Unfinished business — first off, anyone with comments/issues since our WordPress upgrade last week, please go comment on the “Blog Quirks” post before this one. I wasn’t expecting all the random kind words from everyone, and thanks. We put a lot of effort into this blog, and it’s nice to know it’s appreciated. For people who are now frantically emailing because you can’t comment at all — we’ve checked in various browsers, and I’m hiring someone to look into it. Have you updated your browser recently? Also Firefox seems to work better than IE. Mac users seem to be having more problems. And that annoying Wal-Mart ad is not ours, don’t know what’s up with that. Although they invite you to “roll over for a deeper experience,” and I’m not even going to comment on that except it was my laugh of the day. Maybe they are targeting the right blog.
Okay, the review. I don’t even know where half my samples come from anymore, and thanks to whoever gave me the samples of the two new Bois 1920 scents at LuckyScent. I had no idea what to expect and I was pleasantly surprised.
Bois 1920 Come la Luna – Sicilian mandarin, Sicilian sweet orange, rose wood, pink pepper, coriander, Indonesian patchouli, cedar, amber, incense. The LuckyScent blurb is all about ambery luminosity and comfort with “a seductive thrum,” but the first ten minutes are pretty much all thrum on me. A delightfully sweaty scent that develops into an amber with enough citrus it doesn´t do that nauseating embalmed-fly thing on my skin, which is my general reaction to sweet amber scents like Ambre Narguile. Assuming you rode out the first few minutes in the privacy of your own home, I agree with the Lucky blurb that this would be a work-safe scent that isn´t boring and could carry you into the evening. Also, remember, I am the musk magnifier. I´d put this somewhere between the saucy Courtesan and Party in Manhattan on the skank scale. Lasted all day.
Bois 1920 Vento di Fiori – Sicilian lemon, cardamom, tarragon, jasmine, galbanum, patchouli, amber, oak moss, musk, Siberian birch. Lucky touts this as a “classic chypre” with some green notes and “the hushed feel of an isolated forest.” A sublime, strange scent that has me pondering vintage samples of things like Ma Griffe or Vent Vert. Herbacous in the extreme at the opening, the tarragon and galbanum combine to form an echo of the distinctly medicinal smell of artemisia. As it dries down it becomes somewhat more classic-feeling in composition while never losing its pungent, attractive oddity. I personally struggle with the leather/galbanum combination of some classic scents like Bandit and Cabochard. I wouldn´t describe this as lighter, exactly, but it´s less challenging, at least for me, and less animalic. I think this would be very much enjoyed by classic-style perfumery fans, particularly those who enjoy green notes. I happened upon a small vial of vintage Ma Griffe just last week, and it´s achingly clear to me, several decades after the creation of many of these scents, what has been lost.
Finally, I wanted to mention that Art with Flowers has Floris Malmaison in stock, which stunned me. Bill didn’t seem to think it was that big a deal, it showed up in his last shipment. It shows up periodically online (it’s backordered right now at Luscious, but on another discounter.) I’m thrilled, especially since I thought someone mentioned it’s been discontinued; I can’t find it on their site, anyway. So. Good news for the carnation-loving world. If you are a fan of carnation, you really need to try Malmaison at some point, it’s probably my favorite, with CdG Carnation and Lorenzo Villoresi Garofano close behind (although you can never really have too much carnation.) Now if only Floris would stick some Summer Limes in the next shipment…
image, luckyscent
Both of these sound sniffable…hope I can get to them soon!
Thanks, babe! Please read my comments in the blog quirks post below.
Ooh, and I received the new Essies. I love them and plan to have a little painting party tomorrow or Wednesday.
And, speaking of luckyscent, did you see the new Strange Beautiful nail polishes on the site? They are, well, strange and beautiful. So edgy…so much fun. I tested the nougat one and my dear friend, Pearl, tested the butterscotch one. We love them!
Hugs, and thanks again for listening to my palavering. You are the best!
“Spinter”! What an excellent word. With some snow still on the ground and very little green to be seen outside my windows, I’m having a good time playing with some of the green scents you’ve suggested. Vento di Fiori is lovely. On me, it’s a light, bright, springlike green, with that pleasantly persistent lemon note keeping some sun shining through the leaves. MDCI Vepres Siciliennes (aka Riche Orient) has virtually all of the same notes, but they’re enveloped in lush fruits and flowers. It’s a warmer wind than Vento di Fiori, deeper and more sultry: a green that evokes warm summer evenings. Neither of these perfumes goes straight to the heart of green, the way vintage Vent Vert does, and both are considerably more ladylike than Bandit, with its leather biker jacket. Of them all, Vento di Fiori seems to me the least mood and weather dependent. I can’t imagine a time or a place that it wouldn’t be really nice to wear. It’s not as distinctive as the other three, but sometimes that’s a good thing.
Spinter spinter go away blech
I love your comparisons among all these scents, and this seems like the perfect weather to try them. You’re making me want to go spray some Riche Orient on 🙂 I think I have a little left…
Spinter is great. Better than wring, as in I am wringing my hands because spring is so late and they’re so freaking cold 😉
Thanks dear Mach for the fine review and the updates on the fate of poor Malmaison. It’s a pity that this most unisex of carnations has been deignated the rubbish bin. (and don’t get me started on the delicate Oeillet Sauvage which disappeared with no trace…luckily as I was able to stockpile in time).
There seems to be a renewed interest in green, sharp scents, which of course pleases me no end 😉
BTW, Ma Griffe has gone through a couple of significant changes, although I actually quite like the intensely perfume-y oakmossy effect of the 80s juice (the older ones seem to be more intent on bergamot, but I deduce that bergaptene levels had to be minimised early on as it was one of the first oils to be pinpointed for sun sensitivity)
Hmmmm. I will have to look for the 80s Ma Griffe, that sounds wonderful, I’d like that much better than bergamot. I am still finding very green scents an acquired taste, but one I am in fact trying to acquire through repeated exposure. 🙂
What’s Rishi Chai? Must investigate. And my feeling about Quartz is, even if it IS d/c’d, which I’m not sure it is, it’s been in production so long we all ought to be able to find bottles for quite some time. And thanks for the sales tip!
March–
Masala Chai from Rishi brand tea is one of my other obsessions. I started feeling old and out of it when everyone was getting into chai lattes and I had no clue, so I tried one, and then another one, which eventually led to the RMC. Now it’s the only one I can drink, and what’s worse is that I stupidly decided one day to make it the traditional way (instructions are on the tin) rather than the simple and quick “cafe style” way and now I’m doomed forever to waste huge gobs of time that I would otherwise have had available for sniffing perfume or, like, brushing my teeth or God forbid sleeping.
Basically you dump the loose tea in a saucepan with milk and water, bring to a boil, simmer for 5, strain into a glass or mug with a huge amount of honey or sugar, and then lie down and take a nap. Fattening, time-consuming, messy, expensive, and totally delightful 😉
Sold. This one? http://www.rishi-tea.com/store/rishi-masala-chai-organic-fair-trade-chai.html
I need another way to add fattening sweets to my life.
I would totally make that masala chai flan, btw.
Oooh! I’ll come by for nesting & chai flan…
Do you lie down and take the nap before drinking, or after? 😀 I need to try the brewing-in-milk thing with my favorite loose chai blend from my local tea shop.
March–Yup, that’s the stuff. I was buying it at Whole Foods, which was the only place I could find it, but then the DH caught on to how spendy it was becoming and put the kibosh on that. So I googled my brains out and lo and behold, there it was on Amazon in a 3-pack for a less painful price, s&h included in the deal.
Joe–I had to lie down after just describing the process for March. I hope yours has a goodly share of cardamom; those little pods are what put Rishi over the top for me and seem to balance the sweetness of the honey so well.
But both of you — please don’t blame me when you spend all of your time simmering and washing up 😉
…and gain 20 pounds, despite all the extra effort. You’d think you’d burn more calories, but noooooooooo….
I’m trying to go the *other* direction on the scale, thanks… Actually, I’m not fond of overly sweet chai anyway. Just a half teaspoon of sugar per cup is usually enough. I buy one chai blend that’s very spicy with citrus peel (not traditional, I know) and another called “Kashmir” that has tons of cardamom pods and broken cinnamon sticks. With lots of milk and a bit of sweetness = yummy goodness. What’s the best chai-equivalent perfume? Someone mentioned an Ava Luxe Black Tea thingie somewhere recently.
I am chuckling over my tea here, because I realized that the conclusion I reached on Vento di Fiori was beautiful.skank. Ha! March places it just to the left of Come la Luna? Okey-dokey! I’m dancing all around “amber with citrus,” and it is slowly dawning around me that you invoked both sweat and skank. I still want to play, of course.
I love me some galbanum, so I am most curious about the Vento di Fiori. And whaddaya know (with an extra nod to Carter), I was just taking Bandit for a ride yesterday. (Along with a few others–one of those days of patchwork scent quilt on my arms, trying out different things.) So now my mind’s awhirl with comparisons before I’ve even huffed.
Hey…does anybody else notice the emoticons are now active, if different of face, in the “Recent Comments” sidebar? They used to just appear as their keyboard combinations…
But doesn’t this seem in a weird way, with this weird spring-winter (we’ve been calling it spinter at OUR house) … doesn’t Bandit seem like the perfect choice? In weather like this I end up reaching for the Jolie Madame, which is I think my Bandit.
Wait — you tried these? And got skank in Fiori? I’m confuzzled. If not, in any case, if you like green…
Sorry, I was confuzzling…I really messed up that first paragraph, and swapped scent names. *YOU* got skank in Luna. What I meant to say was, my first summation of your description of Come de Luna was “amber with citrus,” which pulled me in…and then, as I was mentally rehearsing what it might smell like (I do that), your other words started creeping into my consciousness: sweat. skank. Just to the left Party in Manhattan on a skanky continuum.
Poof went my little daycream. RECALIBRATE. Because if March is catching skank, there’d better be skank in that little daydream I was having…LOL.
As for green, I love green. Leaves. Galbanum. What have you. Yum yum yum.
Eh. I’ll let you know if this is another one that everyone says, what dirty bits? That does happen sometimes. (Insert blushing emoticon here.)
PS I know! I LOVE those emoticons over there on the right! I’ve found someone who’s going to work on tweaking the site (I think later this week) and I’m hoping they will look like that.
Trying my luck to see if I can post today…
It worked! Did you change your browser or other settings?
Morning all!
I think I may know where those LS samps came from 😉 Obviously, I dismissed them too quickly and passed them on to a dear friend…must re-try, I thinks.
I was amazed by the Malmaison a AWF, too-so surprised that a bottle came home with me 😉 Bill looked it up when I mentioned that I thought it was discontinued, and found it on the site he was searching, so I think its death may have been greatly exagerated.
I wasn’t taking any chances…!
That’s so funny. Doll, was it you? I think it must have been one of our sample-binge days (you know: the last five get togethers). Now, I’m the magnifier. Maybe they’re too wan on your skin. I can bring them to our next meet-up! A latte says you get zero skank from Luna. 🙂
I wanted to put Malmaison up on here just because I know in the past people have asked me where to find it, and often you simply can’t.
I couldn’t decide whether to add a postscript to my previous post or just do a completely new one, but I was just on Amazon to buy my 3-pack of Rishi Chai (best deal around) and because the question of whether Quartz is currently on the endangered list came up the other day I decided to check into it while I was there.
Happy to report that not only is it easy to find, turns out they’ve got a great deal on it if you don’t mind testers — 3.3 oz. for $19.95 with free shipping! I immediately grabbed up a deuce and if you like Quartz I don’t think I’ve ever seen it for less.
Oh, look – I failed to thread. Check down further. 🙂
I had to have that Vento di Fiori as soon as I read about it on NST and there’s a gracious splitter selling some over at ScentSplits, so I received my decant late last week. It’s a great, zingy scent, but I’m not really getting any of the ‘fiori’. Sorry to say I’ve never tried Vent Vert for comparison. ‘Pungent’ is the right word — you nailed it, March. Very green, and I’m getting a lot of sharpness from that Sicilian lemon, but nothing animalic at all. And anyone either put off or enticed by the words patchouli and amber in the list of notes can just fugeddabout those, IMO.
I seriously love this scent, but will someone tell me if I’m completely crazy thinking that there’s a similarity to the sharp, zippy citrus of Terre d’Hermes? Seriously, for a minute I thought the splitter had decanted the wrong juice. I’m probably nuts, but I’d love someone to confirm what I’m smelling. Side by side the difference is apparent, but my nose thinks these two are close cousins.
I want a sample of the Come la Luna now too. Sounds delicious.
That sharp greenness was fun and unexpected (I don’t usually read about the scent before I try it, I like the surprise.) But you’re right, its strength is its greenness and not some amber/patch base. In fact at that point it starts to fade, at least on me. I can see your comparison to TdH — not in the smell, precisely, but the effervescent citrus and high pitch of it, although TdH doesn’t play nicely on my skin.
Yes, you’re right, Joe. It has a very high proportion of aromachemical Iso E Super, as does TdH. Most people like this, though on some, it’s just too strong. It’s used in most fragrances today, but in some, they really overdose. This is one of those. So if you like TdH, you’ll like this, too.
Vento di Fiori here I come 🙂
So funny that you would mention Bandit in this post, as I have been engaged in a real battle of wills with it for the past few days. There has been a natural inclination on my part lately to bust out with bright and carefree florals, almost as if I believe that I can somehow fool Mother Nature into cooperating. But that bright yellow-and-black box has simply refused to get with the program and insists that attention must be paid. I haven’t worn Bandit for months, despite the fact that I usually wear it quite often when it’s cold outside, and suddenly, when I least expect it, I can’t seem to focus on anything else. And I don’t know that I’ve ever packed Bandit for travel, but on this current trip it’s the only fragrance I’ve brought, which is really weird given how little it cares about playing nicely with others.
And yet, it’s been perfect — just the perfect thing, even if not so perfectly well-behaved. In fact, that may be the very reason why I’m enjoying it so much these days; one last rebellious burst of feist before settling down to the sunny attitudes and flower power of Spring.
Hm. I see a potential post here. Those scents that haunt you and command attention, because they’re imbedded in your cortex or some other relationship we don’t quite understand. I have a couple like that. btw I have totally given up on spring — it’s cold here today with occasional flurries, which in DC is ridiculous. At least we didn’t get actual snow. Or floods. Or erupted volcanoes.
Thank heaven there are no volcanoes in the immediate vicinity because I’d have no idea what to tell you to offer up to the gods for that and your front yard is already a scandal as it is 😉
And yes, I’d love to see a piece on that theme because maybe it will help me figure out how wrest control over my life back from my bottle of Bandit before I alienate anyone else.
Dang. I wish I could get what you’re getting. I used to get leather…now all I get is grapefruit (I know I mentioned that before). Grapefruit is fine – I LOVE grapefruit. But I miss the leather.
Our sudden snowstorm sapped my will to do more beyond breathing and drinking coffee. I am trying to figure out what to wear to a 2-day conference. Normally I would wear my armor, Mitsouko, but something tells me it’s time to put the armor away and …….
…..and what? that’s where I get stuck! Go violet? Go chypre?
(is there a ‘hair-tearing’ emoticon?
xo>-)
We’ve got to get those emoticons back! How about Jolie Madame? That’s my take-no-prisoners alternative to Mitsouko. Or is it time for a snuggle with Femme?
I don’t have Jolie Madame, can you believe it? I went with 31 RC, one of my go-to scents. It’s working okay. Mostly it’s me. I’m a bit chilly and cranky as all get-out.
Femme was considered and discarded because when I’m in this mood, cuddly is the last thing I’m thinking about. Flaming swords come more to mind!LOL!
xo>-)
and a @};- for you, ’til you get your emoticons back!
March is absolutely right — Jolie Madame is probably just the ticket. Doesn’t LT call it Bandit’s little sister or something like that? I don’t think you can miss the leather in JM, and you get lovely violets to beat the band. I can’t do the new version, probably because the vintage is so permanently affixed in my psyche as being what JM smells like, but you should definitely give at least one incarnation a try.
And I just saw a 1 oz. bottle of vintage, never opened in a cellophane-sealed box, sell for $26 on Ebay.
It says “comments won’t nest below this level.” Out of pigheadedness I am trying it.
Hah. Dumb computer, shows what IT knows. Yes, he does say that about Jolie. And those lil’ ol vintage bottles make my heart sing.
Prevented from nesting, I still comment: Musette, I have some new Jolie Madame, and will share. Carter, thanks for the tip…have always been curious about the vintage…though I’m wondering if you keep count on what is in your closet… (insert pondering emoticon here)…some of pay special attention when you say things, especially about back-ups. Vintage back-ups. 😉
What does it care if we nest? Nest away, hon. Bring all your feathers and a couple of worms to share, I don’t mind.
The new JM I really like, but it’s more of a hankie scent — suede instead of leather? You can see (smell?) the relationship to the vintage, but the vintage has a lot more oomph — mossier and dark leather, which is probably only amplified by the age of the bottles.
I don’t think of myself as a green/chypre kind of woman but I have to say I really love the sample of Vento di Fiori I have. The Luna s nice but not quite it on me.
Good luck on the upgrade fixes!
Thanks, it should happen later this week. In the meantime, people seem to be having better luck with Firefox or … that other one. Safari? Better than IE, anyway.
These two were nicer than I expected.
I hadn’t planned on sampling these two scents, but now I definitely am going to. I’m a big fan of classic green scents, so the Vento di Fiori sounds like it has my name all over it.
And you are so right – you can never really have too much carnation. 🙂 Words to live by.
Oh, and I got a sample of Narciso edt. Am absolutely loving it! Would never have expected to. Thanks for that review!
The Bois series fell victim to the TMR effect (too many releases) — this is, what, 9 and 10? 11 and 12? I haven’t smelled half of the others. Luna was fun and probably more “me” but Fiori was much more interesting.
Glad you liked the Narciso. Everything doesn’t have to be fancy niche, right?