Still More Candy

Hey, that candy post was fun. It’s been awhile since I felt the gluttonous urge, and I’m enjoying it. Let´s do it again.

Jacques Fath Iris Gris – I know, I just did this Monday, but Teri wrote in the comments that Iris Gris “is the fragrance of a fully mature, elegant and accomplished woman, impeccably dressed and groomed. Her thoughts have turned in upon themselves as she looks back at the joys and accomplishments of her life, juxtaposed against the waning days of her future. It isn´t melancholy, exactly, more like triste. There is wistfulness in her thoughts, but not sadness. She is in the autumn of a life well-lived and well-remembered.” I wish I’d written that.  Thanks, Teri, that was beautiful.

Amouage Jubilation XXV for Women – I was reading the blurb on the atomizer card, which said, “A sophisticated bouquet of white flowers crowns the fragrance with richness and depth while embracing musks and woods wrapped with warm amber notes blah blah blah.” In the meantime I was smelling: cumincumincumin cuMincuMINCumin CuminCUMINCUMINCUMIN. And my addled brain was going “huh?” And then I realized I was reading the blurb for Amouage Reflection (they advertise their other scents on the Jubilation card.) Anyhoo, Luca Turin and Robin have both said it smells like Diorella, and it does – about nine hours later, on my skin. But for the first nine hours it´s like burying my nose in the world´s finest, most beautiful armpit. Don´t get me wrong; it´s gorgeous. I like armpit. And if I didn´t have other cumin-rich scents to fall back on, I´d be more interested. If you get something much more complex and less cumin-heavy, as Marina clearly does (she says Jubilation is the love child of Femme and Arabie), swoon away. Femme and Kingdom pretty much fill my Giant Cumin Bomb needs.

Black Widow – I really want what Donna’s getting — sort of a comfort-scent Opium, if that’s not too oxmoronic for you. (Opium is my comfort-scent Opium.) Instead I get that weird, sweet, brain-damaging chemical note you get from polish remover, or going into a nail salon. This is not a smell I enjoy. Scrubber, and too bad. The bottle´s hilarious, though. I´m keeping it just to look at it.

Chanel No. 5 parfum – I tried the EdP for the millionth time a couple months ago when I was comparing it to Eau Premiere, and I was shocked to see I´d finally come around to it. I´m older, and my tolerance for aldehydes is obviously increasing, but even so – for the first time in my life it struck me as something I could feel comfortable in. I´d not tried the parfum, and Kim sent me a sample in my weird swap. No. 5 parfum, as you would expect, is exponentially finer and richer – the effervescence of the aldehydes and the dusting of powder are much more subdued, and the fragrance is floral without smelling sweet or old-fashioned. I get something like tobacco, or hay, along with my rose, jasmine and ylang. Do I like it better? I am not sure. Kim very helpfully sent a samp of the EdP so I could do an arm-to-arm comparison. The parfum is unquestionably a “better” fragrance – deeper, and certainly more long lasting – but lovely as it is, this may be one of those cases when I like the rough sparkle of the EdP better.

Arabian Oud Black Musk essence – When Patty sends me a sample pack of skank, and one small vial in there is bagged separately, I know I am in for a treat. Black Musk essence goes on so dark (literally) that a single drop of the oil stained my skin orange. It set up camp in the mildewed cave of my nose and proceeded to spread out some fresh animal skins, burn some incense, and start a smoky fire with dried dung.

Black Musk Essence reminds me of going into a small ethnic grocery and being assailed by the intoxicating foreign smells. How many of you go into those places to sniff around, or is it some weird fetish of mine? The mystery spices, the oils, the dusty boxes, the cellophane bags of dried squid; I could drink that in for hours. I go into those stores periodically and assemble a meal using whatever I can find written in English on the back of the shrimp paste can, the chili sauce bottle, the rice noodle bag or whatever. In contrast, I am fascinated by how big-box American stores, our mainstays (Giant, Safeway, etc.) smell mostly like … nothing. They are clean and sterile and, unless you’re gagging your way through the miasma of the detergent/cleaning aisle, scent-free. We want our food to be packaged by lint-free angels and smell like clean air. Even places like Whole Foods smell like organic lavender soap and $30 shade-grown coffee and not much else. What is up with that? Does our American paranoia about smells affect our grocery stores? I remember in Vienna, walking from the (sweets/cans/jars) first floor to the (savory) second floor of Julius Meinl, a food emporium I could spend the rest of my life in, and being hit with the overpowering smell of aged cheese and meat. It took my breath away; it was simultaneously shocking and mouthwatering. No wonder Americans are such smell wussies; our lives are shrink-wrapped to protect us from vivid reality. Anyway. For any of you adventurers out there, Black Musk Essence is sort of truffly. Two thumbs up. Don’t spill it in your car. I wonder what will happen if I layer it with ….

Arabian Oud Jasmine Essence – Ahahaha!!! The Cheese just walked by me and made a face!!! Hey, you know what he does? He complains that I wear his sweaters around the house, because of the way they smell when I give them back. Go figure. This jasmine is nice, smooth like vanilla custard. It’s not that rank. It’s not as rank on me as the Montale, or even the Armani Prive. There’s a green note in there I really like.

I’m feeling the skank love today, so I’m trying another round of my favorite layering mistake: Mitsouko Plus Something. Good luck layering Mitsouko. Mitsouko figures she is all you need (sometimes more than you need) and she doesn’t take kindly to being layered. Mostly she just eats her competitor. But I got to thinking I might get her to play with Black Musk. And … yeah, that’s fine. I mean, it’s sick and it’s wrong, and if this combo had a name it would be Hello, Sailor! (how do we say that in French? Bonjour, … something). You know that high-pitched part of Mitsouko? A pinprick-sized dot of Black Musk covers it like a velvet cape. Wear it to your family holiday get-together and see if your brother-in-law hits on you.

Correction to Monday’s post — The Roja Dove scents are EdP and parfum, not EdT and EdP.

Dubai souk: townandcountrytravelmag.com

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18 years ago

well of course you brutally forced me to go to TPC and get a sample of that musk..

It is strange how sanitized the supermarkets are aren’t they? I looove going into a cheese shop and getting a whiff of that ripe smell- what’s the point of cheese if you can’t smell it?

18 years ago

I mostly absolutely positively probably maybe couldn’t wear any of these. I think. But omg March, I want to go food shopping in Chinatown with you! We would have a blast! And then we could go up to the Indian markets. Better yet, we go out to Jackson Hgts in Queens where there’s Indian & Asian markets down the block from each other & see what we get. We come home, cook, and terrify the neighbors. Deal? :d

18 years ago
Reply to  Divalano

One of the nice things about working in the part of downtown LA that I am in is that I can walk to both Chinatown and Little Tokyo. Love those spice markets! Little India here is further away, but I need to go there again. I adore Indian food, and now I am getting hungry! :((

Kim
18 years ago

Me? Recommend Chanel No. 5? :d

I find I can’t stand the smell of WalMart – I just can’t shop there. But maybe it is really the lack of smell that is so terrible? #-o

Layering Mitsouko? I am finding that layering works best within the same artists work – alot of the Lutens layer well (try Un Bois Vanilla with Douce Amere or Chene – double yum!). Otherwise, I feel like I am messing with the artists work too much. Yeah, I know, stick in the mud me.

Gina
18 years ago

Ok, you can give me sh*t for this, but Jub25 smells like cheap perfume on me. I really don’t like it at all!

The Musk sounds divine, though. I’ve never smelled the parfum version of no 5 – it’s never been something I’ve loved in edp, but have appreciated it for what it is.

Off the subject a bit, I tried Annick Goutal’s Encens Flamboyant and Bond’s Silver Factory. LOVE LOVE LOVE. The AG reminds me a lot of Les Nez’s “Let Me Play the Lion”.

Gina
18 years ago
Reply to  March

It was Amouage Jubilation 25 for women. Really terrible on me. Have you tried the Les Nez I mentioned? I’d be thrilled to send you some.

Teri
18 years ago

Wow, March, thank you for the kind words and for quoting me in your article. :”> Iris Gris absolutely inspired me in a way that is usually reserved for Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, Monet’s waterlily paintings or the tenor aria “Nessun Dorma” from Turandot. IG, too, is a classic work of art.

I’ve just recently started tackling the various oudh fragrances, but their siege upon the gates of my heart is only commencing. The peasants are gathered outside the gates, shouting and waving their scythes, but so far my defenses remain unbreached. I can tell there is something good there, but it’s proving challenging to get past the opening blast of scent. But of course, I soldier on, perfume warriorette that I am.;) One of these days I’ll ‘get it’ :d

I so agree about the ‘shrink-wrappedness’ of America, and I find it sad. As a child, I rode my bike without helmet, elbow or knee pads, and took my weekly allowance to a real five and dime with wooden floors, all the goods in open bins where they’d been handled by many hands before mine. I loved the five and dime. It always smelled of penny candy, cedar shavings from the cages of hamsters and mice to ‘adopt’, the sawdusty scent of sunlight beating down on the wooden floors, and the tiny cobalt bottle of Evening in Paris that the proprietess kept by the cash register to give samples to interested customers.

A few years back when my son was young, the closest he could get to my experience was taking his weekly allowance, bundling up in enough bike safety gear that he resembled a hockey goalie, and going to the nearest CVS store where everything smelled like hospital antiseptic and all the goods that weren’t behind the counter were bound securely in unopenable plastic containers. Not the same experience at all.

Admin
18 years ago

Cuming fromt the Jub 25 Women for me. I didn’t mind it, though, it’s great cumin mixed in with everything else, but stayed cuminy pretty long on me. So that’s two of us.

That black musk is amazing, huh? I spilled a drop on my desk. 17 washings later, it took, to get the smell gone, and I swear I can still smell it when I get close — hence the bagged by itself. Remember, this is the one Warren called bottled F. They did have one perfume there with a pretty high dosage of this, and the other notes really did a pretty great job of making it palatable. They were just completely out of that perfume, so I only have a little bit of it. Did I send that? Musk essence tamed’ish, sorta, except the sex squirts over the sides from time to time.

Black Widow — I swear, I got the absolutely worse “Car air freshener” thing from that. I really, really wanted to love it, but it was so wrong on me, it’s not even funny.

Layer Mitsouko? ARe you out of your flipping mind? But I’m thinking Mitsouko parfum and Theorema extrait (riffing on Anne’s thought) could be pretty spectacular. Or maybe an incense underneath it? I’m not that brave, though.

Anne
18 years ago

March read your post late last night/early this a.m. and the thing that stuck in my head was layering Mitsouko. Had a dream about it actually. Anyway, Dr. Lee needs to dissect that during next weeks session. 😕
Layering Mitsouko. Now this is just theory mind you, will try later, after work. How about amping up the amber? A well behaved amber, no Diamont Noir, maybe MPG Amber Precieux? Some same notes. Could work to skank the base juuust a little. And another that came to mind and I don’t know why, Rousse? Though I don’t know if that one could stand on its cinnamon legs long enough to be seen. I actually thought about Theorema but that would be an all out battle and no one would win that lose-lose match up. Can’t wait to try these later!

:)>-

Lee
18 years ago
Reply to  Anne

:-b

Am ready when you are Anne. Make yourself nice and comfy and tell me aaaalllll about it.

Anne
18 years ago
Reply to  Lee

Your insight into my psyche after your relentless insomnia should be spot-on!

Gail S
18 years ago

I haven’t tried any of your candy of the day :(( except for Chanel No.5 (which I have loved for years, but never wear) so I will reply with my candy list.

1. Biehl eo01 – like the top notes (Tangerine, blood orange, cardamom), but the drydown is too similar to many things I already own (styrax, vanilla, cinnamon, tonka bean, cedar, vetiver, patchouli).

2. Biehl eo02 – No. Just no.

3. Biehl eo03 – can you tell I’m trying to figure out how to do these Biehls methodically? And keep them straight? Lots of people who have similar tastes to mine have really been liking this one, so I had high hopes. Listed notes are
Green leaves, orange flower, pepper, peach, raspberry, neroli, lily of the valley, egyptian jasmine, tuberose, ylang, clove bud, violet, elemi, sandalwood, vetiver, almonds, ambergris, musk. See how far down the tuberose is? But it’s no use, it’s all tuberose on me. I hate tuberose!

4. CB I Hate Perfume Revelation – True love! You reviewed this recently and inspired me to try it even though I’m not a fig fan. Thank you, thank you, thank you. A FB of this is definitely in my future. It just makes me happy.

18 years ago

March, that makes 3 of us. You, Linda and I all smell cumin there. Because of cumin, it is less similar to Diorella, for me. Closer to Femme or Diorama (which I prefer anyway, so I am happy :-)). But in the Roudnitska territory, anyway 🙂

PS. Oh, I see L’s and J’s comments. OK, so that’s 5 of us 🙂

Sariah
18 years ago

I’ll take the no smell supermarket over the stale fried chicken smell supermarket. You know the ones with the deli section that have the fried chicken etc under a heat lamp and no ventillation? Thinking specifically of the Safeway and WalMart in Frederick, but I’m sure there are others. One of my least favorite smells ever.

You could make double-bagged skank a whole new category of skank.

My first impression of Jubilation 25 was that it smells like a mix between Arpege and Femme with aldehydes, fruity spicyness and the lush oakmoss greenish base. Liked it a lot, but probably not me. I loved the XXV, was surprised by your tepid reaction, will await crow eating.

Lee
18 years ago
Reply to  March

Gross.

*puts on Puritan headgear*

I hardly ever touch fried food…

*disappears up own holier-than-thou rectum*

Lee
18 years ago
Reply to  March

Never heard of em. Must be foreign muck.;)

sariah
18 years ago
Reply to  March

Ewww, nasty. Ya, moved to Reston last week, still living out of boxes though.

Judith
18 years ago

Well, I get cumin in the Jub 25–but not an overload. I like it very much (which is a good thing, b/c XXV, which I started out liking, began to get a bit shaving-creamy on me [Duchavours sometimes do that to me]). Gotta try that black musk. Mr. Lily HATES it when I wear his clothes now–even his robes.:(

carmencanada
18 years ago

That lack of smell in the American environment may be the reason why Americans always comment on the stinkiness of Paris… and Parisians. One of my great joys is going into the open-air market every Sunday and sticking my nose every which way: a fabulous school for perfume lovers. I’ve also found that even non-perfumista Parisian men, if they’re into wine, can pretty much break down and analyse a scent when they’re asked to because it’s part of their training (their basic software, as it were). Straying a bit from the subject, here… But anyone who comes to Paris should visit a terrific spice shop in the Marais called Izrael: it’s got barrels full of spice and beautifully presented olives. A feast for the eyes and nose!

Lee
18 years ago
Reply to  carmencanada

Love Izrael!

Elle
18 years ago

There were three things that really struck me when I moved to the US for college – the grass/lawn obsession, the cookie cutter feel of subdivisions and the lack of smells. I’ve come to terms w/ the first two since I married a grass man and live in a subdivision (OK, I have huge problems w/ this and it was the grass man’s choice to live here, but I do really try to see the positives), however I still am in mourning over the lack of smells. What is up w/ the hyper sanitization/neutralization? Black Musk Essence sounds like one of those scents I consider to be essential to my continued existence on the planet. Layering it w/ Mitsouko sounds like a blast – can’t wait! And wonder how it would layer w/ CB Musk. Will have to experiment.
I definitely get the cumin in Jubilation XXV – part of why I adore it so.
Only came around to appreciating Chanel #5 a few years ago and that was via the parfum. Have since come to really love the edp as well.
Loved what Teri wrote about Iris Gris.

Louise
18 years ago

My first sniff of the Jubilation for gals was “hey, maybe March would like this skank”. It was sooo not nice on me, not just because of the armpit, but it also went really powdery. At least it saves me a gazillion dollars.

I got Black Widow for Haloween because of the bottle, and so I could respond to “what are you wearing” to my now-ex bf. But I kinda like it, doesn’t have any rough edges on me. And the price-oy, no pain. And I can only show my maturity by saying I’ll try the No. 5 parfum-I still can’t really abide aldehydes, but have learned the words “parfum” and “extrait” change everything. I got a tiny bottle of Cinnabar parfum on ebay, and it takes all the nose burn of the EdT and EdT away, and leaves a stunning and smooth clove punch.

You know of my fabulous visit to the Arabian Oud shop last summer-all of it delighted me, even my pure oud-bomb. Must try the musk and jasmin.

Louise
18 years ago
Reply to  Louise

I know…a field trip is in order over to Langley Park…and all the Indian and Korean and other grocery/spice shops. We’ll be oozing rich skanky spices for days! And you don’t like Arabie#-o

18 years ago

Mmmmm…nothing says Christmas like skank.;) I had planned on smelling of incense or spice, something seasonally appropriate, but you’ve turned my head with the “Hello, Sailor” bit. Yeah, that’s where I’m wanting to go today. Gotta simply havta get my nose on some of that Black Musk business. I still would love for you to do a post on the Greatest Hits of Skank. I’ve never tried Mitsouko either, but it sounds like you’re gonna smell like fun today. Love it. When I’m going for that just-rolled-out-of-the-gutter effect, I layer MKK and CB Musk, for those special days when I just don’t give a damn. Or the CB Musk with Avignon for my Pagan vs. the Priest moments. Anyway, loved your post and thanks for my obsession of the week: the Arabian Ouds. Keep an eye out in the mail, you’ve got some holiday fun coming.

Lee
18 years ago

Teri’s words are pitch-perfect, aren’t they?

So, my two-pennorth worth.
Jub25 – don’t get the cumin. Do get angular chypre in the top and midnotes, though this eventually gives way to beautifully rounded florals. And it smells expensive, or maybe the price point just convinces me it does…

Black Widow – never smelled it, but that bottle. Me oh my.

No. 5 parfum. A colleague at work wears this. Boy, she smells good.

Black musk. That teeny vial is trying to take over my bedroom, seeping into every fabric and surface. From the vial it’s more floral than anything – on skin there IS an incredibly potent mildew effect – I feel like Jacob Marley in it. And like you, I love sniffng those stores. Do you ever see those dried flattened ducks in Chinese stores – they look like large misshapen frisbies, or something you’d find as wall decoration at Ed Gein’s place.

Please report back on your brother-in-law. I will too.

Lee
18 years ago
Reply to  Lee

p.s. Insomnia strikes again. Been up since 3.30am. Sheesh.

March
18 years ago
Reply to  Lee

See, I want what you, Luca, Robin and Marina get. I can *smell* the part you’re getting, and eventually it really does smell very much like Diorella to me, but that cumin! I think I might be one of those cumin-enhancers; even a little tends to be quite strong on me. Not that I complain about that generally, but in this case…

Hehe about the Musk — can you believe such a tiny vial packs that much oomph?

And yeah, those flat ducks freak me out. They have them in Thailand too (lots of Chinese) and when we were putting together a picnic or dinner we’d look at them and then say … no. Let’s not. They must put them in a press or something.:-ss

Louise
18 years ago
Reply to  March

Roadkill