Winner Alert:  Cuir Fetich sample winner is……..Mrs Honey!!!  drop a line at ‘contact us’ with your deets (and please remind us what you won).  thanks!

Unless you live on Jupiter and only get intermittent internet signal, you know that I am still having some issues with living at the back of the back of beyond.  This is mitigated, somewhat, by my occasional Saturday forays back to Chicago.  Two weeks ago I leapt aboard the train and went to do a Mag Mile stroll with my darling Miss Francine.  Lots of stops, including Chanel  and over the next couple of posts I will tell you allllll about some new stuff I sampled and sniffed.

The Universe was on my side that Saturday.  Starting out frosty, it quickly warmed up to the mid-60s, which made strolling an absolute delight.  We met at Nordie’s, where I got to sample the Bottega Veneta everybody’s been raving about (more on that in another post, I have to take my time with that subtle one)…I also sampled Prada Candy and……..I still feel like the Nerd Girl at the Cool Party.  I can’t ‘get it’ because I CAN’T SMELL IT!  sur-prize!  I have yet to find a Prada I can get more than a faint ‘scent-over-alcohol’ smell from.

Prada Hates Me.  Who cares?  I Love Kilian. 

We went to SFA to yakk with Rosie – and smooch the Kilians.  Francine hadn’t spent a lot of time with them so it was fun to watch her reactions. I think she fell in love with Straight to Heaven , though knowing her perfume tastes I am thinking it might have been A Taste of Heaven. – it was one of the Heavens, that much I do remember (I’m OLD).   I always forget that Kilian has two gorgeous Ouds, confusing them with the Tom Fords which reside cheek by jowl against the Kilian display.  Saks’s perfume counter is abysmal, banished to the back of the section like a smelly old dog.    Anyway, I stumbled back upon Rose Oud.…I have no idea why I keep glossing over this scent.  It combines two of my favorite scent families, rose and a soft, dark oud accord – I don’t know if you remember my summer experiment where I combined Amouage Tribute Attar with Rosine Poussiere de Rosine for the Hog Roast at the nursing home….this is similar, but without the ashy accord (which I love to distraction, btw).  This is much lighter and just beautiful.  In a ‘pretty’ way.   I find myself embarrassed to describe it thus because somehow ‘pretty’ has become almost anathema in the lexicon of Serious Perfumery.  It’s okay to be ‘daring’ or ‘challenging’ or ‘intriguing’ – why not ‘pretty’?  Tribute is GORGEOUS but it can be challenging and, in some situations, requires some explanation.  Sometimes I just want to smell beautiful, in a pretty way.  Just like this.

Rose Oud is, by far, my personal win of the Kilians, with Incense Oud  in for the place.  Both of those gorgeous beauties are done by the ultra-fabulous Calice Becker.  I applaud that she didn’t crush the rose notes under a whole lotta lotta, y’know?  Rose gets short shrift sometimes, just like ‘pretty’ – for example, the Rosines are often dismissed because of their lack of darkness and complexity – but I am going to come right out and say that I LIKE a sunny rose now and again.  Yeah, they’re not over-nuanced but there’s a place for them.  Rose Oud isn’t ‘sunny’ by a long shot – rather, it’s a glowing, faceted opal of a scent, with the roses and spices weaving and winkling around each other, forming a shining veil, luminous sunlight through stained glass.   It is complex without trumpeting its complexity like a fedora on a 14 yr old boy.

I’m not in the market for a full bottle of Rose Oud because my lottery ticket has not been verified just yet but when I am I won’t be getting it in the justintimefortheholidays glamazon Swarovski crystal limited-edition bottle – as magpie as I am, I can’t love the embellished Kilian bottles.  They feel ‘bedazzled’ to me, like someone hung a Juicy Couture charm on a vintage bottle of No 5 perfume.     The standard Kilian black bottles are elegant, classic – and good enough for me.  You may feel otherwise and that’s okay – diff’rent strokes!
But I thought you might like to see it anyway.  That’s it up there.

Notes for Rose Oud are: Turkish rose, oud, saffron, cardamom

Photo courtesy shopstyle.com

SURPRISE!! If you slogged through all that, there is a halfway-decent reward.  This charming young man at the Killian counter gave me this charming little box with 5 charming Kilian samples, including Rose Oud.  I’m giving it away because I am Just That Kinda Gal.  To enter, just let me know which Kilian is your favorite  – or which one you have always wanted to try, or how you feel about the LE bottles v. the regular ones, or what you’re having for Thanksgiving dinner, because I am Just That Nosy.   Giveaway will be open until Friday, November 25.   Winner will be announced next Tuesday.

Pairs Hitch, Britt IA

By Anita

Summer. Summersummersummer.

You know what’s weird about summer?  It’s a horse of a totally different color, depending upon where you are and who you are (or used to be).  I spent the last 50o years of my life in an Urban environment and my summer fragrances reflected that.  When I think about Agraria Bitter Orange I think of this restaurant on Irving Place in NYC – I only went there in the summer and always sat outside for brunch …..and my beloved Cartier Brillante is definitely meant for hot pavement, a linen sheath and a cold vodka tonic.  I had no idea it would not translate to rolling cornfields and draft horses (who HATE that scent, btw – it makes them sneeze, the prima donnas)….so I  had to rethink summer to please my Percherons  (besides, March wouldn’t let me yark on about my regular faves anymore.  She is SO bossy!).  The more I thought about it, though, the more it makes sense – summer in the  Urbs is way different from summer in the country  – out here Summer isn’t something to be wrestled with – it just is.  And out here you’re not trying to squeeze your swollen feet into those Manolo sandals and I certainly cannot wear that crisp white linen sheath with steel-toe boots, corn dust and horse snot and…well, it’s just different.  Take  my displaced word for it.   Not better, not worse – just different.  So the two I’ve chosen reflect my new life amongst the cows and the corn.

Here are our two scents. What are yours?? (unlike us, you are not limited to 2 each – whale away!)

Based on the epic Country FAIL of Brillante and my regular standbys I caved to March’s demand that  I TRY SOMETHING NEW .

Here’s new.  And Weird.   Tribute Attar for the Hog Roast at the nursing home – beautiful app but I noticed it was seriously ‘ashy’ on the drydown – very offputting to the average smeller out here in the sticks, though I  was smitten – like dried rose petals thrown on a coal fire.   Anyway, I knew that wouldn’t work at the Hog Roast so I took a chance and layered it with

Rosine’s Poussiere de Rosine - since it’s got that dusty-musty smell itself, it worked beautifully.  Very oily/dusty/rosy, heady as a bottle of jammy Cabernet.

March, this would peel the skin off your nose.  Imagine ‘rose slurry’.    Bwahahahahaha!

Oddly, this was a hit with young and old alike.  The Rosine diluted Tribute’s scary elegance (and c’mon – do I really want ‘elegant’ at a Hog Roast?) And the ashy  dryness in both the Tribute and the PdR is a nice complement to the humidity.  My huge, fussy Percherons like it, too!  This might be a little ‘close’ in the City but it works really well in a slurry blender feed screw – the dusty rose and dusty corn, ya know?

But it was nothing compared to this next one:

There are perfumes that are born great….and then there are perfumes that have greatness thrust upon them.  Still adhering to March’s edict, I decided to try something I  originally dissed because I found it at a flea market for a dime:  Coty Sand and Sable (two bottles:  20 cents.  Booo-yah!)  It’s not my idea of fabulous – there isn’t an elegant note in the whole thing – but again, not everything has to be elegant – and this is  Summer in a bottle, glistening sun-baked skin, hot sand, station wagons, transistor radios – the whole shebang.  Summer 1961.  We all have a crush on the 8th grader down the street, we ride our bikes to the local pool and mom is in pedal-pushers,  puffin’ on a Chesterfield.   Spritz it and everyone within 2 blocks will be on you  like a duck on a junebug.   19 year old Breck Girl and the world is your oyster.      The musky base sort of ooked up my lunch but that’s okay.  I had Brian Wilson warbling  in my poitrine -  I could hardly be petty about that little musky bit, could I?   I’ll let you know what my big boys think.

March: Hee on the Sand & Sable, Anita!  Nope, nothing elegant in there at all, and you wouldn’t want to spill the bottle in your car, but to me it smells like my misspent youth of the late 1970s — summer at the beach, with notes of tropical oil, cotton candy, and climbing into the backseat of some boy’s Camaro, so we could … discuss Proust.

It’s been a gazillion degrees here for much of the summer — we’re in the middle of another 98-degree heatwave and I’m making gazpacho.   I’m still very much enjoying fiddling with all the Tigerflag attars, although the Majmua’s the one I’ve been wearing, with its moist notes of earth and flowers.  I realized, though, that I’ve been missing the beeswax-y smell of the beeswax base that Marla built it into before she sent it to me, and I haven’t gotten around to trying to make my own beeswax base, so I looked around on my shelves for something beeswaxy and came up with … Serge Lutens’ death-eater honey, Miel de Bois, which is something I also love wearing in this heat.   You can see where this is headed, right?  I mean, what could possibly go wrong?  So I mixed up a small vial containing mostly jojoba oil, a few drops of majmua, and a few drops of MdB, at which point the foundations of the house rumbled — oh, wait, that was only the earthquake.  Anyway, I dabbed it on (I’m talking a dab), went downstairs, and I was still fifteen feet down the hall from my daughter when she asked what perfume I was wearing.  Too much sillage?   She demanded a closer sniff and said, it smells like six things at the same time!  It keeps changing!  That’s so cool! She’s the kid who likes that uber-musky honey thing that MAC did, though, so YMMV.  I admit that just putting MdB on often feels like I’ve committed a crime, albeit a misdemeanor.  Layering it is probably a more serious offense.  Today I might throw in some Nuit de Tubereuse on top.  Do you think my nose will fall off?

Lee: Glad to see both March and Anita know how to wave their freak flags just the right amount to stay cool. My stay cool on the ladyboy side scent is – well, it’s either Nicolai’s Eau Exotique which is fruity and a little floral and elegantly simple, or Hermes Osmanthe Yunnan which gets more refreshing oolong and petals every time I wear it. Other times, the temps have dropped here a little so I no longer cling to salty for electrolytic rebalancing. Instead, it’s Timbuktu all the way. That sour flowerpower patchouli incense mashup is perfect right now. And anyways, no perfume can compete with the goddamn amazing regal lilies and heliotrope and jasmine in the garden as I type. I’m heading back out there.

Nava: Ok, since Anita’s busy “yarking” about horses and wearing attars in the height of summer and March insists on dragging out Miel de Bois in July (oy, a thousand times!), I’m sitting next to Lee and his Osmanthe Yunnan. Personally, I prefer Parfum d’ Empire’s Osmanthus Interdite, but Osmanthe Yunnan is always first runner-up in my book. I won’t repeat the three I mentioned on Friday, but the other I’d like to add is Givenchy’s new Eaudemoiselle. I tried like hell not to buy a bottle of it, but I succumbed. It’s a bit heavy right now, but inside with the a/c crankin’, it’s goooood.

Patty: I’m a little horrified at the Sand & Sables, except it is pretty great for something that people will hand to you in vats on the street.  A little like J. Lo’s Glow, perfect for summertime.  My summer faves are a couple of things I ran into while I was gone, like the Nasomatto Nuda - the perfect big-ass white floral skanky jasmine scent.  It opens as poopy jasmine (Nancy taught us this term while in Grasse), then slowly settles down into the more honeysuckle jasmine that you can wear for a much  longer period of time.  I could happily wear this the rest of summer.  I’d just intersperse it with the Micallef Shanaan – the perfect breathy incense – and Byredo Tulipe (yes, yes, I’m still ridiculously in love with it) and L’Artisan Nuit de Tuberose.  Wait, I’m over two, but those last three count as one!

For more Top Ten Summer posts, check out Now Smell This, Grain de Musc, Perfume-Smellin’ Things and Bois de Jasmin

Today we have two perfumes that couldn’t be more different.  Let’s start with Beauty – Parfums de Rosine’s newsest release, Rose Praline.  Notes of cardamom, bergamot, rose essences, Geranium, Rosen, grated chocolat, Lapsang Suchang Tea, Ambra, sandalwood, musk, cocoa make up this scent.  It’s a little bit of a departure for Rosine. I’m not sure they’ve done a rose gourmand before, have they?  Now, just as my bias, I love rose perfumes as much as March doesn’t.   But only when they are done right, and I’ve been a big fan of the Rosines for a long time because they are so darn obsessive about roses and have tried about every treatment possible.  I’m anxious for them to get to a wheaty/bready/hay rose next – I mean, they should, shouldn’t they?

But let’s look at this one instead of the one I want them to make. It goes on somewhat sweet, with that little girl beautiful dewy rose quality, slightly candied, like a sugar crystal rose or wedding cake rose… but with a tartness.  Just when I’m thinking ruh-roh, this may be too much, that crystaline quality starts fading, and I get tea and a little cocoa and chocolate rolling up, and I swear, there are moments when I think it is a Montale and some oud and chocolate is flipping around in there, but that can’t be.  The chocolate and tea are not overpowering, but has this very subtle quality that takes the sweetness down to the proper notch.  Okay, it’s still a candy rose, but one that has a nice dark chocolate and a cup of tea sitting by it for a proper scented meal.  I really like this, and I’m not sure why since it really shouldn’t be something I like, but Rosine tends to make these things usually work out for me, no matter what, and it is just sweet and lovely.  If you’re not a fan of the rose or gourmands, keep walking, but if you like either the rose or gourmands, give this a sniff.

Now let’s take a look at the beast – Social Creature’s newest creation, Frankfurt Kitchen. Made to celebrate the independence of women, I presume from the kitchen, it has notes of resins, peppermint, coffee and osmanthus.  That line-up of notes sounds pretty good.  And it is, ohmy, resiny beyond belief, with a big peppermint thrown right in the middle of it.  Those two things pretty much drown out the coffee and osmanthus, though the coffee is there if you like it burnt.  But there’s something somewhat compelling about this, even though my nose is complaining bitterly about it.  It feels much more masculine and leathery, like I’ve had my chaps on for a couple of days.  Do I get any kitchen out of this? No.  Mostly leather – rough leather with a little mint.  It’s sure not uninteresting and mellows out to something I’m pretty much compulsively sniffing.

One hand — all sweetness and confectionary light.  Other hand — leather pants with a melted peppermint in the pocket.  Oddly enough, I like them both.

Drop a comment to be entered in a drawing for a sample of each.

Patty