March and I are going to do a dual post on our Best Things of 2006, along with many other bloggers (listed at the bottom of the post). Please make sure to visit all of them, many of whom have been the primary source for lemmings! These aren’t necessarily new things for 2006, but they may be new to us.

Patty’s List, with musical accompaniment:

1. You’re the First, the Last, the Everything (love ya, Barry)… The very top of my list has to start with Parfumerie Generale. This whole line has blown me away. From the Buttcrack Accord on the open of Aomassai drying down to one of the most beautiful, soft scents imaginable to Harmatan Noir, which is rich smoky tea and wood that just haunts me every day that I don’t wear it, there is something for everyone at this Perfume House. It will truly go down with Serge Lutens and Frederic Malle scents in what are now modern day classics. So what in the heck are you waiting for, go find one that you like! Best Perfume Line 2006.
2. Once I was afraid, I was petrified… (Gloria Gaynor) that Armani would stop making the Luminous Silk Foundation. Now I get night sweats thinking they could discontinue their new Shaping Foundation, which is the most ground-breaking foundation I can recall in a very long time. You get less with more, which is to say, it has better coverage that makes you look like you have nothing on at all. How? Who knows…Italian fairies is my best guess. Best Cosmetic 2006.
3. I wanna fly like an Eagle to the Sea, fly like an Eagle, let my Spirit Carry me…(Steve Miller, yes!) How could I have missed Guerlain’s Vol de Nuit parfum? I sniffed it briefly before and liked it, but I didn’t have enough to truly luxuriate in this classic beautiful scent. This is like the best of Sous le Vent and one of the sweeter Guerlains all wrapped up together. Stunning. Best Oldie but Goodie 2006.
4. In my dream, I was drowning in sorrow, but my sorrows, they learned to swim. Surrounding me, going down on me, spinning over the brim. Waves of regret and waves of joy, I reached out for the one I tried to destroy… (U2, Actung Baby, only the best album ever made) Chocolate Martinis. the end. Drink enough of them, and you will feel beautiful and fragrant. Best Vacation 2006.
5. Imagine me and you, I do, I think about you day and night, it’s only right to think about the girl you love and hold her tight, so happy together…(some band in the ’60s, Turtles?) Caron Poivre fills the slot of magnificent obsession for me quite well. There is nothing else quite like it, nor should there be. Best Obsession 2006.
6. When I was a young boy
   I was honest and I had more self-control
   If I was tempted I would run
   Then, when I got older
   I began to lie to get exactly what I wanted
   When I wanted it
   - And I wanted it
   Now, I’m having trouble differentiating
   Between what I want
   And what I need
   To make me happy
   So instead of thinking I just act
   Before I have the chance to contemplate the
   Consequence of action … (Stabilo, Flawed Design) Best Perfumista’s Siren Song of Obsession 2006
7. Help, I have done it again. I have been here many times before. Hurt myself again today. And the worst part is there’s no one else to blame…(Sia, Breathe Me) in a land full of candles, there can be only one Leather candle, and that is Assouline’s leather candle. At $45 apiece, there is pain involved. Best Sniffy that’s Not Perfume 2006.
8. I feel the cold, loneliness unfold like from another world. Come what may, I won’t fade away, but I know I might change. Nothing comes easily, fill this empty space. Nothing is like it was. Turn my grief to grace…(Kate Havnevik, Grace) Serge Lutens Encens et Lavande and Iris Silver Mist. Encens is the grief, and Iris Silver Mist is the grace. Best Mood Scent Discoveries 2006.
9. I feel like letting you know how much i love you today. I feel like letting it show, showing you rightly now, they’re never going away…(Open Heart Surgery, The Brian Jonestown Massacre) Frederic Malle Beurre Exquise (in any flavor). Nothing should feel this great or cost this much, but loving this exquisite butter that glides on like silk is easy…and insane. Best Ridiculously Priced Luxury of 2006
10. Oh, the deeper I spin, Oh, the hunter will sin for your ivory skin. Took a drive in the dirty rain To a place where the wind calls your name. Under the trees the river laughing at you and me. Hallelujah, heaven’s white rose. The doors you open, I just can’t close…(Who’s Gonna Ride your Wild Horses from U2′s Achtung Baby, may I repeat, one of the best albums ever) Narcisse, as in Caron Narcisse Noir and L’Artisan Fleur de Narcisse. When you feel beautiful and free and strong and way wild. Best Scents to Make a Statement for 2006

March’s List, Without Musical Accompaniment:

Here´s my list of my Top 10 for 2006, in random order. Some of these weren´t released in 2006 but I´m including them because they were new to me.

1. Donna Karan Chaos – I promise, this is the last time I mention Chaos on the blog (in 2006, anyway.) So I´m maybe four (?) years too late to buy it retail, but in this case – better late than never.
2. Armani Prive Cuir Amethyst – an unconventional blend of leather and violet. I get compliments on this every time I wear it.
3. Less is More – at the beginning of 2006 I didn´t want scent to comfort me – I wanted it to enthrall me, enchant me, disgust me … I get the idea of a low-key scent now. Random scents that comfort me by staying in the background when necessary: Jil Sander Sensations, KenzoAmour, Clinique Simply, Hermes Eau de Merveilles, Matthew Williamson Incense, Bvlgari The Blanc (or green, or red), Annayake Miyako… I´m sure I´ve forgotten five things I´ll feel guilty about later.
4. Virtual Reality – another category I enjoyed playing around in. Perfumes that take you somewhere. My favorite virtual reality line: CB I Hate Perfume (Black March, Burning Leaves, Gathering Apples, Winter 1972, etc.). I´m also going to stick CB Musk on here in honor of my fellow fans of hardcore skank, although I´m still going to argue that it´s both sensual and beautiful.
5. Andy Tauer Perfumes – both Lonestar Memories (virtual reality leather) and Orris (woody, incense, iris) are well worth smelling. The new lavender mod is shaping up to be another winner.
6. Malle Carnal Flower – tuberose with just a bit of a chill. Stunning, and remember, I´m not the Queen of Big White Florals, either. My other favorite Malle is En Passant, which I´m sliding in here because, frankly, what list is complete without En Passant? The only one of my fragrances my daughter has ever asked for. She calls it “the sad lilac rain one,” which just about covers it.
7. Parfumerie Generale — some of them (Iris Taizo, Hyperessence Matale, Ilang Ivohibe) I loved. Even the ones I hated (Aomassai) were interesting. I believe there´s now a coffret with samples of all 15 scents, which sounds perfect.
8. Houbigant Apercu – if I wanted to be a pill I´d stick Mitsouko on here (have you noticed there´s no Guerlain on my list? And I´m not adding any from 2006, either.) Instead I´ll be a pill and stick in Apercu, which must be 80 years old at this point. If you´re looking for a classic woody chypre that doesn´t smell dated; if you can´t quite “get there” with Mitsouko; if you´d like to smell something that makes 98% of the perfume at Sephora look like crap – get some Apercu, which they still make, unlike a lot of other great vintage scents, so you don´t have to pay a fortune on eBay and then discover the bottle´s gone off. Although poking around online I´m nervous it´s now been d/c´d, because it´s getting harder to find…
9. The men´s department — it took me forever to cross the aisle – I have an irrational fear of vetiver-heavy, cedar-forest, citrus-scarifying generic guy-cologne smells that all boil down in my mind to being drowned in a vat of Mennen Skin Bracer. What a dumbass. Considering how much I love a little dark and dirty, the men´s department is loaded with winners. A partial list of the men´s fragrances I discovered and fell in love with this year: the Carons, especially Yatagan (wave your big dagger at me, baby!); Hermes Rocabar and Equipage; Ralph Lauren Double Black (no, seriously); Guerlain Derby and L´Instant; Dior Eau Noire; Lanvin Arpege Pour Homme, and Prada Amber Pour Homme (which, let´s face it, is more femme than the woman´s by a mile).
10. Smaller bottles — for about five weeks there, right before the holidays, a number of mainstream fragrance houses came out with miniaturized, usually roll-on versions of their scents. I´d prefer a small bottle instead of a rollerball — like the purse sprays of yore (did anyone else see those adorable teeny-weeny three-pack bottle sets of Kenzo Flower?!) but it´s a start. Sing along with me: Wouldn´t It Be Wonderful …. If we didn´t have to buy 100ml of something? Frankly, I don´t even want 50ml – 20 to 30ml would be plenty. No, I´m not holding my breath, given the opposite gigantism trend (exemplified, for instance, by the new Chanel Exclusifs coming out in February in 200ml bottles). That´s just … silly. How´m I gonna pick that thing up and spray – with my third hand? My super powers? The Cheese keeps complaining what we need around here is a wife. Hey, maybe we´ll get one! And then she can spray me with perfume…

Please Visit the other wonderful Bloggers participating in Favorite Things 2006:

Patty

First up, the winners of the two Christmas sample packs are: Anna and Karen (of the combat boots and war games in Germany variety). Just click on the contact Us button over on the left and send me a shipping address, and I’ll get your little gifts out to you!

There are a mess of new things sitting on my desk that I had been putting off while thumbing my way through Carons and old Guerlains this month. Distraction in the aged is not a pretty picture.

Indult Tihota — Vanilla on steroids, and I mean that in a good way. If you are a vanilla lover, this is The Vanilla Killah. Not overly sweet, it has the best of vanilla in it without all the cavities, which is a welcome change, with a slightly earthy bent to it. I’m not a vanilla fan for the most part, but I quite like Tihota. It has great lasting power — all of these do. I can still smell this the next day, though fainter. Is it FBW at EUR160 for 50 ml? Well, not for me, a nonvanilla fan, but for fans, i think this would be the one to have.

Indult Manakara — This one is fairly sweet, but just about the time you think it is going to be an over the top fruity floral, it reigns back in and stays just at about the right place on the sweet level for a fruity floral. I wasn’t sure how much I liked this one at first, but as it dried down and the sweet faded a bit, it’s a very lovely blend. Enough to buy? If it wasn’t quite so much, I’d say yes… though there’s something that is a little mesmerizing about it that I like and keep sniffing. I still may change my mind on the bottle.

Indult Isvaraya — Okay, this is the one I truly have to have, if I get any of them. Marina lists notes of patchouli, Indian plum tree and jasmine sambac. A gorgeous blending of jasmine and patchouli, a little fruity note, and this makes a very earthy jasmine, like you picked up the earth and the jasmine all together and rubbed your nose in it. I really didn’t think these notes could be done well, but it seriously is a great creation.

The price point on the Indults still bothers me, though it’s about the same as the Armani Prive scents. There is a smoothness to all three of them, and they are done very well. Dare I hope that at some point they would sell these three in a coffret? They all seem well suited to layering with each other. All of them will be available Jan 8 at Sephora in Paris with a limited run of bottles for EUR160 for 50 ml.

Recently some very odd magazines started showing up in the mail, like Inc. and Entrepeneur and Money. Even though those are the sorts of magazines I should read for my real work, I just don’t — I much prefer the fluffier magazine-reading side of my job, like “Entertainment Weekly” and “Us.” Yes, that is TOO part of my job! (stamps foot in emphasis) Of course, like with all magazines that enter our house, they got snagged up for a read and left wherever. When my youngest son came back from his dad’s, he was all huffy and demanding why we had stolen his magazines and not even told him they started to arrive. Completely baffled about what magazines he was talking about, he informed me that was HIS Money magazine and Entrpreneur. Huh. After my WTF moment, which was the unexpected thwapping the known up the side of the head, I about peed myself laughing as he explained how he came by those magazines. Apparently ThinkGeek gives him Geek points every time he orders something, and he got an offer from them to pick three magazines, and he said those sounded like the most interesting of the three. ThinkGeek, 16-year-old boys, financial magazines…what on earth do these three have in common? In Harry’s case, just throw a kickass guitar, a ginormous amp, a love of physics, chemistry, writing poetry and puzzles in there, and it all starts to clear up, or as well as he ever will come into focus.

There is a dissonance when what you thought you knew gets splattered with Some New Thing. It’s not an unpleasant feeling, it is just jarring, like silk on gravel — two things that you didn’t think went together are now inhabiting the same space in a brain cell. My children have always remained a mystery to me in many ways — they both have a deep interior life that leaks through every now and then, and it is puzzling and usually comical. How in the world do they keep so many fragments of who they are concealed?

This is also how I feel about all of the Parfumerie Generale scents — well, not quite as strongly as if they were my sons. Most of you know I’m a Parfumerie Generale slutty cheerleader and will pimp this line every chance I get. There is truly at least one scent in this line for everyone, but not in that plain vanilla way that works because they won’t offend you, but you’ll find one that speaks to you and is pleasantly discordant and mesmerizing.

Parfumerie Generale Bois de Copaiba — Ho-ly Mo-ther of God. When this sample hit my skin, I was in deep, deep love, but, alas, that love faded, to be replaced with respect and very deep likey lust. Notes of crystallized orange pulp, red ginger, Amaretto, Copahu balm, mahogany wood, myrrh and sandalwood. Bois de Copaiba is just extraordinary. Normally I’m not happy with the “boozy” scents, but this one doesn’t turn too winey or grapey, which is the tipping point for me, but stays so rich and warm and spicy and in the drydown almost silky, and it just makes me feel, well, hot! There is something in the drydown that reminds me of Armani Prive Pierre de Lune (which has slowly turned into one of my favorite perfumes… ever), though I don’t think any of the notes are the same, but there’s a similar feel to them both. It’s like a polished rock sliding over your skin, just has that smooth, luxurious feel to it. I loved the open better than the drydown, but that shouldn’t take away from the incredible scent this is. I guess I just wish it had stayed more spicy raw as at the beginning — if it had… oh, dear, there would be no limits to my love. But I’ll just keep applying it every 7 minues to get that open.

Parfumerie Generale Cedar Sandaraque — Notes of vetiver, African cedar, Sandaraque resin, cereals and praline amber. Cereals? If I’d known cereal could smell so good in a perfume, I would have started chucking special K in all of my perfumes. This one joins my absolute favorites in the line, Harmatan Noir and Hyperessence Matale, with my favorite woody tea scents (this category doesn’t necessarily have both notes in there, but I always lump wood and tea together, don’t ask why). There is a crisp earthiness about this wood scent that is just invigorating, though the resin and cereal adds a little bit of sweetness to it.

Parfumerie Generale Corps & Ames — Notes of geranium bourbon, spices, everlasting flowers, Melati wood, leather and sandalwood. It took me a little longer to love this one, but slowly its beauty emerged for me. A very unique blend, it’s the one that keeps me sniffing because it is deeply interesting, even though I don’t love it the most. I’m not sure what that means… maybe I do love it the most. Nope, nope, I’m going to spritz on some Harmatan Noir, which is truly magnificent.

All of the Parfumerie Generale scents can be bought from their website or at The Perfume Shoppe.

BTW, guess who scored a teensy bottle of Parfum Sacre Extrait on The Bay this week? That’s right. I’m having a parfum month, which will get all wrapped up in a post or two in January.

Painting from Marie Shell. Photo of fountain from Jamb.

Patty

This is from Patty — As you can tell, we are still bothering our guy friends to write for us, and Lee (Leopoldo) has been so kind as to give in to my pestering. If this keeps up, we’re gonna put a cowboy up there with the sluts girls.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Patty said a while back that that she´d be prepared for me, nay be pleased for me, to write some blather for Perfume Posse. It´s very generous of her, seeing as I look nothing like either of the ladies at the top of the blog, although I am rather fetching in a diaphanous negligee. So here I am. It´s been said before, and I don´t mind repeating it – Leopoldo takes what he can get. A truth universally acknowledged, I reckon.

Now, I know my writing exercise is really a cover story hatched by both PP ladies so they can get on with their other´ projects: Patty needs some time clearing snow from her back yard so that she can continue with her cool room extension, set to rival the Osmotheque according to undisclosed sources (there´s even gonna be a special shrine where visitors can pay homage to Jean Claude – NO TOUCHING ALLOWED!); March is busy building a supercomputer large enough to hold all the data on her gazillions of decants. Apparently she´s cross-referencing them to track down every trace of cedar known to woman. I admire their work, and am happy to fill a hole if this allows them completion, and eventual world domination, I do not doubt. Thanks for this chance, my ladies. Now, get on with your work…

However, I have to be clear and admit that my talent doesn´t especially lie in capturing the essence of a scent in words. Indeed, I´ve yet to find where it does lie, but I know it´s not transposing the ineffable transience of smell into the more permanent fabric of language. So, can I take you off on a tangent instead, and hopefully return to the fragrant world by the end?

I finally got round to watching the Andy Kaufman bio, Man on the Moon´ the other day. Initially, I was more interested in gasping at Michael Stipe´s beauty in the eponymous music video accompanying the film (do check him out and remind yourselves – it´s absolutely worth it). I think this was partly because, being a Brit, I´m not sure Kaufman has the significance for me he might have Stateside – I remember watching him in Taxi´ as a kid and laughing, though I always found him a little too odd, too outré and therefore scary, and felt that I was happier with the more amenable and more directly sympathetic Christopher Lloyd character. However, the film was something of a revelation.

Don´t get me wrong, I didn´t enjoy it all – it seemed patchy, episodic and irritatingly quirky at times, much like the man himself I suppose. But the final third of the movie moved me profoundly. Andy knows he´s dying, and aside from a last desperate dash to the Philippines for a cure (which he witnesses to be a trick, like so much of his own career), he seems to accept his fate with dignity. This is encapsulated for me in two episodes from his Carnegie Hall performance. In the first, he makes a very old woman ride around the stage on a hobbyhorse and his orchestral directing at lightning speed forces the inevitable – the poor old girl clutches her chest, collapses and dies. A doctor comes to check – no heartbeat. Andy has walked off stage and now returns to perform a levitation act – the woman (no! gasp! laughter and tears!) recovers. We, the film audience, pretty much know all along this is going to happen, especially when we see it´s Andy´s brother performing the role of doctor. What´s significant about this to me is its tragicomic nature – as though death, the inevitable, can be laughed off and kept at bay, even though both Andy and the hobbyhorse woman know the scythe is by now tapping them on their shoulders.

The second episode moved me to tears, without me quite knowing why. You know that way such tears start: you´re profoundly whacked round the chops with feeling, and yet somehow you can´t put in place what exactly dealt the blow? Andy takes all of his audience for milk and cookies. It´s that simple and that wondrous. I´ve pondered this for some time now, and the best I can come up with is that what touched me so deeply was the return to childhood represented in this act – the cookies became a symbol of time reversed, and yet also seemed to reverberate as the most apposite symbol of life´s transience. At that moment, I was made aware, without understanding exactly how, of the fact that life is beautiful precisely because it doesn´t last.

So forgive me as I head into the penultimate deep waters paragraph. Last year, I nearly died. I won´t bore you with the details or the melodrama. But one early morning, in hospital, three days before I was finally released, I was busy rubbing my bed neighbour´s back, a dear old man called Fred who was slowly drowning. Emphysema. We stared out the large window that ran along the end of the ward bay; it faced east and the sun was rising. A light breeze susurrated the curtains. The scent of late summer, the change to autumn, crept its way in with the dew´s evaporation. Fred told me he wanted to die. We continued to fix our gazes on the dawn. For a small moment it seemed enough to look and smell and wonder. I hope Fred felt so too.

My love of smell seemed reborn at that precise mid-September moment. What better way to experience life than to have a pleasure that doesn´t last, be haunted by traces from time now gone, on your clothes and on the skin of others, to be lost for words in a reverie of sense? It´s a truism so true it may seem empty, but it bears repeating: life doesn´t last; make sure you live it. And be sure to continue living it through smell.

I´m off for milk and cookies and a sniff of Ambre Narguilé. How bout you?

Lee

The other day I was in the office, doing one of those insanely dull things that allows me to avoid getting a real job (in this case, looking through our files for for a tax document) and I realized – hey, what I need is some perfume. So I wandered upstairs and grabbed the vial Patty sent me of Mona di Orio Nuit Noir, because the Cheese wasn´t there to be disgusted by the stench and I was in the mood for something a little gamey. Back downstairs, I dug around in the file cabinet some more until eventually I realized that all the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up, a sure sign that something momentous was happening fragrance-wise. So I took a closer sniff and realized I´d put on the wrong fragrance, only I had no idea what it was. Not Mona, that´s for sure. Oh, well. Back to work.

Ten minutes later I gave up even pretending that I was working, because Fragrance X was driving me wild. What is that? I took a couple of long, experimental sniffs on my wrist and tried to sort it out. It had a definite resemblance to the hay-smoke and leather of L´Artisan Fleur de Narcisse, only that wasn´t quite right either. This was more … perfume-y, if you will. Ladylike in structure, with some sort of florals in there, but dirty as hell. A deep, dark base of … what, maybe oakmoss and civet? It smelled like a classic, anyway. I´ve gotten a couple of packages of vintage samples – maybe it was one of those? Eventually, unable to stand it any more, I went back upstairs and dug around in the bowl of stuff-to-try until I found it.

And then I was stunned. Floored. Because, guess what it was!? Caron, my nemesis! Narcisse Noir parfum, created by Ernest Daltroff in 1911 to frighten polite women everywhere.

Here´s a link to Patty´s recent review where she says, “Caron had to have a scent that is an all-out smoldering siren, and Narcisse Noir is the little vixen that fills that slot on the Caron line-up. The Parfum is loaded with civet, and just oozes sensuality while also whispering about class. The EDT is more pretty and civilized, it just keeps the skank octane down to manageable levels. NN is a challenge to wear, and it has taken a while for me to really appreciate it, but every time I put it on, I am just bowled over by its beauty and how it perfectly balances what I think a woman becomes when she is done screwing around with the idea of who she should be or who other people think she is or should be.” Um, Patty — that’s a lovely sentiment about the parfum whispering class. What I am hearing from the parfum, however, is more of a growl, and what it’s saying is so filthy it should have its mouth washed out with soap.

I am shocked by this fragrance. So, Caron lovers out there – is this what I´ve been missing? What is this amazing thing? Where’s the Grim Reaper base? Is my “problem” with Caron rooted in my failure to smell the parfum versions? Maybe what I need my Caron to smell like is whatever dark forces are swirling around in the Noir. Are there other super-dirty Carons? What about that Can-Can thing?

Then I committed a Crime Against Nature. (Patty, please forgive me!) The parfum lasts forever, so that afternoon I … well … I layered it with a dab of CB Musk. And I spent the rest of the day walking around laughing. You know what it made me think of? That old line about Napoleon writing to Josephine after a successful battle: “Home in three days. Don´t wash.”

March

I really had intended to do a post today, but the two feet of snow outside has just made me somnolent! It’s like a little white cocoon that’s had us wrapped tight, but will start disappearing tomorrow. Iit’s really been a lovely day inside with the family. We wish you all a Merry and Joyous Christmas, Peace and Love.

Patty