New Releases – CB I Hate Perfume Angelic Conversation, Hiram Green Slowdive

Hey, Merry Christmas!  Seems like a great day to talk about CB  I Hate Perfume Angelic Conversation.  And Hiram Green Slowdive, but I’ll circle back around to that.   They are like my own personal perfume Christmas present!

CB I Hate perfume Angelic Conversation is all natural except a tiny skosh of Russian Leather. Inspired by the scent of skin, it has notes of oud, Ambers, Styrax, Cistus, Labdanum and spices like Nutmeg, Cardamom and Coriander.  Yeah, I looked at that too and though really?  But CB has it right – “For millennia, humans have prized certain substances above all others for their incomparable sensual beauty when worn. We are inexorably drawn to the deep subtle scents of Ambers, musky Resins, rich Spices and leathery Woods. These have been the base of virtually every great perfume of the past century and, even today, their synthetic counterparts are the most common element in all popular fragrance. It seems we cannot imagine “perfume” without them. Modern science begins to explains why – these natural woods and resins contain molecules virtually identical to those we naturally produce ourselves. They literally smell like us. These scents communicate our humanity.”

Makes sense, even though I would not have immediately thought my skin smells like spices, resin, amber and oud.  CB I Hate Perfume Angelic Conversation start with a slightly musty smell, peppered with spices.  It’s got an interested trajectory through oud an resins, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t slowly smell like my skin, but better – that slightly salty skin that isn’t always what your skin smells like, but what you wish it would smell like.  It’s really beautiful and unlike about anything I can think of.  I keep trying to put it in a category or compare it, and I’m just coming up blank.

Hiram Green Slowdive has notes of neroli, orange flower, tobacco, beeswax, dried fruit, tuberose and resins.  Inspired by tobacco-scented summer air in India.  Yeah, it’s that.  It’s perplexing to me. I love everything Hiram Green does, and I can objectively smell how beautiful this is, but like Serge Lutens Arabie, it might not be something I’ll wear — or maybe I will? The tobacco is rich and pungent, and I completely love it.  The resins and fruit wrap around the tobacco, and it’s not that sweet pipe tobacco, it’s warmer, more sensual. Then playing around the edge is that beeswax/tobacco hay note that has me completely enchanted and somewhat annoyed at the dried fruit. It is gorgeous and complex.  The longer I wear it, the more I love it.    I don’t know, I think I’ll wind up changing my mind once it hits sub-zero. I find myself spraying it on every day, completely in love with parts of it, and still not sure.  For me, that’s the mark of an excellent perfume.

Both I’ve reviewed today have that – complexity, puzzlement, something new you discover every time you wear it. That’s a rare thing.

Couple of winner drawings for the last couple of weeks – winners of the Atelier des Ors Rose Omeyyade samples – Tiara, JenniferS, Kayceebee, and Nemo. Atelier des Ors Musc Immortel sample – Annjune, Sapphire, Clarissa and nicevulady.  Frederic Malle Promise winners – Tara C, Nancy Myers, Gigi and Anna Egeria P.

So all you winners – click on Drop Us a Note at the top, send me an e-mail, remind me of what you won and get me your mailing address (Figment winners tell me if you want the man or woman_. I’ll send you a quick e-mail to let you know I got your e-mail and it didn’t land in a spam filter and then get it on the way to you.

This week is a great drawing – a sample set of both of these perfumes, and you definitely want to try them!  Just drop a comment to be entered.