It's Fake Flanker Friday! Our community project for today: wear a perfume that doesn't have a flanker but should, and tell us what the flanker should be called and what it should smell like.
As always, do tell us your fragrance today even if you're not participating in the community project.
I'm wearing Comme des Garçons + Stephen Jones. The flanker would amp up the rose, so that it would be a sort of rose violet cosmetic powder fragrance, but maintaining the space-rock-weirdness of the original. I have yet to come up with a good name.
Reminder: Next Friday, 22 May, wear something from Jo Malone or perfumer Christine Nagel.
And for those of you who like to plan ahead, see Scent of the day ~ Friday community projects 2015, where I'll try to always have the next five or six weeks mapped out in advance.
Chanel 28 La Pausa: the flanker would be called 28 La Pausa La Pausa and would smell exactly the same, but last about ten times longer.
Hahahahaha! I would totally buy the flanker over the original. That is a great fragrance, but really has next to no longevity.
Fantastic! I would buy it. But the price should be just La.
🙂 I could even live with the current price, if it just lasted a bit. I don’t mind reapplying, but not after every 20 minutes.
I forgot to say earlier that I love the picture: a Stephen Jones hat, I assume?
Yes!
Good one!!!
You what that reminds me of? Your highness, your highness in Blackadder.
Great idea for a flanker, and while they are at over at Chanel, would they consider making a version of 31 Rue Cambon that I could smell.
Hah, Blackadder!
It really is a pity you cannot smell Rue Cambon, I’m convinced you would like it.
Hahaha! A flanker for Bvlgari Black could be…..
Bvlgari Black Adder! With essences of codpiece and sackbutt.
And turnip of course! With a nice ruff around the bottle.
I want an extrait version of 28 La Pausa and although it will be spendy, I WANT it!
I know exactly how you feel.
Can someone come down with anosmia over night? I couldn’t even smell my rose jam shower gel this morning. And yet I’m breathing through my nose just fine. I’m scared to put on any fragrance.
Oh dear. And yes, but you’d expect it to be related to some illness or injury, not for no reason.
I have been having ongoing sinus issues since last October, but this the first time I haven’t been able to smell. I finally put on some 4711 Acqua Colonia, Blood orange and basil. I can smell it, but quite faintly, as if it’s been on all day.
Ah, that makes more sense then. Hope it resolves soon…
Oh no! Well, think of it as a gift and wear something you love that you normally go easy with because it’s strong.
Not the same thing by any means, but out of nowhere one day, almost all scents suddenly started making my nose sting and my throat painfully scratchy. Everything from my perfumes (with a few exceptions) to my conditioner. It lasted for about two weeks and then vanished without a trace. Things like that can definitely be scary, but it may just be a fluke. Can you smell coffee/spices/foods?
Have you ever used a Neti pot? My anecdotal/non-medical advice: I’ve had situations where I feel like my nasal passages are clear, but they’re inflamed enough from allergies/campfire smoke/whatnot to affect taste and smell. If I can flush out what’s causing the inflammation for a couple of days and let things settle, the smell/taste returns.
TGIF!
This may have been one of the most challenging Friday Project yet!
But this has made me think more about the perfumes I have and understand them better actually so although difficult, I liked it! 🙂
Today I am wearing: Tam Dao.
I would really like it if there is a flanker based on the same backstory but in the night, like cool night breeze paired with the warm and rich sandalwood!
You know, I think it’s challenging because we don’t all keep track of the fragrances we “redesign” in our heads the first time we wear them! I would have a million if I just kept a list.
I would love to smell that flanker. Tam Dao is such a great scent a night or noir version would be really interesting.
I was going to wear Shalimar but I swear that has 1,000 flankers already. Mitsouko is out because the queen doesn’t need another flanker. Gold has Dia for a flanker. This is tough because everything that I want to wear already has a flanker. So I think it will be a Cuir de Russie day. I think that a flanker would be a little more butch on the leather.
“Cruelle de Russie”?
LOL!! Excellent.
I love CdR as it is, but would most definitely be interested in a flanker with more leather and tar.
Well…this would never happen, but since we’re living on fantasy island today: Eau Premiere Deuxieme, whereby they restore the initial neroli note that was so cruelly attenuated when the “classic” bottle was introduced.
And extra credit for doing a flanker of a flanker.
That would be great.
Caron Tabac Blond Retro, and it would smell exactly like the 1919 version. People will exclaim, “I don’t know how they did it!” It will completely revitalize the Caron house.
YES – what the world needs is Retro flankers of all the greats!
Yes yes yes! Wouldn’t you kill to smell note-perfect replicas of the likes of Miss Dior, L’Interdit, Opium, or Mitsouko, pretending to be flankers but really as fresh as the day they were launched?
Now that would be divine!
Yes yes PLEASE!
Seconding that!
Although I was aware of what the Challenge was today, I just couldn’t be bothered. Wednesday night I had some bad sushi so yesterday I was completely out in recovery mode (although I did put on some scent). This morning I’m still a bit rough around the edges and hoping I’ll make it to tonight since a friend bought us tickets for the new Mad Max film. I needed something simple and soothing and immediately reached for Dior Homme. This one has flankers, but I’ve not smelled them. I love this one as-is and I think it’s one of the best iris fragrances I’ve smelled.
So sorry to hear about the terrible sushi, I hope you’ll feel better soon. Dior Homme is lovely, but I’m happy to share my imaginary La Pausa La Pausa with you 🙂 And I want to see that movie.
Hope you feel better as the day progresses and enjoy your movie tonight!
Being someone who has had her share of food poisoning, I completely sympathize with you. I hope you feel better soon. It takes days to really feel like yourself again.
Each time I tried Narciso at Bloomingdale’s, I experienced this mildly sickening note that was somewhat like the smell of decay in a damp attic that hasn’t been opened for decades: mothballs+. Of course, I was equal parts disgusted and fascinated and eventually ordered a sample.
I was going to wear Narciso today and say it needs a flanker that removes the oppressively heavy and frightening top note and just focuses on the base. When I sprayed it this morning, though, the weird note wasn’t there, and surprise! I actually like the scent! There is something seriously wrong with the tester at Bloomingdales.
I’d still be open to a Narciso flanker, though. I like that bottle.
I love Narciso!
I saw this as Nabisco, someone wants some Ginger Snaps I guess. I was like, Nabisco made a perfume? Does it smell like crackers, cookies? Chicken in a Biscuit? Shredded Wheat? LOL.
Oh my gosh, thank you for the laugh!!
Holy crap, do I ever hate the smell of Chicken in a Biscuit!! It wouldn’t matter, except that my husband LOVES those crackers and keeps asking for them.
Yummm…….Chicken in a Biscuit….chemical heaven.
They don’t sell those in Canada: we used to live pretty close to the US border (an hour from Calais, Maine), and every time we went across we’d go to the Shop ‘N Save and I would buy one box of those wonderful, brazenly artificial crackers. SO DELICIOUS.
Don’t forget Bacon Thins…
I’m wearing the genius Yohji Homme: I bought it unhesitatingly when it was launched in 1999 and it wasn’t around long enough to get a flanker, which is fine because it was already perfect as is. But I still dream of a series of A*Men-style flankers in which one of the notes is amplified (double the leather! triple the licorice! quadruple the coffee!) or a new, related note is added and spotlighted (cedar! oakmoss!). I’d buy every one of them.
I’d never heard of that one, but I just looked it up and it sounds amazing.
Luca Turin said, “There are only two or three masculines out there as good as this,” and he was right. The only thing in the last twenty years to equal it is L’Instant de Guerlain Pour Homme: they’re nothing alike but they both feel Platonically perfect, as if not one molecule could be altered without lessening them.
Guerlain Vetiver pour Elle Eau Verte – simply Vetiver pour Elle without that blasted overbearing modern musk. I hasten to point out that this would be a flanker of a flanker (assuming Vetiver pour Elle is a flanker of Vetiver).
Then there could be Vetiver pour Elle Eau Verte Fraiche with a touch of whatever it is that makes original Guerlain Vetiver so icy. Flanker of a flanker of a flanker. 😉
Lol!!! These are hilarious and also very good ideas!
There was Vetiver flanker, Vetiver Frozen, that upped the menthol/icy quality. I had a bottle, but gave it to friend who adored it thinking I would buy another but I haven’t seen one for years.
I’ve seen it online but never tried it. FYI, it still exists on Amazon and ebay, but it’s not cheap.
I’m wearing Epice Marine, and I have a Really Fake Flanker idea.
My brother and sister-in-law had a cat, Lucy, and they made up ongoing stories about her. One of the main ones was that she was obsessed with salmon. One day, my brother Photoshopped a picture of her clutching a salmon and lying on the beach. This, he said, was the print ad for her new perfume, Upwind, and the tagline was, “Never stand downwind of an Upwind girl.”
I’m sure M. Ellena could do a lovely Upwind Hermessence to go with Epice Marine!
Hah, sounds like an awesome picture!
Hysterical! You just made my day.
Funny!
L’eau de Chamade. It would be a shimmering veil of a perfume. Very light, moving in and out of the wearer’s consciousness. It would be released in mid May as a summer perfume. So, how about it, Guerlain?!
Oh, that sounds like something I’d buy.
I’d buy it too. Heresy I know, but mostly I find Chamade too dense.
SOTD is Diorissimo, because I’m volunteering at my son’s preschool and I wanted something light. I don’t think it has a flanker and I don’t think it should, so my choice for today is Dune. In the hands of a great perfumer a flanker could be interesting. Though I’d hate to see another “noir” hit the shelves, a darker, richer Dune would be something I’d like to smell.
Oh that’s a terrific idea! I would love to smell that.
I’m wearing Lush Kerbside Violet, which is pretty perfect, so I don’t know if it *should* have a flanker. But it would be called Kerbside Violet Rise and Shine and would have a hefty dose of mint.
Interesting! I can think of several other Lush scents that should have flankers, too — Lust Light, for starters.
I’d love a Lust Light, though I like layering Lust with Bulgari Green Tea, which works great.
I’ll go with Concentree d’Osmanthe Yunnan. Similar to Anikky’s La Pausa La Pausa, a version that lasted more than 10 minutes would be divine.
Oh, that WOULD be wonderful 🙂
I second that! OY is one of my favorites of all time, but it’s sooo light I’ve never been able to justify a FB purchase.
Agree – it’s beautiful and lasts all of 20 minutes.
There are quite a few Ellenas that could do with a concentree version…
Trying to get the most out of the last cool spring days, so wearing the cozy combo of Volutes with Honey Musk body cream from Laura Mercier. I’m bad about flankers – not familiar with most … I’d be happy if the honey musk body cream became part of the permanent line and I’d love an edt of the honey with some smokiness to it.
Oh, honey and smoke sounds good, I’ve never considered that combo.
Oooh, I like this idea.
Fille de Berlin…flanker…Fille de Cologne:D. (as in Cologne, Germany, of course).
Wait, that doesn’t count as a flanker, does it? Oh well, points for creativity? Some? LOL
Ha ha – would it have to be cologne version?
No, it doesn’t. It’s actually an EDP:). Just to confuse a bit:).
Not even aware what the term “flanker” meant until now. I am wearing my own essential oil blend in a futile and amateurish attempt to emulate one of my all time fragrance loves (which really needs to be released as a “perfume”)….Aubrey Organics GPB Classic Scent Shampoo. I have been using it for years only because the scent is extraordinary. Interestingly enough Aubrey Organics came out with organic EDPs in 2006 ( I owned three of them: Ocean Waters, Angelica and Musk) but never released their “classic scent” as a perfume. I wish they would follow Aveda’s lead, as I believe Aveda’s shampoo was turned into a “fragrance oil” recently. My “flanker” would be called Aubrey Organics “Classic” EDP and would be comprised of the same proprietory essential oil blend which currently lends its heavenly fragrance to the shampoo.
I’ve never noticed this in the Aubrey line. I’ll have to look for it next time.
Careful with the shampoo, you might become addicted!
Unfortunately they no longer carry the eau de parfums. They were lovely, all natural and highly affordable.
And we get no hint as to the essential oils that go into this intoxicating mix?
The older bottles of shampoo that exisited ,believe it or not, before they came out with “flanker” shampoos of different scents( which is why they now refer to the current rendition as “classic scent”) did indeed list all of the essential oils that were contained in the bottle. However, the newer bottles of “classic scent” now list it as “fragrance” made with pure essential oils. I suppose the company no longer want to reveal which essential oils create that intoxicating fragrance which obviously is so beloved that they chose to continue to carry it as a “classic scent”.
There were three GPB shampoos- classic scent, rosemary peppermint and a lavender with another e.o. The lavender I think was discontinued for I can’t find it anywhere online. However, the classic and rosemary peppermint are still sold. I could kick myself for never jotting down the exact essential oils that it contained when the information was available. I do remember reading the ingredients several years ago and was quite impressed with the types of oils they included (not just your generic lavender, rosemary, etc…may have been some florals such as honeysuckle and perhaps even patchouli).
in other words there were top notes, heart notes and base notes in the shampoo!
That is impressive!
I’m cheating slightly because Encre Noire already has a flanker but it’s really uninspired–Encre Noire Sport. My suggestion is Encre Blanc with a mighty cool combination of vetiver and iris.
Oh… like those white ink tattoos? Cool.
Sounds like a great flanker to me!
I think Encre Noire could have a raft of flankers: Encre Noire 1972 with a bit of patchouli, EN Biro with a ballpoint ink note, EN Purple Prose with a violet and/or black currant note, EN Poison Pen with an almond note…
Love these ideas! I’d like to sniff Biro . . .
And EN Ditto with a note of 1960’s duplicator ink…
mmmm blue mimeograph ink… adored by grade school stoners everywhere…..
Heh heh . . . I was thinking of suggesting that one, too.
And following Encre Blanc would be Encre Rouge and then an Encre Bleu. I really would be tempted to get the whole series just for the magnificent bottles 🙂
I’d buy that. Feeling more and more disappointed that it doesn’t really excist.
Lorenzo Villoresi Teint de Neige for me today. The flanker would be Teint de Neige Eau de Cologne – with some citrus and orange blossom notes to air out the composition for warmer weather.
I couldn’t figure out what to do as a fake flanker for the challenge. I love the ideas I’ve been reading about today. I decided to wear Matin d’Orage, which I think does not have a flanker, and does not need one.
We are scent twins (thanks to the decant I received from you) :))
I was wondering about a flanker based on the same garden before the storm. Where this has post-rain humidity, the flanker would feel hotter, drier, and dustier. Powdered dirt rather than moist soil. Something electric as the pressure builds, rather than the calm of waking up the morning after.
I completely bagged the challenge today – I’m trying to work with teh hubs on our health insurance. It’s open enrollment period and he wanted to switch to the high deductible option, but with our older son being evaluated some time this summer for pectus excavatum surgery and our younger son needing braces… I think it’s going to stay at the level it is. Which is really not terribly expensive (he’s a state employee and we have good coverage at about $4000/year).
Besides, all the flankers I can come up with are merely Intense versions of the originals. SOTD is Le Galion Tubereuse, a cheerful white floral with some light fruity notes up top.
Health insurance induced trauma… it should be added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders!
For Fake Flanker Friday, my currently unflankered choice is Annick Goutal Eau de Charlotte (and I hope it stays that way!). But just to play the game, a flanker emphasizing its jammy notes would be called Eau de Lottie; one accenting the floral would be named Eau de Char; and one heightening the cocoa note would be known as Eau de Charlie.
But I’d never buy any of these flankers because I vary the original scent slightly depending upon my mood, the weather, and the event by wearing either a tart blackcurrant, mimosa or LOTV, or dry cocoa lotion, and it has worked for me just fine for as long as Eau de Charlotte has been a spring/summer favorite of mine.
In a similar vein I alter my fragrances but instead of using body lotion I sacriligeously add essential oils directly into the fragrance whenever I can. I suppose I am creating my own “flankers” in that respect.
Oh, I don’t find that sacriligeous at all, I think that’s a fine idea, a way to make a fragrance uniquely yours. I almost always wear a body lotion under my fragrance and always wear my perfume on body parts, never on clothes, so by the time the fragrance + body lotion + bare skin melds, I feel I have a scent that’s uniquely mine. I think most flankers are unnecessary and just a way to make more money by capitalizing on name recognition often w/o any scent relationship. I’m too frugal to fall for that ruse.
I’m wearing Eau de Joy, which I guess is already a flanker. I find flankers annoying unless they are just adorable bottle variations. Otherwise, if the scents are that different, they need a new concept for their name. Or if they’re that similar, then they don’t need a name change at all. Between reformulation, different concentrations, layering, and scents changing on their own (oxidation, etc.) there are plenty of small variations already.
Amen.
Mine would be Songes by Annick Goutal. It would be Songes en Nuit. It would have some animalic notes, maybe civet or castoreum. A little bit of leather? Like a sweet tropical Diorling… I don’t know. Anyway, it is not my SOTD unfortunately as I used up my decant of Songes.
You know I thought of Songes today, wouldn’t mind a darker Songes although I’m plenty happy with what we have today.
Agree to that to. I love Songes and now that my decant is empty, I’m contemplating a FB…
I’ve got 3 bottles of Songes. All EDP, my first 50 ml bottle is 2/3 empty. If you love it, go for it perfume is such an ephemeral pleasure.
Songes as is makes me think of a tropical night, I think it’s just perfect.
Yes! I would totally wear that.
My elderly dog has been poorly the last few weeks and although she is on the mend now, I’ve been losing a lot of sleep over her, as she wanted to go out at night.
So I didn’t have any original ideas in my head this morning and went with Shalimar, extrait de parfum.
On the subject of flankers; I don’t mind them if they are good, but they so often are not.
On the other hand, if done well, it’s a fun way to explore a fragrance. Like with Baiser Volé; strictly speaking there are no flankers there but it almost works that way.
Glad to hear your dog is doing better. Pets being ill or having health problems is so stressing.
Sending good wishes to you and your dog. I’m sick when one of my pets is sick. I’m glad all is better.
Sorry to hear about your dog! I hope she will continue to improve, very stressful if our four-legged companions are ill.
Those midnight pee breaks are exhausting. I hope that she’s better soon.
Thanks for all the good wishes. 🙂 The annoying thing is that she, herself isn’t that bothered, well she is a dog, after all.
I’m adding my belated good wishes as well.
Mine would be flankers for Cariere La Panthere. I mean, the marketing writes itself. How about Cartiere La Panthere Noir (Black Panther)? It would be truly feline and sexy, far more animalistic. Perfect for evenings out. The bottle would be the same but the cap and juice would be silvery and accented in black.
And if you can get around copyright issues, the second could be Cartier La Panthere Rose (Pink Panther). It might include notes of rose and pink peppercorn. The cap is in rose gold and the juice is pink. Of course.
Ugh. Spellcheck errors. That’s of course meant to be Cartier both times in the first paragraph.
Pink Panther/Black Panther….love it! 🙂
Love these!
My dream flanker would be Bvlgari Blackest, the top notes would all get bigger and last longer and the dry down would be more incense and less Amber.
SOTD = Gierlain Spiritueuse Double Vanille
Perfect as is. A flanker for it would be to dirty it up with patchouli and/or birch tar and it would be called Spiritueuse Double Vanille Noir Extreme.
Inwas orignally going to wear Atelier Cologne Santal Carmin with a flanker idea of replacing the vanilla an white musk with the exact vanilla and musk used in Indult Tihota. The flanker will be called Santal Carmin Vanille. I love Santal Carmin as is but the flanker I would love even more!.
I would also love a dirtier version of SDV!
No SOTD yet, but if I were playing I’d go with L’Ombre Double (Double Shadow), a darker, noir-y version of L’Ombre dans l’Eau.
Tauer Lonestar Memories Dry Dusty Days or something like that… for summer! Something not quite so intense and overwhelming for hot summer days. I’m not wearing it today because it’s one of those hot days, but that’s why it needs a flanker. 🙂
Wearing Farouche. I’d love a flanker with the iris amped up. Farouche Iris Persica, because I like them orientalized, and it would have the slightest spicy touch in the basenotes.
I am commando all week due to allergies, but I will cheat a little and suggest a flanker to Donna Karan Gold; DK Gold Vespers which would turn down the vanilla and add a cool incense and mineral mineral notes.
I’d make an advance order for that!
Try Passage d’Enfer.
Sensible suggestion; but Passage d’Enfer is way too gauzy for me 🙂
Ninfeo Mio, flankerless and beautiful. Full of greens, bitter citrus, figs, and something faintly swampy funking it up a bit. I love it, but it reads as too brittle in the cold of the north much of the year. I’d like a cold-weather flanker, switching up the Italian scenery by adding pine, both fresh, prickly-smelling resin and wood chips, to the citrus rind, and some dirt in the dry-down – some mineral-y vetiver or a bit of patchouli perhaps. NM Forêt Scandinave?
I was thinking this morning that a lot of Frederic Malle’s perfumes need a little amping up for my taste–today I’m wearing Eau de Magnolia, but it’s mostly citrus on me, and I’d really like more magnolia–so EdM Intense? Extreme? Magnolia Plus? And I’d like En Passant to be more like Stuck In The Middle With You–not just fleeting notes of rain and lilacs and bakery, but a press of people huddled under the awning in front of the bake shop, that has two huge lilac bushes on either side of the door. Not everyone’s taste, I’m sure. Or someone could invent a spray that would magnify a fragrance, and if it was too light, you could give it a spritz or two of magnifier until it radiated the way you wanted.
The magnifier scent would win my all time fragrance award, forever and ever…
Eau de Magnumolia!
I decided to Bvlgari Eau Perfumee au The Rouge. I couldn’t think of anything for the challenge, and I just got this today from Fragrancenet. It was a blind buy but so far so good.
Actually.. I’m going about this backwards, I know, but I had an idea. I could do with an Eau Parfumee au The Rouge Extreme, with a more pronounced vanilla/honey note. Or add milky notes and do Eau Perfumes ah The Rouge au Lait, like rooibos tea with milk.
Sounds like Tea for Two!
SOTD is Dior Bois d’Argent. Wish they wouldn’t bring these things out and then discontinue them so fast. Also wish they’d sell them in smaller sizes (125ml is the SMALLEST size???)
I’d like it if CBIHP would make a lasting scent with the blended jasmine accord at the open of Where We Are There Is No Here (or Where We Are There Is No Perfume, as a friend calls it), which lasts all of 5 minutes. And no, it’s not the same as his jasmine soliflore. And yes, I did email them the suggestion 🙂
A lasting 7 Billion Hearts would be amazing, too.
Enjoying my sample of Gris Clair. Also got a sample of Belle en Rykiel at someone’s suggestion here (was it you, Jenkr?). I haven’t tried BeR yet, but it seems like more of a feminine, creamy spicy lavender just from smelling the vial. The Gris Clair is just straight up sexy, kind of like a man’s lavender cologne with a bit of musk. Makes me feel like putting on some fine menswear. I think it is going on my wish list.
As far as flankers, I would love to see a flanker for Gris Clair that makes it even more butch. It would be called Gris Clair Riding Crop and be identical to the original with a bit of added leather.
Don’t tease me! 😉
Hee hee 50 shades of gris Clair!
LOL!
I’m perfectly happy in Dior Homme today. But as fake flankers I propose Mugler’s Pure Havane intense, which amps up the tobacco as lowers the sweet chocolate in the dry down. And, Azemour les Dolce Orangers, which maintains the juicy orange of the original’s the top notes, all the way into the dry down.
I would be very interested in Stephen Jones with added rose!
My package of Fiele Fragrance samples arrived yesterday and so I am testing Myrrha… Reminds me of a smoother, creamier Nag Champa scent…really like it!
But for flankers, I would really like an Hermes Rose Ikebana Intense… someone above said several Jean-Claude Ellena’s scents need amplification. This is one of them. We tell our kids when they say ‘thank you’ so quietly that no one can hear them that they used their hamster voice… Ikebana is gorgeous, but at the volume of an hamster!
Not feeling well so I went with something familiar, Chopard Wish.
Very late reply, but hope you’re feeling better!
I’m wearing Paco Rabanne La Nuit edp, which is blooming beautifully in the warmth and rain today. It should have either had an extrait, or a flanker that was full of even more of its goodness. More sandalwood, more musk and more amber and it could be La Minuit and I’d wear it in August just because I could. 🙂
La Nuit edp is one of my favorites! I’d love an extrait, too. I have no idea why they d/c it, it’s beautiful.
I’m wearing Côte d’Amour. The flanker would be Piscine d’Estime, with the salt toned down and a faint note of chlorine. Ad campaign by Edward Gorey.
OMG I wear this flanker five days a week!
I am going to suggest an imaginary equivalent of those white- and black-coloured lipsticks that alter the shade of a regular lipstick. So, one add-on to make a fleeting perfume last longer and another add-dd to calm down a too-prominent perfume.
Fun idea!!