Catching up on Reviews… and a drawing!

Okay, Nawt is taking a break today because I need to catch up on reviews of some new stuff I’ve gotten.  Still feel bad about that very brief Kelly Caleche review, but that’s all I got!

CB I Hate Perfume Greenbriar 1968 — One of the new ones from CB, this one is a marvel.  Sawdust, fresh cut hay (drool… haaaaayyy!!!), pipe tobacco, smoke, old leather work gloves and dirt. This is based on memories of CB’s grandfather, and it is my absolute favorite of the new five.  It has a slightly green sappy smell on the open. Must be the pipe tobacco that gives it a slightly sweet smell. But that doesn’t last as a dominant thing forever, it starts to leather up – a lot – in the drydown, the pipe tobacco gets less sweet, the dirt mixes in, goes dominant for a while, then takes a back seat, and then it seems to settle into a lot of leather and hay, sharp and pungent and perfect. This is so enchanting in all of its changes, and there are many.  Fans of CB’s should go wild over this one. If you’re not a fan of CB, what in the hell is wrong with you?!?!

CB I Hate Perfume I Am a Dandelion — Christopher says he worked a long time to get this one exactly right.  He did have a dandelion accord, but didn’t feel it was ever quite right, and then he ran across the milky note he needed for this new dandelion.  I never smelled the first dandelion accord, but this one has the dirt and some green stems, and as it dries down, that slightly milky note that he says had been missing shows up and makes it the exact perfect match for laying in your yard on a summer day, surrounded by dirt and green, picking that dandelion and holding it to your nose and falling asleep smelling that milky beautiful smell. It’s magic. Wearing this one, I feel like I am 8 again with no worries in the world, and that’s a great thing.

CB I Hate Perfume Eternal Return — This is the ocean archtype.  I’m not very aquatic perfume friendly, so I was leary about this one, but Mr. Genius made ocean work for me or at least I don’t hate it.  There’s the salty ocean air and some green notes on the open, and they are just blooming gorgeous, but then my nose sorta wigs out and I just can’t smell right, it becomes very light, this is likely some mis-nosmia I have to the next notes. Ever have that happen to you? You just can’t get a bead on what you’re smelling? Anyway, it’s not an aquatic mess in the least, and I wish I could give you more info, but my nose just blew up on this one. I think I need to spritz it to get a better feel for it so it will get on my clothes, etc. Of the three new ones, it’s the one I like the least, but only because of the above-described misnosmia.

There are two more new ones. One is a dark summer forest one, and I can’t remember what the other one is, but I should have them to test by next week, yeah!!

Memoire Liquide — This is a new bespoke line that showed up Fred Segal’s in Santa Monica first and now is at from Bendel’s in NYC as well, and there’s a ton of them, and they let you make up your own, as well (bespoke, duh!).  We decided to start picking up a few since it’s like $45 for a little 1/2 ounch bottle of perfume.  2 ounces of the EDP is like 60-65, I think?  Anyway, they’re quite good, I was surprised and not expecting them to be more than just little throw-aways.  I’ll just hit a couple of them here only because there are so many!  Fleur de Tabac is a really rich, great tobacco scent, with a rich undertone in it. It is supposed to be the flowering tobacco, so it has a little spicy edge to it that gives it a new slant on tobacco.  Vetiver is Bergamot, green vetiver, cedar and… da da daaaaa… hay. Hello!  It has a nice bright bergamot open and then it’s all about the vetiver and hay. I don’t get a lot of cedar in this at all.  It could be my eternal love for hay and vetiver that makes this my favorite, but it’s pretty great.  Liaison Secrete is gardenia and green leaves. Hoping for an Isabey Gardenia or at least one tempered with enough green leaves to hold off the bleu cheese… but no. Blucheez-orama. Those of you that are fans of Velvet Gardenia from Tom Ford and Jardenia from JAR, but hate the price tag on both, you might like this one. It’s not quite as stinky as the expensive ones or the stink doesn’t las as long, which may mean it doesn’t have whatever in there that y’all are loving, and the drydown seems a little plasticky to me, but given my general problems with most gardenia perfumes, I have no idea if that would be true for anyone else. 

The price point is decent on the Memoire Liquides, which I think makes it a line worth exploring since there is so much variety — gourmands, fruits, tobaccos, leather, florals. It’s got it all.  Robin at Now Smell This has a post with quite a number of the perfumes available. So while I don’t think most of these are destined to be classics, many of them seem to be well-made, though I haven’t even dented the line, and I think you can find a new favorites in there that will make your nose and your wallet happy.

Let’s see, what else do I have?  Oh, that Micallef Black Sea thing, March could not be more right about how perfect it is.  Notes of pink pepper, clove, cypress, saffron, gaiacwood, muguet, carnation, sandalwood, cedar, incense, ciste, vanilla.   There’s something in there that reminds me of Aqaba, but not in that over-the-top way that Aqaba has, but just in the mix of incense, carnation and clove — it’s like Aqaba that isn’t going out in the too-short skirt, showing too much cleavage and wearing too much and bright of lipstick shouting “look at me!!!”  Oh, damnit, I got it too close to the Opium parfum, which, BTW, is the only version of Opium that I can wear, it hugs the skin so nicely, and I really pretty much love it, even though I don’t want to.   It’s the Opium I was talking about that reminded me of the Aqaba, it was right next to the Black Sea — oops, sorry! Wait, Opium next to the Black Sea, that’s lyrics on my arm.   Back to the Black Sea, which has that enchanting spicy incense going, with just enough wood to make it interesting. This one is a definite keeper.  I *need* it for me, but I’m going to figure out how to get my darling husband to wear it, it would be perfection on him.

PSA — For those of you wanting to try Demeters, but not wanting to get a larger size, Demeter is doing their smaller sizes now, $3 for 11 ml.  After July 1, the minis then will be what they are calling “Humongous Miniatures,” 15 ml or 1/2 ounce for $5. That’s a pretty great deal.

Now for the drawing!  Samples of each of the perfumes listed in today’s post. Just drop a comment if you want to be in the draw. 

We always hope that the drawings help some of you who don’t comment normally to feel more comfortable jumping in.  I just read somewhere again last night where someone felt that blog commenting was a tight group, but I have to tell you all that even though some people regularly comment on blogs, and we’ve gotten to know each other either online or some people in person because they live in the same area, this is one of the most welcoming groups of people I know. So if you ever hesitate to comment, just remember even the regulars had to comment for the first time, and you can be just an occasional commenter or a regular or just comment when there’s drawings.  Any of those are fine!