Family snaps and a couple of reviews

Here’s the family!  Photo on the right — Alex is on the left, then Warren (wonderful husband, in his Tilly hat, which he always has) me, then my youngest son, Harry.

The photo on the left — That’s Harry on the left and Alex on the right. Love the disparity in height. Harry’s about 6’4″ and Alex is about 5’7″.  Isn’t that fun?  I had that picture made into a dry erase board too.  When they were growing up, people couldn’t tell them apart. I still look at them and know how much alike they are in all the places that count and how very different and unique. That’s the beauty of kids, watching them become persons, flawed and perfect. 

I adore my boys and my husband, and you’ll probably have to put up with more pictures over the next few weeks.  I’ve waited forever for these.  Both boys hated school pictures, so they wouldn’t bring home the envelopes.  It’s been since both of them were in 8th grade I’ve had new pictures.

So what’s new?  I’ve got a couple of the newest designer releases — Sarah Jessica Parker Covet and Fendi Palazzo. 

Covet has notes of wet greens, geranium leaves, Sicilian lemon, lavender, chocolate, honeysuckle, magnolia, muguet, musk, vetiver, bois de cashmere, teakwood and amber.  I think Lovely, her first effort, was really nice. Covet just isn’t doing it for me. Nothing is really wrong with it, and I’d certainly wear it with little complaint, but the notes seem to wind up in a jumble, and I can’t really find the character of this perfume — nothing completely unique or different or memorable.  Maybe with less lemon or lavender, I would like it more. Or maybe more musk?  I doubt those who really liked Lovely will be disappointed, but I think I was hoping for something a little more out there.

Palazzo has notes of orange blossom, rose, tangerine, bergamot, lemon, pink pepper and jasmine.  Have you see this bottle? Like all Fendi bottles, it’s another masterpiece: clear with the palazzo windows in gold outlined on the backside of the bottle so you see it as you look through.  A gorgeous stone-shaped cap made out of clear acrylic with a gold Fendi insignia shaped inside.  Looking at that bottle, I wanted to fall in love with this perfume, like I’m in love with Asja and Theorema, but I’m deferring judgment for good reason.  First, this, like all Fendi perfumes, is rich and over the top, which is the thing I love about Fendi. They don’t leave anything on the table when they make a perfume, and you don’t have to dance around figuring out whether you like it or not because it’s too subtle to get a read on it.  There’s a little more fruit than I like on the open, which is a minus, but the florals bloom up rich and full shortly after the open.  And that’s where my review stops. I need cold weather to make a final judgment. This is not a hot weather perfume, it needs the fall temps outside before I think I can evaluate it properly. I like it right now, don’t love it, but I have that nagging feeling that I will move it into the winter love column, despite that fruity open.