Hey, it’s spring, and my allergies are running wild thrugh the upper half of my head, which is just superfun.   So I can’t smell a thing, unless it is strong things or bad things.

I did get curious when Jessica Simpson’s Fancy got nominated for both a CEW and Fifi award for 2009 and decided to sniff it this week. Well, it comes through loud and clear through inflamed, irritated and otherwise nonworking nasal passage.  It’s sweet and fierce.   Not something you want to wear if you’re unwilling to let your scent make a statement about you.

Though, I gotta say, there’s something kind of fetching about Fancy.  It’s too sweet, but it falls into that weird pit of things that enchant me just because they’re something I’d never wear now, but there was a time in my youth when I would have happily worn this once or twice before, inevitably, I wore it to a kegger, got sick, and every time I smelled it after that, I’d get nauseous.  There’s just a sweet innoccence that surrounds it that is suited for a young woman who wants just that – a sweet, innocent perfume.

After reading Kevin’s review of the new Le Labo Oud 27 on Now Smell this, I am jonesin’ for this like my next  Claritin.  It’s an interesting choice to release it in spring.

Given the state of my nostrils and my impending short trip that will include cowboy shooting competitions, that’s all I got for today, so tell me what you’re thinking you really need this spring/summer that’s not already in your perfume collection?  Can be something new or that’s been around a while.

Patty

As many of you may have noticed, or not, Patty just did an upgrade of our WordPress, the platform behind the blog. We´re hoping some of the odd bugs on the site will be less buggy now, and I personally am grateful the blog didn´t blow up when she did it. I was on here Monday evening, answering comments, when the whole site lurched and burbled and I thought: nooooooooooooo. But other then the hopefully temporary absence of our emoticon plugin (you can still type them in manually) we seem to be … well as functional as we get over here.

And now would be the part where I blog on some great new or vintage fragrance. I am, right now, sitting on an amazing selection of samples. Unfortunately due to sinus issues beyond my control, I have nothing useful to say about any of them. It must be a side effect of pouring salt water up my nose via my neti pot, but everything smells either fresh or like sperm. Now, I like the smell of fresh sperm as much as the next gal (huh, my self-edit button must have broken in the upgrade, although it didn´t work very well anyway) but if I dab on one more vial and get either of those smells I´ll scream. So let´s chat about something else. It´s been awhile since we talked about layering.

Layering fragrances often happens by accident when you are being a big sample whore, to use the technical term. Some of the combinations are more … fortuitous than others. The nice thing about layering is you wind up with a scent that probably nobody else is wearing.

Today I invite you to share some of your favorite combinations. If you feel like sharing. If you don´t feel like sharing because that would defeat the whole point of your Secret Layering Perfume Mojo, by all means don´t. If you´re feeling it, layer a couple things you think might work, or not, and share the results with us. Or share one of your amusing not-so-fortuitous layering stories. Whatever makes you happy.  If you’re sick of sharing because Facebook now makes you share, I feel your pain.  Go spray on something cheerful and get in the bath, but don’t take your laptop with you.

So. I´ll go first. Some of these you might have read before.

Purely accidentally, I discovered that Fendi Theorema layered with Donna Karan Chaos is darned wonderful. This works nicely for folks who find Theorema too sweet and/or Chaos too woody.

I have attempted to layer Mitsouko with all sorts of things, mostly out of some perverted masochistic desire, I guess, or stupidity. The Queen does not like to be layered.

Some of you already know that a couple weeks ago, again out of masochism/stupidity, I layered Feminite du Bois with Poison. I know, I know! You´d think: Kill.Me.Now. The funny part was, FdB completely obliterated Poison. No contest whatsoever. Godzilla vs. … Thumbelina. However, further tinkering (one dab FdB, three dabs Poison) reveals that the combo is really nice. Poison adds that dark plum note to the FdB. Again, those who put on FdB in the EDP and think, gah, this could use a little fruit – try the Poison.

Finally, Musette did some hilarious layering combo, let´s invite her to chime in. It was Femme with something.  Femme and Jolie Madame, maybe?

Your turn.

image: Smith Island layer cake, washingtonpost.com

March

Vinnie and me enjoying the nice summer weather, but no sunshine to speak of, so the sparkly Rescue Beauty Lounge Locavore I have on my toes (sparkly green/gold) doesn’t show up that well, drat!  It is gorgeous, as is the Gold Look Rich, Be Cheap that I have on my hands, which I also couldn’t get to photograph well without the sun.

Cire Trudon candles have been object of my increasing lust since I first read about them, moving up to definitely worthy of coveting when I smelled them first at Barney’s in Chicago.  I succumbed after sniffing them again at Barney’s in L.A. and ordered three from Aedes.  Two are back-ordered. I did get Spiritus Sancti.  The description, “Flickers of crimson, gold and olibanum, holy perfume of altar candles, luxurious wake of censers filled with burning amber; under the nave the choir jubilates, heavenly scents caressing their souls.”

Well.  It’s a great incense!  Dry, lovely incense that’s not harsh, but full-throated, reminiscent of the best incense from a high mass. It’s a 9.5 ounce glass candle for $75, which is pretty pricey for a candle.  So how does it hold up on throw?  I don’t even have to light it.  I’ve had it sitting next to me by the couch for the last couple of days unlit, and the whole area has this wonderful incense scent every time my nose wags through the air.

Y’all probably want me to light it, don’t you?  Oh, fine, but I don’t think it’s entirely necessary.  While I’m waiting for the wax to melt to get some idea of the while-lit dispersion or “throw,” let’s go lust over some of the other Cire Trudons, who have some of the most interesting scent combnations in candles since Modern Alchemy, whose candles had zero throw, despite my desperate love for their Day of the Dead Candle that featured marigold.  Oh, hey, in searching, I found that Seda France has a Belgian Marigold candle.   Okay, that’s getting ordered.  Sorry about linking to Candle Delirium, who are the best enablers of my candle fetish.  My gift to you – just spreading the obsession.

The Cire Trudon wax is slow to melt, which is good, the candles appear to be crafted so they will melt very slowly and should last a nice, long time.  As I said before, lighting them doesn’t seem to be necessary, and the throw when lit is nice, and it takes a while to permeate the air since the wax is so slow to melt.   Once it gets going, it has a a very nice throw. It’s not overpowering as some candles can be, but it is pervasive in wafting about the house. I have it burning in my living room, and I can smell it lightly in the dining room and kitchen and bathroom – well, pretty much all of the downstairs.

What I give Cire Trudon is aces for originality. This scent is one of the more conventional they have.  I’m definitely in need of Revolution, which is the smell of bread baking (!).  I’m waiting on Balmoral (rain, mist, green, smelled this in L.A. and fell in love) and Carmelite (mossy stones, convents and cloisters), but the list of those I still need is growing at an alarming rate.  Abd el Kadar (tea, tobacco, ginger) and Empire (pine, sage and hay).  The list goes on.  I wish they’d make a votive set of all of their candles so I could sample them more easily.  I’m greedy!

The whole line is interesting just in the way they combine scents.  It’s a little rich for my taste, though they do have a couple of sets of three votives (4.2 ounce candles, which are half the size of the regular one, so  not eensy, 30 hours of burn time) for $145.

So let’s talk candles.  For throw, I think Yankee Candle does the best, though I find several of the Seda France ones to be the best out there on throw, though not all of them have the same throw capability, it’s spotty.  What’s you pick for best throw?

Patty

Like the rest of you h-core perfume fans, I have my share of over-the-top fragrances.  I have my dirt, my filth, my muck… my Mitsouko… my daft dank church incense, my violets, my leafy greens, fruits, veggies, solar musks, wallflowers, coneflowers, everlasting flowers, power flowers, my other nineteen incenses, my armpit fragrances…

What I don´t have, and have been longing for, is the no-brainer plain-white-tee fragrance, although I hate calling it that.  For one thing, I don´t actually own (or want) any plain white tees.  It´s not a “comfort” scent I´m craving, either – not one of those warm cuddly chai-vanilla deals.  It´s more a cross between perfect wallpaper and your favorite jacket — a scent that isn´t insipid or boring but reads as background noise in the best possible way.

I am not alone in my quest; let me quote Melissa who describes the problem in a recent comment.  “I have the same problem with florals, citrus fragrances and lighter fragrances in general. Too sweet, too lemony, too young, too boring, too flowery etc, etc.”   Finding that one good, all-purpose, always-reliable background fragrance turns out to be really hard — much harder than I thought.  After all, we live in a vast sea of mass-market fragrances that aren’t designed to provoke or command too much attention.

In the summer, because I live in a humid climate, my selections skew to the light – cologne, herbs, tea.   I´ve got probably a dozen things sitting right here I could throw on, all the way down to the ridiculously cheap and cheerful 4711, and be perfectly happy.  They all work as wallpaper scents.

The other three seasons are trickier.  When the seasons are actually changing I am excited – break out the leathers!  Or the violets!   Woo-hoo!   There´s a long stretch from January to April, though, when I find myself wishing for … something low maintenance in a fragrance, but one that isn´t dull.  Maybe it´s an occupational hazard of sniffing oddball scents all the time, but my desire for something nice and normal but still good began to turn into an obsession.

I thought for awhile that D&G The One might be … well, the One.  I kept trying it, but … eh.  There´s something in there that´s not quite right on me, and it´s too edible.  Ditto Coach.  Ditto YSL Cinema, which is back in my purgatory bowl for the third time due to vague sourpuss notes.  Betsey Johnson was gonna be my BFF but she´s too sweet to be The One.  Hil Duff With Love is too woody.   My beloved Worth Courtesan has just enough character on my skin (I know, some of y´all are going, what character?!?) some days I just don´t want to deal with that cuminy note.  Serge Lutens Clair de Musc wasn´t quite right as the One (too … fleshy or something) but it got me thinking musk might be my answer.  Kiehls I quite like but it´s oddly vegetal on me.   Ditto SIP Musc Botanique.  The closest I come to The One is Barbara Bui.  It´s the perfect wallpaper fragrance. I like to layer the perfume with the BB Huile Blanche.  But some days BB does that thing where it´s just the teensiest bit doughy, and besides … can´t there be two of The One?

Then Helg at Perfume Shrine did a post on the many iterations of Narciso Rodriguez for Her, and I’d not paid enough attention to realize we were talking about four scent variations.  Regular blog readers know I have a running joke about NR: I can´t smell it at all.  At all.  Might as well be water in those bottles.  The additional irritating/baffling fact is, I´ve stopped two different women asking them what lovely scent they were wearing, and both said NR, so what exactly is my problem?  How can I smell it on others and not on me?

I got to wondering whether I´d even tried the original EDT – the bottles look alike, maybe I reach for the musk version since I´m such a skank queen?  Anyway, I went commando (perfume-wise) for two entire days and then ventured forth to smell the EDT, which sounded the most promising, both in terms of attractiveness and non-anosmia.

To quote Luca Turin without actually checking my copy of The Guide, which has gone missing (probably taken by one of you folks tired of me quoting from it)… if I recall correctly, his review of NR begins with something like: to review perfume as an art form is to be in danger sometimes of missing the point.  He goes on to acknowledge that while NR isn´t breaking boundaries in perfumery, it smells great. 

And guess what?  You, and every other person who has commented on the Posse how great NR smells, are right.  It smells wonderful.  It smells smooth and creamy and good, like perfume on good clean skin.  Bloglifting from Helg´s NR review (regarding the EDT version): It is soft, “clean” in the most sensuous sense of skin that has been bathed but is living its day along nevertheless; musky in the sense that it beckons you closer radiating harmonious warmth; and feminine all at once.  The EDP is more floral (and simultaneously less interesting), and the Musc for Her is … well, muskier.  I guess.  Because I pretty much can’t smell it.

And thus Narciso Rodriguez EDT, bane of my existence, turns out to be… The One.  Along with Barbara Bui.  It´s true, folks — the only bottle of perfume I bought in LA for myself was from Sephora, and it was Narciso EDT.  (I bought something else for the Cheese at LuckyScent.)  Sephora had a great little deal with a purse spray atomizer included.  Yep, I paid full retail!  Go ahead, laugh. 

I´m thinking the new Apothia Pearl Nava just reviewed is another contender for this category, as Nava and some of the commenters suggested on Friday.  It seemed awfully nice on my brief sniff in LA, without being either too much or too little.  DSH Perfumes’ Special Formula X also falls partly into this category, although it’s such a skin scent on me I think it might be undetectable to anyone around me, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

Are there any other perfumes you love that are excellent no-statement scents?   Not just Safe for Work, or Comfort, but your ideal wallpaper scent? (Shout-out to the five of you who can smell L´Antimatiere or Molecule!  Is this why you wear it?)  Or does that style of perfumery not interest you, and why not?

March

Three random Sunday items:

First, a big thanks to all of you who suggested I try Sephora OPI´s Run With It nail polish when I was doing my odd colors. I never did because it wasn´t unusual enough in the bottle, frankly.  It looked a little too beige/boring.  I finally dropped it on a bare nail in the store one day (it lives next to the blingier and perennially sold out Queen of Everything) and … wow.  That´s really beautiful in an understated way, isn´t it?  Kind of a dove grey on me with (Violetnoir pointed this out) faint pinkish undertones, and it has a very, very slight shimmer that reads as crà¨me but doesn´t get that boring scuffed matte thing going on.  I bought it and wore it to LA since it´s such a perfect neutral color, and no chips for a week.  Violetnoir was so taken with the color when she saw it on me, she bought some for herself, and given that she and I have very different skin tones, I´m guessing it´s a fairly universal nude.  Here’s a link to the Sephora review blog that (if you scroll down) shows the true color in all its subtle glory, although that’s not the sharpest mani in the world (looks like mine!)

Second, I have found the perfect no-smudge mascara.  No, seriously, this one is different.  I´ve tried all the major brands of regular (non-waterproof) mascara.   They all give me raccoon eyes.  It´s my fault – I have dry skin, so I over-moisturize and under-powder, because powder can be really aging in those teeny under-eye crinkles.  Thus the raccoon eyes.  Also I hate getting those little mascara flakies in my sensitive eyes, so all the hyper-extending/thickening mascaras are out.  Finally, some waterproofs don´t raccoon on me, but they´re such a pain to remove I´m always worried about the effect on my slightly sparse eyelashes, and too much remover itself can irritate my eyes.

I finally tried one of those “tube” mascaras – the original Kiss Me, made by Blinc, sold at Sephora.  It´s some sort of plastic polymer (?) that makes a teeny tube around your lash, read more here.  I also like that it has a relatively small brush, which in my opinion gives better control and less clumping.  To remove it, you wet your lashes, let them sit a minute, and then the tubes slide off (I´m warning you, in case you think all your lashes fell out – it´s a little freaky to see those lashy things in your hand.)  Some people remove them in the shower.  I just kind of slide them off with a damp cotton square.   The mascara doesn´t irritate my eyes at all and it DOES NOT BUDGE.  Does not flake, smear or clump.  Now, everything has a downside, and this one is: you´re getting natural-looking lashes.  This is not a hyper-thickening, super-lengthening formula.  What you get is definition and darkness and that´s about it.  So anyone looking for length/thickening should look elsewhere.  But for those of you who, like me, have tried everything from Maybelline Great Lash to Lancome to Chanel, Shiseido and beyond looking for something that doesn´t wind up under your eyes, this is well worth trying.  If you get it at Sephora and you hate it – remember, they´ll take it back used.

Finally, for anyone interested in the comments discussion in a recent post re: Andy Tauer´s use of capital letters in naming his fragrances, I asked him, and here´s his answer:

I have read the question and the speculations about the capitalized names…. And I just did the following:

I got a copy of each flyer (the flyer is the standard…what I have on the web is not really consistent, I guess).

And I looked at the flyers and the rule is: There is none.

To be honest: I never really cared about it.
I consider writing, spelling and capitalization rules as recommendations. A constant source of pain for my partner who happens to be a teacher.

Well, anyhow: Here is a glimpse of what could be a rule…

English (pure English): Capitalized with one exception: Vetiver dance (don´t ask me why…. I think dance should be small her…you see: I am trying to find a cheap excuse!)

French: only first word capitalized, exception: Maroc in Le Maroc pour elle, this is capitalized following correct French rules (the W.-factor, my partner teaches also French)

The Incense extràªme and Incense rosé are tricky anyhow: I mix two languages here (on purpose). Incense is English, extràªme and rosé are French.

I find this bridging of two languages nice and enjoy it. So far I got not one question about it which is amazing….

Personally, I find the fact that he didn’t kill himself thinking about the names rather refreshing.   Instead I guess he’s putting all that thought into … the fragrance.  I like that thinking.

March