Thanks for all the reassurance on Tuesay that I’m only as crazy as all of you guys, which makes me feel so much less alone and weird.

We talk about Thierry Mugler’s Angel on here in the most unflattering terms.  March and I both believe it makes up  own Circle of Hell, and they mark it Angel, and the unwitting new occupants that land there find out quickly that smelling Angel for longer than 3 minutes will set their nose on fire and turn their innards to sticky, sweet, patchouli-rum goo.

No matter how much I hate it, there is a part of me that is secretly fascinated with it – it’s enduring popularity, why so many others love it, why it’s not been listed on an EPA List of Banned Substances (oakmoss is on IFRA’s list, and it smells good).   When I ordered the Liqueur de Parfum of Angel for TPC, I gave thanks I don’t decant very much anymore because I couldn’t do that one (oh, wait, I forgot, the angels do the decanting in fluffy clouds – you guys crack me up) and survive.  But, you know, it was there now – on my desk -  and I opened it, and it smells richer than the regular Angel, which may mean it does like Opium does in the pure parfum – transform from a toxic substance to a rich, warm oriental that is amazing and beautiful and so wearable.

Hey, there’s no dobber, just a spray.   That can’t be good. I’ll spritz small, right?  Yeah, that always happens just like that.

After I gooped up my hand with the most toxic (others may and have reviewed it as Angelly perfection, I’m just not feeling the love for any version of Angel) version of Angel yet, I was sorta horror stricken because it won’t come off until you wash in a super-hot shower for 30 minutes.  For those of you that love your Angel, you’ll probably love it. It is richer, darker, less blowsy, though fruitier and boozier (Robin points out in her review that this has been a deal-breaker for some Angel lovers), but it is Angel through and through on me – completely over the top, more elegantly restrained just by some adjustments in notes, deepening some.  I, of course, still hate it, but just a teensy bit less in this version.  There’s more booze and sweet in it (bet you didn’t think that was possible!), and if I could eat or drink it instead, I think I’d love it.

What perfume do you hate that also fascinates you?  The other one that stands out on my list is Borneo 1834, but I lean more towards fascination than hate with it.  Flowerbomb is another.  It’s not a perfume I should ever want to wear, but some days, I just jones for it.  But one wearing cures me for six months.

Patty

I had these three ladies over today.  They were pretty curious about the perfume thing.  I walked them through the whole perfumista sniff-and-share routine – here’s where the sample packages come in the mail.  (What perfume is in that huge box on the porch?  I have no idea.  Oh, never mind, it’s cereal bowls from eBay.)  Here’s what they look like when you open them – the vials, the sprayers, here’s how you wrap them up so they don’t smell in transit.   (Why does this package have a candy in it?  Because it’s from The Perfumed Court.  Well, why does this one here have a hand-embroidered hanky?  Well, because it’s from Musette.)

I laughed when I read the comments yesterday about misplacing bottles or samples.  I have samples and bottles, literally, all over the house.  I have a general idea of where to look for them, and I’m pretty good about filing them.  But you would be hard-pressed at this point to search a room and not find some incriminating evidence of my addiction.  There are two bottles of Annick Goutal on the kitchen counter, under the microwave and next to the sunscreen.  There are sample vials on top of the dryer.  (What is this unlabeled one?  Well … I have no idea.)   There are bottles in closets, in boxes, under the sink, in the guest bedroom… not that I’m complaining.  As long as they’re not sitting in the sun, or in the heat, I’m happy.

We sniffed a lot, talked about perfume styles.  The “old-lady” stuff and what types of notes lead you in that direction.  The concept of gourmands.  Modern perfumery.   Who gets into perfumery as opposed to, say, shoes, or wine (although there’s definitely a food/perfume/wine overlap.)   What we get out of sniffing scents together (a sense of community, the social aspect.)

At some point Etat Libre’s Secretions Magnifiques came up.  I wasn’t sure I still had the sample, as I was so terrified at one point that Hecate would get ahold of it and spill it and we’d have to tear that part of the floor up (other scents that provoke similar fears: my stoppered 1.7 of Poison; my sample of Vero Kern Onda; Lutens Borneo.)  Notes for SM via LuckyScent are: Iode accord, adrenaline accord, blood accord, milk accord, iris, coconut, sandalwood and opoponax.  I’m sorry we’re still having image upload problems, but if you google the name you’ll see the erect member on the label on the front of the bottle (there’s another label with a boring red/blue design.)

I read the ladies Luca Turin’s review of Secretions in The Guide (five stars – “nautical floral … an elegant fresh floral in the manner of PdN Odalisque, given a demonic twist by a touch of a stupendous bilge note”… etc.)    Then I popped the plastic top off the vial; I said I wasn’t sure you got the full effect sniffing the stopper, but that I didn´t recommend putting it on the skin.  I invoked the scrubber rule, and noted that SM was really, really hard to get rid of.  But one of the gals was game.  She’s not “into” perfume at all but is interested in it the way we go at it.  I touched the plastic dabber against her skin.  We waited.  Then we sniffed and talked about that horrifying part of it.  The part that smells like, well, secretions – to my nose, the point of the meetup between salty tears, (euphemism alert!) male essence and Aunt Flo.  Not to put too fine a point on it.  After a few minutes of thoughtful sniffing, my adventurous friend volunteered that maybe she should try to see if she could wash it away because she was feeling like that smell was going to make her vomit.

So we ran into the laundry room and I tried the liquid detergent direct on the skin, followed by a rinse; next I was going for the seal-in via deodorant (which works pretty well, actually), and an offer of something else on top.  But she seemed okay.  I mean, she didn’t puke while she was still at my house.

I did keep getting this vague, unpleasant smell later in the day and I realized that – yes, you guessed it – I must have gotten some micro-amount (1/8 of a drop?) on my fingertip popping the vial stopper out carefully.  That smell is still there, like I forgot to wash my hands after changing a diaper.  Really, there is something very wrong with that picture.  I wonder if there’s a person on the planet who really wears that thing?

Some good things came out of this.  One gal decided that what she really needed was some Theorema.  I wound up with a small bottle of Mandragore, which a) interested me because it doesn’t look exactly like mine, and b) thrilled me because it doesn’t smell like mine; it’s more peppery.   But I don’t think anyone ran home and called up Bendel for Secretions.

March

I’m not a fan of Daylight Saving Time at all.  Fall is okay, but I don’t care that much about it because I never sleep in – my internal clock springs me up by 6 a.m. at the latest. Spring forward?  Just kill me.  Sunday is okay since I don’t really care what time it is, and I don’t really notice that it’s an hour later, I don’t have to get up at a particular time on Sunday, but as my normal 9-10p bedtime stretches to 11p and I have a 5 a.m. wake-up call for Yoga Sculpt, which is really 4 a.m. in old time, I get so jumpy, unhappy and panicky.  Sleep is important to me, especially enough of it.  Functioning, mood and reasonableness goes downhill quickly if I’m more than an hour short of 8 hours of sleep. Am I alone in that? I used to do great with less sleep, but adrenals get exhausted over the years and cranky and insist on a sufficient amount of time unconscious.

Too little sleep, and I get ill fast, which is where I am today.  Part of it is spring – the buds and pollen are starting to pop out everywhere, just providing some low-level allergy aggravation. The rest is the lack of sleep.  After almost throwing up during Yoga, not finding anywhere to slip in a 30-minute nap today, I’m facing the computer thinking:  What the hell am I going to write about?  I’m sick, I’m tired, and I want something to make me feel better.

Aha!  Lostmarc’h Lann-Ael, the delicious comfort fragrance that takes me to every happy place I’ve ever known.  Lucky Charms, milk, but tied up in an impossibly elegant concoction that is better than the sum of its parts.  That always makes me feel better in every way possible.  Its persistence is just enough to let it cling, but to never get annoying.

Off to the perfume drawers to find it – so happy, so happy, just anticipating the comfort and pleasure it will give me.  I keep thinking none of you really want to hear some of these stupid stories of mine, but then I’m pretty sure all of you have experienced this to some degree or another.  I keep forgetting all of you are like me in this fragrance obsession.

Because all my perfumes are part of a business, I hire people to do the decanting. I just couldn’t do it, I have a whole other job and only so many hours in the day.  At some point, the filing system for perfumes got away from me.  They know where everything is, but sometimes I’m at a loss and just meander from drawer to drawer, hoping I get lucky and recognize the top of the bottle.  Where the hell are the L perfumes?!?!?!  Shouldn’t they just go down in order.  J-K is here, then the smaller Hermes drawer, the rolly-around Montales, then we are at M-N-O?  After some period of time of looking in the same drawers 35 times and frustranicking, I looked in the next column of drawers and found — yes, Lolite Lempicka, the rest of the Ls should be here. And there it was, and soon I was magikly delicious with sweet fruity cereal that is so perfectly warm and embracing, it makes you weep. And I felt better, comforted, like my tiredness will pass, my bad mood will pass, as will my temperature.

What perfume does that for you?  And how long have you searched for a missing sample, decant or bottle before you either gave up or found it? And what was it?

Patty

The weather’s been gray and rainy – not in a bad way, it gives me hope that spring, as they say, is just around the corner.  It’s the kind of weather that calls out for Fendi Theorema, which is what I’ve been wearing.  A lot.  And for me, it’s a nice change of pace to really wear a beloved perfume (rather than three or six new things) for an entire day.

Of course in the middle of that I got my bottle of the 1999 Calice Becker Ines – bought from Overstockperfume for $14.99 for 1.7 oz (!), I think with shipping the total was less than $22, and it came – literally – the next morning.   I already had on Theorema but I sprayed some Ines on anyway, on the opposite arm.  It was quite the felicitious combination.  Not a layering – I could still lift a wrist and smell either – but I love doing that sometimes.  Theorema’s candied orange on one arm, Ines’ warm, musky embrace on the other, and the scent of the two of them mingled in the air around me… joyous.  And I got compliments, both from a daughter and a stranger.  As opposed to funny looks.  A nice change.

I did try the Balenciaga Paris.  Reviews have been mixed – it’s a quieter scent, a violet, not too sweet, done something along the lines of Prada Infusion d’Iris, maybe a bit more punch.  I haven’t seen the bottle in person but in the photos it’s gorgeous.  It’s been noted that the musky base tends to linger.  I have to say … linger it did, to the point that it wore out its welcome.  I’m having trouble putting my finger on exactly what my problem with it is/was.  It’s certainly light, and Prada IdI never gave me that trouble.  But that base stays and stays and stays and it’s just persistent enough, in maybe a marginally fresh/metallic way?  That it began to annoy.  Not to the point that I scrubbed, but to the point that I buried it.  Under some Mandragore.  I know.  You’re shocked.  I’ll be trying it some more, and if I fall in love (and I might, as I like violet very much) I’ll let you know.  Until then, let’s all bow our heads and have a moment of silence for the fact that we can’t buy Laura Tonatto’s discontinued Eleonora Duse, the greatest violet I’ve ever loved and lost … oh my GOD!!!!!!   It’s on her website again!!!!!!!   I wonder if it smells the same … notes grabbed from there: ylang – ylang Comores – bergamot Italia, violet victorian, iris Italia, lily of the valley, mimosa, woody, poudry, cedar Texas, vanilla Madagascar.  72 Euros!!!  Hmm….

Today’s post, inspired by my cheapie Ines, and because I’m curious:  everything can’t be Serge and Amouage and some vat of stuff you have to order direct from Florence or Ulan Bator (although you know I would, and pay $50 shipping).   What cheap thrills have you indulged in?  I’m thinking of discounter-available frags.  There’s a whole world out there of good stuff that’s under the radar – I had no idea that Becker Ines even existed, and I’m amused to see from comments to that post that several of you already own and wear it.  So, let’s hear about your other online “budget” finds – whether they lived up to expectations or not. Did anyone try that Bill Blass Nude that Angela blogged about?  How was it?  And if your cheap scent was bought unsniffed, whether after a review or because you saw it in a plastic case at Marshalls and had heard about it, I’d love to hear how it worked out – I’m always interested in people’s success rates with unsniffed purchases, as mine is not great.

PS. For anyone interested:  I see in the Sunday NYTimes that Martin Margiela Untitled will be available “this month” in the new boutique in NYC: phone #212-989-7612, no size or price quoted.

Sources: Calice Becker Ines: overstockperfumes.com; Balenciaga Paris, private sample, Fendi Theorema, my own bottle.

March

Mea culpa. It’s Friday morning. I woke up an hour or so ago. And I’ve just remembered it’s my posse week. Bad boy.

The excuse – work, innit? And whilst I’m not going to talk about that, it is really getting in the way. Alongside the start of the planting season, but that’s no bad thing.

Seeds so far: ten types of tomato, aubergine, two types of cucumber, melon, jalapeno chillis and two other chilli types. And about 20 varieties of annuals. The big sow comes at the end of this month. Or the beginning of next. Spring is slow in coming here, and the daffodils are much later than usual.

And then there’s the dahlia tubers I’m forcing to take some rooted cuttings. Too many varieties to bore you with here.

As for smells, they’re on a back seat. I’ve been craving Miller Harris’ Fleurs de Sel, now my decant has run out. This is different enough to stand out from the crowd – more an anti-perfume than the ‘Oh no! It’s l’Eau’ of Serge Lutens, it’s one part marshy seaside, to one part spa treatment, to one part Idunnowhat. Yeah, that’s right, it has three parts.

So sorry. But that’s all. Help me out by telling me what’s keeping you busy right now.

Oh, and I’ve lost nearly 16 pounds since Christmas – unintentionally really. Glad to see the back of the slow accretion of middle-aged manblubber.

Lee