Polders are not Fjords

If you go to Luckyscent, and click on L'essence de Mastenbroek Eau de Polder, you will see that you are helpfully offered other scents you might like.  (The usual routine:  "If you like Jingle Bells, you might like White Christmas / The Christmas Song / Bell Jamboree.")  Among the suggestions for Eau de Polder fans: Geir Ness Geir.

Not.

That's like saying if you like South Pacific, you might like The Year of Living Dangerously or March of the Penguins.  Sure, all are stories whose geographical setting helps inform the action.  Yet, they are very different stories and realizations.  Likewise,  Eau de Polder and Geir are both supposed to be inspired by specific landscapes.  Contemplate the official copy for each:  

• Geir:  "feel the Power of Norway which captures the cool freshness of crisp Norwegian mountains and the warm, sensual scent of exotic herbs and spices"
• Eau de Polder:   "L’Essence de Mastenbroek is a perfume that expresses, in a variety of aromas, how life is in the polder of Mastenbroek..."     Luckyscent reveals the chosen aromas to include grass, hay, and herbs. (Story here; Luckyscent notes here.)

But inspiration is a conceptual link; in execution and experience, these two scents are nothing like each other.  (You can find how I felt about Geir Ness' women's scent, Leila, in an older post.)  It seems I embrace the polder...and leave the power of Norway to someone else.

I find Eau de Polder to be a wonderful embrace of sun, grass, hay, sweet...vaguely herbal in a garden and not medicinal way.  Remember, I'm the one who loves Bois Blond, who enjoys a well done amber, who gets pleasure when things like violet are anchored in the dirt and grass or hay are a bit warmed by the sun.  So anything that's sweet, viscous, and from the earth is a likely candidate to please me.

Yesterday, I tried Eau de Polder for the first time...but I've a feeling it's going to be one of those that always translate into "happy spot" when applied.

My Kind of Violet (Les Nez, that is...), no--rats!--drydown happens

Hoo-ha!  My sample of Les Nez "The Unicorn Spell" arrived today.  I'm still in the midst of drydown antics, but oh my, I did enjoy that dirty (and I mean dirt here, as in earth, not skank) dark shadow opening.  It's turning into a relatively common candied violet, but so much more interesting this way.  I am entertained.

We'll have to see if I decide to move beyond the sample, but I am entertained.  And I really don't mind the idea of having a Choward violet on my wrist.

As for the Geir Ness "Leila" on my other wrist, well...let's say I have done my duty to marital fealty and sampled the Norwegian scent.  It's clean-flowery enough, but I think it is supposed to be a shower gel.  Or scent for hair gel.  

.....

Yup, it's Choward on the left, '80's hair product on the right.  Drydown happens.

......

And a couple of hours later, it's barely there, that violet, but back to having a hint of dark, and has largely dropped the candy.  The Leila is like a middle of the road Yves Rocher perfumed shower gel.