Thanks for the good wishes for my little finger.  I wound up with a little divot taken out of it, but it’s better, though not overly fond of me banging on the keyboard yet.

I will post the recipe for the raw pizza crust for those of you that asked either this weekend or next week. I’m waiting to get it. I sorta know what goes in it, but we cook and make a lot of this up as we go along.

So I’m going through my hits and misses of things I sniffed this week. Some of them I just don’t have much to say about, whether I like them or not, and some other people have reviewed much better, and some I’ve barely had a chance to sniff, enough to get my attention and not enough time yet to go into detail.

Lubin Black Jade – mostly a hit, except the bottle, which is pretty, but they don’t put the name on it except in small print on the bottom. I can’t SEE that, damnit!  Smells pretty much how you would guess, big spicy incensey rose, and it has cardamon so you really didn’t think I was gonna hate it, did you? I don’t know about all the Marie Antoinette backstory that comes with it, it just feels a little heavy for summer, but should be a good one for fall.

Watermelon Gazpacho – OMG I amdying this is so gooooooooood.  Watermelon, cucumber, tomatoes, green or red pepper, olive oil, sherry wine, salt, something else maybe, no recipe right in front of me.  I could drink this and probably will, probably with vodka.  I am veering off into a raw foodist for the summer, which is easy to do when everything is yummy.  Tomorrow I’m making a raw cherry pie. Pie crust is whirred up almonds with Medjool dates and salt for the pie crust, pressed into a tart pan. Then mix the cherries and maybe apricots together with some agave for the filling.

Creed White Flowers – I would have put this squarely in the middle to close to hi, and it will probably stay there. Don’t absolutely love it, don’t hate it, and it probably would have stood up better, except what I smelled after. It’s a nice white floral. It’s got a pretty violet top and nice depth.  I probably shouldn’t have smelled it with this batch of things because I feel like I’m giving it short shrift.  I’d happily wear this, but I’m not swooning like I am over –

By Kilian Sweet Redemption.  This is right there with the the Watermelon Gazpacho.  Orange blossom and vanilla, sweet, bitter, warmth, incense,  sunshine (orange blossom feeeeels like sunshine for me). It is floral and it is candied warmth.  And it smells exactly like the sticky mess warmed by the sun that is the path we all trudge to redemption.  Complete hit for me, I neeeeeeeeds a bottle for my personal stock, I just have my teensy sample.  Anyone wants to split a bottle, let me know. I only want to split it it with one or two other people so I get enough!

The summer sun.  Miss, miss, miss.  Feels like last week I was whining about the rain and cool. Oh, wait, it was!  From freaky thunderstorms and rain every day to 100 plus. My tomatoes and peppers are loving it, and they need it, but I’m thinking about my electricity bill that I’ll have to pay for the next two months and lining up banks to rob.

Andy Tauer’s Pentachords.  Haven’t smelled them in any in-depth yet, except to sneak a little sniff.  But It’s Andy, and it’s five notes only in each.  For example, Verdant is leaves, leather, tobacco, earth, amber. White is violet, orris, bourbon vanilla, ambergris and warm wood.  Auburn is citrus, cinnamon, tobacco, amber, sandalwood.  Having these sitting on my desk is like being in the Ferrari showroom.  You don’t have to get IN the car and drive it to know it’s gonna be fun, but you greatly anticipate the moment when you do.  So it’s just a hit unsniffed because it’s too much fun.

BTW, Anita and I, I think, will be talking about these later, when she gets hers.

Now for the good news, two people will get small samples of all of these after I draw two names out of the commenters on this post. Except the Watermelon Gazpacho, but only because I can’t figure out how to get that in the mail in this blazing summer heat.  So drop a comment, tell me your misses and hits this summer – could be a book, a scent, a recipe, a place, and you’ll be entered!

Patty

You know.  I always cringe when I write a Creed review because I know someone who loves most things Creed will eventually pop in and get all squeaked out that I don’t like it that much or think it’s okay, but not fantastic and post kind of a meh review.  Yes, when I’m not very enthusiastic about a perfume, but feel I need to review it, it does show in my lackluster comments.  So I’m bracing myself.  Or am I?

Vanilla is the new black this season, apparently. There have been a number of them released this year – most quite good.  It took a long time for me to warm up to vanilla in perfume after some o the  travesties of the CSPs that almost sent me away from vanilla perfumes forever.  Guerlain’s Spiritueuse Double Vanille was my first big exception to vanilla, followed by a sweeter version of vanilla in Indult Tihota and the mostly lily Hermessence Vanille Galante.  Then the vanilla dominoes really started falling this year with Jo Malone Vanilla and Anise and L’Artisan’s Havana Vanille and Van Cleef & Arpels Orchidee Vanille. BTW, when in the heck is L’Artisan going to get those bottles out the door?  I smelled this in July, for crying out loud!  Snap to it, L’Artisan, I needs this now.

Creed’s latest entry, Sublime Vanille is a limited edition, available, as far as I know, or at least for now, in the big old 8.4 ounce flacon.  Notes of Tahitian orchids, South American Bourbon vanilla, tonka bean, bergamot, and Calabrian lemon are listed.  On the open, with the bergamot and lemon, I was so prepared to hate this. I had the haterade in the glass and was getting ready to take a big swig.  But, hey, those bright cheerful notes vamoosed – Lemon Pledge and vanilla are household plug-ins, not perfumes -  and I was left with this slightly smoky vanilla that’s not sweet in the least, not as dark as the SDV, though, doesn’t go as close to the floral feel like the Cartier does, it’s a really  nice straddle of a lot of vanillas.  I keep reading that this is aimed at men?  Yeah, maybe the open, and it’s certainly a vanilla that a guy could wear.  It’s a lovely vanilla scent – not heavy or sweet or too smoky or too floral or too much like Watkins.  A middle of the road vanilla, and I don’t mean that in a bad way.  It’s a nice, neutral vanilla that has all the great aspects of vanilla covered, and few of the bad, nor does it exaggerate any aspect like some of the more distinctive vanilla scents do, which, for me, isn’t exactly a plus – I’ll explain later. I don’t find the sillage on it to be great. That’s a feature for some of you and a bug for others. I suspect, since it is geared for men, that they wanted to tone down the waftage so guys weren’t thinking they smelled like snickerdoodles – though why anyone wouldn’t want to smell like that is a mystery.  Lasting power seems okay, but not great. I had a couple of good hours of it, and then it receded to a much softer, harder to smell version.  Still nice.

So now we get to talk about the limited edition and price point.  $475 for 8.4 ounces (250 mls) is a bargain almost.  L’Artisan is up to $140 or so fo 100 mls. Cartiers are $180 or so for 75 mls.  SDV is over $200 for 75 mls.  But I read on Basenotes that Bergdorf or NM or whoever was carrying it is already sold out, they have a waiting list.  I totally get that sometimes a perfume takes off unexpectedly, and the company is left flat-footed (Waaaazambaaaaa!!!) and trying to catch up with production, but my reading is Creed did this intentionally.  I suppose it works, but I think as many people find it annoying as the people who are happy to be one of the few snaggees.  And the bottle size and limited edition and small first production run?   Many times you can have a perfectly fine fragrance with severely limited availability become much more desirable just because it’s hard to get.  My guess is that will happen with Sublime Vanille – partly because it is a Creed, partly because it is actually pretty good.  I’m not going to call it great because of the same factors that make it good.  It has no distinctive angle on vanilla. It’s pretty much a straight-up nice, wearable vanilla scent.

Patty

Creed’s newest release is Acqua Fiorentina.  It has notes of plum, roses, carnation, bergamot orange, lemon, cedar, and sandalwood.  Prices are $130 for 1 ounce, $230 for 2.5 ounces and $350 for 8.4 ounces.

Did Creed’s prices go up?  A lot?

It opens fairly aquatic with a typical Creed base, but don’t get worried, it loses that watery feel and turns much more plummy and floral.  It’s not a sweet plum, not heavy on any of the fruitish notes at all.  Very fresh and springlike floral with cedary underpinnings.  It’s done well and doesn’t fall into the Creed side of the fence of scents I hate.  It falls on the much sparser side of Creed scents I like.  It’s very nice, though I like Love in Black a lot more, it’s just more my kind of scent.

But the pricing?  I mean, the $350 for 8.4 ounces is darn reasonable.  It’s good that they are offering it in a 1 ounce size, but $130?  Which brings me to my question of the day, what is a reasonable price for perfume in this year’s astronomical pricing?  Hard to believe we are in a recession with the hikes that have been going on just in the last three quarters. Ideas  on what marketing strategy is at play here?

Let’s give away some samples of this since I got some for my review.  10 winners will get a sample of this. Just drop your name in comments, and I’ll do a drawing.

Patty

Sometimes, a big city can be welcoming, and sometimes it can wallop you with an urban blight that impacts you so profoundly, it makes you scratch your head and wonder why you love that particular place so much to begin with.

When I crossed the border into Ontario for the first time since my enemy radical status was rescinded, I couldn´t wait for that first glimpse of the CN Tower that reveals itself from across Lake Ontario as you drive along on the Queen Elizabeth Way, somewhere between St. Catharines and Hamilton. It almost reminds me of seeing Manhattan from mid-span on the Verrazano Narrows Bridge between Staten Island and Brooklyn, only the distance from St. Catharines to Toronto is much greater. As you view either metropolis from those vantage points, you can´t help but be filled with hope and anticipation of experiencing all each city has to offer, until you see them up close and discover appearances aren´t always what they seem.

Two days into my visit, municipal employees declared war on the city of Toronto and many relied upon services were casualties of their declaration. Their work stoppage has affected city-run daycare centers, community swimming pools, public parks and other essential city services. The most obvious and frankly disgusting casualty has been the cessation of garbage, recycling and compost collections, which have caused unsightly mountains of refuse to pile up all over the landscape. It looks awful and smells even worse. To add insult to psychological, visual and olfactory injuries, striking workers have blockaded garbage transfer stations and temporary drop-off sites and will periodically not allow tax-paying citizens to dispose of their refuse. When they do allow individuals to unburden themselves of their trash, they restrict entry into these stations or drop sites by allowing access to only one vehicle at a time in 15 minute intervals. I don´t know which part of this surprises me more: the fact that they are able to do that, or that people are willing to wait in line for hours at a time to drop off their garbage. As of this posting, there is no end in sight to this strike and negotiations are progressing at a snail´s pace.

So what does the cynical perfumista do in order to stave off the offensive stench of rotting garbage? Head indoors to the fragrance counters in order to get some relief.

I´ve been very reticent to go downtown since the garbage situation has been affecting the tourist areas the most. Instead, I went over to the Yorkdale mall and perused the fragrance counters at The Bay and Holt Renfrew. At Holt Renfrew I discovered two new Italian fragrances that for the life of me I cannot remember which house made them, or what their names were. All I know is that they both smelled amazing and cost $180.00 a bottle. I lamented to Henni, one of the Beauty Advisors, that right now, they were way too rich for my pocketbook.

I noticed the complete range of Bond No. 9 scents with Brooklyn and Astor Place front and center. Kilian Hennessy´s By Kilian scents were nearby, but my interest was piqued by the newest Creed scent, Acqua Fiorentina. It is packaged in the same bottle as Love in White and Love in Black, the major difference being the color of the juice. Nabi, the Creed counter manager told me this was the first pink-toned Creed scent, and that the company will be making donations to breast cancer charities during Breast Cancer Awareness month in October. I haven´t been that crazy about a lot of the more recent Creed scents (with the exception of Virgin Island Water), but Acqua Fiorentina has a lovely, tart plum note that blends well with Calabrian lemon, carnation, rose, sandalwood and cedar. This is a tad fruity, but not in the ubiquitous celebrity scent way; the fruitiness of the plum and the dry cedar are reminiscent of a Serge Lutens creation, but it is a cinch to wear. If you like Spring Flower, you´ll like this one; it is really well done.

Speaking of Serge, the last time I ventured into The Bay at Yorkdale, there was a fairly comprehensive selection of the export fragrances. This time, they were nowhere to be found. I was rather surprised, but I have enough Serge to keep me occupied for a while. Honestly, The Bay at Yorkdale was a bit disappointing; however, they did have the reissued Givenchys, including a stockpile of Organza Indecence. Paging March: your favorite “sexy cupcake” scent is alive and well here in T.O. It smelled a bit boozier than the bottle I´ve got, but you´d be splitting hairs trying to tell them apart. Escada Incredible Me was interesting, and very reminiscent of Collection. I was tempted by it, but I´m glad I passed because it now smells a tad too perfumey on the blotter paper.

No sniffing expedition would be complete without a visit to my favorite haunt, Shoppers Drug Mart. There I discovered Kate Moss Velvet Hour, which I fell for completely. It´s an eau de toilette concentration and the notes of blue pepper, freesia, cashmere incense, patchouli, nutmeg sandalwood and amber are light enough to wear in warmer weather. It has a nice bit of “skank” appeal and I really had to force myself to walk away from it. I rationalized that the bottle was something of a deal-breaker with its dark blue flying saucer-ish shape that really doesn´t do the scent justice. This potion would be much more at home in a Dianne Brill/Fifi Chachnil/Agent Provocateur-type vessel. That way, you know what you´re getting.

The other scent I zeroed in on was Lise Watier´s Désirable. Now that I´m officially in the club, I really want to like a perfume from a Canadian cosmetics and fragrance house, but sadly, none of Ms. Watier´s scents are remotely appealing to me. Désirable is as potent as a genetically modified fruit salad and way too over-the-top for my liking. Her Neiges scent is another that, much as I´d like to, I just can´t wrap my nose around. Brutal Canadian winters notwithstanding, what could be better than to smell clean and pure as the driven… well, you know the rest. Sorry, no can do. Fans of Lorenzo Villoresi´s Teint de Neige would like this; the two are practically interchangeable.

I´d like to give a shout-out to Angela over at “Now Smell This”. I read her entry from this past Monday, “Lament of a Penniless Perfumista”, and it really struck a chord with me. As I gazed wistfully at all the shiny bottles, I was thinking exactly what Angela so eloquently wrote: “It´s challenging times like these that remind me to slow down and appreciate what I already have.” I couldn´t have said it any better. Being reunited with my family and friends and knowing they are there to support me through anything warms my heart much more than a bottle of fragrance ever could. And, like Angela, I have more than enough of those to tide me over. Now, if only my aunt could get rid of all her smelly garbage and compost…

I´m heading back to my US abode today, so I will read and respond to comments tomorrow.

As we´ve complained ad nauseam, we’ve barely had a spring here in the east, only to suddenly wake up to ninety degree temperatures. It´s been a bit disorienting to say the least, but it definitely puts into perspective the approaching misery of summer. I say misery because my bikini beach days are decades behind me, and my mid-forties are fast approaching. That means loading up on sunscreen and setting the air conditioning at a temperature somewhere in the vicinity of meat locker. This will be my first Mid-Atlantic summer, so please feel free to inform me what I am in for. As of now, there is no escaping to north of the 49th for me, so unless I can get a cheap ticket to Antarctica (passage on the Sea Shepherd vessel Steve Irwin, perhaps?), I´ll most likely go crazy in the heat. And, I´ll be bringing along some of my favorite kitschy summer scents:

Creed Virgin Island Water: I never thought I would refer to any Creed scent as “kitschy”, considering they´ve been around since 1760, but this scent is a total departure for them. From the quintessentially feminine Fleurissimo to the bracing maleness of Green Irish Tweed, Virgin Island Water does not smell like a typical Creed scent. Even their more recent compositions like Spring Flower and Silver Mountain Water have that Creed signature something that Virgin Island Water does not. It is a tropical cocktail in a bottle, with notes of coconut, lime, white rum, bergamot, Mandarin orange, hibiscus, ginger, ylang ylang and jasmine. Is there such a thing as a “refined” pià±a colada? Virgin Island Water is a fun and easy scent to wear, regardless of your frozen cocktail of choice.

Bond No. 9 Coney Island: When I was a kid in Brooklyn, Coney Island had a somewhat dubious reputation. You didn´t go there for any reason but for a few rides on the Cyclone, the landmark roller coaster that the Astroland amusement park was famous for. After that, you hauled what was left of your cookies to Jahn´s Ice Cream Parlor on the corner of Avenue U and Gerritsen Avenue, and ordered their Kitchen Sink Sundae, which was 16 scoops of ice cream along with various toppings. A couple of plates of French fries would inevitably arrive at the table, to use  in lieu of spoons. Hey – don´t knock it; think of it as dipping pretzels in chocolate.

None of Coney Island´s notes have anything to do with the Coney Island experience, but it still manages to strike an emotional chord in me. The combination of margarita mix, guava melon, cinnamon, chocolate, caramel, musk, vanilla, cedar wood and sandalwood might strike some as noxious. But, if you´ve ever gotten a whiff of the real Coney Island – Nathan´s hot dogs, ripe garbage and the polluted Atlantic Ocean, you´d beg for the bottle. I think it´s what I always wanted Coney Island to smell like, but it never did. Coney Island the scent makes me smile, and gives me a serious craving for ice cream and French fries. A ride on the Cyclone, however, would now be followed by a recuperative forty minute rest before I could even think about food.

Bond No. 9 Fire Island: If this one was named Bain de Soleil Orange Suntan Gelée, it would be instantly recognizable. Having only been to Fire Island once in my life, I have no memory of what it smells like, only that I was totally paranoid about going in the water and getting bitten by a shark. All these years later, I still can´t watch the movie “Jaws” without shuddering. The notes of cardamom, neroli, white musk, tuberose and patchouli don´t exactly scream suntan lotion, but I can´t think of a better interpretation of the iconic orange gelée than this one. It only has an SPF of 4, so anyone as pasty as me wouldn´t be caught dead wearing it. Thank goodness for Fire Island.

Marc Jacobs Daisy: The kitschy-est thing about this scent is the bottle; those white vinyl daisies on the cap instantly bring a smile to my face. And the green ones on the new limited edition bottle totally remind me of my family´s green vinyl kitchen chairs and white Formica table. Yeah, that kitchen set was the epitome of  late 60s-early 70s stylish home decor. With the exception of the plastic slipcovers on my grandmother´s chesterfield, nothing hurt worse than having to peel myself off those chairs in the summertime. I think enduring simultaneous laser hair removal and a bikini wax probably doesn´t hurt as much. As for Daisy the fragrance, it just works in the hot weather. Not too fruity, not too sweet, just enough sparkly grapefruit to keep me happy.

Here are a few that are no longer with us, but deserve honorable mention:

Ava Luxe Coconut perfume oil: This was quite possibly the most perfect coconut scent I have ever smelled. It wasn´t overly sweet, and not at all plasticky. It had a boozy rummy-ness to it that gave it depth and personality. If you´re reading this Serena, please bring it back!

Majenty Hidden Cove: I can´t remember what the notes were, but this oil was a tropical masterpiece without the dizzying intensity of pikaki or gardenia. It doesn´t seem to be available anywhere anymore, and the bottle I had is M.I.A. Figures. Update: I’m trying to find out if the company is still producing the scents, or if they’re out of business. Their website is still up, but I’m not sure if it is active.

VIP Room: I have a bit left in the bottle I bought at Aedes de Venustas, and I could swear I had a backup somewhere in my stash, but no such luck. This was a limited edition scent named after the famous Parisian nightclub, and now it is nowhere to be found. The combination of leather and pineapple shouts insanity from the highest peak, but it is genius; even on the doggiest of summer days.

The title of this entry is from the song “Escape (The Pià±a Colada Song)” by Rupert Holmes. My apologies for any earworms.

Image by artist Bella Pilar: magnetreps.com.