Merry, Merry: 3 by Sarah Horowitz Parfums

First of all since this is posting on the eve of Christmas and the day before Hanukkah and Kwanzaa I want to wish everyone a happy holiday, however you celebrate it, or don’t. This blog has certainly brightened up my days during a trying time (did we really live through a pandemic?) and I want to thank you all for that from the bottom of my stony little heart.

I am writing this a bit in advance since I would like to take the holiday between Christmas and New Years when it will be slow to dust the books, clean out the icebox, go through clothing and throw out old stuff and in general organize things before it achieves full on Grey Gardens (minus the wildlife) or I guest star on “Hoarders.” So this and the New Years Eve post will be written and scheduled the week of the 15th. Forgive me ff they might not be completely au courant.

Sarah’s new store

Saturday, the 14th Sarah Horowitz-Thran held the ribbon cutting for her new space in Thousand Oaks. I somehow managed to time it wrong (I’d forgotten how darned far away it is from my corner of the Westside) and actually missed seeing her, which is a pity. Sarah is one of those gems who does what she does for the love of creating: she’s not fishing to be picked up by LVMH or hand control over to Givaudan, and that’s to be applauded. The fact that her fragrances are brilliant is enough to make you stand up and cheer.

I was immediately in thrall to her newest one, aRitual. It’s meant to evoke “LA’s new age bookstores, sage covered hills and sand filled beaches” doing so with lemon, orange blossom, jasmine, incense, sandalwood, and oudh. As a devotee of the long-lost Bodhi Tree bookstore in West Hollywood, she kind of had me at “new age bookstore” and certainly aspects of this capture that smell: books, incense, and brewing citrus tea that brought a sense of calm as soon as you stepped in the door from busy Melrose Avenue. The Thousand Oaks/ Malibu portion of the program is taken care of by the warm sandalwood and resinous olibanum with the weaving in and out of the night blooming jasmine. It’s a sultry, top down drive over Kanan Road to Malibu, with the salty Oudh kicking in at Mulholland Highway to remind you you’re headed to the beach. I immediately bought a bottle and ran back to the car with it. I could have walked by Sarah without noticing it, so intent was I on smelling myself. Heck, Jason Momoa could have been naked on his Harley trying to hand me a cheesecake and I wouldn’t have noticed.

The other two I received (as did every attendee) were ones that are meant to be layered: her Perfect Veil, which may be her best known scent: a “your skin but better” scent which I have owned and loved for a long time. A whisper of lemon, sandalwood, vanilla, and musk that doesn’t fall into the “clean sheets” trap. It’s a classic for a reason. It’s paired with Crema Dulce, a giddy little concoction of sweet nuts, toasted caramel, slightly boozy vanilla and I swear, more musk. Normally a nutty gourmand makes me run for the hills, but there’s something in this that is kind of akin to (without referencing) PG Aomassai. The skin scent aspects of it keep it from being tooth-ache sweet. Unlike Perfect Veil, which I would be more than happy to find in a 32 ounce bottle, I think I will be content with the amount that came in the sample. You gourmand guys and gals should give this a try. And yes, Perfect Veil does perfect it.

Malibu, a little fire ravaged.

So this happened to be the first long trek in the new-to-me car. Even in Thousand Oaks it wasn’t exactly warm, so the top stayed up (and it was downright chilly at the beach). I saw the under-construction wildlife crossing over the 101 Freeway (which will save animas such as mountain lions the dangerous crossing over the freeway in search of food) as well as some of the damage from the recent fires in Malibu and was very glad that the weather broke and it wasn’t worse.

My actual Christmas day is going to be spent dog-sitting for a friend while she drops presents off at her grandchildren’s house and then I am going to hit Mulholland (weather permitting, top down) and Chinese food from Hoy’s Wok on 3rd.

I hope you all have a lovely, peaceful, and joyous holiday however you spend it and whomever you spend it with.

aRitual is $140 for 1.7oz spray, Crema Dulce is part of the delicious duo layering set of ,25oz roll-on EDP of CD and Perfect Veil for $42. Perfect Veil is $110 for a 2oz EDP. I purchased my bottle of aRitual and the other samples were promotions to people attending the event.

Photos: My iPhone, Pexels and Wikimedia Commons.