Saint-Germain

[leiadrioss]

... He is a Hermetic Magician's hero for the ages, and his scent is an elegant, timeless, truly refined cologne, bold yet classic: gilded amber, hypnotic lavender, brash carnation and deep mosses.

This scent has forever reformed me of my fear of carnation in a blend. It could only be that which is spicing Saint-Germain to such a delicious level.

In Bottle and Wet: Sharp and generically cologne. It makes my nose twitch.

Dry: This turns into the most awesome spicy (carnation) warm/sweet scent on me. I get very little of the lavender note, or if it is I think it's an atypical lavender strain (maybe a dry climate lavender?) I actually CAN smell something similar to a lavender plant I used to have (I think it was Lavandula Dentata...a french lavender) that had a much dryer, spicier note. I am assuming that with the carnation, the two create that fuzzy spike, spine-tingling sharp throw I get from Saint-Germain. The moss + amber just grounds it to my skin and warms it all over.

Final thought: I like male scents. Alot. I like this scent. BETTER. I'll have to snag a bottle for sure. Man this would make a good bath oil or soap...

[Lanet]

I was worried about the lavender making this some kind of sleepy nighttime scent but that didn't happen. This ended up reminding me very much of Incantation minus the lemon. Masculine, almost woody and something about it reminds me of vetiver. I keep shoving my arm under my husband's nose and asking if he wouldn't love to smell like this but he keeps telling me he likes it on me. I'm buying a bottle and this will probably end up being something hubby and I both wear.

[likie]

In bottle: Sharp lavender, and not much else.

 

Wet: Immediately gets sweeter, and carnation bursts out to the forefront. The lavender's still there, though, making it seem fresher and a little sharper. I can usually get amber, but not yet.

 

Dry: Wow, I feel like I know this smell but I can't place it at all. It's neat to sniff, but I don't think I would want to smell it either on a person or as a room scent. Maybe a bath oil or something. It's like the most lovely of "old lady perfumes." I don't find it masculine in the least. Classic, powdery old lady.

[gingiemay]

Wet in imp - Amber, lavender and a hint of moss. It smells a little like old lady perfume to me.

 

Wet on skin - Very similar to in the bottle, although the old ladiness is even more amped up.

 

Dry on skin - A more pleasant amber/lavender scent, but to me this still smells like what my grandmother used to wear. leiadrioss mentioned "generically cologne" and I feel the same way.

 

ADDED 2/20/10:

 

Wet in the imp and on my skin, this is a super masculine blend. The amber and the mosses are really strong her and it's definitely a cologne type of scent. After about two hours, the carnation and lavender have come out to play and the amber/mosses are quieter. It's definitely still masculine however, so off to the swap pile it goes. I think if I had a boyfriend, I'd definitely try this on him!

[mazikeen]

*nuzzling wrist*

 

This is men's cologne-y in a GREAT way. Words like "cologne" are usually a deterrent for me, but this is wonderful. Warm and smoky (I guess that's amber?). I'll be wearing this, but I definitely want to get my husband to try some on... that'd be divine.

 

*nuzzle nuzzle nuzzle*

 

 

Added almost 2 years later:

 

Wowzers, I forgot how good this is. It's still a bit masculine, but it's become slightly feminized now with age. Age is very kind to Saint-Germain, I must say. Now the emphasis is on lavender. At this point I wouldn't even think to use the word "cologne" to describe this, at all. It's divine.

 

Bottle-worthy, no doubt about it.

Edited July 16, 2010 by mazikeen

[skepticism]

Vial: very clean lavender smell. First "clean" smell I've encountered in-vial that didn't smell soapy.

 

Wet: very sharp lavender and moss

 

Dry: so lovely and warm! Definitely smelling the amber.

 

I absolutely adore this scent. I applied it to one of my male friends and immediately fell in lust with him. It's definitely a refined, intelligent, and masculine smell that I hope bathe my future husband in.

[Iceblink]

Carnation on me is usually a note of doooooooooooom...but it almost works here. What starts as a soft lavendery floral dries down into a nicely powdery (not old-lady powdery) carnation, and it's very pleasant. Nothing outstanding, but nice and softly perfumey.

[Allumina]

I'm fence sitting on this one- I enjoyed it but wasn't blown away.

 

Usually amber is a note of death on me, but this doesn't go bad, surprisingly.

 

Gender neutral, cool, sharp and well blended. Classy and not girlish...

[isisonearth]

A masculine version of my all time favorite note, carnation. It doesn't disappoint her either. It holds its own in all its spicy glory against the more astringent lavender. The amber is a string golden back drop while the oakmoss pulls it squarely into the masculine camp for me.

 

Without that oakmoss I would love this on me. With it I'll enjoy it on Mr. Isis.

[crebbsgirl]

Mmmmm... I love this! I want to cozy up to myself. The lavender jumps out first, rather sharply in fact, but the amber makes its appearance soon enough and warms up the lavender. The carnation is fairly present as well, lending a spiciness to the mix. Awesome!

[sqwook]

Wet: wow! Delicious w/lemon. (Not very descriptive, I know, sorry...)

 

Dry: Now that this is on, it strikes me as men's cologne-y, and I can't pinpoint exactly what's making me think that. There's something in here that's really bright/sour/metallic that is disagreeing with me. BUT I generally love all the listed notes, so I don't know what that could possibly be.

 

Comparisons to other scents: To me, this has a similar liveliness as Embalming Fluid, and EF works much better for me.

 

(As an aside: This is the first scent I've put on where I felt really unsettled by it. I swapped it because of that feeling, even though all the notes are ones that I generally love. I wonder if it triggered some old memory in me? Very odd.)

[tacey]

Wow, now I get why lavender is a common element in so many more masculine blends. This is rather masculine for me, and much more so than the notes suggested to my imagination.

 

Starts out lavender, but a very changeable lavender -- from the purple-y floral type to the herbal and greenish scent to the dusty aged form. Then a sweet blast and a bitter bite, all one after the other. Can't pick out which notes are contributing, but the overall impression I formed was very negative. Not for me.

[voodoocatwoman]

Heavy lavender with a hint of spicy carnation. Definitely a man's fragrance.

[ouch!]

NICE!!! I'm not usually one for liking masculine smells even though I am of the boy variety!

This however is making me go oooh!

It's a bit on the lighter side of masculine, and the wet stage is a zesty fresh explosion, with a very slight generic feel to it. I'm not getting carnation at all. I love carnation too so I'll see how it dries. Quite a nice throw too.

 

The drier stage stage says goodbye to the generic "Aftershave" element and it turns a bit more musky. I'm finsing this hard to describe but I'm sure this will smell lovely on most males. It's very clean smelling but not soapy or drier sheetesque!!

 

It's not as nice as Casanova in my opinion but it's still a good one!

[rayvn1]

This is very dry and masculine on me Yippee! I get something reminiscent of cedar, but it doesn't even get close to turning into pencil shavings - maybe the deep mosses. This smells quite a bit like Doc Constantine on me, dry, manly and woody but not woodsy. I am really liking this!

[femmefatale]

I had dh try this since in the imp it does smell more masculine.

Oh wow, this smells wonderful! On him it's a blend of spicy amber and mosses, with just a hint of lavender. It's a unisex blend, though it smells so good on him (and amber tends to go powdery on me), that the imp is going in his stash.

[greenranger]

I couldn't smell all that much in the imp, but, once I put it on my skin the spice! Mmmmmm.

 

I couldn't identify flowers in this at all at first. I suppose that may be because I think carnations smell like a spice and lavender smells like an herb. So, the result of the lavender and carnation plus the amber and the moss to my nose? A fresh, spicy and energetic scent, that my nose does not peg as floral at all. I'm hoping the amber means that it will last well on me.

[binkin]

This, somehow, was not even on my radar, but I got an imp today via swap. I opened it, sniffed it, went "hmmmm" and stuck some on the back of my hand just to see.

 

Now I need my husband to come home from work so I may apply it liberally to him and then have my way, ahem. This is warm and manly-sexy to me... the first reviewer said she wanted to curl up in her palm and go to sleep? That's kind of right. Only with, you know, ACTIVITIES before the sleeping.

 

Holy cow. This is on the bottle list effective IMMEDIATELY.

[magikalbrownies]

if i want to pretend i have a boyfriend for a night --- i'll slather this on the pillow. it smells like a yummy man.

 

straight up--aftershave, pine, and other man sort of blends come to mind...

 

this one is up there. WOWEEE!

[TilHelvete]

In the imp: bright lemon and sharp lavender.

 

Drying: I can still smell the bright lemon and sharp lavender but the abrasiveness of both is being mellowed out by something that is making it smoother and more velvety. Must be the amber.

 

Dry: Hoooooooly shit. My favorite mannish blend so far besides Kumari Kandam. I do smell aftershave, pine and moss now. I think the amber and carnations is what is making it smell velvety and smooth. If it were a fabric it'd be brocade. The pine and aftershave are the top notes right now, I don't smell any lemon at all anymore. This is a really comforting scent, I will definitely be trying it out on my boyfriend. Hopefully he won't suck this one up like he does with the rest of 'em.

 

Overall: This is a very alluring, seductive, and yet gentle scent. It is pretty light though and doesn't have much staying power so it'll probably be a slatherer for a lot of people.

[angelicruin]

Sniffing the imp, it's lavender, amber, and moss to my nose.

 

Wet on my skin, it's amber and moss. Kind of smells bad on my skin.

 

Dry, it's much the same as wet. My skin does not love this blend, that's for sure.

[cleske]

At first I get moss and carnation, which I should love, in theory, but I don't. As it settles I get a little bit of lavender in the background, but not so much that it makes me think oh dear god lavender (I associate lavender with headache cures... go figure) because I think the carnation is taming it. Decent throw, and really beautifully blended and smooth, but I don't think it suits me.

[moon_lemming]

Everything sounds good but the amber. Amber is usually powdery on me, and I hate powder. Maybe it will behave.

 

Oh my god, in the imp, Saint-Germain smells EXACTLY like a breakfast food I've had before. Something related to oatmeal? Ack, it's on the tip of my brain but I can't recall it. That sounds weird since it's all florals and stuff, but I swear, that's what it reminds me of.

 

Holy moses, that lavender is sharp once it's on my skin. The two florals combined are seriously overpowering. The powder from the amber just makes for an unpleasant background for the sharpness.

 

This one veers too far into headache territory for me.

[pseedie]

~~~Saint-Germain~~

 

In the Imp: There's a spicy clean smell to this in the imp that makes me think of nice things like spicy clean men!

 

Wet: It smells "silvery-purple" to me...the lavender and carnation come right to the front of the fragrance...bad news is that I don't particularly care for carnation.

 

Dry: Carnation....it's not good on me because I amp carnation and end up smelling like a bad floral arrangement that 's been in a room too long...

 

20 minutes later comes the big wash off. Sorry Saint-Germain, patron saint of carnation....

 

[topazphoenix]

I really, REALLY liked how this smelled in the imp, all lavendar with a touch of moss. But on my skin it turns into this horrible sour combination of carnation and amber. Pass.