May Candy

By March

I rooted around in the collection of vials and decants sitting near my computer, I haven’t done a random candy samples review in forever!

Also:  I’m thinking we should do another Swapmania, in June, maybe?  I promise not to do it on a holiday weekend this time.  Would you funsters prefer June or July?  Or never again?  OK, on to the reviews…

Jo Malone Earl Grey & Cucumber cologne: one of the new JM tea scents.  If you can smell either tea or cucumber here, your nose is more discerning than mine.  Seriously, this could be anything summer-musky out of a splash bottle.  This could be Estee Lauder Pure Linen Paradise Eau Légère. Or possibly Marc Jacobs Biscotti Breeze.

Jo Malone Assam & Grapefruit cologne: another one of the tea scents.  Man, am I glad I didn’t buy this unsniffed.  Thanks, Anita, I owe you.  For the first seventeen seconds it smells great – not a ton of grapefruit, more citrus, and a lovely tea note.  Fortunately my internet connection’s kind of slow, so by the time I started surfing for bottles, maybe five minutes later, all the fun tea and citrus had disappeared and I was left with whatever they’re putting in the Earl Grey & Cuke bottle above, only more in the direction of D&G Light Blue.  Apologies to anyone who just had their breakfast spoiled.  Also, I wish they’d make a Light Blue Light (lite?) flanker.  See, I told you I had crap taste.

Roja Dove Diaghilev – I went off to read more about Ballets Russes impresario Sergei Diaghilev but wound up reading about Nijinsky instead (they were lovers), then got distracted by details like: “Then Nijinsky went back to the Mariinsky Theatre, but was dismissed for appearing on-stage during a performance as Albrecht in Giselle wearing tights without the modesty trunks obligatory for male dancers in the company. The Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna complained that his appearance was obscene…”

Eh, where were we?  Oh.  How’s the perfume?  Well… I agree with Anita that it’s kind of a hybrid of (new) Femme and Mitsouko, the scent Diaghilev is either supposed to have worn himself or sprayed on the curtains before performances, or maybe both.  I’m kind of a sucker for Roja Dove’s retro scents, and if I didn’t have Femme or Mitsouko I’d have ponied up for one of the thousand bottles of this limited edition.  It’s a lot like Mitsouko, only with a strong sweaty note, more peach, and less … fangs.  Sadly, Diaghilev is sold out on the Roja Dove website.  I already have Femme and Mitsouko, though, so I’m not crying myself to sleep.

Cartier L’Heure Fougueuse – call me lazy, or crazy, but when you release a slew of fragrances and they’re all named “L’Heure (something or other),” I can’t remember which ones I liked.  I finally got around to trying Fougueuse, which came out later than the first batch, right?  This is “the spirited hour,” composed by Mathilde Laurent around a “horse-mane accord,” notes are bergamot, magnolia, horse-mane note, green notes, lavender, floral notes, Maté, Vetiver, musk, oakmoss, leather.

I throw up my hands, okay?   I agree this is totally worth smelling — because it’s phenomenally weird.  Does nobody else find it bizarre, as strange as Dzing! only maybe even more so?  Here’s my personal list of notes as Fougueuse unfolded, since I gave up trying to construct any sort of reasonable review:

I sure didn’t sniff it and think, meh, I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve smelled that.  It’s unisex, to the degree that eraser dust and horse can be defined thusly.  I’m not sure it’s right for me (I guess I’ll stick to smelling like damp earth or moldy crypt, thanks very much) but if you find the general crossroads of, say, Dzing, Bulgari Black and Fleur de Narcisse appealing…