“Excuse me while I kiss the sky.”
So! A random thread at Basenotes got me thinking – does anyone really need a 1 liter bottle of perfume for 8-9k U.S.? I thought I’d come here and ask a few thousand of my closest friends.
It is parfum concentration and has notes of orange blossom, jasmine, bitter almond, wood, vanilla and musk. It was created by Sylvaine Delacourt and Randa Hammani. And I did love Quand Vient la Pluie and am so glad I worked out the split for that so I could sniff it and enjoy it. Worth it if the bottle could be split? How many of you would be interested in that? Price, including in decanting costs, bottle costs, shipping, etc., would probably run about $9-11 a ml, selling in splits of 8 ml, 15 ml or 30 ml. If there’s enough interest so most of this bottle could be paid for, I think it could get done. So jump in on comments if you would seriously be in and for how much and feel free to pass it on to anyone you think might be interested. I just hate to have one of these 60-some bottles not out there for those who want to to sniff it. The cost would wind up being about the same or a little less than Guerlain charges for an ounce of any of their pure parfums, about 300-330 per ounce.
A more than generous friend sent me the Soivohle Violets and Rainwater. It is pretty much straight up what’s in the title, beautiful, subtle violets and fresh rainwater. It’s like crystal rain droplets with the sun hitting it. I can see why this is such a favorite. It’s what I hope my weather turns out to be one day when it stops going from 10 degrees to 70 degrees.
Purple Love Smoke from Soivohle, on the other hand, is not as straightforward. Violet, violet leaf and earth. Wow, it is all darkness where Violets and Rainwater is light. A rich, pulsing purple, I’m sorta thinking a decadent king – plush and overripe and slightly decayed – living in the 1970s with strobe lights and blotter acid. Between the two? I can’t decide. PLS is perfect for your dark, poetic days when you want to lock yourself up with a tragic novel, a forbidden love and your inner sorrow. V&R is perfect for the days when all is bright and lovely and no sadness can touch you.
Two great violet offerings.
This weekend I finally watched Jane Eyre. I didn’t expect to like it in the least. All my life, I’ve just heard how overwrought the Bronte sisters are, so I avoided both of them, and I still need to read the book, but the movie captured beautifully the story, and I was enchanted. So do I need to read the book, or can I just stop with the series?
Warning, if I seem a wee bit cranky over the next three days, I blame it on my juice fast. I’m trying this three-day vegetable and juice fast because? Well, I don’t know, but I just feel the need for spring cleaning of several different varieties.
Patty,
I would like to participate with 8ml. Looking forward to it!
Hrmph. My comment was supposed to go under carmencanada’s comment about sniffing Champs Elysees.
Just adding: it was worth sniffing that parfum de Champs Elysees, but I certainly don’t need a $10,000 Baccarat bottle of the stuff.
Patty,
I’d go for 8 ml. I’m with you on the violets, too. Loved Stephen Jones.
Purple, the color of royalty.:) Are these juices as REGAL as they should be??? Perhaps 8ml will tell me…They certainly sound winning. (“Violets and Rainwater” just could become one of my signature fragrances.)
I love that you used Hendrix to illustrate this post! And good luck on the juice fast, I think I’d be too cranky…
Given the fact that I love purple, all things Hendrix, and I have an overly obvious purple screenname, I should be all over these violet fragrances, right? Wrong!
And, given the fact that (in spite of their recent lapses) I love Guerlain, one would expect me to go for this split, right? Wrong again, yuck, yuck!
Woman, I am so fixated on these new MDCI fragrances, I can’t really think about much else, at least perfume-wise, these days. I must save up for a bottle of RO!
Love and hugs! And, hey, good luck on that three-day fast.
It verges on the tragic that authoresses such as the Brontes, Jane Austen, and even Mary Shelley were the great grandmothers of such ‘lowest common denominator’ writers as Barbara Cartland and the Harlequin Romances writers.
By all means read Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Daphne du Maurier’s books such as Rebecca, and my personal favorite, Frenchman’s Creek. Read them on an overcast and windy day, preferrably curled up in a window seat with a couple of crunchy apples like Jo in “Little Women” (this has always been my favorite way to read a book).
It’s become almost shameful to admit that we are emotionally-driven creatures in this modern world where we are expected to be all things possible — high-powered career women, flawless wives and model mothers. Sometimes we need to watch “Beaches”, read “Jane Eyre”, heave our breasts just a little, sigh, weep softly, have a case of the vapors, and have a megrim or two.
And on a scented note (and why don’t we write those anymore?), please sign me up for $50 worth of the Guerlain if you decide to do the split.
I am not much of a fan of orange blossom scents – unless they are redeemed by a hefty dose of cumin – however, my curiosity on this one is winning out. Sign me up for 8 ml…possibly 15. Sigh. And that PLS sounds *incredible*! Love the names she’s chosen for both of them.
I’ve been dying to try Violets and Rainwater,I’ve also got to replace my spilled sample of Tobacco and Tulle…I dropped it on the ground then foolishly picked it up from the wrong end and dumped the last few drops out! Unfortunately, that Guerlain is too rich for my blood…I’m thinking I’ll have to content myself with Tabac Aurea..the new scent from Sonoma Scent Studio. It sounds so good and should be out any day now, and that one I can afford!
Hi Patty!
I would love to be able to say that I will not support Guerlain (or any perfume house for that matter)in their marketing ploy.
Alas, I am not that strong :(( Please sign me up for at least 8ml :d Thanks.
Boy, I thought the 500 ml bottles of AD Eau d’Hadrien were excessive, although I did manage to blow through two of them.
I’m not a big fan of the Bronte sisters, but if you’re in the market for a 19th century overwrought female protagonist, I highly recommend Henry James’ “The Portrait of a Lady”. That one rocked my world the first time I read it. 🙂
Oops! I meant “AG” Annick Goutal.
I am soo on the fence about the guerlain. The notes sound good in theory, but I’ve been so burned by the modern releases. So burned. yet my hand is reaching towards the flame …. I could very very possibly do a 8 ml. I wish they perfume powers that be didn’t think of Houston as a hick town and put a dratted guerlain boutique here so I could sniff. Come on now!! we are VERY cosmopolitan!!!
As for the Brontes, what are you waiting for woman!!! Make a pot of tea and pray for a stormy day. Read Jane Eyre, feel the tragic, delicious agony. Read Wuthering Heights and book yourself, (oh and me too) a trip to rural England to wander the moors and feel utterly, pathetically, romantically doomed. Wear Onda or Djedi while doing so. You will not regret it.
Off to my library shelves, book craving!
You’re in good company, Denver is considered a hick town too. Though I have heard we may get our OWN Hermes boutique. But watch it be one that won’t stock Hermessences. Though just the scarves, etc., will be enough of a temptation.
Yes, ma’am, will do pronto. It’s sunshiney today, but I’m sure that will change in a week!
Sorry but No freakin way. I think it’s gaudy and gross that they’re even making this $9,000 a bottle scent and I will not give them any sort of financial incentive to continue to do so.
Hey, don’t apologize! I know a lot of people feel that way, and a part of me does too.I just want to sniff it more than I want to shun this scent. 🙂 I know, that makes me a perfume slut.
I’m riding that edge between doing the right thing like Kristy and telling Guerlain to go “F” themselves but then deep down inside I’m just a little perfume slut like Patty and know I will cave and probably go to 3rd base at least with a little 8ml bottle. Ugh…..I hate myself sometimes. [-(
“One Rainy Wish” might be the Hendrix soundtrack forQuand Vient la Pluie, even though I’m pretty sure golden rose isn’t among the notes. Yes, please sign me up for a split of 8 ml for sure and possibly even 15.
Good choice! Now I need to go re-listen to that while wearing Quand Vient
Don’t know how it got posted here!! Showing my age!!!
You must read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Who was filling your head with nonsense about these great artists being “overwrought?” I guess anyone who writes longer sentences than Hemingway is “overwrought” and that Jane Austen is just so-so catty.
Happy Reading!:)
Well, it’s good to know that I won’t read it and be irritated by the end, yeah!!!
Oh, Patty, no. No, no, no. You must read Jane Eyre. Every film version I have ever been subjected to mucks up the language, skips over the best lines–the beauty of the writing is completely lost, and it is the sweeping prose, as wide and romantic as the moors, that makes that novel what it is. Curl up with a warm mug of something of chilly misty day and read, read, read.
Magpie (Jane Eyre addict since 1988)
Yes, Ma’am! 🙂 Well, it’s Colorado, so we should have one day in March or April where we get a foot plus of snow, and that will be the day I’ll read it, if I haven’t by then
Patty, you are generous (and brave!) to offer up a split of MPN. Thank you.
That said, I really wish you wouldn’t, because it will just encourage Guerlain to pull more of these “oooh-so-expensive-and-so-exclusive-and-so-enormous” bottle stunts. Yes, I said stunt, it just feels like one big stunt to me. Like previous posters have said, the recent actual *juices* from Guerlain haven’t been all that sublime.
Joining you in crankiness (and I don’t even have a juice fast to blame!),
Anna (GalileosDaughter)
😡
Well, if there’s not enough interest, then I won’t do it. No way could I afford to take that kind of gamble on that expensive of a bottle.
Yeah, it’s a stunt, but I assume they have a clientele that loves knowing they have one of 62 bottles, or whatever it is, in the world, and they want to keep them happy too. I get that marketing, even though I don’t really like it. I’m not one of those customers, but with enough of my friends, we bust the little system and get some anyway. 🙂
I have a love/hate thing going on with violets. Candied violets tend to leave me cold, although I keep trying to like them. But dark earthy violets can be just extraordinary. So, PLS goes on the to-be-tried list.
As for the Guerlain, I am finally finished ranting about the name (I think) and I still want to try it. So yes, I am good for a decant, though probably on the smaller side. 8-15 mls I would say.
PLS is definitely not candied, so it should fall in your violet you like category.
When I heard about that bottle, I just crossed it off the list of anything I’d consider, but then when you hear the mls and do the math, you can start justifying it if 50 people will go along with you. 🙂 Stupid, I know, and I do hope someone gets to sniff it first, which would really help me if it turns out to be a dud.
Well, Jimi Hendrix, Janye Eyre and Guerlain in one post? That’s hard to beat: one of my all-time favourite books (I just got a new, limited-edition Arts & Crafts cloth-bound copy for my birthday), my all-time favourite perfume house (that is, until LVMH intervened…..) – and the long-suffering Other Half has been deaf in one ear since he went to see Hendrix in 1966!
And of course, whilst realising I might not like the stuff, I will definitely be up for a decant. Thank you!
It was a happy accident! And don’t forget the fasting. I try to hit lots of subjects when my brain is flying apart like an expertly targeted clay pigeon.
Jane Eyre! I re read almost every year. Wuthering Heights is totally different, absolutely extreme in every way, painfully romantic, the original romantic novel.
So glad you are taking the initiative on the Guerlain. How else will us mere mortals ever know these sublime experiences?
No kidding? Well, I’ve read the first few pages already and have a pretty good idea of the prose, so I do need to read it.
M. Guerlain had a very interesting comment on his blog in his News section on Mon Precieux Nectar saying it sounded almost identical to J. P. Guerlain’s 180 Ans de Creations. See: http://monsieurguerlain.blogspot.com/2008/02/180-ans-de-creations-1828-2008.html
(I hope it is okay to link this.)
Personally I am NOT impressed with Ms. Delacourt’s abilities as a perfumer, and where the heck is Thierry?!?
I agree with Nika above – beautifully put, and of course makes me want to try those two scents. I have read Jane Eyre numerous times for its poetic language, and I think you’d enjoy the book.
And on fasting… I find the greatest benefit is not physical, but that it really facilitates meditation. Good luck!
Well, I hope someone gets a chance to smell it somewhere, just so we all know!
That’s what I’ve heard as well about fasting, so I’m eager to find out!
Patty, when I read about the new Guerlain, the VERY FIRST THOUGHT in my head was, “Well, I guess The Perfumed Court will be getting a bottle of this, so (quick math in my head) that’s about $10 a mil….” I mean, before I even wondered what it might smell like.
I think there will be enough interest in it to make it worth buying. I don’t know if I’d buy a decant, but then again, I just might.
It’s a LOT of a stretch for us to do, which is why most of it would have to be done as a split. I’m okay with either doing it or not, though. I think the price point is ridiculous in total, but per ml, it’s in line with what they normally charge. I just don’t get why they do the mondo bottle? I’d think they could sell more in smaller quantities, but maybe that’s the point, they just want a few out there.
Kate! Glad someone else besides me thought Mr. Hendrix was lookin’ for a new love connection.
I was forced to read Jane Eyre for a Lit History course & did so begrudgingly, only to be shocked by how much I loved it. I always thought it was a book for spinster librarians, which I guess I really am at heart, but I still find myself rereading it every few years.
Good prose knows no gender. I identify with Jane, even though I wasn’t abandoned and left alone as a kid, but being the youngest of five and a lot of a dreamer, sometimes I felt like I was just alone.
Hi Patty,
I’m definitely interested in splitting the bottle of Guerlain Mon Precieux Nectar, i may take 30 ml. Guerlain boutique in Bergdorf Goodman may have a tester already next week, on one hand i would love to try it and on the other hand so afraid to fall in love with it.
Oh, that would be great! I hope they get in a tester, it would be so much better to know what this smells like before trying to get an order together!
Miss Patty,
I love you and I love the idea of a good split. I’m in for 15mls for certain, possibly 30. We’ll be in touch. :d
I was pretty sure you’d be in. If we can get enough of our friends to be as gullible/stupid as we are, yeah, we can sniff it!
I think the “Mon Précieux Nectar” ought to be smell before purchase — the recent Guerlain track record has been less than stellar. And the name is in the same vein as the Carnal Elixirs — almost synonymous. I think “precious nectar” is the lady equivalent of the “magnificent secretions” we ladies produce… um… spontaneously.
So do you think that they’d let you sniff it if you went to the boutique? Surely it’s available for just a random sniff. It wasn’t when we were there, at least I didn’t see it.
I agree, though I liked the Elixirs fine. They aren’t my favorite in the line by a longshot, but other than the weird marketing thing, I think at least one of them could have stood on its own fine in the Matiere line.
Well, if they pulled out the Champs Élysée tester for me, I don’t see why I couldn’t sniff this one… I didn’t utterly dislike the Elixirs either, but two of them were way too sweet to my taste, and the third (the chypre) was nice but no susbtitute for Parure.
I’m glad you tried and commented on Purple Love Smoke. It’s kind of enchanting and I can’t tell if I love it or just think it’s weird yet seductive. To me, that’s a good sign. I don’t really get sorrow, though I’ll admit it’s dark — but in an almost sexy, mysterious way. I may end up getting a decant if not a bottle eventually.
As for the Guerlain? Not in this lifetime.
Earth and sorrow always go together for me, especially if it feels cold. when I was sad, I would run until I couldn’t anymore, then throw myself down on the usually cold, hard ground out in a pasture and scream and cry, so that’s my relationship with sorrow and dirt. Plus, I always think of the dirt from graves and funerals. I think it’s just that to dust will we return part of sorrow.
Don’t blame you on the Guerlain. I balance on the knife edge on that thing. I’m so curious about it, but I hate the direction they go with these things.
Damn girl, you’re kiling me with all this Soivohle talk. My CC is gonna go bust after my trip to Maui, and now this. I must try them ALL! You know I’m a natural lovin’ gal and what-not:)>-
But do love the idea of the Guerlain split…..ahh crap.
Sorry!!! Listen, I’m in the same boat, so I can totally relate. How was Maui?
Maui was awesome, thanks for asking. I picked up a terrific Maile jasmine rose perfume oil. Do you know that line? We drove the fabled road to Hana. It was beautiful. My two boys took the curvy road well, only one barfing!!=d>
And thanks for the blog support, you’re awesome.^:)^
Trish,
Call/email Liz and have her put together a sampler pack – she’s so nice about working with you on that. It’s the way I learned about all her fragrances without having to shell out uncessary simoleans – the ones I decided upon are definitely True Love because she sends out these darling, generous samps for not a lotta bucks – plenty of time to get to know a scent.
xo
I’m a total V&R junkie and my next LZ purchase may just be Domino Viole, another violet – dark. Don’t know if it’s darker than PLS, which I haven’t tried. >-)
Musette,
Thanks for the heads up on that one! I certainly will. Her site is lovely and the scents are so enticing!
” ‘scuse me while I kiss this guy” as I always thought the lyrics were.
You are not the only one. Check out the site http://www.kissthisguy.com It is the Archive of Misheard Lyrics 🙂
Very funny stuff.
Wow, Hendrix sure brings up memories of my youth in Boulder,etc…
Yikes!! Would be up for a split 15 ml or so. Thanks
I always substituted in excuse me while I touch the sky. I have no idea why, I just liked it better, I guess?
” PLS is perfect for your dark, poetic days when you want to lock yourself up with a tragic novel, a forbidden love and your inner sorrow. V&R is perfect for the days when all is bright and lovely and no sadness can touch you.”
This reads like poetry, Patty. Beautifully put. Liz Zorn’s perfumes often prompt those kinds of responses from me, but I can never translate them that well.
Well, thanks! I do agree, there always seems to be a tale behind each of them and a place they belong. So I’m all wrapped up in Purple Love Smoke today because I had it on yesterday when I answered the door, and the wafting into the postman’s face was truly magnificent.