If Pumpkins Had Armpits

Scentzilla describes CB I Hate Perfume Musk Reinvention (which I keep erroneously referring to as Musk Absolute) thusly: “If pumpkin pie had body odor, this is what that pie´s armpits would smell like. I can´t decide if that sounds inviting or appalling, so I´m just gonna leave that mental picture for you to ponder.”  That is freaking brilliant.  Scentzilla, I dedicate today´s post to your verbal awesomeness, and I wish you´d give up some other huge chunk of your life — like eating, or raising kids — and get back to the important work of perfume blogging, because I miss you that much.  No, really.

So — as anyone who´s gone sniffing or hung out with me knows, I have these teeny little notebooks into which I jot my teeny little thoughts.  Here´s a random selection I haven´t been able to work into a larger post.  You´re getting them today because the kids and their slight-fever-cough-colds of two weeks’ endurance suddenly morphing into those deep, chestal deals that require nighttime maintenance and long, tedious trips to the doctor followed by expensive prescription drugs.   Please forgive the lack of cohesiveness and I’m still behind on responding to Monday’s comments, sorry.  Great discussion, though.

1) Scent sleuth.  My friend Sarah came over with a few drops of something in an unmarked vial, dying to know what it might be.  She doesn´t make her own samples at stores, so it probably wasn´t local retail.  It definitely smelled ambery and tobacco – probably unisex.   Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille?  Not sweet enough.   Also the juice was dark, but not vintage-y smelling.  It was strong.   It was with Demeter’s This is Not a Pipe, so maybe Sariah sent it to her?  Eventually we boiled it down to probably Serge Lutens, and she went off to order samps of Fumerie Turque and Chergui.  Then (duh) I found my samples of both, and it was definitely Chergui.  On the one hand – it smelled wildly familiar, and I´m embarrassed I didn´t come up with Chergui once we´d decided on Lutens.  On the other hand – hey, considering how huge the world of perfume is, I thought we did a darn good job narrowing it down so quickly.

2) The New Pink Sugar Luxury Extract, a stronger version of Pink Sugar – wow, how did I miss that?  And thanks Pyramus for making me laugh with your comment on Now Smell This: “Yeah, I think we can all agree that the only thing wrong with Pink Sugar was that it just wasn’t strong or concentrated enough. Girls wearing it had a visible halo of the stuff around them, but it wasn’t visible from outer space. I’m glad to see Aquolina is correcting this oversight.”  Someone try it and tell me what it´s like!  Bringing me to the meat of this mostly meatless post – jokes about things like Pink Sugar are always followed by a couple of comments from people who own and like it and feel like they should apologize for their taste.  Or: I can´t believe I´m wearing this when I could/should be wearing my Serge Lutens!  To which I offer up a wholehearted:  people, wear what you like, with no shame.  I have Light Blue and Betsey Johnson (the SL bottles keep trying to shove Betsey over the edge of my dresser).  I think the most lowbrow thing I own is Ex-clamation! Or however you write it.  In the spray can.  Top (bottom?) that.

3) Speaking of spray cans, in the drugstore I love to stop and drool over their fragrance section.   There´s always a new guy-frag with great marketing along the lines of:  MAN – Because I am MAN ENOUGH to be A MAN.  Or KING – With my woman I AM THE KING.  I want to smell them, but the darned CVS has them taped shut, possibly for my own safety.   They also have those spray cans (!) of dupes like “Fabio – an impression of Giorgio.”   This last time I noted they had (sealed plastic) canisters of a CK ripoffs, called things like UBN2ME.  

4) Speaking of Fabio, I want Sebastian the Airborne guy to do a scent (that´s him pictured at left, wish I could get a better picture, check “Sebastian airborne” on YouTube.)  Also, am I the only one here who giggles with childlike glee at the Swiffer “Baby Come Back” commercials?  Even my children are rolling their eyes at me on that one…

5) Felanilla.  Come on.  If I had to say that to someone who asked me what my perfume was, I´d bust out laughing.  You?  Or just me?

6) Fellow fans of model Natalia Vodianova need to get the November Vogue (with Reese Witherspoon on the cover) to see her frolicking with her husband Justin Portman and her three kids in the woods, looking gorgeous and very, very happy.   Also, is anyone else as thrilled as I am to see Linda Evangelista all over the place? Prada, some makeup line…

7) Nail polish alert from the Sunday NY Times – these look interesting.  I wish they talked more about the individual colors.  I think you have to buy them as a set, from Bergdorf, anyone see these at the Sniffa?

Finally, the Nail du Jour — OPI You Don’t Know Jacques; fragrance I wore to vote — Serge Lutens’ delightfully odd Santal Blanc, a perfect rainy day scent — pencil?  milk?  weird?  yes.

top illustration — The Little Fur Family, in its small-book fur-covered format, still available on Amazon.  I can’t believe I left Garth Williams off my list of favorite childhood illustrators.  image from mulibraries.missouri.edu