Bois de Jasmin : Perfume Reviews and Reflections :: Fragrance review: Guerlain Attrape-Coeur / Guet-Apens
This will be easy. For the beautiful review with all the detail about notes, go to the link above. I’m not good at eloquence in my reviews, as y’all have probably noticed.
Attrape Coeur is singly one of the most beautiful fragrances I’ve ever had on my skin. I tend to not like overly animalic scents (Serge, I’m so not looking at you, really… well, I am), and Attrape Coeur certainly has notes in that direction, but it is so perfectly balanced with the florals, that it is hard to categorize this scent and have it stay put.
A smokey, woodsy violet, that’s the best I can do. And did I say beautiful? A stunning creationg that I am so glad they have brought back and hope receives wider distribution.
Still only available at the Champs Elysees boutique, it is well worth the effort to get.
All through your life, your children open and shut doors.
I can remember when I was a new mom, my life was full of babies and diapers and crying. I thought it would never, ever end. Then it did.
When my boys went into toddlerhood and the preschool years, there were the unending playdates and preschool and shuttling them to a bazillion different activities to “socialize” them. Picking up their toys in every room of the house, picking some out of VCRs and vents, the unending battle to get them to clean up their rooms and pick up their own toys. That ended too.
The grammar school years. We learned about homework and how to fight about getting it done, parent-teacher conferences where I heard the now-familiar “he’s not performing up to his potential.” My oldest son memorizing Dorothy Parker poems for poetry recitation days to torment his 5th Grade teacher who hated him and he hated in return. Both of them finding new things they could do well — playing guitar, computer programming, acting, speech.
When the grammar school years ended for both boys, I knew I wasn’t a young mom anymore, I was now a teenagers’ mom. Gone was the innocence and kidding and the almost-reverent mommy adoration. The new door that opened unveiled my oldest to be the new, improved, surly nihilist with enough teenage angst to drown a mother.
The teenage years were unbelievably difficult, but the most fun I’ve ever had. Challenging to stay ahead of maturing, getting-smarter-every-day boys, to anticipate their fibs, their feints, while instructing them in all the things they will need when they are on their own. Walking the line between lecturing them too much so they don’t hear you anymore and saying enough of the important things over and over again that when they reach the moral fork in the road, yours is the voice they hear when they need it most.
My oldest is 19, and there were days when I did not know if he would survive and days when I thought he could do anything. He is brilliant and fun and still surly and immature in so many ways, and he is gone.
Moved out into a one-bedroom apartment with two other young men. This is a happy time, that he’s actually moved out and is mostly on his own now, and sad because I will miss that snarl when I forget and flush the toilet when he is in the shower. I will miss the quick humor that you see hundreds of times a week, but that will become unfamiliar now that we do not share a home.
I will miss the person he has become. Just when it’s getting interesting, they head off on their own.
As he leaves, and my almost-16-year-old is in the countdown phase to leaving, I know the last part of my mom life is ending. I will always be their mother, but the active raising of my children is almost over. All I can ask now is have I done enough? Did I give him (them) enough tools to survive, to make good decisions? Did I say enough so that he will hear my voice when his moral compass can’t find north?
Will he survive and be happy and find a nice girl and get married? Will he be back in two months because he can’t stand the crowded conditions of three young men in a one-bedroom apartment?
So I see my mommy life coming to an end, that door is closing, and I mourn. The door opening will be the one of worrying from a distance and hoping they really aren’t going to get serious with that little tramp who reminds me of a tramp I used to know back in high school. This door opens to grandchildren eventually, but in the meantime there is now an “otherness” about my oldest son that will grow. The separation is almost complete, and he will become more of a mystery.
This is a hard road, starting with a cell of mine to two people inhabiting the same body, to two bodies, to now two completely different lives.
All of this is as it should be, but, damnit, it’s hard.
The next time my husband gleefully starts planning on redecorating my oldest’s room and turning it into something else, I’m gonna lay him out, I swear.
Okay, /self-pity off.
My AttrapeCoeur is here!!!!!!!!! And samples of delicious Guerlainy fragrances like Vega and Philtre D’Amouir and Angelique Noire and Quand Vient l’ete
I feel like I just got back from Paris. My nose will be otherwise occuped for the remainder of the evening. Must shower immediately and get remnants of all other perfumery off me.
Got my eBay steal of Guerlain Liu in the mail today, so I’m doing a quick tryout and review.
Top notes: Bergamot, neroli
Heart Notes: Jasmine, May rose, iris
Base Notes: Amber, vanilla, woods
This goes on very citrusy, very much the bergamot dominating, quickly the jasmine, rose and iris show up and blend in. There’s a very light vanilla and amber which deepen the whole composition, with the iris adding in the powdery touch. A very soft, elegant floral. I find myself sniffing my arm since I’ve had it on just to see what it has done next. I’m glad they have brought this one back. I believe right now it is available only in the Paris shop, though I’m not entirely sure of that; it may be in wider distribution.
This was made for Rose Kennedy in 1933, allegedly she wanted her own Chanel No. 5. I don’t know how Chanel-like this is, I’m not a No. 5 fan and haven’t smelled it in quite some time. Liu very much has the Guerlain base. If you don’t like Guerlains in general, you probably won’t like this one. If you like Guerlain, you will likely love this. I’m in the love column on this, and I don’t love all the Guerlains, they just don’t all work on me, particularly Shalimar. This is not overly powdery like some of the Guerlains.
This has to be my best perfume score so far this year.
Patty
