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

I just added a category named “Blame March”. I decided we needed one; this is all her fault.

I’d been jonesing a sniff of DKNY Pure, and March beat me to it. So, I took it upon myself to locate some, and the verdict is…BAD. Sorry March, I know you were sure I was going to like this one, but uh, no. Funeral arrangement dipped in bad vanilla. I’d almost expect something like that to come out of a bottle of Febreze, not from the woman who puts her name on two of my all-time faves: Chaos and Cashmere Mist. I was blown back on my kiester, gobsmacked, horrified; dare I say it: nauseated.

In the hunt for greener pastures, I stumbled upon, of all things, Thierry Mugler Womanity, newly ensconced at The Bay, and damned if I didn’t have the exact opposite reaction to it. You all know I am one of the staunchest haters of Angel walking the Earth, but this…this has fig in it! And salt, er, caviar! God help me, I like it, and I’m not ashamed to admit it.

Before I sat down to pen this essay, I went back and read what Robin had to say from this past May, and Pattys take from last month. Both ladies were begrudgingly positive in their opinions, but I just flat-out fell in love with the stuff. I didn’t get the sharp, overwhelming citrus that Robin did, nor did I find it overwhelmingly sweet like Patty.  I spritzed a bit on my skin, and was pleasantly surprised at how gloriously figgy it was right off the bat, with a nice bit of salt lurking in the background, courtesy of the caviar, I’m guessing, and a faint tropical vibe; almost like the woodsy/coconutty/limey-ness  of Creed’s Virgin Island Water. The bottle is every bit as creepy in person as it is in all the adverts. I don’t know what to make of those faces. The cap is actually a ring attached to a chain that snaps over the atomizer. Interesting, but nothing all that innovative.

I would classify Womanity as “kitschy” in the same vein as Virgin Island Water.  I don’t see how anyone could classify it as “sexy”, “womanly” or “seductive”. Then again, I don’t see how anyone can stand to be in the same room with a person doused in Angel. Granted, Womanity is patchouli-free, and much easier to wear than Angel. I know many would beg to differ with that, especially if you’re able to withstand the oppressiveness of summer with Angel as your armour. For that you have my enduring respect and admiration. I’m still on an all-Tylenol diet, but things are slowly improving. I’ve actually found some relief in the oddest of places: a jar of Physician’s Formula Organic Wear eye makeup remover pads. They were $19 for three jars of 60 pads at Costco, and I took a shot. They’re not all that thrilling in terms of mascara removal, but they do have the most heavenly lavender scent. So, there you have it: Womanity and lavender scented eye-makeup remover pads. I think I might need to investigate that surgery for a deviated septum.

Random Friday Musing: Has anyone tried Steam Cream yet? If you can get your hands on some, I can’t suggest it strongly enough. It’s been at BeautyHabit for a while now, and for all you MD/DC/VA girls, a store named The British Bazaar in Reston VA purportedly stocks it. It is such a wonderful, fluffy, natural all-purpose cream, and it’s packaged in the cutest metal tins. I’ve been using it on my face and hands at bed time, and the floral/herbal scent is also wonderfully soothing. Now if I can only get Womanity out of my mind… By the way, Steam Cream is only about $18 for a 2.6 oz. tin. Can’t beat that with a stick, can you?

Disclosure: Thierry Mugler Womanity was sampled at The Bay. DKNY Pure was sampled at Murale.

Sweet and savory.   Fig, Caviar.  Epic fail that will probably be a huge hit.  The bottle is super-interesting, and it’s not nearly as tragic weird looking in person. It’s got the Mugler name.  I really wanted to like it because the guys at Mane were so excited about it, and it uses their new Jungle Essence extraction.  Caviar and fig should go together in some weirdly unique way. But that they threw a gallon of Pink Sugar on top of it instead of letting the fig naturally sweeten some of the other notes mystifies me.  The caviar part – which I don’t read as caviar because that’s fishy and strong, and this is just salty – is interesting, and I kinda like it a lot, I think. It’s hard to tell in the cotton candy mess.  Think your kids snagged the caviar out of the fridge and shoved it in their Pop Rocks.

I don’t hate it, at least not at the level that I hate Angel.  But Angel, despite my loathing of it, is distinct, fully formed and lovable/hatable. Womanity isn’t nearly that offensive, and there’s a couple of moments while I’m wearing it that I think they’re onto something, and then it veers off into something else indistinct and murky and less imaginative.  Disappointing.

But that bottle.  I still can’t quite figure out whether I think  it’s the most atrocious thing I’ve ever seen or the most interesting. If only the juice inside had matched the freak factor of the bottle. I’m trying to think of other bottles that are great/interesting/freakish and the perfume inside doesn’t really come close to it.  Oriens is one.  Others?

Patty

It´s me, March, posting on Lee´s day. I know — it feels weird to me, too. But since Lee´s abandoned us taking a break from blogging, we´re rearranging the schedule slightly – I´m back to Mon/Weds., Patty´s Tues/Thurs, and Friday will be a mixed assortment of pleasures while we try various things out. This coming Friday is a group blogging effort on spring scents. Next Friday you all are evaluating Clinique Aromatics Elixir, Clinique Happy and Tommy Hilfiger Tommy Girl, as Patty discussed yesterday. Email your brief reviews of any/all of these scents to perfume dot posse at gmail dot com (using the appropriate symbols in place of “dot” and “at”). Maria also suggested another discussion of Perfumes: The Guide after more of you have had a chance to read it, and I think that´s a dandy idea. We´ll have some guest posters. If nothing else we´ll have the occasional Trashy Friday and off-topic posts. Stay tuned.

Okay, my report from the NYC Sniffa last weekend. I think it was Judith who said to me that she once met a woman who had done the Sniffa on a Saturday and run in a marathon Sunday. The woman said the Sniffa was more exhausting. Which helped explain how poleaxed I felt by 8 pm on Saturday. There were a lot of people (150ish) and – news flash – you stick 150 people in a room for sniffing, lunch, whatever, and it´s hot and noisy. I lost my voice by the time we got to the last event, just from strain from trying to talk over the din, and I still haven’t gotten it back.

My favorite part is pretty obvious – I loved meeting all the folks from the blog, including lurkers who´ve never posted but who came up and introduced themselves. I wore my rhinestone tiara in the morning, starting at breakfast, as promised for easy identification purposes. Of course, the great thing about NYC is you can run around in a tiara and nobody bats an eye. I met and hung out with so many wonderful people, including Divalano (who I will never call Divalino again!), Judith, Alyssa, Francesca, Carol, Kirsten, Chaya, old friends like Sarah, Mary, Louise and others, the Karens, some of the other fragrance bloggers … too many folks to name. I´m going to irritate all of you now by saying I think I´m not going to put the photos up. In all the chaos I am not confident I made it clear to everyone why I was taking pics, and I´m sensitive about people seeing themselves identified on here without their permission, particularly if they also feel the photo sucks. Not to put too fine a point on it. Picture a lot of sweaty, grinning, mildly crazed looking women (and a few men) crowded together sniffing their wrists. I close my eyes and remember and I can smell them from here.

I bought … nothing. I know, I know, defeating the whole economic point of the Sniffa, but oh, well. Wait, not quite true – Patty and I ended up splitting an Epices coffret from L´Artisan (I took Safran Troublant). I did my bit for the economy in other ways, though, and not naming any names, but some serious monies were spent by various gals on both scent and makeup, which is a big overlapping interest of many of the attendees. And a shout out to Kristen, email me where you got those shoes again?!? Maybe shoes aren´t boring after all…

There´s no way I can talk about everything I sniffed, so here´s what caught my attention, in no particular order -

Serge Lutens Bois de Violette has joined the exports at Bergdorf, and they handed it around, and maybe I hadn´t paid the right kind of attention before. It´s lovely – a warm, woody violet rather than the cool combo you often get. It´s simple and strange and wonderful. Chanel´s new Sycomore was just okay to me, not being a vetiver freak, but I think it was a huge hit for other folks. There was some serious spending over at Guerlain. Mona di Orio was there (Bergdorf has picked up her line) and can I just say how chic and charming and lovely she is? Another big surprise for me was the new Jo Malone Kohdo Wood Collection. JM mostly doesn´t do it for me, I don´t know why. It´s often too bitter, or dank, or something. And you can read their blurbage on the Kohdo Wood Collection but sniff-wise, don´t be looking for anything that makes you think of Japan. Lotus Blossom & Water Lily is the “day” scent and it´s a nice, pretty, inoffensive floral-aquatic, which (kill me now) maybe I´ll find myself liking in the summer, but maybe not. It´s fine. But the other one, the Dark Amber and Ginger Lily, was delicious – so delicious I threw caution to the wind and drenched myself in it. Notes are cardamom, pink pepper (of course!), ginger, jasmine, orchid, water lily, rose, black amber, white pepperwood, leather, patchouli, sandalwood, incense. It´s a creamy jasmine-amber with some spice, sensual and dark. Maybe it´s the spices and jasmine working for me, mitigating the boozy tendencies of amber that nauseate me. I couldn´t believe how much I liked this thing. Also I think it´s less than $100, which these days is, essentially, free. Finally, I tried Piguet Visa, which is a hoot. If you´re willing to get in touch with your inner Carmen Miranda, it´s got a big fat fruit note up front that somehow never manages to get overly sweet. Look, ma – you can make a fruity floral worth loving. It´s simple in a way that makes me suspicious that it´s much more complicated in structure than I´m appreciating. I feel like it´s having me on a little, if that makes sense, but it´s so clever I´m happy to play along. I wish the drydown lasted a bit longer, but maybe my nose just gave out.

I got a chance to sniff the five Thierry Mugler Miroir thingies at Saks, and to me the most compelling thing about them is the mirrored box each one comes in ($150 for 1.7oz) I have seen zero attention paid to them, have you tried any? I thought I´d like Envies with its nutty note, but no – too fresh. Secrets is a sour aldehyde-patch combo. Vanites is licorice-citrus and not me at all. Travers is allegedly tuberose but all I got was the woody masculine accord. Dis-Moi is waaay more popular than the others according to the hot-looking but extremely poorly trained SA there, who could not name a single note of any of them. All five got 3 or 4 stars from LT/TS, so they´re getting more out of them than I am. I also got a quick sniff of the new Lancome in La Collection, Peut-Etre (they had a small tester but not the bottles yet) which is French for “I have no idea but it smells like a light, somewhat powdery summer floral.” I´ll take Sikkim (or Magie), thanks… oh, wait, here´s a link to Lancome´s goofy blurb on this scent, which means “perhaps.” Here, let me quote: “She hears footsteps, opens her eyes and looks into his. She sees a new and special intensity in his gaze. And is something hidden in his hand? The moment is electric.” Snerk. Roses, lilac, iris, jasmine. Hey, has anyone noticed most of La Collection is disappearing from the website? They kept Climat and Roses, and all the rest are … gone.

The new D&G The One for men? A standard-issue inoffensive, warm, woody number I couldn´t pick out of a lineup. (I rather like the women´s.) And after its glowing review in The Guide, I retried Narciso Rodriguez again, and … nope. I still can´t smell it. Cannot smell a thing. A little alcohol, maybe. So remember that the next time you disagree with one of my reviews. Think to yourself, but this is from the gal who can´t even smell Narciso.

Mugler Miroir fragrances: lexpress.fr

March