New Mown Demeter

I was at Sephora last night in the Time Warner Center, gandering at different things, and I noticed they had some Demeter fragrances in the mens section. All of the flavors were I guess what they would construe as 'masculine,' flavors like Riding Crop, Leather, Humidor, Mesquite... But the two that caught my eye that I haven't seen before were Fresh Hay and New Zealand.

I was excited to see Fresh Hay, but didn't expect much. I love that new mown hay/tonka smell, but everytime I come across another product that I think will have the scent (eg, the Henri Bendel Tonka Bean candle) it disappoints. This Demeter fragrance, however, did NOT disappoint! It's absolutely perfect--a perfect coumarin/new mown hay/tonka smell. Actually, it would be totally perfect if it had a fixative in it--Demeter fragrances don't, which is why they flit away after 2 seconds. However, hay is a base note, so maybe this one would stick around for a while, especially if I sprayed it on my clothes. So this scent is definitely a must-have, especially for fall. But since hay is such a versatile and extremely pleasant note (I could probably combine it with Aramis or something grassy/lavendery for a summer scent), I could probably wear this scent any part of the year. Two thumbs up for this scent, definitely.

New Zealand was interesting. I didn't realize that the entire country has one distinct odor, but I suppose it does. Apparently it smells like fresh grassy notes that fade into an ozone-like freshness that's almost identical to Demeter Rain. It's not unpleasant, but if I wanted to wear something like that I'd just buy Rain. Because the grassy notes just don't last long enough, even in their Grass scent, which fades into something not dissimilar to Fresh Hay. (I've noticed this with grassy scents. Either they start out fresh and sharp and fade into a foliage-like, almost hyacinthy tone or they start out fresh and sharp and fade into a coumarinic tone.) I wouldn't recommend this scent.

In a last li'l note, the other fragrance I noticed was Obsession Night. I wondered why this scent was necessary, and if it smelled like Obsession, which calls to mind something like the smell of a urine-soaked nightmare. Obsession Night actually smells much better, very woody if I remember correctly. But it's not something that I went gaga over. And I couldn't see myself wearing something like that--the bottle is so cheesy.

And that's that for now.