Happy Halloween to all of our ghoulishly lovely Posse peeps! It’s that time of year where we conjure our favorite (or most frightening, as the case may be) scents of the season and share them with you. So here goes …
From Ann –
After the long, hot summer we’ve had, I was really revving my broom in anticipation of cool-weather scents. So here’s what’s rattling my chain this season:
Its incense, juniper, pine and bergamot make Byredo’s Gypsy Water mysterious and intriguing, yet still easy to wear; Le Labo’s Vanille 44 falls in the same vein, but with less mystery and more cozy comfort. And from my newly acquired fondness for leather (not to worry, folks, no leather pants here), I’ve got Bottega Veneta and Cuir de Lancome in as heavy a rotation as my samples will allow. P.S. Just got my sample of Serge Lutens’ Profundis — I’m kinda grooving on its earthy floral vibe with just a hint of greeny-dark goodness. Maybe I’ll unearth this one for the trick-or-treating to come tonight …
From Anita/Musette –
I’m crawling out of my Grant Application Grave (bwaaahaha -oh, forget it) just long enough to tell you what scents scare me…and what scents I use to scare others! bwaaahahahaha <ack!>
What Scares Me:
Angel. Try as I might, I cannot get closer to Angel than 3′. I was in SFA a few months ago and a woman came in, liberally marinated in the jus. She wanted to chat and couldn’t understand why I kept backing away! Finally I asked what she was wearing and she said ‘Angel. My signature scent’. All I can say is Voldemort, have I got a gal for youuu!
Opium. Fear Factor 10. On my way to the Malle Candle Thingy (yeah, that long ago and it’s STILL seared into my memory). Got a teeny little dab on my fingertip. Two trips to the bathroom and a trip to the Clinique counter for some Number 4 Toner Love….and that damn thing STILL clung to me, scattering the hoards right and left as I blazed a trail up Boul Mich to meet M. Frederic. The Opium preceded my entrance by a good 5 feet. It’s a wonder he didn’t throw a bucket of Carnal Flower on me!
Aromatics Elixir. In my entire life I have only had two things run me out of my house. One was a bug bomb I intentionally set off (you know, set it and run like hell, slamming the door behind you)…and the other is Aromatics Elixir, when I spilled it on a leather chair. It’s not that it’s not gorgeous. It is. But so are cobras. Three days on the porch, that chair.
My Own Skary Ones:
Contemporary (current) Mitsouko. For sheer, wet-your-pants Terror, nothing says “I will bite your head clean off” like current Mitsouko, with that elegant gasoline punch to the nose. I wear it when I have to advocate for my dad or remind a Neanderthal site crew that I Am Their Boss. Something about it really tends to frighten people. Or maybe it’s just me?
Bandit. It’s got a mean streak that I just LOVE! but beautiful in its capacity to terrorize. Like a vampire created by FX artist Rick Baker. You know it can’t hurt you…..right? You’re sure about that?
Jolie Madame. Booooya (with the emphasis on ‘boo’!). Another one of those to give you pause. Dark night, dark street. Gorgeous woman in a fur coat and stilettos slinking down the fog-shrouded sidewalk. Uh, that is a fur coat…..isn’t it?
From March –
I could aim for the cheap seats with something like Etro Messe de Minuit, which I put on the other day and got an extra dose of crypt from (although it smells like incense-roses on a friend, go figure.) But instead I think I’ll run with:
Aquolina Pink Sugar. Parents around here go different routes with the whole Leftover Halloween Candy issue, including doling out two pieces a night for three months, or letting the Great Pumpkin take it all away after a three days. Our approach has always been: have at it. I’m pretty sure at least two of my four kids have gorged on their candy until they (literally) puked, and there’s no way I could come up with a better lesson about moderation than that. Bringing me around to Pink Sugar, a fragrance sweet enough to conjure the evil spirits of five pounds of candy corn, and which nauseates me in pretty much the same way.
When I think about trick or treating as a kid, what is the strongest memory besides the candy? It’s the smell of the evening, out there in the dark for what seemed like hours of bliss, tromping around with friends in our cheesy home-made costumes up and down sidewalks, and around (and through) endless raked piles of leaves. The smell of fall is still defined for me by that indescribable leaf pile aroma, which is why I was so thrilled the first time I smelled CB I Hate Perfumes’ Burning Leaves and realized he’d gotten it perfectly. I’m old enough to remember the excitement when we and all the neighbors used to burn those leaves curbside (something I assume folks outside the city still do). As great as the fragrance is when you first put it on, my favorite part is the drydown — when the “burning” fades away and I’m left with the smell of fallen leaves and a hint of autumn chill.
From Tom –
Well, fall in Los Angeles can’t decide from one hour to the next whether it will be chilly with a marine layer or having hot Santa Ana winds, so choosing a scent can be an adventure in itself. That spritz of Fumerie Turque that seemed so appropriate at 8 a.m. when it was 57 degrees can become a little, well, challenging when it starts to hit the mid-80s at noon.
So I am keeping the Sables, with its immortelle-bomb aspect until it stays cool. I’m enjoying the comfort of ELdO Like This and Le Labo Musk (which you can all sample this November if there’s a Le Labo near you).
For other lists, please visit: Bois de Jasmin, Grain de Musc, Now Smell This and Perfume-Smellin- Things.
Share your favorites for fall, what scent you’ll be wearing for tonight, or if you’ve got something special planned for Halloween.
pumpkin image: there are a ton of fun carved pumpkins, including plenty of NSFW images. Since this pumpkin image appears on several sites, I don’t know which one to credit. — March
Before getting onto my shopping trip last Friday, I just want to share some travel advice with you. If you´re longing for oakmoss and miserable at its disappearance from our perfumed lives, look no further than a trip to south west Scotland, at least until the anti-scent brigade bomb the place. I´ve never been to a land so full of lichens. Every tree seemed to have a furry green trunk and greybluegreen branches (mostly due to oakmoss and its buddy, Old Man´s Beard). And given that a woodland was outside our holiday home, I got a heck of a lot of close-up time with oakmoss, even if the smell is – huh – hardly there in its unprocessed state. The bluebells and wild garlic compensated in the fragrance department though, I can assure you. What a wonderful juxtaposition of the intoxicatingly floral and the earthily acrid. Just perfect.
We stayed in the lodge below, sea one side, woodland on two, dairy pasture the other. We only ever saw cows and perhaps, on a busy day, a solitary walker heading from the small bay tucked deep in the woods, to the ruined castle, half a mile to the south of us. Bliss, I tell you.
Anyway, onto London. I don´t shop much, as I´m increasingly intolerant of crowds. I love people in ones, twos or threes, but any more than that and I start to get the jitters. It´s why I started in Nicolai, as the shop is so small, fitting any more than two people in there plus the SA is nigh-on impossible.
As much as I love the perfumes, I went to Nicolai for home fragrance lamp burner oil, the scents of which knock Lampe Berger into the shade (geddit?). I was after summery´ and though their new Gardenia wowed me, and though I was tempted by the Mimosa, I ended up with three bottles that were far less femme. After all, my home is Georgian straight lines and it gets chintzy enough from the oh-too-many sweet peas that start appearing in the next few weeks. I ended up with Lavande Pays ( a staple – lavender, a touch of mint, and woody depths), Fleurs d´Agrumes (so much less shrill than the lemon, grapefruit and mandarin ascribed to it – essentially a woody scent with citrus topnotes) and Ocean (the lovely SA convinced me of this. I was expecting a calone / seaweed hellzone. I got eucalyptus, pine and open windows. Lovely, actually).
I also bought a bottle of Eau Turquoise as it seemed to be discontinued and 30 mls was going for the equivalent of $15; 100mls for $22. I supersized. It smells remarkably similar to the (also discontinued?) Eau Exotique, although softer in the drydown. They´re fruity scents for people who don´t enjoy fruity scents. Anyone fancy a large sample?
I also tried scents I hadn´t sniffed, or can´t remember sniffing. Cedrat and Cedrat Intense – both wondrous. But it was Odalisque that stole my heart. I didn´t know that green floral scents could be so seductive. If crowds smelled like Odalisque, I think I could be happy among them. The jasmine rounds off the high-pitched facets of the muguet (I didn´t want another of´ in the sentence – my only reason for fanciness) It has none of the shrill screech that green florals seem to make (to my ears´ at least). Instead, it´s the low thrum of a young Bacall whispering temptations. I think I might just need a small bottle.
Onto Harrods, which was hell, as usual: SAs wielding the latest blap as 21st century weaponry, crowds moving like a febrile convulsion, and a noise level antithetical to perusal. I sniffed many things – enjoyed trying Donna Karan´s Fuel for Men at last (and it´s a maybe autumn purchase) and was sorely tempted by an Amouage Dia giftset, though I wasn´t quite ready to part with the $$$. I also finally tried Homage, and it bloomed and opened a new world in that hectic room – lush and beautiful. It sorely needed to be worn elsewhere.
Finally, onto Liberty, for my bottle of Geranium pour Monsieur, and peace and quiet. I love Liberty for perfume – it´s had the same understated SAs for years and never draws the crowds of Harrods or – worse! – Selfridges. Diptyque´s Oyedo made me laugh, and I momentarily wondered if I´d be happy going round smelling like Haribo all day (it´s kind of like a cartoon version of Clinique´s Happy for Men, with all the dihydromyrcenol replaced by laughing gas).
I quite liked the rather ordinary Nuits de Cellophane but don´t really remember much of anything else I tried. I was suckered into splurging out on a Cire Trudon candle – Balmoral. Hell, grass makes me as allergic as a sneeze-machine on its highest setting – fake grass, not at all.
And so my shopping trip ended, with a small whimper of acquisitiveness, and some satisfaction.
So, what have you bought recently – to scent yourself, or to scent your home? And what would you buy if you had all the time and money in the world for a leisurely, chauffeur-driven tour around London´s perfume hotspots?
And how about the view from the holiday cottage living room, to end…?
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We gave y’all three scents to sniff, and we are posting your reviews on those scents. Y’all had a lot to say, so this was really fun for us to do!
Clinique Happy
- Am I going to hell if I say I like this fragrance? It’s cheerful. I always get compliments on it. It’s one of those summer scents that works if you want something undemanding and fun, like a gal-pal you don’t make plans with but always have a good time with, spending a Saturday morning window shopping.
- Happy is a harmless floral, best on a very young woman. Keep in mind that it doesn’t keep well; the citrus top notes fade with time.
- Once smelled this on a waitress at a local restaurant, and it smelled divine on her. But on me, Happy is not so, well, happy! It smells harsh, strong and chemical.
- I had the misfortune to try Clinique Happy in a Foley’s (back before Macy’s) when I was young and impressionable and was lead to believe that Clinique was an upscale makeup line…*shudder* My thoughts were somewhere between “Does this contain DEET?” to “The horror! The horror!” Nothing but mosquite repellant.
- Pretty and inoffensive. I smell a not-quite-realistic orange (more like powdered orange drink mix) and some sweet, clear florals (freesia?). It reminded me of something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on…and then it came to me. Bond No. 9′s new Union Square! Not exactly the same, but very similar in style. Plus Tang.
- Soapy, shower fresh scent. Easily wearable. I’m kind of over this one, but I don’t dislike it, it’s just that I used to like it much more.
- orange. If you want to be a giant orange…
- I dislike the initial fakey blast but once it settles down it’s very pretty, milky skin scent is really pleasant.
Clinique Aromatics Elixir
- For 20+ years I’ve tried to love this fragrance. I hate it. Picked up a bottle of Pure Parfum (perfect condition) last week at an estate sale for a whopping 30 cents. Sprayed just a touch in the air just inside the front door. THANK GOD it was a warm day. Fans going for an hour, with all the windows open….me outside. El O came home and said “wow! the house smells nice!”. Proof that there is something for everyone.
- Why spend a zillion bucks on Tom Ford Moss Breches when there’s Aromatics Elixir, its original? Be sure you give this only to someone who can carry a strong chypre. Someone gave my then-eighty-year-old mother a set, and it was just loud perfume overload.
- I used to hate this one, because it smelled so overpowering on everyone who wore it. But I discovered a secret: Just one spritz to the chest will do. It lasts all day, and smells like a fine French fragrance. It does, it really does!
- I have never hated a perfume as much as I hate Clinique’s Aromatics Elixir. Since I sold Clinique way back when, I HAD to wear it at the counter and I thought I would die. Anytime I read that something else smells like AE, I automatically know that I will hate it to death.
- I’m glad that I gave this one a good, long try. On a paper strip, it always seemed rather rough and scary. But on my skin, it turns into a smooth, velvety, classic chypre. It’s herby and casually sophisticated in a finely-tailored-tweed-suit sort of way.
- Hard core. This is a scent for people who want to announce their arrival with a megaphone. I hadn’t tried this in a really long time and it blew me away. There is a lot going on in this one. This screams 70′s all the way. There are some massive flowers in there (ylang ylang and jasmine, tuberose) that along with the oakmoss (and some really green notes too) really overwhelm. This is not a fragrance for the faint hearted. Bottom line, it’s a classy hippie scent that really makes a statement, but I would never wear it. Actually, I did put it on my wrist, but I was not happy.
- Harsh vetiver, florals barely discernible. When this is compared to Montale’s Vetiver Oriental, it’s enough to make you weep for the abuse of the note.
- I love Aromatics Elixir! I’ve worn it off and on since it was introduced in the early 70′s. My nose isn’t capable of defining each individual component of the fragrance but on me, the patchouli note is the most predominant. My friend also wears it; on her the rose and jasmine comes forward and it is much sweeter. I get undertones of that softness too.
- I’m very happy with my sophisticated chypre and tend to wear it when I want to feel “tailored,” whether I’m wearing clothes for the office or jeans.
- This will never appeal to me no matter how many times I smell it. Its astringent, green twiggy, herbal quality smells to me like an treatment for poison ivy.
Tommy Hilfiger Tommy Girl
nose image: etc.usf.edu
Lee
Patty
