line whose talc my mom used to wear when I was young.
If Tom Ford wanted to paint the image of an exotic Asian landscape with this, I am sold.