Hey, everyone (anyone?)   I’m enjoying the US holiday weekend and won’t be posting today.  Didn’t want you to think I died in some terrible perfume accident, finally done in by a critical oakmoss sensitivity or from applying John Galliano room spray directly to my skin.

The kids are underfoot, the pool opened Saturday for the summer, and I spent last night with a couple of girlfriends, polishing off a pitcher of margaritas we accidentally ordered (oooooops.)    I’m planning on spending Monday at the pool again, lurking like the Bride of Dracula in my customary shady spot while I read trashy magazines and keep half an eye on the twins, then off to a barbeque.  Have a nice day.  Go forth and smell good.

March

Before getting onto my shopping trip last Friday, I just want to share some travel advice with you. If you´re longing for oakmoss and miserable at its disappearance from our perfumed lives, look no further than a trip to south west Scotland, at least until the anti-scent brigade bomb the place. I´ve never been to a land so full of lichens. Every tree seemed to have a furry green trunk and greybluegreen branches (mostly due to oakmoss and its buddy, Old Man´s Beard). And given that a woodland was outside our holiday home, I got a heck of a lot of close-up time with oakmoss, even if the smell is – huh – hardly there in its unprocessed state. The bluebells and wild garlic compensated in the fragrance department though, I can assure you. What a wonderful juxtaposition of the intoxicatingly floral and the earthily acrid. Just perfect.
We stayed in the lodge below, sea one side, woodland on two, dairy pasture the other. We only ever saw cows and perhaps, on a busy day, a solitary walker heading from the small bay tucked deep in the woods, to the ruined castle, half a mile to the south of us. Bliss, I tell you.

Anyway, onto London. I don´t shop much, as I´m increasingly intolerant of crowds. I love people in ones, twos or threes, but any more than that and I start to get the jitters. It´s why I started in Nicolai, as the shop is so small, fitting any more than two people in there plus the SA is nigh-on impossible.

As much as I love the perfumes, I went to Nicolai for home fragrance lamp burner oil, the scents of which knock Lampe Berger into the shade (geddit?). I was after summery´ and though their new Gardenia wowed me, and though I was tempted by the Mimosa, I ended up with three bottles that were far less femme. After all, my home is Georgian straight lines and it gets chintzy enough from the oh-too-many sweet peas that start appearing in the next few weeks. I ended up with Lavande Pays ( a staple – lavender, a touch of mint, and woody depths), Fleurs d´Agrumes (so much less shrill than the lemon, grapefruit and mandarin ascribed to it – essentially a woody scent with citrus topnotes) and Ocean (the lovely SA convinced me of this. I was expecting a calone / seaweed hellzone. I got eucalyptus, pine and open windows. Lovely, actually).

I also bought a bottle of Eau Turquoise as it seemed to be discontinued and 30 mls was going for the equivalent of $15; 100mls for $22. I supersized. It smells remarkably similar to the (also discontinued?) Eau Exotique, although softer in the drydown. They´re fruity scents for people who don´t enjoy fruity scents. Anyone fancy a large sample?

I also tried scents I hadn´t sniffed, or can´t remember sniffing. Cedrat and Cedrat Intense – both wondrous. But it was Odalisque that stole my heart. I didn´t know that green floral scents could be so seductive. If crowds smelled like Odalisque, I think I could be happy among them. The jasmine rounds off the high-pitched facets of the muguet (I didn´t want another of´ in the sentence – my only reason for fanciness) It has none of the shrill screech that green florals seem to make (to my ears´ at least). Instead, it´s the low thrum of a young Bacall whispering temptations. I think I might just need a small bottle.

Onto Harrods, which was hell, as usual: SAs wielding the latest blap as 21^st century weaponry, crowds moving like a febrile convulsion, and a noise level antithetical to perusal. I sniffed many things – enjoyed trying Donna Karan´s Fuel for Men at last (and it´s a maybe autumn purchase) and was sorely tempted by an Amouage Dia giftset, though I wasn´t quite ready to part with the $$$. I also finally tried Homage, and it bloomed and opened a new world in that hectic room – lush and beautiful. It sorely needed to be worn elsewhere.

Finally, onto Liberty, for my bottle of Geranium pour Monsieur, and peace and quiet. I love Liberty for perfume – it´s had the same understated SAs for years and never draws the crowds of Harrods or – worse! – Selfridges. Diptyque´s Oyedo made me laugh, and I momentarily wondered if I´d be happy going round smelling like Haribo all day (it´s kind of like a cartoon version of Clinique´s Happy for Men, with all the dihydromyrcenol replaced by laughing gas).

I quite liked the rather ordinary Nuits de Cellophane but don´t really remember much of anything else I tried. I was suckered into splurging out on a Cire Trudon candle – Balmoral. Hell, grass makes me as allergic as a sneeze-machine on its highest setting – fake grass, not at all.

And so my shopping trip ended, with a small whimper of acquisitiveness, and some satisfaction.

So, what have you bought recently – to scent yourself, or to scent your home? And what would you buy if you had all the time and money in the world for a leisurely, chauffeur-driven tour around London´s perfume hotspots?

And how about the view from the holiday cottage living room, to end…?

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Lee

After many years of struggling with arthritis, a brain tumor, several brain surgeries, and strokes, Lee Weissman passed away last Sunday, May 16.  Lee was the husband of one of my partners in The Perfumed Court, Diane Weissman.

He was a lovely man, full of fun, warmth, good cheer and love.  He was so helpful to us when we started our website, doing anything we asked him to.  Before his illness incapacitated him, he spent many years as a television producer for networks, working for Dan Rather and Ted Koppel, winning many awards for his brilliant work on Inside Edition.

Diane and I spent hours on the phone early on in the formation of TPC, and Lee was an integral part of all of those conversations, offering his wisdom, wit and advice. I knew how much pain he was in constantly, but I never once heard him complain.

He loved Diane completely, as well as his son, Kai.  He was a truly good and ovewhelmingly decent human being, and we will all miss him.

If you would like to do something, you can donate at the Arthritis Foundation.  If you would like to offer your condolences to Diane, you can leave them in comments. She’s sitting shiva now and won’t be responding to people, but I know the outpouring of love she’s already received means a lot to her and Kai.

Patty

Guest Post by Musette

Does there come a time in every perfume lover’s life when s/he takes a look/sniff at the vast array of scents out there and thinks, at least for a minute “Heck, I could probably do this myself!”??

Hmm… here’s what happened when a computer program and I did just that. Sorta.

Let’s start off by saying JCE sure ain’t shaking in his slippers just yet, though I did give it my best shot!  I ‘designed’ a perfume, “Veiled Empress”, courtesy of Germany’s My Parfuem website.   My Parfuem is an online DIY perfumer that allows you to choose pre-set bases with names like Female/Male Exotic and Female/Male Flower, etc. and add ingredients from there.  The online creation is structured via a zoomy pie chart, with each ingredient broken down by type (floral/fresh ‘n fruity/spicy) – you can add as few or as many as you desire.  The cost is 29 euros, with an additional 10 euros shipping to the U.S.

Sounds good so far?  Ehhh… not quite. At least not for me.   Let’s get back to the basics, which is the bases.  The components are not listed, dangit, so you’re kinda working blind, to say the least.  I don’t have a clue what Female Exotic is, though the pie chart has really pretty colors (I am a sucker for pastel pie charts and as you add more ingredients the chart colors zoom up and down; I swear, I’d still be fooling around with the chart but I have a Job, even if I do need to Get a Life!).  My first inclination was to play it safe and go with a straight fruity-floral but c’mon – where’s the fun in that?  At least try something a leetle different, right?

So I started with the Female Exotic base.  I figured hey, it’s got two words that should make sense in a perfume – let’s see where this goes. I was banking on it smelling either like Shalimar or a drag queen (or both).

Olivia?  You can go take a nap, honey.  Your crown is safe.  I ended up mixing in the dark, like a lunatic, akin to adding Cadmium red to something you pray is chrome yellow, but could be viridian.  I really could’ve used some info on that base composition.  One gal’s ‘exotic’….and all that.

The site also gives you no idea what’s going on with the ‘fume as you’re adding or subtracting ingredients.  It would’ve been great to know if I was steering my boat into heavy floral waters or was I heading towards a spice market .  Or if there’s any cure for my overuse of metaphor.

One of the goals was to  figure out how this would work in general terms so I split my already scattered mind into two segments – one: a regular person who just wants a perfume to smell nice and the other: the perfumista wannabe, trying to figure out which notes would be required to support other notes (I can only claim ‘wannabe’ status, sorry!)

Here is the composition, described as “bloomy-exotic”

Veiled Empress

1x Ambergris     2x YlangYlang

3xJasmine          3xCedarwood

1xTangerine       1x Musk

2xBergamot        2x Fresh Grass

3xLotV               2xNeroli

What I got smells like a powderbomb with a touch of spice jumping around and a whole lotta sillage.  The base is still an unwelcome mystery – it has a generic ‘blarrg’ smell (to mangle Lee’s description) that makes it smell like 90% of what you can find at any mid-level dept store.   I think it could actually have had a fighting chance to be something much better, had I been aware of what’s in the base. And if the base were better quality.  But at EU29 ….I dunno.  It’s okaaay.   It’s the sort of thing you would give as a gift, if the giftee weren’t really focused on perfume and just wanted the cachet of creating their own personal scent.  [March butting in - you can give a gift certificate for the site, they're clearly selling the idea of this being a fun thing  to receive as a gift.]

And that would’ve been the end of it but I decided to do a bit of research with this – I took it on a road trip, blind-testing it across a wide spectrum.  I covered different socio-economic groups including:

• 2 Really Wealthy Women , head-to-toe Hermes, blowin’ out the Platinum card like there’s no tomorrow
• 2 Regular Gals who shop at Wal-Mart and wear things like Charlie because it’s inexpensive, you get a lot of it and it smells nice
• 2 Regular Mid-level Gals who shop at Kohl’s but will drop a bundle on something they like, be it perfume or jewelry.
• 2 Regular-Upscale Women who wear things like Gucci because “it smells expensive”
• 1 visiting perfumista
• 2 high-end perfume SAs (male/female)
• 2 regular guys
• March
• Nava
• Lee (who may not have received my sample yet)

(descriptions are just to give you an idea of the type of folks I blind-tested this on, ‘cuz it gets really weird from there)

And, for giggles and snorts, I matched it against my latest love, PG Drama Nuui on everyone but March, Nava and Lee.  Blind test, remember.  Just opinion shopping.

So how’d it go? VE ate Drama Nuui’s lunch! Sucker punch!!!

Of those 11 folks who tried it:  only THREE preferred DN over Veiled Empress. One of the SAs chose VE as their “you are stuck on a deserted island with only one of these scents to get you through your days” – the other chose DN but it was a close call – lots of consideration.  Huh.

The perfumista chose DN but didn’t absolutely hate VE

One guy (El O) chose DN (VE made him sneeze)

Both RMLGals hated both VE and DN.   (I’m not diagramming this – they’re just out!)

Regarding Veiled Empress I got things like ‘it smells powdery and fresh’ (that was a positive, even though I stunk up our tiny post office so bad with that blind test the Postmaster came out of the back and ran me out of there!), VE got “rich, older lady,” “nice,” “I would wear this a lot,” and one “where can I buy it?”  Our postlady actually JUMPED BACK from the Nuui.  Shriek!!!  The other lady just looked stunned and confused at the Glory What Is Drama Nuui.

Wackos.  Don’t they know that Drama Nuui is Da BOMB?  Bomb-o-licious?

It is on my planet.  Swear!

I will let Nava and March speak for themselves.  They are not included in my highly precise research data.

I’m STUNNED that folks chose this over Drama Nuui.  Which means that for all my argifyin’ about what My Parfuem should do (and I still think they should outline what elements are in the bases) they may be onto something.  I don’t think this is for rabid perfumistas, unless they get more info into the program, break down the base components and describe what is happening to the composition as you add/subtract ingredients.  If they ever decide to implement those elements into the program this would be a fun, interesting gift to give someone who is interested in perfume in general and likes the idea of creating their own.  But for everybody else, it could be just the ticket to personal  perfume heaven….?

Hey, hey, it’s spring!!!!  I have 17 rosebushes and a tree in my kitchen while I’m writing this.  Hopefully by the time you read this, most of them will  have taken up a new, dirty abode in my backyard.  I’m still worried about that many rosebushes for the space? Too much?  I don’t have a huge backyard.  Naw, you can never have too many roses.  They were supposed to be in the ground already, but a fairly nasty strain of intestinal bug has made it impossible for me to  go digging around without worrying about – well, you know.

Just as a pitch for my favorite iris and rosebush companies – Schreiner’s has some of the most beautiful monstrously big irises I’ve ever seen. They grow great, and I’m pleased as punch with them so far.  Roses, Heirloom roses is the place to go. Beautiful roses, ship perfectly, and the selection is just outstanding for antique varieties, which are the ones i love. They also rank them by fragrant factor.  I have all 9s and 10s.

Roses, iris, lavender and a white Wisteria tree are the new adds to my backyard this year.

Okay, digging around in my sample box, let me find something newish and interesting. Cale Mistero, this is available at First in Fragrance.  Top notes of rum, rhubarb and mint; middle notes of pimento, elemi, saffron and basmati rice; and base notes of oakwood, agarwood, labdanum and musk.  Holy smokes!!!  I’m glad I pulled this out of my little bag of sample tricks that have been neglected for a while. It smells a lot like Gypsy Water while it was in the sample vial.  It’s like smoky spice over rice and incense – comforting and hot – and some burnt notes in there, just a touch of Eau de Fier.  There is nothing not to love in this for those that like your scents in the more, um, interesting side of the line.  It does soften nicely in the drydown, and I wish it stayed as potent as it did at the beginning, but you just can’t have that much hotness smoking along for that long.  The rum notes had me afraid, but no fear here, it’s not boozy at all.  They suggest it’s for men, and I do think it would smell great on a guy

Let’s see if there’s another Cale in the bag.   Yup. Preludio d’Oriente. Top notes of bergamot, lemon and mandarine; middle notes of artemisia, incense and chamois leather; and base notes of patchouli, sandalwood and agarwood. Very different from the Mistero. It starts off all pretty citrus and quickly devolves into a woody rough leather that’s pretty great.   It doesn’t strike me as oriental at all. It’s just a terrific leather/woody/incense scent.

90 Euros for 100 mls brings the Cales in at a not totally ridiculous price point. All of the perfumes have a story.  An interesting line, and the two scents I’ve tried so far are interesting and well-done.

Patty