Eat My Words

Remember last week when I yammered about how cedar was such a disaster on me, and even a little bit tended to ruin a scent? How it´s all acrid armpit? Sure you do. That would be the exact day I smelled Rochas Lui for the first time (thanks, V!), which – when I was eventually able to unglue my nose from my wrist – I discovered is composed of cedar, cedarwood and cedar. (Okay, more like: Calabrian citron, buffalo grass, cedar, vanilla, amber and patchouli. Or: Cedar, neroli, Sycamore Wood, Bison Grass, and Cedarwood, Patchouli and Vanilla). Did it smell like an acrid armpit? Noooooooooooo, it did not. It smelled like a citrus/hay opening with a hint of lavender, followed by incense, woods, grass, patch and … can I digress here? Because I´d seen Casino Royale the night before, and that was the first thing I thought of when I smelled Lui. You see, Daniel Craig isn´t really right as James Bond. There´s something a little louche about him; his neck´s too short and his features are too rough. Stick him in an Armani jacket behind the wheel of an Aston Martin, and he still looks like a thug. Having said that, he´s certainly not hard to look at, particularly when he´s tied to a chair, naked and trembling, while Le Chiffre tortures him in a way not describable on our family blog … where was I? My point is: Lui is the smell of a thug dressed up as a toff, only you don´t care that he´s pretending, in fact you like it – and all you want is to take those silly clothes off. It´s from the men´s department, but ladies can borrow. I definitely want to put my hands on it.

Next, we have the fragrance Maurice Roucel created for NY Fashion Week. Okay, I feel a little silly typing those words – it´s not like Maurice slipped me a bottle at the after-party while we were all drunk on success and Cristal. Everything I know about fashion I read on GFY. Anyway, I have a little sample and I have no idea what´s in it. I love it. It starts off with a weirdly attractive, high-pitched synthetic note – half Final Net, half Pez — drying down into a molten amber with a little animalic note to keep it interesting. I bet it smelled great on all those 6-foot models. I feel taller just sniffing it, but I’m not going to fall in love, because my lucky 8 ball isn’t seeing any more of this in my future.

Also, Violetnoir thoughtfully provided me with (among other lovelies) samples of Coco Mlle and Coco EDP because she wanted me to test her assertion that, layered, they are fabulous. I admit I’m underwhemed by Mlle on its own — clearly aimed at a younger, sweeter demographic, it seems too tame to be related to Coco, which I love and wrote up last week. So I was dubious, but am pleased to report the experiment was a great success. Layered, the two scents morph into a third, not-too-girly scent with Coco’s razor-sharp teeth filed down a little. (I wore Coco without shame in my former life, swimming in the shark tank of avaricious young men, a choice that, in hindsight, seems a bit lacking in judgement.)

Patty generously provided me with samples of the new TDC Garden trio, which are supposed to be in this review — but I’m still fiddling with them. Opinions are all over the place about these. Stay tuned.

The winner of the bottle of Nemo is … hausvonstone! Please email me your address using “Contact Us.”

Finally, Daphne Merkin says “Perhaps that is why perfume-obsessed women often strike me as stalkers, entranced by the obscure object of desire on the other side of the room — the sexiest, the strangest…” in the Sunday NY Times magazine supplement, in which she waxes poetic about Le Labo, Antilope and Carnal Flower, among other things. Also, Chandler Burr gives Dzongkha 4 stars and Sel de Vetiver 5 stars, then goes on to describe Montgomery Taylor’s Ambra di Venezia as “not a floral, not an amber, this is a rich sweetness, creamy velvet like a glass of Sicilian passito. I have never offered it to anyone who did not inhale and instantly relax, reassured as if by a caress…” It was designed to capture “an orange sunset in a purple Venetian sky…” Now, that sounds like something worth sniffing.

  • Tommasina says:

    March, I’m probably way behind and you know this already, but here’s the beginning of Eva Green’s biography on Wikipedia:

    Eva Green was born in Paris, France to a French mother (who was born in Algiers, Algeria) and a Swedish father and raised in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. She attended the American School of Paris for her formal years. Her mother is actress Marlène Jobert; her father, Walter Green, is a Swedish dentist, who appeared in the 1966 film Au hasard Balthazar – this was his first and only on-screen appearance. She has one sibling, a fraternal twin sister, Joy. Green’s name is pronounced “gren”, /gre:n/ approximately rhyming with “wren” in Swedish and comes from the Swedish word gren, which means (tree) branch. She studied acting in Paris for three years, followed by a ten-week polishing course at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London, England.

  • March says:

    Dusan — no!!! Giggling about Dame Judy — who, by the way, has clearly had some work done but I thought looked wonderful. I love her. I sort of hope she got her peek at that monster the old-fashioned way…

    I’ll have to look at Eva Green’s nationality. She had the oddest accent. I think they tried (and failed) to make her sound British, but she didn’t strike me as Italian, either.

  • March says:

    Vi — III, definitely. Beautiful.

  • Dusan says:

    Forgot to say – Eva Green is a vixen. You must see Bertolucci’s The Dreamers – she is an eye candy in that one, more so, wait, WAAAY more than I suppose she could be in CR. Beauty {shown in all its glory}, femininity, brains and vixenness – ahhh…

  • Dusan says:

    LUI is something else, isn’t it? I was gonna recommend it, but seeing as you’d sworn off cedar… Glad you liked it!
    Haven’t seen CR, not sure I want to. DC is OK, but as Bond? Hm. Sean Connery is the Bond, always has been and will be. Since you are one filthy pervy lady, you might want to know that the wonderful Judy Dench, DC’s co-star in CR, saw him one morning walking around naked on the set {it may have been a different context, never mind} and was so impressed {or rather awe-stricken} that she kept referring to his whatchamacallit as a monster. Just sayin’.b-)

  • violetnoir says:

    Givenchy III? L’Interdit??? If it smelled “green,” it was the former.

    Hugs!

  • March says:

    Judith — Sean Connery IS Bond, to me. Roger Moore was always too gadget-y. I do think it’d be interesting to do a sociological comparison of the Bond types and what they represent in pop culture over the years. (I also thought Pierce Brosnan was great.) DC is the first man-candy Bond; the women are more or less superfluous. HE is the object (although Eva Green is stunning.)

  • March says:

    ViNoir — honey, let me revise the word “leak” and replace it with “delightfully scent the air inside the package, so that when it is opened it reveals itself to me in all its love-bomb aplomb.” Honest, nothing was WET, precisely. It just had that moist scent-density. I’m thinking it’s the delicacy with the damp, faded label (Givenchy?).

  • March says:

    Cait — actually, that SMN reference was in the first draft of this, but I cut it due to failure to find a way to tie it in … I dunno, I would have pictured Vesper wearing something more interesting, wouldn’t you?

  • judith says:

    Ok, you guys have convinced me I have to see that movie. Although I admit (old person here) to still being hung up on Sean Connery (yeah, I know he’s a problematic person, but I don’t actually have to KNOW him).

  • violetnoir says:

    Leaks??? Oh no, I am so, so sorry about that, March. I thought I secured everything tightly. I hope not too much juice was lost.

    No need to email me separately, as I know this is a busy time for everyone.

    Hugs!

  • Cait says:

    I completely agree with your reading of Daniel Craig. I heard someone say that he was a Bond for our times–more muscle than intellect. Did anyone recognize the perfume in that movie? SMN Melograno.

    So, I am pretty impressed about that exclusive scent you sampled, March! And Lui sounds scrummy. Lots of fodder for fantasy.

  • March says:

    Sariah — I do agree that the movie was great — very well done, fast-paced, witty writing, and I was glad to get away from all the gadgetry. And sure, I’d much rather look at DC than, say, Roger Moore. I mean, DC is HOT. Lordy. (Although, an aside — what, do they all wax their chests now? I mean, where is their man-hair?)

    Eva Green I’ve never seen before. I can’t believe she’s not internationally famous. In terms of pure, abstract beauty she has one of the most gorgeous faces I’ve ever seen. She is my ideal of feminine beauty.

  • March says:

    Iris — he does have the perfect, dreamy eyes. Huh, you don’t find him handsome? I mean, I think he’s extremely handsome, in a Steve McQueen way. But he’s just too rough-looking to be Bond. Clive Owen would fill the tux better.

  • March says:

    Patty — I looked.:d God knows. That image is burned in my retinas.:-” I’m onto you now, because I saw your reference to the Beauty books. Oddly, I almost referenced them for this post. So it just goes to show, pervy minds think alike!

  • March says:

    Violet– I keep meaning to email you. I was expecting samp vials, not those gorgeous, generous atomizers! Something leaked, but the entire package smelled so wonderful when I opened it. Perfuming my bedroom right now… thanks again!

  • March says:

    Robin — well, let me blather on. He’s REALLY good — I think he’s got the acting down, etc. He’s certainly fun to watch, and it’s a great movie. But my own personal Bond ideal is someone with more polish — there’s just something a bit off-the-streets about DC’s appearance that makes him unconvincing as an upper-crust Brit. But what do I know? And it’s well done, you should definitely see the movie.

  • March says:

    Leopoldo — well, I wasn’t wincing. I was … oh, never mind.:”> Um, is it me, or does that entire scene have erotic overtones? Maybe I’m just a filthy girl.

    Not hot — really?! I love the whole emerging-from-the-sea reference to Ursula Andress; even his suit bottom is the same. I find him absolutely hot, I just think he’s not upper-crusty enough.

    Yeah, I think you’d like Lui too.

  • sariah says:

    I loved the new Bond, DC is my favorite Bond tied with Mr. Connery. CR is quite a bit different than you’re typical Bond movie – less gadgets and fancy cars/boats/planes, more human action like the awesome chase scene that was all on foot. I loved the sinking Venetian building sceen too.

    Eva Green is definitely some eye candy for the guys too. I love her exotic and non-trashy look, she just looks smart.

    I smell no amber in Ambra di Venezia. You might like it March.

  • IrisLA says:

    In one respect, Daniel Craig is perfect as Bond. There is an ice cold look in his steel blue eyes. You can believe that he is a ruthless killer.

    But he doesn’t have the looks. Sigh. I want my Bond rugged AND handsome.

  • violetnoir says:

    Oh, Rochas Liu is divine. My husband wears it, and it smells so-o-o good on him.

    So, I’m a layering genius, am I not? *-:) Well, not really, because that will probably be my only layering inspiration for a long-ng-ng time to come.

    Hugs!

  • Robin says:

    Oh, I am too upset now to hear that DC isn’t perfect as Bond to even care about the perfumes. I was really hoping they would finally get it right.

  • Leopoldo says:

    Every man in the cinema seemed to wince as one in THAT scene, M. Good to see that Bond kept his humour intact throughout, if not his fertility… and I agree – there is something WRONG about him in the role. It’s my problem with those Aryan types – he looks like a stormtrooper sans uniform. I can’t find him hot, no matter how I try, those his voice is simply perfect. The film had some highly second rate editing however (with awkward chunks on the cutting room floor I think during the ‘love stuff’), though the base jumping in that opening sequence was amazing. I felt breathless.

    You know, I’ve never sniffed Rochas Lui, which sounds like a real mistake on my part. I will do, to be sure.

  • Patty says:

    What, no pictures of Daniel Craig being tortured? How disappointing.

    I agree on the Coco and CocoM going together, they really are perfection as a pair.

  • March says:

    Judith — it’s not rocking your world, either? Well, then, I’m crossing it off my list. If I lived in NY I’d probably be at Tak so often they’d ask me to leave…

    Songes was one of the few AGs that doesn’t work at all on me — there’s a weird, acrid note in there somewhere. The opening of the Roucel thing smelled sort of like Rush; I like the drydown a lot. But even if it were an option, I’m not sure it’s FBW…

  • March says:

    Elle — you definitely want to see Daniel Craig. I actually read this great piece online somewhere about how, in this movie, James Bond has replaced the girls as the eye candy, and all that that implies about our culture of ogling — it was really interesting, actually.

    When I read the word “Ambra” my excitement level declines. It doesn’t sound like you think I need to rush out and try it.

  • Judith says:

    I like that Marcel Roucel scent too, but I somehow missed the final net/pez note (must try again); I got a bit of a “Songes” vibe. . . Very lovely.

    It seems that every time I go to Tak (which is not that often because I don’t live in NY) someone is trying to spray me with AdV or rub the cream into my hands; I must admit that this prejudices me against it. So far, I have found it nice–but not swoon-worthy.

  • Elle says:

    I’m not sure which I want more – Rochas Lui or to see Daniel Craig in CR. Both sound divine. 🙂
    I have to say I like my Coco straight up, but I can see that it would work well layered w/ Mlle.
    God knows Meredith Viera didn’t relax when Chandler had her sniff AdV. Why the Today Show picked her and Matt to sniff Chandler’s offerings, I do not know. Neither wear nor care much for perfume at all. I really like AdV, but it’s never put me into enough of a swoon mode to need a full bottle. I keep thinking it should, so I will have to retry it once again.