by Nava

Yes folks, I’ve gone trolling in my own collection, yet again. It’s coming up on Sniffapalooza time, and much as I would have liked to be there this year, I’m sorely disappointed that I will not be able to make it. I’ve been missing New York quite a bit lately, mostly because I became a great aunt last month, and I was hoping to see my great nephew before he leaves for college. Alas, his christening will be in January; barring any unforeseen blizzards, I’m hoping to make it back for those festivities.

Sniffa got me thinking about my 4 ginormous Tom Ford Private Blends. I bought them at Bergdorf’s, where I sniffed them for the first time at the spring Sniffa 3 -1/2  years ago. Neroli Portofino, Tobacco Vanille and Purple Patchouli were the ones I instantly fell for, but Noir de Noir grabbed me almost as hard. It is classified as an “oriental chypre”, and much as I like to stay far, far away from anything chypre, it doesn’t smell like one to my nose. The notes are saffron, black rose, black truffle, vanilla, patchouli, oud wood and tree moss. My nose picks up mostly saffron, rose, vanilla (of course) and a bit of patchouli and wood. No moss, and no truffle note that potentially reads skank on me.

As I’ve said before, I find the Private Blends well done in the same vein as Serges, and sometimes almost as challenging to wear. I don’t wear these scents very often, with the exception of Neroli Portofino – I wore it fairly regularly this past summer – but when I do, I revel in their complexity. They’re great scents for this time of year, as well as winter when you need a good snuggler to keep you warm.

So, who’s going to Sniffa? Tell me which scents you’re looking forward to sampling, and any other details you care to share. I’m a shameless voyeur…indulge me!

Disclosure: All Tom Ford scents mentioned are from my own collection.

The Malle candles.  OhmyLord.  I’m still pretty blown away by the amount of scent in them.  I had the Sandalwood and Cardamom sitting by me last night unlit and had to move the candle because I was getting overloaded with scent.

Update on the Amy’s Country Candle gardenia candle. It is a definitely reasonably priced alternative to the Malle. Had I not smelled the Malle first, I’d probably very content with it. It’s got a nice throw, but the gardenia is a little plasticky.  It is nice, though, and if you want a good gardenia, you might want to try it in the tiny candle Amy has just for that purpose.

But we’re not talking candles today.  All you non-candle people will rejoice.  The nice salesperson at Byredo in Barney’s made me a sample of the M/Mink, their newest scent.  Perfume Jerome Epinette made it with notes of adoxal, incense, patchouli, honey and amber.  I looked up Adoxal from the link on Now Smell This.  Says it’s a waxy aldehyde. Kinda interesting!  Not that I understand all the chemical stuff on that page Robin linked to. There’s plenty of aldehydes on the open, which feels fairly cold, overlaid on some very warm notes of honey and amber. The concept was to have an inky smell, which they hit, though it’s not just inky. I’m thinking it’s a little like sitting bundled up in my fur  (if I had one) in a freezing cold room scratching off a note with a fountain pen whilst honey is dripping from my tongue. It has an animal elegance to it with some seriously twisted dark places.  Octavian has an in-depth review that’s a really interesting read.

I’m happy to see Byredo move this direction. I really haven’t been thrilled with much they’ve done in the last 4 outings or so.  They seem to give off the appearance of being on the bleeding edge of haute perfumerie, but not a lot that is very bloody, which is something that’s necessary to be considered “edgy.” I do love a couple of their scents because they have a comfort factor that’s amazing.  M/Mink isn’t really comforting in any conventional sense, but it does draw my nose back over and over as it reveals something else in it. As far as wearability, it works for me.  It’s not so smutty that you have to apologize to your seatmate on the subway, but it has great, sharp angles in it that provide interest, but not to the point of distraction.  Like Octavian, it reminds me of some other scents, though I never seem to have the ability to find which one in perfume catalogue that is my head.

And their ad campaign. These belong in March’s Hall of Smut perfume advertising posts.  But they’re visually interesting. Is the black just ink or feathered ink?  Furred ink?  I keep thinking there’s a Dexter episode in one of those pictures.

So I do have enough of the sampled they gave me to send on to a lucky commenter.  Smutty perfume advertising, smart or just dreadful?  Byredo, can they be edgy?   Or did Pulp and Blanche condemn them to “normal”?

Patty

I’m working on a couple of projects and have Buckethead at home with a fever blah blah.   The weather’s so odd – it was nice and cool and fallish, and now we’re back to mid-80s.  Which in theory I should be appreciating – objectively, the weather’s gorgeous.  But I was ready for fall, and this isn’t cutting it.  I’m bored with the summer scents, and it’s too hot for the fall scents.  It’s times like these I reach for something totally counterintuitive, just to see what happens.  Vintage Balmain Vent Vert turned out to be pretty much perfect.  Not perfect for me, mind you.  Germaine Cellier’s much-loved Bandit and Fracas aren’t really things I tend to want to wear either.  (Jolie Madame’s another story).

Vent Vert was created in 1947, and according to LT in The Guide it was reformulated, decently, in 1991 by Calice Becker, modernizing and simplifying it while still retaining quality.  Let me quote: “The 1991 Vent Vert, while less symphonic than the original, had some of the charm of familiar music played by a smaller ensemble: the newfound clarity made it possible to appreciate the tune to the fullest.  Not the real thing, but a very good effort.”  I don’t know how “vintage” my vintage sample is; it may be the first reformulated version but I suspect it’s the original version only because the top notes are a hair off and it’s got that sort of drydown I only get in things like vintage Femme – whatever it is they put in those bases, they’re not making that stuff any more.  Unfortunately, Vent Vert was re-reformulated in the late 90s, and for all I know the version today is even worse.

Vintage Vent Vert (say that three times fast) is so uncompromisingly galbanum-bitter-green at first taste it makes my teeth hurt.  And yes, that was a typo – I meant “at first sniff” – but left it because Vent Vert is one of those scents that seem connected to taste – a bitter drink, one that makes the eyes water but proves impossible to set down.  The vintage version of Vent Vert I have features a long stretch of florals at the heart and a little powder.  It’s a bit of the Chamade effect – the drydown’s so different from the grassy top that you’d be forgiven for not realizing they’re the same scent, although the top of Vent Vert is green and crisp rather than weirdly screechy (sorry folks, and I do love Chamade, I own a bottle.)  There’s something about Vent Vert that feels spare and timeless.  I’d fit it into the Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle, between Therese and Lipstick Rose, and nobody’d bat an eye.

I’ve tried new Vent Vert a couple times in the last three years and can cheerfully report that it’s ghastly.   The sharp, grassy bitterness is ugly instead of arresting; the drydown is completely different now (LT calls it trashy green chypre) and redolent of hairspray.  It’s also monotonous – what you get in the first 30 seconds is it, more or less, and like all scrubbers it is never going to depart.  It’s one of those perfumes that, reformulated, gives classics a bad image and must quietly break the hearts of ladies of a certain age every day, and I don’t mean in a good way.

Of the three, Fracas seems most like the vintage original.  Bandit is composed differently, the base ingredients having changed (and if you’d like to read something really interesting, check out Bandit in The Guide, where LT explains how Cellier drove everyone crazy by using manufactured bases in her fragrances, and how the Bandit effect is still achieved.)   In contrast, the current version of Vent Vert is much worse than nothing.  Balmain Jolie Madame (also done by Cellier and still in production) is somewhere between success and failure.  If you bought a bottle at TJ Maxx, it’s a score, and probably better than much of what else is there, at least at my neighborhood store, which always seems to be full of CK Be and Britney and Caesar’s Man.   It’s possible to love that bottle of Jolie Madame unless and until you smell the vintage, at which point all bets are off.

Opening it to the rogue’s gallery – how do you feel about current vs. vintage versions of any of these, or any other related scents?  Do you hate the new Jolie Madame?  (I know plenty of you do!)  How about Balmain Ambre Gris or Miss Balmain?   Can I make you cry if I mention Lanvin Rumeur or Chanel Bleu, or is that just cruel?

sample source:  private source

March

I love New York so much. For three Days.  I”m on my third day, and it’s time to haul my sorry, tired feet and butt back to Colorado – yoga and quiet.

This was a trip for me, my sister and my niece. We’ve had a blast – from lounging in the Palace courtyard drinking wine to the 1:30a knock/ringing of our hotel doorbell from some unknown clearly oversharing maurauder who  shouted to let him in so he could “make the pee-pee!!”  We didn’t.

We went to Bergdorf — wait, right up front, I should tell y’all that I really didn’t sniff perfume this weekend, except the new Byredo. Not sure why, just didn’t get around to it. I did smell all the new Malle candles, the ones I don’t have, and now I think I need them all or most all – I may be able to exclude a couple maybe.  I’m pea-green with envy after reading Anita’s post from Monday about meeting Mr. Malle.  He’s done some amazing work with scent, and his candles really take it in a completely new direction.  More on that later – maybe today or maybe Thursday.  I did ask if they’d ever make some of the candle scents into perfume and was told no, never.

Bergdorf was the place for my much-wanted Le Metier makeover.  Since there was the first of two parades going on Sunday, we sorta had the place to ourselves, and the super-fabulous Dustin gave me a spectacular lesson with all the Metier products.  It’s a pricey, but a great line.  He did tell me that Le Metier uses no tar in their mascara, which does make sense since theirs is one of the few mascaras that do not bother my eyes in the least when I have it on.  Most mascaras do have tar in them, he said. I have no idea what’s in anything, but when he told me the two brands that had the most in them, they are the two brands I absolutely can’t wear without my eyes just going into red revolt.  Hmmm.

The rest of the Le Metier products really work for people like me who just get weary of having to know where my brow crease is since it keeps moving every year I get older.  The kaleidoscope face, lip and eye palettes are so easy to use and look flawless when you finish, but not overdone in that face masky kind of way.  The concealor blended into my undereye area perfectly and didn’t look like I’d just put on concealor.   The true test of his skills is when I put my own face on this morning, and it looked just like the one he gave me yesterday that I loved.

Complete success on that mission.  And I picked up another pair of boots that I need about as much as I need another eye shadow or lipstick.

Today (Monday) was a jaunt up to the upper West (?) side to see St. John the Divine Church, which is pretty spectacular, but why do people pee in the area by the churchwith the statute?  Maybe it was the same guy that wanted to “make the pee-pee” Sunday night.  For some reason, I thought we were walking like 30-40 blocks.  It turned out to be like 80 blocks, halfway through Central Park, and we weren’t even halfway there.  My hips, feet, calves, ass are so sore right now. At least we found the good sense to grab the subway back to the hotel, swan up to our room in a hurry, change clothes and walk over to the Plaza for tea.  Tea at the Plaza is lovely. Not as lovely as the teas I had in London, but really charming.

Okay, the candle thing will take too long to put in this post, sorry!  Plus I’ve just burned two of the three I picked up, so I can’t talk about them all, except to say these three have the same great throw as the other two.  I do have a question to ask, how do you New Yorkers walk they way you do in heels?  Is there a trick to this? I walk in flats, but even then, my feet feel like hamburger. I can’t imagine how 7 hours walking would feel if I’d worn my stacked heel boots.  What do I not know?  Or do y’all just have heels on from the time you’re 3?

Patty

Okay.  I’m de-boozed and feeling more the thing now, so I can tell you All About The Event.  The Man.  The Malle.   The Candles.

M. Malle. so, I got to Barneys a few minutes before 5p, to find M. Malle  in the chic little area devoted to his fragrances (Bauhaus-inspired chairs, elegant fittings and those smelling booths)  looking totally soigne and comfortable in his surroundings.  Christina  (the delightful woman who helped us Chicocoans through the Malles) told me to introduce myself; I did (hey, I am not shy.  I’m a bit insane.  But not shy.)  I told him about the Posse, of which he is aware (positive), bless him. He was agreeable to my yakking with him for a Posse post, bless him again.  We had a lovely 5-10 min pre-Event chat, about blogging (he has definite opinions), cows (not so much), Catholic school upbringing (both of us and don’t ask me how we got on that – it seemed germane at the time), the scent of our parents’ lives (the Coffee Society candle is most often equated with that, for his clients).  He would be a great person to spend some time with at a real cocktail party, I think.

May I just tell you how charming he is?  Absolutely charming.   He is that fascinating French-in-America hybrid.  TOTALLY French.  But an attractive, pragmatic respect and appreciation for the US that is delightful .   Very urbane, very good-looking, in that Very French Way.  Very polished.  In that… yeah, you get the idea.

And he’s very gracious.  Which is great because…..

He let me smell him! Seriously.  What a sport!  I explained that THE POSSE ASKED ME TO DO IT.  After the briefest pause he realized a) I wasn’t any crazier than anybody else he’d met that day and b) apparently I really had been asked by people who admire him and what he’s done for perfume  – and I was respectful – as respectful as you can be, I guess, when you are asking a total stranger if you can smell them! You people are freaks and obviously I am even freakier for doing what you ask!   He had the barest traces of Geranium pour Monsieur, which seems to be his scent choice, if recent interviews are anything to go by.  What was really lovely was, he was so damn NICE about it, understanding that it really was a serious request.   He opened up his shirt so he (HE) could smell the inside, which he said still smelled like GpM – I wasn’t going there.   Not even for y’all.  Somehow it didn’t seem like Quite the Thing to Do, y’know? I didn’t ask.   And he didn’t offer.

HE SMELLED MURRAY! Y’all know Murray – he’s my adored vintage Murray Kruger blue croc handbag.  He’s pretty fragile so he doesn’t get out much – but often I’ll take him out of his sleeper just to smell his insides.  They smell like my mother’s handbag from when I was 6 – good leather, shards of tobacco from her Philip Morris Commanders that slipped out of her gold cigarette case, Shalimar, face powder.  I really wanted to know if he smelled 1960 like I did and was totally perplexed when he said it smelled like decomposing (that is not the word he used – hang on I’ll try to remembernopesorry) oranges.  Later I remembered that I’d thrown a cotton ball with one drop of bigarade absolute into Murray’s inner pocket, for about 32 seconds, about a year ago. I need to get my sinuses fixed.  Murray and I are Big Fans Now.(Murray was so excited to be there!)

So, the Event.  We went upstairs to the Personal Shopper suite ..… nicely lit, crystal flutes with Veuve Cliquot, soft music…

…and here’s where M. Malle became Editions des Parfums – the Candles; as he said, when I later queried him (for the second time) about the upcoming Portrait of a Lady “not tonight.  Tonight it’s all about the candles”.  It sounds really lovely when said with a charming accent, trust me.   I got sidetracked so he was already seated and chatting with another guest when I came in – this is important because I was not at all prepped re the candles – I kinda boobled into the room, still focused on perfume with no clear sense of what was going on.  Before I tell you about them, let me tell you that I was hoping he was gonna bust out some PoaL (which he said has something to do with Geranium but not the regular parts of geranium – or something like that.  I was already into my 3^rd glass of the widder’s brew and I’d missed lunch and …I’m sorry – it’ll be out in Nov and we can figure it out then, okay?).  Anyway, not candles. I. Hate. Candles.  My sinuses are shot.  A scented candle sends my septum into Red Alert and in a few ticks I cannot breathe.   Add the incipient sinus infection and I should’ve been in a Disaster Zone.    Instead, I kept thinking ‘wow, this bouquet really smells lovely’.  It wasn’t until I began to focus on the conversation that I realized the flowers were silk and I was smelling the lit candle!  Did I mention I am NOT an investigative journalist?  I am an exhausted bonehead who missed the obvious marketing cues. Like the big-ass buncho GIANT RED CANDLES!  Oooopsie.  But I have to say, this is the absolute first-evah! Candle that doesn’t smell like a candle AT ALL!  Ier Mai (May Day) is a joyful bouquet of muguet blossoms, with none of that sinus-searing stuff.  None.  For the whole two hours.  Whoa!  Rosa Rugosa smells exactly like the bloom – and I should know – I have had at least 20 of those bushes in my past 5 gardens.  I don’t know if it’s supposed to but Jurassic Flower (modeled on magnolia) reminds me of a gorgeous night-blooming tuberose.  Are they worth between $80 – $140?  Not in the life I am currently living but that’s not their fault –  in my former life I would’ve bought all three of those, right then, without blinking, they are that lovely.  Patty did some nosework on the candles on Friday’s post and she’s way better versed than me.

There were about 15 of us willing captives enthralled as M. Malle discussed how he came to the idea of making candles, how he really doesn’t like what’s on the market currently (he used NO names, so don’t ask) and how few, if any, other companies employ perfumers to create candles.   Passed bell jars around – these candles have some serious ‘throw’.   He talked about how he feels a home should smell (hint:  it ain’t ‘sexy’), ‘headspace’ technology and how he sends more flowers to Dominique Ropion than any other man…he OWNED that room.  I was spellbound but for a slightly odd reason –  perfumista warred with the business owner in me –  I sat in total awe of the elegant juggernaut that was Barneys and Editions, there in that lovely little  sitting room. Signed candles flew into shopping bags like Halloween candy!   Man, I gotta figure out how to translate that into container loaders!  M. Malle is no dilettante.  He is passionate about his love for perfumery but also for his business – and you know what?  I can totally get with that.  It was a great presentation and I came away with serious respect for him as an artiste, a muse (if he isn’t Muse to those perfumers I don’t know who is – his respect for their craft  is palpable) and a businessman.  As much as I wanted to ask him everything PERFUME (he loves Mitsouko!  Fracas! Yay!) it was obvious he was there to do a job, so I had to let him.  But it was tough!  The crowd got into a  heated discussion about Fracas v. Carnal Flower and he charmingly redirected the focus before it turned into a brawl…..but it was close!  Okay, not really.  Uh, it was  Me v. The Room.  Yeah, like you’re surprised.

A couple of Other Event Things: Here is my petard.  I iz hoist with it.

I think I might’ve been a tad bitch erm testy about whom I perceived as the invited ‘spendies’.  Oho!  I was SO wa-ronnng!  The people at this Event were ……wow.  Let’s just say I would be delighted to have dinner with any one – or all – of them.  Erudite, engaged, engaging!  None of this ‘I’m herebecausehe’sacelebritywhere’smygoodiebag’ nonsense.  These were serious devotees of the perfumer’s craft, or at least seriously into perfume.  One very interested gentleman had just recovered his sense of smell after a 20yr loss!  His lady wife, an excellent nose, recalled being in a pitched battle with a chef over the use of scented candles and fragrant flowers on an haute cuisine dinner table. An excellent conversation, there.  Another lovely lady, Susan, wearing a vintage Yohji Yamamoto jacket that has convinced me that a brisk walk is way better than a chocolate cupcake writes poetry about the scents she loves – she shared a lovely one she wrote about Dans Tes Bras.  Incredibly interesting people.  I was in heaven.  And I apologize to each and every one of you for that mean, snipey haiku.  I have put down the Haterade and picked up the Love Jug.

Also, I met a lovely Posse lurker who gave me a bit of street cred (her shriek of ‘YOU’RE MUSETTE!!” brought the house down (in a good way).    Thanks, Tally!  She has promised to de-lurk.  She is nervous about commenting because she says she doesn’t know anything about perfume. Ha!  She obviously has not read my posts! Her beautiful friend Olena (a designer of incredible jewelry) stunned her silly by gifting her with a Russian Nights candle!  Wow!  That was Much Fun to watch!  More champagne!

And then, just like Cinderella’s ball, it was all over.  M. Malle bid us au revoir and slid out of the room and off to O’Hare, unless he had a G-V parked at Midway which wouldn’t surprise me one bit – and I ain’t hatin’.  Me?  I walked home.  I was soaked to the gills in Veuve Cliquot, it was a beautiful autumn night and I really would like to fit into a Yohji jacket once again.  Muchisimas Gracias to Bradley, Lydia, Christina and Marie – you are the only reason I pay Chicago sales tax!  Barneys is very lucky to have you.

By the way, in answer to my query ( knowing my love for Mitsouko but also accepting that I use it when I need to wield an olfactory broadsword, though he describes it as ‘ladylike’ – well yeah, if you’re Lady Macbeth!) he determined that the best Editions scent for me, when I need to bust some construction heads, is not Angeliques, which he said was too timid for my needs.  It should be Noir Epices. What say you?