Hey Posse! Hope this finds you all safe & well. Unexpected Layering? Yeah, we will get to that in a moment. I think Jin and I may be going a bit doolally. All this hanging out together in lockdown! In our ten years together we only ever spent this much time together on holidays. Fortunately Jin is a required worker so he does get to head off for work. So it’s not 24/7 but it is a lot more than we’ve done previously. It’s not bad. We genuinely like each other and are super comfortable at these close quarters. We also seem to have a long list of conversation, usually about nothing. Jin has the TV and is playing computer games on it most days. I’ve got the perfume room for all my stuff. We come together for movies and food. We are both becoming enormously fat and are burping and farting with gay abandon. I’m seriously terrified that we may continue these awful habits when we are let free again.
Unexpected Layering
Calvin Klein Contradiction Woman and Le Lion de CHANEL
Well, here’s how today happened. Around midday I gave myself a few decent blasts of Le Lion de CHANEL. It’s a labdanum heavy amber fragrance and smells a lot like Shalimar if you take out the ice cream, a dark Shalimar if you will. Less showy and more temptress. Loved the ride, was sniffing myself with love all day.
This evening comes around and I’ve become nose blind to the dregs. Over the top I spritzed another great favourite of mine, CK Contradiction woman. Usually it’s a stone cold, dewy crystal rose from outer space. Tonight it was transformed by the unexpected layering. Still an arctic rose, but now with added labdanum it became a wild and feral rose. Darker, sexier, wanton even. It was like the last gasps of Le Lion de CHANEL gave my sterile, aloof, frozen Contradiction a lease of new life.
I’ve talked previously about both CK Contradiction and Le Lion de CHANEL here on Perfume Posse.
FragranceNet has Contradiction for a steal. Not affiliated but I love a bargain.
Have you ever had a brilliant unexpected layering win?
Portia xx
My best (worst?) adventure in layering was The wonderful horse sweaty rose of Uncle Serge’s MKK & the equally wonderful syrupy tuberose of vintage Poison. Shouldn’t have even tried it but it was the best layering ever!
Somehow the filthy musk grounded that stratospheric projection Poison is famed for. It was perfect!
OMG! Sounds terrific. I even think there are vint-ish versions of both those here.
Thanks for the tip Alityke,
Portia xx
I still have not smelled Le Lion. This is what happens when you don’t get out very much. We are all going to take our new home habits out in the wild at some point!
Patty,
I think you’ll like it. Very similar to a vintage Shalimar dry down. Luxurious amounts of labdanum.
Portia xx
OMG, my fiancé and I have also begun farting and burping with gay abandon in front of each other during the pandemic, and it takes active effort for me to NOT do those things when we’re in front of others. It’s such a challenge!
HA HA HA HA HA! Koyel, the struggle IS real.
Thanks for your solidarity.
Portia xx
Quite the entertaining post, thank you Portia! I literally LOL’d at ” burping and farting with gay abandon”…too funny! I LOVE Le Lion…gifted it by my wonderful fairy fragrance friend Kathleen. I agree with the comparison, a darker less sweet Shalimar. I haven’t tried layering it but love the idea. One thing I have noticed- Le Lion smells completely different in cold weather vs. warm. Warm weather wearing it seems to almost melt and unfold more fluidly…but in cold it stays closer in and doesn’t open quite as much. Thank you for the fun read…hope you’re out of lock down soon!
Hey there Holly,
YAY! for making people laugh. Much more important than talking perfume.
WOW! You’re a lucky duck. Le Lion is a bloody gorgeous gift.
Interesting. As we are just coming into our warmer weather here I’ll be interested to test your theory.
Looks like we will be slowly opening up again in October!
Portia xx
Hallelujah for laughter- thank you Portia! Yes, I’d be curious to hear your impressions of Le Lion in warm weather! Glad to hear things are trending better and hopefully you’ll be “released” soon! Cheers to the weekend!
The lockdown started off okay but by the end I was feeling pretty homicidal in our small condo. I ended up selling it, leaving the big city and moving out to the boonies to get away from the oppressive situation. Of course now I regret it. Stress makes for bad decisions.
As for layering, I don’t do much of it, but I do wear JPGaultier2 body oil under L’Artisan Timbuktu when I want to sweeten it up.
OH NO TaraC,
I’m so sorry to read this. Fingers crossed for happy outcomes down the track.
OOOH! That sounds like a fabulous mix.
Portia xx
OMG. My stomach clenched, not at you and Jin together but the notion that I might’ve been stuck with El O (and worse, that he wouldn’t have adhered to a single precaution, thereby putting me at extreme risk. And even worse, I couldn’t stand him, so I probably would be battling Covid outbreaks from a prison cell).
Since I don’t have to deal with that… let’s see… well, I do tend to layer some of the fizzier things. I have an Elderflower Fizz body creme that is extremely strong (and a bit pongy at the end) that works well with Lubin’s Gin Fizz, when it needs some warmth. I have layered Arpege over No5 extrait just to see if I can get the top of my head to pop off (answer: it can. it does).
Biggest Layering Gun: Amouage Jub25 over Mitsouko. O.M.G. SO gorgeous. But ya gotta stand back for that one. Or wait about an hour before coming alongside another human. It’s … hefty.
Glad you’re weathering the lockdown storm. Keep finding ways to enjoy each other!
xoxoxo
Yes, you definitely got free before convictions needed to made Musette. PHEW! It was a little too close really.
Amouage Jub25 over Mitsouko!! Just checking. That’s 25, not XXV, right?
Portia xx
yes. the Girl Jub. The sweetness inherent really plays well with that slicey note in Mitsouko.
xoxoxo
Will try.
OMG you made me laugh out loud Musette! Thank goodness you didn’t end up in a jail cell.
Your big gun perfumes are amongst my faves. When alone, I’ll try Jub25 with Mitsouka, so intrigued!
Sulky and jealous here (just a bit) over all your sniffage and eating … but also sorry Oz is in a rough patch right now according to our news. I hope they set you free soon! My sniffer is still wonky BUT to the degree that it registers my general surroundings, Santa Fe smells like … incense, which is lovely, and also makes sense — a combo of resins and woodsmoke that pops into my consciousness sometimes on walks. xo
LOL! Santa Fe is some kinda special. I’ve been there persackly ONCE and do you know I can still smell All The Smells? Yep.
xoxoxo
March,
As soon as we come back to the USA I’m definitely coming to visit you, Roxana and Greg in Santa Fe. NOPE! You do not get a say in this.
Portia xx
Oooh! I’ll come too (unless y’all hate. mah. guts. by then). It would be lovely to see you!!! xoxoxo
Yeah, but we ALSO want to drop in at yours. NOPE! You also don’t get a say.
Portia x
oh, lord. I put on 15 lbs in the past year and a bit during our various lockdowns. have managed to divest a bit over half of that now. I don’t layer much, but did an unexpected sweet one last week (Arabie and Madeleine) by accident. Was mouthwatering — the former’s cumin got damped down a bit by the latter’s mad gourmand aspect. Will def do that again.
Oooh, that sounds fantastic!
I don’t know either of those scents (I mean, I ‘know’ of them, obvs but don’t KNOW them) but even with that, the notion sounds divine!!!
xoxo
Serge Lutens Arabie? You must have worn it, or at least sniffed= it in the early years of the craving Musette. Madeleine is much newer.
I did, I’m sure. but it wasn’t mah jam, obvs, or I would’ve remembered it (Uncle Serge has a way of staying with a bish, yeah? 😉
Neither of them sound like ‘me’, though, so it’s probably why this pairing would’ve booped right off my radar.
xoxoxo
Seconding March’s comment.
Sounds fab.
WOW! Congrats on the roller coaster of weight. Our public pools will be opening up again soon and the one way I love to exercise is swimming and aquarobics so YAY!
Portia xx