I've been switching between CDG's Kyoto and the Costes fragrance for the last couple of weeks and your post made me realize how much I miss my Scent Intense…. it's back to my lovely black and red bottles for now!

Oh, and got to try Guerlain's Intense pour Homme now. I must admit though that unlike you (and many many people from this website), Guerlain's fragrances don't work particularly well on my skin. But I'm curious enough to go its Intense pour Homme again. Will let you know how it goes.

I guess you are right about Prada. Thank god they try to make easy money with bags and put some energy into the developement of proper perfumes, instead of the other way around like so many others.

I have a similar relationship to CNC's Scent Intense; it's one of my personal “comfort” scents, although I'm aware of it's power and it's not at all a comfort scent in the sense of an easy to wear, inconspicuous nice little perfume. Wearing it feels like a very “personal” act. I recently had the idea that it is comparable to Guerlain's Intense pour Homme, being similarly radiating (without being woody, though). Only that that one is too foody to be really elegant (being a Guerlain fan myself writing this feels like blasphemy…!). Scent Intense in comparison is edgy, the jasmine is strong but rather bitter than sweet. Like you said, me too, I like amber scents if they are not “sticky” but wrap you like something dry and velvety.

My little CNC Scent Intense story:

Two years ago I was walking down the street in the centre of Lausanne with my ex and we met a friend of his, a hyperelegant girl dressed all in black (CNC are known for their black collections), wearing completely dark black sunglasses and a black leather bag. She was stunningly beautiful and my boyfriend later told me she was something like a sexual-psychologist… AND I noticed she wore CNC's Scent Intense, so I just stood by, watched the two and took a deeeeep breath in.

About half a year later I met her the second time (she was not wearing that perfume this time) at a party in Lausanne and I told her I remember her wearing Scent Intense six months ago and she was completely stunned and just stuttered with wide eyes and a French accent: “Oh I'm so flattered, I'm so flattered”. I think she nearly cried. Well, maybe we were all on drugs… I don't remember. But I somehow love to recall this incident, I was so proud to impress such a classy woman. She was a real CoSTUME NATIONAL girl.

CNC is indeed a special label: an Italian house with a French name, that's already really something They have a big boutique in Rue Cambon, but still kept this underground image. It's probably part of the plan.

But for PRADA, I would think that their fragrances better reflect their menswear collection. Prada scents to me are all extremely “clean” scents, like their menswear line. Living in Hong Kong, we're bombarded seasonally with their fickle “bags of the season” and their increasingly bizarre take on modern womenswear. Their menswear on the other hand, has remained true to Miuccia Prada's classical, simple roots. So in that sense, their fragrances fit the bill.

As for CoSTUME NATIONAL, I don't understand how it is still almost a hidden treasure that no one has discovered! My joy. Scent Intense and my favourite recent purchase, Intense Parfum, never fails to comfort me regardless of time of the day or season. Despite being my comfort scent, its uniqueness never fails to impress and draw comments. But the usual comment I get when people ask me what the I'm wearing is, “Costume what?” Both these CN scents are what “amber” fragrances means to me – the softest blanket wrapped around my skin, giving me pure warmth that radiates from within, without being sickly sweet or suffocating. There's something in there that grounds it, evoking the feeling of moss on stone as opposed to a bright hibiscus flower. So, yes, very much like their clothing line – quietly impressive. Both are worn very much for constant personal pleasure.

Jean Paul Gaultier – of course, it's always breaking the rules. His men's fragrances are sexy florals, which go perfectly with his Men In Skirts, Cone Brassierre sort of style.

Escada – Some of the more recent Escada Summer fragrances have been rather drab, but a number of their women's fragrances are really vivacious and unique. Their clothing lines are often very colorful and bombastic! However, their men's fragrances are completely different. They are mysterious and daring…. and they don't even make men's clothes!

Givenchy – Okay… not their women's fragrances AT ALL. But some of their Men's fragrances, namely Very Irresistible and VI-Summer have the very avant-garde sort of personality to them, like a big black dress floating down the runway.

As for the longevity of store clerks, in my long retail experience since 1973, some perfume ladies are around for 25 years! The job is addictive because of the commission, the gifts at launches, the obsession with the product, etc. People who ask for samples and never buy are called “sample pigs”. People who buy and return without returning the gift are all known by those in the general area of town as names of major offenders are exchanged at the semi-annual schools of the suppliers, if not sooner. Commission sheets tell the tale of who returns what so there's no point in waiting behind a pillar till your clerk goes to lunch and then returning an item. She WILL find out! If clerks seem less than charming, the reasons may be because they have to endure the people who come in and shower in a fragrance, steal or break the tester, the pressure of management and indivdual companies to sell, sell, sell when there are over 800 new fragrances a year, and giving customers the whole song and dance about a product only to have them come back and buy it from someone else.

Being a fashionista as well as a perfumista, I must say I agree with the people who wrote in to say that the fragrances' characters really match the clothing.

“But the awaited Helmut Lang clothes will have precious little to do with the man who changed fashion in the 1990s, who spends his days in pseudo-retirement at a Long Island estate minding a brood of pet chickens.After Lang left his label in January 2005, Prada dismantled the money-bleeding brand and its stores, then sold the trademark to Link Theory Holdings, a Tokyo-based company that also owns the Theory clothing brand. The American subsidiary of Link Theory is now reviving the label with a sportswear collection designed by Michael and Nicole Colovos, the founders of Habitual, the denim label in Los Angeles, with no involvement from Lang.”