A Tale of Two Perfumes

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times… 

Well, so far… it’s been a really good summer for stuff I’ve sniffed and fallen in love with. Yeah, there have been some stinkers in the past month, one of which will get a mention here –  I keep hoping it’s a mistake – but it’s been a pretty good crop of just new things to me.

Les Larmes Sacrees de Thebes — Good Lord, that refill bottle, as March warned me, is a ugly little thing — cheap metal with a white plastic cap, but a royal purple label on it… and the words Baccarat and the name of the perfume in gold letters.  Listen, I know it’s the refill and not as spendy as the bottle, but could they have at least picked up a nicer cap or a plain bottle from Madina?  If I saw this in a store, I would assume inside was some horrible homemade perfume swill my kids mixed up just to make fun of my perfume obsession.  I’ve read raves on this thing all over the perfume boards and never really thought I’d get to smell it. It has notes of Jasmine, Geranium, Ylang Ylang, Pepper, Cardamon, Basil, Myrtle, Amber, Musk, Sandalwood and Myrrh.  You know, if you were to pick my nose (not literally) and my brain for the notes that are most likely to make me squeal in joy, those would be most of them.  Anyway, after March and Lee came sashaying back from their jaunt just fawning over this thing and disclosing there was a refill to be had at a lesser than 1,000 # price (all you Brits can just hush up about that # for pounds, there is NO pounds sterling symbol on my keyboard and I’m hopeless at remembering ascii character code), I knew it had to be mine.  The fabulous Marcel zipped it to me spectacularly fast, I tore into the package like a fiend, causing my mother no end of concern about the depths of my obsession, pulled out that ugly little bottle, unscrewed it (this is like unscrewing a bottle of Cristal Rose), sniffed deeply and thought….

Parfum Sacre Extrait, come to mama!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I adore Parfum Sacre Extrait to the depth and breadth of my being, and I horde my little bottles — yes, I have two now, shhh! — like they were the Original Ten Commandments with a piece of God’s beard fluff hanging off the stone.  Are they exactly the same? No.  PS is a little sweeter, but they both share that deep woody resin that feels like you are in a temple made out of the most beautiful wood and incense — rich, contemplative scents that could not be more perfect than if Jesus had sat down at a nose organ. Lots of references to the holy, I know, but both of these scents tend to evoke a cuddly reverence.  Sorta like how I felt as a child during Sunday School when we sang “How Great Thou Art,” just reverent and joyful and content.   So while the Parfum Sacre extrait is almost impossible to get anymore, the Les Larmes Sacrees de Thebes is slightly less impossible for the right price. Now, I’ve heard and just scored a bottle of the EDP of this, which I didn’t know they made. Anyone have more info on where this is available?  And how different it is from the parfum? Well, I’ll know soon enough, I guess, but I’d love to know who might still sell the EDP as it’s slightly more affordable.

Next up for total get down and roll around in the mud pig happy is Bruno Acampora Musc.  Notes of Musk, Rose, Violet, Vanilla, Cloves, Amber, Sandalwood.  Musk is difficult for me to wear, just toooo something, I can only take it for a little while before I long to have it vamoose off of me, even my beloved Musc Ravageur, and it hangs around forever.  This scent is an oil, and I can verify that it lasts and lasts and lasts. Oils are usually difficult for me to wear too, they turn plasticky smelling or they disappear.  Not so with this one. Now, it’s pretty linear and changes little, but that’s a great thing.  It starts off with an earthy musky aspect, then the blend of cloves and amber and other notes makes the heavy aspect I usually get with musk fragrances disappear.  There’s quite a lot of good amber, and I swear I smell patch in there too. The sillage is phenomenal. One drop on my wrist, and every time I moved, I could smell it. When I got into my truck and shut the door, the truck filled with the smell on my wrist, it was heavenly  — well, and a little Sballo was in there too, which is a post for another day… can we say hey hay!? I put a drop of this on my mom, who was recuperating at my house the last few days, and she swooned too. She almost never swoons over perfume, but she did on this one and CB I Hate Perfume’s Tea/Rose.  Not sure what that means, but we’re afraid if she gets to three perfumes she loves and stays in love with, the triad will have been formed, the Four Horsemen will be stabling in my garage.  Word of warning, if you are looking for a musk like CB’s musk or musc ravageur or any other skanky musk, you won’t find it here, there’s just no overt naughty bits rolling about, just more subtle ones. For me, I find it enchanting and beautiful, with a tremendous sillage.  It’s just not going to be the musk some of you probably have in your head when you think musk.

Now for the swill of the group, I think… but maybe not.  I found a bottle of the new Narciso Rodriguez for Him on eBay. The seller is reputable and says they got it from a duty free store, and it was a pre-release bottle. It says mock-up on the back. Why do I tell you all that? Because I was so jacked to get it, thinking they would do something pretty wonderful for men, like the women’s, and I put it on and thought…  there must be a mistake, they filled this bottle with the same men’s scent that everyone has been making the last four years?!?!  Nothing ground-breaking or great?!  Anyway, as scents go, I guess it’s not so bad. The notes are suppoed to be musk, amber, violet leaf and patchouli, but I swear I don’t get this out of that bottle. So I am hoping against hope that this was some mocked up bottle filled with something else and the real NR for Him is NOT in there.  It can’t be it!  I would far rather have thrown away $80 than to find out that this really is what they plan to put in there.  Anyone know what it means when a bottle says mock-up?  Please tell me it just means “filled with some other juice, silly, we just want to show you the bottle.”