Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Mandarine Basilic

(Early post today as car is misbehaving yet again and neighbour is going to look at it soon.)

Deep breathing. Son returning to uni today for final push (ie, last couple of essays and dissertation). Then, he’ll see. In any case, I’m fine when he’s here and when he’s there. It’s this in-between-leaving-again tiny bit which makes me twitchy. So, while waiting to take him to train I cleaned out a drawer in dresser to find two pairs of trousers I like but forgot about (really, no new clothes!) and sorted the stuff in the wooden tray on the kitchen table (which has been a repository since I moved back into the house 1.5 years ago – see before and after pics — while it may not look like a significant change, it is!).

(Before)

(After)

Most of the past week was glorious weather-wise – and the bits that weren’t glorious were at the very least fine. It was such a relief.

I planted two giant sunflowers out (of course, they aren’t giant yet …) and walked each day between things. Noted that the garden is looking a lot happier than it did last year at this time. Maybe it has recovered from what the builders did to it.

Got my hair coloured and cut. It’s now in a sweet spot of quite short but not lawn-mowered. The colour … well, as the hair is now too short for highlights, we’re into semi-permanent tints (which she had to paint on and which stained everything – ie, even my sheets overnight). My hair has moved into that salt and pepper stage during which it refuses to really go one way or the other (there was a woman getting her hair cut who was entirely silver and it was beautiful). So, we discussed, and I ended up with a blue wash – like a mid ocean blue. The salt hair picks that up and it is sort of subtle but not totally (like I’ve got blue silver highlights, which ain’t bad). I imagine people look at my hair and decide they can’t say anything because they’re not sure what would be fine and what would be mean (“did something happen to your hair?” – see pic of back of head; recent pics of me from the front have not been pleasing).

Anyway, haircut day was one of the beautiful warm days. I’d been testing Guerlain Mandarine Basilic (one of the samples in my Shalimar parfum order) and thought that would fit. I wasn’t having an ‘I need armour’ or ‘I need chic’ day. I just felt sort of fine (must have been the weather).

I don’t think I’ve sampled many AAs. I’m sure I’ve done some in the past but no memory.

Really enjoying this. Like really. It’s a perfect warmer weather fragrance for those of us who aren’t that partial to colognes.

Launched in 2007, notes include clementine, bitter orange, orange blossom, green tea, ivy, mandarin, basil, chamomile, sandalwood and amber.

The opening into the middle are my favourite parts of this and I’ve ended up re-spraying to make that last. This is a big, juicy fruity thing. A way to have citrus for those of us who can no longer eat oranges and grapefruit. In the opening I get orange, orange peel (that pith smell), basil and perhaps the green of ivy. It’s really really good – like bathing in it good.

As it opens up the basil comes to the fore but clearly it’s still a citrus scent. Maybe I smell a bit of chamomile.

The drydown is soft orange – more like orange creamsicle as the sharpness of the citrus is gone – underlaid by the sandalwood. It’s still quite nice but nothing near that top of juicy luxuriant fruit.

Not on the buy list but I’ll really enjoy my sample for however long it lasts.