Random Sunday – Dior Grand Bal, All Souls Trilogy, books, scents, Vero Kern’s new scent, Game of Thrones

Ha!  Surprised you!  It’s a holiday weekend, and I sorta punted on my Tuesday post last week, which indebted me to Make.An.Effort on a Sunday.  On a holiday Weekend. Hey!  All six four of your around reading, we’ll cover some territory.

Everyone has a book. Seriously. Denyse has a book, Alyssa has a book coming, Persolaise has a book coming, Yesterday’s Perfume has a book in progress.  My friend’s husband, Chris Howard, has a young adult novel, Rootless, coming out this fall (this thing will be amazing if you are a fan of YA, like Hunger Games, etc., and I am!).  I’m trying to ignore this because I don’t want a book.  I read books.  The Vedic Astrologer, Dr. Katy Poole, who did my chart and said my dharma was to write a book and have my own television/radio show. I’m thinking that probably means an eBook and a YouTube Channel about how to not choose wisely when marrying – also known as “Three Husbands and a Hussy,” which actually  – hmmm, let me think about that.

Alyssa Harad (upcoming book Coming to My Senses) sent us a project to help with recently. She worked with author Deborah Harnkess, author of The All Souls Trilogy (first book A Discovery of Witches already out, second book Shadow of Night releasing in the next month or so ) to scent the two main characters in the trilogy –  Diana Bishop and Matthew Clairmont.  Alyssa picked Ginestet Botrytis for Diana –  the scent of sweet wine and raw honey, a scent of October sunlight and autumn leaves, and — according to Deborah — exactly what Diana’s blood smells like to Matthew – and Etro Messe de Minuit for Matthew – this vintage formulation matches Diana’s first description of Matthew’s smell so well that the perfumer who created it might actually know a few vampires. It smells, as Diana says, of cloves and cinnamon and something like incense.

We had to scramble a little finding the Botrytis because, of course, everyone was out of stock, but ran down enough, plus we laid in a few vats of Messe de Minuit a year or so ago when all that “Etro reformulatoin” chatter was galloping about.

Our part in it was to make the sample sets for Viking Books to give away four sets of samples each week from July 1 through July 6, 2012.  So if you are familiar with the book, or might be, you can follow the link to get entered in the contest.  An author who was on board with this already has my admiration, as does Alyssa for picking scents that some very earnest fans may disagree with once they smell them.

But that project really made me thing about what a great idea it is for authors to scent their characters! Rayda Vega composed a fragrance based on the fiction novel just released by M.J. Rose, The Book of Lost Fragrances.  If more of the characters from books had a scent to go with them, how much more alive would they seem to us?  Would they seem more real or more realized?  I completely love this idea and started contemplating some scenting I’d like to do for characters in books.  Have any of you done that? My secret desire? Scent most of the characters from Game of Thrones. I happen to know a few of you who read here are fans, and I think we could do this. The blog with a single line of comments may not be the best place, but Perfume Posse Facebook might be!  If you’re interested, say so in comments.  I starting thinking and came up with – Danerys is Serge Lutesns Sarrasins.  Cersei seems like she should be Femme or Bal a Versailles, but she needs a touch of bitter or crazy in there.  Or both.  But then I think it’s much more fun to figure this one out collaboratively with fans of the book.

Vero Kern has a new scent coming out, big release is Milan June 13, 2012.  Musette and I think we should go because we were invited.  A lack of a reasonably priced plane ticket for either of us is a bit of a hold-up.  The EDP will be released at Pitti in Florence in September. I think I should have a big raffle or garage sale to raise enough money to get there. I love Florence. Oh, back to the fragrance!  No information at all is being released about it. I’ve bugged Vero from time to time about when she’s going to make me some Fath Iris Gris, and she didn’t say no!  Well, I’m a tease, I have no idea what this scent is about, no notes, nothing, just waiting like all of you.  But I’d rather be waiting in Milan.  They did give away 50 free samples.  I didn’t win one, nor did I even know they were giving them away.  I really need to pay more attention sometimes.  I love her first three scents – Rubj, Onda and Kiki – so batting that highly puts me in a very anticipatory mood.  Oh, dear, clickety clicking reveals this is likely a green scent, which is good, but dashes my hopes of Iris Gris Reborn against the gates of Discontinued Perfumes Lost Forever.  Also, the few time I spoke with Vero over e-mail, she is one of the loveliest people you could ever hope to correspond with.  Gracious in all the best possible ways that word is used.

Christian Dior Grand Bal.  I’ve really tried to think of something more than what I said last Tuesday – love, love, love, love this dewy jasmine wonder – or something close to that.  And I got nothing except get the big bottle, spray it on madly all summer, maybe layer some Bvlgari Au the Vert or Black (depending on your mood or need for the fresh smell of road tar – don’t laugh, I mean that as a compliment, freshly laid road tar is an intoxicating smell) over it or in your hair. It  lays on light enough that you can wear it with abandon, slightly dewy, but with enough jasmine that you won’t think, ew, jasminelite, just no.  It’s not so heavy that you can only wear it at night, I wear it all day.  And as the summer heats up, that jasmine should blossom even more beautifully.  I’ve always wanted a Christian Dior ball gown, even though I have nowhere to wear it. I swear, I’d just wear it around the house on a Monday.  This modern one Cate Blanchette wore feels like Grand Bal – an updated take on a classic piece of Femininity that the Dior  ball gown represents.

Okay, so who is with me on perfuming the Game of Thrones trilogy?  Well, I’ll give away three samples of Grand Bal to commenters anyway, just for keeping me company on a holiday weekend when I have to work.