Parfumerie Generale just keeps slamming

Now we have to start another campaign, and that is to make Bois Blond, Psychotrope and L’ombre Fauve (haven’t gotten my Lilas yet) part of their permanent line. 

Many of you are already aware that if there is a hay note in a perfume, I start writhing around on the floor in ecstasy. Well, not quite that bad, but it’s darn close.  Everyone has the places they used to go as a child… to dream, to escape, to imagine. For some, it is the smell of leather bindings in the library, for others it is the sweet smell of horses.   For me, the smell of hay is intertwined with the solitude of my childhood  — it is the one scent that has wormed so far and deep in my head, it is a part of my core smell-entity. When I think of who I am, I think of hay. In all forms. Alfalfa growing in the fields and then compacted into bales so its sweet, rough aroma was all contained with baling wire.  Timothy hay growing by the side of the road in the summer.  Scratchy straw in the hayloft of our barn where I spent so many days snuggled up in its scratchy warmth with sometimes my sister and sometimes a good book and baby kittens and a wet dog with the sound of rain beating down on the roof.

When I read the notes in Parfumerie Generale’s Bois Blond, I squee’ed and collapsed. Listen, I’m no quivering daisy here, so anything that even approaches swooning in a heap is big news in PattyPerfumeVille ®.  Notes of cereals, grass, galbanum, cedar, hay, blond tabac, amber and musk. Okay, read that list of notes again.  That’s a sure-fire ticket to my enthusiastic approval and love just based on the notes, but would it be True Love? 

When my bottle finally arrived, I was just atwitter. Could it possibly live up to my expectations? I spritzed…. thud!…. yes, that good.  There are many other notes in this that make it even better, but my nose will not get past the main course hay and grass and cereal, which kind of all go together to make up some of the best memories of my life.  This is rich and deep and dry and not sweet in the least. There’s an elegance to it that rounds out the rough edges that you would expect with some of those notes. I put it under my long-suffering husband’s nose, without telling him anything, and he says… Wow, hay!!!  Yes, he loves it too. For me, it is elegant, earthy comfort, the scent of daydreaming with a scented backdrop that did not interfere with my thoughts, but lifted them higher while keeping them grounded to who I was.  Definitely for men or women.   (Painting by Phil Douglis)

Winner of the Posse Slogan vote — Let Us Spray (Fragrant Funster).  Winner of the Thing to Put it on: Coffee Mugs (Marina was the first to suggest that), followed pretty closely by Sticky Notes and Notepads. We reserve the right to put it on more than one thing, and I can guarantee you that I can’t resist the sitcky notes and notepads thing. I also reserve the right to use my Darling Husband’s very clever “I Smell Myself” that March and Lee shot down early on — on something!  A thong maybe.  EW!  So I’m waiting for the art to be done (saw the draft, and it is super-cute!) first and getting quotes on merchandise, look for this space for more info when we are ready!  We may eventually do t-shirts, etc., if these go over pretty well, and we may incorporate other slogans, like Slaves to Scent.

Minor winners: Cheezwiz, Elle, Skye, Maria, Tom, Dana, Robin.  Random winner for entering of the Two Serge Scents of her/his choice: Rosalva.  Okay, y’all need to shoot me your address. FF and Marina will get the first Thing we Put it on as their gift. The rest of you, except Rosalva, get  some samples I want to send out of my choice. 🙂  If I missed anyone, let me know!  The Thing to put it on was hard to pick out in the comments, so I hope I got everyone.