Nelly Rodi 5-8 : Perfume Reviews by Tania Sanchez

See Tania’s reviews of Nelly Rodi’s 1-4.

My cold was even worse when I tested these than the previous four. Therefore, forgive what is bound to be bad smelling on my part. Instead, pay attention to the ravings of my poor husband, forced to cough up opinions on smells when he’d rather be watching Most Extreme Elimination Challenge.

#5: GINGEMBRE
The first flare is a big bright citrus and ginger, reminiscent of Origins Ginger Essences, which gets me so excited, and then, just to upset me, it collapses immediately into an ordinary cloying fruity-floral grapefruit-rose with an unnecessarily heavy amber base and a bit of something like Thymes Ginger Milk trying without much success to be heard. Why, oh, why? Naturally, this is the strongest, most powerful scent in the whole batch. I can’t even wash it off.
…
Second opinion from the husband, after forcing him to sniff my knee: “It’s like a flower arrangement in a bar.”

“Why in a bar? Do you smell vomit?”

“No, it’s kind of a smoke under it…or bourbon.”

#6: BOIS Leather! Smoke! Cigarette! A little sweetness! In fact, you know what this smells a little bit like? Bulgari Black. But sweeter, and with a grassy oomph under it. Not as dry.

Husband [top notes]: “A whole pack of fruity Lifesavers! But not just the candy…the wax wrapper, too!”

Husband [15 minutes in]: “Oh, the Lifesavers are gone. It’s like…nice. I don’t know. Nice. I like it.”

Me: “C’mon!”

Husband: “OK, OK. It’s like…this vanilla sweetness, this kind of desserty, but way up high, like, above it, high up, is this thing like a bug zapper.”

Husband: “You know, like a bug zapper? Like the smell of a bug zapper?”

Me: “No.”

Husband [1 hour in]: “Oh, it’s totally different now. You know, I think that bug zapper thing was like some kind of ozone smell I was picking up. But now it’s gone. Now it’s just…nice.”

Me [offering him an arm with Bulgari Black for contrast]: “Does it smell like this?”

Husband: “No, this is sweeter, more floral. Stronger. I like it! I just like it! It’s nice!”

#7: AMBRE
This is the weirdest amber ever. It smells a little like browned butter, a little like smoky candle wax. The effect is dark, sweet, oily, a little scorched, and sort of unpleasant. I usually like amber, but not this time.

Husband [forced to smell my knee]: “It’s sweet, right, but it reminds me of a scent they would put in toys that were supposed to smell nice, like My Little Pony or something. Something pleasant and longlasting and banal that would work with plastic. I don’t like it as much as the other one [Bois].”

#8: ROSE
I forgot to try this one. I feel dumb.

All in all, I must say that the set as a whole is heavy on the topnotes, weak in the development. I’m guessing it’s meant to sell based on a few quick sniffs. The scents aren’t necessarily bad. They simply aren’t made to last. The standouts for me were Incense and Bois, but on the whole, I wasn’t inspired by most of them. If I could buy just Incense, though, I would in a heartbeat.

At $145 for the set of eight, the bottles average out to about $18 and change each. Not that bad. But keep in mind that for EDPs, they aren’t that strong. They’re still selling, though. The first day Aedes got this set in, they had a dozen for sale, and by the end of the day, they had two. (I was told that more were coming in the next shipment.) It’s fun to sniff it if you can get to Aedes. And I do recommend you get to Aedes. That place is heaven, if heaven had samples.

Painting: The mighty Mogul emperors. (Left to Right) Jahangir, Akbar the great, and Shah Jahan (who built the Taj Mahal). www.kamat.com/ kalranga/mogul/2372.htm