Cherry-Flavored Latex
Today I'm wearing Cherry Punk (Extrait) by Room 1015.[1]
I'm sure this would be a better summer scent than winter, but I'm trying to show my samples equal attention as I decide which I'd like to get a full bottle of. (At the moment, the only scent I've gone through the entire sample of is Maison Martin Margiela's Replica - By The Fireplace, which means it's first on the list for a full bottle. I'm getting it for Christmas.)
Cherry Punk (Ex.) smells like opening a bag of cherry sours. It's a sort of sweet, soft cherry scent that feels like driving with the windows down on a mild summer day. Think Katy Perry One of the Boys era: CocaCola lip smackers, platform flip-flops, swimsuits as shirts with daisy dukes, etc. Now, I should warn that though this is how my nose interprets the scent, it's definitely not what the perfumer[2] and brand were going for. Most people get more leather in this scent, which is actually what I was looking for when I sought out a sample. I believe the leather and latex that was intentioned, for me, lands firmly in plastic nostalgia.
It's a shame, because I really do like leather scents and was hoping for this to be a little dirtier and grimier, possibly a little smoky. I think the initial disappointment colored my first thoughts of this fragrance, and I did end up quite enjoying it when I let it stand on its own. I still want to try the original scent at some point, since a part of me is convinced that maybe it's just the extrait that lacks that leather note (due to some online saying the cherry note is stronger in the extrait). We shall see, I suppose.
2025.11.26
Two Leather Daddies Just Got Fucking in a Clean Garage
...is the description that led me to get my hands on a sample of Ganymede by Marc-Antoine Barrois.[3] Well, while I can't say it lived up to that hype, it's certainly one of the most unique fragrances I've tried. In fact, it's so unique that it's uniquely hard to describe.
Ganymede smells... it smells like someone clawing their way to the back of your throat with manicured nails. Honestly, it makes me a little queasy. Not in a nauseating way, but it makes you feel like you got off on the wrong foot with it. It's intimidating. Anxiety-inducing. It's getting butterflies in your stomach sitting next to your crush, a tickle in your throat as you weigh the pros and cons of throwing out an opening line. It's sweet, but not cloying. It's sterile and metallic, but it's not "giving hospital". It's an 80 year old dominatrix spraying a mix of distilled water and aspartame on a stainless steel flower in her garage-turned-home-laboratory.
Contrary to the title, it's not a sexy scent. Not in any traditional sense, at least. Intoxicating, yes, but incredibly clean, which, again, I don't really love in a leather-based fragrance. There's a new-boots, glossy-magazine-cover type of leather note that isn't what I'm looking for. The Ganymede Extrait however, has myrrh and incense as listed notes, so that version may be more my style.
That isn't to say that I dislike Ganymede-- it's one of my favorite scents in my collection, but it scares me. I sprayed it on before an evening round of Mexican Train Dominoes, went to sleep, woke up, and could still smell it just as strongly after breakfast. Unfortunately, even with its incredible performance, longevity, and sillage I think I'll forever be destined to smell it through samples and decants. The full bottle's cost is just too prohibitive, and I'm not sure I could ever finish one if I did get it.
2025.11.26