perfumum

a new perspective...

2012-01-12T07:27:00.000-08:00

I am very happy to show you, my dear readers, a new facet of my life and to proudly introduce a new blog:

WINTER TALES

Of forests and wild apples

2011-10-20T04:12:00.000-07:00

My favourite autumn scent this year is apple.
This may be caused by an apple-allergy i am suffering from since adolescence. Remembering the sweet juice from a fresh apple-bite still makes my mouth water, but i can only eat apples in processed forms unless my throat will swell inside, up to breath-taking measures and an itching will start in my gorge which is making me mad.

So, naturally, i am very fond of everything containing apples, be it pie, cake or juice, as well as apple puree (my grandma and mum prepare it from their home grown Boskoop especially for the poor kid -> me) and of course - apple scents.

My three favourite apple perfumes are:

1) Lolita Lempicka EdP by Lolita Lempicka (the premier parfum in the apple bottle)
2) All About Eve by Joop!
3) Brandy by Brandy Pefumes

Another heavenly scented apple product is Lush's Snow White bath bomb and German drugstore brand "Schauma's" apple-scented shampoo which mum used all the time during the 70ies for my thick chestnut strands.

Forests enchant me, any reader of this blog will know this by now and maybe you'll already think: oh no, not another enchanted-forest story, girl!
OK...
But i want you to know my top-five autumn-forest smells for 2011, in no particular order:

1) Mechant Loup by L'Artisan (the big bad wolf is all honeyed fur and sweet leaves)
2) Féminité du Bois by Serge Lutens (do i need to explain?)
3) Black Casmere by Donna Karan (burning leaves, a bonfire and incense)
4) Candy by Prada (sweet incense and powdery vanilla-musk)
5) Kelly Calèche by Hermès (soft suede on rambler rose leaves)
6) Ormonde Woman by Ormonde Jayne (hemlock, pine, rain)

pics: own

Poison, Christian Dior (1985)

2011-10-18T04:50:00.000-07:00

When Poison was launched in 1985, i was 10 years old. The nose behind the perfume is Jean Guichard (who, to my surprise also created my beloved Obsession, as well as LouLou and Eden for Cacharel and Deci Dela for Nina Ricci).

No woman in my family and no teacher at school wore it, luckily, i say today.
While thinking i might perhaps would have loved it, i only remember glossy mag ads i saw for the perfume.
As Poison is well-known for being a means of olfactoric nuclear warfare (due to constant overuse and overspraying by its addicts during the late 80ies) i am a lucky girl for being able to say so.

I sprayed Poison every now and then at the store to sample it. I am a regular user of its daughters Midnight Poison (2007) and Hypnotic Poison (1998) but the mothership stayed a secret to me, i simply had no craving for it. Up to now.

Poison is perfect for a powerful woman, slightly bohemian, please, as too polished an outfit would destroy the carelessness this scent needs for it doesn't become bourgeois and reminding of the aforementioned teachers from the 80ies. Her strength is only seen at second sight. She knows about the force of the second sight very well.

The combination of red berries, plum, honey, crumbling leaves andspices didn't leave my fantasies until i had sniffed every bottle of my collection, strolled through the stores and samples, Poison, again, of all.
And there it was again. A "strange delight" (to quote Kate Bush's lyrics in Babooshka, which is a song that funnily enough comes to my mind when i sniff Poison) and a fascination. I had to have a bottle.

Posion is very wearable in cool temperatures and with a light hand. And i mean L I G H T. Only when the deep chestnut and dark-purple basenotes are allowed to settle down and are not longer torn by the tuberose-screeches in thevery top, the spices and honey can develop properly. Before i read that Jean Guichard also created LouLou, i detected a powdery swet heliotrope-note in the middle of Posion which made me instantly think of LouLou.

Jan Moran's official notes:

Top Notes: Coriander, plum, pimento, anise, rosewood
Heart Notes: Rose, tuberose, orange blossom, honey, cinnamon, wild berries, cistus labdanum, carnation, jasmine
Base Notes: Sandalwood, cedarwood, vetiver, musk, vanilla, heliotrope, opopanax

The plum in comination with cinnamon and dry leaves is a note which might appeal especially to lovers of Féminité du Bois, by Serge Lutens (one of my all-time-top-3 scents).

Lovers of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab's "Rappaccini's Daughter" who are in search for a easier to obtain source of their dark delights might find it interesting that Poison is a very close relative, they're literally like twin-sisters, taken apart at birth.

images:
(1) Daisy Lowe by Max Farago for Paradis Magazine
(2) Lucas Cranach d. Ältere (1552), Venus and Cupid as a honey-thief.

Kingdom, Alexander McQueen (2003)

2011-10-18T03:40:00.000-07:00

I have been loving it since i bought my first bottle in Galeries Lafayette, Berlin around 2003/04. In Autumn, of course. Meanwhile i am on my third bottle. Mostly wear it during the "dark season".

Official notes are:

top notes:

orange, mandarin orange, mint, neroli, bergamot and lemon;

middle notes:

carnation, ginger, rhubarb, jasmine, celery seeds and rose;

base notes:

amber, musk and oakmoss.

Jacques Cavallier( le "néz" behind YSL M7 and YSL Nu, Jean Paul Gaultier, L'Eau d'Issey, Givenchy Hot Couture, Bulgari Pour Homme, to name the most popular ones) created it in 2003 for the house of fashion enfant-terrible Alexander Mc Queen (*1969, + 2010).

I mainly get SANDALWOOD, cinnamon, jasmine, ginger, amber, mandarin ... and .... (BRACE, the dreaded c-word follows:) cumin from it. EdP version is best. Autumn, embrace me.

Shalimar Parfum Initial (2011)

2011-08-03T05:12:00.000-07:00

A new Shalimar. This sound like a paradoxon per se...
There had been "lighter" summer flanker, such as Eau de Shalimar and Shalimar légère but now a new one, created by in-house chéf de parfum Therry Wasser himself, pink juice, of all things...? The perfumista-world is trembling.

What i can say from spraying my samples is: it is (for me, hardcore Shalimar lover in pure perfume, EdT and EdP) nice and wearable!

I love that it contains less civet (which had always been a little sharp in original Shalimar for me) - not that i had minded but now that i can get it without the sharpness i might prefer the newer version and i admit: yes, there is one component in it that reminds me of the patchouli-musk mixture in the very very end phase of Obsession. Or Angel, even Prada... a warm soft and very very decent and deliciously spicy patchouli note, in any case.
It is very long-lasting, prevents a great sillage, not overbearing but distinct.
A floral (rosy) and lemony accord in the head, just like the original Shalimar, a hint of cool iris, almost gourmand later on, ambery in the base...
I really adore it.

Coral Flower - Lolita Lempicka

2011-03-23T02:15:00.000-07:00

Coral Flower, the corresponding scent to "L" was launched in 2008 by the house of Lolita Lempicka.
Just like the aforesaid mothership, it was created by néz Maurice Roucel.
Its main features are orange blossom, a salty vanilla and baked seasand although official notes say grapefruit, bergamot, orchid, frangipani flower, amber, musk and woody accords/driftwood (notes via fragrantica).
Coral Flower is a perfect summer scent when you want to leave aquatic and "clean" behind, yet want a summery and fresh breeze and have a severe longing for the seaside.
The very smell of the surf is captured as well as a white floral note which lends Coral Flower a tropical beach smell, whereas "L" was more of an Atlantic kind of shore.
Not only a flanker, a true new experience, i cannot really decide which one of the two scents of one mermaid theme i like better but no need to decide, i'll have both... :-)
Coral Flower's bottle is shaped exactly as the one of "L" (vaguely like a heart) and made of turquoise glass but the finish is matte here and reminds of a piece of seaglass after you let it dry. An (artificial) piece of white coral decorates the sprayer.
Available sizes: 30 ml and 50 ml of EdP.

pic: http://photos.linternaute.com/auteur/3620988/285302997/

Womanity - Thierry Mugler (2010)

2011-02-24T01:43:00.000-08:00

The first test-drive with this scent was a disaster.
I checked it off and when i ran into a woman at a fuel station a few weeks ago i couldn't believe which whiff i was getting from her (and, no, it was not the fumes...) - it was Womanity (yes, i know, there is a problem with this name, as it is... weird... it gives people strange associations: from the ocean (birthplace of all life) over humans (vs. aliens) and of genitalia... all well planned by marketing experts, i guess. But hey, this is Mugler. He wants to provoke and he wants you to use your brains, they created the word out of "city", "woman" and "humanity", is circulated).

I tried it again on skin and recently got an association with it that i absolutely dig:
when i went to Brittany for an extended holiday in1996 there was a lollypop kiosk and they sold the most fancy twisted-lollypos in all colours and all flavours - if you would buy some, they packed them into white/blue striped paperbags.
I still have one of those bags left in my guide of Brittany.
Imagine the sweet and candied scent of this paperbag soaked in the salty waters, mingled with some seaweed-flavoured sand and dried in the sun. Later packed into my bag along with clothes, still wearing hints of perfume. (I wore Coco EdT back then, nonstop.)
Along with the special salty-sweet perfume (and feeling...) these holidays have in my memory - Womanity totally captures it.

A milky and fresh fig note follows a freshand salty lime which opens the scent. Afterwards a warm, almost oriental wood-note builds the extremely long-lasting base.
The ocean note is unmistakeable in it but it never goes towards fishy, unwashed or stale. It's more like a juicy fresh ocean breeze and a whiff of a huge chunk of driftwood over a layer of warm skin.
Do not mistake this skin-accord for the sun-baked amber note in, say DUNE. This is a overcast day at the beach, think Point Break, the final scenes... The salt note intensifies the skin's own scent, in my impression. Not something everybody will love.

Still, low dosage is everything regarding this perfume! It can become stinging and salty-sour on some skintypes and trying it on a paper strip also was very misleading to me.
This perfume, for sure will divide the audience in love and hate. (This is also what i heard from sales assistants.)
It is a very versatile scent if you can wear it. But it does provoke thoughts as it is so unknown, the combination so new to our noses, it might also provoke a raised eyebrow as it is very unusual.

It might be the property of the house of Mugler to create something completely new. Something you've never sniffed, encountered or imagined before. Imagine, the mere idea to create a caviar-fig accord. Salty ocean waves and a fig? It sounds almost Dalièsque...

Just like Angel was influential and shaping style, fragrance-wise, for years with its now trademark caramelized-patchouli, its successor Alien also divided the minds because of the screechig jasmine-wood combo.
Womanity follows this tradition as it is again, something completely different with enough potential to become a classic.

Official notes are:
fig, caviar, fig wood, fig leaf, woody notes.
Womanity was created by nose Fabrice Pellegrin for the house of Mugler.

I am still amazed how intense memories are when being brought back by a smell. Thank you, limbic system. After all these years with this hobby i notice this fact every now and then and it makes me wonder, wonder, wonder....
LOVE those moments.

pic: own

Belle d'Opium (2010)

2011-02-13T09:16:00.000-08:00

"Hey little sister, what have you done? Hey little sister, who's the only one?"

New Belle d'Opium had a bad bad start when it was launched late last year. Opium's younger sister faced a phalanx of bad-breathed censors when it hit shelves in fall of 2010.

Long awaited by the perfume crowd, it was said to be a vile fruity-woody (a term which is synonymously used for bland, dull and juvenile) before even one had sniffed it.
As an aside: interestingly regarding perfumes no-one ever wants to smell young. Ripe, mature and experienced sophistication is what everybody seems to be calling for...

Well, not as if this all wasn't enough disaster, the video ad (directed by Romain Gavras), showing a Kathak dance, written by choreographer Akram Khan on a piece of music by Nitin Sawhney and performed by Mélanie Thierry, was now accused to foster intravenous drug abuse by showing the model running her index finger up her arm at a point.

http://bellasu.gr/13618598

What i personally find more alarming is, that in the print ad (see above) something beneath the model's skirt seem to be smoking of... well... of what? But that's only me, again...

Or is it all about marketing tactics?

"Belle" was created by noses Honorine Blanc and Alberto Morillas.
Its official notes say: Casablanca lily, sandalwood, gardenia, white pepper, jasmine absolute, and the infamous narguilé accord on which alledgedly Blanc had been working for four years.

To me, this is all about soft and humid shisha tobacco (grape and plum) and cool white smoke, fruits bedded on a mahogany tablet and softened by some spicy and lasting woods (sandal and patchouli).
Nothing harmful but under the right circumstances powerful enough to make you sweat and plant a sweet little memory into your brain.
One of the main reproaches is the weak staying power. Well, to be honest - and i LOVE the original Opium stuff, in EdT - but in comparison to the original Opium ANYTHING created after 1990 would pass off as a bodyspray!

So, nice one, little sistah, i say and keep using it for sleepytime, preferably!

lyrics: Billy Idol "White Wedding"

EXPLAINING KILLS ART

2011-01-18T00:51:00.000-08:00

"On a street in New York City’s Chelsea, a sign was recently posted that spelled out in capital letters: “EXPLAINING KILLS ART”. You could say exactly the same thing about perfume. Above all, you have to smell and feel it…. Choosing your perfume by reading an olfactory description is like asking for someone’s resume before falling in love…"

Le Labo

image: Bettina Rheims: "Art is a word", Paris 1988

Flowerbomb!

2010-12-20T02:01:00.000-08:00

There are scents and there are scents - perfumes and perfumes.

Occasionally, very rarely, you experience someone, while giving a hug or a brief kiss of goodbye, inhaling deeply from the side of your neck.

You feel their breath, as they take in, like a cool breeze gliding over your skin and you catch a glimpse of a memory on the inner back of your mind. Or is it theirs?

Skin on skin, floods of shivering and lava streams of warm breath. Sighing.

This is when you shouldn’t change your perfume.

Official notes:

bergamot, tea, jasmine, freesia, orchid, rose, vanilla, patchouli.

The distinct Earl-Grey-like tea note prevents the composition of becoming sickeningly sweet and cloying. The vanilla is smooth and creamy, decorated with freesia and rose leaves and the patchouli is rather light and completely smooth. Only after a longer wear the darker side of the scent comes out when it mingles with your own skin's musk and becomes complex and enveloping. It has been compared to Angel in some reviews but i'd beg to differ. No dusty mustyness and no burned caramel here, also Angel lacks any floral elements.

Flowerbomb was launched by the designer duo Victor&Rolf in 2004. It is available in EdT, EdP and an "Extrême" form as well as in body products. The noses are Olivier Polge, Carlos Benaim and Domitielle Bertier.

Like some trivia regarding modern times?

http://www.focus.de/reisen/fliegen/flughafen-oslo_aid_108123.html

pics: Banksy "flower bomb"; Flowerbomb perfume bottle

Chloé Eau de Parfum Intense / fade to grey

2010-11-24T04:11:00.000-08:00

"Feel the rain like an English summer hear the notes from a distant song "
(Visage: "Fade to grey")

In 2009 a ripe and really much more 'intense' version of the "normal" Chloé EdP was launched.
More woodsy than the predecessor (launched in 2008, cream ribbon) it comes along almost spicy, drifting towards becoming a dry floral-oriental scent, slightly soapy and if i have had to (re-) name it i'd call it Grey, Gray or Gris.
While the light EdT version (dating from 2009, too and decorated with a white ribbon, intended for summer wear) is pure fabric softener, the EdP is a naturalistic, fresh and musky-sweetish rose (no, it smells much better in reality than this description makes you expect), the EdP Intense on the other hand is delicately strong, stubborn, ripe and wintery. Sometimes annoying.

Dry spices enhance a dry rose in full bloom (neither sour nor sweet, mind you) and a musky base makes it last forever. During the drydown a whiff of complaisant sandalwood (more woods than soap this time...) and hints of vanilla (i.e. Tonka technically) come through.
Still, the pink pepper is always piercing.

If you like Chloé and want some more mystery and oomph for winter/party season or just for your own secret reasons, this is the one.
The juice is more yellowish in the EdP Intense version though using the same art-déco Sterling-silver plated bottle but with a grey ribbon this time.

Fading to grey means becoming more and more grown-up and dense with the all so popular Chloé-rose composition, it seems.

A limited "Collect'Or Edition" of the same scent comes at the right time for X-mas, instead of grey decorated with a golden ribbon.

Official notes are:
rose, pink pepper, tonka, sandalwood.

Unofficial notes:
i also get some dusty powder and honey.

On Hemlock

2010-11-17T01:34:00.000-08:00

(When talking hemlock, first of all you need a disambiguation: Hemlock (Conium) describes a poisonous plant, infamously used for Socrates’ poisoning. Hemlock (Tsuga) describes a genus of coniferous trees found in North America and eastern Asia.)

Ormonde Jayne Woman (and also Man) by the London based “Ormonde Jayne Perfumery”, founded in 2002 and based in London, are two of the very rare examples of use of the black hemlock note in perfumery.

Ormonde Jayne founder and perfumer Linda Pilkington discovered the note while trying to create a completely new, unusual and special kind of perfume. As a signature scent for her house she had a green chypre on her mind. Linda is somehow walking the path back in time, producing her concoctions in her own laboratories, keeping up with growers word wide and having launched an unusual candle, bath and body collection.

Making fine art perfumery true, once again is a hard one nowadays. The great old days of “real” perfumery are long gone and what floods the market every month is to be scanned very critically to sort out the rare gems.

The hemlock “specialty oil” was sent to her by a Canadian company and the moment she smelt it she knew it was the one to be.

Ormonde Woman is classified as a green woody chypre although it has a distinct oriental-ambery base. It is a forest-notes perfume and its season is autumn, for sure. This does of course not exclude its wearability from other seasons: the pine accord does great in the snows of winter, you can almost sense the wood smokes of its native lands. In spring the violet motif spends freshness and gaiety and during summer the cooling effects of the grass and spice notes soothe you.

OJW is never “manly” although vetiver, cedar and sandalwood are all famously used and well-known ingredients of classic male colognes. The floral notes and amber bedding provide a sensual and feminine background.

Personally being a long-time lover of Shiseido’s Féminité du Bois I adored it from the very first sniff and had to have a bottle for myself.

The official notes are:

Top: Cardamom, coriander and grass oil

Heart: Black hemlock, violet and jasmine absolute

Base: Vetiver, cedar wood, amber and sandalwood

Ormonde Jayne Perfumes are available at the boutique at 28 Old Bond Street in the Royal Arcade, or at the new flagship store at Sloane Square, 192 Pavillion Road (both in London) or shop via the website www.ormondejayne.com

image: "Tannenwald" (Gustav Klimt, 1902)

2010 - Autumn's top 10

2010-08-23T13:21:00.001-07:00

By the peak of August the air here, in the northern hemisphere becomes funny... there is a certain nondescript coolness, although your days might be humid and hot, especially during these current dog days of summer, the mornings and evenings smell funny - somewhat cold and ... fresh in a "forebode" way. (Yes, do call me a Cassandra, i know you would like the endless summer to last but i get it, it's there in the morning fogs and it's coming in from the night, slowly crawling inside when my window is left open and the full moon is old, cold and far away.)

This is the time where my favourite time of the year begins. Harvest. The ripe time.
My current top 10 may picture what it means to me. Smellwise.

La Perla - J'aime la Nuit
Donna Karan - Black Cashmere
Victor&Rolf - Flowerbomb
Calvin Klein - Obsession
Balmain - Ambre Gris
Shiseido/Serge Lutens - Féminité du Bois
Guerlain - Samsara
Ormonde Jayne - Ormonde Woman
Miller Harris - Fleur Oriental
Christian Dior - Midnight Poison
Serge Lutens - Arabie

Oh, that's eleven you say?
Nevermind...

pic: "harvestmoon"/via www

Black Cashmere - Donna Karan

2010-08-23T12:16:00.000-07:00

Black Cashmere is a symphony of dark smells. A dense composition, yet every note still evident. The bottle, shaped like a black shiny pebble on a basalt beach.
Imagine the smell of the ink and paper of a Japanese or Chinese drawing. The wood-smoke smells of your childhood's autumn. A cedar forest.
Crushing leaves beneath your boots in the woods. Cinnamon.
Saffron and earth crumbs. Polisehd ebony. Honey dripped on a mahogany tabletop. The story of a troubled breakfast ... candied ginger pieces and plum jam.
Incense rising from a bowl, coated with charcoal ashes, powdery and dark grey....

Cuddled in your warm (cashmere) sweater, your skin smooth like vanilla, this might be your preferred scent on a cool evening.
Beware. It evokes the creatures of the night.

If you liked the cedar-plum combo of Shiseido's Féminité du Bois (now available via Serge Lutens), YSL's (discontinued) incensy Nu or La Perla's J'aime la Nuit with its smokey liquid sandalwood base, Black Cashmere is the logical array.

This one is hard to find, every now and then it appears as a special edition in a cylindric bottle.

Perfumer: Rodrigo Flores-Roux

Official notes: Saffron, Masala Spices, Clove, Nutmeg, Pimento Berries, White Pepper CO2 Extract, Mediterranean Broom Flower, Patchouli Singapour, Crimson Red Marechal Rose, Ethiopian Guggal Incense, Wengue Wood, Bois de Miel.

A witch woud wear it.

Vol de Nuit / Guerlain

2010-06-28T14:13:00.000-07:00

Vol de Nuit was introduced by the house of Guerlain in 1933.
The nose for this perfume is Jacques Guerlain who also created Shalimar, L'Heure Bleue, Mitsouko - only to name the most famous ones. Maybe the most talented perfumer ever.

The "Nightflight" perfume (not to be confused with German designer Joop! 's "Nightflight" fougère for men from 1992) is named after the novel by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and is described by Guerlain on their website as follows: "As courageous as the book, Vol de Nuit is the perfume of risk and dangerous games. Brimming with audacity, it is the perfume of the woman who goes for broke."
Aha.
Interestingly, my first impressions after the first wear were far more introspect than that. When i was six years old, my parents took me to Elba. It was the last vacation before i went to school, this well-anticipated yet feared new stage of life, an exciting yet melancholic memory. I feared the end of my childhood, back then.
The island of Elba is part of the Tuscan Archipelago right in the middle between the Ligurian and the Thyrrhenian Sea and is equipped with the most balmy and aromatic macchia you can imagine.
Vol de Nuit captured quite some facets of this odour and upon first sniff i was totally smitten. Sweet memories of aromatic hot summer days, strolls through the maquis (always with an enormous fear of snakes) the abalone/ear-shell my father's buddy brought from his diving trips and endless days at the beach culminating in a pirate's barbecue in the evening.

Still there is more than shrubs and resins in this juice. Its floral notes of daffodil, rose, jasmine, violet and carnation function as a bond between the chypre-hesperidic-galbanum opening (with a few interspersed sparkling aldehydes) and the oriental, woody base.
A close relative to Jicky, its fougère sibling, this unusual creature of the night is worn surprisingly well on warm days. A warm oakmoss note, very similar to the one of Mitsouko (the Great, i might add) helps to achieve a mysterious edge that prevents Vol de Nuit of becoming a woody version of Shalimar. The vanilla is there but way toned down and an iris accord adds a powdery, velvety quality. It speaks of mysteries, of experience and bittersweet memories.
The rare Janus-faced character of an oriental-chypre perfume surprises today with its relentless modernity. Words like timeless and classic fail to describe the actuality and appropriability of this stunning masterpiece.
The notes sink into the skin, become soft and sensual and dark-blue.

The official notes list:
- imagaine the rainwet asphalt of a runway. On Elba. In August.

Today is A. de Saint-Exupéry's 110th birthday. He was shot during an reconnaissance over coastal Marseille on July 31st in 1944. His body was never found.

Acqua di Gioia - Giorgio Armani

2010-05-25T13:46:00.000-07:00

Fourteen years after the very successful Acqua di Giò for women ("Giò's Water", "Giò" being a familiar form of "Giorgio") in its beautiful seaglass-bottle, Giorgio Armani comes up with a new and different but similar named perfume for women: Acqua di Gioia ("Water of Joy").

The official notes list mint leaves, Calabrian Primo Fiore lime zest in the head, the middle consists of jasmine, pink pepper and peony and the base is made around brown sugar, labdanum (the cistrose resin) and cedarwood.
A team of three perfumers (Anne Flipo, Dominique Ropion and Loc Dong) created the perfume for the house of Armani.
The bottle is made of greenish polished "waterlike" glass and mimics a drop of water and wavelike rounded body forms. A green drop forms the cap.

The overall impression of this fragrance is fruity-floral-green aquatic and i have difficulties to pigeonhole it properly into one family - which is often quite a good thing, not only with perfumes.

Giorgio Armani said, back then, his Acqua di Giòs (available for women and men) were inspired by the Italian island of Pantelleria (blossoms, baked sand and sea water, driftwood), the new Gioa is alledgedly inspired by the islands of Pantelleria and Antigua, sea spray and tropical rainforests, this time.

The overall impression of a tropical thunderstorm is prevalent though the woody base is warming up and calming down the ozonic notes that are accountable for the refreshing and zesty impression you get right after spraying.

A good choice for a warm and humid day. I see it selling very well in the future. It's a little more than your average summery fruity-floral but serves your daily purposes to smell nice, unique and as long as not everyone and her mother wears it, it might be even creating a memento.

The ad campaign shows an "Eve in Garden Eden"/"Venus bathed by the Oceanwaves"-hybrid woman motif, which makes it easy to identify with.

The EdP comes in 30 ml, 50ml and 100 ml bottles and is on shelves from this week on in Europe.

For the teaser spot click below, the full spot is airing this week and can also be found on YouTube.

Gypsy Water / Byredo

2010-04-15T12:43:00.000-07:00

There is this game among perfume freaks: 'if perfume x and perfume y had a baby it would smell like perfume z'. Well, it is not always really applicable.

When i first smelled Gypsy Water, though, the first thought coming to my mind was: If Ormonde Jayne Woman and Shalimar EdT had a baby it would smell like this!

The Byredo company was founded in 2006 in Stockholm by Ben Gorham (of Indian-Swedish descent, born in Sweden, raised in USA and Canada, well-travelled and incidentally an extremely handsome ex-basketball player, interior designer and alumnus of the Swedish Academy of Realist Art). By redo(-lence) means: "via scent". Per fumum.

Craftmanship and quality are of great importance to the company and they also bear the seals of "Notion of Craft Spinning Wheel Brand Artisan Tradition" and "Trademark Fragrance House of Sweden" on their boxes. The Byredo flagship store was opened in Stockholm not too long ago. Available via few fine shop-in-shop stores in Germany and niche retailers also online. The perfume comes, like all from Byredo in 100 ml bottles.

The perfume comes in a plain but skilfully labelled white cardboard box, inside is theactual hard cardboard box, decorated with a black ink symbol and reminding of cigar boxes with its sticky bands on both sides. Inside the precious bottle sleeps, along with a letter telling you the designer's associations and impressions or better: those the designer wants you to evoke when smelling your new juice-baby. The sweet lines are like a love-letter to the perfume. They paint a picture on your mind and then you open the bottle and spray for the first time. Inhale. Let your mind travel...

Colourful, earthy and lost in time, this gypsy is...
Tradition has it that Romany lifestyle he witnessed on his travels was the inspiration for the designer to evoke the scents of soil, forest, campfires and a gypsy woman washing her laundry in the nearby river.

Strange thing is, the perfume first appears like a light citrusy wood and a moment of panic appears when you 're afraid you misspent. Shortly later the incense and pine accord come up and the longer i wear it on my hand the more its smell broadens and wafts up to my nose. The notes intensify, warm up and mellow to an ambery woody vanilla-incense after a few hours.

Have you ever attended a bonfire? The smell of smoke lingers in your hair for a long time.

The official notes are:

Top: Bergamot, Lemon, Pepper, Juniper Berries
Middle: Incense, Pine Needles, Orris
Base: Amber, Vanilla, Sandalwood

Néz: Jerome Epinette, Robertet.

I am THAT short of declaring it the holy grail. Will need more. Soon.

image of Gitanes cigarettes from the web, photos of perfume: own

Ninfeo mio by Annick Goutal (2010)

2010-03-24T06:22:00.000-07:00

A name for a perfume, sounding like the title of an opera aria...

A ninfeo (Italian for the Latin word "nymphaeum") is a shrine, often built around natural grottoes (where nymphs live, naturally) consecrated to the nymphs of a spring or nymphs in general.
The nymphs would bathe, love and play here when humans didn't watch.
Later in time nymphaea turned in relevancy: from exclusively sacred places to be used also for peoples' recreational purposes. Decoration elements like animal figures, shells and mosaics were used to furnish. Well-known examples are the Jerash nymphaeum in Jordan or the Nymphenbad at the Zwinger in Dresden.

On my visit to southeastern Turkey, two weeks ago i took some pictures in the ancient city of Perge, also one showing the ruins of a large nymphaeum (see the large vertical pond in the back of the picture).

Ninfeo mio is inspired by a "Garden of Hesperides" theme on which Isabelle Doyen and Camille Goutal worked together on and was brought to life after a visit at the Ninfa gardens near Rome (Giardini di Ninfa, Lazio).
The gardens basically grounding on an ancient Roman village or city were originally created as a botanical garden by the Caetani family, for details pls see: http://www.fondazionecaetani.org/.

The official notes are: Italian lemon, citron, petitgrain, bitter orange, galbanum, lentisque, conifers, lavender, fig leaf, lemon tree wood.

If i was to rename it, i would call it "Green Coconut Lime". Like an exotic dish. Decorated with a white orchid.

The overall impression is lush, green, moist and surprisingly sweet like the sweet milk dripping from a fresh fig's skin.
If you imagine Hermès' Un Jardin Sur le Nil with a strong coconutty element and mingled with an amplified fig of Un Jardin en Mediterranée, minus the mangoes of course, you get an impression.
Herbal notes like lavender and verveine as well -though not officially mentioned- give it the aura of a very southern smell on a warm day in spring/summer/early autumn.
Bitter notes of galbanum and lemon as well as lime prevent it from being candied and sickly sweet, a perfect scent for all the warm months and perfectly designed to evoke warmth in the darkness of winter.
Still, it is not cool and icy as some greens and lemons can be at times and is very wearable on a cool day, too, where many hesperides can become complicated and a bit cold.
The lentisque note, well known since Prada's Infusion d'Iris, a summer staple btw., gives a powdery and playful accord with its nutty aroma.
Woods in the base make it soft and very wearable for male users as well.
The comforting smell of old massive wood furniture like it is found in mediterranean houses and which is polished with lemon oil and beeswax is what you find after a good time of wear in the basenotes.

For an Annick Goutal scent it has a stunning longevity (i personally have extreme longevity problems with AG scents, even Songes!) and the EdT version comes in 50 and 100 ml bottles (the classic striped oval and square bottles but in a light green glass tone).
Maybe an EdP will follow?

According to Annick Goutals webpage, the Sous le Figuer ("Under the fig tree") candle is the perfect combination to Ninfeo mio! www.annickgoutal.com

This is so far my personal 2010 winner!

pics:
Perge nymphaeum: own
Nymphaea caerulea taken from: www.botanischer-garten.uni-freiburg.de/Jahreszeiten1109.htm

Dolce & Gabbana for women (1992)

2010-03-23T13:30:00.000-07:00

Notes:

Head:Tangerine, basil, ivy, freesia, petitgrain
Middle: Bulgarian rose, marigold, lily of the valley, orange blossom, red carnation, jasmine, coriander
Base: Sandalwood, tonka bean, vanilla, musk
(via perfumemart.com)

Soapy, spicy and musky/aldehydic this perfume smells like a woman.
She is hanging out her laundry, after her morning ritual involving a washbowl, a thick white creamy soap-bar and Felce Azzura body powder.
In Sicily.

"Red cap" smells retro but never old-fashioned. It unites the powerful force and sensitiveness inside a woman's heart. If you like Shalimar, Arpège, No.5 perfume or EdP, JPG Classique, White Linen - try this one.

BLACK by Kenneth Cole

2010-03-22T03:29:00.000-07:00

Often described with adjectives like: "pure", "sweet" and clean", "plasticky" and "boring", BLACK by Kenneth Cole to my nose is mainly a tropical gardenia, tuberose and jasmine floral composition, anchored by a slightly musky, soapy sandwood base.
A white perfume.

Black is a white flower perfume which is airy and light -something you wouldn't believe reading the list of (official) notes given: Black Violet, White Hyacinth, Fresh Citrus, Tuberose, Magnolia, Lotus Flower, White Musk, Orris, Sandalwood, Sweet Amber (via perfumemart.com)
The nose behind it is: Marie Amandine.

Black was introduced in 2004 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Kenneth Cole fashion brand. As an aside: the Brooklyn-born designer, is, beside his fashion design also well-known for his dedication to fight against AIDS/HIV (see: www.amfar.org - he is the Chairman of the Board of this organization).

I find Black to be very wearable, in the row of my favourite tuberose fragrances, namely Fracas, Tubereuse Criminelle and Annick Goutal's Passion and Songes, it is the most "office-suitable" one. Very clean.
It is soft and wears close to the skin, a fact which qualifies it for wearing it even on a warm summer's day.
There's also a very faint hint of the gardenia-floating-on-water element we know from Marc Jacob's first eponymous scent, an idea of the coconutty wax we encounter on the white gardenia blossom leaves.
Inside a civilized and rather urban frame you find sunrays intruding and water dripping out... a very natural scent in an outside shell of urban.

The overall impression to me is that of a strange marriage between soapy-scrubbed clean skin and a warm piece of female flesh with first hazy notions of cool in late summer.

pic: Marilyn Monroe

Chanel No.19

2010-03-04T13:57:00.000-08:00

Chanel No. 19 was created by Henri Robert in 1971 for Coco Chanel personally. It is named after her birthday, she was born on August 19th. Sun-sign: Leo.

The scent is the perfect example for a prim and even austere outer appearance and a tempest, a green velvety rainstorm, humid leaves and succulent white florals below the surface. Wet moss.
Picture an old-school secretary. But one with a secret.

The vetiver and slight leather notes are blended in a stunning way, i can't do leathers at all normally because they upset my stomach but this is a whole different thing. The neroli and rose blend with an exceptional green-purple iris and the woods in the base make you long for touching a forest's floor.
Breathtakingly beautiful and pure French laid-back-elegance. And a distinct smell of weed in the top.

The EdP (floral, vetivery, lush) and EdT (slightly severe, metallic, crystalline-irisy) are somewhat different from each other, the pure perfume is softness and blending in perfection. One could cry.

Notes:
galbanum, hyacinth, neroli, bergamot, jasmine, rose, lily of the valley, iris, vetiver, sandalwood, leather, musk.

pic: 'Claudya' by Bettina Rheims from the Female Trouble Series

Coco, Chanel

2010-03-01T02:18:00.000-08:00

Question: What do Johana Baker („Le grand bleu“), Betty Etamble (“Betty”), Vianne (“Chocolat”), Nikita (“Nikita”), Raimunda (“Volver”) and Sarah Roberts (“The Hunger”) have in common?

Well, they’re all goddesses of the screen, they’re all a bit obsessive, full of temperament and share a baroque sensuality, although all of them have something… you might say derangé, in a way.

And: they’re all wearers of Coco, of course.

In my imagination.

Picture the stormy coast of Brittany in 1996, this is where I and Coco grew together. It will forever be “the“ perfume of France for me, it blooms best on a sunny but windy day. Due to its warmth it’s better worn in EdT on my skin and in my opinion the florals “fly” better here while the EdP has a deeply balsamic quality which fits perfectly a fur and a fireplace in the dark of winter. The pure perfume has less sillage, still a lot for an extrait and is the perfect balance between warmth and refreshment.

Coco, in all its versions has a great longevity and is very recognizable.

Overspraying it is to be avoided in any case as the magic is completely lost when an overdose burns your nostrils or drowns your brain in its syrupy sweetness and oriental suffocation.

Coco was created in by Jacques Polge in 1984 and is classified as a baroque, oriental-spicy cocktail.

Fragrantica.com lists the following notes:

Top: coriander, grenade blossom, mandarin orange, peach, jasmine and bulgarian rose;

Middle: mimosa, cloves, orange blossom, clover and rose;

Base: labdanum, amber, sandalwood, tonka bean, opoponax, civet and vanilla.

Personally, I also get a patchouli note in the middle to base which is not listed here.

Pic: Mathias Bothor: "Bretagne". Mareverlag, Hamburg 2009

L'Eau d'Issey, Issey Miyake

2010-02-25T13:49:00.000-08:00

maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles, and

milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles: and

may came home with a smooth round stone

as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)
it's always ourselves we find in the sea

e.e. cummings

official notes:

top: lotus, freesia, cyclamen, rose water
middle: fresh peonies, carnation, white lilies
base: cedarwood, sandalwood, osmanthus, tuberose, amberseed, musk

Jacques Cavalier, 1992

pics: coney island mermaid parade poster; http://www.zenaholloway.com/zena.html

Tommy Girl - Summer 2010 Edition

2010-02-22T02:49:00.000-08:00

This scent will be the first Tommy Girl Summer Limited Edition i am buying: it smells like a warm but windy day at the beach in august, your caramel-coloured skin all protected by a deliciously smelling apricot suncream and a hint of your musk-oil from last night, still lingering in your hair.
Green but not astringent, fresh but nort overly marine or aquatic, a very creamy and feminine scent.
Like s/o said: "this smells very sensual, reminds me of something good in my childhood" - beach holidays, anyone?
Wait a few minutes after spaying, the first whiff is quite alcoholic which is getting better after a short while.
Absolutely stunning, sensual, don't laugh: out of this world! Highly rated from this perfume-maniac and niche fan, no snobbism here, this scent is worthy.

Official notes:
Sicilian bergamot, Moroccan acacia, apricot blossom, Virginia cedar and amber.

The milk white bottles for both (Tommy and Tommy Girl) are nautically inspired featuring a blue wheel (men's) and a red anchor (women's). The cap is silver.

pic showing Newport Pier found at: http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com

Purple Haze - Insolence

2010-02-08T05:05:00.000-08:00

Some time ago i encountered a woman in our office building exiting the elevator while i entered it.
Her perfume trail was strong and distinctive. It was something i had never smelled before and i thought she must have bought it on a holiday abroad or was an alien employee from our company and brought her perfume from her homecountry, as it smelled exotic and somehow weird and strange. Uncanny.
It was strong like Angel or Amarige but dusky (iris?) and sweetish like Lolita Lempicka, powdery yet sharp and not harmless at all. Slightly gourmand, even but with a yelling green edge. And it had a HUGE orange blossom!
I wasn't even sure i liked it in the first second but in the second i wanted to have it! I couldn't forget it.
I sampled and sampled... fume not found.
A few days ago i sampled different violets, like last pre-spring i get that urge to use damp, earthy florals as soon as the first birdies come out and hyacinths are for sale- and i stumbled upon the dreaded Insolence by Guerlain which i had tried on paper after its launch and i breathed fire and brimstone on it...

The truth is: the smell i caught was Insolence.

I am sampling it today on skin.
I feel strange.
I feel good!
Only perfume can make you feel like this!

Insolence, Guerlain, 2007 (néz: Maurice Roucel)
Notes: Iris (Orris), Orange Blossom, Rose, Violet, Sandalwood, White Musk, Tonka Bean, Raspberry.

pic: Parma Violet Rocket Soap Lolly by squeakysoaps.co.uk

Gucci Flora EdP

2010-01-24T05:30:00.000-08:00

Gucci currently launches its new Flora EdP (Flora EdT was a 2009 creation and found it's inspiration in the 1966 "Flora" scarf-pattern which was made originally for princess Grace of Monaco and is a recurring theme for Frida Giannini*. The Flora pattern also decorates the inside of the perfume box.).
Flora EdP is a deeper, more intense and higher concentrated version of the EdT. I liked the original composition a lot, was next to buying it but missed a better staying power and some more sillage.
I think the EdP comes right in time for my upcoming springdays now!
The bottle features golden details and cap instead of black and the gown, model Abbey Lee Kershaw wears in the ad is the same legendary Flora-dress as in the EdT campaign except in darker shades. The juice is of darker colour, too.
Director Chris Cunningham's clip, shot on a cornfield in Latvia with 40 000 silk flowers, has an almost spooky quality to me, it's nearly a ghost's dance, model Abbey Lee performs on that meadow full of flowers, background music: a remix of Donna Summer's "I feel love", she once appears like a butterfly and once like a four-armed Indian goddes - and the way the flowers bend along with her moves is magically-weird ... love that spot!

Notes:
Head: citruses, peony
Heart: rose, osmanthus
Base: pink pepper, patchouli, sandalwood

*Frida Giannini is Gucci's creative director

2009-2010, Tiki, scent of today and plans and wishes

2009-12-30T03:28:00.000-08:00

The end of the year is near and i started a personal list on "43 things to do".
Wow. Big plans, gal!

Not only perfumewise i am fed up with winter already and turning to tropical florals again. It's the same thing each year: as soon as the holidays are over i don't want no more snow, please! Give me sunshine, flowers, birds and a trip to the sea !!
I am wearing Lancôme's wonderful powerhouse "Pôeme" now for two days in a row and i think i am turning to either "Venus Sands" (Ava Luxe's "Songes"), SL's "Fleurs D'Oranger" or Donna Karan's "Gold" for a vist to a Tiki Bar in Nuremberg today with my brother and his girlfriend.
Tomorrow we'll have guests here, eat "fondue" and will be celebrating New Year's Eve at home for the first time we live back here!
Getting older, folks...? ;-)
Of course after the dinner for the fireworks and a drink or two afterwards we'll leave the house.

Which scent will you be wearing for New Year's Eve, my dear readers? I haven't decided yet...
Stay healthy and fine in 2010, sail safely to new shores - blogging is fun with you!

Aloha!
:-)

pic: monoi.de

Winter's delights

2009-12-04T11:46:00.000-08:00

As on Dec. 1st we wrote the meteorological

beginning of winter in the northern hemisphere, I decided to compose a winter's top 10-list for 2009/2010, in no particular order.

Among many other classics, mainstreams, niche ones like e.g. Féminité du Bois, Lolita Lempicka, Opium, Elixir des Merveilles and Delicious Night, these ten are especially appreciated at the moment.

Donna Karan Black Cashmere

Spicy incense, sandalwood and warmthhhhhh

Chopard Casmir

Vanilla-spice, gourmand

Dior Hypnotic Poison

Bitter vanilla and jasmine

Caron Parfum Sacré

Peppery rose vanilla, Christmas cake, nostalgic aldehydes

Guerlain Shalimar

Why? It’s Shalimar!

Prada (Amber)

Ambery patch, enveloping, metropolitan.

Thierry Mugler Angel

Christmas memories, anyone?

Kenzo Flower Le Parfum

Warm babyskin scent. Intimate.

Ormonde Jayne Ormonde woman

Anytime. Anyplace.

Lancôme Miracle

A bright northern sunrise over a snowy landscape...

pic: Winterberry (Ilex verticillata) by hgtv.com

Dune - Christian Dior

2009-11-24T10:33:00.000-08:00

"A salty-sweetness, dry lemon and amber."

Dune by Chrstian Dior was launched in 1991.

Its official description by Dior says its smell is about "where sky and ocean meet - at the horizon". I have nothing to add.
Except, maybe, that i found this, ever since i have known it, extremely sensual.

pic by courtesy of http://www.foto-graefin.de/

Hermès' Elixir des Merveilles

2009-11-19T11:22:00.000-08:00

The "elixir of wonders", Elixir des Merveilles is the 2006 variation of Eau des Merveilles which was launched in 2004 .
The nose for this variation is Jean-Claude Ellena, the master of restraint, olfactory speaking.
Also there is a pure parfum version, called Parfum des Merveilles (2005).

When i spray on this perfume (which i really do a lot in winter) my boyfriend uses to comment that it smells in the room as if man had freshly shaved, but in a good way.

The combo of dark chocolate, orange peel, amber and sandalwood makes it a perfect unisex scent, it smells of oak and cedar (which are received as typical "male perfume ingredients" often) and almost masculine on cool skin and develops into a decent gourmand-woods scent as soon as it warms. A hint of pine is somewhere but i cannot nail it, really. The perfect salty-sweet aroma like a spicy biscuit or a chocolate covered pretzel. Made for people who like their Croissant with a tiny bit of salt. Or prefer salted butter.
It is as well not your typical oriental, it's much more restrained, less sweet and very well-behaving. No drama here, no gothic darkness, despite the patchouli and incense.
The amber is pretty pronounced in its salty-sweetness and evokes a walk on the beach on a rainy windy day when you can taste the iodine in the breeze, almost.
If you like Balmain Ambre Gris, try this one too. It's a drier, woodier version.
Still, under the layer of dry woods, the sweetness keeps creeping through, the longer it is worn on skin.
It is one of the most autumnal scents i wear and it blends my mood perfectly well into pre-Christmas season.

Official notes are: (via fragrantica.com)
peru balsam, vanilla sugar, amber, sandalwood, tonka bean, patchouli, siam resin, caramel, oak, incense, orange peel and cedar.

Bond No.9

2009-10-28T11:42:00.000-07:00

Have you ever thought about the question what New York City smells like?

Is it possible to put the smell, the fragrance, the stink, the odeur, the miasma even, in a bottle?
Bond No.9's (named after their address in NoHo) founder Laurice Rahmé has made answering this question her very own endeavour. Uptown, Midtown, Downtown and the New York Beaches are captured here in perfume form.

My first full bottle from this house was "Nuits de Noho" and my second is their masterpiece "Chinatown". Many samples, decants and "Bonbons" have found their way to my home ever since and "New Haarlem" is on top of my wishlist at the moment but today the first two i own shall be presented proudly.

Nuits de Noho is an oriental-gourmand in the vein of Angel just that is a tad less sweet, it lacks the cotton candy and strawberry notes but has a decided patchouli heart in combination with, what is to my nose burned caramel and jasmine.
I wore it in late summer and autumn a lot and it develops beautifully and is extremely longlasting! I read that Bond's Eaux de Parfum contain 25% of pure perfume oils like it was common in former days of perfumery (their approach is to keep up the traditions of high quality perfumes) and you feel the difference! It just wears off a little and becomes softer but it stays and stays and stays!
Official notes are: Jasmin, creamy vanilla, sheer patchouli.

Chinatown with its plummy-floral spicemix is said to evoke the very smells of a chinese food market. To me it has also a faint plasticky, slightly artificial note shortly upon spraying which fades after a few minutes and which reminds me of a brandnew piece of toy or the smell of a doll's head... positive childhood memories in any case.
Blown away are those by a breeze of dusty spices and exotic blossoms after a while. Exotic grownup's tastes. I have never perceived anything like this one before and these are the very special moments of any perfume aficionado: when you smell a new scent and realize that you have never smelt anything like it in your whole life before.
Develops softer on skin after some wearing time and melts into a lovely skin scent.
Official notes say: Peach blossoms, gardenia, tuberose, patchouli, cardamom.

Now the next step would be: take me to NYC and let me compare!

pics taken from Bond No.9 site, showing the Nuits de Noho Swarovski Limited Edition Bottle and the famous Chinatown-bottle peach-blossom print.

Golden Brown - D&G The One

2009-09-10T08:48:00.000-07:00

The official notes:
Bergamot, Mandarin, Lychee, Peach, Madonna Lily, Muguet, Plum, Jasmine, Vetiver, Vanilla, Amber, Musk.
A classic floral-oriental composition.

I even like it better than i did when i bought it on a whim at a Sephora store in March this year in Palma/Mallorca. There is a certain difference of the smell in the warmth and in the cold, both versions are great and i cannot really decide when i like it better (with many perfumes i can, which makes them often "seasonal" to me...), so it's versatile and qualifies for frequent use.

It develops a syrupy bittersweet note that i totally love, a bit like cut dried figs and dates, a bit like maple syrup and a bit like dry leaves. A very nice scent, underrated even, imho.
I see also a parallel in mood to Boudoir, one of my oldest perfume loves.

I think Dolce&Gabbana suffer from a pigeonholing many people do with their brand. Scent snobbery - an interesting new idea for a post.

White Noise - Tubereuse Criminelle

2009-08-20T14:16:00.001-07:00

Tubereuse Criminelle by Serge Lutens / Christopher Sheldrake is a modern legend.

She was born in 1998 and surely deserves a place in the "white series", while the scent has a dark, even slightly sinister aura.
You can only love and worship or hate and get away from her fast.

The demure smallish white blossom of Polyanthes tuberosa is native to Mexico. Since the 18th century it has made its way to France/Grasse where enfleurage and extraction were tested on it and nowadays most tuberose extracts come from Tamil Nadu and Mysore. Like many small blossoming flowers it is highly fragrant.

Many will tell you that a certain "burned rubber" scent evaporates in the top notes, camphor and Vick's Vapo Rub are conjured.
I tell you something else: imagine the smell of a thick green agave leaf, cut in two, drip some highly fragrant blossom oil on it - in your imagination. Now rob that mess onto your inner thigh and you get a slight impression of how it smells, two minutes after you dab the first drop on your neck. Later on in this game of hide and seek a clear serene white flower appears, she floats in a Dalièsque style above everything and pierces your mind (and maybe your lover's, too). Spices develop a sweet and sexy style, unconsciously familiar. I have been told it were an absolutely irresistible smell.
One of those perfumes in my collection i would take on the desert island.

I have no idea if the flowers painted in the back of Frida are meant to be tuberoses but in my world this pic fits to a T. Her fleshly earthbound sensuousness hid behind a severe brow and the greens of the leaves and all those colourful blossoms represent what i wanted to say and failed with words.

Official notes: tuberose, orange blossom, hyacinth, jasmine, musk, vanilla, styrax, nutmeg and clove.

painting: Frida Kahlo: Self portrait dedicated to Dr. Eloesser, 1940
photography: Imogen Cunningham: Tuberose (1920s)

In the white room - Songes by Annick Goutal

2009-07-12T08:33:00.000-07:00

Opening the WHITE Series today:

SONGES, a dreamy hommage to the moon, the remains of a romantic journey, created for the house by nose Isabelle Doyen.

Songes ("Dreams") creates a tropical feel and especially in the EdP version its creamy butteryness might be the exact smell of a woman's skin smell on a Gaugin painting.

Official notes are Frangipani, Tiaré, Jasmine Sambac, Ylang-Ylang,Vanilla.
Sandalwood, incense and amber are perceived as well as a "rubbery" opening, typical for the BWF (="big white flower") perfume.

pic: "White Beauty" by MichelleBrea on flickr.com

Mood Indigo - Kenzo goes blue

2009-06-27T14:35:00.000-07:00

The blue themed posts go on...

I dislike flankers, i admit. They bore me, most of the time. Slightly changed juices (often more floral or just lighter "été"-versions) and i dislike too light fragrances in general, fleeting and obviously designed for a tropical-humid all-year-round hot Asian country. I don't live there, my skin drinks frags, i need more sillage! (And i love my orientals!)

But Kenzo astonishes me with his latest realeases:

My latest capture Kenzo Amour Le Parfum in its beautiful golden Balinesque bottle was a surprise as the original one (Kenzo Amour in its sixties-style colourful bottle) was nice but too short-lived on my skin. The new intense version lasts and lasts and has a nice background of incense and patchuoli without forgetting upon its origin.

And now there are the new launches of L'Eau par Kenzo: L'Eau par Kenzo Eau Indigo (pour femme and pour homme).
They evoke the smells of night, a warm night over dark blue waters. A soulful and calm yet serene image, connotations of blossoms floating and the soft lick of warm waves come to my mind.
The two bottles are designed to fit together, if you put them side by side their waveshapes will cling together and i imagine the scents to build together, too, on your skins.

The official notes are:

L’Eau Par Kenzo Eau Indigo Pour Femme: bergamot, mandarin, jasmine, orange blossom, ylang, tonka bean and amber.

L’Eau Par Kenzo Eau Indigo Pour Homme: ginger, citrus, elemi, coriander, vetiver, cedar, amber, labdanum and tonka bean.

In case i change my moods, i have both. Just to make sure...

Samsara

2009-05-30T02:39:00.000-07:00

Samsara was launched by Guerlain in 1989.
It is one of the most famous floriental perfumes, a late breed of the 80ies which produced many "big guns", Samsara being one of them.
Much has been written on who createted it in reality (rumours say an external hand was involved, in contrary to Guerlains tradition of "inhouse-nosing"), why the Sanskrit name (meaning eternal rebirth which might not really be what man strives to live...) might not associate only positive feelings and so on.

Undebatable is: this one is the perfect combo of sandalwood and jasmine. No sandalwood perfume has come close to its intensity, the perfect balance between warmth and coolness of the wood. Additional notes of ylang-ylang and peach, lemon and vanilla combine to a perfect match.

Sandalwood has a perfume history of over 4000 years which makes it one of the oldest known perfume ingredients.

Due to latest reformulations and the fact that (East Indian) natural sandalwood is among endangered botanical species, meanwhile, today even more synthetic sandalwood is used than in the original formula (which combined natural and synthetic sandalwood). Good for me: as i suffered nausea and bad migraines with the old stuff (a sandalwood sensitivity was handed down to me by my father who breaks out when he gets some on his skin), i can finally wear it!
Have waited for so long and now i am indulging! One good thing for me!!

song: "Dominion by The Sisters of Mercy (from the 1987 album "Floodland")

A very different cinco de mayo - numerology continued

2009-05-05T13:29:00.000-07:00

After Marilyn, Catherine, Carole, Estella and Nicole finally Audrey did it!
Audrey Tautou is starring the new No.5 spot directed by no less than Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen, Amélie, Alien-Resurrection, A very long engagement). She also plays Coco Chanel in the biopic yet to come directed by Anne Fontaine.
Watch here here (2:21 version in HQ) and take a sniff or two. This ad will rocket sales into unknown highs!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dhO5SMNtyA

Please note the song performed by Billie Holiday...

pic via http://gracemagazine.wordpress.com

The Blue Note

2009-04-28T06:20:00.000-07:00

Despite all the old-word legends that twine around the history of the Guerlain classic from 1912 "L`Heure Bleue", it doesn't have that certain otherworldly melancholia for me, attributed so often to it, but something decidedly new-wordly, which is quite funny.
With 'new-worldy' i mean the following:
Picture a sultry southern beauty, a rampant one, no Blanche DuBois but a raven-haired southern-belle "hoyden". She rides a wild horse.

Or picture Lady Day, in a smoky jazz club at midnight in a July night.

Picture an unknown mezzo-soprano whispering love words. Her apartment reeks of perfume on a late summer morning, when she awakens, stale it hangs in the linens and it is the smell of carnation, anisseed and vanilla. Other notes i get are amber, musk, neroli, clove, a powdery floral (iris ?) and incense.
A semi-oriental husky and dusky ghost... Its name? L`Heure Bleue...

pic by http://www.cmgww.com/music/holiday/index.php

37,2°le matin or LouLou by Cacharel

2009-04-14T12:44:00.000-07:00

The second in a row of "blue perfumes", LouLou was created in 1987 by Jean Guichard (Eden, La Nuit, Asja) for the house of Cacharel.
It perfectly captures the style and feel of the eighties, for me.
It has a very special place in my heart as it was one of the first perfumes i ever wore on my skin.

The LouLou official notes contain:

Top: Jasmine, Mimosa, Orange, Tiaré Lily
Heart: Iris
Base: Sandalwood, Vanilla, Incense

Luca Turin rates it a proper 5 Star in his guide and calls it "a perfume that might be reckoned a little over the top even by a Bombay attarwallah" (Indian perfume maker and seller). A clear cut example of the "more is more" case, i say.

Loulou receipe:

1/4 exotic island dreamer à la Gaugin
1/4 psycho bitch (e.g. "Betty Blue")
1/4 sensual enchantress
1/4 gamine ingenue

Stir it well, let it ripen in a wooden cask and open it for a very special occasion.
Serve well-chilled in a champagne flute and decorate it with a maraschino cherry.
Santé!

pics of Béatrice Dalle in "37,2 le matin" and LouLou ad found on the net

True Blue "light blue" by Dolce e Gabbana

2009-04-10T03:27:00.000-07:00

"Dig if you will the picture
Of you and I engaged in a kiss
The sweat of your body covers me
Can you my darling
Can you picture this?"

An evergreen, that blue one is. And the first in s row of "blue perfumes" i'd like to discuss.
She makes me happy, light and blue, all at once with her Betty-Blue-like musky apple smell.
Taste salty tears or are that rests of saltwater on my skin? "light blue" smells of summer, of vacation and of a damp yet "clean" atmosphere.
It fits clubbing nights out, it fits the beach, an ocean dive, it fits an exhausting shopping tour. Even for ruin-sightseeing on a Greek island it fits. On white sheets or at 3.00 am in the car. It just... fits.
It always earns compliments. A modern classic.

Composed in 2001 by Oliver Cresp "light blue" is one of the bestsellers worldwide. A combo of green Granny Smith apple notes, jasmine, a transparent amber/musk and cedar in the base made it the first of a family that soon got successors (Paco Rabanne Black XS for men, Nina, Love by Nina, Diesel Fuel for Life Unlimited only to name a few). I get the slightliest "chlorine house cleaner" note, which i guess is responsible for my connotations of its smell to southern European surroundings.

The only thing you can say against it that so many women wear it. In fact i had a prejudice against it because it was a number one bestseller and i didn't want to smell like everyone else. On day i watched/smelled a girl in my drugstore test it. And it developed so gorgeous on her! In the end it smells a little different on every single girl, doesn't it? Go out and test...

Official notes are: Sicilian citron, bluebell, GrannySmith apple, jasmine sambac, bamboo, white rose, cedarwood, amber and musk.

P.S. Did i mention the "light blue" ad girl (Daniela Lopes caught on photo by Mario Testino) has been my long-time no.1 bathroom door pin-up?

pic: "light blue" perfume ad
lyrics: Prince "When doves cry"

Thunder Perfect Mind

2009-04-07T13:11:00.000-07:00

Prada's first perfume contains top notes of: Bergamot, Bitter Orange, Mandarin, Mimosa absolute.
Heart notes are: Rose absolute, Indonesian patchouli, Patchouli absolute.
Base notes are: Labdanum, Tonka Bean, Vanilla, Indian Sandalwood, Benzoin Resinoide.
I definately get a sultry jasmine blossom-note, too.

The overall impression is that of a soft-furred feminine carnivorous creature. Archaic yet postmodern. Utterly beautiful. Utterly dangerous.

Resinous and exotic wood notes mingle with the sweet smell of your hair and musky sleepy skin. Leaves. Dried blossoms. Close acquaintances: Angel and Euphoria as well as a bitter, dark chocolate bar and Shalimar.

Must have. No doubt.

for further interests: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thunder_Perfect_Mind

South of the border... Shalimar light / Shalimar eau légère parfumée

2009-02-18T11:32:00.000-08:00

"I feel a hot wind on my shoulder
And the touch of a world that is older
I turn the switch and check the number
I leave it on when in bed I slumber..."
(lyrics: "Mexican Radio" by Wall of Voodoo)

Shalimar light (whose name is an absurdum, an oxymoron itself) was made for those people who find the original stuff too old, vintage smelling and dated. To be honest, they still did a good job, despite their dubious original aim.

"Citrus notes prevail in the Eau de Shalimar top
note in a vibrant, succulent harmony of lime, bergamot and orange
creating an impression of intense freshness. Their sparkling accents
linger in the heart before giving way to majestic vanilla. A delectable
invitation enriched with a bouquet of rose and jasmine. The vanilla
notes then gradually melt away to reveal the powdery, sophisticated
tones of Iris and a fragrant trail of the utmost elegance." (from guerlain.com)

I wouldn't call it an intense freshness, more some kind of uplifting citrus effect instantly upon spraying. It doesn't last two minutes but merges to an ambery, darker harmony, like you step from the bright sun into the shadow of an old, i mean OLD building on a hot summer's day. The drydown is very close to the original, you cannot miss family ties here.
The scent, originally launched as Limited Edition (how i hate that invention!) first in 2003 (done by Mathilde Laurent)and again in 2004 (reworked by Jean-Paul Guerlain) was established as "Eau de Shalimar" in 2008 in the fixed Guerlain programme. According to trustworthy sources the renaming and repackaging did not affect the juice.

Me encanta!

pic of "Shalimar Inn" found somewhere on the web

The Swinging Sixties

2009-02-15T09:48:00.000-08:00

Don’t be afraid of the classics

I love the 1960ies decade not only scent-wise but also regarding literature, movies and music.
To understand the perfumes you might like to take a dive into the zeitgeist.
My favourites, many of them typicals:

1960 Madame Rochas
1961 Calèche
1964 Y
1966 Fidji
1969 Chamade
1969 Ô de Lancome

The French were still a leading country reg. perfume. The everyday elegance sported (Madame Rochas) and consciousness of style was much more about awareness of a new (female) self, (Y, Fidji) status (Calèche) and reflection of a certain emotional feeling or state of mind (Chamade) through perfume... i guess. Nature and the smells of the green, of freedom gave inspiration and led, later on to the much-hated patchouli overkill. Mosses, vetiver and galbanum represent an era of spring, awakening and refreshed thoughts of the common mind.
“Calèche” appears like a forerunner to the YSL Classic “Rive Gauche” (1971) to me and as Dior launched the often so called “Eau Sauvage”-version for women- “Diorella” in 1972, Chanel had to follow with “Cristalle” in 1974.

Dare and do try those classics mentioned. You will get over the "weird" soapiness and detect what's underlying or behind the mirror (you will find sexy sandalwood, lush vetiver and exploding greens along with close-to-skin musk and dark amber, sensual ylang-ylang and honeysuckle, beds of hyacinths and roses, well hidden in a deep forest) - maybe this is true sexiness. Not to show everything upon first encounter...
Let yourself experiment with the feelings and moods they will awake.

pics: Marianne Faithfull from dailymail.co.uk; BIBA Kensington Church Street shop in the swinging sixties (via flickr)

Crisp

2009-01-04T08:24:00.000-08:00

Tommy Girl by Tommy Hilfiger (1996)

Notes: (according basenotes.net)

Top: Blackcurrant, Apple blossoms, Tangerine, Mandarin, Camellia Flowers
Middle: Grapefruit, Citrus Orchards, Crisp Green Notes, Honeysuckle, Butterfly Violets
Base: Desert Jasmine, Cherokee Rose, Magnolia Petals, Dakota Lillies, Cedar, Sandalwood, Wild Heather.

Wild Heather...

pic of Katherine Moennig found somewhere on the web

Eve’s Plum-or the sugarplum fairy strikes back!

2008-12-21T11:15:00.000-08:00

Femme de Rochas

I'd like to smell good, smell good
I'd like to, I wanna feel good
I don't feel good, I feel blue
And when I crash
The steaming scene inside of me
Can never end too fast
(...)

Lyrics: “Fairy princess” by Eve’s Plum

Femme is a warm-smelling member of the family of chypré perfumes. The heady rose-cumin-plum combo makes it a legitimate ancestor of the also adored "Kingdom" by Alexander McQueen.
Originally created in 1943 by Edmond Roudnitska for Marcel Rochas' newly wed wife Helène, the formula was re-worked in 1989 by Olivier Cresp. Personally i prefer the new cumin-rich version to the slightly saltier vintage one but in any case you need to try both if you find out your love for one.

Notes include:

bergamot, peach, prune, rose, jasmine, immortelle, ylang-ylang, ambergris, musk, oakmoss, sandalwood, cumin, patchouli and clove.

I have never smelled an incarnation, so brutally honest and beautiful at the same time of the very smell of a woman like in Femme.
At first sniff a little shock runs through your veins, images of worn silk panties and a sweaty neck run through your mind. You cannot point it out at first but in your stomach you feel it. After a little while the juice mingles with your skin and envelops you like a second skin, an aura of golden plum and warm fuzzy hair.

Femme-indulgence has to be achieved and few neophytes feel love at first sight.
Recommended in any case for adult lovers of Rush, Mitsouko, Champagne/Yvresse and Kingdom.

pic "neck" by nichtie on deviantart.com

Mitsouko, my love

2008-10-19T10:15:00.001-07:00

I had a long struggle with Mitsouko.

Then i fell in love with her sweet smile of a mystery.

This scent changed my world and to me it’s more a person than just a perfume.

A woman of course, she is.

We had a flirt or two before, nothing serious until i felt her on my skin.

The legendary 1919 made perfume of the Guerlain house is bottled in the same container as L‘Heure Bleue but is completely different in mood and composition.

I tried it on a paperstrip so often but i couldn't make myself spritz it on my wrist somehow. One day there was this shop assistant at the Guerlain counter who didn't say much. Not the story-history-loaden chat (which i normally like but sometimes you're not in that mood). It was a rainy day and i just let her do with me... she showed me some and finally she spritzed some Mitsouko edt on my wrist - without any further comments and i was enchanted.

There was this certain vital spark in this smell and it changed everything.

Mitsouko is not yelling to you, she doesn't shout. She whispers, she speaks in a low voice but one that you can never forget again ever (someone wrote on a perfume-forum in a comment and i cannot say it any better).

The scent melt into my skin and i fell in love with it!

Bought the edt at once and one week later the edp.

It's not very fruity, in none of its concentrations. Only on the head note there is some „dusty peach“ like the note is often called, it’s not like the flesh of the fruit, more as if you took a sniff of the downy peach-skin and some bergamot and then... here we go! Spices a lot! Moss, wet earth, rain dripping from fern-leaves. Moist woods, the smell of a forest in autumn, the humidity of moss in the early morning; cinnamon, cloves, patchouli. Burning leaves. But there is also the soft, the feminine, the sensual side of it: rose, jasmin in the middle and fresh bergamot in the beginning. Soft warm smell of the skin of a woman.

If you want to try it, be prepared.

If she loves you, she doesn't let you go again.

Notes:

Top: bergamot, lemon, mandarin, neroli, aldeyhdes

Middle: peach, rose, clove, ylang-ylang, lilac, jasmine

Base: oakmoss, benzoin, vetiver, cinnamon

pic: Perfume.by ~MetalMia on deviantart.com

Autumn's here...

2008-10-01T04:18:00.001-07:00

Today, For the first day in October

- the month of rainshowers and bright glowing foliage, strong black teas and your first cold of the year, of late garden parties that end up in a crowd, cuddled together in the kitchen, of the longing for Halloween, for the end of a season, a life cycle, the glance of a new beginning ahead, the month of a warm blanket and the smell of moist moss -

here are my favourite autumn scents, the list makes senes if you, like me, are a child of the woods that detects pleasures in the vivid decay of a pile of leaves.
Who said that it were 'dead' leaves?
Gingersnaps? Here you go:

1) Féminité du Bois, Shiseido
2) Mitsouko, Guerlain
3) Obsession, Calvin Klein
4) Kingdom, Alexander McQueen
5) Femme, Rochas
6) Magie Noire, Lancome
7) Miss Dior, Dior
8) Rush, Gucci
9) Moss (Mousse de Chine), Ava Luxe
10) Snake Oil, Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab
11) Parfum de Peau, Montana
12) Midnight Poison, Dior

pic: "autumn is here" by ~IkillForFun on deviantart.com

MaDame - Jean Paul Gaultier

2008-09-12T01:28:00.000-07:00

"London calling to the faraway towns
Now that war is declared-and battle come down
London calling to the underworld
Come out of the cupboard, all you boys and girls"
"London Calling"-The Clash

The enfant terrible strikes again: Jean Paul Gaultier's new feminine perfume "MaDame" was launched on September 1st.

Following his other two for-girls-only-scents: "Le Classique" and "Fragile" he shows again his multi-faceted view upon women.
And again it is not what you might have expected: it is fresh in the first, it has a clean middle of cedar-wood-shavings (the dreaded"hamster-cage" note) and melts down into a typical JPG-powder-vanilla-musk in the end.

Agyness Deyn, the English-born tomboy-punk, the rising star in the supermodel circus, one of the rare with street credibility, represents his message, put into notes by perfumer Francis Kurkdjian (who, btw. already composed for JPG: Fragile, Gaultier 2, Le Male and Fleurs du Male): the “style garçonne”, his kind of madame.
"True to the Gaultier ethos, Ma Dame is being positioned as a fragrance for edgy rule-breakers, who overturn established codes and reinvent fashion, unfettered by social and aesthetic taboos. The fragrance name itself is a play on words.

“Ma Dame is not a Madame,” declared the designer (in the sense of a brothel-keeper or bourgeois lady). “She is my muse. She amuses me (...)
Ma Dame’s signature is short and sharp, (...) there is a great deal of strength and a great deal of softness in this fragrance.” "(moodiereport.com)

The transparent but glossy-shining bottle has an imprint of the pink torso of the "Le Classique" flacon embedded in it like it wanted to hint to the houses history in perfumes.

The overall impression is "strange" in the best way: refreshing like a shower gel at first, completely un-perfume, more like a hygiene product it becomes zesty and sweet with a creamy and synthetic base the longer you wear it. In the end there is a trace of "Le Classique" left.

Official notes say acidic orange, rose velvet, grenadine, musk and cedar.

So surprised, so pleased, so wear!

pics from: fragrantica.com, http://65hearts.blogspot.com/2007/06/how-cool-is-agyness-deyn.html

"L" by Lolita Lempicka

2008-05-15T01:29:00.000-07:00

"this must be underwater love

the way I feel it slipping all over me "

(song "Underwater Love" by Smoke City)

A voyage to the island of your dreams... you're sailing on that boat, along with your lover in that bark of your desires and once stranded you take a stroll through vanilla orchards there... a plantation of pods mingling with bushy orchid vegetation ... you're walking deep inside the dark woods of voluptousness, only to consume and being consumed and getting lost in... you forget time and space... it's only you there, and him. And the scent of your skins... and then, when night is falling, small yellow flowers lead you the way out again. "Immortelle" is not only a name. It's programme here... you rest on the white-sanded beach, afterwards, surrounded by shells, pearls, starfish and salty drops, slowly cristallizing on your hot skin, sparkle saturninely.

You're planning on your next trip, already...

Now tell me: how on earth did they manage to capture that smell of sun-dried driftwood?

Edit:
"L" was created in 2006 by nose Maurice Roucel.
The official notes say bitter orange, vanilla, cinnamon, musk and tonka bean.

Recommended for lovers of the two discontinued ones: "Nuits Indiennes" by Scherrer and "Nuit d'Eté" by JOOP!

pic: Underwater Dreams by *SAB687 on deviantart.com

Donna Karan - GOLD

2008-03-13T05:47:00.000-07:00

Imagine a southeastasian temple, situated nearby a quietly flowing river.
In the temple made of teak, ebony and other precious woods, white lillies and honey are offered to the statue of a golden deity, maybe a buddha statue, maybe a strange exotic and unknown female godhood.
After you have stepped into the calm, dense room, all your thoughts have melted and centred to your own self, the spices, hidden deep in the inside of that magical white flower come out and float through the smokey air as you lay down on the brocade and red silk carpet and cushions and while you contemplate and meditate, the sweet and enveloping fragrance of amber, honey and vanilla surround you and bring your mind to a new state, a state of joy, calmness and serenity.
This scent is not built in a linear form but enfolds into different aspects of lily and amber.
Upon applying it on my skin it merges from one state to another, I like and love each of them. The fresh, green and heavily floral top, the honeyed and clinging middle and the vanillic, ambery and tenacious base.

Notes: Acacia flowers, Jasmine, Lily (Casablanca), Clove, Amber, Patchouli, Balsam

ॐ

pic taken from the Gold-perfume ad

A witch named Juniper - Sisley's Eau du Soir (1990)

2007-11-19T06:08:00.000-08:00

Eau du Soir was in fact a perfume which I hated on first sniff.
Well, 'hated' might be a too strong word, but I had feelings for it that were mixed up from fear and loathe, adding a certain dark fascination in the subtext.
My first encounter with it was at the 'Sisley' counter in the Berlin department store of ‘Galeries Lafayette’. Coming up from the food section in the basement by escalator you’re immediately surrounded by a herbaceous, sharp-smelling cloud which wafts towards you from the dramatically made-up skinny ladies in black, decorated with heavy matte-gold jewellery who are the ambassadors of the 'Sisley' company there.
I never even dared to let them spray it on my skin but I occasionally took a paper strip of it and left it in my handbag for a few days, then the fumes finally had mellowed and I was able to savour in the remains of Eau du Soir.

It was about three years later when I would spray it on my skin for the first time and wondered about the damp yet dry qualities it has on a warm and humid summer day (and those days make it bloom on the skin and make the florals fly while on cooler days it is much more restricted and astringent, very similar to Aromatics Elixir -which is heavier on patchouli and adds camomile- and its reactions on temperature and air moisture). And I wondered about the strong Juniper note in it, one that I had not met before in a perfume but knew from cooking, Gin drinks and walks through the forests.

The periwinkle Juniper tree is a plant known for its magic properties.

“Though the more practical uses of juniper have been known to people for several millennia, it features only sporadically in ancient mythology. Juniper was a symbol of the Canaanites' fertility goddess Ashera or Astarte in Syria. In the Bible's Old Testament, a juniper with an angelic presence sheltered the prophet Elijah from Queen Jezebel's pursuit. Similarly a later apocryphal biblical tale tells of how the infant Jesus and his parents were hidden from King Herod's soldiers by a juniper during their flight into Egypt.” (cited from: http://www.treesforlife.org.uk/forest/mythfolk/juniper.html)

The name “Juniper” is of Roman origin as the tale says goddess Juno likes the berries of this evergreen tree a lot. Therefore it became a symbol of fertility, growth and everlasting youth.
Many of the prehistoric people used to settle in or near juniper forests as they gave them shelter, wood and protection of demons and evil forces.
The woody and fresh smelling smoke of Juniper berries and sprouts was used by the ancient Egyptians as an ingredient for incense mixtures as well as they were used to balm the corpses and for stuffing the body cavities of the mummy. During medieval times the smoke was used for cleaning and disinfectant reasons. Tea made of juniper is known as diuretic and drug against rheumatism and arthritis , even as an aid during labour but is poisonous in single use and overdosage.

Juniper berries are used for flavouring schnaps (as Gin, Genever) and a certain sort of beer from Finland (sahti), also for cooking rabbit, pheasant, quail, hare, and veal. Juniper wood for curing adds a certain typical taste to smoked trout, sausages and meat.

The Celts used Juniper smoke to aid clairvoyance and to stimulate contact with the Otherworld at the autumn Samhain fire festival at the beginning of the Celtic year. (loc.cit.)

In ancient Germanic myths, Juniper is a holy tree (next to hazel and and elder) and stands for life itself.
In the German heath areas the Juniper tree is known as the keeper of the door between life and death. Therefore it is often found as a graveyard-tree.
In Alpine countries even today and not only during the 'Raunächte' (=the twelve nights after Christmas) sick-rooms and death-chambers are “cleaned” with Juniper smoke.
In Asia, juniper trees are often made into bonsai-trees and they stand symbolic for longevity.
Astrology allocates Juniper to the sign of Leo whose symbol is the sun. Juniper therefore stands for light, fire, strength and courage.

Eau du Soir corrupts by its decency and opulence.

While the first few minutes which are harsh and almost medicinal may make you falter with your “scent-of-the-day”-decision, the next few hours pay for your bravery.
Wafts of herbs and florals take smoothly over from the initial grapefruity bitterness and lead into a warm and utterly feminine alto that tells you stories from ancient times in a whispering voice. Chypré-heaven...

The stopper of the rectangular clear bottle (or rounded and clear in the 30ml purse size) with the D'Ornaro's coat of arms in gold on it is gilded in matte 18 karat gold and designed by the Polish sculptor Bronislaw Krzysztof. It shows a woman's head.
The luxurious yet decent design fits the sumptuous yet restrained character of the scent which during wearing time loses its sharpness and melts into the skin until it is mellow and soft. You just need a little patience. And a little vim!

Notes:

Top- mandarin, grapefruit
Mid- seringa, ylang-ylang, lily of the valley, iris, patchouli, pepper, juniper, clove, oakmoss, labdanum
Base- musk, amber.

pics:

Dante Gabriel Rosetti: Astarte Syriaca

El Hierro Juniper tree (from spiegel.de)

a fairy's tale - Lolita Lempicka

2007-11-03T10:31:00.000-07:00

Come with me
Into the trees
We'll lay on the grass
And let the hours pass

Take my hand
Come back to the land
Let's get away
Just for one day

As to fairies, enchanted forests, vanilla, of course this juice must not be left out in this place.

The apple-shaped bottle of purple glass is marked by the periwinkle ivy leaf (Hedera helix), the symbol of poison and immortality but also of friendship, constancy (as the ivy needs something to cling to) and in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome also symbol of serenity and cheerfulness as it was assigned to the gods of wine. For the Celtic druids ivy was a sacred plant. Ivy leaves are common symbols on tombs, sarcophagi and catacombs as it shows that the soul lives on, even if the body dies. In ancient Greece ivy was presented the young couple on their wedding day. Intertwined are the creeper and the tree (or stake) just as the twigs and branches of this plant are.
In Westphalia (Germany) ivy was used in wreaths for spring rites and for consulting oracles one would let float ivy leaves on a bowl with water overnight. As well in European Gothic architecture details as in Jugendstil-pieces we see the crawling twines building vegetative ornamentals.
The colour of its evergreen leaves differs from dark green to violet, yellow or green with a whitish rim. The leaves have been used in medicine since its healing issued were discovered by Hildegard von Bingen as they contain flavonoids and saponines and are able to block fungi and viruses. Its antispasmodic effects for the anatomical airways are well-known.

Lolita Lempicka (1997) launched by the eponymous designer and created by nose Annick Menardo (who also takes responsibility for my beloved Hypnotic Poison, another one for the ‘sweet toothed’perfumistas) captures tradition and renewal, addiction and force in this perfume, which features notes of anise seed and ivy leaves in the head, violet, amarena, amarise and licorice in the middle and vetiver, tonka, vanilla and musk in the base, which is also labeled as a ‘praliné accord’.
The drydown is smooth, soft and powdery and Lolita Lempicka is in EdP strenghth rather cognisable by its great sillage qualities. (No, spun sugar is not being sold here. Nor is weed.)

A men’s version (for of course elves can also be male!) and an EdT formula are as well available as an ‘Eau de Minuit’ limited version which is stronger in concentration. For the 10-year anniversary, Lolita Lempicka is presented in a limited edition, ‘Les caprices de Lolita’ which contains at a time one bottle of the original fragrance and three additional small bottles with a violet, an amarena and a liquorice-emphasised version of the ‘mother-scent’.
‘Transcendant Sin’, another limited edition in extrait form is presented in a translucent apple bottle and accentuates the perfume’s facets of licorice and patchouli.

Luring and enticing as a winding path of velvet-like moss it leads you into the forest of childhood, tempts you to come deeper into the woods of adolescence only to finalise on the
glade of womanhood.
More woodsy than gourmand this Angel-inspired creation purveys a dreamy and fairylike feeling to its female wearer, which of course must decide herself in which camp she finds herself: Light Elves or Dark Elves?

lyrics: Depeche Mode/"Stripped"

pic: http://www.lettres.ac-versailles.fr/IMG/jpg/lolitalempicka.jpg

Snow White - Midnight Poison

2007-10-23T05:23:00.000-07:00

This, to me, is not a Cinderella perfume. But one for Snow White.
I fancy a black-as-ebony patchouli-accord, a red-as-blood rose and a white-as-snow lemon and vanilla note in this scent which has, from the first moment on when i smelled it from a sample, caught my attention. For lovers of Coco Mademoiselle (it is a similar bergamot/mandarin-patchouli composition but woodier here) Euphoria (minus the fruit) and wearers on whom Angel turns woody (minus the honey and chocolate) this one is a sure bet.

It turns the world upside down regarding to what we knew about head-, middle- and topnotes!

In the beginning there is an intense red rose (a dark yet fresh and wet rose, my gothic mind of course imagined a rose on a grave...) with patchouli! In the middle i get bergamot which gives me a decided chypré feel but in the end there are amber and vanilla softening it out and making it a bottle of a fine oriental perfume that was dropped and shattered on a leafy and earthy forest's ground.

An everywhere and everytime perfume and a worthy bearer of the grand nom "POISON".

Being a faithful devotee of Hypnotic Poison i respect the other two flankers (Tendre Poison and Pure Poison) and the original one but i don't wear them myself. But this new baby is... just perfect for the season, for the mood, for the taste and for the feeling.

In the very ending of the basenotes i think to fathom a trace of the original (purple-bottled) Poison, of fruity berries of the forest and wintergreen - i am not quite sure... but i like it! The bottle shows something that appears to me like a lunar eclipse on dark blue glass, very beautiful with a silver writing instead of the golden one of Hypnotic Poison and the bottle has a shiny finish, not the matte of HP.
Spray and get autumn...

pic by Shainzaya on deviantart.com

the holy grail - Miss Dior

2007-08-17T11:23:00.000-07:00

all that we see or seem

is but a dream within a dream

take this kiss upon the brow

and in parting from you now

this much let me avow

you are not wrong who deemed

that my days have been a dream

yet if hope has flown away

in a night, in a day, in a vision, or a memory

is it therefore the less gone?

all that we see or seem

is but a dream within a dream

I stand amid the roar

of the surf tormented shore

and I hold within my hands

grains of golden sand

how few yet how they creep

through my fingers to the deep

while I weep, while I weep

oh god can I not grasp them with a tighter clasp

oh god can I not save one from the pitiless wave

is all that we see or seem

but a dream within a dream ?

Feminine and reserved (close, withdrawn, upstage)

Cool
Subtle bouquet
Austere
Rampant
Voluptous
Damp
Creamy
Moss
White florals
Woods
Bark
Suede
Hints of powder
French
60ies
London
Resinous (Galbanum and Labdanum)
Aromatic
Herb(al), dry, harsh, wild
Centered

Warm

Mysterious and bittersweet, like a deep well in an enchanted castle’s backyard…
Controlled, orderly, crisp (as Anya once commented on it).
At first sight… after that layer an animal is hidden.
A female one...
A beast inside the beauty.

Imagine... Gardenias on a bed of moss, in shadowy but sun-peeked-woods... bark... an animal... dark and seductive... burning leaves...

1947 created by Paul Vacher and Jean Carles for Christian Dior, the very first fragrance of le maison Dior was meant to give femininity a fragrance, "un sillage de désirs". Following the grand tradition of Coty's "Chypré" of 1917 (which followed the tradition of the ancient with its composition of hesperides, florals, oakmoss, patchouli and labdanum).
Life, reborn, after the giant clash of the war years. A present to womanhood.
The legend tells, Christian Dior meant the perfume as a hommage to his sister Cathérine, personally. Therefore the name: "Miss Dior".

Official Notes:

Top Notes: Clary sage, gardenia, galbanum, bergamot

Heart Notes: Rose, jasmine, neroli, narcissus

Base Notes: Patchouli, oakmoss, labdanum ciste, sandalwood.

(also detected: vetiver, suede, aldehydes, cinnamon)

pic: os.inf.tu-dresden.de/~nf2/nz_heaphy/index.html

lyrics: Propaganda: A dream within a dream/E.A. Poe 1872

un ange passe... Angel

2006-11-09T06:33:00.000-08:00

Snow can wait

I forgot my mittens

Wipe my nose

Get my new boots on

I get a little warm in my heart

When I think of winter

I put my hand in my father's glove

I run off

Where the drifts get deeper

Sleeping beauty trips me with a frown

I hear a voice"Your must learn to stand up for yourself

Cause I can't always be around"

He says

When you gonna make up your mind

When you gonna love you as much as I do

When you gonna make up your mind

Cause things are gonna change so fast

All the white horses are still in bed

I tell you that I'll always want you near

You say that things change my dear

Angel is a milestone in perfumery.

Undenialbly.

The unique concoction of wet earth and roots, bark and dark chocolate reminds me of my childhood. It unites innocence and intimate sensations like no other perfume ever did.

Not because there are olfactory hints of cotton candy or roast almonds in it (imagine, i wasn't raised on a funfair, my parents were always very refusing to go there with me once a year as they found it not very appropriate for children).

No, as children me and my friend Daniela used to "cook" in her parents' backyard garden: we would throw apples and leaves in a battered saucepan, pour water from the hose and stir with a branch until our potion was "ready". It smelt fabulous! Daisies and crumbled leaves served as spices and decoration for the dishes.

Then we would feed our plush-dogs and teddybear-children with it...

Now that i am grown-up, there is this winter thing: i love the easiness of summer, the colours of spring and autumn but... then there is winter... winter for me isn't only snow and ice and cold breezes, it's the imagination of cuddlesome moments on a polar-bear's skin by a fireplace, there is hot chocolate and a fine reading, there is the lover's warm hands and a window decorated with frostworks. Pale skin and raven coloured hair, pleasant expectations of intimate moments, reddened cheeks. Mandrake lips. Gingerbread kisses...

The star-shaped glass container, heavy as a treasure is made to stay with me. Refillable with the precious light blue coloured juice by a magic "Angel-well" it accompanies me on my strange ways...

Top Notes: Fruits, debwerry, helional, honey

Heart Notes: Chocolate, caramel, coumarin

Base Notes: Patchouli, vanilla

(notes taken from perfumemart.com

lyrics: 'Winter' by Tori Amos

image by art.transindex.ro)

the enchanted forest - Euphoria

2006-10-12T04:20:00.000-07:00

come closer and see
see into the trees
find the girl
if you can
come closer and see
see into the dark
just follow your eyes
just follow your eyes

i hear her voice
calling my name
the sound is deep
in the dark
i hear her voice
and start to run
into the trees
into the trees

into the trees

Euphoria is made of dark red and purple fruits, of precious woods and aromatic liquids. Their names sound like the ingredient's for a witch's brew:
Pomegranate, Persimmon, Green Notes, Black Orchid, Lotus Blossom, Champacca Flower, Liquid Amber, Mahogany Wood, Black Violet, Cream.
Sandalwood and Patchouli are not listed officially but i do receive them though.
Euphoria has made a silent approch to me and i am captivated. Impressed to the deepest.
She does neither need sugared caramel pralinés nor anise-drowned ivy leaves -although i love both of these - to transport me there... into the woods, into the magic forest where unicorns are strolling about, fairies and banshees hold their ubiquitous gatherings, girls are there, with flowers and leaves entwined in their raven-feather-coloured hair and redhead little boys with pointed ears like pucks, pixies have their hideaway there... it's where the black violets bloom.
You can lay on a bed of mosses and leaves, the sun is shining through the twigs and the snails will sing you a song...

lyrics by the cure: a forest; pic by bugimus.com

Vanilla

2006-08-28T05:45:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time in Mexico, the ancient Mexican legend goes, there lived a young and beautiful girl named Vanilia. She was in love with a boy named Chocolati.
But there also lived to the same time a bad wizard, repleted with enviousness and disfavour who held all mankind in fear and awe and could neither bear joy nor love around him.
The wizard was so angry about the love betweenVanila and Chocolati that he changed them into two plants by his witchcraft: Chocolati into a tree and Vanila into an orchidflower.
But the love between the two was so strong, it even outlasted the bewitchment and nothing would seperate the two lovers. The Vanilia-Orchid twined around the Chocolati tree like the girl had embraced the man before . When people reaped the fruit of the tree to brew their drink, they felt all anxiety and bitterness vanish from their hearts and all they ever felt, the legend tells, was love.

And still today the Mexican Lovepotion is made of cocoa and vanilla, from Chocolati und Vanila.

(http://www.ccwn.org/~ufetzer/proj/herbs/seiten/vanille.htm transl. by the editor)
pic by http://biological-diversity.info/