Here are links to two interesting articles in today’s New York Times spring fashion magazine supplement:

Message in a Bottle, regarding the iconic Chanel No. 5 flacon;

and Chandler Burr’s article on the Reg Vardy Gallery’s recent show, If There Ever Was: An Exhibition of Extinct and Impossible Smells,  — “as eerie, terrifying and enchanting as it was ingenious. The curator, Robert Blackson, an American then at the School of Arts, Design and Media at the University of Sunderland, had become interested in synthetic scent materials, which were first introduced in the late 1800s. A specialist in contemporary art, he came to understand that the modern perfumer´s appetite for the abstract and unexplainable, like a painter´s, is what binds the world of contemporary fragrances to contemporary art.´´   I’d be scared to smell several of the contributions like those by Christophe Laudameil and Mark Buxton, but I’d love to smell Bertrand Duchaufour’s.

March

Indulge me in a bit of whining here: I am so tired of mainstream fragrance flankers that I want to take them all and…and…and… Honestly, what could I possibly do with them? Fragrances containing alcohol are highly flammable, so starting a giant bonfire is out of the question. Having a weenie roast in the stadium parking lot is one thing, but feeding beer to the fire is not an option. The bottles are glass, so theoretically they can be recycled. But really, how many bud vases does one person need? It´s like trying to come up with alternate uses for a hockey puck; besides the obvious, and using it as a paperweight, what additional purpose does it serve?

Essence Narciso Rodriguez isn´t exactly a flanker to his previous scents, but it is in the same floral/musk family. I am not a fan of NR for Her eau de toilette or eau de parfum (too much chypre in that one for me), and I am completely anosmic to Musc Oil for Her. But, when I sampled Essence from the tester in Saks a few weeks ago, I liked it. I kept sniffing the inside of my arm for the rest of the day thinking I would love a full bottle of this; it´s just the right blend of musk – nicely earthy and politely skanky, with hints of clean floral. Unfortunately, what I got from the sample atomizer was completely different: it started with a sharp burst of iris, rose and (gasp!) powder; A LOT of powder. Where was the powder in the tester? And why did it smell so differently in the sample atomizer? Has this ever happened to anyone else, or is my sense of smell still in crisis?

When sample Essence finally settled down, it morphed into…Philosophy Amazing Grace. I pulled out my bottle of Grace, sprayed some, and yup, Essence is pretty near a dead-ringer for it. Grace is decidedly cleaner and better behaved in the drydown, but the two are remarkably similar; like how NR for Her Eau de Toilette and Lovely Sarah Jessica Parker are for the most part, identical. Maybe I should have started off by stating, “I am so tired of smelling scents that remind me of…”

According to Now Smell This, Essence´s notes consist of iris, rose, benzoin and musk; a very pedestrian blend as far as I´m concerned, but if you can withstand the initial blast of powdery flowers, what remains is quite pleasant. The bottle is a simple silvery flask, very much in keeping with the unfussy sophistication of Rodriguez´s clothing.

As of this posting, there is no information on Essence on Rodriguez´s own website, or any of the department store sites, although it is in stock at the Saks nearest to me. I believe 100 ml is $95.00 and there is a 50 ml size for sale as well. I tried in vain to find out what the exact notes are for Philosophy´s Amazing Grace, but I fear that Grace´s formula is keeping company in the same vault with the secret blend of eleven herbs and spices used to make Kentucky Fried Chicken. There is just nothing out there. There are listings of notes for Pure and Baby Graces on Sephora.com, but none listed for Amazing and Inner. By the way, Inner Grace is another SJP Lovely/NR for Her doppelganger. I´ll stop now, since this is turning into a “Six Degrees of Separation” scenario; a worthwhile idea for a future post, perhaps?

Y’all tuned in here this week to read about perfume, didn’t you?  No Joy in Perfumeville again today on that count.  I’m about three weeks into a End of Winter Malaise. I’m not depressed or unhappy, just seem to have arrived at one of those Brightly Beaconed Turning Points in life where I’ve sat down in the road and punted on life for a while.  I don’t really feel like I have to do or choose something – it feels more like I’ve been remaking my life for the last year now, and I’m just a little exhausted from all the changes and need a big, deep cleansing breath and assimilation before I start back in sorting, discarding and embracing new things.  There’s a lot of my real job stresses going on as well (not TPC - that’s a joy - my other real job).  This post is going to be more personal, so those of you just wanting your perfume news/reviews delivered without personal junk, this is a bad day to be reading here.

Looking back over this year, for those of you that aren’t aware, I’ve gone through a divorce, now have both of my sons gone from the nest, and I’m in my home alone, figuring out the New Plan since the Old Plan was an Epic Fail.  I do have a question, for those of you that have gone through this, can you really remain friends with your ex? I already have another ex, but he’s the father of my sons, so we’ve always been civil, just not best buddies.  This ex was a great friend for the last two decades of my life, even though he has been at many points a really shitty human being, so I’m a little more invested in getting this to a great friendship.  Can people live with the tenson of liking and hating a person at the same time?  I’ve been working on this for a year now and still not found an answer that feels comfortable, nor has the duality of my feelings changed where he is concerned. Maybe I’ll never find an answer that feels comfortable, and maybe I never should.  Life may be best lived in tension without the safety net of certainty. I know I work much better on that edge than anywhere else.

The life I’ve created now is one I love. It is full of friends and fun and joy.  I’ve gotten all healthy with yoga and juices and horseback riding.  I’m free to travel to the places I want to go after so many years of only going the places other people wanted to go.  I’m truly happy in a way I never thought possible.  I am truly living a life I don’t deserve and never for one second am unaware of how fortunate I am.

So I’m not sure if I’m at the big inhale or the big exhale in life, but I sure wish it would pass.  I’ve gotten used to being out and doing things and attacking life, and I just want to shake this malaise off.  I’ve got a couple of perfume choices that I keep thinking should help, but haven’t so far. The new Vanille Galante is just wonderful, and I’m one of the Feminite du Bois parfum partakers, as well – what a deliciously smooth skanky thing that is!  I’ve thought about breaking out the Apres L’Ondee or En Passant, but even though they fill me with hope, there is too much melancholy in there for where I am right now.  Ideas on something to shake me out of this perfume-wise, or just advise-wise?  Or if you’ve been through major life upheavals successfully, just tell me what’s normal so I won’t worry that I’m in some weird place now.

Until y’all give me the answers to perfume and life, I’m just going to content myself with Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookies right from the freezer.

Oh! You can also help cheer me up by friending me on Facebook. Once you friend me, you can friend March and Lee, an I have a lits of tons of perfumistas that you can just keeping adding! I’ve got this strange thrill about having a lot of friends on FB, it’s a weird little obsession, but I’m just going with it for now since it seems harmless.

Patty

This is Buckethead, who I figure deserves equal time on the blog.  Buckethead is a nester.  When he´s sad, or sick, or otherwise feeling low, he collects all the soft blankety things (coats etc.) in the vicinity and piles them up on a chair or sofa.  Then he goes to sleep on them.  In this photo, he is asleep on top of: a) Diva´s blue fleece bathrobe; b) Enigma´s velour Washington Redskins throw; and some pillows.  On top of him is his beloved, disintegrating security blanket.

Meanwhile I was watching Beverly Hills Cop (what a great movie) which reminded me: who´s coming to ScentBar to play with us on the 14^th of March?  10 a.m.?  Franco needs a count so he knows how much stuff to buy.  Attendance is free!  You have three ways to rsvp:  contact Violetnoir on MUA; contact the Perfume Posse group on Facebook (some of you have already done this, I´ll email you to confirm); or Contact Us on the blog is my last choice as it then has to be sorted and forwarded.  I am so excited about this trip.  By the way, according to Beverly Hills Cop, if I want to be chic in LA I need either a three-piece suit (male attire) or a blond spiral perm and a denim jumpsuit.  Which is just that much funnier given that one of this month´s fashion rags (Vogue?) is full of similar jumpsuits, a look I never thought we´d see again.  I´m not buying the hammer pants either.

So.  That´s it. I am completely punting this post today perfume-review-wise.  Instead I am asking a question:  have your perfume-buying habits changed at all in the current economic meltdown?   If that question is too depressing to ponder, answer this one: is there a particular fragrance or makeup item you are coveting for now or this spring?   I am lusting heartily for this entire Barielle nail polish collection (okay, maybe not the yellow) and I also want something from Shiseido´s new Dick Page lipstick collection, as well as the drop-dead gorgeous Dolce & Gabbana lipstick in Dahlia, although these are deliberately, heavily scented and I am not sure how I feel about that.  Also, I´m on a spring crà¨me nail polish jag – I just got China Glaze Secret Peri-winkle and Agent Lavender (squeee! so perfectly pale!) as well as Color Club Blue Light, another gorgeous pale blue.  Misa Jasmine is a lovely medium violet, but CG Shower Together was darker than I expected.  I´m thinking I need For Audrey, even if it is a little warmer blue than the Tiffany box (and it is.)  Any other pale blue, gray or green crà¨me recs for us cool-toned gals?  Also, I´m as afraid of pink polish as I am of rose perfume, and do I need to get over myself?  I feel like most pink polishes just magnify the pink tones in my skin, which is why I don´t wear pink clothes either.  Is there a really flattering pink crà¨me that doesn´t look … I dunno … too Barbie or too dull?  

March

I finally scored one of those cute vintage bottles of Shocking Schiaparelli on eBay. You know the one, in the glass case, the woman’s partial figure with flowers at the neck.  Notes on one site list hyacinth, bergamot, narcissus, and ylang-ylang; a middle note of rose, lily of the valley, jasmine, and peach; and a bottom note of sandalwood, patchouli, amber-musk and honey.  The one on the left is the reissued bottle from Roja Dove, I believe, but it looks pretty close to the vintage bottle I have.  The notes above are listed for?  I’m not sure if it’s the reissue or the original.  You go through the normal vintage thing when you put it in, some destroyed top notes,  some lily of the valley and narcissus - lots of narcissus.  The civet heats up that vintage odor that I read some reviews as saying reminding them of their spinster aunt’s closet (huh?  we all need more hot spinster aunts like that).  It’s floral and loud and  definitely of its era, when women could smell, well, a little weird and people interpreted that as forward and, well, shocking and kinda hot.   In the long drydown, it’s a really lovely, slightly dirty floral, which for its day may have made it more shocking that we perceive it today.  I think it’s lovely and am glad Roja Dove brought back the original.  Hopefully I’ll get to sniff it at some point to see how close it is.

 I can think of more shocking perfumes in vintage than Shocking, but I have to wonder if some of the civet is just gone from too much time in te bottle. I get a little of the dirty bits from it, but not on the scale that makes me what to fan myself.  For full-on over-the-top bitch-evil narcissus wear, Caron’s Narcisse Noir will always be my go-to favorite.  This is like Narcisse Noir Lite for the refined lady not quite ready to show her drawers.

Anyone else smelled this in either the vintage or reformulation, and I guess I quantify that as the Roja Dove reformulation and the other more mainstream edt reformulation.  Of all the vintage things you are worn or sniffed, which one do you find to be the most overtly erotic for women?

Patty