We have now had a few days with longish periods of dry weather, including a glorious Sunday of mild sunshine. I cannot express fully how much of a relief that was. So so lovely and then this beautiful crescent moon hanging in the clear night sky. Huge sigh.
Last week saw my birthday. Not a ‘big’ one ending in 0 or 5 – just another turn round the sun. Good food and fun things in the post. I finally got to try a Paris Brest which I had thought would be fairly heavy but it wasn’t: lovely, airy pastry, nutty cream and hazelnut ice cream. And my son’s gift was a three course meal he made. The starter and main (paprika oven chips and sea bass with rasam broth) were wonderful.
The sweet, though, was out of this world. Financiers with coffee cream. One of the best desserts I’ve eaten in a very long time. All out of the Ottolenghi cookbook.
I had pics all set of the food plus what the sample vials look like and had transferred them from phone to laptop to use. But they haven’t come through for some reason and I don’t have the will to re-do everything now. So, sorry, only two pictures today, and one is way too big.
I have also taken my birthday month as an opportunity to engage in way too much retail therapy. I’m pretty sure I did this last year in February. This has been my year of jumpers (sweaters). Been buying and wearing. Maybe 2026 is meant to be the year of cozy…
So, Rook Perfumes. This is a London based house. The guy who started it is a bit of an enigma: used to be an ER doc, also acts and now runs a fragrance house. There are political undertones which I’m not going into (just because they are a bit internecine) but here’s the link if you’re interesting (https://rookperfumes.co.uk/?srsltid=AfmBOooOLMXVM-zELUb3kMh77daJRQ5YcsG-YOuBSy0G038UHZDzsOXz)
I got six samples. We’re doing three today; do the others in a bit.
Undergrowth. This kept popping up on my FB feed and the word petrichor got stuck in my head. Every once in a while on Posse someone will talk about this as a note and I find the idea of something smelling of wet soil incredibly intriguing. So, finally, I got a Rook sample pack and made sure it had Undergrowth in the mix.
Notes: soil, garden mint, grass, green notes, mandarin, orris, vetiver, patchouli and petrichor. This did turn out to be intriguing – and initially the mint is very prominent. But not full mint – rather, the wet, dirty mint you may have growing in your garden and which you pick for tea or cooking. So, it actually does smell more earthy than just having dried mint tea etc.
For me, this falls in the ‘challenging’ perfume genre, though it’s actually not that challenging – it’s just meant to be a bit out there. And the mint is really very prominent for a fair bit of the development. In feel, the fragrance made me think of SL Iris Silver Mists and its coldness. In the end, a very interesting set of smells but not something for me. I think if you like greens or cold things this would be worth a look. In the US, I believe you can find the brand at Lucky Scent.
Thurible. I chose this for the name – love the idea of wafting incense in a sacred old building. Anyway, notes: clove bud, ash, sage, black pepper, labdanum, Somali incense, Turkish rose, patchouli, sandalwood, ambergris and moss.
This opened on me with a note that took a long while to pinpoint. In the end, I decided the smell was shoe polish – the black stuff in the tin you were supposed to use on your school shoes. That’s not a bad smell, to my mind, but again it’s a bit out there.
It develops into a fairly standard incense but a nice one. But rather than make me want to wear it more it sent me off looking for my bottle of Perfumer H Smoke which is warmer and more deeply sweet without being cloying.
Suede. Last one for this go-round. Notes of suede, tobacco leaf and leather.
Briefly, this opens with that slightly strange undercurrent of cooked meat you get with some leathers. It then smooths out significantly to become a pretty straightforward leather.
If you were wondering about SL Daime Blond, this is not that sort of leather. It’s pleasant, but I don’t think it’s meant to be. If you are a leather lover and have a higher body temp than I do think this might be really nice.
All in, interesting but not my cup of tea right now. Still, do think the house is worth a look.
Anyone tried any of these? Anyone managing their way through mid-winter via ApplePay ?
Pics: pexels, mine
Ha, first time being marked as spam — while I was logged in!
Happy birthday! All that food sounds absolutely delightful. We don’t have rooks but we do have a lot of crows and ravens here. I feed them out of a special bowl on a pillar, hoping to establish a relationship. They know who I am at this point and sometimes follow me on walks. Re the perfumes: probably not my cup of tea but what great concepts. I know a couple of petrichor frags but blanking on them; I love it in real life.
Dear Cinnamon,
Happy Birthday! It sounds like it was very delicious. I remember Paris Brest from one of the Great British Bake Show finales, though I’ve never tasted one. Yum! Spending on sweaters/jumpers also sounds right up my alley. I love cashmere sweaters and wear them year-round because of icy cold air conditioning in the summer. The Rook scents each sound intriguing. One of my boys, my honorary son “bonus boy,” loves petrichor and I bought him a D.S. & Durga Concrete After Lightning candle for Christmas that smelled like petrichor. I bet he would love Undergrowth. Thurible sounds very enticing too. I’m glad you finally had some sunshine to enjoy. We had a snowstorm last night, but thankfully it was only a dusting!