I Feel Pretty

Micallef Ylang in Gold.  It’s pretty!

sorry for the delay – my brains slipped on the date!

Now, why did I put ‘pretty’ up there like that?  Well, most often we yarble on about ‘interesting’ or ‘gorgeous’ or ‘intriguing’ scents.  After all, we are ‘perfumistas’ and as such, we should be craving the bloody, rubbery, hot metal, Distilled on the Third Thursday on the Second Moon of Jupiter scents.  And we do, we do.

But sometimes we just want to smell Pretty.  One of my go-to notes for ‘pretty’ is rose, of course.  The other is ylang-ylang.  I love it because it’s both uplifting and calming, while imparting a sparkling prettiness, much like a full-skirted, polished cotton dress.   I was first introduced to the scent by my longtime facialist, Kathleen Peara, who created a very calming blend of rose, basil, ylangylang for her steamer.  When I asked her why those EOs she said ‘ because they calm your anxiety …and because they are pretty.  And this is a place where you should feel pretty”.

Which brings me (finally!)  to M. Micallef Ylang in Gold.  Described as a floral oriental (or ‘floriental’, a term I adore.  it sounds like a particularly extravagant bouquet of lilies, doesn’t it?) it’s very plush and smooth – no jagged edges…..it opens with two of my favorite scent parings: tangerine and geranium (yet another anxiety-relieving scent)…the heart is where the ylang resides, along with rose and sandalwood (a complete list of notes at the end of the post)….there is a hint of mint that helps keep the sparkle afloat for quite awhile until the musk and coconut wrap it up in a bit of confectionery schweetness.  I’m not a fan of schweet and you know I have a very tenuous relationship with musk..and coconut?  I still don’t ‘get’ beachy scents, though they get all sorts of compliments.  I figure if I want to smell like I’m at Careyes I’ll go to Careyes.  But the drydown takes quite awhile to get to that point, so for quite awhile it’s all sparkling, plush prettiness!  I wore this 3 days straight, in some of the darkest, dankest weather and it never failed to bring a smile to my face.  My book club moderator (the Non-Demon Book Club) said “what on earth are you wearing that smells SO PRETTY (serious!  she said PRETTY!).  El O, who is sick to death of perfume and would rather eat a bug than engage me in ANY discussion about a scent, even he said ‘hmm..you smell…NICE!’.   And you know what?  He was right!  And in the dark days of winter, especially these recent dark, sad days, there’s something to be said for ‘pretty’ and ‘nice’.

Another nice?  The bottle.  I know Martine Micallef gets some grief for her love of bling.  But I cannot fault her on this bottle.  For one thing, I’m a product of three of the most bling-lovin’ peoples on this planet; you hang a charm off a simple crystal bottle and I’m mesmerized (VC&A, I’m talking to YOU!)….for another, this is done with relative restraint.  The Swarovski crystal band, with  tiny hints of color against the pale-yellow juice, it’s like that one piece of blingy statement jewelry against an otherwise understated outfit.   I don’t usually cop to bottle-love…but the more I think about it, the more I’m coming to accept that, yeah…I like pretty bottles, too!     

Notes (from Luckyscent) :Tangerine, geranium, sage, rosemary, artemisia, Ylang Ylang, sandalwood, lily of the valley, magnolia, mint, coconut, vanilla, musk, moss

My review sample came from Micallef PR.