Anyone around today? Don’t blow up your hands with Fireworks, you need them to depress the spritzer on your perfume.
Bvlgari Black was something that March called evil or wrong or both. Because I love most of the Bvlgari scents, I just couldn’t believe that they could create anything less than at least something that smells good or interesting or both. Spritzing this on tentatively, I was prepared for black tar and chicken feet. What I got was something that hovers between Donna Karan Black Cashmere and Frederic Malle Musc Ravageur when it first goes on, a lot dark, a little sickeningly sweet musk and definitely interesting. The drydown turns into a delicious black tea scent with some woods thrown in, no vanilla, or at least one that’s like vanillla ice cream on cherry pie, and just a skosh of Texas asphalt highway in August. Just a delight. You can find this about anywhere, discounters, eBay, for a song.
(Picture from SurrealArt.com)
Ms. Aromascope, owner of a huge catch-and-release Lemming Farm (depicted above), sent me a skosh of Yosh’s Ginger Ciao 2.27 a while back. I’ve really tried to avoid the whole Yosh thing because (1) I keep hearing they are beautiful and (2) they are obscenely expensive for just a little bit of oil. I’m no stranger to extravagant spending on perfumes. Still! $130 for 8 mls? Notes of Arabian sandalwood, ylang ylang, neroli, black coconut, Kenya lily, basil and ginger. Okay, I get it, this is a really beautiful scent, very soft, beautifully blended, but this definitely stays in my category of “Perfume I’d just as soon as somebody gift me with because I can’t bring myself to pay that much for so little” (I’m a volume kind of gal). I’d love to have it in my fragrance wardrobe, it is elegant and refined and incredibly lovely, but I’ll never buy it for myself. If my husband or sons are reading this… you know what to get me for my birfday or Christmas or Valentine’s Day or Anniversary or… or…. (insert any occasion that would warrant an extravagant gift) Available at La Creme Beauty.
What perfume would you love to get as a gift, but won’t buy for yourself? Also, I have a bottle of Hypnotic Poison that’s just not me. First person to tell me they want it in comments gets it mailed to them.
I love Bvlgari Black, but find it stays too much the same too persistently on the skin. For a similar effect, I prefer the more sublime and ethereal Dzing!
As for perfumes I wouldn’t buy for myself? I just can’t think of anything. It seems that even my most expensive lemmings I manage to find at a reasonable cost on eBay. Even, for example, Joy parfum for only a bit over $80 as opposed to more than $400 in retail (for the 1/2oz flacon). I am staying away from JAR and such though. But Shalimar parfum or any Guerlain parfums will always be welcome as a gift. You just can’t go wrong with those.
Hi, Patty…I don’t want anyone to buy me anything (cuz I don’t really want my DH to know how much some of this stuff costs!), except a big ol’ bottle of Vetiver Tonka, which I’m loving lately. Be careful of the PG Patchouli Intrigant. It was, for me, anyway, not much fun. DD1 (the uh, very straightforward one) said “GAAACCKKK! Mom, it smells like the rat cage needs changing.” DD2 (the diplomat) said “I thought it smelled like that, too, but I didn’t want to say it first.” It started OK, but ended both musky and ammoniac, w/ a woody layer. Chemistry is an amazing thing….
Hey, Josey. I don’t know if Beautycafe.com has this particular one in stock, but they do sell samples, as does aedes.com. I’m not sure if l’artisan themselves sells samples.
If you can’t find it there — and this is my disclaimer since I do sell samples and decants on eBay — do check on eBay.
Ty!! Know of any place that sells Tea for Two samples? I’d LOVE to try, but I shouldn’t buy a super $$ bottle unsniffed
Josey — Tea for Two and the new Parfumerie Generale Harmatan Noir (review of it on Thurs) are my two favorites. Though I like all of the Bvlgari tea scents (blank, verte, rouge), they’re not smokey black like I prefer them.
Ina, you are! 🙂
The DK did the same to me, I can’t wear it now, but I’m blaming that more on the lavender note than an overdose of it. A little bit of asphalt goes a long way.
E — you and Judith are making that Le Labo sound pretty swoony, definitely need to try it soon. But I want to do the PG Patchouli Intrigant too, which sounds pretty marvelous.
So is there a special password to get into the JAR? I need to smell that BoL. My heirs would also be divvying that up if I bought it, too.:((
Oh yes, and I had to add—YAY for Bulgari Black! I bought it unsniffed based on Luca Turin’s rave review, and it is indeed spectacular–gorgeous, smoky black tea with wisps of non-foody vanilla keeping it from being too harsh. Smell it at the right (or wrong?) angle and you do indeed get asphault.
Could anyone here rec a similar scent for a Bulgari Black lover? 🙂 Does Tea for Two smell anything like it? (LOVE tea!)
Hmmm…would love as a gift but wouldn’t buy myself? Two reasons for that, of course: too pricy or I’ve just been procrastinating! :d For the first one…Ambre Narguile…it sounds INSANE, but so is the price (also, many of the SL bell jars or Frederic Malle).
As for the procratination frags, I’d say CK Obsession (I’ve been lemming it for, oh…10 years? Since before I had much of an idea what perfume is? XD) and that Bulgari baby perfume–it smells lovely but I already have two other baby/child perfumes that I love.
Patty, you crack me up! “Owner of a huge catch-and-release Lemming Farm”. Thanks for a good laugh. I’m so glad you loved Ginger Ciao! See, I think it’s worth the price (well, it is a lot of money, still) because a little goes a looong way, and it’s superb quality. As for Bvlgari Black. I used to love it, too, until one day I had the worst PMS and decided to wear it. Yeah. End of affair. It almost smothered me, and all I smell now is car tires. Perfumes I’d like to have? Hmm, maybe Pierre de Lune or a JAR.
I’m w/ Judith – I like Black, but I prefer Le Labo Patchouli which puts me in swoon mode. I am afraid I’m a mainlining Yosh junkie – have forked over for all of hers except for Trompeur since it’s really just the original JT scent which I have a 5 ml of. The scent I’d love to have more than anything in the world, but just won’t plunk down the cash for is JAR’s Bolt of Lightning (750 or so). I’ve never tried Voilette de Madame and it doesn’t sound like I’d love it, but even if it did make me fall to my knees I’d still never pay that sort of money…ummm…not out of any self rightous disgust w/ Guerlain, but simply because I wouldn’t live to use it after DH found out.
March, try it again. I do think you may find it better than you remembered, back when you thought perfumes were supposed to always smell good, you know. :))
I just saw that the Jalaines are available for samples at $18 for all 9 of them, which is a relative bargain! I have more Amouages to sample. Ciel is just a stunner and much more subtle than Gold and Dia, and it may be the one I have to buy because I can wear it all the time.
Sorry about the Viva:( I always get compliments from DH on this one! The Le Labo Patch doesn’t really smell of patchouli–more of smoky leather, birchtar.
Judith, BTW, I did try the Viva, and it just didn’t do it for me. I like it and am a fan of Serena’s stuff at Ava-Luxe, but that one had a note that made it meh.
Oh, Marina, how fortunate you are!:d I was really hoping to not like it, and they are so subtle that It is hard to get to True Love, but I am deep Like.
Emily, it is yours!!! Just send me an e-mail — pgeissler at gmail dot com — with your address, and I’ll get this little thing out to you. I think a gourmand lover will like it a lot.
I need to try the Patchouli when we are there in August. I’m finding i Have a better tolerance for patch than I used to (Must be the aging sniffer).
Maybe I could get a GC swap, that would be good, but then I would not be allowing my boys the great pleasure of spending an obscene amount of money on a little bit of juice just to make their mother happy. :-w
Pam, you do have a nice long list. Makes it easy to shop for you, your family should thank you! 🙂
P — see, I get too much asphalt. But now you’re making me want to re-sniff it. I think my tolerance for all that weird stuff has gone up dramatically.
I would like to receive …. Shalini. Some vintage Guerlain from eBay (Jasmin, maybe? Ode?) Maybe some JAR if I can find one that doesn’t require an exorcist. AMouage Gold, now that I’ve drenched myself in your sample. Hmmmm, what else has a stupid price?
There is yet to be a Yosh scent that I’d love. 🙁 They just do nothing for me and I’ve tried most of them, even her obscure pirate series.
🙁
Wellll. . .I’d actually love to have the bottle of Hypnotic Poison if it’s still available; I’ve been really curious about that one for a while since I’m a gourmand nut.
As for the gift perfume question, probably something expensive and elegant that I probably normally wouldn’t spend money on because while it sounds lovely, it also doesn’t sound like me, like Plus Que Jamais. . .then I’d have the luxury of being able to feel like some new exotic creature from time to time without having to spend any money to do that! 🙂
I do like Bvgari Black, though I like Le Labo Patchouli (same perfumeur–Annick Menardo–some similarity) even better. In fact, I like it so much I seem to mention it even if it has nothing much to do with the subject at hand!
I love Ginger Ciao. For a cheaper alternative with some similarities (though not identical), you might try Ava-Luxe Viva (also coconut + nightqueen, very nice!)
I am trying to answer your question, but I have to admit that if I really want a perfume I find myself buying or swapping for it (swapped for the Ginger Ciao), unless it’s near my birthday and then I delegate it to my husband. Wait a second–I like Shalini, and would be happy to receive it, but I wouldn’t buy it! But honestly, I think that’s because I don’t completely LOVE it, otherwise I would probably find my way to their cheaper, unartistic bottle:). For now, my samples are enough.
Hey, Patty. I’m not sure the H.P. will suit me, either, so I’ll let the next person aks fer it first.
Perfumes I’d love to recv: I’m not too exotic or anything. I’d like some Opium parfum for my birfday along with some Dans la Nuit parfum and some vintage Y, and a huge bottle of Le De Givenchy would be nice. And some Chanel No 19 parfum and Bois des Iles parfum and . . . Guess I’d better stop before the list grows like Topsy! Have a great day. 🙂