Once upon a time Patty and March were perfume virgins. We just didn’t know how to do it. Where to start, you know? The ladies tried to fix us up with Lancome, and they tried to set us up with Estee, but it didn’t work out. March’s best friend loved Cristalle, but Cristalle hated her, so that never went anywhere. We made some mistakes. Flirted with Paris and Giorgio, but nothing much happened. You get the picture.

It’s funny looking back on those days and realizing how naive we were. Now we’ve turned pro. We’ve been caressed by Guerlain, wooed by Malle, bitch-slapped several times by Caron. Serge has suggested things that would have disgusted us not so long ago, and now we just sigh and say, oooooooooooohhhh. That’s a new one.

Perfume 101

We’ll leave this one up with a permanent link, and dump in here the relevant section from a previous post on where to get samples, so if you read this intro before, just skip ahead to the new stuff, here goes:

Unless you’re richer than God, the easiest way to sample a lot of fragrances is to buy or swap samples, not full bottles. But where?

When we first wrote this in Spring 2006, eBay was a great place to start: eBay had samples of rare, discontinued, vintage or non-export fragrances that you probably weren’t going to find anywhere else. But they kicked all the decanters off in Summer 2007, so you have to look around more. Four of the biggest eBay sellers including yours truly Patty got together and opened a website, The Perfumed Court, featuring tons of samples. There are many other sellers as well, check the link on the left for Sample and Decant Sellers. We haven’t run into a decant or sample seller yet that wasn’t a complete perfume nut and good on customer service, though we suppose there are some out there just by law of averages.
Department stores and getting samples there can be difficult, but usually if you buy something or cultivate one of the SAs, it works best.

You can buy samples from a number of online niche perfume stores like Perfume Shoppe, B-glowing, Aedes, Lacremebeauty, or Luckyscent, for nominal amounts of money; some of the niche perfumers also have their own sample programs.

MUA, Basenotes and Perfume of Life have a section for swapping and active perfume talk forums. If you have have a bottle or two of something decent and don’t mind the details associated with swapping — decanting and wrapping and mailing and keeping track — that is an excellent way to sample many scents for just the cost of postage and some decanting supplies. You’ll also learn a lot by reading and interacting in any one or more of those forums.

Where to start? Just start anywhere. Pick something you’ve read about. Or sample your way through a particular line, if you’ve found one scent there that really appeals. Or pick a note you like (rose, incense, tobacco, whatever.)

We don’t want to frighten the horses, so this is where we think you should start in your sniffage to decide what you like and what direction you might like to explore further. With a couple of noted exceptions, we find these fragrances worthwhile without being scarily challenging to the nosebuds. Is this a biased list, weighted toward niche product and reflecting scents we like and neglecting things we don’t? Well, sure. So what?

You Should Smell:

• Classics you might not have smelled before, because this is what 100% high-octane gorgeousness smells like - Chanel Bois de Iles, Caron Parfum Sacre or Nuits de Noel, Patou Joy.
• Leather, because leather is such a great non-sweet note that adds depth to fragrance - Chanel Cuir de Russie, Serge Lutens Daim Blond, Caron Tabac Blond, CB I Hate Perfumes Russian Leather.
• Incense, for the same reason - L’Artisan Passage d’Enfer or CdG Avignon
• Citrus — Guerlain Fleurs de Cedrat or Vitalisant, Carthusia Mediterraneo, Santa Maria Novella Eva.
• Musk — Serge Lutens Clair de Musc, Narciso Rodriguez for Her, SJP Lovely
• Tea — one of the Bvlgaris (Verte — the one that launched a thousand imitations, Blanc, Rouge) L’Artisan The Pour Une Ete
• Amber — Hermes Hermessences Ambre Narguile (P - Yes, it’s the Nazgul, but if you are going to find out if you love amber, go with one of the best ones out there, and this is it), Youth Dew Amber Nude

Florals with an emphasis on a single note, to see if that is a flower you’re digging:

• Orange - L’Artisan Fleur d’Oranger (P - no sense playing around with this, the L’Artisan is the best one available, so then you can measure all others against it) or Serge Lutens Fleurs d’Oranger (advanced beginner, due to cumin)
• Iris — tricky for beginners due to metallic strangeness. Less challenging scents: Acqua di Parma Iris Nobile, Hermes Hiris (advanced beginner)
• Rose - one of the Rosines, Creed Fleur de The Rose Bulgare
• Violet — Laura Tonatto E. Duse, Guerlain Meteorites (dirt cheap and cheerful!), Annick Goutal Violette, or Molinard Violette if you have a high sugar tolerance
• White florals — Serge Lutens Un Lys or Datura Noir, Malle’s Lys Mediterranee, Piguet’s Fracas, Marc Jacobs or Marc Jacobs Blush (very accessible, inexpensive and beautiful)

Others:

• Chypre, for that weird, mossy groove with its iterations - Coco Mademoiselle, Guerlain Mitsouko (warning — advanced beginner, try hard, it’s like your first bite of asparagus), Guerlain Sous le Vent because it is The Bomb (Yes, it’s new and hard to get and all that, but this is a chypre that is complex but with great, broad appeal), Hermes 24, Faubourg or Patou 1000
• “Virtual Reality” frags that take you on a journey through a series of notes - Malle En Passant, L’Artisan Tea for Two, many of CB I Hate Perfumes (Russian Caravan Tea, Black March, Mr. Hulot’s Holiday, Burning Leaves, In The Library… check their website and salivate)
• Smell Because We Said So — they’re beautiful, unusual, and your life will be richer: Annick Goutal (Hadrien, Folavril, Passion, Petite Cherie, Mandragore, knock yourself out), Guerlain Apres L’Ondee, Bond No. 9 Chinatown (nothing else smells quite like it), Ormonde Jayne Woman (that OJ base! sigh), Donna Karan Cashmere, Gucci by Gucci EDP
• A Masculine, because we don’t believe in “men’s scents” - L’Instant Pour Homme, Arpege Pour Homme, Hermes Bel Ami, Rosine Rose Pour Homme, Guerlain Derby, Givenchy Pi
• If You Like Things Really Sweet: Flowerbomb, Caron Narcisse Noir, Guerlain L’Heure Bleue, Molinard Tendre Friandise

But mostly, remember that, like Barbies, There are No Rules in Perfume. You like what you like, you don’t have to explain it by dissecting the notes and comparing and contrasting the composition, or you can do that if that puts bubbles in your bathtub. Perfume is personal and for fun. It makes us remember and sigh and swoon and turn up our nose. How we react to a perfume is unique, individual and unpredictable. So if you don’t love that 50-year-old classic and think it smells like the backside of a frog, please don’t be shy saying so. If you adore Brittney’s or Paris’ newest creation, don’t hide it! Stress is for work, tests and teenager raising, not for perfume.

I’ve been sniffing my samples of Guerlain’s new releases, Sous Le Vent and Plus Que Jamais, from Patty (thanks, P!)

As I expected, I loved one and thought the other was just okay.

In one of life’s little surprises, I got the order wrong, however.

Sous le Vent has been described as “dry,� “herbal� and “green,� words that ring my warning bells. Green frequently means vetiver, which smells awful on me, or some other note that basically smells like (sorry) urine. Green can also be too bitter – the in-your-face pugnacity of Balmain Vent Vert, or the greens, galbanum and clary sage in Ma Griffe that send me screaming out the door.

So I was hoping, at best, to tolerate Sous le Vent (which translates as leeward or upwind, according to my French dictionary.) Instead, I adore it. I’m going to crib here from the estimable Octavian on 1000 Fragrances, who explains the scent so beautifully:

“Sous le Vent was named after some islands around Reunion, the source of beautiful ylang-ylang and vanilla essences used in all Guerlain fragrances. This chypre is rather austere and dry with vanilla and amber without beeing sweet, sticky or creamy. It has some exquisite powderiness (not the cosmetic one) but that suggested by a delicate granulated sand. It has some Amber83 and a little indolic nuance.�

Let me go out on a limb here and say it reminds me a bit of Djedi – it is clearly a first cousin, with a dollop of Djedi’s haunting spice note but without Djedi’s supreme strangeness. (For one thing, it doesn’t remind me of meat stew with cardamom.) It is spicy/sweet chypre rather than green, and it is strong but not overly assertive. Yes, it is dry, but dry like the high desert of New Mexico in June rather than the surface of Mars. It doesn’t remind me of any of the rest of the Guerlains, except at its base. Because waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy down there at the bottom, after you’ve danced the fandango with the vanilla and amber and the floral notes, that “indolic nuance” is lurking there, waiting to pinch your fanny. This thing? Is pure heaven.

The Plus Que Jamais … I am not going to rag on, because, objectively, it is gorgeous. I wrote a small review earlier but ultimately I felt I needed a bigger sample I could really soak myself with in order to make an informed decision. Well, I’ve been soaking, and my decision is … this is a Guerlain perfect for those people (like Patty) who aren’t huge Guerlain Whores in the first place.

Remember, PQJ is the scent humorist Gene Weingarten flipped over as he was searching for a fragrance for his wife that didn’t make him think of, as he put it, “streetwalking skanks.” So. The closest comparison I can make is Apres L’Ondee without its floral sweetness, and with a much richer creaminess, and that is high praise. PQJ is tasteful in the extreme, elegant without aloofness, a very expensive-smelling skin scent that is the sort of thing you’d be wanting to wear to bed with your sweetie. It could be described with words like creamy, delicately musky, gentle, polished, expensive, silky, smooth … you get the picture. It is a sublime, unadorned composition. It is the most expensive cashmere you can buy.

But – here’s the rub – I don’t buy my Guerlain for subtle, expensive simplicity. Give me the baroque strangeness of Mitsouko and Vol de Nuit, the animalic fug of Jicky, the bite-my-ass bouquet of Chamade, the floriental sucker-punch of L’Heure Bleue, the sultry, shocking rose of Nahema, the … I could go on and on, you get the idea. Who the hell wants a subtle Guerlain? Well, Gene Weingarten did, and maybe you do too. Patty thinks it is breathtaking, supporting my theory. If you have been trying (and failing) to find a Guerlain to love with, this one’s for you.

So don’t let me stop you from buying that tasteful cashmere. But I’ll stick with the Pucci print shift, the leather shorts and and the fishnet stockings, thanks.

Reunion Island volcano, anytravels.com

Elodina perdita miskin, ento.csiro.au

 

Perfume.com is offering a 10% discount to all PPPP readers. Just click on the link on the left. It’s good any time, no minimum value, no limit on uses.  Use the code PERFUMEPOSSE at checkout to get your 10% off. 

On our way to the orthodontist’s today, my 16-year-old son, Harry, and I stopped in at the grocery store to get some lunch and pick up some sandwich fixins.  Quick visit to the deodorant since we were both out, meandered around the end, and stumbled into the Axe display, and it had something on it called snake peel?  Well, we finally figured out that’s the new name for their new shower gel, snake peel.  Whatever.  We had a couple of minutes there where we thought that was the new name of one of their scents.  ‘Tis a shame it wasn’t.

 As I was meandering off, Harry picked up the Axe Unlimited and hit me on the back with an Axe spritz. You know, like Axe was a weapon of some sort. As we walked over to the deli, me with my Axe wound on my back, I realized how true that is.

 From the Axe Effect website – “When you wear your favorite scent of Axe shower gel, body spray, anti-perspirant or deodorant on any of your male hot zones (a.k.a. your body), your new and improved male musk is released into the atmosphere, quickly reaching nearby females. This is exciting, as quasi-scientific research has proven women like men who smell good.”

Based on my quasi-scientific nose, having to wear that crap on my back for the better part of the day, I do agree that women like men who smell good, but this isn’t one of those things that I would classify as smelling good in a way that would be improving the male musk or the feminine ardor.  My oldest son bought the hype of this stuff and wore Axe for a while.  Seems like a lot of young men have.  You know, a good personality, sense of humor and a dash of Hermes Bel Ami would work so much better.  Review summary:  Should be used only when you’ve been sweating all day, can’t get into a shower and need emergency smell care for the ten minutes it will take you to get home and wash that crap off  never.

 Marie Antoinette, the new movie from Sofia Coppola, is getting panned in France.  TomKat may be on the rocks. Woo-hoo!!  Free Katie!!!

Well, my wintertime reality fare is dunzo – The Amazing Race, Survivor, American Idol.  I really had warmed up to Katherine by the end, no matter how boring I thought she was.  Much as I love Taylor, I just can’t see him being an “American Idol.”  He’s fun and cute and has a very winning personality and some mad singing skills, but idol?  Um, no.

What I’m really looking forward to is All-Star Big Brother 7 starting July 6, and we (yes, I’m counting you, even if you don’t watch it, to help me vote to get my faves in) get to vote for six of the guests to come back from past seasons starting June 21. Now, I’m not just a normal fan of this show, and I really hate myself for loving it as much as I do. Yes, I’m one of those that watches the 24/7 live feeds off and on (just when the recaps sound like it’s getting interesting). Ever have one of those things you do that you feel not just a little pervy about, but you do it anyway because it’s just too much fun?  Yeah, but I can keep my clothes on for this.   So if you’re looking for good recapping or BB sites to follow the fun on, try these:

• Joker’s Updates
• TV Clubhouse
• James Rhine Big Brother 7
• The always excellent TVGasm, where even if you don’t watch these shows, the recap will make you laugh

Now, is this show trashy?  You betch, and I love me some trash.

And this is kind of fun, shows you the most recent searches on the internet.  Little scary too in just how pedestrian most searches are.

Am I the last person on the face of the earth to discover Grey’s Anatomy?  What a great show. I hate Dr. McDreamy. Guy pursues girl when he is not even divorced, then keeps longing for her.  Cute, but a creep, the kind of guy you definitely don’t want your daughter ever running into.  George, on the other hand is seriously hot, but this hairdo?  No, no, no, you can never get your hair cut like that again.  That is hideous and still sorta hot in a more kinky way.

 

Can we talk about Lost just briefly?  I know I really shouldn’t be watching this show off and on and then watch the finale, but WTF?  The Pearl hatch was studying the other hatch, but it turns out the Pearl hatch was really the fake hatch, and then it blew up via magnetic kaboom, except maybe it didn’t and what is up with Libby? Is she behind all of this?

And go look at this page and tell me the results aren’t rigged. Clay Aiken is the top search on E! Online, and Elliott Yamin has 78% of the vote in the “Which American Idol runner-up’s album would you buy.”  Elliott had some pipes, at least for the 10 seconds I stayed awake and listened when he came on.  Yawn.  Clay Aiken?!?!? And what was with his hair on Wednesday?  Dis-as-ter. 

 Perfume? Oh, yeah, sorry!   Comment here and let me know you’d like to be in the drawing for a sample of Plus que Jamais and Sous le Vent. I’ll have my dog, Buddy, help me get a winner from the entries and announce the winner next week sometime, probably Wednesday!

Hi!

 Criminy, my mind is going, I totally forgot about a post for today.  Finals for youngest son this week, getting electrician out here and sprinkler guy and orthodontist appointment, somehow I slipped a cog and a post for today.

 So… I decided to sniff something March gave me that I’m trying to figure out why she didn’t wrap in hazardous waste wrappings inside of an airtight tube.  Annick Goutal Fier. 

During the summer in Kansas, there’s a lot of construction work on the roads and a lot of oil wells, especially in Ellis County.  Why my parents failed to buy their farm in Ellis County, with a big pool of oil under it just irritates me still. I really always wanted to be filthy stinking oil rich.  They drilled for oil like four times on our farm and came up dry each time, and I always cried when my parents broke the news. They drilled one last time after we sold the farm, while we still retained the oil and gas rights for ten years… nada, dry hole, bupkus.  Anyway…we’d drive down those two-lane highways in the summer, no AC in the car, with the windows down, and get stopped by the flagman, waiting for the lead car to finish pulling the other lane through what was now a one-lane highway where we had to take turns driving down it.  As we started down that one lane, with the windows down, 100 degrees, freshly laid asphalt and tar on the road, with the oil wells pumping on either side, that’s exactly the smell of Annick Goutal Fier.  No fruity happiness shows up later to save it or me from pronouncing it a total scrubber.  So unless this has hundred dollar bills under the cap, which is what the smell of oil and tar should have, it is definitely not for me.

 And since I am so unprepared and late, and while I hate to ever do business on the blog, I do want to offer this to anyone who is a reader. If you ever are wanting a decant of something I sell on eBay, don’t order it from there, just let me know via the Contact Us button on the left hand side, and I’ll give you a 10% discount on all orders any time.  Again, I can only do that if you do NOT order it through eBay. *cringe* end of businessy thing.

En Passant triggered my thinking about Perfume Genius.  For the purposes of my list, I defined Perfume Genius as a combination of notes, or a scent effect, that makes me stop in my tracks and go:  whoa!  That right there is pure fricking genius.  
You will notice the conspicuous absence of Houses of Genius – I’m not talking about the brilliance of the Guerlinade or the god-like qualities of Christopher Sheldrake (although I can’t help but notice that Olivia Giacobetti is behind half of my genius scents.)  I’m talking about individual great scent ideas that rocked me.  By the way, that does not mean these are fragrances I love the most, or even wear much.  They are just … genius. 

• Frederic Malle’s En Passant – we just can’t leave this alone, can we?  To borrow from Patty, this is Perfume Portraiture at its finest.  Walk down the road with Olivia Giacobetti, past the bakery with the faint smell of baking bread, past the cucumber garden, past the wet fence and the lilacs in the rain ….
• L’Artisan Tea for Two – another one by Giacobetti and my winter comfort scent.  Not a summer tea like one of the Bvlgaris.  This is lapsang, leather and smoke.  The olfactory equivalent of your favorite armchair, a cashmere throw, a fine cup of tea and a great book in front of the fire on a rainy day.
• Parfums de Rosine Rose Ecume – I seem to like rose better when it’s mixed with something.  This is beach rose and salt water.  Salty rose?  Pure genius.
• S-Perfume 100% Love (original or {MORE}).  Something that sounds nasty and is actually perfect, like sushi.  I am going to pull a quote from my recent post: you can parse the smells (yes, there is the rose, there is the chocolate, here comes the incense) but they meld together so beautifully and seamlessly that it is easy to imagine 100% Love as something God thought up but just didn’t get around to creating.
• Wickle Chestnut & Vetiver.  The olfactory equivalent of the One-Hit Wonder.  Ten years from now, no one will remember this.  Is it Great Perfumery?  Well, not really.  But these two smells were made for each other; hence, it is Perfume Genius.

Patty’s Perfume Genius (March and I share some of these that we agree on)

• Wickle Chestnut & Vetiver.  Agreed, this thing is so simple, but the most delightful, happy smell.  I would have never put them together on my own, but once joined, they just shout how brilliant it is.
• Frederic Malle En Passant. For all the reasons that I have repeated over and over.  This is such an unexpected combination, that at first you just shake your head, and then it makes you wistful while laughing.
• Ormonde Jayne Ormonde Woman.  Using hemlock just gives this perfume such a distinctive note.  Her whole base in all of her perfumes are ones you can pick out anywhere. It’s like a great singing voice, it may not be technically the best voice, but it is distinctive, like Bob Dylan or Karen Carpenter or Bruce Springsteen. You would recognize it anywhere. That is genius, the thing that is set apart as unique and not like anything else.
• Shiseido Feminite du Bois.  I’m not even sure I like this perfume all that much most of the time, but other times I adore it.  Who knew you could throw in a bunch of fruit and some woody notes and come up with something that would be the mother of about ten more perfumes, each distinctive and special.  This is like the Yardbirds of perfume — you may not love it, but it set up so many other distinctive things that would spin out of it, you can’t help but admire the creative genius behind it.
• Hermes Hermessences.  Three of these are what I think of as the pinnacle of subtle and accomplished perfumery, Rose Ikebana, Vetiver Tonka and Osmanthe Yunnan. Even though I do not love Poivre Samarkande, I have to include it as well because it likewise is unique and subtle. The finessed hand of Jean Claude Ellena in these just make me curl my toes in delight. I’d have JCE’s babies.  These I think of as the Four Quartets (well, three that I love, one that I admire, and one that… well, you’ll see, and that makes five, but I don’t like math to get in the way of a good parable), each can stand alone perfectly well, but it is when you look at them in total that it is clear how unique and beautiful they are.  There is an exception…

(March) –Lifetime Achievement Award:  L’Artisan Passage d’Enfer – Incense is one of my favorite notes in fragrance.  It tends to add weight and a solid base – it is austere, serious, meditative, dark, mysterious, smoky.  CdG Avignon is a prime example.  But Giacobetti (again!) did something brilliant and completely original in terms of the weight, development and tonal variation of this one.  Passage is shot with light – it is buoyant.  (I have decided calling it The Gates of Hell is some sort of ironic joke.  It is about as far from hell as you can get.)  It is one of the very few things in my regular rotation.  In addition, it is my favorite fragrance to layer with: it creates depth with light fragrances, subtracts sugar from sweet fragrances, it adds a gorgeous sheen to almost any uncomplicated floral. I cannot imagine my perfume life without a bottle.

(Patty) — Lifetime Achievement Award:  Guerlain Mitsouko.  I’m not able to wear this one that often, but the complexity and depth and uniqueness of this perfume is just breathtaking. It is the one perfume in this world that I insist everyone should smell because how you react to it is as unique and different as the perfume itself is. There is no easy classification for this, though it is a chypre, it is just wildly different and thematic, and this round peg should never be jammed into a square hole. I know, I know, it is a round peg in a square hole, but then that’s a cliche, and Mitsouko is no cliche.
 
Of course, then there must be Evil Genius – fragrances that I can recognize the brilliance or artistry of that I just cannot stand:

(March’s)

• The Carons – all of them.  Urn, classic, vintage, menthol, ultra-light 100, etc.  I greatly respect the artistry of the house, and I keep looking for one that doesn’t make my face squinch up like Bill the Cat’s.  I suspect there is a Caron base, and it’s something I can only admire from a reasonable distance… like the next solar system.  The only one I didn’t completely loathe is Aimez-Moi, a sweet violet and probably the least Caron-ish of the Carons, but even that I wouldn’t wear if you gave me a bottle.   (Patty, I am so, so sorry.  Please don’t hate me for my idiocy.) Editor P — Bitch. ( 
• Serge Lutens Miel de Bois and/or Borneo 1834.  Let’s give Serge an A for Abominable on these.  The MdeB is really just the most amazing honey after four or five hours.  Of course, you’ll be dead by then, because the ammonia vapors will have killed you.  And Borneo – wow.  Earning my rare Rasputin’s Armpit Award for Tenacity.   A fragrance I find both brilliant and completely unwearable, the same way many (normal) people feel about my beloved Etro Messe de Minuit (moldy books?  What moldy books?!)
• POTL Luctor et Emergo – I get none of the goodies – no white flowers, no resinous incense, no woods.  It is instant Play-Doh – let’s call it the Play-Doh-nic Ideal.  Maybe I’ve spent too many hours picking Play-Doh out of our carpets and upholstery (it is now an official banned substance at Chez Marchlion) but it’s a smell I hate only slightly less than Borneo.
• Apothia Velvet Rope – A great idea: Eau de Nightclub – vanilla, vermouth, vodka, grapefruit, tobacco.  Reality: on me it is a drugstore floral so lame and laughable it makes those Escada summer crap scents look edgy.  Even the dreaded Cigarette Butt note would be a welcome addition.
• Frederic Malle Parfum de Therese.  A brilliant creation that, if it is your thing, is as stunning as En Passant.  And let it be your thing, because it is certainly not my thing, never was, never will be, get that thing away from me, it smells like cilantro, urine, leather and unwashed nether parts.  Pure Evil Genius.

(Patty’s)

• … Hermessence Ambre Narguile, aka “The Nazgul.”  A sweet confection of amber and honey and goo that vaguely reminds me of caramel — caramel from the depths of Mordor, made by the evil hands of orcs.  I can sniff this and realize how completely unique and wonderful it is, as long as the cap stays on it and it is kept in a vault with no key. How could JCE create such masterpieces and also this “evil masterpiece” in his Hermessence series, but have this one go so completely bad on me. This is one I put on, and my husband has made me go into the other room — to another floor and then held his nose every time he walked by. Just when I thought JCE’s knowledge for what I love to smell was complete, he had to hatch this little Satanic monster.
• Serge Lutens Tubereuse Criminelle.  Hey, don’t get me wrong, I love this evil thing with a passion, but evil genius it is.  A mix of camphor and tuberose, it assaults the nose, calling to mind the the sound of hoofbeats as the Four Horsemen pull up to your house to let you know the End ‘O the World as you Knew It  has come, and there will be no more just sweet flowery perfumes on their own, they will be combined with “other things.” like rubber mentholatum steeped in turpentine.
• Frederic Malle Musc Ravageur – Sex and sin and things that bump together in the night. If you could just bottle “Cat in Heat” this would be it.  I’m not sure I’ll ever be hot enough to wear this with a straight face.  Should always be worn with only stockings held up with garters, but stay away from dogs. 
• Le Labo Vetiver — Normally I would not think this is genius, but something that smells like ammonia and rubbing alcohol on me, but causes such swooning with March and Marina and Robin and others had to land in this category. This is the.worst.thing.I.have.ever.smelled, except that one time I fell in our shit pit on the farm.  That anyone loves it with the same passion I hate it gives witness to its genius.
• Guerlain Shalimar – Soap, powder and baby spit-up for me. The best thing ever for others.  That it has withstood the test of time and has so many fans either shows what a poor nose I have or what a difference in taste there is amongst people. I’d like to think the latter. I don’t want to smell like powder!!!  Baby spit-up would be okay, but never powder. I look at my bottle longingly from time to time and wonder what this should be like if the world inverted for a day to a place where I liked powdery perfumes or they actually smelled good on me.

 

Honorable mention genius –  Mostly because they just appeared at my door through the magic of United and DHL — Guerlain Sous le Vent and Plus que Jamais Guerlain.  Sous le Vent is an outstanding green chypre. It is like lavender wafting over a field of green, near a forest, with the occasional sweet note of carnation or iris in the distance.  It is completely captivating. It has some of the strangness of Djedi, without kicking all your moorings out from under your nose.  Normally Lavender in perfume leaves me cold and with a headache, but this is blended perfectly so it captures the beauty of the lavender without overhwhelming the composition.

Plus que Jamais Guerlain — I stand by my love affair with the small sample I had before. This is ♥ True Love® ♥. It’s just creamy velvety goodness that keeps my smitten nose pressed to where I have spritzed it.  I could just hug them for making this available in the bee bottle with a better price tag.

I met the Big Cheese right out of college, shortly after my mother had died. I was definitely not In The Mood for Love but he wooed me and all these years later we are still together, and parents of four, a fact that makes me quake with laughter.

Anyway, in that long-ago time his mother had a list of Suitable Young Debutantes for her Golden Boy, and it was clear from the start that I was not on that list. She was pretty much immune to my charms, placing little value on the attributes that seemed to captivate him (my bookishness, my pert breasts, my dark sense of humor.) But she was a shrewd woman, and once it looked like she was getting a daughter-in-law, she opted for the silk-purse route. I was not a total loss: I was petite, well educated, I cleaned up nicely. She took stock and got busy.

She took me shopping. She took me to Neiman Marcus and Saks, literally the first time I had ever been in either. I was astonished to find myself standing on a platform in a large private dressing room in front of her, more or less naked, while her cadre of personal shoppers came and went and she eyed me critically. She thought my feet were absurdly large (size 7) but bought me gorgeous silver YSL sandals anyway, my first pair of luxury shoes. I felt like Cinderella getting ready for the ball.

And so it began. Over the years, as we understood each other better, we each got something from the other that we valued.

She, mother of sons, got her own full-size doll to dress in all sorts of fabulous get-ups, suitable for evenings out on the town and nice cocktail parties. She surprised me with numbers like a leopard-print silk tunic, python-print pants, a pair of stretch flare black velvet slacks that would have been shocking if they weren’t so luxe. My friends got nightgowns from L.L. Bean and blenders from their mothers-in-law. I got knee-high embossed leather boots, beaded evening bags, and a stunning violet silk sweater that laced (!) up the back, the effect being entirely worth the effort.

I got not just a great wardrobe but a gift of knowledge from a woman who learned one of life’s big lessons on a primal level: how to make lemonade out of the lemons handed her on occasion. At an early age, she found herself a widow with small boys and limited prospects. She held it together. She sketched out a picture of future happiness for her young sons and then marched them toward it. She wasted precious little time looking backward for the rest of her long, eventful life. We had our ups and downs, but I never lost my admiration for the iron fist in her genteel velvet glove.

She was a devotee of luxury. She liked all the finest things in life; she lived with gusto. She never settled for less than the best table, never second-guessed herself, never deferred to someone else. She could be completely exasperating, and frank to the point of rudeness, but she was never dull. From her I learned to love big, loud parties, to appreciate great food and fine champagne, to argue for more when I felt I deserved it. She was interesting, and well-read, and fun to travel with, because she always had five fabulous outfits and an adventure in mind.

She believed in me, and eventually I believed in me, too.

She loved fragrance. She had Luxury Skin; she could make a bottle of L’Air Du Temps EDT smell like a custom-blended fragrance from JAR. On Mother’s Day, during what would be our last visit, I browsed her fragrance collection (she’d been wearing Hermes 24, Faubourg recently) and we got to chatting about perfumes. I asked her, what is your signature fragrance, the one you’ve worn for years, that one I associate most with you? Because I couldn’t pick it out. It is my most vivid memory of her – she wafted sillage like nobody’s business, and she smelled like heaven. On the occasions I borrowed a shawl or sweater it smelled unmistakably, beautifully, of her.

She said her signature fragrance was Chloe. I said it wasn’t, because I know what Chloe smells like – Eau de 1980s, one of those big-bang numbers like Poison or Giorgio (although it was born in 1975 – notes are: lily of the valley, honeysuckle, orange flower, ylang ylang, hyacinth, jasmine, rose, narcissus, carnation, tuberose, sandalwood, amber, oakmoss — basenotes.) It was Chloe, she insisted. I argued back. Eventually I got up and grabbed her bottle off her dressing table and sprayed it on both of us. She was right, of course. On me it smelled like … Eau de 1980s. On her it smelled like a very expensive blonde in a fur wrap on a private jet headed for the royal wedding at the palace, surrounded by champagne and chocolate.

I brought a few of her things home – a scarf, her favorite purse, an absurdly fake mongolian-lamb stole I used to tease her about. They smell like her, and therefore they are beautiful. She made my life richer. I loved her in a deep, complicated way I am only beginning to appreciate, and I will miss her very much. Her funeral is tomorrow. I will be wearing Apres L’Ondee — the parfum, not the EDT. Because sometimes in life your sillage should be a little over the top.

I finally had to get the roses and other things in the ground this weekend while I was under the weather from some unknown something or the other that seems to require a healthy dose of sleep to get past.  That was fun. Me and my husband (both in the same condition) digging a couple of holes, then having to lay down on the lawn just to build up enough energy to get them in and dig the next hole or two.  Why did we not put this off? Because I already had been for about two weeks, and they all needed to go in the ground this week or they’d be swirling around the drain. Listen, nobody can call me a plant killer.

 So you don’t get the idea that we are really weak and sad, we normally are pretty healthy, we walk on the treadmill, ride bikes, and have a minimal level of decent endurance.  Not those super-fit people at all, but strong enough that something like this is pretty humbling, so it has to be some kind of illness because the alternative is that we are just weak and getting older ‘n dirt.

Hours later, we finally get the plants all in. We crawled into the shower, and I’ve been in a coma the rest of the day. 

 While this was exhausting, I now have the coolest flower bed in front. I tried to create a perfume smell that I would love together   in my bed.  I have a bunch of new old roses that went in. Those big old garden roses have a smell that is just intoxicating, and they bloom profusely. I’m partial to the old bourbons, but there are other varieties that work great.  The picture to the left is the Reine Victoria, which is one of the species I planted.  I also got two varieties of lavender to plant in and around the roses.  While I can’t take any lavender in a perfume at all, when it is still in the ground, I adore it.  It also creates a great setting around the roses, keeping it from looking like a rose ghetto.  I used to have Catmint around my last old roses at my old house, and they were pretty awesome too, but they could get a little clumpy.  Russian Sage also works well from a scent aspect, but they can quickly overwhelm the roses, if you’re not careful, and they get a little tall so they have to be in the back, which works too in some areas.  The last thing that went in was some super-smelly dianthus (also know as the carnation).  That peppery smell they put off is just delicious and blends so great with the sweet rose and the tart lavender.

Now, you would think I’d be done, right? Nope!  We also put in two lilac bushes, one is yellow and the other is… can’t remember.  The last is the two daphnes, one on each side of the porch.  There is nothing better in the world than the sweet smells that come wafting in when you walk up to your house. 

The Guerlain Djedi sample is almost at an end.  March the Magnificent, munificent, muniferous got it from Colombina the Terrible (direct links aren’t working, so you’ll have to search), and then she sent it on to me.  Based on the description and that whole leathery chypre ambience, and I usually can’t weather leather, nor dry chypres, nor the things that March and Marina agree on, I was pretty stunned when I put this on and had a little swoon on a par with March’s, and I’ll quote her ”In the end what fascinates me about this composition is not the presence of anything – there is no gentle rose, no healing rain, no worn leather. Instead, it is defined by the absence of the familiar roots and flowers and any of the velvety vanilla whisper of the Guerlinade, leaving me stranded in a desolate place where nothing is familiar, and yet I am not afraid.”  That’s the perfect description, running through all the poetic words and thoughts I have will not improve on March’s comment. This is a place I’ve definitely never been, and it’s not comforting at all, but it is fascinating.  I’m still not entirely sure if I like it or not, but it isn’t something anyone would be indifferent to.

If Sous le Vent, their new green chypre, has any similarity at all to this, but with green notes, it’s going to be fun soon!  My shipper has just notified me that it’s going through customs in Denver now, so it should be in my hot little hands on Monday or Tuesday, along with Plus que Jamais.  What a happy day that will be, much cavorting around here, well, until I get too feeble to cavort and have to lay down until my old age wears off.  Of course, they will be included as the give-away samples for the week after this. 

 Then I have a question. Do you spritz lightly or douse yourself?  I like to think I’m in the middle, but then I’m not sure.  I do douse to a certain extent, but pulling up short of obnoxious. I know this because most people can’t smell my perfume until I’m within a foot or so of them, though I can leave a decent sillage wake in the morning as I walk through.

 Winner for last week’s drawing is Josey.  Josey, just let me know which Guerlain you’d like to try, and I’ll jet you off that sample.  If you would also like a Guerlain bee bottle or a Serge Lutens bell jar (empty), let me know that. Just click on the Contact Us over on the left to give me your address so I can get this to you.  Thanks for everyone that commented to enter.   

I had to take Number Two daughter to the doctor this morning for a sinus infection (what is the problem this year?) In the waiting room I was perusing Ladies’ Home Journal (I think) and there was an article about fragrance: finding your signature scent, EDT versus EDP, etc.

Anyway, they asked, how many fragrances do you have? One or two was okay. Six or more was tooooo many. If you had six or more (and less than 20% of their respondents did), you really needed to edit your perfume wardrobe down to something more manageable.

Huh. Well, I guess I need an intervention.

I keep trying to figure out a way to count them creatively that gets me within striking distance of six. If I eliminate all the testers, the vial samples, decants, bottles I’m planning to get rid of, bottles I keep just to look at, those I have for sentimental reasons, bottles I paid less than $40 for, colognes (which are just, uh, spritzers, not fragrance), gifts, things I use as room spray, and anything manufactured by Guerlain or Annick Goutal, I can get it into the single digits. I think.

Just got back from out of town with too little sleep, so I will either post much later today with the winner of this week’s drawing or it will be tomorrow morning.

 

My apologies, and thanks for your patience!

I’ve been fighting allergies since February, trying various cures. Then a nasty head cold that morphed into one of those sinus infections that make my molars feel like they’re being squeezed by the roots, which I guess they are, followed by a 10-day course of antibiotics, and through much of that I was so congested I couldn’t smell a thing.

To a normal person, I guess that would be annoying, or inconvenient, but not that terrible. For me, the longer it went on, the more I found myself suspended between the stages of Denial and Rage on some sort of journey to acceptance. I tried smelling my strongest scents, and all I could get was the faintest impression – one angle of a fragrance, or a ghostly silhouette. Frequently what I got was nothing.

My level of upset really ramped up once my nose cleared… and I still couldn’t smell anything. I called my doctor. She counseled patience. Eventually I just put all the samples away in a box and gave up, because it was too depressing. I started to worry, what if I’m one of those people who never get their sense of smell back? I couldn’t even say it out loud, it was so horrifying.

So on Friday morning last week I got up, washed my face, staggered sleepily into my closet and… Oh. My. God. There it was!!! The miasma that rises up from my perfume shelf (and bowl, and candy box, and basket, the sample bag, and the bottles in boxes on the floor…)

I had my nose back!

Here are the first things I smelled:

Bvlgari Eau Parfumee Au The Blanc — Legerdenez had written this gorgeous post about how it reminded her of thunderstorms and wet paper, and I was eager to partake. So I sprayed it into a small glass bowl and huffed it like one of those goofs on a wine tour in Sonoma. Yes! Thunderstorm! There it is! (I’m sorry, but I never quite did get the wet paper.) It also smells like artemisia, which reminded me to head outside, but first I reached into the candy box and grabbed the first thing my fingers touched, which happened to be…

Vice Versa – I was stunned to discover another gaping hole in my knowledge, because this is from YSL, maybe a limited edition? I might have guessed, it reminds me faintly of Opium. I like it because it’s almost summer cologne-ish, but with enough spicy oomph to satisfy.

Then I went outside in the yard and sniffed:

1) Artemisia (Powys Castle) because it’s velvety green heaven and oddly cheering (absinthe, anyone?).

2) My newly blooming rosa rugosa Blanc Double de Coubert from Heirloom Roses.

3) Cameo Perfume from Heirloom, which they don’t seem to be offering this year, and that’s criminal because its perfume is astonishing. (That’s the pink one pictured below.) It’s also different (and prettier) than the picture — whiter in the middle, with dark pink streaks on the outermost petals. How strong is the perfume? Two cut blooms are scenting my entire first floor.

4) My climbers from Heirloom, also blooming for the first time, Summer Wine (pictured at bottom). Okay, I’m a tiny bit disappointed in the fragrance, but it’s early yet, and they sure are easy on the eyes.

5) My Miss Kim lilacs, which I came dangerously close to not smelling this year.

6) The bearded iris that are growing along a neighbor’s front walkway on the way to the market. When I am queen I will commission someone to make me a fragrance that captures this smell. If you are reading this and thinking, iris has a fragrance?, the answer is yes, and you need to get busy and smell some, because your life is impoverished in a way you don’t realize. They smell vaguely like a cross between a spicy carnation and a violet, but the smell is unique.

Then I got in my car and (what else) went to Sephora to smell 90-odd things in a nose-orgy, including:

Masaki Matsushima Mat; Orange – the girls and I like to sniff the Mat; Chocolate for a giggle because it’s so repulsive. The Orange was new. First ten minutes: a nice, unremarkable fruit. Therafter: orange for travelers from another galaxy who are trying to recreate the smell of the fruit using an ancient book of illustrations and a scratch-and-sniff ad for Glade Orange room spray.

Mat; Yellow – juniper berry, bamboo, watermelon, cat vomit. Okay, no cat vomit, but there might as well be. Laugh-out-loud awful. You could tie me to a chair and torture me by spraying me with this and the chocolate. I’d tell you anything to make you stop.

Laurence Dumont Crème Brulee – I sniffed this after the Mat; Yellow because it seemed a perfect way to complete the gross-out process. You know what? It smells exactly like crème brulee, my single favorite dessert. I am not sure I’d want to wear it, but it was weirdly lovely to smell.

Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Tutti Kiwi (Mandarin, Rhubarb, Frosty Lemon, Kiwi Fruit, Geranium, Seringa, Sandalwood, Vanilla, Woody Notes) – Now Smell This wrote a wonderful, in-depth review. My review is: I adore Guerlain, and I am still looking for a single one of the AA’s I’d wear if you gave it to me. Don’t even get me started on the Pamplelune, which is French for pee.

YSL Paris Roses des Vergers (Cherry Blossom, Cyclamen, Blackcurrant Leaves, Pear Tree Blossom, Tender Rose, Wild Rose, Sandalwood, Rhodes Wood, Musks). Chandler Burr says this about the original Paris: “Paris is a gigantically wonderful rose. In fact, what I like about it is that it is not anything else. It pretty much dispenses with top notes and bottom notes, just explodes onto the scene and envelopes you and starts radiating unabashed luxury.� It was always a bit much for me, however, so I was startled to discover how much I like Roses des Vergers, which has an element of greenness from the blossoms and cyclamen that render it much lighter and (sorry, Chandler) actually wearable.

PS If you haven’t read any of Chandler Burr’s fragrance reviews, here’s a link. He only updates them periodically, and I find them very enjoyable.

artemisia, mygarden.me.uk
iris, artistsopenstudiosofnect.org
roses, heirloomroses.com

”

From the Italian fashion house of Gucci comes Gucci Eau de Parfum, a 2002 floral Oriental fragrance. In the development of this fragrance, the perfumer reinterpreted classic perfumes of years gone by. Sensually sweet, expansive essences are threaded through the fragrant tapestry.” Notes of tuberose, heliotrope, orange blossom, orris, vanilla, clove, citrus, cumin and thyme. 

How much do I love this fragrance? To the depth and breadth of my soul.  Gucci by Gucci EDP came along at a time when I was so disenchanted with perfume. Everything smelled the same. Floral, oriental, clean, crisp, boring, bland.  Perfume was breaking my heart slowly by its vapidness.  In 2002, the world changed for me when the overzealous sales clerk scooted me over to try “The new, so fabulous scent by Gucci, there is nothing else like it.”  I was thinking to myself, wanna bet?  She spritzed it on, and the combination just drew me back a bit.  I was expecting something like Gucci had done before with Rush, but this was new and different. Kind of spicy and floral at the same time, but not any floral like I had known. My eyes rocked back in my head, and I swooned as I fell head over heels in love with a perfume that a lot of people hate.  Normally I despise most vanilla perfumes (the CSP of the late ’90s was enough to do that to a person), but this one has just enough vanillla to warm it up, but not so much as to take it over the top. Heady and rich, but earthy at the same time.  The orris, cumin and thyme and whatever else they’ve got tucked in there hold all the notes that are so rich and lush in check so they don’t go slobbering all over you like a drunk tart.  As this dries down, it just gets better.   I never get a clear bead on the tuberose or orange flower in this, it’s just blended well enough that I know they are there, but they don’t stand up and say hi, they just keep hiding behind the spices. I knew there was something different out there then.  When a good friend of mine who has impeccable taste sent me the small bottle of it about two months later, I knew how right this was for me.

I’ve read other reviews of this fragrance that say it is sweet, and I don’t get it, there’s nothing sweet in this on me. I keep thinking they must have got hold of the Gucci by Gucci II, which is a pretty enough perfume, but not even close to as original and breathtaking as G by G is.  Someone compared it to that candy concoction know as Organza!  (makes sign of cross) Not even!  This is just deep and rich and so vibrant, it sings on my skin.  That I forget about wearing this from time to time breaks my heart.  When I remember it again and wear it for days on end, it breaks my heart again, sorta like En Passant does, but in very different ways.

 And, of course, it is discontinued while the weak little sister G by G II lives on with so much less glory.  Why is it that they kill off the freaks, the unusual perfumes, the ones that are loved and hated with equal vigor? The ones that when they get on the right person, they become glorious? It is time to stock up on this little darling and lay in a large supply. I know the cumin is a killer on a lot of people and renders this one totally unwearable, and there is that little musty note that some hate and I love, but it is one of my great perfume loves, and I will defend my little freak to the death.

Which of your favorite and beloved perfumes did they discontinue that you would do anything to see back in production?

There’s a smell, and I’ve always thought it was timothy hay, but never really knew for sure.  We would be driving down the country roads with the windows down in the old beater pickup at one certain time of the year, and it was just this sweet smell, not floral exactly and not hay exactly, but just delicate and stunning. We stopped the pickup several times and would try and figure out what it was for sure, but it is still a mystery, and I haven’t smelled it in many years.  I really would like to smell that one more time.

Patti (aka Cavewoman) at Blogdorf Goodman’s in her foundation primer marathon suggested two that really worked for me. The second one that I’m almost loving more than the La Prairie primer is the Smashbox Photo Finish primer. This one I’ve been electing to wear just by itself some days. It just gives a glow to the unfoundationed skin that’s lovely, filling in all the rough patches and leaving the skin so smooth.  Odd how something becomes a staple so fast. Just two months ago, I didn’t even know I needed a foundation primer, now I wear them on their own on the days when I don’t wear foundation. Make sure you get the new pink one that has the UVA/UVB SPF 15. They have a new Photo Finish Bronzing Primer that has caught my eye too, which sounds really wonderful for “I have no interest in wearing foundation” days in the summer. Luckily it is out of stock for now – oh, hell, QVC has it.

Colombina the Terrible suggested Comodynes self-tanning towelette a week or so ago when I asked for a self-tanner recommendation, and I dutifully ordered some from eBay.  These are amazing. I took one out last night and quickly applied them to my legs just to see how it would look.  Quickly only to test the “ease of application factor” and because I wasn’t going to be wearing shorts this week.  Normally when I do this so quickly, I get a mess of streaks and blobs of dark tanner.  This stuff just gave me a nice, even golden glow. Not too tan, but a good base, and there are no streaks or blobs, even with the speedy application. This is what I had hoped that Jergens slow tanner thing would be, but that pretty much sucked on me, leaving horrible streaks and dark blobby spots.  The Comodynes is perfection, I’m going to need to order up a case and test reapplication to get a darker tan.  They are available on eBay and several other sites, including their own.

Pilot razor point extra fine pens color pack.  I’m a pen freak. Roller ball, felt tip, standard tip, fountain pen, doesn’t matter.  Office Depot is a place I don’t go when I have no time to leisurely lollygag because I can burn through hours just going through the pens, selecting something fun and new and colorful that is just writey perfection.  Pilot does a pack of all different colors of the razor point ultra fine pens – pink, purple, green, brown, red, orange — and I love to write in color. The little razor tip on it is the right fineness — not so fine that you can barely see the lines, but thin enough that you get a nonblobby application (having an anti-blobby day).  BTW, Pilot also has a fake fountain pen pen that is wonderful. I’m having trouble tracking down any more of them, and my sons are now working out elaborate schemes to steal the ones I do have.  If you see them, snag a pack, they have all the charm of writing with a fountain pen without all the mess.

Perfume in more often than regular rotation has been Ormonde Jayne Frangipani and TDC Sel de Vetiver. Not sure why, but I’ve been grabbing for these two with regularity. I expect the Sel de Vetiver to pick up as the hot months hit.  That salty/earthy thing is doing it for me.  In other perfume new, my sister talked me out of my backup bottle of Serge Lutens Un Lys. Ever have that sinking feeling you’re going to regret something as soon as you do it? Yup, that’s pretty  much how I feel about this bit of stupidity on my part, but she is totally in love with that scent and begged and pleaded and looked at me with those accusing big sister eyes. I caved.  Other bit of news, I have my bottles of Plus que Jamais and Sous le Vent on their way from Paris, woo-hoo!  Hopefully I’ll get the call next week that they have cleared customs from what is now my new best friend, Christine, who arranges delivery for DHL shipments that come into the airport.

Okay, this week the drawing will be a choice, and I’ll throw out something additional to see if there is any interest.  First, the winner will have a choice of either a sample of Guerlain Metalys, Guerlain Attrape Coeur,  Guerlain Cuir Beluga, Guerlain Angelique Noire or Guerlain Vega. To enter, just leave a comment and indicate you’d like to be in the drawing. I’ll have my husband or son or puppy help me pick out a name, and I’ll announce the winner in Friday’s post.  Also, I’d like to offer to the winner, if they want it, an empty Attrape Coeur bee bottle or an empty Serge Lutens bell jar (Rose de Nuit, Bois de Violette or Fumerie Turque).  I can’t seem to bring myself to throw these away, but I’m not a collector of anything except the juice inside the bottles, but I think some people do collect these things and would like them.  If y’all would like to see these included in regular drawings, I’m happy to do that, just let me know in comments.

The Big Cheese’s mother passed away last night. Being me, I already had a post pre-loaded for today. But my heart isn’t in it. Of course my failure to post would annoy her (I am laughing and crying as I write that.) She was not long on sentiment. At any rate, I will be busy with Things That Must Be Taken Care Of.
We visited her yesterday, the whole brood, for Mother’s Day, and she and I had a great conversation about perfume, of all things, which I will post on at some point. She was a fine, funny lady, and I will miss her.

If you’re in the mood later today, put on your favorite scent and toast her with her drink of choice: a stiff vodka martini on the rocks, with an olive.

 

A reminder, today is the second day when we give $1 for every comment left to the Orphan Foundation of America as a part of Scentzilla’s Benevolent Blogging project.  So please make us get out our checkbook and write a large check.

Other things –  a new blog, Sweet Diva, a beginner’s journey into perfume, written by a really lovely person.  It is so much fun to read someone just starting down that money-guzzling path to Perfumey Proficiency — you want to warn them and encourage them at the same time.  She has a seriously gorgeous kitty to boot!!

March’s Top Five Scents for Mom 

This post makes me feel a bit wistful.  My mother died when I was fresh out of college, and I would love to be giving her some new fragrance.  But I’m also happy to be taking a broader view for all Those Wonderful Moms Everywhere.  I have tried to select fragrances with a (relatively) broad appeal, dividing them loosely into categories.  If you’re looking for something for Weirdo Mom, you’re on your own.  Oh, wait …. I’m Weirdo Mom.  Okay, this is what I want bottles of:  L’Artisan Fleur de Carotte and CB I Hate Perfumes Black March

Luxury Mom – Patou Joy.  It smells beautiful AND expensive, making it perfect.  Or:  Patou 1000, if you like a little more spice, or Sublime (a civet sitting on a very expensive floral bouquet,)

Sporty Mom – Maybe mom isn’t interesting in wafting intense sillage?  How about Christian Dior’s Cologne Blanche?  Plus it comes in that fabulous, huge bottle. Or: Balle de Match by Parfums de Nicolai, a slightly heavier scent (but still light) with citrus, juniper and vetiver.  Or Santa Maria Novella Eva, which is a citrus hug and kiss in a bottle.

Mysterious Mom – YSL Opium.  No, seriously.  A great fragrance I am finally grown up enough to appreciate.  If the original version is too heavy for you, try the LE that’s out right now, Opium Fleur Imperiale, which is just lovely (mandarin, orange, neroli, apricot, jasmine, osmanthus).  Try it even if you didn’t love Opium.

Classic Mom – Chanel Bois de Iles.  The only Chanel that works on me, and the most elegant perfume I have ever smelled.  She will thank you for it. (jasmine, damask rose, ylang-ylang, ginger, vanilla, tonka bean, sandalwood). Or: Lanvin Arpege.  It has been reformulated from the original, which may have smelled different, but could not possibly have smelled better than this (honeysuckle, jasmine, roses and orange blossoms, vanilla and sandalwood)

Romantic Mom – Annick Goutal Passion, because what could be more passionate?  The first AG I ever smelled, and promptly fell in love with. (tuberose, grasse jasmine, vanilla).  Or: Guerlain l’Heure Bleue.  I promised myself no Guerlain, but I can’t resist this one.  Shamelessly romantic, sweeter than Mitsouko, sort of what Apres l’Ondee would be like if it was much stronger. (bergamot, lemon, coriander, neroli, Bulgarian rose, iris, heliotrope, jasmine, ylang-ylang, orchid, vanilla, sandalwood, musk.)  “One summer evening, Jacques Guerlain was overcome by intense turmoil. It was the suspended hour, the hour when the sky has lost its sun but not yet found its stars. Everything in nature is clothed in a blue light. L’Heure Bleue by Guerlain: an emotion which this perfume alone is worthy of expressing.â€? – escentual.co.uk    

Here is my best Mother’s Day Present:                  

They are the greatest gift I have ever received.

Patty’s Mother’s Day Perfume recommendations

My two someones that I want to get me another bottle of L’Artisan Fleur D’Oranger (a backup, I really need a backup of this) or a bottle of Serge Lutens Un Lys, but I’ll be so very happy if they remember to make me a card and wish me a Happy Mother’s Day are on the left.  Oh, the old man on the right in that picture is really my youngest son, Harry. He likes to put on his old man mask and go out skateboarding or bike riding and go dancing jigs down the street and make people almost crash their cars.  He’s a piece of work.  The oldest, on the left, is Alex. See how much shorter he is? Yes, the younger one is about 6′4″, and Alex has threatened to cut 6 inches or so off his legs forever. He was the one that was “the difficult teenager,” but he’s turning into such a nice young man.  I always knew that was in there through the years when he was running away and skipping school for weeks on end and hanging out with the homeless kids downtown, manipulating me for everything, but you worry the person you thought you knew is really gone forever.  I took him out to get some boxers and t-shirts at Target the other day, and I also picked him up a bicycle, and he wanted something else, and I walked by it and thought he would want it and asked him, and he says, “Well, yeah, I’d like that, but I wasn’t going to put the manipulative screws to you to get it.”  Wow, that was probably one of my top ten mom moments. There’s  the real Harry without the mask on the right, playing guitar. He’s an awesome guitar player. 

They are my boys, and I don’t know how my life would have been as full without them. I know I would have been a lot more selfish person. They taught me to give of all of me and not just the part that didn’t matter.

This post may make it too late to shop for Mother’s Day, but there’s still birthdays and Christmas and Just Because you Love her.  Now this is a harder task than you might think because moms are so different, and, hey, I’m a mom, too, and, like March, I like lots of freaky stuff!  I also came up with some categories:

Perfume to Wear to Make sure you become a Mommy — This is a job for Chantecaille Frangipane. While not my favorite perfume, it does have a softness to it that men appear to like quite a lot.

Perfume to Cover up the Smelly Baby Spit-up Smells once you become a Mommy – This takes industrial strength perfume, while still remaining a good smell, so I’m thinking Donna Karan Wenge or Labdanum. It’s a little sweet as well as comforting, so it shouldn’t disturb the baby, but it will make you forget you are covered in spit-up and up to your armpits in diapers.

Perfume to Remind you you are NOT just a Mommy Taxi Driver — Should be something very feminine and womanly and carefree, like Ormonde Jayne Champaca or Guerlain Mitsouko.  How can a woman be just a taxi driver while wearing either of these?  Chanel Bois de Iles will also work just to make you feel worldly and sophisticated and beautiful.

Perfume your Husband should give you to show how much he appreciates the Mother of his Screaming Brats Children — Pure Parfum Coco or Pure Parfum Vol De Nuit or one of the Clive Christians or one of the Amouages or some Regina Harris Rose Maroc Oil or Yosh’s Ginger Ciao or just a big, fat gift certificate at Guerlain or Caron.

Perfume for Mom to Wear When she Has Teenagers so they Know Who is Boss — Serge Lutens Rose de Nuit or Caron Coup de Fouet or Poivre.  The perfected mom of teenagers “I can’t believe you think I’ll let you live while you have that bullshit attitude” look and one of these perfumes will get you the mom of teenagers zen you are gonna need when faced with a snarling ball of nihilistic angst dressed in black that looks only vaguely like the child you once had.

Perfume to Give your Mother that says how wonderful she is as a person, not just a mom –  Hug her really tight and let her smell your perfume, something soft and pretty like Marc Jacobs or Annick Goutal Songes, and don’t let go too soon, and tell her that not only are you glad she’s your mom, but that you would have wanted her for your friend even if she hadn’t been your mom. It’s okay to lie here, if you have to, just make it sound sincere, and skip all the crap from the past. She won’t be there forever, and it is a different world to live in when that person who thought you so unique that she collected and kept your ribbons, awards, drawings, school pictures and school work is gone. 

Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms out there. Get a bottle of some expensive Champagne and toast all the hard work you have put in every single day growing humans. 

Please go vist the other bloggers participating either today or this weekend and leave a comment!

REMINDER: As you’ve seen all over the perfume blogs, we have joined in this Mother’s Day Benevolent Blogging effort. We are giving $1.00 for every comment you leave today and tomorrow. Our chosen charity is the Orphan Foundation of America. We figured, as we close in on Mother’s Day, who could use more support than kids without mothers? If you’d like to learn more about this effort, visit Benevolent Blogging. Tune in tomorrow for our Special Edition of Mother’s Day Fragrance Recommendations.

Now, on to today’s fragrance…

I got my first sample of S-Perfume 100% Love from Patty in the original Candy Samples box. I’d read about it, and a fragrance described as (essentially) rose, chocolate and incense is just wrong, even if it’s put together by a genius like Sophia Grojsman. So my expectations were low, in spite of the rave reviews I’d read on Now Smell This and elsewhere. I don’t love rose (although we’re working in it.) I am not a fan of food fragrances. Incense was the only piece that made it interesting.

I was enchanted by 100% Love from the first tentative sniff. The rose is there most strongly in the opening, and it is a frank, clear rose without ever becoming the “rose� in quotations I’ve learned to loathe so much in perfumery: that plastic, too-sweet room freshener rose that makes my stomach turn. There’s something about the chocolate – which follows right behind the rose – that keeps it honest. The chocolate is a bar of high-grade extra-dark, or mole, or the smell of cocoa hulls, strong but not sweet. A few minutes later, the incense wanders in and hangs around for the rest of the story.

There is nothing else that smells remotely like this. You can parse the smells (yes, there is the rose, there is the chocolate, here comes the incense) but they meld together so beautifully and seamlessly that it is easy to imagine 100% Love as something God thought up but just didn’t get around to creating, until Grojsman picked up the brief.

I find 100% Love to be reasonably long-lasting, so I wasn’t begging for a stronger version. But other reviews I read expressed a desire for stronger juice.

The 100% Love {MORE} version is, in fact, much stronger right out of the bottle. To my nose the most significant difference in this version is that the chocolate is omnipresent, outweighing the rose even in the opening, although the rose is there. The rose-and-chocolate duo smells a bit different to me than the original, and I also detect a mild green note in the middle of {MORE} that I do not smell in the original, as if you were getting a bit of the leaves with your roses. The rest of the presentation is the same, more or less, with the incense slowly fading in over the first 10 minutes, although I never get as much incense from the {MORE} as in the original. To me it renders itself almost woody, like walking into an old wooden storage closet. Not a criticism; just different.

I spent several days last week applying and re-applying the two, sniffing back and forth. While they are from the same stock, they are not the same fragrance. The {MORE} is more opaque, although there is nothing heavy or cloying about it. It has the interesting density of, say, Passage d’Enfer, which manages to be bold and buoyant simultaneously. The chocolate in the {MORE} version is especially rich and dense, and in the first minute or two it is extraordinary. The {MORE} version also has a bit of spiciness in the drydown – a pinch of cinnamon that hints at a carnation.

Which is better? That would be a matter of personal preference, depending on whether you want more rose and don’t mind the lightness (the original,) or heavier with more chocolate and a hint of spice (the latter.) They are both beautiful and I think that {MORE} is strong enough it should please those people clamoring for, well, more.

Which one do I like better? I changed the answer to that question four times before posting this. As a rule I like stronger concentrations, and I am wild about the choco-Nirvana opening and the carnation in the {MORE} version. However, the thought of never smelling the soaring rose of the original, a rose that makes me think of the clear, deep ringing notes of a glass bell, and the stunning incense of that drydown fills me with sadness. So I suppose, if I were forced to choose, I would reluctantly choose the original. Fortunately, though, I don’t have to choose. I’d recommend owning both.

100% Love {MORE} is available for $80 (60ml) from S-Perfume. The original version is also available. There is a sample program.

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The winner of the Fracas Giveaway is … Emotenote! Please send me your address via Contact us. Congratulations!

 

This is my wonderful, adorable, feisty niece, Samantha, who shares my love of perfume, as does her mother.  My sister named her Samantha because my dad tried to name both her and me Samantha, which my mom vetoed, yelling something about “I already have three boys named Tom, Dick and Harry, I don’t need a girl called Sam!”  My sister, Shirley, and I both preferred that name to the ones we got,  but who knew?    My Dad always called her Sammie Dean, the Cajun Queen. They were fast friends from the moment she was born.    

Sammie Dean (Samantha Nadine, her middle name after my mom who didn’t get a middle name) graduates from high school this Saturday. I never had any daughters, so she’s been like a daughter to me, but better — I’ve gotten all the fun parts of playing girls with her and none of the heartache. My sister calls us by each other’s names, and that’s either because she confuses us or she’s just lost her damn mind or both. We fight like cats and dogs – she’s just obstina