Whew!  2011 is nearly over and I still don’t have my Escape limo and I have NO idea where Woody Harrelson is right now.   Better hustle!!!  But – we still have a few days so let’s take a look back at the  best/worst/most intriguing of 2011.  Most of this will be perfume, as it is The Perfume Posse, not Anita’s Playpen…but save room for a couple of weird inclusions, just because I Am In That Kinda Mood.  We are also not limiting this list (or your comments) to stuff brought forth in 2011 – rather, we’re interested in what piqued your interest this past year – some may have transported you with delight, some might’ve brought up your lunch!  Ya nebber know.

So, without further ado, here’s what grabbed us in 2011.

Anita’s picks:

Cartier les Heurres Fougueuse.  I fell in love with this the moment I sniffed it.  Then, inexplicably, I fell OUT of love with it – I think I got scared.  Then I just…gave in.  And swooned as over the course of the year it wrapped its honeyed, monied silken tendrils of sun-kissed hay around my soul….sigh.  Oh, Mathilde…..every time I wear this my step lightens just a little.. Liz Zorn Centennial.  This is an offshoot of her Historical Chypre, which I fell in love with (and bought nearly every drop she had) during the Chicocoa Scentsation.  The perfect peachy chypre, it is the essence of everything I love about Liz’s work;  I’m praying she brings it back soon. Chanel Coco (the original).  Blame March.  I wondered what y’all were yarking on about.  Now I know.  Amouage Epic Bath Gel and Body Creme. (not too far behind on this one, right?   I know it’s a 2009 but I wasn’t able to make it to the Dubai launch -previous plans, don’tcha know…)…anyhoo, 2011 made it New To Musette.   I just might make it through the winter (and the coming Apocalypse) with this.  I’m going to have to send my water bills to Christopher Chong, though.  Or His Majesty.  Whichever one is most likely to pay.

Alahine.  Epic FAIL.  Can you believe it?  Neither can I.  I waited 2 years to sniff that and when I did……..nothing.  I mean, it’s nice.  But what in the hell are you people smelling that transports you so?  March can’t even SPELL it, she is so in love.  She’s all ‘Alahiiiiiiiine’.  Wish I could have what she’s having.  sigh.

BestChowDiscoveries: Trader Joe’s Chicken Shu Mai.  For all I know these are made with chicken feet and beaks.  But isn’t that the best part? Sonoma Farm (from Chicago, go figure) Hot Pickled Garlic (that’s not what it’s called but that’s what it is ).   The website is seemingly gone and their stuff is hard to find (and when you do, at Food Fairs, etc, well, let’s just say they are not Good With the Publick.  But!  these (and the Brussels Sprouts) are worth the slog. Perfect in everything and yummy alone.  But I suggest you actually BE alone when you eat this stuff.  You will be comin’ in HOT for awhile…

Movies:  I hate going to the movies so I’m usually months behind everybody else.  And I admit to being Cranky Old Bat about the sheer volume of crap that gets released every month – there must be a whole lotta money needs launderin’, is allz I got to say (don’t believe me?  take a look at this 2011 list  (and I’m not even that fussy – I love blow’emups and Tony Scott!).  I did brave the plex for Contagion.   3 of us in the theatre.  Hey, I could get used to that!  El O hated the movie.  I thought it was quietly horrifying.  I also finally got around to The King’s Speech - hey I said I was behind! Why didn’t the gen pop like this film?  I think Geoffrey Rush could read the phone book and I would be entranced.   The funny, touching scene with him and Colin Firth when Lionel parks himself in St. Edward’s Chair…  Pitch-perfect.

March says: I went back and looked at the release dates of new-ish perfumes I enjoyed, and … they all came out in 2010.  So this year has been kind of a dud for me, in terms of new releases.  The one exception is Bottega Veneta, a less-powdery alternative to the new iteration of Cuir de Lancome, if you like the smell of expensive handbags.  Mostly I’ve been enjoying old favorites gathering dust in my collection, including Alahine, Jubilation 25, Coco, Tauer Orris, and Lutens’ Fleurs de Oranger.  I can think of worse things.  Anita sez:  that’s Alahiiiine! to you, li’l Missy.

Patty chimes in: This has been a weirdly great year for me in finding new loves.  From Prada Candy to the new JAR Bed of Roses, to Flowerbomb Extrait to a never-smelled bottle of the now-discontinued Lorenzo Villoresi Ylang-Ylang I found in my closet (yes, everyone should have closets like mine where you find a box full of perfume you forgot you had) that has sent me to the moon (um, see yesterday’s post for histrionics over this), it’s been a mixed bag of great smells.

I still love Bertrand Duchafour because he’s prolific and great, and I know for a fact there is more great stuff coming in 2012, so he gets my vote for Perfumer of the Year? Decade?  Oh, wait, we are two years in a new decade, it’s too early.

Ann’s Picks:

MDCI’s La Belle Helene: Up until this baby, no way,  no how was I ever going into pear territory again. Annick Goutal’s Petite Cherie went sour on me in record time and too many cheap pear body products left me shuddering. Until a sweet Posse swapper sent me a sample of La Belle, and one day, feeling brave, I said, “Oh, what the heck!” and put it on. Wowza! Now this is a pear I can wear. On me, it starts out a little bright, but true to the fruit,  and later, deepens, getting burnished down to a slightly gourmand (is that chocolate I smell?) soft oriental. It has a touchable, almost suedelike vibe to it, not unlike SL’s Daim Blond. It’s almost as if her gloves got left behind in the pear orchard, instead of atop a bushel basket of apricots.

Maison Martin Margiela Untitled: The fashion minimalist in me (I’ve always loved designers such as Zoran and Ronaldus Shamask) coveted this cool, paint-dipped bottle long before I had a chance to sniff the juice. And what lovely green juice it is: A hit of bitter green galbanum a la Cristalle segues beautifully into some musky, almost smoky incense, and thankfully, not an ashtray in sight.

Parfumerie Generale’s Indochine: This has turned out to be one of my favorite comfort “blankies” this winter. It reminds me a bit of Kenzo’s Amour (perhaps the thanaka wood that both share) but to my nose, the PG is richer, more creamy, dreamy and woody. This in a body cream would be nothing short of heaven in a jar. Its stablemate, Cadjmere, is another fave, although it gets a little cheeky with me if I do more than dab it.

Bottega Veneta: This lovely is helping to make a leather lover  out of me, despite my earlier misgivings about the note. BV’s easy elegance just coos quiet sophistication and makes me feel like a million bucks. And it doesn’t hurt that the bottle’s a thing of beauty. Now, if we can just get our hands on some MPG’s Cuir Fetiche to try …

And here’s a wonderful scentiment   from Tom, which we all share!!!

I’m doing my “best of” scent-wise on PST, so I’ll content myself with with celebrating a different best here: YOU GUYS!  That’s right!  I want to toast all of you out there, fellow bloggers, commenters and readers.  In the last several years of blogging, reading, learning and meeting people I can honestly state that I have never met a more warm, funny, intelligent and giving group of people.  YOU are the best of 2011 or any other year and I wish you all the best in the future.

For more looks back at 2011 please visit  Perfume-Smellin’ Things, Bois de Jasmin, Now Smell This and Grain de Musc.

First apologies, it’s been one of those days.  Cooking this afternoon, then rushing to glass fusing class, and that left not a lot of time for writing.  Glass fusing, I’m making tiles for my remodeled bathroom.  Well, I just didn’t really love anything out there, so decided to make my own tiles. I got the idea from Paloma in “le Herisson.”  She draws squares on her wall, and every day she draws something new in one square, and her wall is filled with them.  I don’t have that kind of time for my sink backsplash and need to do something a little more patterned but incredibly funky (the set pattern I thought I’d do is about to be tossed out the window because I just can’t do symmetrical, I hate it, it hates me, so this is gonna be jumbled up mess of tile, but no one will make the mistake of thinking I don’t love it when they see it), but I think maybe I can do something with another wall where people make their own tile designs over time, and eventually that wall tells a story about life and people, even if you don’t know what the story is.

I’ve been sniffing on Serge Lutens de Profundis for the last week or so, waffling on what I think of it.  Inspired by death?  This may be a strange way to feel about it anywhere but amongst you guys, who I know understand, but I like that.  I’ve always loved spending time in cemeteries, it is peaceful, the sign of time rolling on, churning you and your life and hopes and dreams under.  Chrysanthemum, violet, earth, green.

I really can’t tell you what it smells like as far as notes. The mums are beautifully fierce, smelling a little of decay.  Hey, you know, in our world, it’s a good thing.

What I think of when I hear de Profundis is, of course, Latin -> Catholic -> Seven Penitential Psalms. I don’t know a lot of Latin, but what I do know is churchy Latin.  All the references I’ve read are to Baudelaire for this scent, but I’m just ignoring that and skipping right to the original de Profundis since it speaks to me and Baudelaire put me to sleep.  Oh, hush, I’m a literary cretin, I know it, and I’m perfectly okay with it.  “De profundis clamavi ad te, domine.  Domine, exaudi vocem meam.”   Out of the depths I have cried to you, O Lord.  Lord, hear my voice.

Is this scent de Profundis in the broader meaning, crying out of the depths?  It is full of pain and longing for hope, supplication to be heard, seen, acknowledged.  Every person wants their life to have meant something, even a small something – wishing all they have done that’s been ugly and small did little damage, hoping that the good they have done had some value.

It is a long, dark hallway we walk through life, sometimes briefly shot through with brilliant light and joy, but too often a trudge to the end.  And everything ends.  At my end, this scent can meet me.   Just a tiny bit bitter, still carrying some of the light it has gone through, pungent, slightly decaying into earth.

I just don’t know if I like it.  Maybe it’s just the same ambivalence I have with death.

So I do have a little of this, yeah!!!  But not a lot. Boo!! Just 2 samples available for a giveaway to two commenters.  So drop a comment in, talk to me about whatever you want, this scent, do we need a death scent? A favorite book? Up to you!

Patty

The name translates loosely as “angry carnation”.  I suppose one could look at it that way, in the way that one could indeed refer to a chihuahua as “barking fiercely”.  I’s a matter of perspective.  If you’re a small rodent it might be terrifying; to a doberman it must seem like comic over-reaching.

Coming from a house known for olfactory fireworks that have sent people running, the name seems the latter.  Especially since on me the scent is nice.  Just nice.  It’s carnation all right, starting with a dainty burst of pepper then adding in ylang-ylang.  It doesn’t do very much the progression is fairly linear to the slightly woody finish and it’s not there for more than a few hours on my skin.  If you’d handed it to me in another bottle I’d never think it was a Lutens at all, certainly not one that’s “a burst of fragrant spikes” that’s “fraught with anger”.  It’s the Lutens for people who don’t like Lutens, and I’ll pass.

$140 at Aedes and LuckyScent, shortly to be at Barneys as well.  I received my sample from Luckyscent.

Sorry, guys and gals, I had a longer post planned for today, but one crisis, and then
another (cracked oil pan in my car), prompted a slight change of plan.
So in the interest of brevity, here’s a fun fantasy post for Wednesday.
If you had to limit yourself to only one perfume house and could wear only three scents from that house, which would you choose?
I know there’ll be some Guerlain lovers weighing in, as well as fans of Chanel, Serge, etc.
As for me, it would be tough, but with price and availability (location-wise at least) no object, that made
it a little easier. I also took into consideration the weather/seasons to ensure that I had a great scent to
wear no matter what time of year it was.
All things considered, I think I’ll go with these three from Le Labo:
My beloved sunshine-bright Tubereuse 40 (I know you guys are sick of hearing about it); the yummy
warm vanilla incense of Vanille 44; and the elegant, calming simplicity of Gaiac 10.
Can’t wait to hear what your picks are!

Carnation dressed in worn leather over a white lace thong and teddy, perched on stiletto leather booties and rides a Harley custom painted in bright pink.

First, pop over to Grain de Musc and read Carmen’s review and the background on the carnation and Serge’s ideas for this creation, most  — okay, all of which I didn’t know.  I’ve always loved the little carnation – its spiciness, persistence, the dogged way it permeates everything around it.  That such a dainty, small thing can scent a room or a garden in such a big way.  It was always that clump or two of dianthus I had growing that just overpowered every other scent coming from that section of the flower garden.  Not by brute force, but by filling your senses until that’s all you smell. Sorta  like looking at pictures of pink Harleys  for this post (none of them worked) and thinking – Hey!  I want one!!!

Serge doesn’t not make some dainty little carnation perfume at all. This smacks you over the head with pepper and spice, unfurling into a gale force wind.  Notes of clove, nutmeg, cayenne, black pepper, pink pepper, and woods are the main notes.  Bellodgia with spurs.  I’m trying to tell you what it is, but it’s hard. I do not think it will be well-loved, though I’m completely enchanted with how familiar, yet foreign it smells.  It’s  not pretty or floral.  It’s a surreal landscape of carnation.  This is the Serge I like, weirdly uncompromising.

Hey, I love it on me, I don’t care what you guys think.  This scent is about contrasts between what is ordinary/familiary and what jars your senses.  Of course we’ll give some away.  4 samples up for grabs for four commenters.

Winners from last week’s draw for the Tauer Pentachord samples:  mirandajane and Kelly.  Just click over on the left on the Contact Us, send me a note reminding me what you won and your address, and I’ll give you a quick got it so you know I got the e-mail, and then I’ll get them sent out to you!

Of the “weird” Serges, and I don’t include MKK in that anymore, which is your favorite?  Anticipating this year’s releases or no?

Patty