As long as we are talking about the Hermessence line from Hermès (see yesterday's review of Rose Ikebana), I thought I would pull out my sample of Poivre Samarcande and give it a real try on skin. A quick smell on a test strip last fall had convinced me that it was too masculine a fragrance for me to pull off, but test strips are such a waste of time that I don't know why I bother. Poivre Samarcande is meant to mimic velvet, and has notes of pepper, chili pepper, oak, cedar, chinese moss, and musk.
Poivre has strong pepper top notes; as it dries down, the wood notes intensify, but it stays very peppery, and very dry…
