Walking through the mall a while back, I made my waythrough a crowd of people gathering outside a restaurant.

And as I passed a group of men, a familiar scent waftedto my nose.

It was YSL’s Kouros.

I was immediately reminded of the early ‘80s, when I was incollege and bought it for my then-boyfriend as a birthday gift.

I loved its unusual scent, so different from anything I’d ever smelled before.

And I admired the sleek, coolly marbled white bottle trimmed in silver, almost architectural in its beauty (rather fitting,

actually, since he was an architect).

We traveled abroad for several weeks as I accompanied him onone leg of his fellowship, and he wore Kouros every day of that trip.

Not long after that, we parted.

Ours was an extremely painful breakup, one that left me feeling utterly bereft and even physically sick for a while.

Getting even the slightest whiff of Kouros in the months afterward would upset me.

But time truly is a great healer and eventually I came to realize that these things work out for the best. The hurt has

long since receded and I am now happily married to a wonderful man.

So Kouros, which once would have brought me to tears, now conjures good memories of being madly in love and

experiencing the splendor of Europe.

It has always impressed me as a warm, elegant,almost-European scent.

(It gets some grief from those who find it a bit “dirty,”but I’m very sensitive to civet, cumin and the like and it

never bothered me.)

What fragrance evokes a deep response in you, for better or worse, when you smell it now?

A computer that size now fits in your hand!

I’ve had this question taking up space in my head all week: How has technology improved/intruded on our lives?

Was it simpler back in the day when we didn’t have all this gadgetry making us so available to each other, or do we revel in the fact that we’re so accessible? I’m not just talking about cell phones and text messaging; I’m talking e-commerce, social media, Facebook – all the stuff we can no longer function without.

Then the thought lead me to perfume, and my question is, how did we find out about new scents before the Internet? Yes, we saw magazine ads and television commercials, and then came scent strips, but this medium took it to another level entirely. We have blogs and groups and countless sites we go to for the latest news and opinions. Is it too much or is it just right?

My question to you is: Were you content with your scents before technology or after technology? How has technology affected your feelings about fragrance? Inquiring minds want to know.

Have a great weekend!

What did I promise last week in the drawing? Oh, yeah, all those samples except the Watermelon Gazpacho, which I slurped down. Then I just abandoned all pretense of civility and started eating watermelon straight. Just watermelon/melon for three days. I’m foundering on it. We have now entered the melon feast/fast stage of summer where I live on melons and peaches.  To be followed by a fall of pumpkin everything – pumpkin gnocchi, pumpkin soup, pumpkin bread, pumpkin seeds, pumpkin pie – hmmm, can I do a raw pumpkin pie?  Must think about this

So the winners from last week are:  Matt and Brooke.  Just hit the Contact Us over on the left, remind me what you’ve won, get me your address. I’ll give you a quick “got it” return e-mail so you know you escaped my junk filter, and then I’ll get them sent out. If you don’t get a return e-mail, contact me again.  No Watermelon Gazpacho in the sample pack. Can you do a peach gazpacho?  I think I found a recipe for a pineapple gazpacho.

Now, the raw pizza crust recipe and marinara sauce:

 Crust

3 Large Yellow Onions

2/3 Cup Flax Seeds, ground (I used Brown, but Golden will also work)

1/2 Cup Sunflower Seeds, ground

1/4 Cup Almond Flour, (dehydrated almond pulp)

1/3 Cup Nama Shoyu?1/4 Cup Olive Oil (cold pressed or non-pressed)

2 Tbs Nutritional Yeast

1 Tbs Oregano

1 Clove Garlic, minced

1 Tsp Himalayan Crystal Salt (more or less to taste)

Start by grinding all of the seeds into a fine powder. Place the dry ground flax, sunflower, and almond flour into a large bowl and stir around to mix well.   Add the remaining dry ingredients, the nutritional yeast, oregano and Himalayan salt, to the bowl and again mix well.

Clean and peel the three large onions and cut into quarters.  In a food processor slice all of the onions into slivers using the slicing disc. Break up any large pieces so you are left with mostly onion slivers.  Place the onion slivers a large clump at a time into the large bowl with the dry ingredients and toss until all of the onions are well coated.   Mix together the nama shoyu, olive oil, and minced garlic, then incorporate into the dry ingredients .   Set this bowl aside for five minutes or so to allow the dry mixture to soak up the wet ingredients.  Press this mixture into a tart pan or pizza pan. Something with sides works pretty well.

Sauce

3 cup baby grape tomatoes

1 cup raisins

1 lemon, juiced

3 garlic clove

1/2 cup basil

sea salt to taste

Blend in a blender until smooth. Adjust for enough sweet flavor with a hint of tang from the lemon juice.    Top your pizza with whatever veggies you have around.

That’s your delicious raw food recipe for the week.  Wow, that’s like a whole post, none of it about perfume, except I DO have a perfume to talk about.

I like Cartier Baiser Vole.  It shocked me kind of, but not really.  Mathilde Laurent I think is so good, but I know with this and the Lune thing they did, they were aiming at a more commercial audience. I liked Lune and happily wear it from time to time. It’s easy to wear.  Baiser Vole is the same – very commercial, but really easy to wear. So commercial enough that it will sell easily, but not so much that it smells like everything else out there, just close enough that consumers won’t think it’s too weird for them.

The marketing materials say it’s all about the lily, the flower men pick as most liking to smell.  I would have argued that point, thinking men aren’t crazy about lily, but so far every male that’s smelled this perfume thinks it’s great and have commented no fewer than 5-6 times about how good it smells. It skews youthful, floral, little green, little sweetish, not entirely nice, but  mom won’t notice she’s a a bit of a tart.  It’s pretty strong out of the bottle, so go easy on it if you’re wearing it to the office or on a date, a little will waft happily across a football field.  Must be that cool bottle which looks like a lighter – shoots it like a scented flame thrower.

Source of this sample is Cartier.  They sent me plenty, so I’m going to give away like 10 generous samples of it to commenters.  So just drop a comment to be entered.

Now, y’all may shoot me for this, but it’s the end of July, and the end of summer is in sight, and it makes me sad. When peaches show up (next week), I know we are in the wrap-up phase.

Everything ends.  This is something that is stuck in my head for the last week.  I feel less sad about things that may end before I’m ready because I know the end is there for everything.  This winds up floating through my head during meditation. Oh,  yeah, I’m doing my 30-day yoga/meditation challenge. 30 days of both every day. I’m almost done with Day 3.  Much as I’d like to tell you I’m thinking about the big things in life that end – and I do! – what also crosses my mind is my dwindling supply of Apres L’Ondee vintage parfum and other finite scents that I’ll probably never see again once it’s gone.

What are you going to be sad to see end that you have in your perfume library?  Or in some other nonscented thing that you know will eventually end?

Patty

by Musette

I’m writing this in the waning Sunday morning for Wednesday’s post.

I’ve been an Urban Baby for most of my life.  Water out of the tap (Chicago -  flat-rate, pretty cheap).  AC everywhere, even when I don’t want it.  Public trans, working in all but the most ridiculous temperatures.  Weather was more about making sure I always had  a sweater, since there is always a 50F temperature difference between inside and out.

Then I moved to the suburbs and things got a little weirder.  No real public trans and larger spaces between amenities.   Water was way more expensive – I learned about rainbarrels -  and in the winter, if you’re smart, you keep a pair of boots in your car (and a hat) ‘just in case’ – but hey, it’s the ‘burbs.  How bad could it be?  Your car breaks down, Triple A will be there in a few minutes.  Pretty simple. 
Now I’m in the country.  Real country.  Well, I’m’ in town’ , such as it is, – but a block away, town ends.  For reals.  Water costs more than gas, the source is not abundant and only the Truly Stupid waste it.  Out here, weather is not to be disrespected.  We’ve been in drought for a month, with 90F temps.  Ground completely parched.  That dusty, hot radiator smell that says nature is doing its best to hold on – but it ain’t lookin’ that good.  Rain barrels totally dry (800 gals goes faster than I could’ve imagined).  Capturing every bit of greywater I could, to keep the kitchen garden alive.  Hard work.   Is it 2011?  Or 1811?  Hard to tell, when you’re hauling pails of dishwwater.  No a/c, lots of fans.  You really get a sense of how scary Nature can be, when it’s 100F – inside your house.  And your own insides are cooking.   Whatchagonnado when the well runs dry?  Yeah, ‘that’ kind of scary.

5am.  I wake up to 89F and fog.  Crap.  Drag the shower pail outside to the corn.  Yes, it really is That Bad.  Clouds in the near distance – but we’ve been fooled before.  A bit of thunder.  So what.  Last thunder rumbled through on 60mph winds and dropped  all the rain on Chicago, 200miles away.  So…..  Carefully water the corn…

…lightning.  LIGHTNING?  It’s really close….and the wind isn’t picking up too quickly.  A bit of ozone.  That beautiful greenery-yallery-grey sky that portends real rain. THUNDER.  BIG thunder.  Close.  Oh please, please, pleeeeeeze.  Wind, don’t take this rain away from us.  Please?

7am. Wind!  Thank you!!!  A massive storm rolls in…and stays.  And stays.  Temps drop to 80F.  Blessed coolness. 72 degrees.  Real wetness, not that awful ‘ sizzling concrete’ smell.   Corn stalks and tomato cages are knocked over but nothing’s broken.    A bean bush seedling is up!  I’m in the kitchen garden, up to my ankles in mud, righting corn stalks, pounding in stakes and tying pepper and tomato plants, the smell of crushed tomato leaf mingling with the wet, ozone-y, beautiful smell of wet earth.  Wet. earth.  Another front is moving in fast.  I need to hurry up.  Wait.  Why do I need to hurry up so damn fast?  I’ve waited a month for this rain.  It’s not radioactive.   Slowing down….pounding the stakes in with precision (there’s not a lot of room for error – this garden is crammed), tying the delicate branches, laden with green tomatoes, with careful deliberation. Rain soaking me through to my undies.  I can feel my liver cooling down.  It’s now raining so hard it’s pooling in my garden clogs.   And my ears.  Weird feeling – the opposite of dust.  The peppers are overgrown – might as well harvest while I’m in here.  Bell peppers the size of softballs – that greywater really paid off.  But now it’s time to let Nature take back over for awhile.  My spine is grateful.

I’m soaking wet, covered in mud  and tomato leaf and stinging pepper juice….and it’s so wonderful.  Rain barrels are full, not that I’ll need them for awhile.  It’s still raining, a now-soft, soaking rain.   The world smells living again.

1pm, as I write this.  It’s actually a bit (dare I say it?) chilly!   Outside, soaking-wet cardinals and finches fluff their feathers as they crowd their feeders.  The hummingbirds zoom past the sugar water on their way to the real deal.   It’s going to rain, on and off, all day.  Such a wonderful thing.  I know some places are getting a bit too much (and too much of the world is not getting enough) but for us, today, this rain is a gift.

I wore Parfum de Therese this morning but the rain washed it all off.  I’m just fine with that.  As beautiful as perfume is, sometimes it’s good to just smell like rain.  And tomato stems.  The slickery-sweat smell of hard work in rain.  Pepper juice. Wet dirt.

And Life.

Screen grab from Fendi Website

Actually I think a better name would be “Wan di Fendi”

My scent twin posted about this last week coincidentally at the same time I was trying it out.  She was more kindly disposed to it than I am.  I encountered Wan, er Fan as I was walking down Wilshire and saw it in the window at Saks, where it’s an exclusive until September.

Fendi as a fragrance house had some really gorgeous scents like Theorama and Asja, so I guess my expectations were just too high.  The big rectangular bottle is hefty and quite well done.  The stuff in it is drab little fruity floral that minces around for a few hours before exuding a wan leather, like the seats in a Camry, then disappearing altogether.  Much like Gaia, I  daresay you’ll see it at Marshalls by New Years.

In the meantime it’s $70 for 50ML at Saks, where I repeatedly spritzed.  The sacrifices I make..