I must admit, it´s been a very long time since I´ve given anything at The Body Shop more than a passing glance. But, if I can wax nostalgic for a bit, I´ll tell you that years ago, I spent countless hours trolling in their New York City shop at Madison Avenue and 52nd Street. I´d while away entire lunch hours in there, leaving myself just enough time to grab a street pretzel and a can of Coke to take back to the office for lunch. They used to sell cute little 2 ounce bottles of most of their products, and I think I had one of everything at some point. Back then, they were the pioneering mainstream, natural, not tested on animals, eco-chic British brand that everyone was enamored of. It was before they had a store in every shopping mall, and before brands like Bath & Body Works and their ilk took over the world.

Last month, I briefly recounted how I breezed by their store in Yorkdale  and was assaulted by a sickeningly sweet fruity aroma as I passed. I had heard they were releasing a new scent, Love Etc…, but it wasn´t out yet. I got an e-mail on Tuesday from The Body Shop saying that it was finally in store, so I went back to check it out.

Another interesting tidbit is that the nose who created Love Etc… is none other than Dominique Ropion. He of the Editions de Parfums gang of noses who authored Une Fleur de Cassie, Vetiver Extraordinaire, Geranium pour Monsieur, and the larger-than-life Carnal Flower. He´s had a hand in many other commercially successful scents including Calvin Klein Euphoria, Jennifer Lopez Live, and Burberry The Beat. Among his other collaborations was one of the flankers of Lancà´me Tresor: Eau de Printemps Sheer.

Two thoughts were running through my mind as I contemplated Love Etc… First, I thought, why not? I used to adore The Body Shop´s products. Their Passion Fruit Cleansing Gel and Sage and Comfrey Open Pore Cream saw me through the whole of my 20s, when my face was an oil slick comparable to that left by the Exxon Valdez. Their Banana shampoo and conditioner soothed my senses as well as my hair,  after a severe lapse in judgment caused me to succumb to a perm that was supposed to be a body wave, but left me with an impressive “Jewfro” the likes of which have only been seen on Barbra Streisand, circa 1976, and Juan Epstein from “Welcome Back Kotter”. 

Second, The Body Shop´s press for Love Etc… is actually giving kudos to Mr. Ropion, something that in their target market, I don´t think anyone really gives a toss about. We perfumistas would rush out to smell floor cleaner if we knew one of our favorite noses developed its scent. But the consumer shopping for fragrances, bath and body products at The Body Shop wouldn´t know Dominique Ropion from Donald Duck. That´s not a diss, by the way; I´m all for these talented artists being recognized for the remarkable work they do. They create the ultimate form of abstract art and they should be celebrated for it, rather than closeted away in labs and conference rooms watching the marketing bigwigs get all the credit. So, since I am something of an aficionado of Mr. Ropion´s work, it was definitely worth checking out.

Love Etc…´s notes are pear, neroli, bergamot, jasmine, heliotrope, lily of the valley, vanilla, sandalwood and musk cream. Certainly, these are far from groundbreaking, and so is the result of their mingling. It is however, fruity in all the right places, flowery and sweet. You could blindfold me and stick Love Etc. or Lancà´me Tresor under my nose and I´d be hard pressed to tell the difference. I wasn´t expecting another Fleur de Cassie, and certainly not Carnal Flower, but the end result will probably be another mainstream mainstay that wouldn´t cause me to recoil in horror if I smelled it on a crowded bus or subway. The price is right ($29.50 for 50 ml) and it certainly compliments The Body Shop´s current incarnation. Speaking of which, as luck would have it, they are re-introducing some of their old “80s Favourites”. Banana shampoo and conditioner, Passion Fruit Cleansing Gel, Dewberry shower gel and some other classic goodies will once again be available starting November 2. I don´t sport a “Jewfro” anymore, and my skin has mercifully dried out to the point where I no longer glow in the dark, but that´s not going to stop me from trolling back down memory lane.

 Do you have any former favorite scents or beauty products you´d love to see make a comeback? If so, I´d love to hear about them.

Okay, I promise, no more deeply personal and downer posts for a while.

Let’s finish up with the Cartier Les Heures.  I am very much relishing these as an artistic theme.  It allows me to overlay my own interpretation within the framework Mathilde Laurent has set out.

There are only five of the thirteen released right now, available at Saks in NYC for about $250 for a 75 ml bottle.  Do we need to even complain anymore about the exclusivity and the price? No, it’s the standard complaint that nobody is listening to, so just insert that boilerplate bitching in here.

VI, L’Heure Brilliante (the shining hour) is an “aldehydic cocktail,” with a lemon, lime and gin accord.  It’s pretty much the Happy Hour perfume.  Happy, bubbling laughing just a little too loud sometimes, but not so much that it raises eyebrows.   And then it quiets down into a cozy conversation with a man who has admired her for ages, with soft, trilling giggles and  sighs of contentment.  You know, that vaguely sounds like a happy ending, and it is, but not that kind. The one where things do turn out okay, even if it’s not the way you want.

I, L’Heure Promise (the promised hour) has notes of green iris, petitgrain, fresh herbs, sandalwood and musk.  A stunning iris scent.  This scent is so very much about spring and earth, with some carroty notes on the open and then it relaxes into that smoothed-out iris that wears like a perfectly tailored pair of suede gloves.  For those of you that like your irises incredibly silky, but not as sweet as some like Guerlain Iris Ganache,  not as rooty as, say, Iris Silver Mist,  or leaning heavily on woods, this is a great camel that threaded the iris needle.  Is it beautifully rendered on me  with no touch of melancholy, just hope unblemished by reality.

XIII, La Treizieme Heure (the 13th hour) has notes of leather, mate tea, birch tar, narcissus, bergamot, patchouli and vanilla.  This just chugs patchouli-infused smoke on the open, like you were sitting on the back of an old locomotive.  Of course you all know I mean that in the good way.  The tea, tar and narcissus fuse together to give this smoke fullness and interest, but it doesn’t feel as heavy as Le Labo Patchouli 24 or Bvlgari Black.  Can I just say that VII and VIII are amazing together?  Yes, pretty sure that I could.  This, along with XII, will absolutely be the best-sellers of the five released so far.  Partly because they are done beautifully, but also because they are perfect for winter – when we all like to fanny about trailing smoke and incense like Cathedrals on the Orient Express.

Now, how does this collection compare to the Van Cleef & Arpels, which is another very cohesive collection released this year?  They just have different themes and approach.  As a set, at least those released so far, they adhere to their theme very cohesively. The VCA CA’s are set around nature and do an excellent job of showcasing some beautifully rendered florals.  Cartier LH revolves around distinct periods and has a pretty wide latitude to interpret what the hours of the clock means for you.  The five I have smelled, while all very differen, mesh well together, and  several can sit next to each other happily and make an even more beautiful and complex scent.

Like Monday, we’ll do comment entries for another set of samples of these. I’ll announce the winners of the two sets next Tuesday!

Patty

Wow, did you have as much fun as I did with the dress-your-age and related perfume post on Sunday/Monday?  That was some great discussion, eh?

I had another post lined up for today, but after Patty’s excellent, introspective post yesterday I’m just not feeling the snark.  Look for it next week, no doubt I’ll be back to my usual self by then.  In the meantime, here’s a candy post and one fall lipstick item.

Profumum Fumidus – Essence of distilled scotch, vetiver root, birch bark.  I’m stealing the blub from LuckyScent:  “Fumidus means smoky, and smoky it is. The smokiness of aged Laphroaig scotch served neat, It is also earthy – the earthiness of rich, freshly tilled land surrounded by uncut forest. Deep and magnetic and commanding, this blend of rich peat, grassy vetiver and brisk birch conjures up a vast estate and its moody young lord making his way through the fog on an unruly stallion…”  Hehe, don’t you want to fan your loins now?  I kept hearing folks rave about this, and I figured the name means “smoke” or thereabouts, so I got my hands on a sample.   Well … it’s really interesting.  That’s not damn-with-faint-praise, it’s just not me at all.  I have ZERO idea what scotch smells like, although maybe I’ll go down and look in the cabinet, I think the Big Cheese likes a good scotch.  The drydown of this is pure vetiver on me, and … I am just not the queen of vetiver, ya know?  Not even Chanel Sycomore.  And the first bit, with the scotch, is not smoky on me so much as muddy, in the style of the vast majority of Bertrand Duchaufour’s compositions for L’Artisan and Eau d’Italie.  I almost scrubbed it.  I’m sure any number of you would be thrilled with it.

Calé Fragranze d’Autore Mistero – Shoplifting from The Perfumed Court this time:  “With hints of saffron, mint, rhubarb and basmati rice, this is an incredible fragrance.  Created by Silvio Levi and Maurizio Cerizza, Mistero features 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.   It is an EDP and is not available in the United States.”   You know I got this for the rice, yes?  Well, and the saffron, and the rest of it.  This one I just can’t decide on.   The top is sharp and a bit bitter and (okay) not my favorite; the saffron has that extra edge to it that reminds me why so many people cut it with rose.  Then we get to part B where I get a lot of the basmati rice (squeee!) on top of the woody base, and I alternate between loving it and feeling it’s a little light, maybe I’m somewhat anosmic to the musk?  I’m pretty sure I am, I would not describe this as a super-light fragrance.  So jury’s out on this one.

Finally, Calé Fragranze d´Autore Preludio d’Oriente (stealing from TPC again) “was based on A Thousand and One Nights, the allure of the Maharajah’s gardens and the love story told by the Taj Mahal.   Created by Silvio Levi and Maurizio Cerizza, Preludio d’Oriente features top notes of bergamot, lemon and mandarin; middle notes of artemisia, incense and chamois leather; and base notes of patchouli, sandalwood and agarwood.  It is an eau de parfum, edp.”  Ding ding ding!  And we have a winner!  This is predominantly incense on me, and I can never have too many incenses.  It reminds me a bit of Heeley Cardinal (the incense part) only more so, the Cardinal was never quite what I wanted it to be, crossed with the raspy drydown of Black Cashmere, only less so – BC can kill me on the wrong day, and like Chaos, man, it is persistent.  The leather and artemisia add some interest and keep it from being a basic woody incense.  I kept thinking the citrusy top would leave but it stuck around for a couple hours, not that I’m complaining.  I’m glad I have this to add to my winter lineup.

Finally, in lipstick news (it’s been awhile, hasn’t it) – I don’t know if you remember but I was obsessed with the Dahlia lipstick as part of the Dolce & Gabbana makeup line after I saw the spread in Vogue where they used it (image at top, I’m sorry I can’t find a page with a close-up of the lips — while they’re clothed).  I think you can get D&G only in two places in the US – Saks NYC and … somewhere else (?)  The Dahlia color sold out right away but they got it back in.  I went there a couple months ago to check it out.*  It’s not that dark, purply goth lippie that everyone’s showing this fall, you know what I’m talking about, and I am too pale and too old for that business, I look like Cruella de Vil in those shades.  Dahlia is a lot of effect on me, only less eggplant.   I am now recollecting that there are two Dahlias, and/or possibly two of most colors, depending on whether you get the gloss or the cream formula, or some sort of variation like that…. Yep, browsing Saks online you can get the shine (#80) or the cream (#160), I got the cream.  My guess is on someone with warmer and more olive skin, it would work great but register as more of a wearable pink, and here is a link to the Gaia the non-blonde’s post on Dahlia, I think I’m right (she calls it a red-based rose.)  On me it’s a delicious, slightly transgressive dark-toned non-red that strays as close as I can get to the goth line without looking stupid.  I’d have named it something like Berry Noir.  It’s a cool color and I don’t have anything else like it.  Here’s another Dahlia link with application tips by Pat McGrath, they call it an “intense merlot” which I think is an apt description.

*And now I’m going to tell a story on myself – I was sure I’d bought a different, lighter color, Dahlia having proven to be too dark.  I even blogged about it.  I guess I need reading glasses, I’ve checked carefully and my tube is definitely Dahlia!  I swear the one I tried in Saks was too dark, I’m wondering whether the Dahlia Shine formula actually registers as darker on the lips? (Which makes no sense at all.)  Maybe I’m just a dope and picked up the wrong tube on the display, or it was in the wrong slot, which is perfectly plausible.  Anyone with insights?  In the meantime, Dahlia’s shaping up to be a color that works on warm and cool skin tones, if Gaia and I are both wearing it, although based on her arm swatch it looks like it would be a much more subtle color on her.

Oh, also — here’s a link to French Essence, a great blog on things French, with lots of fetching illustrations, which I wanted when I was trying to contemplate French style.  Thanks to Angela (and Carter) for recommending it.

March

First — the other two winners of the MFK sample set:  Carter and Hilary.  In case you don’t know what to do, click on Contact Us on the left, remind me what you won and give me your address.

Seems like I should leave a warning before I spiral off into something more personal, which I usually just avoid doing, but the part below isn’t a comfortable subject for lots of people, so feel free to skip down to the perfume review below it.

This last weekend I went through hospice training. I have another session this weekend for 11th Hour training, which is to train people to be at the bedside of someone who is actively, imminently dying so they don’t have to be alone – because they don’t have anyone or their family member just needs a break.

For all of my life, if someone had asked me what volunteer activity I would be most likely to do,  working in hospice would have been last on the list.  I’m not sure when that changed – that I lost most of my fear of death or else just overcame my aversion to the subject or just felt more comfortable with my mortality.

I think it was after my dad died. We all knew he didn’t want to check out in a hospital or wind up in a nursing home, so the DNR was signed without anyone really talking about it.  And then he got to come home, but got sick a day later and was actively dying, but he was taken back over to the hospital — I’m not sure why?  Because that’s what we thought we were supposed to do. We didn’t want him to die, so we just wouldn’t/couldn’t/didn’t talk, and we never asked him how he wanted to finish unwinding from his body and where.   I know he wanted, without him saying it, to check out at home, quietly, with the people he loved.  Instead, he wound up back in the hospital, nobody really told us that he was actively dying, we all just thought he was sick, so all of us living hours away from home stayed put, my mom was with him, but got the flu and had to go home, and he died early that next morning before anyone could get back over. It happened 13 years ago, but it still haunts me that he didn’t check out the way I know he wanted to go, and not one one of us was sitting by his bed holding his hand to tell him goodbye and thanks for sharing his huge,  sometimes infuriating, wonderful life with us when he took his last breath.

Well, that’s how I got to hospice.  They do amazing work in helping people go the way they want and giving the families support and help in honoring those wishes.  But that’s not why I’m writing about this, it’s just an explanation because we all have a story for why we wind up where we do.  During the training, we did an exercise where we had to envision that we were unwinding from life, we were sitting in the chair beside our bed for probably the last time, we knew we probably wouldn’t have the strength to do it again, and we wanted to write one last letter.

So we all wrote our letter, with lots of sniffling and sobbing and tears.  What I found in writing my letter is what most of us would expect.  First, I couldn’t write a letter to my kids in that setting because I was not prepared to sob that much in public. But I made a note to myself that I want to write those letters in my own time so they will have them forever.  My letter didn’t mention things I had or things I had done, places I had gone, work successes.  It was about how much fun my life had been and thanking all the people in my life for sharing their lives, joys and sorrows with me, that it had given all the color and meaning to my life.

But in the midst of all of that emotion while writing that letter, I could smell my life.  Those feelings took on smell and shape.  I’ve always known that smell is the direct conduit to emotion and memory, but I didn’t know it could work the other way, memory and emotion would bring up smell in my head.

What in the world does all of this have to do with Cartier Les Heures?  Not that much directly, but, hey, it’s my blog, I write about what I want to.   Partly it is a thought I pass along to treasure the people in your life, for good or ill.  It is what you will remember at the end and what brings meaning to the tolling of your days.  Make your end of life wishes completely clear to those close to you now, sign a Medical Durable Power of Attorney for someone you trust to make those decisions for you if you can’t.  If someone you know is terminal, or they have a terminal family member, don’t avoid them because you don’t know what to say or do – the absolute worst thing that will happen is they will cry or sob around you, and it may make you sob or cry,  or you may not know how to comfort them, and you may feel really uncomfortable but, you know?  It doesn’t matter.  All of us will be experts on loss before we get to the end.  Dying can be incredibly isolating and lonely, and there is no wrong thing to say – your presence makes your silence or stumbling absolutely fine.

Okay, end of the PSA portion of this post.

The concept of Cartier Les Heures makes me think of the smell stages of my life – whether that is style or taste or simply my age and emotional makeup at the time.  When you start sniffing them, you can keep drawing those same comparisons of time passing, but that the scent you have passed through will always remain a part of you, even if it’s just the memory in your head.

Les Heures X Folle has notes of red currant, pink pepper, grenadine, blueberry, black currant, ivy, violet, boxwood, shiso and aldehydes. When I read that list of notes, I thought, Cartier? Seriously?  Fruity ivy and trees? This is for “The Mad Hour.”

Before I go on, Denyse did a whole series of posts on these fragrances and an interview with Mathilde Laurent, who created them, and you really should go read the whole thing.  Very instructive.

This really is the whole fruit experience with joy and zest.  I’d think of this as my late teens and early 20s perfume. Not that I wouldn’t wear it now, but that is the period of my life that this encompasses – mad, irrational, joyous, thoughtless sometimes, illogical, sweet, naive, innocent.  It’s absolutely fruity, but not in that sweet, killmenow way, though it certainly does not avoid the inherent sweetness that you do get with fruit. It just brings along the rest of the fruit bouquet to keep it from being linear.  It’s easy to love, and it completely fits the description, The Mad Hour.  At the end, it rest in a soft bed of mad green sweetness that lets you recall how it all began, but leaves you separate and beyond that time.

XII, Les Mysterieuse, is going to be the runaway bestseller from this fragrance collection.   Patchouli, juniper, coriander, jasmine, elemi, nutmeg, incense.  This is the mysterious hour.  All the material says XII, the 12th hour, but the bottle I have says IIX, the 8th hour.  I think it would be the 12th hour, it smells like that mystical period in your life when you come closer to the end. The contemplative scent that is full of comfort, but it won’t sit easy all the time.  The patchouli starts big, softens, letting all of that gorgeous incense roll in, but the patchouli continuously stirs up the other notes and makes them fuller, richer, bigger because they are infused with life.  This is a beautiful, warm woody incense.

Of course we are!  You can just make a short comment that says hi to be entered, no need for anything insightful if you don’t want.  But drop a comment, and I’ll be giving a full set of samples to one person.

Patty

I joked with someone recently that I was going to do a blog post of the fragrances I love that nobody else does.  I could list them, then quote from places like Perfumes: The Guide, or Makeupalley reviews, articulating the many ways people mock and dislike these sadly misunderstood gems that are dear to my heart.

Today’s pick: Serge Lutens Cà¨dre, which garners a tepid 43% rebuy rating on MUA along with comments like “mishmash” and (not entirely undeserved) criticism along the lines of, where the hell is the wood?  You’d think something called “cedar” from the line that’s killed us over and over again with cedar would have some cedar in it.

Fortunately for me I am an idiot.  Having avoided this thing like the plague, because it’s called Cà¨dre, which I learned in Serge-speak translated to “hamster-cage”  early on in my complicated relationship with Maison Lutens, I am pretty sure I had never actually put this on my skin.  But there we were at Sniffa and the guy was showing us some of his favorites, not the usual stuff, please, and Santal de Mysore was nice enough.  And of course I love Fleurs d’Oranger.  So when he waved a scent strip under my nose I wasn’t paying much attention to the name, and …. gosh, that’s gorgeous.

The folks at Serge Lutens don’t usually issue a list of notes, or anything else coherent for that matter, but I found this: cedarwood, tuberose, musk, amber and cinnamon.  And that, I suppose, would be a decent guess.  The cedar is there, but it’s in the base and buried under a lot of sweetness; this would kill me in the summer.  The tuberose is nicely counterbalanced, not to say smothered, by the amber and spices.  And I, the person who might reasonably be expected to dry-heave at what I have just written, found that on my skin everything came together.  It is … zsheenyus.  I get something that smells quite strongly like honey, with a little of honey’s muskiness, and a soft sweetness that is simultaneously woody and milky.  It’s a strange smell, I admit, and one I find quite beautiful.  I bought a bottle.

Cà¨dre is going to fit quite nicely into my Serge Lutens lineup that seems to be the perfect complement to my recent experiments in improving  my wardrobe (see yesterday’s post).  I’d expected that donning a pretty scarf, say, or a pair of pearl earrings, would have me reaching for classics like Mitsouko or Jolie Madame, and I’m sure they’ll get plenty of wear as the weather gets cooler.  But my Lutens scents seem to complete my new outfits in exactly the way I want.  They are chic but a little strange, warm but unfamiliar.  Instead of falling into my familiar matchy-matchy trap of wearing a fragrance like vintage Rochas Femme with my pearls and pumps, the unexpected richness of something like Fleurs d’Oranger, Santal Blanc, or Cà¨dre makes everything old feel new again, a classic with a twist.

PS If you find yesterday’s topic interesting, please read down for Carter’s informative, lengthy comments on personal style.  I need to hire that gal.

March