Well, for those of you who have been hanging on with bated breath about my every report on the weather in Los Angeles and it’s environs, this weekend was finally gorgeous. We had rain (and a tornado!?!) earlier in the week and more rain later and are scheduled for more this coming week. I cannot really complain since it will, one hopes, make sure that we will not have catastrophic wildfires this summer, but backyards in hilly areas from El Cajon to Pacific Palisades are sliding down and old trees are flopping over like drunks, so soaked is the ground under their roots.
But like I wrote, it was pretty here, so I took advantage and went for meandering drives every day, doing errands and enjoying the sunshine and cool weather.
This did mean that I sort of ignored actually sitting down and giving serious attention (as serious as I ever give anything) to the samples I have to review. A batch of them were sent to me by Opus Oils, a Hollywood-based house that I really love, but had sort of fallen out of touch with, mostly due to the pandemic and the left-over contraction of my usual peripatetic life (I have not gone to Scent Bar in years. Crazy!)
One of the larger samples was one for their Tiger Powers’ scent Star Fu$%er (written here that way for the tender sensibilities of WordPress) which I not only reviewed 12 years ago (!!!!) but have purchased and used two bottles of.
The notes (from their site): Key Notes Include: Lime, Green Mandarin, Lemon Essence, Italian Bergamot, Wild Orange, Orange Flower Water Absolute, Lavender Seville, Jasmine, Sandalwood, Iso-E Super, Amber, Vetiver, Black Agar, & Oakmoss
At the time I wore it quite a lot, and my social life was quite a bit more social. I was involved in local politics and became acquainted with quite a few of the doyennes of the neighborhood. They were not the type who you would see on Real Housewives, but the type a real housewife would have to get on the good side of to get into the garden club or a variance for her two-story backyard Vuitton branded dog house. Smart, accomplished, and whip-funny. I was asked by one of them what the name of this was because she really loved it and she threw back her head and laughed when I told her. Later I was invited to a birthday party at Spago for her (the only male in the group; Wolfgang Puck cruised through the room and asked me with all good humor “and what did YOU do to rate this invite?” I was quick enough to respond “well it wasn’t clean living..”) and when kissing her hello she looked at me and said “oh, you’re wearing that aftershave I love with the naughty name..”
It’s a Family Blog people,
So after all this time was it still the same?
It’s better.
Looking at the list of accords is deceiving- yes all of those things are in there but the scent almost seems bottom-heavy: the bases of woods, agar and oakmoss seem to be there if not at the start then soon after adding a little bit of earthy sexiness that the refined and civilized citrus and lavender cover like the thin, brittle layer of sugar on a crème brulée. It wasn’t just laziness that made me focus on his over the last few days- it was like running across someone you hadn’t seen in a while and remembering exactly what it was that you were missing.
I promise to get back to work next week Honest.
My sample of Star Fu$%er was sent to me by the perfumer, although I had purchased bottles in the past (and still have some I am sure, somewhere in the closet I need to organise) You can see the entire collection and purchase samples here. Photos are from their website (via my old post), my iPhone and Pexels.
WOW! This sounds fabulous Tom.
Your stories of Beverly Hills socialite life have amused me for years. Nice to read a couple of new ones.
Thanks,
Portia xx
I don’t think this one was out when you were there but they were one of the places we went on the Sniffa back in the day. The place in the evening on Hollywood Blvd. they’re great and so is their stuff.
That does sound good. I love me some good citrus with a deep unexpected base. Fabulous Spago/Puck story & your comeback made me giggle.
As Cinnamon says, floods are a year round risk in the UK. Where we live ancient mineshafts can cause sinkholes anytime too. So houses have deep foundations & are built on concrete “floats” to minimise subsidence & sliding down the hills. We don’t flood up high on the hillside, just get stranded from the floods in the valleys. Like living on an island!
Depending upon where you live in LA you can be affected. My area isn’t really the hills so we don’t get it. Knock wood.
That was the only time I have been to Spago (too pricey for me!) and the food was delicious. I was for once glad that I was able to blurt out a quick response that didn’t make me later cringe..
LA in early Spring is… unnerving, imo (weatherwise). Your Puck story is hysterical – he is an interesting man (whom I will always adore – because of him, the world knows a Whole Lot More from my idol Chef Sherry Yard) and I’m glad you had an interesting comeback.
That scent! Those notes! DROOOOOOLING!
I. Am. DROOOOOOLING.
xoxoxo
That was one of the few times I met him- I met his ex wife a lot more often since my godchild was in the same class as her kid in grade school, and she is friends with friends. I can see where she would be intimidating to people- she’s kind of intense but clearly has a huge heart. She did a solid for a mutual friend that I won’t go into but for that alone I will hear no words against her.
The scents are really good- Kedra is very talented. I think people look at the vibe of the website and think it’s going to be kind of, I don’t know what. But you were there- you know they do great stuff.
And Tiger is a dish. Nice, too. Sadly for me plays for your team.
LOVE THIS. You always tell the greatest stories! I’m glad you got to get out for some drives with the top down, I know it’s one of your favorites — good thing you like to drive, given where you live! I bet this smells amazing on you, and if I were wearing it I’d have a good giggle telling people what the name is. I’m sad for the trees falling down, but glad you’re getting so much needed rain.
We definitely can use the rain and I am really not bitching about it (much). It’s been happening on a schedule I really love: start at around midnight as I am going asleep and stopping when I am getting out of the shower..
I do love to drive. I hate traffic though. I’d really love to get another car with a stick shift but I know that means the fates would immediately get me a job with a 45 minute commute where I row between 2nd and 3rd the entire way.
your weather sounds like ours — but we get it annually (not the tornados) — with the associated downed trees, flooded roads, houses moving closer and closer to cliff edges, huge numbers of huge pot holes in the roads, and an excess of leaves on train lines (don’t ask). I hope things improve quickly. this sounds really really good. I’ll at least have to look at their website.
There’s a line in the movie Sunset Boulevard where Joe Gilles says something like “..the rains came. A great big package of rain. Oversized. Like everything else in California.”
That pretty much says it.
Not the old trees too. Think of all the life they have seen go by. I’m glad it’s been a bit nicer for a change though.
Love your story about the Star F****r. lol. In the few years or so, I have started to like perfume oils a lot more. They last longer and project more than many alcohol based perfumes do on me.
Some of them were old by LA standards. The problem is city planners plant trees that really shouldn’t be here, but will grow here, fast. Too fast for their own good. They get years where it rains and the roots haven’t grown sufficiently or deeply enough and down they go.
Ficus trees are the worst- they were popular because they grew fast and were good shade providers but soon were buckling sidewalks, roads and sewer lines. They have to pretty much butcher them ever few years to keep them in check.
I miss the jacarandas in bloom. Granted, having said blooms fall and decompose onto cars and driveways was never a delight but the site of those glorious purple flowers always thrilled me when I lived in Los Angeles. That was truly Spring!
When I first moved to LA I lived in a tiny single on Oakhurst Drive and the street was lined with jacarandas. Lordy were they lovely. Giant pains in the rear to deal with- those sappy flowers would get ground into the sidewalks and the building manager would put sacrificial pieces of cheap carpeting by the front door to catch the sticky mess. Luckily I parked in the back so I could come and go that way and avoid the mess and enjoy the pretty blossoms.
I do love seeing them on those blocks of Oakhurst and Palm every year. Gotta love Beverly Hills for fallow through- having the same street trees block to block.