Where were all of you when this happened?!!!??

Officials are searching for three individuals who allegedly stole a truck loaded with 20-thousand dollars in perfume samples yesterday and kidnapped the truck driver and his 11-year-old son. Todd Brunson says he had just loaded his truck with pallets of perfume at a Hollywood warehouse and was pulling away from the dock when a man came up with a gun. He says two more men jumped into the truck, blindfolded him and tied his wrists with duct tape. The men kept him and his son Cody in the passenger cab of the truck while driving to another location. Brunson says when they arrived he heard the cargo being unloaded. He and his son were later left in the truck at another spot. Authorities have since recovered the perfume in Miami-Dade. A possible scent for the thieves: Eau de Prison.

I know every single of one of you are thinking the exact same thing… wonder what perfume samples were in that truck? 

Patty

Today´s post is a joint review of sample scents from the line Novaya Zarya, of Moscow, which Marina of Perfume-Smellin´ Things sent us. The only one I´d smelled before is Russian Forest, which is a wonderful woody-balsamy fragrance.

Check out this link to their ordering source, cosmeticbag.com à¢â‚¬” these things are cheap, cheap, cheap! They are also light, which is perfect for this time of year. Be prepared to slap on a fair amount. Fragrance notes listed below are from the cosmeticbag.com website.

In no particular order, here are our reactions:

Ambre Dore or Golden Amber – Eau de Parfum Spray – 1.7 oz / 50ml $12.00. Warm Fragrance Head Notes: Violet Petals. Heart Notes: Rose, Patchouli, Coriander. Base: Amber and Oak Moss.

March: I´m not the queen of Amber, unless it´s buried in some floriental. This one is a Wearable Amber along the lines of iPdF Ambra de Nepal (another amber for non-amber lovers.) I probably wouldn´t run out and buy it (even for $12) but it´s light and pretty, with a little pleasant musk-anise note to keep it from being cloying.

Patty: A soft amber. Very nice and clean smelling. Amber is another note (along with patchouli and muguet, see below) that aren’t my faves as the prominent note, but this one is done very nicely. It smells like gramma’s drawers, soft and sweet and seasoned, nostalgic.

March: Uh, P. Gramma´s drawers? As Katie says, *snerk*

Arome Musque or Aroma Musk – Eau de Parfum Spray – 1.7 oz-50 ml $12.00. A delightfully light and fresh signature scent with sensuous undertones of golden musk. This provocative fragrance has a gently powdery body with subtle elements of woodsy florals.

March: Um. Next? (later) Okay, too light to be a scrubber, but there´s something in there that strays into mildew territory. (even later) Hey, the mildew´s growing on me. Figuratively speaking. Sort of candied mildew. Actually, I like it.

Patty: I tend to not be much of a musk fan normally, but this one is certainly pretty and is a nice combination to soften the musk and keep it from being overpowering. Sexy and flirty, it’s a musk I could wear.

Melody of Flowers – Iris – Perfume Splash 1.7 oz / 50 ml $10.00 (no info on notes)

March: OMG. Cat pee. I know Patty loves this, so I won´t say anything more.

Patty: I *adore* this scent. Iris and some happy little citrussy notes create this bubble iris cloud that is intoxicating. It is pretty linear, but I’m absolutely okay with that since I don’t want it to change at all. I need gallons of this — lasting power is a little short, but fresh applications are great. It screams Summer Scent. At $10 for 50 ml, I can buy gallons and not feel guilty. Can you bathe in this stuff? Seriously?

Green Vetiver à¢â‚¬” EDT Spray – 3.4 oz $12.00. Vetiver is a blend of fresh green notes in the woody family. Head notes: Orange, Mandarine, Verbena. Heart of Cedarwood and Flower. Base of Oakmoss and Amber.

March: Who doesn´t like vetiver? Well, I don´t. Or, more precisely, vetiver doesn´t like me à¢â‚¬” it goes off in the direction of cat pee or feet, or, if things are really dire, both. One of the reasons I´m behind on sampling men´s fragrances is I´m always terrified vetiver is lurking in there somewhere, waiting to jump out and scare me. But this! This is wonderful, what I imagine vetiver to be like on vetiver-lovers. A green, glass-like scent with a faint sweetness and a hint of woods. And maybe the REAL reason I like it is à¢â‚¬¦ if you look carefully at the notes listed, it contains à¢â‚¬Å“verbena,à¢â‚¬? which has a green, lemon-y scent I´m fond of in the garden, but there´s no vetiver listed. Well, there you go. I probably love this Vetiver because it contains à¢â‚¬¦ no vetiver.

Patty: Very green with some wood chips throw in. The orange and mandarine make it a little sweeter than most green scents are, but the verbena tends to overpower that pretty quickly. Nothing not to like here, but it fades too quickly, and the base notes don’t have enough ooomph to keep my interest.

Carnation – Eau de Cologne Body Splash – 3 oz $3.00! (no info on notes)

March: My favorite of the bunch, along with Russian Forest. I can´t believe this thing is three bucks. Less spicy than Floris Malmaison and less heady than Lorenzo Villoresi Garofano, this is a straightforward, light, breezy carnation that´s perfect for summer.

Patty: Spicy, reminds me a little of the Floris Malmaison, though this one has a little different base in it. I like it because I like carnation scents in general, but it’s pretty straightforward and light.

Muguet- Eau de Cologne Body Splash – 3 oz $3.00 (no info on notes)

March: Weird. I tried this one three times, and all three times I got nothing resembling muguet. Instead it´s a creamy musk with a little green and (ruh-roh!) just a squidge of Play-Doh. It´s not offensive, exactly, but it´s not a screaming buy, either. If I attach my nose to my skin and huff, it´s floral, sort of. I´ll pass on this one.

Patty: Muguet is usually not my bag, and this isn’t changing my mind to get a new bag. This smells like plastic bag — could it be the one I’ve got over my head to block that smell. Gack, the only scrubber of the bunch.

Russian Forest – Eau de Cologne Body Splash – 3 oz $3.00 à¢â‚¬” no info on notes

March: I´m doing a special head-to-head with Coty Wild Woods! Russian Forest is à¢â‚¬¦ very light and sweeter, more perfume-y. Definitely something floral in there. When they say splash they mean it, this one is extremely light. A mildly salty note I also really like. Coty Wild Woods is a stronger, more conventional woody scent with a leather-musk note and a mild green twist that I wish stuck around longer.

Patty: reviewed this way back in our blind fragrance swap and called it very nice, with a Guerlain feel to it, almost Mitsouko-ish. Which is a fair assessment; I think I get less of the spices than she does.

PS Aromascope, Perfume-Smellin’ Things and Scentzilla are also posting on these fragrances today.  And here’s a link to an interesting post that Boisdejasmin did about the fragrance Krasnaya Moskva (Red Moscow) from the same line.

March

Marlen at PerfumeCritic just did a review of Montale Jasmin Full earlier this month, but in the comments to one of March’s posts recently, two people chimed in about it being an awesome jasmine. So I -had- to get it. You people (yes, I’m looking at all of you) are responsible for my kids’ college education winding up spread around the world in some perfumer’s coffers.  Again, Suravionline came to my rescue with a sample of the swoonworthy Jasmin Full. 

 A blend of jasmine, orange blossom and honeysuckle, this is definitely not one for the floral hatahs. I happen to love heady florals, especially jasmine, orange blossom and honeysuckle, so as you might imagine, spritzing this on made my eyes roll back in my head in bliss. 

Many years ago, I used to have a great big Newfie, Crosby, and he was just a joy and a love, but he was also about 150 pounds and destroyed my backyard, which was quite small. Cros had a heart defect and died when he was 2.  My dad died about four months later, right before Christmas, of congestive heart failure.  Once I had my backyard again, I decided to make a fragrant oasis in memory of my dad. I didn’t want pretty flowers, though they would be welcome, I just wanted smelly ones, the kind that he and I both loved.  

An inch of dirt and weeds had to be scraped first just to start cultivating. Then the planting started — the hardy survived, the ones that did not thrive on benign neglect just died or got taken over by something else. Did you know that in a fair fight a swamp rose will take a wisteria?  Surprised me too. I planted a sprig of honeysuckle by the back door, next to the Swamp Rose, and they loved each other and grew happily alongside. Allegedly in Colorado there’s some bug that keeps getting into the honeysuckle and destroying it, but I think that bug doesn’t like me because my honeysuckle grew when it shouldn’t have, was just this huge bushy thing filled with blossoms.  Every spring I would  bring out the pots of Star and Arabian Jasmine that I had sheltered all winter.  Growing and keeping jasmine in Colorado is really not for the faint of heart.  It can be done, but at great personal labor, which I am normally averse to, and I did give up on keeping them going last year.  Before I got lazy, the jasmine would be out in the late spring in pots, with the honeysuckle and carnations nearby, and the cool of early morning and early evening would have the most magical perfumed smell.  No orange blossom available, but I can say absolutely that Montale Jasmin Full is the closest I’ve gotten to that beautiful smell in nature. So thanks to Marlen and Ina, and any others that chimed in on the praises of this lovely creation, this is my new favorite jasmine perfume.  Just 1000% gorgeous.  All jasmine lovers need this in their perfume wardrobe.

Several of you have asked for Buddy snaps, and I do try to convince Buddy to get his picture taken, but he spazzes out every time we try. He’s a little camera shy and lays down, turns away and has been known to crawl under the chair and hide. Sneaking up on him when he’s been sleeping is really the only way to catch him, but even then, he’s still pissed, and no picture I have taken of him captures his joy, and even less so when he’s slunking off hiding from the camera (all three pictures there on the left were him just barely tolerating the picture-taking).  I have no idea why picture-taking upsets him so much, but it does, he hates it with a slobbery passion.  But I hate people chomping on food when we are on the telephone, so I figger he’s entitled to this eccentricity. This is the most joyous, happy dog on the face of the planet, but cameras and wind and light sabers (not wimpy light sabers, the good ones that light up and make the noises – love these things, we have light saber fights daily in my house) do the same thing to him — turn him into a hiding, shivering goober.  I love him, though.  Has anyone read Marley and Me?  I read it last week, and Marley was another yellow lab that really was rotten – rotten like Buddy is –just a thieving, exhuberant, shedding, drooling mess of yellow fur.  Reading that book made me appreciate all that Buddy has taught me in the two years I have had him. 

Buddy went to doggie boot camp a year ago because he was even a worse misbehaved mess, and they did a great job with him — he walks on a leash great, heels, stays, etc.  They also taught Buddy about barriers, that he has to stay out of places or in places unless he gets the okay, and he does all right with this most of the time. Cats can go by, he stays put.  Cats come up to the door to the office and tease him, and he whines and keeps pouncing at them, but he stays on the right side of the line.  One of my sons or my husband walk into his line of sight, he vooms over that line like it never existed, leaping and bounding and butt wiggling and panting and smiling… even though he knows I am going to Bad Dog him in about 2 seconds when I get aholt of him. He doesn’t care, it was worth it, he got to say hi to his beloveds.  He is simply willing to do the time for the crime.

This is how I feel about perfume. I can behave myself about most everything else in my life, but give me a beautiful perfume, and my butt is wiggling, I’m panting and leaping and bounding for my credit card, like for Jasmine Full.  On this point, Buddy and I understand each other. 

Patty

I have my guilty pleasures, fragrance-wise. I own and wear some things I probably shouldn´t admit to publicly. Things like Coty Sand & Sable, yours for only $3.99 on the drugstore desperation display rack before the holidays (and locked behind glass in larger $18 bottles the rest of the year. Don’t over-apply or you’ll be heading for the shower quicker than you can say Walgreens.) It’s like Bobbi Brown Beach, only better — suntan oil, surf, sand, heat, musk and boardwalk in a bottle, without Bobbi’s off-putting hairspray note. I’m also fond of Coty Wild Woods, online for $10 or less, a woody unisex cologne that smells much, much more expensive. Just do what Colombina the Terrible and I do and call it “Bois Sauvage.” I liked some of those Gap scents (yuzu, peony, orange blossom) but I guess nobody else did, because they were discontinued pretty quickly.

So today I´m going to fess up about another embarrassing fragrance I´m loving: Doulton by Royal Doulton. Yes, that´s Royal Doulton of the wretched porcelain milkmaids. I hate tchotchkes in general, and the ones from Royal Doulton make Lladro look edgy. I wound up with a bottle of Doulton because I thought I was buying an empty perfume atomizer at a church bazaar for a dollar à¢â‚¬” and come on, it´s a pretty bottle, admit it. I could only see the top part, though, in the box. I didn´t realize it already had a fragrance in it.

Still, I had to spray it on immediately, a potentially dangerous move since I was away from home and any quick fragrance removal products. My money was on something insipid in either a musk variety or possibly a gag-inducing white floral, since the design seemed too dated for the more au courant gag-inducing fruity-florals.

The notes online on this one are (surprise, surprise!) basically non-existent: I came up with “Launched by the design house of Royal Doulton in 1998, DOULTON EDP by Royal Doulton is classified as a flowery fragrance. This feminine scent posesses a blend of: soft spicy notes of orange flowers and sparkling aldehydes. It is recommended for casual wear.” à¢â‚¬” fragrancesupplier.com

So. It´s an orange blossom. But what I love about it is à¢â‚¬” whoa ho! à¢â‚¬” it´s pleasantly dirty. I didn’t have a fragrance that really played up the indolic potential of the orange blossom until I found this one. I have some tolerance for the soapy aspect that frequently rears its head in orange fragrances (hello, LT Fiori d´Arancio!) but it´s completely absent here. Instead it´s a straightforward, minimal-development orange blossom with a hint of some other slightly rotten fruit, and a rich, moderately skanky finish. It’s also, interestingly, somehow wearable in this heat, although I wouldn’t describe it as light. Sure, it sounds disgusting. And if you like your summer fragrances clean, skip this one. But if you´re a naughty girl (or boy) this might be just your thing.

Today´s giveaway (did anyone read this far?) is another partial bottle — of Givenchy Ysatis Iris (Mandarin, Jasmine, Rose, Violet, Iris, Tuberose, Patchouli, Vanilla). It´s a beautiful, summery fragrance without any detectable skank. If you win I´ll throw in a sample vile (uh, vial) of Doulton if you´d like. Anyway, if you want the Ysatis, leave a comment below letting me know.

Any guilty perfume pleasures you´re willing to admit to?

March

The absolutely wonderful, efficient and amazing Vijay at Suravi Online included lots of great samples in my last order of Montale, and two of them were Dia and Gold from Amouage.

This is a line I had heard about for a long time and had wanted to try since I first saw that bottle. To…die…for.  Dia is billed as a day perfume, where its sister, Gold, is definitely an evening perfume. Trying ever so gently NOT to be biased by that gorgeous bottle, Dia has notes of Aldehydes, Cyclamen, Bergamot Calabria, Violet leaves, Fig, Sage, Tarragon. Heart Notes: Bush Peach Blossoms, Rose Oil Turkey, Orange Flower, Peony, Orris. Base: Gaiac Wood, Cedarwood, Sandalwood, Incense, Vanilla, Heliotrope, White Musk. That’s a lotta ingredients, y’all.

When it first goes on, it is way too big on me, too rich, too – just too.  One commenter said that this smelled like a trophy wife perfume.   Ayup, that’s my first impression as well.   As it dried down, the big floral part of it gives way to the base of gaiac wood, cedarwood, sandalwood, incense and musk. The drydown is very much more to my liking, woody and incensey, with the floral bouquet providing a thin gossamer cover to it. It isn’t heavy at all, and I revised my opinion on it being too much — it’s pretty much just right. This can be worn during the day, but give it about an hour or two to settle in before you head out the door. Now, it is uber-expensive, and this constrains me from getting a full bottle at present, but if you love stunning perfume bottles and care not how much you spend on perfume, this is a terrific perfume in the drydown, and I’d buy it in a second if cost were of no concern. 

Gold by Amouage, on the other hand, is a Perfume of the Night. One little tiny spritz on my shoulder, and this perfume blooms big and gloriously rich.  Not a trophy wife, this is the real deal – old money, boarding schools in Switzerland, furs, diamond cocktail rings, organizing sales of artwork for the Museum and Bentleys lined up in the driveway.  Top notes of rock rose, lily of the valley, silver frankincense.  Heart notes of myrrh, orris, jasmine. Base notes of ambergris, civet, musk, cedarwood and sandalwood.  The civet, musk and woods keep this thing from being too garish – it is earthy and rich and suitable only for night and your best dress, and get a fur or a fake fur to go with it and white gloves, for pete’s sake, but the garters or a lacy thong will feel right at home in Gold’s company.

Given that my idea of an evening out is a new rental from Netflix, I think I’d never have anywhere to wear this, but for those that have lots of ritzy evenings and need a perfume that smells like Old Money, this is it. In your high end perfume, it’s a better bargain than most. One spritz will take you through an entire night and keep you company at a late brunch.   

Now y’all can start throwing stones. Yes, they are high priced, but I’ve never been averse to paying a stupid amount of money for a perfume that I want and love. Nothing can replace the experience of opening a package all the way from Guerlain in Paris, pulling out the samples, the pretty bee bottle, or opening that gorgeous and simple crystal Caron bottle with the stopper.

The Amouages are high octane like Patou 1000 is high octane.  They also fit what they are designed to be quite well — a perfume experience in an exquisite bottle that smells rich and luxurious.  

Patty