Is he really thinking about marrying that bimbo?!@!@  The guy willing to marry the boy-crazy Lindsay Lohan, Harry Morton.  Brain damanged much?

The Donald fired my favorite minion of his, Carolyn Kepscher.  This is so sad, I will truly miss her icy cold beatdowns in the boardroom.  She was cool and confident and a total ball-crusher. Loved her.

This will be a short post today since I’m headed off to visit family in Kansas, and I figure most of you are off to do something fun this weekend too. So everyone have a safe holiday weekend, we’ll be gone on Monday too, so we’ll see you back on Tuesday nice and refreshed!

Who says money can’t buy happiness? As it turns out, a little money — $12 including shipping – buys a surprising amount, in terms of the beautifully-constructed sample 4-pack from Ineke Perfumer.

As shown in the photo, the four spray minis come lovingly papered and wrapped in individual miniature matchbook-like boxes, which are then wrapped in another paper, in a pouch, in an envelope along with a gorgeous full-color mini catalog explaining the scents. Really, I would have been impressed even if the fragrances were mediocre.

Which they are not. They are low-key, charming scents rather than bombastic, look-at-me fragrances, but every wardrobe needs a few things that are easy to wear. We’re heading into the long weekend here, and I’m not going to review each scent because I couldn’t do any better than Cait’s extensive reviews of these four fragrances on Legerdenez. My quick summation of the scents as they registered to my nose:

After My Own Heart – berries at the top, lilac, and musk on my skin; the lilac in the air was first-rate – you lilac-lovers, take note
Balmy Days and Sundays — honeysuckle and mimosa on a delicious, dusky chypre base, my favorite of the bunch along with Derring-Do
Chemical Bonding – citrus, tea, amber in a late-summer combination that reminds me of an amped-up L’Artisan The Pour Une Ete
Derring-Do – the “men” scent, which I’m going to declare deliciously unisex if you have some tolerance for a citrus-y fougere

All four fragrances are worth smelling. They have surprising presence for scents that go on with such delicacy – there is a wonderful sense of the perfume in the air around me, rather than emanating from a particular patch on my skin. They stick around decently without wearing out their welcome.

The last $12 purchase that made me this happy was the cup of coffee I bought at the Caffe Florian, so I could sit and watch the crowds wade by at high tide on the Piazza San Marco in Venice.

The winner of the Blind Sample giveaway is … Justine! Send me your address via: Contact Us and I’ll mail them to you.

I’ll leave you for the upcoming weekend with this final note of joy: my last few visits to various palaces of perfumage have been greatly improved by the fact that many, many people around me seem to be wafting the understated but instantly identifiable Guerlain Insolence. Can I tell you how delighted I am to get bits and hints of the Guerlinade in public, rather than blasts of Angel or some fruity-floral monstrosity? Judging by how many times I’ve smelled this one breezing past me, it must be doing very well indeed.

photo credit: ineke.com

JAR Shadow, have I talked about this in depth? I think I haven’t. This goes on sharp and musty. For some reason, it takes me to the root cellar we had when I was a kid – one we would play in and search around in, looking for secret treasure while also being scared out of our minds at the things that were in the shadows that we couldn’t see.    JAR Shadow is full of secrets and dark places.  The JARs are a mystery to me. Every time I put one on, I feel like it is an excursion into dark places, jumping into an ocean without knowing the depth.  

After a while, the clove does move more to the front, and the sharpness softens, but it remains pungent and rich and just a little bit scary, but a familiar scary. It’s not a scent that will ever make you comfortable, but it will take you on a journey. 

Shadow is both familiair and foreign.   It attracts and repulses.  It’s the best kind of perfume frog – one that you never forget once you kiss it. 

Giveaway drawing for this week:  A small sample of Armani/Prive’s new Cuir Amethyste. Just drop a comment saying you want in, and you’ll be entered in the drawing. 

Awhile back, Patty, Marina of Perfume-Smellin’ Things and I did a three-way unlabeled fragrance sample swap, and it was such a hoot we decided to do it again. This time, however, we enlisted the participation of several other scentbloggers.

I drew Katie of Scentzilla and Marlen of Perfume Critic as my victims. This presented a challenge, as they have both smelled tons of product. So I had to dig into my more obscure selections. The results are in, and here’s what they thought of my offerings:

Scent A

Katie: Good lord, I could swear this another of Mad March’s Mixes… There’s an element to this fragrance that SO strongly reminds me of some version of L’Aimant. Cinnamon and woody at the top. But not quite L’Aimant, since the spice is terribly reminiscent of Red Hots candy. Then there’s a figgy and vanillic middle, with white florals. And then with the drydown, we’re back to some strange mutant imitation of L’Aimant. Lightly played musk and maybe even a touch of oakmoss at the base, too. This has to be a small brand or niche: no way would a big department store brand use spice so unabashadly like this. Well, I guess there could be a way, I mean, what do *I* know? This is not a fragrance for the shy retiring types, at any rate.

Marlen: This is nice. A soft, subtle, incense aroma…I get a musk that reminds me of Final Net and perhaps a saffron note? There’s also something slightly spicy here…cinnamon? And there’s either cedar or sandalwood somewhere in the base. I’m stumped, and the juice is a golden brown? Huh…It’s not terrbily strong or powerful but I’m still loving it. I just tried on Sample C and now I have no ability to smell sample A anymore. Lemme get up and walk around the house… Ok, so I can smell a hint of A and I put on half the vial 15 minutes ago. Definitely a longevity and projection issue with this one. Put on a little more A and still getting that pesky Final Net note and thinking of Gaultier Le Male (le yuck). I dunno. I liked the opening at first, but now am not really loving the overall effect.

It was: IUNX Splash Forte, my entry in the Obscure, Discontinued Niche category. How obscure was IUNX? Jude was less obscure. Rumor had it you couldn’t even take photos inside their Paris boutique, although there are a few online at flikr. Anyway, they went out of business last year (I think), so No More Soup For You. According to basenotes.net, Splash Forte contains notes of cardamom and nutmeg, and Olivia Giacobetti is the nose, so no wonder I like it. To me it smells like cinnamon mouthwash, but really good, French, expensive, high-end cinnamon mouthwash. If you’re thinking cinnamon mouthwash wouldn’t be that refreshing on the skin in the heat of summer, you’d be wrong. It’s a fabulous, weird smell — both Katie and Marlen were right there on this one.

Scent B

Katie: Shalimar said, “not tonight honey, I have a headache,” so March must have sent me this instead. A slighly green lily of the valley is prominently there at the top, but it stretches across a vanilla/vanillin cocktail. At the base is an iris and leathery/incensey intonation in the vanilla/vanillin cocktail, and a little animal, too, which speaks to me of Guerlain. (God, this is going to be so embarassing if it turns out it’s, like, Kountry Bob’s Klassy Kologne or something.) Even with the florals I’d even describe it as cuddly. In fact, I hereby dub this Mallomar, because it smells like a fluffed up, slightly sweeter version of Shalimar. Also because of the staying power: it disappears quickly, just like an unguarded box of Mallomars. I rather like it the best out of the three.

Marlen: Hmmm, this smells very familiar - a vanilloriental along the lines of Shalimar, leaning more towards the cinnamon and clove side. I like it quite a bit. Could it be…Takashimaya “T”? Armani Sensi? Paul and Joe Bleu? No, probably none of these but definitely some kind of oriental vanilla composition. Though it remains spicy, it gets a little soapy as it dries down and loses its complexity.

It was: Paul & Joe Bleu! Good job, Marlen! And Katie’s right — it is certainly in the same genre as Shalimar, although (heresy!) I like Bleu much better. Notes are: bergamot, coriander, cumin, ylang-ylang, jasmine, rose, magnolia, heliotrope, sandalwood, myrrh, oudh, vanilla, musk. I smelled this last winter at Anthropologie, loved it, and spent the next six months kicking myself for not having bought it. It’s a warm floriental, rich but not dense, that reminds me a little of Serge Lutens’ Chergui, only more floral, with a drydown that is woody rather than sweet. I finally scored a bottle on eBay. I give it two thumbs up for this fall, and consider it unisexy.

Scent C

Katie: Remember when Bath and Body Works was just starting out, and displaying everything in bushel baskets? They had one fragrance selection they were pushing like crazy (at the time I was working in a mall, next door to them) called Sun Ripened Berry or something like that? C has a fruity note that reminds me of what I remember that product line smelling like. But with peony! (And some other identity-less floral notes.) It smells like someone expertly mixed a bunch of body splashes, and came up with this. Which sounds bad, but you know, not really. It’s nice. Not anything I’d buy, but I think I’d enjoy catching a whiff of it on other folks in passing.

Marlen:Jasmine, rubber, fruit, nail polish remover…what a bizarre mix of aromas. Just when it wants to be blueberry pancake syrup, it changes to reveal something slightly dirty. Again, I’m sticking to my jasmine and thinking that the entire scent is some kind of grand homage to the white flower. I don’t think I would wear this as there’s too many other distracting notes here and the overall effect is just not something I could stand for very long. It’s like a jasmine with a nicotine addiction.

It was: Shiseido Message from Orchids! My entry in the Peculiar Category. I had concerns about Marlen recognizing it since he lived in Japan until recently. Notes are carnation, hyacinth, orchid, orange blossom and vanilla. This was easily the heaviest scent in the samples, and probably came as something of a shock after the other two. It is a profoundly strange fragrance, and I am never entirely sure whether I like it, but it is compelling and I don’t own anything else remotely similar. It is sweet, sharp, and green, and commenters on the blog swear it’s a dead ringer for the smell of cattleya orchids. It is not an easy fragrance for me to wear; sometimes it turns and growls at me, the green-ness so sharp and astringent that it strays almost – but not quite – into scrubber territory. Both Katie and Marlen, with the reference to BBW and nail polish remover, hit on the odd artifice of this scent. But when it is good, it is very, very good, the carnation adding warmth and spice to the rich orange/vanilla drydown. Fans of orchid fragrances, and the adventurous public, can buy decants on eBay.

Today’s special giveaway: sample set of these Three Blind Samples! I have just enough left to make one set. If you’d like to enter the drawing for it, say so in the comments.

Couple of interesting articles today on perfume.

First, the Detroit Free Press covers celebrity and celebrity-endorsed perfumes, which now make up 23% of the top 100 perfumes.  That figure kind of stunned me.  Offerings coming up are from Derek Jeter, Lindsay Lohan, Hilary Duff, and Mariah Carey.  I see this as just a bad trend since almost none of this group of fragrances ever seems very inspired. Some of them are pretty good as far as sniffage, but all tend to be not very unique, aimed more at capturing a “star smell” than to create a unique fragrance. Shame, that.

In contrast is this article, which covers how some fragrance companies are relaunching old fragrances to bolster profits.  Coty is bringing back ck One, Clinique is bringing out a big ad campaign for Happy, Prescriptives plans a big relaunch of Calyx.  To me, most of these aren’t that old. I would hope they’d dig a little further back into the historical closet for some great classics.  There’s my age talking. 

That article also states that the average life of a perfume is a year, as opposed to five years or more before 2000.  The capper statistic in this article is they say if you combined all the perfumes that came out between 1970 and 1989, that’s still not as many launches of perfume that came out in 2005.

First, Chandler Burr is the new Perfume Critic for the New York times. I’m looking forward to reading that column.  Has there ever been an official perfume critic before?  It would be great if this starts a trend.

So what is the ultimate trashiest guilty pleasure on television?  Big Brother 7 - All Stars, that’s what.  I’m not even going into any details about it here because only a fan will apreciate the game that they play and everyone else will be pretty sure I should seek mental help.  Usually at this point in the summer series, I’m over it and just waiting to find out which of the worst remaining in the house will win because I hate them all. This year, some of the best players ever are still in the house, playing each other, and it’s become a pretty entertaining trying to figure out who is playing what or whom, and the Evil Dr. Will is gorgeous and the most manipulative liar in reality TV history, which is super-fun to watch. 

My attention has been elsewhere the last couple of weeks as that game finally got good, and I’ve been ignoring my perfume addictions.  If there are other BB7 addicts, just let me know.

Newest love — Serge Lutens Encens et Lavande. I adored Gris Clair, surprisingly, because I don’t like lavender in perfume normally. When I got my hands on some Encens et Lavande, I was a little more optimistic, and…. wow. It takes my breath away.   A stunning incensy lavender, this just rocks. I wafted it under the hubby’s nose, and he’s been following me around since then.

Got my Cuir Amethyste.  Ditto what March said, this has to be spritzed. Between the leathery violet around my neck and the incensy lavender on my arm, I smell dreamy, like a place full of memories with just a tinge of regret.

I took a break yesterday from my monastic routine of only one (!) fragrance per day, a bit of insanity I will explain next week. It ended up being a horrid day perfume-wise, involving a trip to Ulta with #1 Daughter and some extremely poor fragrance choices.

I tried on Elizabeth Taylor’s Passion because the woman I’d grilled in the elevator last month said she was wearing “Elizabeth Taylor’s Poison — the purple one.” So she had to be talking about Passion, right? I also tried Cinnabar (the newest version), Kouros, Ralph Lauren … whatsit, and Lancome’s Magie Noire.

How was all that? God, if I could have peeled my own skin off like a snake and left it behind, I would have. When did Cinnabar start smelling like vomit? And the Passion — you have no idea. Magie Noire smelled just averagely sour, which was a relief. You know things are rough when your tweener daughter thinks the original Youth Dew is the best thing she’s smelling.

So we did some more hot, irritable errands and wasted precious time on stupid back-to-school-stuff, and when I got home all headache-y and cross there were three new packages waiting for me. I ripped them all open and the choice was clear — Serge Lutens Muscs Koublai Khan.

Because why not? If your fragrance day is already shot completely to hell, why not go ahead and see if you can make a migraine out of it? Because — get ready for my Dark Secret — I had never smelled MKK. Yep. I’m a Skank Poseur. I just use “MKK” as verbal shorthand for “it must be the worst, skankiest smell out there, because look how much I hated Borneo, which some folks actually wear.” Given my feelings for Borneo, I figured smelling MKK was redundant.

Anyway, where was I? Trying to trigger a migraine with MKK. But I didn’t, and I am here to shout it from the rooftops — MKK is musk, salt, armpit and leather, in that order. And it is beautiful. It took me a minute to sort out why I was enthralled: it smells like the Big Cheese when he works up a sweat. You can decide for yourself whether or not that makes me a lucky woman.

Of course, I had to stick it under the nose of #1 Daughter, who was understandably reluctant to smell me at that point. She said, “It’s kind of pretty, it tickles my nose. It smells like incense. It’s way better than anything else you put on.” Huh. She’s not a girl who likes it sweet, but still. I was a little shocked. I wonder if it reminds her of her father, or whether this is the start of a very jaded taste in fragrance.

Winner of the Badgley Mischka sample is — Kathy!  Just hit the button for Contact Me on the left and give me your address, and I’ll get it out to you this week!

Fall is right around the corner, and there are two scents I’ve been wearing as summer winds down that are making me long for a little snap in the air.

Miller et Bertaux Spiritus/Land and CB I Hate Perfumes Faggot.  Spiritus is earthy and complex and incredibly lovely.  Faggot (I wish Christopher had named this something else) is smoke in a bottle.  I sprayed some of it on my husband, and he about swooner over it. It smells like you’ve been sitting over a campfire for an evening, smokey and a little charred.

The link at the left now goes to my internet sample/decant store, though I still have my eBay store as well. There will just be more on the internet site. Speaking of which, the JAR samples are there as well.

 What fall/winter scent are you most looking forward to, either an old favorite or a new release?

I have leagues, fathoms, acres of samples upstairs, waiting patiently. But instead I’m going to comment on my Saturday Sniffage with Sariah:

The new Lanvin Rumeur. The first thing that caught my eye is the bottle. It’s unusual, but not silly or juvenile — there’s something about its squat shape and wavy glass that’s quite fetching (I think I read somewhere the bottles are handmade?). In terms of appeal the fragrance itself is a joyous white floral. I could see a younger customer embracing this, because it’s missing any sort of chypre or dark underpinning that might make the under-30 set run for cover. The SA at Saks told me it’s exclusive there, they were unpacking the boxes, it wasn’t even on the shelves yet. Notes: magnolia, seringa, white rose, sambac jasmine, patchouli, musk. It is a bit fruity-floral — there is a long stretch of what smells like peach in the middle — but the magnolia, musk and patch keep the juice faintly earthy/green rather than toothache-sweet. It may not be everyone’s taste, but it’s not insipid. It’s not really my style — I am entranced by only a handful of big florals — but it is one of the nicer offerings from a non-niche house in recent memory. Technically, this is a re-release, but I think the bottle and the fragrance are fairly different than the original, which I’ve not smelled. Sariah swore this reminds her of Lagerfeld Sun, Moon, Stars. At Saks and Saks online — where it is $85 for 3.3 oz.(!) of EDP(!), which by my standards is practically free; they have an even cheaper 1.7.

The new Acqua di Parma Iris Nobile EDP. Weeelllll….. I wanted to love it. I love Iris Nobile EDT in all its wonderful green sharp citrus opening and iris/orange blossom drydown, which lasts for maybe 30 minutes. The EDP is a significantly different fragrance — the sillage is decent, and the drydown is lovely. However, I seem to be missing all the anise/citrus/iris top and heart of the original — the EDP is all orange blossom on me. Should be called Arancia Nobile. It is not a replacement for Iris Nobile EDT, but judged on its own merits it is beautiful. At NM.

Indecision: Annick Goutal Sables and Duel. Duel is very pretty — mate tea, lemon and iris, but I don’t get the leather, and the lasting power seems minimal no matter how much I apply. Sables I am completely on the fence about. The spice/imortelle thing registers, variously, as a smell of such bizarre, powerful beauty that I am ready to buy the bottle right then — only if I wait ten minutes it smells like a bag o’ spice seasoning for some iffy curry-type dish I’m not sure is safe to eat. What do you think?

Change of Heart: Bvlgari The Rouge — The Blanc I own (and love — it’s more complex than it’s given credit for.) The Vert, both regular and mean, are nice enough but fail to move me, particularly after the advent of the other 75 green-tea scents. The Rouge I dismissed because I wanted more of the rooibos smell. However. I have re-sniffed this twice recently and am reconsidering, because what I get in there now is the smell of dirt, and it’s pretty fabulous — that rooty, earthy smell in rooibos and some other herbal teas. What is not to love about the smell of tea and dirt? Bvlgari Vile de Jasmin, on the other hand, is sharp and wretched and should be banned from public sale.

The Big News — I tried the Armani Amethyste straight out of their new tester bottle at Saks. Sariah pronounces it one of the worst fragrances she has ever smelled (she hates violet.) And … I can smell it!!! Oh happy, happy day!!! It smells like violet and leather. Not butch, smoky leather (e.g., Lonestar Memories or Russian Leather.) More a marine leather, or a suede. The violet is a little medicinal rather than sweet, although that may be a function of the leather. It is heaven. I love the way it hovers in the air around me. However. I talked to the SA for awhile and based on in-store customer feedback I think this one is potentially love-it-or-hate-it. Don’t be buying that $185 bottle unsniffed.

Finally: Guerlain Insolence. I hate almost everything about it — the absurd name for a tame scent, the stupid wobbly bottle, the pink juice, the wack ad campaign with Hilary Swank, the whole “entry-level Guerlain” vibe. My attitude is, if you’re not old enough to worship the goddess of Guerlain, then back the hell away from my altar. The only part I now have to admit (publicly and grudgingly) is: I don’t hate the fragrance. I don’t smell the fruit after the first 90 seconds, and I don’t get their “spiral accord,” but this one’s a sleeper. It’s the sort of frag you put on, say meh, forget about, and someone half an hour later says, wow, what is that lovely thing you’re wearing? What won me over is the drydown — it is unabashedly Guerlain, that powder/anise/violet that falls halfway between Apres L’Ondee and Meteorites, and given those reference points, how can I say it smells anything other than beautiful? It will not change your life. The Earth will not move. But I can see reaching for this any day I need a comfort scent.

Okay, the Sex in a Bottle giveaway from last week … I had more than 30 requests to be entered (wow, that sounds dirty), which in a way is nice, and in another way makes me feel really, really bad, because I only have a small amount of some of this stuff — even my new musk absolute bottle is just 15 ml. I think I can come up with three sets, which are going to … Tigs, Violetnoir, and Leopoldo, although if I run out of something I’ll throw in … some CdG Palisander, which is a great woods/incense, you’ll like it! Or not. Email me with your address at Contact Us. The rest of you, my apologies — samples of the CB Musk should be available fairly soon for $4, more or less, on the CB I Hate Perfume website.

It’s my turn for the Blind Scent sampling.  Ina at Aromascope and Victoria at Victoria’s Own reviewed three scents that I sent them.

Knowing how extensive their collection is, it’s really difficult to pick three scents that are unique enough to be of interest or that they wouldn’t recognize, but I tried my best.

•  #1 — Victoria said, “Vintage? Strong, wow, makes my eyes water! Not to say I don’t like it, I do, but wow. I have no clue what it is. I smell leather/suede, that’s the only note I can pick out. Smells faintly familiar though, pretty sure I have smelled it before. Ina said, “Um, an aftershave? Something with pine and moss and a whole bunch of citrus. Smells like some cheap drugstore cologne. Please tell me this is not some high end kick-arse potion. As it dries down, it gets softer and slightly powdery/soapy, still pretty heavy on pine that’s juicy and sort of sparkling. Now it smells sort of bitter mossy. Wow! What a transformation! Deep, bitter, almost leathery pine and moss. What is this? A Dior?”

What it is — Parfumerie Generale Querelle, one of their private perfumes that you sometimes get when you order.  When I first put this on, I thought it was just horrible, that cheap drugstore smell, but it really has an incredibly unique drydown.  It’s got some of that skanky oakmoss in there that I know March would swoon for, which reminds me, I need to send this on to her.

• #2 — Victoria said, “I dunno, it smells like malted milk balls perfume!  It’s warm, dry with a creamy untertone. Maybe it’s leather too.  Someone’s old shoes filled with malted milk balls.” Ina said, “This has gotta be some etailer creation. I’m getting some sort of a Christmas/potpourri theme here. Lavender? Spice? It’d make a nice candle but on my skin, it’s a total no-no. It’s remotely along the lines of Maharadjah by Parfums de Nicolai - *very* remotely. Sort of the same theme but softer. Not much development, just sitting there. In about 15 minutes, all I’m getting is some kind of sour note (I wanna say “feet” but it’s more along the lines of “urine”). Sorry!

What it is: CB I Hate Perfumes Limited Edition Gingerbread. Now, this is from his home line and is intended to be a room spray. I love it as long as I just put it on my clothes and not on my skin, but I would love for this to be a candle.

• #3 — Victoria said “Starts out very soapy, then gets very peppery. The change is quite striking. There is a creamy floral there that is slightly indolic, neroli? Due to the peppery nature, what comes to mind is once of the L’Artisans - I’ll say Poivre Piquant. Ina says “This has got to be a vintage scent. Heavy floral - tuberose, for sure, some jasmine, maybe rose. I think I’ve smelled it before but can’t place it yet. Oy. Now that it’s dried down a bit, it smells very old-fashioned. Not Mitsouko old-fashioned (as in, classic old-fashioned), more like outdated. The florals soften up quite a bit, and there’s a soft amber base with just a touch of old-fashioned powder. Is this something by Crabtree & Evelyn? I know, I said vintage at first but not so sure any more.”

What it is:  Givenchy Le De.  I’m not a huge vintage fan as far as wearing them, though I always like to smell them and admire them. This one is one of my favorite vintages, though, that a dear friend sent me.

Well, I did it, I broke down and got two of the JARs, Shadow and Diamond Water, and I don’t regret it a bit, they are such welcome additions to my perfume collection.

I put on Diamond Water yesterday all by itself, with no other scents competing for real estate, and it lasted all night and kept softening and just getting prettier and prettier, and I fell head over heels in love with it.  I’m so glad I got it, it just breathes elegance and beauty. You know when you see something so beautiful, you have no words to describe it, and to try put words to how exquisite it is will cheapen it?  Yeah… like that.

The bad news is the Shadow, which I also love, but haven’t spent the night with, so to speak, has cloves in it, and I didn’t know that my husband can’t stand the smell of cloves (how can you know someone for 15 years and NOT know this?).   Well, more for me!  But he’s pretty disappointed that he can’t wear it and get ravished. 

This is a short post today since I’ve been doing training all week and suffering from insomnia on top of that. I’ll be back in good writing energy next week.

As a side note, I hope to be done with putting my decants and samples in my internet store over the weekend, in addition to my eBay listings, which will make it easier to extend discounts on shipping and samples and decants in the regular pricing.  I’ll just drop a quick note in a post when it is ready and change the link over on the right.

Do you think I’m turning into a man? I wonder. Given the direction my nose is headed these days, maybe I should check and see if I’m transgendering in my sleep. You’d think I’d notice — or the Big Cheese would point it out…

In our boring Barneys Co-Op I stumbled across the Barney’s Route du The — the one for men, with the chocolate-brown label. Way better than the women’s, which smells very sharp and cat-peeish to me. The men’s is tea and patchouli, and I’m probably going to wander back over and buy one, it smells very fall-ish to me. Interestingly, I can’t find it on their website.

At Neiman Marcus, the SA and I were whooping it up in the men’s frags section. We were in firm agreement that Dolce & Gabbana Pour Homme is Sex in a Bottle. (I will leave the rest of our conversation out, for her protection.) Our other new love is:

Prada Amber Pour Homme. Have you smelled this? My, oh, my. The bottle lists patch, cardamom, amber, and some other manly stuff, but they don’t list the foofy feminine note at the top, which to me is orris. My only quibble with this juice is the word “Homme.” Puh-leeze. There is nothing remotely Homme about it; it makes Rocabar look butch. You see what I’m saying here. This is not a criticism of the fragrance, which I think should be sprayed on everyone around me on the subway — they should pump it out into the air. That’s how delicious it is. I am simply pointing this out as an example of why homme designations are absurd. FWIW I am not the Queen of Amber, either, and it’s not gagging me in this one.

I wanted to love the Sisley Soir de Lune, which could be soooooo Pour Homme, and for the first 20 minutes I do, when it’s being a prickly, difficult chypre of the dry green sort that makes chypre-haters squinch up into that funny Bill-the-Cat face. But then it gets a little too rose-jasmine-ish on me and I lose interest. You chypre fans should check it out, though. At least it’s not another wretched fruity-floral.

I haven’t managed to fall in love with a single Creed (talk about a needle in a haystack!) but I may have found it — Silver Mountain Water — hamptonct.com says: “Master Perfumer Olivier Creed’s personal favorite scent, Silver Mountain Water was inspired by wild, fresh water and the natural splendor, strength and light of the French Alps. A refreshing infusion of green tea and black currants, Silver Mountain Water is as bracing as a pure mountain waterfall in springtime.” I’m not sure about all of that, but it does smell wonderful. Unisexy.

The Divines got sampled at least twice. I think L’Infante would be a prime example of the aspects of anosmia Christopher Brosius so aptly demonstrated for Patty and me in his shop by holding various things under our noses. Huge swaths of folks can’t smell individual compounds, which is why, for instance, there are so many kinds of musk in a musk fragrance. Brosius’ personal theory is that so many people can’t smell a particular popular musk compound (which I could remember the name) he can’t stand, which is why they overspray until they reek of it – they can’t smell it otherwise. Anyway, back to L’Infante – okay, you readers were raving, and there is something there, but to me it was like spraying myself with water, more or less. “Light” doesn’t really capture it. L’ame Soeur I was sure I’d love because of the ambergris, but it was all powder on me. L’Homme de Coeur I loved at the opening, but it was gone way too fast. L’Homme Sage, however… We Have A Winner!!!! Notes are saffron, mandarin, cardamom, lychee, aromatic woods, immortelle, patchouli, oak moss, amber, incense. A rich, powerful, slightly green woods/incense that caught my attention every time I caught a whiff from the back of my hand. Did Patty love it on me? No, she doesn’t. But that’s okay, because I loved it on me, I’m going to have to buy some.

SNM Nostalgia – smell this one. As P described it in Takashimaya, it’s like Tubereuse Criminelle without the tuberose. It’s sort of like sitting in your leather-interior car with the windows rolled down, inside the auto repair shop. Okay, I probably won’t be buying a bottle, but the drydown gets more conventional, and I think after the first 10 minutes of madness it would smell great on The Big Cheese.

Today’s giveaway is: S-ex in a Bottle! Samples of S-Perfume’s stunning 100% Love, 100% Love {MORE}, S-ex, and Sloth. I’ll also throw in a squidge of the CB Musk Reinvention absolute which is brand new and features one of the most pronounced naughty notes I’ve smelled in recent memory. If you’re feeling shame when you smell it, you can bury it very nicely under a jasmine; layered with anything leather, it is deliciously dirty. Note — it is an oil, apply sparingly. As in, one drop. You Were Warned. I’d try not to spill the vial in your car. Anyway, if you want to be entered in the giveaway, say so in the comments below.

The search for the perfect mascara is never-ending, but I think I may have found something pretty close.  Lancome Fatale.  Made with some new Filtex formula with silicone, it is billed to make your lashes big and long and pretty and stay that way with no smoodging.  It also has one of those tri-bristle wands.  Enough with the yapping about the technology, does it work?

I put it on in the morning and wound up with big, fat lashes, and at 6 p.m. at night, there is not one smudge under my eyes, and all the mascara is on my lashes, and they look exactly the same as they did this morning, which is a miracle. I’m an eye-rubber all day long, and today was a long training day, and I normally come home with bare lashes and black under my eyes, like an unmade racoon.

How great is this?  It’s a perfect 9.9 on a 10 scale. The only thing that would make it better is they will put it in different colors like navy and eggplant and forest (are you listening, Lancome?  That would make me sooooo happy, I would leap with joy!!!) Currently available only in black and brown, and I use brown, but I far prefer dark jewel tones.

Available at the Lancome-usa.com website. While you’re there, pick up an Artliner in Blueberry.  If you’ve been afraid of liquid liners, this is the one to get to start learning to love them.

My eyes are gawgeous, and they stay that way all the day.

It’s the August doldrums, and I figure the nine of you who are still reading the blog can put up with something a little different.

You may remember several months ago I was waxing lyrical over a lost fragrance from my youth, a gift from my mother, and in my mind I’d pictured a classic like L’Air du Temps, only better. Then the name of the fragrance –Trailing Arbutus — came to me like a shot in the dark and I googled it immediately — and was so embarrassed by the Avon name staring me in the face that I resolved quietly to forget all about it.

Then Katie at Scentzilla did a post reminiscing about those Avon collectibles that folks of a certain age remember from our childhoods. We gave them to our moms, they gave them to us; the bottles were often novelty-shaped (shoes, animals, cars) and, let’s face it, filled with mediocre fragrance like Moonwind or Topaze. Or Trailing Arbutus. But Katie’s post got me contemplating buying a bottle on eBay. (If you have no idea what I’m yammering about, search “vintage Avon bottle” on eBay and sit back in awe.)

What does the 1979 Anniversary Keepsake Edition of Avon’s Trailing Arbutus conjure up? The precise smell of being fifteen and at loose ends, with a mother who was ill and losing her grip on reality, and also going blind, somewhat more slowly. The combination threw her into titanic rages, which we hid from as best we could. My father dealt by spending a lot of time at work. I dealt by hanging out in my room with the curtains drawn, staring at my unicorn posters and listening to Joni Mitchell’s Blue album over and over again, on the stereo, as she sang

I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly
Oh I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
I made my baby cry…

You go ahead and laugh, but I felt hope listening to Joni sing about various pains and joys and sadnesses, even the stuff I was too young to relate to — those mournful lyrics about hanging out in bars listening to jukeboxes and arguing with old lovers and whatnot. It’s still one of my favorite albums. Joni got me through.

So I bought the damn bottle. I found one in a box, unopened, hoping to minimize the age damage, but still, it wasn’t exactly Nombre Noir to begin with, was it? And now it’s almost 30 years old, so my expectations were pretty low. I thought I’d let that genie out of the bottle and see what happened.

It smelled perfect — the room, the dark green bedspread, the peeling wallpaper, the dust, the books, Joni on the stereo — the whole deal, in an instant — all the fear and hope and stillness, the waiting and the inchoate wanting — right there in one tall, beribboned bottle.

I can’t say if this really smells like trailing arbutus (i.e., May flower) because I’ve never smelled May flowers. Probably not. Objectively, this juice is crap; it smells more like hairspray than any real flower. But I don’t care. The record may be a little scratchy after all these years, but I can still hear Joni in the background.

top: eBay image of the bottle I bought

Joni Mitchell, Blue, lyrics from River: lyricsfreak.com

We are all thrilled to give you our first impressions of the newest fragrance in the Armani Prive line: Cuir Amethyste, which is showing up right now in various Saks stores.

March Says: I wanted to love the new, improved Cuir Amethyste, which (rumor had it last spring) had been delayed from its original May release in the U.S. while they tinkered with the formula. That’s what the SA at Saks told me, anyway. I never smelled the first round, so I have nothing to compare it to, but this! This went on like a very light Gris Clair — lavender, a little incense, and no detectable leather (cuir), at least to my nose. Drydown — heliotrope and powder — but barely detectable, like Guerlain’s Meteorites or Apres l’Ondee EDT after six hours. I re-sprayed so much that there was an oil-like sheen on my hand and wrist and I still couldn’t smell it. It wasn’t merely “light;” Pierre de Lune is light. Amethyste is like a smell detector test, and I failed it.

I figured, oh, well, I guess I can skip this one, and I went next door to Lauren to return something. The SA there pounced on me as I came through the door — he loved it; he asked me what I was wearing. He could not get enough. He told me it was amazing. At Barneys Co-op next door, same deal — pretty young man at the counter asks me what I’m wearing, says it’s just gorgeous. (At this point I’m thinking, WTH?!?!? I must reek! Why can’t I smell it?!?) Off to NM (should I be ashamed at the empty vapidity of my life?) to smell some other things. Three of three female SAs there said it smelled like mild powder and/or almond/heliotrope. They could barely smell it. Are you noting a pattern here?
Then I went home and waved my arm in the direction of the Big Cheese … and he was blown away. He said it smelled great but “really strong.” (Huh?!?!?) When I told him it seemed like only the men could smell it, he said it could be a Secret Handshake — all the men would love it, and the women would be oblivious. I asked him to describe it. He said (get this): it smells like leather, like the inside of a very expensive leather handbag. It smells a little like incense. I asked him, does it smell sweet? He says, no, it doesn’t smell like a woman’s perfume, a man could wear this.

Am I bitter? I’m getting yesterday’s Guerlain Meteorites, and the man I love, the man who can’t smell paint thinner, who never says jack about my perfume except I wish you’d get those decants out of the office, is carrying on about incense and leather handbags?

You’re damn right, I’m bitter.

Patty Says: Two of the Armani Prive scents I love, Bois D’Encens and Pierre de Lune, so I’ve been anxiously waiting for this latest release of Cuir Amethyste.  March, the intrepid Perfume Warrior, managed to get a sample made up to send me, when I can’t get a sample from anywhere else (she’s a true perfume pal).  Leather and violets, what could there be to hate?  When it first went on, it smelled much more leathery. Then in about a couple of minutes, all the leather stampeded off and left me with a very lovely violet, though there was something around the edges that I could almost smell, but remained elusive.  I like it quite a lot, but I’m not sure it’s interesting enough to spend $180 a bottle for. However, it lasts forever, and I floated it under the husband’s nose several hours after I put it on. He smelled zero violets and all leather and thought it was great.

There are a couple of explanations for this.  That men have trouble picking out violets or that the leather note in this is almost invisible to some women’s noses.  I feel tragically cheated and spurned by this note. i’d almost rather think it was just a lovely violet with a slight leather in it than to know there is much more there that I’m not smelling.

Can anyone point me to any texts out there that talk about this male/female note-smelling difference? I assume it has to do with attraction by smell to the opposite sex, but it fascinates me.

Good Lord, Brit. I remember being that pregnant, but nothing about this look is working for you. The hair is way too dark (a beautiful caramel brown would have been sublime), the outfit… oh, the outfit, it looks like your mama sewed it up fer ya las’ night cuz you wuz out of clo’s. When Kevin is looking like the fashionable half of this duo something is very wrong.  Should I be picking on Brit?  No, I shouldn’t, but it’s only because I care and would like to see her about 170 pounds lighter, which is my estimate of what K-Fed weighs.  You’ve picked up two beautiful children out of this, which is what I think you really wanted, so get this bun out of the oven, then keep the bum or drop him, but please get back to being someone I like to see what she’s wearing instead of looking like, well, the rest of us!

Project Runway – I simply must protest. First I lose my beloved Malan, and now I am without the snarky, evil Keith.  Catching up on this show has not been fun for my entertainment need for over-the-top characters.  What the hell was Keith thinking tucking pattern-making books under his bed?  Who will entertain me, I ask!!!!! *stamping foot bitterly*  And the dog challenge? Alison totally owned that one, she was robbed in plain daylight.  

So who will I love to hate now?  Ah, Jeffrey!  He starts off this week declaring himself the winner before he has taken one stitch.  Ba ba bum!!! That’s the  sinister organ music foreshadowing what *may* happen later.  And Laura too — that is one cold, cold woman.  My tear ducts freeze up when she comes on the screen - she may be too frigid to allow me to hate her as much as I need to.  And Bradley just cracks me up. He is just living in some really fun world that I’d like to inhabit — seems peaceful with all the leisurely frolicking of the Bradley time fairies.  Good grief, guy, turn on the jets!

 Okay, I wrote this post while watching the show just so you don’t think I’m sorta talking to myself

Favorite look/designer for this week’s episode — Micheal doing Pam Brown. Holy shit, that was hot, hot, hot!

Angela’s Audrey Hepburn wasn’t bad at all.  It was really quite good. Maybe she just had an off week or two and she’s much better than she first appeared?  Naw, she just got lucky in the challenges, her suckitude will resurface again.

Kayne’s Marilyn Monroe was great!  Once his Chatty Cathy Doll of a model zipped it, she looked magnificent with the dress, the hair… just perfection.

Jeffrey — WTH was that?  Santino on drugs could not have concocted something that hideous.  How you escaped the notice of the judges is witness only to how bad some of the other designs were  –looking at you, Bradley and Vincent.  Vincent, that outfit looked like some of the Barbie clothes my sister and I used to make when we were pre-teens.

And the winner, according to the judges is… Yes, Michael!!!!!!! Great choice, judges, I’m glad you’ve been listening to me.

The loser… it’s got to be Bradley, that was a mess he did of Cher’s look.  Yes, it is Bradley. Such a lovely man, and I bet he’s a great designer, he just needs more room on the space-time continuum to create.

How much do I love this show?  Scads.  My only complaint — more TimGunn 2.0.

 

Is anyone nervous about all the new releases coming up?  Serge’s Mandarine Mandarin, the L’Artisan weird named one, dzonhgeee or something? and the Narcissus cru at $295 a bottle, Hermessence has a new one in the line, and Ormone Jayne’s Orris Noir, and what else?  Quick pencil and notepad is coming up with about 1k I’ll need to spend just to get these, and I know I’m missing a couple that I need. How in the world will I get Diamond Waters wedged in?  Not to mention Shadow and Golconda?  Criminy, it’s going to be a great fall for new perfumes, and we’ll all be the poorer for it.

We went to Bergdorf and sniffed the JARs. If you’re in New York, go. You’ll never smell anything like them. JAR is the initials of Joel Arthur Rosenthal, the luxury jeweler, who is apparently the actual nose behind these scents (rather than a hired gun.) Patty and I did a joint post on this, with Patty’s notes dropped in where she wanted to comment — and where we differed in feeling.
The presentation is this: you’re seated at a table in a small, dimly lit room in the beauty basement (the old Guerlain niche, redecorated). The SA (the charming Franz, if you’re lucky, who is gorgeous, charming and did we mention gorgeous?) presents each of the seven fragrances to you, one at a time, thusly – he lifts the lid on a glass bowl containing a chamois soaked in the scent, and holds it for you to sniff as long as you want to. You are not told the name of the fragrance ahead of time, and you are never told the notes. You are to draw your own conclusions, free of the burden of others’ impressions. You do not touch the bottle, although they are there, lined up down the right-hand side of the desk. After you have sniffed all the scents (Franz tells you the name after you’ve smelled it), you can elect to have him apply one or more – or all of them, I guess. It’s up to you. Does this sound irritating? It wasn’t, actually. It’s just The Way It Is, and you might as well run with it.

Franz was incredibly friendly and played along with us – and there were five of us aged 18 to early 70s, and fairly raucous. And maybe it’s just his superb salesmanship, but he seemed to be having fun along with us.

Here are our impressions, in no particular order. See the end of the post for general notes.

Golconda – the original JAR and probably the most wearable, along with Diamond Water (I believe those two are the most popular.) Golconda is primarily carnation, luxe carnation, with a spicy, clove-like note, along with whatever else. I did not get the malevolent note this time – it smelled luxurious, sweet, deep and rich. (I swear I smelled stewed tomatoes in there in the drydown on my sister — Patty)

Diamond Water – this one has a strong incense smell, deep and dark, with leather. It smelled amazing on Patty. (Patty: I wore this one all day, and it shifted about some, but just kept getting prettier and deeper as the day went on, for about four hours, and then it started to dissipate some, or my nose got used to what it was smelling.)

Jardenia – get it? Get it? Gardenia – with a nice, heavy dollop of leather and bleu cheese. Nope, not kidding about the bleu cheese. I was completely repulsed; I kept turning away in disgust, unable to get past that particular note to the (admittedly stunning) gardenia. However, the other four members of the group found the cheese note to be varying degrees of interesting and appealing. (Patty: At the end of the day, on my niece, the bleu cheese note disappeared, and what was left was just stunning. I’m not sure I could wait the 8 hours it took to get there, as it wrinkled up my nose something awful all day, though I still found it charmingly interesting — like that crazy uncle you love that pees in your closet while he’s alive, but leaves you a bundle in his will, and you are quite sure you’d rather have him alive and peeing in your closet than his money. A slice of heaven at the end.)

Bolt of Lightning – this one knocked me (March) on my fanny — a winner! Although I don’t think Patty was loving it on me. Not ozonic/ionic in the sense of, say, Demeter Thunderstorm — more a rich, green, hair-raisingly sharp smell that made me think of bamboo. One of two I chose to apply (along with Jarling.) I should note here: none of these had what I think of as “developmentâ€? in the traditional sense – top, middle, base. It was all there from the start, more or less, in each scent, and/or the fragrances shifted subtly. They are all quite strong, and with the possible exception of Golconda I would not describe any of them as remotely conventional. (Patty: I wasn’t all about this one, but it was definitely sharp, and I smelled wood, and my notes are silent on anything else.)

Shadow – Wow. This one is … virtual reality. The others found this comforting, like a childhood memory. A scent memory of some sort for all of us. Deep, rich tobacco. (Patty: I got vetiver and plenty of it. I don’t know what it reminded me of, maybe the cellar we used to go in that was full of canned things and potatoes and urns of cabbage being turned into sauerkraut or the smell of my dad or the sweet musty smell that you’d find in unexpected places. The longer I wore this one, the more I loved it. The sharpness on the open dried out, and it was just soft, like a favorite pillowcase with your beloved’s smell on it. Of all of them, this is the one I am most likely to buy and throw on my husband and then ravish him.)

Jarling – the only one you could describe as remotely gourmand (excepting the cheese note in Jardenia.) A floral/berry, almond-y scent with a wine-rich base. Ultimately it turned a bit boozy on me. (Patty: it turned a little too almondy cherry for me, or maybe it didn’t turn that way, the cherry just never really left and just kept it too linear.)

Ferme Tes Yeux (“close your eyes� in French) – animalic in a strongly barnyard direction, according to my compatriots, who should know, having grown up on a farm. The actual smell they named is unprintable here, but that still didn’t prompt anyone to run to the ladies’ room in search of soap to wash it off – it was actually rather compelling. I am guessing this is their least popular fragrance, but what do I know? It wouldn’t smell like anything else in your wardrobe, that’s for sure. (Patty: by the end of the day, this was just barnyard on my mom. She was so brave to put it on when no one else would.)

General notes on the fragrances: It was dark in there, and JAR is so secretive I can’t find the fragrances listed anywhere online, including their website, so forgive any typos in the spelling. There is no price list either, but Jarling was $470 per 30ml, and the Bolt of Lightning is, I think, their most expensive at $765/30ml. I am guessing the rest are more or less in the middle. Folks who would know by smell have judged the JAR absolutes among the finest money can buy. Lasting power is excellent.

Would I buy one? Well… let me answer this way. The outer limits of price are being tested in the luxury market all the time – my current issue of Elle features something called Sparrow essence by FreeCity (”in line with the brand’s haute-boho philosophy”), what I can only assume is high-end hippie love oil at $850 for a smallish bottle (huh, do you think they use organic sparrow essence?). Anyway, based on the assumptions about the JAR ingredient costs (Christopher Brosius found himself doing mental calculations based on his sniffage and coming up with some wildly expensive estimates) who’s to say these aren’t quite reasonably priced? Or not — I still don’t consider $500 or $800 to be an outrageous sum of money for fragrance, if it is something you really, truly love. Having said all that – I was prepared to fall in love and buy one, and I didn’t. I think a second visit would prompt another try of Bolt of Lightning, along with Shadow, and possibly a purchase. I think Patty is considering a purchase – or even two.

(Patty: I am thinking about it, and I do wish this were easier to sample. I’d like to live with Shadow and Diamond Waters and Golconda for a few days before I plunge. As March commented, the price tag on these, after smelling them, didn’t even phase me. I think it’s a ton of money, but these reek of costly, rich ingredients, and I can’t think of one thing they smell like. You know how we all play that “What does it smell like?” game? I can’t think of anything, not one other perfume — I can only go back to scent memories, even when I can’t name them. If I were to fall in love with one, I would buy it without thinking twice. They last all day and stay very true to what they were in the beginning, although there is some movement in the drydown to keep it interesting. Shadow, Diamond Water and Golconda are the three that are most likely to move into the Patty Household. Y’all’s job is to convince me I need them, so get busy.)

Marina of Perfume-Smellin’ Things has created three mods of a signature scent for me, crafted out of existing fragrances, in response to my earlier attempt to construct her Holy Grail.

Today’s post is a report on her efforts. After you’re done reading, scroll back up here to the link to her post today, where she does her Big Reveal of how she made these fragrances.  Rather than construct three entirely distinct fragrances, as I did for her, she created her own base – the Colombinade (which she included a sample of) – and used that base to make the four mods she sent me.

It made sense to me to try the Colombinade first, and if they sold it at Bergdorf I’d have bought a full bottle in the larger size. I have no idea, I cannot even guess, which scents she used to make this, except to say that she hit all her high notes. There is considerably more than a hint of incense, right off the bat, and it is perfect – not too sweet, plenty dark, not too medicinal. There might be some Le Labo Vetiver in here – I’m getting my favorite feet. There is also (surprise, surprise!) a hefty dose of skank, although since I said I wanted it “wearable,� and Marina is the Goddess of Skank, I can see her mustering every ounce of self-restraint when composing this. It is reasonably animalic/musky, but not enough to frighten anyone. Well, not enough to frighten me, anyway. You might be a different story. The drydown six hours later is a mouthwatering honeyed musk with incense. Marina – we need the exact recipe for this, hon, because unless you have a vat of this sitting around (in which case, can I buy a decant?) I need to make some more. Fall is just around the corner.

Mod 1 – March No. 4 – Well … there is a distinct top note of rose. Is this your sneaky way of making me love the rose? It’s an admirable attempt. However, the rose (and it’s a very green rose) is poking holes in my perfect skank with its thorns. The rose mostly dies off in the drydown, leaving me with more of a spicy-incense note. Now, this Mod A is still better than anything I smelled during my sniffage today at the mall – but my bar is much higher than that. This would be an excellent choice for someone who wanted a stronger floral note. But it’s not the Pearl.

Mod 2 — Sacred Feminine – I wonder if these names are a hint? Probably not … okay, let’s see – hah! Now we are cooking! This is a woodier fragrance than A. It is sparkly, aldehydic opening – what is that? Yvresse? Developing … a ping of something medicinal (in a good way) – iris? Now … the feet sneak in! But that’s okay, because they’re carrying a bouquet of violets between their toes. Hahahhahaha!!! You know what this is like? It’s like when they messed up the recipe for Chanel No. 5 and Coco loved it, so it stayed messed up. You really ramped up the skank on this one! But that floral note is delicious, and I think I’m getting some patchouli in the drydown. This could definitely be the Golden Pearl.

Mod 3 — Rotund Floriental — This starts off promisingly. I get a little fruit in the opening, but not overly sweet, and the rest is a woody floral. I love the first five minutes of this – it’s very flirtatious. And then it becomes … strangely inert. Don’t get me wrong, it still smells very nice, it doesn’t turn ugly on me. But it loses its zip somehow, and a slight boozy note creeps into the drydown.

Mod 4 – Temple of March – Yum. What is that top note? It’s green and crisp – makes me think of raw silk. If Golden Pearl was your exclusive line (and I guess it is), this would be the most niche smelling. That is … extremely curious. I feel like I should recognize that top note – is it one of your classic Diors, like Dioressence or Diorella? Sometimes they love me, after all, and this one is definitely loving me.  Of the four, this was the longest-lasting on me — a full eight hours later it’s going strong.

Of the four mods, Mod 4 was my favorite in the floral direction – something about the green-fruit sweetness of the top on that rich base is really working for me. A close second was Mod 2, because how can I resist the smell of those feet? Honestly, though, my favorite of all of them was the base — really, it is perfection.

Marina, thanks so much — this was really fun!!! The rest of you — tune in tomorrow, when Patty and I post our joint review of the JARs at Bergdorf. Patty’s been slammed at work, so it took us a little while to pull it together, and we wanted to do them justice.

Winners of the Chypre Rouge sample are: Chaya and Eumy. Just click on the Contact Us button over there on the left and send your address and I’ll get a sample out to each of you. Thanks to everyone who played!

Our adventure in New York was so fun, and we tried so many things, I’m at a loss on where to start or end, so I guess the best place is just to begin somewhere, so I’ll start with a few things that found their way into my bag and home with me:

Badgley Mischka — a new one! First, the bottle is just stunning. This one goes on fruity, reminds me a little of Cartier Delices, but without the cherry.  Notes listed for the open (according to Fashionsquare.com) are red wild berries and fresh picked peach laced with creme de cassis.  Okay. I get the fruit without fail.  It’s pretty sweet, I note the start of a tiny cavity in my molar.  Middle notes are osmanthus flower, white peony and jasmine.  Loves me some peony, and that really saves this one for me. If I couldn’t smell the peony below all that fruit near the beginning, this would wind up a scrubber.  Base is suede musks, Indian sandalwood, caramel amber and patchouli.  The first time I wore this, the beginning about killed me, and I really like fruity florals as a rule.  I just endured for a bit, resmelled about an hour later and found this perfectly charming perfume, floral with a gorgeous, warm base under it.  I’m not finding anything groundbreaking with this scent, but it is beautiful, wears well, and it is well worth a sniff.  Available only at Bergdorf and Neiman Marcus until the end of September.

Serge Lutens Gris Clair — I hate lavender on me. I love it on my pillow, in my garden, on other people, but never on me.  What possessed me to spritz on some Gris Clair after sniffing the bottle is beyond my figuring, but I’m sure glad I did. Love it!  The smokey incense buries the lavender, and it is just gorgeous.  Once I read the notes and saw my beloved tonka bean, then I understood why it works for me. Completely different from anything else I own, it had to come home with me.

Two of the Miller et Bertaux (bertee?) also captivated me, the land and the green.  Since my suitcase was going to have about 1000 ml of perfume in it already, and I was afraid they would sieze my luggage with my babies in there, thinking they were bombs, I elected to have them shipped. Therefore, I don’t have a lot of detail about them in memory except I loved them both, and loved them twice as much together.  One was deep and earthy and incensey and the other was gorgeously green. More on these once they arrive and I can bathe in Bertauxy goodness

Laura Tonatto E. Duse, I finally broke down and bought a bottle of this.  I thought I hadn’t, but I found it in my bag when I left Barney’s, and they definitely charged me for it, so it’s mine now!  I forgot how much I adore it, it is just my favorite violet.

Giveaway this week, a sample of the new Badgley Mishka. Just say you’d like to be entered in the comments, and I’ll put you in.

I went to the feast. And I knew there would be a lot of food, wonderful food, food I’d never tried before, only read about and dreamed of. And I couldn’t eat it all. So I had a plan. I’d only order the most special things, the things at the top of my list, and ignore the rest of the things, especially things I’d eaten before, no matter how tempting. Of course, once I got there, that plan was hard to stick to – because, for example, who can pass up an entire illuminated table of Guerlain at Bergdorf, with Plus Que Jamais and Cuir Beluga and Jicky parfums (two bottles!) just lying there like body mist at the Dollar Store? So … okay, I’d just have a taste. Just one forkful. Of a lot of things. A lot of things.

And how does this impact the clarity of my impressions? Since the whole visit ultimately resembled an orgy more than a meditation, maybe some of my impressions are inaccurate. And fleeting. And I’d do the same thing all over again.

Today I’m talking about Takashimaya. I’m not easily intimidated by retail, and it still took me, oh, 10 minutes to come to terms with the extremely edited, uber-chic ambience in Tak. What a store!! I believe Patty and I were on the 6^th floor. We went twice, on two different days, and if I lived in New York I’d probably go once a week. I’d go so often they’d get a restraining order.

I’d go once a week to visit Danielle, the SA of a certain age who has that whole precise, immaculate, extremely-polite-but-no-BS thing – which I think of as quintessentially Parisian, if not French – down to a science. She did advise us that we shouldn’t, perhaps, try to smell every fragrance they carried in the same visit. And we laughed and said, we know! We know! Oh, well! We’re here for the feast!

The Fragonards were delicious. Okay, not all of them. The Soleil, de Tout Coeur and Belle de Nuit were just okay to me – they’re various flavors of rich florals, and my personal tastes don’t often run that direction. The Diamant they characterize as a sweet-oriental, but it’s too sweet for me to love it. Grain de Soleil I am kicking myself for not trying – it was lighter-colored so I assumed incorrectly that it was a summer version of Soleil. However, the Fragonard website makes it sound frantastic – “A marriage of rose, iris and jasmine enhanced by cinnamon, amber, vanilla and incense, Grain de Soleil is an eau de parfum that exudes mystery.� I so want to exude mystery – next visit, maybe. I devoted more of my attention to what I think are the men’s scents, especially Cyprien and Vetyver – I think they had four altogether, and they were extremely well-priced. I also enjoyed their Confidentiel line. The Soudain (mandarin, lemon, cardamom, jasmine, orange blossom, gaiac wood and musk) and Apres Tout (rose, bergamot, violet, raspberry, crystal rose absolute, oak moss, amber and musk) were both quite pretty. I liked the incense-spiciness of Mensonge the most initially (grapefruit, ginger, green leaves, cardamom, nutmeg, clove, jasmine, vetiver, sandalwood, lavender) but it took on that acrid note I hate – although in a way that was good, because I could have Patty smell it on me and weigh in. To my nose it’s the acrid sharpness of almost-armpit. To her, though, it’s more spicy-pepper, and while it’s strong is not unpleasant (we were both smelling it on me), proving the point that personal perceptions are so varied and so much a part of the experience.

Anyway, the one Fragonard that really stuck around and haunted me was Cette Nuit La (galbanum, neroli, essence of coriander, Bulgarian and Turkish roses, and iris absolute); I don’t have anything in my wardrobe that smells like that. It’s a little too green for me at the top, and (the truth?) I sprayed it on because it smelled so peculiar sniffing the cap. But eight hours later at the airport, the drydown continued to haunt me. It was rich and warm and distinctive and, notes aside, didn’t smell much like roses to me. It smelled like spices, incense, and October.

Coming up soon: more Tak, in which our heroine March embraces the Divine, waxes Nostalgic, and finally falls in love and purchases some eye makeup, narrowly missing being bitch-slapped by her blogmate, who spent two days displaying humor and Job-like patience about the multiple eye makeovers. And the JARs at Bergdorf. We have to talk about the JARs, don’t we?

SPECIAL NOTE: Marina and I did some blind swappage with Ina at Aromascope. Come laugh at me here on her post today.