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

by The Usual Suspects

It’s that time of year again, when we review our Top Ten list!  Lee has other responsibilities that are going to keep him off the Posse for a little bit (he’ll be back!) so it’s me, Patty, March and Nava, giving you your 10 Scents Worth  (oh, c’mon!  you knew I couldn’t resist!).   All 4 of us are in slightly different climes -  wonder  if where we are influences our choices?  ps.  I’m the one on the right – pretend it’s a Big Black Heavy Horse. — Anita.

Anita’s Choices:  This is one of the most quietly beautiful times of the year, along the rivers in Central IL, even moreso now as we are having our first real autumn in ages.  Autumn here isn’t flashy – yes, we have some lovely maples but nothing to compare to the East.  No, what is most beautiful here is the smoky, subtle profusion of browns, yellows and fading greens and rusting orange – and that smoky purple-silver you get when the ash trees and smoke bushes start turning.  Who knew brown could be so enthralling?  Some farmers still till their fields here and the gorgeous black earth interspersed with the spikes of pale-gold corn stover, the sun glinting off the shards like palladium…..a mundane sight that has caught the breath in my throat more than once.  Because of this, perhaps, my choices are a bit more muted than you might expect:

Cuir de Lancome.  a quiet, creamy, green- honeyed leather, with a touch of vanilla that always startles me – I like it!  It’s perfect in this sunny autumn weather.  I keep wishing for a vintage golden tan melton swing coat to wear with this – but my brown Carhartt jacket will do in a pinch.

Vintage Parure – at least ‘older’ – I don’t know what constitutes vintage in this fragrance and neither of my lovely little decants are dated.  But both of them are dazzling, like the sun on that corn stover.  Rosy-plummy bergamot……and our late, lamented friend, Oakmoss.    There is an incredible yellow diamond line bracelet – I won’t bore you with the details – this fragrance is that bracelet, as are the ash trees along the banks of the Illinois River.    How could I have missed this one, back in the day?  Don’t get between me and a bottle of this.

Vintage Miss Dior edt.  Again, I have no idea how ‘vintage’ this is – but it’s absolutely perfect for this weather (I wore it while busting sod – by hand- for 3 days straight.  Kept me from killing myself).   Another chypre,with warm, bright honeyed notes – but there’s this bergamot-y/melancholy fading-’green’ note that is like those storm clouds gathering in the west, presaging the coming winter.  I could never wear this with a pink sweater.  This is coffee/olive/toffee.  In this I can imagine myself in a New Look suit…and my new, New Look figure to go with it!

March: Nothing says fall quite like … cumin.  For the record – “cumin”-y scents don’t really smell of the actual seasoning to me – sniff for yourself.  I suppose it’s the closest thing we can name, but we could just as well be calling it dried mustard, IMO.  “Cumin” in a fragrance can be a signifier for spice/edible, as it is in the current Rochas Femme, or more like actual sweat (e.g., Eau d’Hermes), and how much cumin is perceived in a scent seems to vary significantly from person to person.  Anyhoodle, now’s the time to break out the new Rochas Femme in all its sweaty glory, or L’Artisan’s wonderful cumin/coffee Navigateur, or even Uncle Serge’s Santal de Mysore if you like your perfume curried.  Over my personal cumin line:  Dinner by Bobo and Theo Fennell –  like the Renaissance Faire threw up on me — but YMMV.  I also love that cumin-y note at the start of Lutens Fleurs d’Oranger, I’ve been wearing the heck out of it the last couple of weeks (yup, finally bought a bottle, having worked through two vials and a decant.)  Then there’s Isabela Capeto, Amouage Jubilation 25, Cartier Declaration, Worth Courtesan and … oh, a million others, see Angela’s recent post on cumin and the comments for what is probably the definitive list.

Nava: To me, nothing says “right now” more than the four goofy horsemen pictured above. More about that in my next post.  The sniffers are all haywire again because life has gone all screwy. But, if they were functioning normally, I’d be wearing Donna Karan Chaos, Serge Fumerie Turque, Hermessence Ambre Narguilé, Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille and Purple Patchouli, plus the occasional spritzes of Chanel Coromandel and Cuir de Russie to keep things interesting. Speaking of interesting, tune in next week…

Patty: Fall is warm woods, incense, vanilla, leaves, velvet and baking bread. So that’s CB  Burning Leaves, Baccarat Sacre Le Larmes de Thebes (or some variation of that), Guerlain Bois d’Armenie and Spiriteuse Double Vanille, Le Labo Patchouli 24 and Vanille somenumberothanother, Hermessence Vetiver Tonka (last weeks’ discussion has me hooked on this again) and L’Artisan Bois Farine.  I do smell great in the fall.  Off in the distance, you hear my Carons warming up for winter.

For more Top Ten of Fall lists, please visit:  Bois de Jasmin, Grain de Musc, Now Smell This and Perfume-Smellin- Things.

image: Four Goofy Horsemen of Apocalypse from March’s old image files.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen — it’s that time of the year again, when we all put forth our Top Ten Fragrances of Winter.  These are scents that may be new, or just new to us — or perhaps rediscoveries or simply old favorites that we rely on to get us through the gloomies until Spring.

Lee: We’ve had more snow this year than I can recall since childhood. A full two inches laid on the ground for a week. Hell indeed, or its inverse (waves at Canadians, Scandinavians and midWesterners with irritating insouciance). Anyways, what’s ringing my bells and pulling my buttons? Well, the first is no surprise – Parfumerie Generale’s Cozé. Pure wonder. But I reckon this will be a year-round mainstay for me. (By the way, winners of the samples from two weeks back are Geordan1244, carlene and chasa. Get in touch, peoples!).

And sticking with the patchouli and chocolate oddness, I’m going to choose dear old Serge’s Borneo 1834. Reeling from Perfume Shrine’s discontinuation revelation, and still soccer-punched by my sample of l‘Eau Serge Lutens (bright light, squinting eyes, iris squeal, high pitched melody – “Der Hà¶lle Rache” from the Magic Flute is how high it goes -  facets of bleach and scrubbed sanatoria, with Dior Homme in the far drydown) Borneo 1834 is the perfect elegant off-centre number for when I want to project more … something… than the delectable Cozé will allow. No nasty vomit comments (vomments?) now please.

March:  It’s been a funny winter (aren’t they all?) because it’s either 67 degrees, or it’s cold and there’s 20 inches of snow on the ground.  Oddly, I have not yet shifted to my gourmand cozy-sweater comfort scents.  Instead I’ve been reveling in these two:

The first is Lancome Climat, re-released in La Collection, I blogged on it already.  Part of the ongoing fascination is that I’ve fallen in love with a fragrance I wouldn’t consider “me” at all.  It’s too big, too angular, too green-and-white.  Too dressy.  Too … too.  Not that I’m opposed to ballsy elegance (hello, Mitsouko!) but I never thought I’d find myself swooning over an aldehydic white floral with plenty of the dreaded lily of the valley.  I like wearing it casually — in the daytime, with my jeans and a sweater.  Perfume is always full of wonderful surprises, isn’t it?

The second is Serge Lutens Santal Blanc.  When I mentioned it in my sandalwood post, several sandalwood fans said they hated this scent.  My new interest in sandalwood (my timing couldn’t be worse, could it?) allowed me to have a perfume experience I’m not sure I’ve had before: to view an already-appreciated scent through a completely different lens.  I think SB was my second Serge bottle, and it’s always been that weird pencil-y thing.  But right this second it’s the perfect sandalwood for me, radiant, with no giant rose to spoil it for me.  Also, sandalwood and fig together are delicious.  Having acquired several figs during my fig jag, and then promptly burning myself out, I’m getting a chance to wear those figs again.  (My personal fave: Philosykos layered with SB.)

Musette:  A lifetime ago, my (then) husband had the noive to sniff my best friend and say “you smell intoxicating.”  It was in Winter.  She  was wearing Prescriptives Calyx.  I was furious.  But intrigued.  Went and sniffed.  He wuz right.  Busted!….but right.  I think the good ship LucaTania gave it 5 stars, with good reason.  It goes on smooth and sunny and blooms in the cold, without trying too hard.  It’s not quite ‘summer’, just a nice fresh, juicy (without being ‘fruity’) rosy-green.

Speaking of rose…normally I am not a huge rose fan in perfume (love ‘em on bushes, though)…but something about winter brings out the Rose Love in me.    My favorite for this time of year is The Different Company’s Rose Poivree, with that hit of peppery zing! slicing through the redness.  First runner up is Rosine’s Big’un -  La Rose de Rosine.  Nothing but, uh, Rose….it’s great for snuggling under the blankets on a cold winter night.

Nava: So far, my first full Canadian winter has been less than impressive, but I should be careful what I wish for, correct? It hasn’t been anywhere near as brutal as what my mother’s childhood recollections had me fearing, but at least it was snow, ya know? Nowadays, it’s those pesky “ice pellets” (aka, sleet) I need to worry about; that and falling on my ass in the driveway while I scrape the protective coating off my car. But hey, at least I’ll smell good wearing Serge’s Five O’ Clock Au Gingembre and Guerlain Spiritueuse Double Vanille. I know I’ve been singing the praises of wood, incense and the like for a while, but when it comes down to chasing away the doldrums of winter, these two get it done. This is where I’ve landed on the journey from foody and gourmand, to, dare I say it…grown up.

Patty:  I’m a simple girl, and I feel like I’m flogging these two scents to within and inch of their life, but they are quintessentially winter, By Kilian Pure Oud and Amouage Tribute Attar.  Dark, rich, warm, pungent, a little bitter, but, like life, worn long enough, warmed up by the heat of your life, the become almost an extension of you, even while retaining an other-ness.

For more Top Ten lists, please visit Bois de Jasmin, Grain de Musc, Now Smell This, and Perfume-Smellin’ Things.

Lee

I was going to write a review of a new fragrance, Lancà´me´s Hypnà´se Senses, but instead, I´ve decided to borrow a bit of inspiration from Patty´s last post. Here´s the info if anyone is interested: Hypnà´se Senses is a scent available exclusively at Lancome.ca and Shoppers Drug Mart here in Canada. It is classified as a floral chypre; not my  category of choice when it comes to fragrance, but an interesting sniff nonetheless. The notes are osmanthus, patchouli, pink peppercorn and baies roses. It has a Coco Mademoiselle vibe to it, and will probably thrill mainstream chypre fans to pieces. I sniffed it only because it contains osmanthus, one of my favourite notes. Too bad the rest just doesn´t agree with me. The pale, peachy-pink juice is housed in the same translucent twisty glass flacon as original Hypnà´se, and makes for a stunning presentation. It can be had in 30 ml, 50 ml, and 75 ml sizes for $52.00 to $92.00 Canadian.

As I unpacked my bottles, decants and such earlier this week, I was grateful to not have suffered any casualties in the move. No runs, drips or shattered glass, I´m happy to report; all is well in my fragrant little corner of the house. As I took stock of my collection, I came across some gems that I haven´t worn in ages, and realized a distinct pattern that I never before paid any attention to. Besides my love for most things vanilla and almond, I noticed for the first time how many incense fragrances I have, and how long it´s been since I´ve worn many of them. Now, I´m anxious for more autumnal weather so I can break these out. Before I know it, there will be a foot of snow on the ground. Here´s what I´m looking forward to wearing:

Serge Encens et Lavande: liquid serenity and calm in a bell jar; nuff said.

Armani Prive Bois d´Encens: This was the incense scent that started it all for me. I never even considered wearing incense until I sniffed this one.

Costes: Who knew roses and incense could be so perfect together?

Eau d´Italie Paestum Rose: Roses with even more incense. Men go nuts for this one. Well, Italian men, anyway.

And, Chaos; I´ll always have Chaos. Three bottles worth to be exact.

How about some wacky tabacckie?

Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille: This one could be a Serge scent with all the candied fruit in the drydown. But it was the initial hit of sweet pipe tobacco that hooked me instantly.

Etat Libre d´Orange Jasmin et Cigarette: It sounds disgusting, but I like it.

By Kilian Back to Black. I don´t own any yet, but it will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine.

Lastly, in part because I was so enthralled with Patty´s comparison of commercial versus non-commercial scents in her post yesterday, I will finally admit that I flat out adore Mandy Aftel´s Cacao perfume. Reams of text have been written about this gem, mainly because it will probably go down in history as the most fecal, indolic combination of jasmine, orange and chocolate ever bottled. I believe this was a limited-edition scent created with Scharffen Berger chocolate, and boy did it cause a stir on Makeup Alley back in the day. As Patty so eloquently stated, Jo Malone´s scents sell circles around Mandy Aftel´s, but there is definitely room to appreciate both categories of scent. I really liked Jo Malone´s new vanilla and anise scent, but it was a toss-up between a bottle of it, and making sure I had enough packing material to ensure that my most precious possessions did not crumble to bits within the confines of an 18-wheeler. Safety won out. And I didn´t lose a precious drop of Cacao, Chaos, Serge, or anything else.

 What are your buried scented treasures? You know you´re just itching to tell me.

Well, Patty has punted is too busy shopping doing a lot of macaron and wine fragrance research in Paris right now and will be back soon with lots of interesting perfume-age, so today you’re stuck with me.

Awhile back* I blogged on this Annick Goutal candle I love, Le Sac de Ma Mere (my mother’s purse), which smells like the inside of a lady’s handbag, with accompanying smells of cologne, face powder, lipstick, etc.  The candle description from the Annick Goutal website:  “Childhood scents stay engraved in our memories. Camille Goutal has created the magic of memory by recalling the fragrance of her mother’s handbag. It is a scented candle in which the dizzying smell of tanned leather is mixed with powder blush and lipstick.  Ingredients: Russian leather, Iris, Violet, Oak moss.” It would probably make a great room spray (which I would wear) and I tried layering various leather fragrances with various cosmetic-smelling powdery fragrances and never even came close, because I wanted a fragrance that smelled like that candle.

I should ‘fess up that while I absolutely love leather in a fragrance, and think leather fragrances are amazing, they tend not to be things I wear much.  At various times, various lovely people have gifted me with samples of rare, expensive, and/or unusual leathers.  I love to take them out and smell them, but that’s as far as it goes.  I know a lot of you are total leather freaks and own every leather out there, and more power to you.

I got a generous decant of Cuir de Lancome from a generous friend recently.   I swooned at the first sniff — not because it is the single greatest leather on the planet, which clearly it is not, but because it was what I’d been yearning for — the effect (if not a precise dupe) of the smell of that candle, with expensive leather and something vaguely sweet.  I looked it up online and I feel like a doofus — it was part of the Lancome La Collection reissue, and I saw the rest of them (Climat, Sikkim etc.) but never saw Cuir at a Lancome counter in the states.

Calice Becker is the perfumer, and the notes are mandarin, saffron, bergamot, patchouli, hawthorn, jasmine, ylang-ylang, orris root, birch and styrax. Cuir de Lancome was reintroduced in 2007, after which it sank like a stone, along with all the rest of La Collection that the Lancome SAs perversely hid behind the counters like the bottles were poisoned, so all you could find was their usual dreck.

This reissue of Cuir got mostly meh reviews.  I’m going to side with Angela at Now Smell This who shares my admiration for its softness and elegance rather than focusing on its failings compared to other leathers, or to the original (1930s?) Lancome Cuir, which was apparently quite a smell to behold.  For what it’s worth, Lancome doesn’t even list leather as a note — it’s a fake-out, probably as Angela notes astutely, the saffron among other things.

It paints a picture: a fine ladies’ vintage handbag, butter-soft leather gloves, lipstick, coin purse, handkerchief, violet pastilles, a few stray strands of tobacco.    As a “Leather” it seems destined to disappoint.  On its own terms, it is lovely.  It is feminine without being girly, sophisticated but warm, dry rather than powdery.  A big, warm hug to my benefactress, who was already being generous and made me even happier, I suspect, than she’d imagined.

A few online etailers like perfume.com carry it if you google, and there are several NIB on eBay.  And all you leather freaks feel free to come out of the woodwork and sneer at me and/or recommend your favorite leathers, freaky or not.

PS  And I think it speaks volumes for how crappy Lancome’s marketing was of the Collection that this is the best image I could find.  What is wrong with those people?

*By the way, I just noted the date of that first post.  A full year later, the (unlit) Goutal candle is still throwing out its delicious scent on the desk next to me while I blog.

March