Dear Laurent,

It’s taken me more than a while to wend my way through the three new mods. The differences between them are comparatively more subtle than those in the previous two mods.

I’ve tried writing up a review of the three several times, and each time ended up crumpling my notepaper up due to a lack of any coherence. I’m flummoxed over what sort of feedback to give you, nor am I at all sure where we should go from here. Eeeek! Help! What do you think would be some interesting and better approaches? I’m sure you’ve got strong opinions on the subject, and certainly yours would be comprehensive and informed. Is there something I’m missing? Ach, of course there is.

I do want to keep the slight crusty saltiness that I liked so much in the earlier mods, specifically “C,” I know that for sure now. It’s like a good hook, or a tasty guitar riff. And the darker corners on “G”s drydown were intriguing. Outside of that, I’m feeling weirdly indecisive.

I feel like “E” more closely stems off the earlier mod “C” in a way. Perhaps consequently, it was this one that nearly all my guinea pigs preferred the best out of these three. I liked it, well enough also. But after smelling “E” off and on during all this time, I feel like an asshat now. Mostly because I can’t help but compare it directly to the “C” mod you created. It’s hard not to wonder if perhaps “C” was superior, and thus didn’t need me trying to stick my spoon in the soup before it was served. “E” is darker than “C,” but what it gains in edginess, it kind of loses some of “C”s brittleness.

I like the drydown of “F,” but overall I wonder if the opening is not too citursy, and if it’s not too soapy overall. I tried it out on folks at a party, and the general reaction to it was “whoa.” I would like our fragrance to give folks a nice jolt, but I don’t want to scare anyone with it, heh. “F” demonstrates decisive phases of devolopment the best of the three, bearing more distinct phrasing when it dries. Which is nice. I like the way the notes come tumbling down slowly.

“G” was the mod I ended up gravitating the most towards personally. I really, really enjoyed the darker shadowy feel to it. I do wonder if it would be less satisfying to others compared to “C” or “E,” and not just amongst my random collection of willing victims (aka friends and family.) My guinea pigs were saying it was “nice,” but didn’t particularly seem to find it as interesting to wear as did I. It strikes me as a slightly linear composition, especially compared to “F” and “C.” But… urgh… there’s something quite enjoyable in “G”s drydown that would be wonderful to use, if possible. I gave turns off and on to all the mods, but it was the base on “G” that turned out to be the most deeply addictive.

All three mods were described as “soapy” at various times, and I too feel perhaps they were a bit TOO soapy. Which is my fault, I am sure. Did I just send us off on a wild goose chase for this round? I hope not.

In short, I don’t really know what to say. I’m… at a loss. Lost, lost, lost. What shall we do next?

Katie

Dear Katie,

What a review !!!!! I had no idea that these fragrances would trigger such excitement and emotions. I really appreciate that you took the time to live with the fragrances, which shows that you have a lot of respect for what “perfumers” do. And I have a lot of fun reading all the comments on the blog.

After reading your review a couple of times, I just want to make sure that I understand what you are expecting in the reworks. So we are definitely going to start from Auxeos “C”. I’m going to look at what makes “B” more powerful in the back and see if I can borrow some elements from it to give more volume to “C”. If it doesn’t work I will just intensify the elements of “C”. It looks like we are a little shy with you girls;we need to turn the volume up !!!! I just have a quick question: do you think that all the elements you wanted in your fragrance are already in the composition, or is there something that you are missing ?

Thank you for being so passionate,

Laurent

I dropped him a quick note back…

Dear Laurent,

Oh good lord! Of course I’m excited! For me, this is the equivalent of throwing out the first pitch at a ball game – I’d be a plumb idiot not to be thrilled.

If it is at all possible, I really would love to have some of the warm drydown in “B” incorporated. However, can we also add in the dark gold gleam of frankincense an entirely explicit note? Just for emphasis, I’d like to add a plea to please not lose the little salty lick I liked so much in “C,” which was just lovely.

“It look like we are a little shy with you girls,we need to turn the volume up !!!!” Heh heh. Crank up the amp to 11!

Katie