Overmuch lately, I find myself ruminating on forgiveness and redemption. How much can a person do before they have gone into the unforgivable, and there is no explanaiton or apology they can make for redemption in another person’s eyes? It’s an individual barrier to be sure. In my faith, we are called to forgive everything because we are all deeply flawed, and we should ask for the grace to do what we are completely unable to do when you are pig-biting mad. No matter if you are religious or not, all of us must struggle with what to forgive, what to forget, and when it is too much.
Oh, no, you’re not going to get a Patty Soap Opera here, y’all.
My next thought – as it should be for any good perfumista – what does forgiveness and redemption smell like? Answering this question has been far tougher than I thought it would be.
Forgiveness smells cold and earthy, as you must set aside your own hurt coldly, take out the emotion, disengage, reach deep within your emotional capacity and rationally overlook the cracks and broken places in another. But it must be a little bit warm because out of the cold must come pity and compassion enough to heat the heart to give genuine forgiveness. It smells like Serge Lutens Iris Silver Mist.
Redemption must smell of hope and promise, going on without ever forgetting what has gone before. It must mix regret with desperation, and at its core must be the smell of humanity, slightly decaying, but beautiful for all of its flaws. I turned over a lot of scents in my mind for this, but finally settled on CB I Hate perfume Cradle of Light or Strange Invisible Perfumes Lady Day…
… and I put them together, side by side, running my nose from my elbow to my hand, and I can smell the limits of forgiveness and redemption, and there are none.
What scents go with forgiveness and redemption for you?
Musette is hard at work on the Chicago Thingy - a get-together with perfume and chocolate in Chicago on a Saturday in September/October. Have you been to Chicago? Chicago has: great food; interesting architecture; excellent theater; amazing shopping. And did I mention chocolate? And perfume? Anyway, that is Musette in the photo, and … wow, look at her, does she not slay? (Musette, is that your bike? I think so.) She is working on a day of chocolate and perfumage including potentially: Saks, L´Artisan, Barneys, Nordstrom, Godiva, Lindt, Ethel´s, Vosges, Sarah´s Candies … wait, sorry, I had to wipe the drool off my keyboard. We´ll also put together a list of other things to see/do/visit, in the perfume/chocolate world and beyond. I took the architecture tour on the river and loved it. We are not calling this a Sniffa – the Karens own that name, as far as I know, so we need something else. I find Chicago Thingy amusing, but Musette quite reasonably thinks we need something more mellifluous in terms of getting the stores to sponsor stuff and cough up goodies. What do you think of Chi-cocoa Scentsation, suggested by our other fab Chicago volunteer, Shelley? Any other ideas/suggestions regarding any aspect of this thingy?
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Annick Goutal Sables seems to be enjoying a (deserved) resurgence, my having run across it recently on the shelf in various places. That´s one I thought would have gotten the chop by now, because it´s so odd, but I´m happy to discover it in the lineup next to the masculine bottles of Duel, Hadrian, Mandragore and the rest. But all the Sables in the world can´t really replace Eau de Monsieur.
I have been told several times that Annick Goutal Eau de Monsieur is discontinued, although I don´t know whether that´s true — it´s the sort of thing sales associates tell you when they don´t have any. I have never seen Monsieur in a retail store. It doesn´t appear on any of the AG websites that I can find, and it´s getting a bit harder to find on the internet. Osmoz calls it a woody chypre and lists citron, oakmoss, amber and sandalwood, a list that feels suspiciously incomplete to me.
I´m pretty sure it was tmp00 who sent me a decant of Eau de Monsieur eons ago, when I was on one of my immortelle benders; he thought it smelled like immortelle, and I agreed. Among other interesting nuggets in The Guide, I was happy to see Tania Sanchez describe Eau de Monsieur as having “the crispness of citrus, a mossy chypre background, all made interesting by a touch of the fascinating caramel-curry note of immortelle.” She labels it citrus mossy and gives it four stars.
Eau de Monsieur starts off as a very Goutal-ish confection of citrus, woods and the sprightly herbal greenness you get from Hadrian. At that point it´s merely enjoyable – the sort of thing, like a higher grade Muelhens 4711, that you´d throw on on a hot summer day. The oakmoss makes its appearance, but even then it is delicate and nuanced; despite its name, this barely qualifies as a masculine. I´d call it solidly unisex, along the lines of Duel or Hadrian. It isn´t until well into the drydown (30 minutes or so) that the immortelle begins its wonderful, distinctive dance on my skin, its maple-curry sweetness tempered beautifully by the dryness of the oakmoss.
I think in its own understated way, Eau de Monsieur is a perfect scent – managing to give just enough (but not too much) of several enjoyable aspects of perfumery. It doesn´t have the kill-me-now, 48-hour one-note persistence that Sables has, the only time immortelle has worn out its welcome, and then some. If it had more of a chypre feel it would conversely be less accessible in warm weather, which is when it seems most right, although you could argue it´s essentially seasonless. It´s a cologne that´s more than a cologne, by which I mean it´s not gone in 20 minutes, yet it retains that element of refreshment. In contrast, Dior´s Eau Noire is many things, but refreshing it is not, at least not to me. The only suggestion I can make to the house regarding Monsieur’s improvement would be to resurrect it if, in fact, it is dead, and place it prominently on the shelf at a Sephora near you.
My brother has presented me with a challenge, so I, of course, turn to all of you to see what I’ve done so far and to see if you have suggestions or additions.
Tom opened up a bar and grill recently, which is is doing an amazing business in a tiny town in Kansas called Hoxie – everyone loves his food because he’s a great cook - and he barely has time to sleep, though he is as happy as a clam, It’s one the most fun place in the town world to go — one of those places where everyone does know your name and people talk all around the room to everyone in the restaurant instead of just across their own table. I attribute that atmosphere to Tom’s personality, which is outgoing, brash, irreverent, and he’s one of the funniest people I’ve ever known. The logo for the bar is “Beer, Burgers and Bullshit,” and that pretty much is just the way it is. He does look a little like Sam Elliott, but don’t tell him I said that because he has a monstrous big ego that needs no further feeding and watering. He calls me lil lil sissah (as opposed to my big sister, Shirley, who is just lil sissah), and he is generally a charming, unrepentant rogue… and he will take that as a compliment. Of course I adore him.
Success has its problems, though. Tom would like to get rid of the Eau de Grease scent that often follows him around, and he also likes to think of himself as a stud (*shrugs*). He wants me to put together a “Sam Elliott Sampler Pack” full of all the scents I think Sam Elliott would wear, which would then be perfect for him.. I want it to be a wide variety of types, like some musk, leather, smoke, etc. This is what I’ve got so far, please let me know if you think one of these doesn’t work or if it needs something that I’m just not thinking of:
- Serge Lutens Musc Koublai Khan – it’s pretty likely he will sniff this and say something about it smelling like his pair after he’s been working all day (the language would be much more frank and graphic than my delicate version), but I think if he waits 30 minutes, he may find himself liking it – or not, but I have to be there when he tries it.
- CB Musk Reinvention – I’m iffy on this one. It will either be a big hit or a big miss, but I still think he should try it just so I can get a read on what his skank tolerance is. Since I grew up with him and worked on the farm with him and he rubbed his sweaty armpit on my head, I’m thinking his skank tolerance has to be high.
- Etat Tom of Finland – I just think this is great smoky leather scent. Since his name is Tom, he’ll like that, too, plays into his ego to wear a scent with his name on it.
- Annick Goutal Eau de Fier – This may be uncomfortably close to the smoky bar and grill smell.
- Knize Ten – Great, classic leather, plenty rugged
- Caron Yatagan – why not?
- Helmut Lang Cuiron – iffy on this one. It’s a little less rugged, but could work great for his more refined moments, if he had any.
- Ormonde Jayne Ormonde Man – for special occasions, if he ever gets an evening out or just feel, well, um beautiful for the night, in a very manly way, of course.
- Parfums de Nicolai New York – because it is subtle and beautiful and perfect.
- Le Labo Patchouli 24 – sorry, every guy on my list gets this to try. It’s mandatory, they may hate it, but I don’t care, they have to sniff it.
- Hermessence Vetiver Tonka — again, always on any guy sampler list because I think it’s elegant and addictive.
- Hermessence Poivre Samarcande – great peppery scent
- Montale Black Oud — Needed an oud in here for him to try and see if he likes it, might as well start with the killer.
- Elternhaus kowtowingtoeveryreligiontothepointthatitsoffensive thing or Mark Buxton 03 from Biehl – Despite the goofiness of the Elternhaus, I think it’s a great incense, as is the MB03 from Biehl. Both Mark Buxton, who I really ought to marry. Does anyone knows if he plays on my side of the playground?
- Cdg Incense — can’t make up my mind on this. Thinking no on Avignon and Kyoto and leaning towards Zagorsk for the woody elements, which will cover a woody scent as well
Then I have a bunch of follow-on scents, depending on what he liks here. So…. the thoughts?
First off, a shout-out to Patty, who will be on NPR at 11:40 EST this morning, as part of a Perfumes: The Guide interview with LT and TS, I guess they´re going for the blogger perspective. Go, Patty! Second, a reminder, this coming Friday we are featuring your anonymous reviews of Clinique Aromatics Elixir and Happy, and Tommy Girl, so get those reviews emailed in to perfume dot posse at gmail dot com (with the correct punctuation marks substituted for “dot” and “at”) and we´ll print them. Third, next Monday, a week from today, is another free-for-all discussion on The Guide. Because, seriously, We Need To Talk. I Have Issues. Thus far I´ve flagged reviews that make me feel smug, a couple that make me want to try (or retry) something, and a couple that kill me. Okay, on to today´s topic.
The problem with reading about scents is you may learn something. Luca Turin has spoiled two scents for me in just this way recently. In The Guide he describes 21 Costume National as an “anisic oriental” and bam! Although anise is not listed among the 21 notes, when I smell it, anise is now the dominant note of this milky woody wonder (he gives it three stars). Anise being about as welcome in my fragrance collection as a bear at a picnic, my ardor for 21 has cooled. Also, I have had an on-again off-again relationship with L´Artisan Safran Troublant for quite some time, but it appears to be on again, my having acquired one of the small coffret bottles. Then I read LT´s review (four stars) in which he talks about the wonderful interplay among the saffron, vanilla and rose. Rose! Of course! The rose note was obvious as soon as I read it. Now, the rose having moved squarely to the forefront, it hogs the stage every time I smell it. I can barely see the saffron behind it.
Vexed by these developments, I dug around in all my samples looking for something different. Kelly had sent me some other Dawn Spencer Hurwitz scents, so I checked those out. Then I turned my attention to Gail´s package full of fragrances by Liz Zorn. (Thanks Kelly and Gail!)
The great thing about perfumery is, you can have sniffed so very, very much and there are still entire lines you know nothing about. I selected two Liz Zorns to put on - Grand Canyon, because Marina had blogged on it and I´d wanted to try it, and Pink Praline, because I was feeling perverse and it seemed, based on the label, to be the one thing I´d be least likely to enjoy.
LZ Pink Praline gave me an immediate masochistic satisfaction – I smiled, awaiting burial under a giant mass of what smelled like sugar and cocoa, with an odd discordant note I couldn´t place. I usually loathe chocolate in my fragrance, and this was no exception. After three minutes it quiets down quite a bit, the odd top note fades, and I began to … well, to like it. Go figure. I decided to look at the notes: pink grapefruit, cocoa, maple, dark roasted coffee, spices, cinnamon, honey, fenugreek, vanilla. The odd note at the top is the grapefruit – yes, a sweet citrus on top of cocoa. I can´t pick the coffee out until the drydown, when it becomes quite prominent. In the drydown it´s a seamless, not overly sweet gourmand confection – the smell of being in a bakery, but a nice one, and the maple/fenugreek gives an immortelle-esque twist. You choco/gourmand freaks should check this out.
LZ Grand Canyon (sweet orange, clementine, blood orange, neroli, laurel leaf, palma rosa, black pepper, labdanum, benzoin, honey, myrrh, sandalwood, spices, rose, jasmine, vetiver) starts out with a jumble of citrus, rose and laurel, and my immediate reaction was – nah. It had that kind of macerated green soup vibe that wasn´t working for me. Then the citrus fades into the spices, jasmine and woods, it becomes an warmly elegant comfort scent – the kind that´s pretty enough to wear out, more sophisticated than your favorite sweatshirt, but just as cozy. My favorite of the bunch listed in this post.
I sat out in the sun on the back porch, the first day it was warm enough to do so. I should have gotten out my sun hat. But I didn´t. Sitting there, wondering about sniffing the other Liz Zorn samples, my bad mood gone, cataloging my constant stream of perfumed thoughts (I never ordered those last DSH samples!, and do I already have a vial of Givenchy Vetyver and don´t realize it?), I suddenly understood. It wouldn´t matter if I smelled them all and never smelled them again, much less owned them. It explains my phenomenal sample collection versus my relatively sparse bottle collection. I watched those bees buzz all around me, looking for their next hit, and I realized: I am a perfume vagabond. I want to taste the honey from every single flower on this earth, and if I never own that flower… that´s okay. I´m just a bee, and it was worth it.
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DSH Tamarind Paprika – this one fascinates me. Half the time – a bitter, sour, nasty, cheapo potpourri-from-hell smell. The other half of the time – an interesting tobacco-and-mulling-spices.
DSH Prana smells exactly like the inside of an Aveda store.
DSH Vanille – a rich, straight, gourmand vanilla I enjoyed sniffing on the edge of my thumb, and would probably kill me in larger doses.
DSH Arome d´Egypt – DSH does spice and gourmand scents really well. This is sort of a spice market/incense scent.
DSH Jitterbug – this is in fact a wonderful old-fashioned spicy oriental fragrance that one could imagine wafting up from various vintage bottles.
Liz Zorn Sunset Rider – huh. To the extent we´re developing a trend, what I´m discovering sampling her stuff is I find the top notes jarring, and then the whole fragrance opens up and shifts in a direction I like better. Having done this several times now, I´m kind of enjoying the construct; it gets my attention. Sunset Rider starts off with what I think is a citrus/sandalwood blast, then dries down into a fairly indolic jasmine, and you know I like my jasmine dirty.
LZ Vanillaville. From her website: “A rustic, smoky vanilla, with the essence of pipe tobacco and leather. Notes include Almond, Tonka, Tarragon, Birch Tar and Coffee.” To me it smelled like a perfect sweet pipe tobacco rather than leather.
LZ Solstice – (formerly Peace on Earth?). Balsam, white pine, rose, jasmine, violet, cassie, clove, sandalwood, agarwood, rosewood, frankincense, myrrh, amber, woods, balsam of Peru, orris, patchouli, tuberose, moss, ambrette, vanilla. A floral incense. I got the extrait. It´s very soft and comforting, lightly spicy. I want to spray this on and see how I felt about it, I think I would love it. For some reason it´s not coming up at all on her website.
LZ Chado – Green Tea, Blue Cypress, fresh herbs. The website describes it as GRASSY-DRY-HERBAL, which is not my sort of thing. However, that´s a perfect description.
LZ Oolong – a peach tea and tooooo sweeet on me. The only one of the bunch I really didn´t care for.
LZ Blood Orange and Vetiver – hey, remember Wickle Chestnut & Vetiver? No? Sigh. That was such a great scent. Its simplity in concept was part of its charm. This is along the same lines – a sweet/tart juicy orange mixed with a fairly rooty vetiver.
LZ Cordovan Rose – the big rose opening up and walloped my nose, but before I could scream in horror the birch tar and glove leather painted a smile on my face. I still wouldn´t wear it, because it´s rose, but fans of leathery roses might love this. The rose fades over time, leaving me with a soft, sweet leather.
Liz Zorn is, I think, moving her goods to her new website, selling them under a different name, Soivohle, and I´m going to gripe that I hate the setup, in which all the fragrances are sold using abbreviations – Sunset Rider becomes SR-05-N. Hon, why? They already have (slightly groovy) names, which I kinda like. I view this as a step backward. Alphanumeric reference-style naming is dull and hard to remember. It didn´t work well for Parfums MDCI, it didn´t work well for biehl.parfumkunstwerke, and it ain´t gonna work well for you either.
bee image: pdphoto.org
When I came across this gorgeous painting in the Louvre, many years ago, I was shocked. Much in the way I believe Shakespeare’s contemporary audience was when they first saw the sleepwalking, murderous (at least complicit) Lady in the famous play. I adore painting and Fusli was as yet unknown to me. I pretty much stuck to the Italians and the Germans and well-known Dutch, etc at the time. I adore Shakespeare and embracing the tragic romantic that is me, I tend to go back to the great tragedies most often. Lear is of course the greatest, but I do love Macbeth. It is the most dramatic. What does this have to do with perfume? I will tell you. I see paintings like this and I immediately wonder….what do the doctor and the attendant in the background smell? What kind of dark sillage does the Lady leave behind as she wanders the halls, oblivious to her mutterings? Does she smell of bright, cheerful flowers to bely her foul heart? She was after all trying desperately to appear sunny, almost flirty three acts ago. She tried to shed her humanity (she asked to be unsexed, which of course meant humanity, not womanhood)….so would she have doused herself in the softest of rose oils? I think her sheets were heavy with sweat and tears and she, heavy with her deeds, smelled of darkness and despair….These are not Spring thoughts, but I can’t help myself. I think Lady Macbeth’s vanity would have been filled with “pretty” scents, but she would have loathed them all. She would have secretly longed to, “cross the aisle” as it were. She would have doused herself in her fathers’ and brothers’ scents (I have invented a family for her). I think her private collection would have been filled with birches and woods and other dark scents. This is not to say that her actions were typically “masculine”. I simply believe the character indulged a very distorted notion of what is feminine and what is masculine. She was quite simply one twisted woman. If I were to perfume this character, I think I would choose Lutens’ Rose de Nuit. A dark gorgeous rosy chypre with so much red rose and so much depth, I can see Lady Macbeth’s damned spot each time I smell it. So, whom would you love to scent and what would it be……doesn’t have to be the Bard.
Patty
March
