For the past few weeks I’ve been thrusting my arms under the noses of unsuspecting co-workers and friends, forcing them to smell the various scents that I ordered from The Perfumed Court, a Web site that sells fragrance decants so you can get smaller quantities of scents on the cheap.

And I’ve also apparently developed a habit of raising the back of one hand or the other to take a quick whiff about every two minutes or so, to the point that one of my friends asked me, “Why do you keep wiping your nose? You’re not even sniffling.”

No, it’s research! My takes on the first two fragrances are after the jump.

First, about the delivery: Because three women run the site, I received three packages — all within a week of ordering — each with a packing slip and a portion of the order. (And a piece of candy! I loves me the lagniappes.) Each vial is labeled so you know which is which, and they’re wrapped securely with cushioning so there’s minimal chance of breakage.

And now onto the scents …

First up, Eau de Fier: No scent has ever drawn such wrath — perhaps fittingly, since the Annick Goutal fragrance evokes old-fashioned hellfire and brimstone. Forget your romanticized recollections of woodsy campfires — fresh out of the bottle, this is more like what it must smell like after a scorched-earth conflagration roars through a city. Anger and charcoal and things that shouldn’t be melted, melted.

My friend C.J. compared it to rotting fruit, and I made an early reference to “scratch-and-sniff ’skunk.’ ” (The Perfumed Court describes it as “a blend of tar, smoke and fruity sweetness.”) People reacted like I had punished them and when I returned later in hopes they’d reconsider, I was greeted with narrowed stink-eyes and refusals.

But like most fragrances, after about 10 minutes the scent does morph: The more acrid top notes wear away, leaving a mellower version. It’s significantly less devastating … but still refuses to be a “friendly” fire. It’s a next-morning whiff of the charred log left over in the fireplace.

“You cannot like that scent,” CJ decreed.

“But you know me,” I said. “I like to be contrary. I think I might -”

“No,” she said. “No, no, no, no, NO.”

And then she ordered me out of her office, because I was exacerbating her headache.

Because it’s such a hard scent to like, I’m not surprised that it’s not actually sold in the U.S.

By comparison, Lady Vengeance was a walk in the park — a park rife with rosebushes. But forget any association with grandma-style Rose Milk scents; this is a deep, heady, thorny version. But there’s no real torrid danger, like you might expect from the name (especially since it’s made by a company called Juliette Has a Gun). It’s actually undercut by a warm vanilla musk and patchouli — not the dark, rich patchouli I associate with (and love in) candles and incense, but a lighter, more feminine version like the one Madonna infused the booklets for her “Like a Prayer” CDs and cassettes with back in 1989. (Now I wish I hadn’t sold mine back to a used-record store after I loaded the tracks into iTunes!) Imagine if Chanel No. 5 were reincarnated as a distinctive rose-floral.

Up next: 888 and Nejma One Aoud Vetiver.

ammit

WHAT SAM WORE: 3/15/08
The shirt: Lightweight waffle-weave cotton hoodie (Old Navy, last month)
The shorts: Athletic shorts by C9, Target’s collaboration with Champion athletic wear (Target)
The shoes: 720 sneakers by New Balance (Sports Authority)
The scent: The aforementioned Eau de Fier, which is apparently so elusive I can’t even find a photo of it online.

sammit

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