It’s me, March, posting on Lee’s day. I know — it feels weird to me, too. But since Lee’s abandoned us taking a break from blogging, we’re rearranging the schedule slightly – I’m back to Mon/Weds., Patty’s Tues/Thurs, and Friday will be a mixed assortment of pleasures while we try various things out. This coming Friday is a group blogging effort on spring scents. Next Friday you all are evaluating Clinique Aromatics Elixir, Clinique Happy and Tommy Hilfiger Tommy Girl, as Patty discussed yesterday. Email your brief reviews of any/all of these scents to perfume dot posse at gmail dot com (using the appropriate symbols in place of “dot” and “at”). Maria also suggested another discussion of Perfumes: The Guide after more of you have had a chance to read it, and I think that’s a dandy idea. We’ll have some guest posters. If nothing else we’ll have the occasional Trashy Friday and off-topic posts. Stay tuned.
Okay, my report from the NYC Sniffa last weekend. I think it was Judith who said to me that she once met a woman who had done the Sniffa on a Saturday and run in a marathon Sunday. The woman said the Sniffa was more exhausting. Which helped explain how poleaxed I felt by 8 pm on Saturday. There were a lot of people (150ish) and – news flash – you stick 150 people in a room for sniffing, lunch, whatever, and it’s hot and noisy. I lost my voice by the time we got to the last event, just from strain from trying to talk over the din, and I still haven’t gotten it back.
My favorite part is pretty obvious – I loved meeting all the folks from the blog, including lurkers who’ve never posted but who came up and introduced themselves. I wore my rhinestone tiara in the morning, starting at breakfast, as promised for easy identification purposes. Of course, the great thing about NYC is you can run around in a tiara and nobody bats an eye. I met and hung out with so many wonderful people, including Divalano (who I will never call Divalino again!), Judith, Alyssa, Francesca, Carol, Kirsten, Chaya, old friends like Sarah, Mary, Louise and others, the Karens, some of the other fragrance bloggers … too many folks to name. I’m going to irritate all of you now by saying I think I’m not going to put the photos up. In all the chaos I am not confident I made it clear to everyone why I was taking pics, and I’m sensitive about people seeing themselves identified on here without their permission, particularly if they also feel the photo sucks. Not to put too fine a point on it. Picture a lot of sweaty, grinning, mildly crazed looking women (and a few men) crowded together sniffing their wrists. I close my eyes and remember and I can smell them from here.
I bought … nothing. I know, I know, defeating the whole economic point of the Sniffa, but oh, well. Wait, not quite true – Patty and I ended up splitting an Epices coffret from L’Artisan (I took Safran Troublant). I did my bit for the economy in other ways, though, and not naming any names, but some serious monies were spent by various gals on both scent and makeup, which is a big overlapping interest of many of the attendees. And a shout out to Kristen, email me where you got those shoes again?!? Maybe shoes aren’t boring after all…
There’s no way I can talk about everything I sniffed, so here’s what caught my attention, in no particular order –
Serge Lutens Bois de Violette has joined the exports at Bergdorf, and they handed it around, and maybe I hadn’t paid the right kind of attention before. It’s lovely – a warm, woody violet rather than the cool combo you often get. It’s simple and strange and wonderful. Chanel’s new Sycomore was just okay to me, not being a vetiver freak, but I think it was a huge hit for other folks. There was some serious spending over at Guerlain. Mona di Orio was there (Bergdorf has picked up her line) and can I just say how chic and charming and lovely she is? Another big surprise for me was the new Jo Malone Kohdo Wood Collection. JM mostly doesn’t do it for me, I don’t know why. It’s often too bitter, or dank, or something. And you can read their blurbage on the Kohdo Wood Collection but sniff-wise, don’t be looking for anything that makes you think of Japan. Lotus Blossom & Water Lily is the “day” scent and it’s a nice, pretty, inoffensive floral-aquatic, which (kill me now) maybe I’ll find myself liking in the summer, but maybe not. It’s fine. But the other one, the Dark Amber and Ginger Lily, was delicious – so delicious I threw caution to the wind and drenched myself in it. Notes are cardamom, pink pepper (of course!), ginger, jasmine, orchid, water lily, rose, black amber, white pepperwood, leather, patchouli, sandalwood, incense. It’s a creamy jasmine-amber with some spice, sensual and dark. Maybe it’s the spices and jasmine working for me, mitigating the boozy tendencies of amber that nauseate me. I couldn’t believe how much I liked this thing. Also I think it’s less than $100, which these days is, essentially, free. Finally, I tried Piguet Visa, which is a hoot. If you’re willing to get in touch with your inner Carmen Miranda, it’s got a big fat fruit note up front that somehow never manages to get overly sweet. Look, ma – you can make a fruity floral worth loving. It’s simple in a way that makes me suspicious that it’s much more complicated in structure than I’m appreciating. I feel like it’s having me on a little, if that makes sense, but it’s so clever I’m happy to play along. I wish the drydown lasted a bit longer, but maybe my nose just gave out.
I got a chance to sniff the five Thierry Mugler Miroir thingies at Saks, and to me the most compelling thing about them is the mirrored box each one comes in ($150 for 1.7oz) I have seen zero attention paid to them, have you tried any? I thought I’d like Envies with its nutty note, but no – too fresh. Secrets is a sour aldehyde-patch combo. Vanites is licorice-citrus and not me at all. Travers is allegedly tuberose but all I got was the woody masculine accord. Dis-Moi is waaay more popular than the others according to the hot-looking but extremely poorly trained SA there, who could not name a single note of any of them. All five got 3 or 4 stars from LT/TS, so they’re getting more out of them than I am. I also got a quick sniff of the new Lancome in La Collection, Peut-Etre (they had a small tester but not the bottles yet) which is French for “I have no idea but it smells like a light, somewhat powdery summer floral.” I’ll take Sikkim (or Magie), thanks… oh, wait, here’s a link to Lancome’s goofy blurb on this scent, which means “perhaps.” Here, let me quote: “She hears footsteps, opens her eyes and looks into his. She sees a new and special intensity in his gaze. And is something hidden in his hand? The moment is electric.” Snerk. Roses, lilac, iris, jasmine. Hey, has anyone noticed most of La Collection is disappearing from the website? They kept Climat and Roses, and all the rest are … gone.
The new D&G The One for men? A standard-issue inoffensive, warm, woody number I couldn’t pick out of a lineup. (I rather like the women’s.) And after its glowing review in The Guide, I retried Narciso Rodriguez again, and … nope. I still can’t smell it. Cannot smell a thing. A little alcohol, maybe. So remember that the next time you disagree with one of my reviews. Think to yourself, but this is from the gal who can’t even smell Narciso.
Mugler Miroir fragrances: lexpress.fr
Hopefully our little DNS problems have resolved and all of ya’ll are back now, yes? Best description of the week about a scent comes from my nephew: “Smells like vanilla ice cream and Harleys.” If you can guess which scent it is he’s talking about, drop your guess in comments. First person to get it right will get…. hmmm, samples all three varieties of Chanel No. 22 I’m reviewing today, a sample of Rousse, Isabela Capeto, and some other grabbag samples I’ve got laying around, like some carded Tom Ford Private Blend samples, and Neil Morris Vault samples I have laying around and whatever else I feel like throwing in.
I’ve reviewed Serge Lutens Rousse in the past, though finding that review is proving to be a little trickier than I thought. Love this fragrance on me - Lee and I are of one mind on this stunner - though I know lots of people don’t feel the same way… cretins. Notes of mandarin, cinnamon, cloves, spices, floral & aromatic notes, fruit, cinnamon wood, precious woods, amber, musk and vanilla make up the perfume. The open on me is all cinnamon stick goodness, like one of those Jolly Rancher Fire Stix, then settling into a joyous cavalcade of softer cinnamon, cinnamon bark and woods. I know this has very mixed reviews, but given others of Serge’s scents, this one seemed like a good addition to his line, preserving the woody notes we find in many of his scents, but adding a much more eye-popping note on the open that gets your attention and keeps it warmed up. It is probably one of my two favorites of the export line from Serge.
Chanel No. 22 was introduced in 1922, a year after 5. Notes are orange blossom, peach, citrus, orchid, rose, ylang-ylang, sandalwood, vetiver, vanilla. This is my favorite Chanel, hands down, no question, no room for quarrelling. There is a softness in it that is exquisitely tender, while the aldehydes bubble around it like smitten teenage boys - for some reason I think of a cross between Scarlett and Miss Ellen in Gone With the Wind, feminine in ways that we’ve forgotten how to be feminine, the sorrow and disappointment of life put to one side so you can really live and love with no excuses. For this scent, after reading some rough-n-tumble fragrance “discussion” in various places about versions, I decided to compare the pre-Les Exclusifs version with the new Les Exclusifs and the vintage parfum. Between the pre-LE and the post-LE version, the pre-LE is much richer, it seems fuller, especially on the open. As they dry down, I detect less of a difference, perhaps more incense in the pre-LE, but the minor emphasis on some others notes seems to be a little changed up. For me, it’s not enough to make purists pay a bazillion bucks for the pre-LE version, but I’m sure 30-40 of you stand ready to tell me how dunderheaded I am not to notice the subtle shift in notes from one to the other and that the incense is…. blah, blah… yes, I’m an idjit sometimes, but my nose thinks both version are gorgeous and within a fly’s wing of being the same.
The parfum version of 22, however, is worth finding, if you are a big 22 fan. I believe they don’t make it anymore - of course - so be prepared to pay top dollar on eBay to get it, which is where I got mine. The aldehydes seem tamped down in the parfum, and all of the floral notes seem imbued with a surreal light that focuses on each note and lifts it, making it more of a prayer of gratitude than a perfume. If this were readily available, I would spritz it wildly and go dancing naked in the streets, it’s just unfathomable bliss. Sorry, I try to squelch my raptorous praise for things, and especially for perfumes that are rarer than Virgins at Denver East High School, but… it makes me want to shout “This is freaking gorgeous!!!” from the rooftops.
22, both of the edt versions, have tremendous sillage, while the parfum sticks close to you. But you could not go wrong with any one of the three. This is truly the treasure, in my opinion, of the Chanel line, bar none.
