Haven’t done one of these in a while, just a general stuff I love, and it’s not always perfume!

Cle de Peau Correcteur Visage – I have never found a concealor that does what it is supposed to do, it gets too cakey in my creases under my eyes, winds up making me look more tired, but the CdeP is great. I had the makeup chick put it on me in the store when I’d had about three hours of sleep (this seems to be the new norm for sleep), and, voila, I was still dog-tired, but I didn’t look like it, and it took all the ruddy out of my cheeks too. Great stuff! Greatly priced as well, pretty much obscene, but, you know, beauty knows no price if it wipes out your minor imperfections — major wrinklage. Available at any snooty department store in your neighborhood or that same guy from Japan that sells the Shiseido perfumes has some.

Amazing Race – It’s a new race, yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is the reality show I adore. All the rest are posers.

Chi Silk Infusion – you put this stuff on your hair after you wash it, and it turns your hair to silk, and I mean that literally, just smooth and shiny and amazing. I love this. I have thick, somewhat coarse hair. Not rough, but just thick. I put this on, and I get the silky hair of my dreams. Between this and Kerastase shampoo, my hair pretty much looks like it is 17 again, though the rest of me isn’t matching so much. My son has even started borrowing this and is about ready to steal it. He has the same thick, coarse hair that loses its shine easily, and this just smooths out his hair and makes it super-shiny.

That Spring is Coming – I know it’s not quite time yet, and Colorado has its two snowiest months to go through yet, but spring is coming, it’s almost here, I can feel it. I love the winter, but it is always wonderful as it gives way to new life.

And today Lent begins. My heartfelt prayer for a reflective, fruitful Lenten season. Ash Wednesday always feels like the Dead Day, the time when winter gathers and asks us to be quiet and turn inward, stripping our lives to the bare minimum so we can see ourselves more clearly.

That, and I once again discover how much I detest fish.

Patty

I ordered a fragrance sample package from Luscious Cargo. I love my Luscious booty — the folks are friendly and helpful, the shipping is speedy and they always throw in something I haven´t tried that I usually love as much if not more than the thing I ordered.

So today my latest Luscious treat arrived.

And it was filled with somebody else´s order.

There was a cheerful note in there to “Ludmilla” (not her real name) saying they hoped she’d picked a winner. Which does make me wonder whether Ludmilla is out there right now somewhere, glaring at my Delraes and that other stuff she didn’t order.

I emailed Luscious and they said, hey, keep whatever it is we sent, your correct sample order will go out tomorrow, sorry, sorry, etc. Really, what is not to love about this company? (No, they are not paying me to shill.)

Anyway, here is an impromptu review of what they sent, because I figured why not, it´s fate, right?

Les Parfums de Rosine – Ecume de Rose – ecume translates as foam (I looked it up, correct me if I´m wrong) – this is, I guess, a marine rose fragrance? I´m just learning to wrap my nose around the rose, but this is a keeper. A beachy rose, unlikely as that sounds… well, maybe not that unlikely. Those scrubby rugosa beach roses I adore. It smells like rose, a marine note, and a little bit of suntan oil. I´m typing this while taking a head-trip to Nantucket. After one hour it reaches a state of Rose Nirvana. Ranking: #1

L´Artisan La Haie Fleurie – “(The Flower Hedge of the Hamlet): This beauteous brew of honeysuckle, jasmine, wisteria, tuberose, hyacinth, narcissus and white lily is a long-standing favorite here at Luscious.” – lusciouscargo. Oh, my. This is a SERIOUS floral: va-va-voom sillage, not for amateurs or the faint of heart. If you are a Fracas freak, or a Serge Nuit (or Datura Noir) Nut, this one will suit you right down to the ground. Ranking: #2

Idole de Lubin – everyone else already reviewed this, so all I´ll say is: I was disappointed. There. I´ve said it. It´s a lovely, spicy, amber-y fragrance. But I wanted Exotic Skank. This juice just wasn´t dirty enough for me. Ranking: #4 (I’m still sulking)

Robert Piguet Bandit – I described Parfum d´Empire Ambre Russe in an email to Patty as “Rasputin´s armpit.” Would suffice for this frag as well. You know what? I´m going to try this one again on a different day. Instinct tells me I might like this if I hit it right. But following the Rose and the Jasmine – ack! Scrubber! Ranking: #5

Ligne St. Barth Tiare – This one should have worked. I love the gardenia/tuberose aspect of tiare, and I don´t think there´s a lot else going on there, except vanilla. (Hey, are you noticing a pattern among these scents? Wonder if Ludmilla was going on/returning from a tropical vacation?) But it´s strangely medicinal on me. Ranking: #6

I need to clear my palate, so let´s sniff the: I Profumi de Firenze Acqua di Firenze – I spent two afternoons in the farmacia near the Uffizi in Florence trying the entire line on, between breaks to walk across the street and drink more coffee and eat another pastry. Those two days are a still a blur in my memory of powdered sugar, caffeine, and scent. This particular fragrance is white flowers and green leaves with rain notes. My 11-year-old loved this. It´s very green, very girly. Ranking: #3

Okay, I can only smell one more of these, and it´s going to be…

Josephine EDP by Rance – I gave up so I looked it up: “hawthorn and jasmine, surrounded by ylang ylang and hyacinth, followed by a heart of iris, blackcurrant, white peach, cloves, galbanum and violet leaves. The base notes – ebony, sandalwood, white musk, Bourbon vanilla and ambergris – complete the fragrance, amplifying its refined sensuousness. – lusciouscargo.” Well… it´s all there, particularly the hawthorne. Ranking: #7

There were others but, honestly, I can´t smell a thing. I´m going to eat my Pixie-Stix (yep, one included!) and call it a night.

Don´t forget – YOU can get your own Luscious Cargo sample, 8 for $13, at lusciouscargo.com!

Sconset cottage – westford.com
Uffizi – relaishotel.com

March

When I think of Diptyque I tend to think: candles; Essence of John Galliano; and Tam Dao, in roughly that order.

However, contrarian perfume blogger that I am, I feel it´s my obligation to spread the word about my personal favorite among the fragrance portion of the line. I may, in fact, be the only person in the United States with this particular favorite.

L´Eau Trois was created in 1975, and its notes are listed as Myrrh, Myrtle, Oregano, Cistus, Pine, Laurel, Thyme, Rosemary.

Here is a comment via Basenotes from someone who shares my appreciation of this scent: “It starts as a fresh and aromatic herb mixture, which rapidly evolves to a pungent scent of resin, and finally takes on a scent of incense – but not the one you burn in sticks, the arabic one you buy in form of resinous grains – I think this is the myrrh comings out. Warm, oriental but sober, spiritual, well suited for autumn and winter.”

Here is a comment from someone who is less enamored: “Zoo cat cage pee, haybarn, and 3 week old sweaty gym socks.”

And the commentary generally runs along those lines: either you love it and it smells like a fabulous incense, or you can´t even believe someone bottled this dreck. There doesn´t seem to be much middle ground.

So let me try to help you make an informed decision whether to sample this one. I am, first of all, a major fan of incense frags, and that is what L´Eau Trois is, with no apologies. Second, while the notes listed make it sound like the herb section at the grocery store, what I smell from start to finish (and this is a very linear scent) is pure, unburnt incense, with the cistus adding even a bit more lemon-balsam-resin goodness. This is not the smoke of the cathedral (or the meditative Japanese incense stick), or Olivia Giacobetti´s breathtaking, soaring Passage; it is, to my nose, the rarer-than-hens´-teeth smell of the gift of the Magi, a wooden box of frankincense and myrrh.

I find it powerfully beautiful, warm and resinous. If you are a fan of incense in your fragrances, consider giving this one a sniff for a wildly different approach than the cool elegance and smoky aloofness of, say, Armani Prive or CDG Avignon.

L´Eau Trois is available from beautyhabit.com and lusciouscargo.com, 50 ml, for $60. Or you can work it into a luscious sample order (8 for $13, or free with purchase over $30).

Harvesting frankincense resin — www.aromatherapy-essential-oils.org
Frankincense and myrrh – threekingsgifts.com
Bottle image – beautyhabit.com

March

Yum, this is some delicious juice.

I’ve got the EDT, and I was a little worried about the vanilla note, but it’s no problem. Beautifully balanced, not too heavy as some Goutals that I can’t wear, like Grand Passion, etc.

Patty

I forgot Marina tagged me for Five Weird Things. I wrote the first draft a few days ago but it was too weird so I never posted it. This is less weird, plus I figure this late in the week nobody will read it.

1) I have a large scar under my chin but have no idea why. I asked my dad. No clue either. Really, it looks like the sort of thing I’d remember.

2) I have a nice turntable on which I listen to my extensive album collection. Remember when you put all your albums out by the trash? Yep, that was me loading them in the back of my car. In perhaps my greatest haul I was driving home hugely pregnant with the twins and I spotted almost six linear feet of albums, tied up next to somebody’s garbage cans. The trash truck was coming down the block. I could barely walk, but I waddled over to them, trying to figure out if I could drive my van over the curb. The trash guys pulled up, took one look at me, and did the heavy lifting for me, which was sweet.

No, I am not going to list any albums. Too embarrassing. Oh, FYI — the fact that I pull the car over in broad daylight in front of the neighbors’ trash to retrieve treasures (a doll’s high chair! a wading pool! a perfectly good chair!) causes my beloved Big Cheese a great deal of emotional pain.

3) Okay, some random picks: The B-52s. Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers. Kate Bush. Nat Cole. Alfred Deller. Bob Dylan. The Fabulous T-Birds. Herbie Hancock. Etta James. Wanda Landowska. Pretty much the entire Lynyrd Skynyrd oeuvre. Shriekback (one of the all-time under-rated bands.) Jai Uttal. Yes, they are alphabetized like that.

4) I was born with no wisdom teeth, a trait which I am happy to report I have passed on to at least two of my kids. I like to think of myself as being more highly evolved than average. Of course, the music listed here would tend to contradict that.

5) I didn´t walk until I was 2 ½, because I wouldn´t put my feet down on the ground. My parents have a series of hilarious photos of me as an infant and toddler with my feet stuck up in the air as far away from the grass, dirt, carpet, etc. as I could get them. The only time I am barefoot is in the bath. I have an entire collection of beautiful, different-weight socks just for sleeping. I feel about socks the way some people feel about fancy lingerie. Does the Big Cheese find this sexy? No, he does not. Which reminds me of the only other time I take my socks off.

March