Best of 2006

As a relative fragrance newbie, I am anxious about creating a "Best of 2006" list; I've spent most of the past year trying to catch up with the previous century or so of modern perfumery. Most of the scents I enjoyed this year are not new, but new to me. My impression was that the mainstream releases were particularly boring this year, and so, while I wouldn't wear most of them regularly, I'd like to single out for praise the few who swam against the tide in this category: Donna Karan Gold, Guerlain Insolence and Prada Man for women, Burberry London for Men, Terre d'Hermes and Polo Double Black for the hommes. In the already rather crowded comfort scent category (not my favourite), I thought Kenzo Amour, Jo Malone Blue Agava & Cacao and, well, okay, yes L de Lolita Lempicka were well done. The situation in the niches was considerably better: Andy Tauer's Lonestar Memories, L'Artisan Fou d'Absinthe, Le Labo Rose 31 and Serge Lutens Mandarine-Mandarin were the releases I tried that I enjoyed the most. As for scented product market, my favourite was Tom Ford's Azurée The Body Oil Spray for Estée Lauder. In the category of scents that seemed to take a long time to get to Western Canada, the winners are Kenzo Flower Oriental and Dior Homme's Eau Noire. This weekend I will be doing a list of my all-time favourites, many of which I discovered this year.