Quick reminder: our De Bachmakov contest is still open!
It's William Shakespeare's (likely) birthday,* and we're celebrating with another open thread poll. Talk about anything you like — the perfume you’re wearing today, your favorite play or sonnet by Shakespeare, whatever.
Or, ask a question about fragrance, then see if anyone else has asked a question that you can answer…
Note: image is "What's in a name?" [cropped] by Jack Dorsey at flickr; some rights reserved.
*Big oops: today is the 400th anniverary of Shakespeare's death. He was baptised on April 26 but nobody really knows what day he was born. So sorry for the rather large error.
One of my favorite things over at Perfume Shrine was the Twin Peaks articles. No, not the television show but how a great and hard to obtain and expensive perfume often has a less expensive and relatively easy to find echo. Since I recently actually was able to smell Chanel Coromandel, I can now reiterate with confidence that it is similar to Davidoff Zino. I may actually prefer the dry down of Zino, a little less sweet. Also, I am still on the lookout for the reference Patchouili perfume, the one to rule them all! Any suggestions my dear friends?
I really can spell. I meant patchouli….the one to rule them all.
My favorite is PG Cozé. Runner up would be SL Borneo 1834. A beautiful perfume that has a definite patchouli facet is Histoires de Parfums 1969.
I personally do not care for L’AP Patchouli Patch, but many patch lovers do.
I guess you have tried Reminiscence Patchouli?
I really love Les Nereides Patchouli Antique, it’s strange and earthy;
“..It has a cold smell of the damp undersides of garden stones in a sweet woody setting, making for a folk tale of a fragrance, rustic and bizarre.” (Tanya Sanchez). This is such a wonderful description, I don’t always agree with the Guide, but this is spot on!
My 100ml bottle was found on eBay for about £30.
I rather like Montale Patchouli Leaves, but Borneo is great too.
Santa Maria Novella Patchouli.
Have you tried the new FM Monsieur? That is PATCHOULI!
I also really like Borneo but IMO is very similar to Coromandel. I also really like Nasomatto Hindu Grass which is warm and a bit dry and hay-like.
Do yourself a favor and try these!
CDG Luxe Patchouli
Perris Monte Carlo Patchouli Nosy Be
Both are fantastic!!
And thanks for the tip on the Davidoff. I’m going to try it.
Etro: Patchouli (drier, aromatic and transparent)
Ermenegildo Zegna Javanese Patchouli (neither dry nor sweet, deep and a little masculine)
Dior Privee Imperial Patchouli (sweet, but refined)
Jovoy Psychedlique (ambered patchouli – but less sweet than Montale’s Patchouli leaves)
The first is drier, aromatic and transparent. The second is middl, deep and a bit masculine
I have the first and last, but love the middle two as well!
On a par with Borneo is Oriza L Legrand Horizon. Wonderful!!
An old friend was on his way to Prague yesterday where his play, Shylock, is being presented. I just got it that this is probably an event for the bard’s birthday.
I’ve been going through my perfumes and pulling out a lot of stuff to gift/swap or sell. Some of it in in my reverse swap list. Honestly I’m much more interested in getting rid of stuff than acquiring more at this point! The nice thing about this process is rediscovering perfumes that are really beautiful. Yves Rocher Neroli is one of those. Because it was a real cheapie ($35 for 50mls on a half off deal when I bought it) I was overlooking it. But wow is it ever beautiful. My skin seems to magnify the bitter orange and musk.
SOTD: YR Neroli
Ha…took me til early afternoon to notice how wrong I was. Today there are large celebrations, mostly in England but also some elsewhere, marking the 400th anniversary of his death. Not birthday. Oops.
Right! 400th. That makes sense.
Happy Saturday morning!
SOTD is SSS Jour Ensileillé.
Fave Shakespeare quote: “I am but mad north-north-west. […] I know a hawk from a handsaw.” Or “my Lady Tongue”
Whoops, ‘Ensoleillé’.
Nice!
Thanks!
You smell beautiful. I was actually looking at my travel spray today.
I bet it was looking right back and saying, “Spray me, spray me!” ????
Working the weekend..RATS!
Gray NYC day today but warm!
Wishing everyone a great weekend and I hope no one is doing the daily grind like myself
Same weather here! Sorry you are working!
At least this is the end of working for a while, right?
Yes..then I will be at home with my babies
Happy weekend to NST family.
Today I’m wearing a layered combination of Atelier Cologne Cedrat Enivrant and Mandarine Glaciale. I needed a bit of zesty freshness for this gray, spring day.
It’s been also a day of running errants, been to hairdresser in the morning to have my hair cut and later I collected my new pair of glasses. My vision has gotten a bit worse since it was last checked in late 2014 so I needed new lenses. Good to see properly but that glass is getting thicker…
Sorry to hear about the thickening lenses! I’ve been near-sighted all my life, but my vision really started tanking when I got a smartphone. So did my husband’s– within 2 years he went from 20/20 vision straight to bifocals. (Staring at Reddit for hours on an index-card-sized screen might have something to do with it…)
My vision has a gradual change for worse. I’m being checked every 2 years now and it down by 0,25-0,5 dioptries, which the doctor says it’s normal.
At some point I will probably think about having them operated with laser to get rid of my myopia.
Hey, we’re even twins with the haircut. I just got mine cut this morning.
That looks like a nice layering combination and I have both so will try that for a cooling scent. Enjoy your weekend, sweetie!
Sniffapalooza is coming up next weekend!
Ha, that’s a nice coincidence.
Do give it a try and let me know what you thought about that duet.
Enjoy Sniffapalooza next weekend, I’m sure it will be super funny. And you will meet Mary Gooding from Puredistance. Say hi to her from me 🙂
I’ve been rather binge-buying vintage perfume nips. I love vintage perfume anyway, and those little sealed glass ampoules likely give the best storage method ever devised. There are a surprising number of these available on ebay. Sometimes the sellers want absurd amounts of money for them, other times they go for a song. I have been sticking to buying those that are reasonably priced.
I’ve been hesitant in buying perfume from EBay. Are you mainly relying on reviews to figure out who’s reputable? Are there sellers you’d recommend?
Thanks for any advice you can share!
I am rather leery of buying opened or partial bottles as well. Too often, they are turned or contaminated. Sealed bottles, however, have been almost universally good buys. It is possible for a bottle to be damaged inside a sealed box, or for the box to have been stored at extremes of temperature or such, but it seems to be fairly rare. I generally do not buy from ebay if it is currently in production and I can get it from a source such as Lucky Scent, Fragrance Net, etc. For vintage, though, there are far fewer options. I never see perfume in the handful of thift or resale shops where I live. I definitely do pay attention to the seller’s ratings and feedback.
Perfume nips are rather a special case, however. If you are not familiar with them, nips are small glass or “plastene” (which seems to be a sort of safety glass, but I have no info on it) tubes, sealed at both ends, each containing a few drops of perfume. Nips were a popular way of packaging perfume samples from the 1930s up to the 1960s. Yesterday’s Perfume has an article on them which is very good. Because of the way they are made, it is impossible to tamper with the contents without destroying the nip. The sealed nips are airtight. They also tend to be packaged in ways (inside cardboard tubes or in opaque boxes) that virtually eliminate the risks of light exposure. The only risk would be if the perfume was exposed to heat and might have some damage from that.
Perfume nips have color coded tips to help with identifying the contents. Sometimes the name of the perfume is printed on each nip, sometimes you have to rely on a card which came with them to identify them according to the colors. Over and over again I have been impressed with how fresh and rich the perfume from these little tubes smells. I figure it is the closest I will ever come to smelling these long-lost scents as they much have smelled brand new.
Thanks so much! Great info.
I have never seen perfume nips. How do you keep from cutting your fingers?
Most of the ones I have were packaged by Nips, Inc. in “plastene”. Despite the name, plastene seems to be a type of glass, not plastic, but a type that breaks with dull edges. I think that in order to cut myself, I would have to be trying–pressing the broken edge really hard into my skin. I do have some others of unknown source that may be regular glass. I did slightly cut myself on one of them, but I was a little careless with it.
Oh how cool!!! I could spend hours looking at those.
Do you know if a pipette tip is small enough to go into the nip hope after breaking off the end? Could I potentially transfer the nip contents into a little vial for multiple uses, or are nips really one-time things?
The nips are intended for one-time use. They vary somewhat in size, but generally each one contains about the right amount of perfume for one application. For some of the smaller nips, I even find myself thinking I could apply two of them at once. I did read somewhere what the typical volume of a nip is, and IIRC, it is about 0.1 to 0.15 ml. It generally seems to be about 3 drops.
If you do want to transfer the contents into another container, I would not bother with any type of pipette or syringe. If you have several nips of the same scent, you could snap off the ends, and simply dump the contents into a sample vial. Once both ends are broken off, the liquid flows out quite easily.
My work week ended with an infuriating letdown, so today I’m wearing a “go to hell” wallop of vintage Tabu extrait, so there. Nyah. 😛 As for Shakespeare, I have always loved Sonnet XXXVI (“Let me confess that we two must be twain…”)
Good for you!
I was originally reaching for sweet, soft, cozy Shalimar. But then I went “GRRRrrrrr” and snatched up the Big Bad Beautiful Wolf!
Take that, letdown! Tabu Extrait must pack a take no prisoners punch!
Let’s see if my head of angry steam persists until Monday morning. If so, I’m wearing the entire bottle to work.
Excellent! If it had been created earlier, maybe Tabu would have been the fragrance choice for Go To Hell Kitty in ‘Chicago’!
“They had it comin’… They had it comin’….”. 😀
“He ran into my knife ten times.” ????
I chose vintage Dioressence edt, from a small mini. Not a must have for me but the mini was a score on eBay!
I’m heading to LA for a concert and I’m already planning my perfume adventures. Other than Scent Lab, anywhere I have to go? I want to buy something special for the occasion, and it might just be…. Oh, one more question! Does the Barney’s have SL bell jars? I’d have a hard time turning down one of those if I saw them in person.
Have fun! Scent Bar is an absolute must. If you’re easily overwhelmed (like me!), I’d recommend bringing a list of your must-sniffs. Being at Scent Bar is kind of like being Alice down the rabbit hole.
I second ScentBar.
Coumarin- barneys in Beverly Hills has bell jars. And a great SL sales associate. Remember, 2 hour free parking below the building.
Major thumbs up for Scent Bar, the best in-person perfume shopping experience I’ve ever had. I didn’t even go in with a list, just told the SA some things I like and she made three amazing recs–including one that moved me to tears. Love that place.
Tea for two on a chilly morning before a day of cooking and chores etc. The warm spiciness should go with the tasks ahead.
Tea for Two sounds heavenly. I might take your lead and find my sample for today.
SOTD is my skanky friend Putain de Palaces, though I FINALLY managed to sniff those “Rose” scents at VS and came away with a mini parfum spray of the Rose Bergamot. (Just $10!)
I want to know if “a rose by any other name smells as sweet!” I am staring down two potential buys on eBay: Rose absolue by Yves Rocher, and Rose Absolue by Annick Goutal. I have the money for both if they’re both good buys, but I would love to hear from my nose”y” superiors!
I thought the Yves Rocher was an excellent bargain rose.
The AG is, IMHO, one of the best rose soliflores out there. it is one of the few that does not have that sour aspect that most of them have.
Seconding that. It’s wonderful, a high quality that is obvious even to my untrained nose. Not that I want to enable. We don’t do it here. 😉
So clearly the answer is to buy both. Haha! 😀
Wearing Amun Re: The Tears of Ra today after a disappointing sample this morning. This is one of my good anytime staples and I’m really glad I have it in my collection
I like to see Shakespeare live and look forward to the annual free Shakespeare on the Common during the summer–last year they performed King Lear
Good choice– Amun Re is wonderful. What sample did it take the place of?
Love Tears of Ra!
A couple of months ago my friend brought me a sample of MFK Absolue Pour Le Soir, that I had asked her for. I put one dab on the back of my hand, and then quietly put it back in its bag, then in another bag, and tucked it away. This morning, I thought I would try it again. I opened the first bag only. I couldn’t do it. I ended up wearing Angel Innocent. I feel like a perfume wimp.
Ha, the first time I got a sample of Angel (original), I had it encased like that. Then I just threw it out because I could STILL smell it through all the plastic.
There was a Joop perfume that I bought in the duty free after a cursory sniff. When I got it home, I hated it so much that I had to wrap it multiple times and store it on the highest shelf in a closet I never used, until I could put it in the trash. I think it was Berlin, because I bought it after a vacation in Berlin, but it might have been Le Bain. Shudder!!!
LOVE Absolue pour le Soir! I say go for it and see where the ride takes you????
After a little impromptu shopping trip yesterday, I’m wearing Lush All Good Things. I really didn’t mean to buy anything, but I’m such a sucker for small sizes that are inexpensively priced.
I also got to stop by our new Le Labo counter at Nordstrom, and the SA was extremely friendly and patient as he ended up spraying just about everything for me. Without enough arm space to try everything on skin, though, I guess I’m going to need to plan for another trip. Does anyone have Le Labo favorites that they recommend trying?
Everyone seems to love Santal 33. I usually don’t like florals, but love Ylang 39
The Bergamonte is nice also.
Which one did you take to?
It’s a line that requires patience.
Didn’t know Le Labo was at Nordies.
Only in DC and Vancouver, I’m told!
I liked Ylang, too, and didn’t really expect to. Labdanum and Rose were my favorites, but I didn’t get to try Patchouli on skin, and I suspect I’ll like that one. Honestly, though, my nose and brain got overwhelmed after having already visited Sephora and Lush, so I’m not sure I was really smelling anything critically.
I like Bergamot I can never remember the number a lot – very smooth and easy. I also love the Neroli, but it definitely smells like a super fancy sunscreen, so I imagine not for everyone. Lots to try and most unexpected in some way, so while I have samples of almost all of them, I still haven’t thought through all the rest. I know Iris is way too sweet for me and Rose is good for something that doesn’t smell like roses! Have fun!
Neroli was pretty, but now that you mention sunscreen, I might actually have to give that one a serious go. There’s something so dreamy about a nice sunscreen scent (even if it’s not for everyday).
Rose 31 especially in oil – so incensey. Gaiac 10 is one of my all-time faves, such a gorgeous hinoki-guiac-musk, but it’s one of the city exclusives. I think the Jasmin 17 is incredibly wearable and pretty when you want a jasmine that’s not too clean and not too indolic ( but then the Le Labo perfumes are famous for not smelling like whatever they’re named after, so you should probably try it and see what you think it smells like, it probably won’t be jasmine). I really like the Ylang too and the new Thé Noir is very good.
The Gaiac sounds great; I hope I get the chance to try that one!
The one that intrigues me is the Ylang.
I remember being struck by the scene in that BBC (Channel 4?) perfume documentary when Chandler Burr runs out of arm space and pulls up his trouser leg and sprays his knee. I wonder if that happens in real life?
Probably only in one’s home without a camera running. 🙂
For anyone who wants to see that excellent 3-part documentary (or see it again) it’s on youtube, as are a number of shorter perfume docs.
Yes to the knee after running out of arm space. My perfume friend L did it at Sniffapalooza.
Classic! The invention of perfume yoga…lower your nose to your knee, inhale slowly, count to ten, exhale…and now back to your wrist..inhale….
That’s what stuck with me from that documentary, too.
Lush Retail Therapy twins! Did you notice that the sign for the newly available perfumes listed the 10 mL as a dropper bottle. When I asked the SA for the price, she pointed to the sign and I said it was for the dropper bottle, not the atomizer bottle that was for sale. This went whoosh, right over the SA’s head.
On the Le Labo, you’re lucky your Nordstrom carries it! I’m partial to Iris 39. In September (it seems to be every year but it could change), the City Exclusives visit; Vanille 44 is worth making a trip.
I’ve been wearing a sample of Iris 39 all day today, and I’m so glad you mentioned it because I have questions! For the first couple of hours the ylang sort of drowned everything else out. After that, other notes developed but the whole was rather subdued … it took until the far-far drydown before the iris came fully out to play, and it’s only now (many hours later) that the iris is really the star of the show. Is that how it goes for you? I know the Le Labos are quirky that way – I’m just curious about others’ experience with Iris 39 in particular.
I didn’t notice any signs for the new Lush scents, but the price of the atomizer was a bit different from what the SA thought, so I wonder if it stems from the same root. Regardless, I’m happier to have a spray than a dropper anyway.
I’m excited for the Le Labo City Exclusives to come around, and I’ll definitely make a special trip to sniff Vanille 44!
My favorites by some distance are Rose 31 and Vanille 44. I also like Gaiac 10 but I can’t say I find it so good I’d even consider paying the City-Exclusive pricepoint even when they do come available in September (which I am considering, if somewhat unrealistically!, for Vanille 44.) But I think lots are good, kinda a matter of what strikes your fancy–the Jasmin, Ylang, Fleurs d’Oranger all seem worth trying. I personally prefer the Santal 26, the roomspray, over Santal 33, and so do most people I know who’ve smelled both, but 33 seems to have become their cult classic (why not Rose 31?!)
Which ones did you try on today? Anything successful?
Labdanum was my favorite, followed by Rose. Iris surprised me by being so un-irisy that I actually liked it, and Ylang was good too. I still want to try Ambrette and Patchouli and give a chance to some of the florals that I didn’t have arm space for (they were admittedly a lower priority).
I find it crazy that Vanilla, of all things, is a City Exclusive, though. Just about everyone loves vanilla! I guess I need to get to sampling prior to September in case I fall in love with a City Exclusive and end up needing a bottle. Vanilla and Gaiac seem right up my alley.
In the reverse swap meet, our noble leader has asked for carded samples. What is the virtue of same? They’re clumsy to store …
It pretty much guarantees that it is a manufacturer’s sample and not a home-made decant.
Yes, exactly. And I don’t always care but sometimes I do 🙂
Thanks to both of you. I am pretty naive about perfume cheats, but see my later question about fake bottles from an online retailer.
Oh, gosh, and didn’t mean because I was worried about any cheating! Sometimes you just want to be sure something will smell *exactly* as it did when manufactured. Something is always going to be lost in decanting, that’s all.
Gris Clair and a PSA: new perfumes have arrived at some Lush stores. I might swing by and pick up a ten ml bottle of Kerbside Violet.
I swung by LUSH yesterday and surprisingly I did not fall for Kerbside Violet. It had this slightly must pastel smell to it that I couldn’t get past. I ended up getting the All Good Things 10 mL – much brighter.
I am planning a purchase as soon as I see it!
Tried today in San Diego, no luck. Will try again in Montreal later this week.
Sounds like you’re doing the trek back north!
Yes, off at oh-dark-thirty on Wednesday!
Tried out Fat Electrician this morning. I love it. I’m such a sucker for vetiver. Just not sure if I really need another one though but will happily use up this sample.
I love this one, too!
Oh, I saw this at Ari’s and was so repulsed by the name I didn’t try it. But vetiver! Now I’m sorry…..
With the name, I keep imagining seeing this ( ‘ )
Exactly.
I like the scent as well, but I LOVE the name!
I’m trying to track down a bottle of Dzing! online. It appears to be missing from the L’AP website (I hope that’s because of the new bottles?!) and it’s all sold out at Fragrance.Net and LuckyScent.
Anyone have other leads? Reputable sellers on EBay or Amazon? Other places to check? I’d be so appreciative.
I don’t know anything about why it would be missing from all of those sites simultaneously, but I just checked, and it’s available on the Arielle Shoshona website (which, if you’re not familiar with it, is the DC-area shop owned by Ari)
Thank you!!!
It is on Strawberry net. I use that site a lot and have never had any problems. Though i wish they didn’t use polystyrene packaging and that nasty purple ribbon.
Thanks!
Lazy, so I just put on some of that Michael Kors Ultimate Body Lotion that I enjoy for its good-smelling ambery musk.
It is good! Wouldn’t a perfume obsessed taxi driver make a great character in a novel.
With a taxi that smelled different every day, and how different customers reacted, or how it affected their travels. 🙂
Question about Flora Nymphea by Guerlain. The bottle I just received is a cheap imitation of others in the Aqua Allegoria series. The “honeycomb” is plastic and slides off the bottle and the sprayer is under the bottle cap, not built in. It was distributed by His n. Her Inc in NC for Amazon. I feel sure this is a fake but hope y’all can confirm this. Thanks for any comments.
Here’s a video review by Katie Puckrik in which she holds up the bottle and emphasizes that there is a letter on the top of the cap:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmNuBYDN9U8
OTOH, I think I saw an Aqua Allegoria in a CVS last week. I wonder if there is two-tier packaging.
Thank you very much, noz. The initial is on my cap as well, but I’ll look for other characteristics. This bottle is so trashy compared to my others!
I think they have made changes in the AA packaging. Some of the travel retail ones now don’t have the honeycomb at all. Since that video is from 2011, I wouldn’t make any immediate assumptions if your bottle is different.
Wearing Dame’s Desert Rose today. It’s so simple and pretty I can’t think of it as extraordinary, and yet I can’t name another rose perfume that smells exactly like it. I’ll probably end up buying some (got this as a sample). I’m craving cleaner, pretty scents for this time of year with its end of winter dirt funk.
I had to do a side-by-side comparison to convince myself I wasn’t imagining it, and I was right: Desert Rose smells very, very similar to La Fille de Berlin–at least on *my* skin. DR is a bit more fruity where LFdB is a bit more spicy (and lasts longer), but they’re remarkably close. I think it makes DR a good ‘summer version’ of LFdB, FWIW.
Interesting! Whereas I didn’t care for FdB in at all, but I’m really enjoying Desert Rose.
Sorry, Shakespeare, I have to tell everybody about what happend today: I went to buy J a new bottle of Pulp and to try the new Aedes (it’s soft and lovely) and turned out the founder of La Parfumerie Moderne was visiting one of my main perfume haunts. I realised that only when he was already half-way through telling me about their scents. All four fragrances are very impressive (Austenfan, have you tried Annees Folles?!), I ended up buying Desarmant – a luscious, luscious complex lilac. Philippe was absolutely lovely and gave me some of the raw materials to smell and they were stunning: a really rich, apricot jam-like osmanthus; a nuanced, smoky labdanum that could be worn as a perfume without adding anything; a wonderful Damaskus rose and two amazing lavenders, one of which was just breathtaking and I’m not even that into lavender. Ah, a good day.
That sounds so lovely!
It was :)!
How super! Enjoy all those goodies! I love labdanum, though I don’t think what I’ve smelt could be described as “nuanced”, exactly.
This labdanum was gorgeus – I understand smoke was involved at some point in the process, so it had a smoky facet I loved.
Ah, what an experience! Congratulations on your purchase, and thanks for telling us about the raw materials!
Thank you! I’m still not over the raw materials, loved smelling them.
No, I didn’t even know the line existed!
Just read Jessica’s review, and I think that I need to try Désarmant and Années Folles.
I think so too. I can easily send you a decant of Desarmant and I have a small amount of Annees Folles as well.
That would be so kind of you, thanks. I can’t pretend I don’t want to try them.
Just realised that Jessica reviewed it here very recently. It’s a very complex lavender, I need to get you a sample. Although I must admit I liked the lavender raw materials even better than the finished scent, truly exceptional.
That is very cool. You have excellent timing!
Annikky – can you tell me a little more about the new aedes?
I put some on in the hope of having something useful to say: my experience with vanilla fragrances is limited, so I find it difficult to describe. It is clearly a sophisticated, non-gourmand vanilla. It has that refined, transparent quality that Aedes fragrances tend to share – the beginning is especially light, it turns creamier and somewhat deeper as it progresses. That said, I would not call it dark at all – there is a leathery aspect and a wisp of smoke, but both are very soft. And the flowers are there, too, adding a milky, sensual quality. All-in-all, I find it abstract and beautifully blended, it’s difficult (and probably unnecessary) to reduce it to a list of notes. But to me, the overall impression is quite soft, albeit beautiful. From what I smell, I think people who like their vanilla as one element in a complex scent will enjoy it and possibly also those who aren’t usually drawn to vanilla at all. Shalimar it’s certainly not.
Thanks so much! I am glad to hear it’s a non vanilla- vanilla.
What an exciting experience!, – Desarmament sounds really beautiful, I must try and smell it on our London perfume trip, are u still able to come?, congratulations on you’re new bottle!
Eek!, apologise for awful spelling.- Desarment
Happy Saturday Everyone! Well, after everything that has transpired over the last 5 days, I am happy to report that today is a beautiful, sunny day in Houston. I even went out and got my car washed this morning. Wearing Byredo’s Pulp today. It just seemed like the right fragrance for the day. It just smells like eating a ripe, sweet tasting fruit on a spring day.
My favorite Shakespeare play would be Romeo and Juliet of course. I’m a true romantic at heart. I also loved the movie that Gwenyth Paltrow was in, “Shakespeare in Love”. I love reading books about romance and also movies about romance. Hope everyone enjoys their weekend!
Glad to hear it!
Hope all those flood waters recede soon!
Testing out Masque Milano Terralba today and liking it very much. Coniferous with just a touch of a dark sea spray. It won’t replace Sel Marin for me, I don’t think, but it may well occupy a place next to it. It’s not as green and sharp as Corsica Furiosa, but I may prefer it. Hmmm. Others to recommend in this genre? The greenery meets the sea?
This sounds nice – I love Corsica Furiosa, but it disappears so quickly… The only thing I can think of in the genre is Sel de Vetiver, although it’s more vetiver meets the sea, not terribly green. A great perfume, regardless.
Trying things out yesterday and was reminded just how fleeting CF is. Too bad. Terralba is much quieter in the opening, but is steadily present for much longer. I am revisiting Fleur de Sel today and it is really good.
Some I have at home as samples, as yet untried (so more suggestions than recommendations):
Maria Candida Gentile “Finisterre”
Linari “Mare Pacifico”
Several from Comptoir Sud Pacifique.
One I didn’t get hold of but sounds great – Olympic Orchids “Kingston Ferry”
Thanks for this! Finisterre is a good one, although fleeting.
Miller Harris Fleurs de Sel is unusual and wonderful.
Just pulled out an old sample and it *is* really nice. Don’t know how I’d forgotten, so thank you for the reminder!
Masque Milano Terralba is one of my all-time favorites, and I’ve also come to love this genre, which I think of as bracing and herbal rather than floral. I second the recommendation for Fleurs de Sel and would also suggest Dior Granville, described on the Dior website as “the scent of fresh pine whipping in the wind” in Dior’s childhood home on the Normandy coast. I don’t get pine, but do think of aromatic herbs like rosemary and sage.
You might also check out Annick Goutal Les Nuits d’Hadrien, which is a bit sweeter–I would have said that the notes included the immortelle that can be found in several Goutals, but Fragrantica doesn’t list it. It also has that refreshing aromatic aspect. Lastly, my darling and my deario, Atelier Cologne Mistral Patchouli, which doesn’t smell like a patchouli at all.
To my nose, all of these have a citrussy aspect with an herbal underpinning, like a classic eau de cologne–a fragrance type I’ve come to love. Definitely going to check out the other recommendations!
I too love Mistral Patchouli – and I have a decant of Granville on the way! Now I have to retry Sel de Fleur, which I didn’t fully appreciate the first time around a few years ago. Thank you!
And I absolutely agree with the characterization. Bracing and herbal is exactly right.
thirding Fleurs de Sel, one of my summer favourites.
Yes! Retesting and it is so good.
Morning, all. Sunday, sweet Sunday, and this is a long weekend for us, because tomorrow is ANZAC Day. I’ve also decided (doctor’s advice) to take a couple of days of leave, so I feel rather relaxed, even though Dakkie got me out of bed about an hour ago by wailing that he was about to expire for want of Temptations…it’s still only 6.30! I sprayed myself with Narciso this morning, and its pillowy marshmallow ambience is managing to beat down the smells of vanilla and chocolate and sugar from my baking. Nice!
Enjoy the time off! It’s a lovely feeling when you know you don’t need to worry about work for a few days.
Enjoy your time off. And you smell marvelous!
Mmm, u smell lovely, Narciso is on my birthday list!
Pre-shower was vintage Miss Dior but right now I am commando. I have dinner plans an I am trying to figure out what to wear. Vintage Bal or vintage no 5. I don’t care if I skank people out, I love vintage Bal.
Spent the day pottering about in Béziers, a day that never quite decided whether to be sunny or cloudy, warm or cold, but was determined to be windy whatever else happened. The city itself seems half deserted and economically struggling, so I’m rather sorry we picked this place to stay 3 nights. Going to be hard pushed to find something interesting to see or do tomorrow.
SOTD was the last of 7 picked for their improbable names, “Forbidden Games” from By Kilian. And actually this closed off the week nicely, a peachy flowery white musk creation that Fragrantica reviewers thought might suit an eight-year-old. So I guess the forbidden games are things that involve running in school corridors.
Pretentiousness factor: 3/5 (Ooo, “forbidden”, that’s so DARK and EDGY)
Incongruity factor: 4/5 (reading under the covers is more transgressive)
Perfume score: 2/5 (although it doesn’t smell awful or disappear quickly, it really is too sweet and simpering for me)
I wore Playing with the Devil yesterday. It, too, is decidedly chaste.
A great name, but I’m not surprised the perfume failed to live up to it. I wonder what brimstone actually smells like?
Brimstone is sulfur, and I associate that with rotten eggs, but there is a range of possibilities, depending on the compound. From Wikipedia:
“Many sulfur compounds are odoriferous, and the smells of odorized natural gas, skunk scent, grapefruit, and garlic are due to organosulfur compounds. Hydrogen sulfide imparts the characteristic odor to rotting eggs and other biological processes.”
Bézier is in a fairly deprived part of France, and France is struggling. Montpellier is much more animated, and a large university town. There are some great places for olive oil in the area.
And a wonderful abbey near Narbonne; Fontfroide.
The most visited city in that part of France is Carcassonne, which if my memory serves me right is about an hour’s drive from Bézier.
Montpellier, Carcassonne and Toulouse would all be great places to visit.
Hey, you’re in my neck of the woods! Are you swinging by Toulouse?
Carassonne and Toulouse next week ;^)
Well if you want tips on perfume shops in Toulouse, or if you want to say hello to a fellow fumie, drop me a line 🙂 My e-mail address is kobhatta at jee male point com. Hope you’re enjoying southwestern France!
Thanks you Koyel! We’re in Toulouse Wed and Thu – I’ll drop an email before then. :^)
I’m wearing Angel today and relaxing after a rather trying week at a convention.
Good that you can relax! I was at Macy’s earlier today and on a whim asked if they have Angel Muse and YES! – tester only…and in 2 weeks, they will get a shipment. The juice is rather nice, not particularly ground-breaking but I can definitely see myself wearing it. I have a gift card that will defray a good portion of the cost.
Good to know. My Macys doesn’t have it yet, but I am tempted to blind buy it. It seems like I would like it, although I have a hard time with original Angel.
Way more related to Angel than I expected! And strong, and sweet. Lillyjo, I think it’s very well done but I would not buy it unsniffed.
If it is very close to Angel, I will hold off. I have tried to wear so many of the different versions. None of them seem to work for me, except Angel Innocent in tiny doses. I should just give up and stick with my Alien.
It is strong and can imagine myself wearing 1 spray and topping it off with Demeter Vetiver.
It’s different enough that you might like it. Maybe closer to Angel Sucree? It is worth trying, I just would not buy unsniffed. (and sorry I don’t remember Innocent well enough to say how it compares)
I’ve visited two Macy’s looking for Angel Muse and didn’t see it out, but never thought to ask an SA about it. Oh well, I’ve already got a sample on its way!
Have to find something soothing, as I’m experiencing sinus pain. Yesterday during downward facing dog (inverted yoga pose), I suddenly had a horrid water-up-the-nose sensation. The odd thing is I haven’t had a cold or otherwise been sick.
Though ridiculously overpriced for what it is, found a super novelty gift (and ok, some for myself) at Paper Source. They’re post-it notes that say “effing genius,” and there’s a little light bulb where the u should be.
Sorry about your sinus thing.
But I have a friend for whom those sticky notes would be perfect!
I’m starting to obsess over Bois de Farine. I’ve never tried it but it has latched onto my thoughts…and I don’t even know why, except that I’ve become reinterested in JC Ellena and it sounds like something I would like. Also thinking that I should see The Winters Tale …the Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench film.
Fabulous autumn morning here. Yellow and red maple and birch leaves skittering past my window, clear blue sky. Looking forward to wearing Eau Premiere with my favourite greenish beanie and brand new Sorels ( they look like a persian cat has crawled into them ) for a walk through the gardens, kicking up leaves.
I love Bois Farine – have a bottle and a backup as it was cheap in TKMaxx. Definitely a good time to look for it on eBay too as lots of people picked up the old-style L’Artisan bottles. You must be in Australia or New Zealand though – is it the same there?
A small dab of Amouage Opus IV this morning. I’m slowly working my way though all the Opuses (I couldn’t remember enough Latin from university days to be sure of the plural, but just looked it up and it’s Opera), though none have grabbed me yet. This one is spicy, which I generally enjoy, but it’s a wee bit too close to spicy food. I’d like to eat something that smells like this, but it’s not something I want to wear.
Wearing the ever wonderful La Promesse de l’Aube. I spent a lovely day with a friend in Antwerp. Pottering around on the market. I tried some 20 different kinds of olives and a similar number of tapenades, which was great. Next on the agenda was the quest for shoes, for my friend, not for me. We can’t say that we didn’t try, but no shoes. Ended up at Parfuma which is a nice shop with a decent choice of niche and mainstream. Tried Armani Privé Bois d’Encens again. It may be the first incense I’ve fallen in love with. It’s good.
Antwerp was lovely as ever, but it is noticeably quieter, which one of the shopkeepers commented upon. Still gorgeous, especially on a spring day.
What a gorgeous day with you’re friend- sounds like a perfect Saturday, and I hope the market will pick up again soon..
I’ve just got back from a wonderful concert that was a tribute to Shakespeare and Cervantes, whose 400th anniversary is also today. It was music and dance of the period, with readings and dramatizations of their works. I wore Rêve d’Ossian, which seems to have the feel of the period.
I love Shakespeare’s work in general, especially Macbeth, A Winter’s Tale and Julius Caesar, as well as the sonnets, of course.
I got a number of new samples last week that I’m trying out. SOTD Jul et Mad Nea. I realize now that it was JeM Nim-Shar I had actually meant to order, Nea is very nice though, but a bit difficult to pin down.
I love Shakespeare’s plays, in my hometown they put up an outdoor performance (in a mediveal ruin!) of one of them each summer and I’ve been watching them since I was a kid. Favorite comedy Much Ado about Nothing, favorite tragedy Othello or Macbeth.
Huzzah, Shakespeare! It is good to contemplate genius and know that in 400 years the world will look back in awe on the great artists of today.
So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle
Gently entwist. The female ivy so
Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.
Oh, how I love thee! How I dote on thee!
SotD = La Chasse aux Papillons, my perfect honeysuckle.
Still thinking about Orlando. What would be the perfect fragrance for Woolf’s character? Eau Duelle is perhaps too obvious, but it might be just the right scent.
And speaking of what’s in a name, I’m enthralled by Sarah-Beth-Alison-Cosima-Helena-Rachel while devouring Orphan Black season 3 this weekend. I have unexpected empty space in my usual routine, and I’m tired.
I pace my viewing by making sure I do something productive for an hour or more between episodes. This also helps my heart rate and adrenaline levels to drop. I’m such a baby, I have to cover my eyes at least once each episode.
I hope everyone has a replenishing weekend.
I’m thinking Knize Ten or Tabac Blond for the handsome Orlando who turns into a woman of the Roaring 20s.
Something ostentatiously expensive and ‘exclusive’ for Orlando – there’s a lot of bedazzle in the book about the glories of (IRL) Knole and the glamour of aristocracy. I’ve barely tried Amouage and Roja Dove but I bet something would fit the bill. They come in related male/ female version too.
Sentence of the day:
“A party for the Rolling Stones ended with the police showing up as guests were drunkenly throwing unopened bottles of Dom Pérignon into the Thames, but generally Lady Elizabeth’s events are known for their calm elegance and thoughtful touches.”
From the New York Times, “Queen Elizabeth’s Party Planner is Proud to Wear $35 Shoes”:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/24/style/queen-party-planner-lady-elizabeth-anson.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=mini-moth®ion=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below&_r=0
I’d love to know what perfume Lady Elizabeth Anson wears. 😉
Excellent quote, not even going to read the article, it was enough 🙂
Sentence of the day indeed!!
I can’t help but be excited in anticipation of those who find the unopened Dom washing up on the river banks 😉
SOTD: Ineke’s SWEET WILLIAM of course in honor of our sweet Will.
Love Shakespeare and have spent much of my career working with him. My fave play is MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, I have done it twice, once as actor and then as producer/director.
Many moons ago, I worked on a public service announcement with Meryl Streep for Discover Jersey Arts. In it, she delivers a few lines of the opening Chorus from HENRY V in an abandoned theatre. The big old collected works of Shakespeare that she is reading from is mine!! Check it out on YouTube
https://youtu.be/ujuaOjJDZ1o
Hey Jepster! How coll that you worked with Meryl Streep! In the realm of supporting the arts, I’m going to see River Dance at NJPAC on Sunday. I haven’t decided on what perfume to wear!
Glad to see you supporting New Jersey Arts!!
As for perfume, well it woulds seem that Creed IRISH TWEED is the only choice!
I just got home from NJPAC. What a performance! And, we ended up just walking to NJPAC from Newark Penn – on a nice day like today and in the day time, it was a very safe 10-minute walk. Nico restaurant was quite good as well despite the unfavorable reviews.
I don’t have Creed Irish Tweed so I wore Chanel No. 19 EDP instead … the juice is greenish, it smells green and it matched my green shirt :-).
Wow, jepster that’s amazing- what fantastic memories you must have! Much Ado About Nothing is my favourite Shakespeare play too, Beatrice and Benedicts relationship is one of my all time favourites in fiction.
Many good times with the Bard! If you have not seen it yet, there was a film version of MUCH ADO done just few years ago, sort of modern dress but in black and white. Very well done and a treat for those of us who love that play.
Wow, I love Sheakspeare and as a casual reader can only imagine how beautiful it must be to know him in the guts like that. Nice career choice!
I am a firm believer that a deep understanding of Shakespeare is available to all of us. It always amazed me working with young actors afraid to tackle a monologue just how much they enjoyed and expressed once they got a handle on the language. Not hard, just a bit of research and effort and it really pays off. Love me some Shakespeare!!
Just a small spritz of Guerlain Meteorites before heading out to the mall for a quick sniffing expedition. No Kerbside Violet liquid perfume, only solid, but I did snag Yummy Mummy shower cream at Lush. Still no Muguet Porcelaine at Hermes. Tried the Chanel No. 5 dry oil at Nordies but DH said it was not to his liking, so I got Coco body cream instead. I tried and really liked the Jo Malone Velvet Rose and Oud but I need another rose oud scent like I need a hole in the head.
Heading back to Montreal for the summer Wednesday where they have a great Mugler selection and hopefully the SL De Profundis atomizer. The Montreal sniffa group will meet up at 5:30pm at Ogilvy on Friday 4/29!
Woohoo, a different set of perfumistas to go sniffing with and a different perfume wardrobe (well, except for the ones with multiples)!
Yes, fun on both accounts!
I really appreciate my Meteorites, even though (or perhaps sometimes because) it only lasts a few minutes. 😉
Lulz to the rose oud issue! Ain’t that the truth.
We should be celebrating Cervantes, too! Anyhoo, one of my favourite verses from Shakespeare are from Cymbeline: Fear no more the heat o’ the sun…
My scent of the day was Declaration. Of my love of Cervantes and Shakespeare, of course. 🙂
Love that verse, we’re going to sing a version of it at our next choir concert. Bryn Terfel (the baritone) has recorded a very nice version of it on The Vagabond.
Goodmorning all!
Wearing a perfume I don”t see mentioned a lot, and so a question!
Wearing Eau du soir, the reformulated one. the scent itself is still nice.
The biggest difference is sillage imo.
I don’t want people to say: I like your perfume, but in the past when I wore it, at least once a day I heard.. wow.. something is smellin’ nice in here.. That’s a nice compliment! So I wonder if any of you still wears it.Thanks and have a nice sunday!
I wear it occasionally, less often as my collection has expanded. But I generally wear it at home, in the evening. Sorry that’s not much help.
but thanks anyway!!
Bright and cold Sunday morning here. I enjoyed finishing my sample of Ostara yesterday, it was my little boys birthday trip. We took him, his sister and his best friend on a steam train journey from Bodium to Tenterden. Ostara was the perfect accompaniment to the banks of swaying daffodils and narcissus , blurs of bluebell woods, and also the coal grey steam, coiling around passengers on the platform. Ostara seems to be a mix of all these things. It’s so lovely when a perfume really compliments and seems to accentuate a fun day out like this!
Today I’m wearing Cuir de Lancôme.
Sounds really nice. And I bet they had a blast!
Going to spend the day by the Atlantic forest, with the family, a book for each of us and a barbecue: we’ll even take a swim at the little waterfall close by, since the weather is so crazy, as warm as during mid summer. Wearing just a single spray of Amouage Dia Man, because it lasts all day and I enjoy wearing vetiver in these outdoorsy situations.
Have a great Sunday, NST!
Sounds like the best kind of Sunday????
Definitely!
I would love a swim under a waterfall, I hope you have a great day!
Ah, a lazy Sunday- Joy!
Favorite quote by Good Ol Will:
“Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs”
SOTD is MFK Cologne pour le Soir. Love this stuff and happy I caved and bought the huge honkin bottle a couple of months ago. No regrets. One spritz lasts forever and and ever…
Hey, maybe we should have a “No Regrets Day” ?
Hope all you NSTers have a fabulous sunday????
Firstly a big thanks to Austenfan and Cazaubon for inspiring us to go to Montpellier for the day. So much livelier than Béziers – OK that’s not very hard. Montpellier was lively by any normal standards and the more people apologised for “everything being shut” the more I wondered if they’d ever been 45 minutes down the line to see what a place where everything is shut really looks like.
Perfume-wise I’m starting a week inspired by the next Community challenge. However I just don’t know perfumes well enough to have Spring favourites, so I took 5 samples from the Blooms March pack and added 2 others to give a full week. SOTD is Memo “Irish Leather”, which supposedly unites leather with juniper and green notes. I get parsnips, followed eventually by a sort of “polishing my shoes” scent which I guess is kind of leathery or leatherish. It doesn’t last more than a few hours, which is okay by me. Is it Spring-like? Only in the banal way that peeling parsnips and polishing shoes are part of Spring. Perfume score 2/5, pas pour moi. :^)
Hello, NST.
Today I have some long overdue enabler pins for people. Ihadanidea gets one for her descriptions of Natori EdP (the one in the purple bottle). Blind bought a small dabber, then picked up a big bottle at a crazy low price. I was surprised and pleased at how much I liked it, given that the note list kind of left me cold.
The other enabler pin is for either Leathermountain or Oakland Fresca. I’m sorry that I can’t remember exactly who had such glowing reviews about L’Agent by Agent Provocateur. Another blind buy that worked out very well. I am even considering a backup bottle, since it is sadly discontinued. (sigh)
SOTD = sampling 28 La Pausa. Something in my chemistry makes this poor fragrance fall to pieces.
28 La Pausa – did you dab or spray? I use 8 sprays to make it last all day. Congrats on your enabled purchases!
I have a wee dabber sample of 28 LP. Not sure if spraying would make a difference in the notes that I smell, though. If I ever see the Exclusifs in real life, I should give it a sprintz just to be sure.
Should have also said thank you for the congrats, earlier. Where is my head this weekend?
Very good morning to NST! It’s a very quiet Monday in central Auckland, because nothing opens until midday on ANZAC day. I intended to go to the dawn parade, but the dear one says I was so deeply asleep that he couldn’t bring himself to wake me. There will be another year.
So. Friday I had a bad, horrible day, and ended up feeling really and truly stupid and inadequate and (so I thought) just plain old. It was all about setting out to drive somewhere I’m not familiar with, getting into the wrong lane for the Western motorway, ending up going south, taking the first off-ramp, going back to spaghetti junction–and doing something different but still wrong, then getting into a fight with a truckie who had absolutely incandescent road rage. You see? Not just one mistake, but two, the same, but different. As a result of all this, I have spent some time reading the blogs of older women, the sort of things that advise, “You are wonderful whenever”/”feel fabulous though fifty”/”sleek and sexy at seventy”. The writers are clearly amazing women, honest and practical, fulfilled and charming and madly glamorous. The “look” rules: makeup is essential, hats seem important, clothes are liberated from any “age-appropriate” dicta, but perfume, strangely, was never mentioned. I missed it. Its absence reinforced for me how much perfume enhances my days. I was glad, so GLAD, I was wearing 31 RC on Friday, though my wrist-huffing must have severely puzzled the cop who turned up when the truckie was berating me.
Now, I do have a point in this long ramble, and I’ve just reached it. It’s this: in this tolerant and diverse community, I really appreciate the way NST-ites inter-weave their perfume choices with clothes and moods, weather and activities, and take the time to tell one another with good humour and sometimes, even a lyrical turn of phrase. It struck me forcibly that pleasurable though the perfume learning is, it’s not as valuable as the acceptance one finds for one’s foibles and reflections and, well, one’s self. Thank you, all, and especially you, Robin, for creating this best kind of village.
I may keep reading the blogs of these splendid age-compatriots of mine, but most likely not. Instead, I’m going to study a map of the layout of the lanes in spaghetti junction, I’m going to power spray with Femme, and then I’m going to get in the car and go back to the interchange and GET IT RIGHT this time!
If I had a bottle of 31 RC for every time I’ve headed out to lower Ponsonby and ended up on the North Shore after getting stuck on the northern motorway and unable to get off the bridge…well, I’d have several bottles. What’s more I have made wrong turns in every other city I’ve ever been to…
Maybe a move to an apartment on 31 Rue Cambon is in order? You can wear your wonderful, traffic-stopping, many-buttoned black jacket, red boots and silk lined pinafore and turn heads as you float by in a cloud of Chanel .
Auckland truck drivers (grrrr)…it’s them not you! I bet he had made a wrong turn and was meant to be in Hamilton.
You are such a comfort! I think it was doing it twice (twice!) that undid me! And oddly, the dear man helped me reconnect all the bits of myself by talking about his plans for travel, and Paris ( Yay!) is among them. I worry for him on long flights, but he thinks the doctor’s advice for his vertigo is helping, so maybe Rue Cambon is not completely out of the question next year. North America too, maybe.
Oh, and I did buy that many-buttoned jacket…I didn’t really need to say it, did I?
My son is in Sydney this week. When I asked him about his jet lag, he told me the parade woke him up at 4 am! He was shocked at the number of spectators at that hour.
Does anyone have any strong feelings either way about Aroma M?
I got a luckyscent email this morning as I am sure many of you did( just a guess)
For Geisha Vanilla & Hinoki wood. I’m not sure what attracted me…the beauty of the bottle, the price point ( under 100 clams) or the description. I read a few really nice reviews of Amber Rouge.
So now I cannot get the picture of this bottle out of my head????
All opinions welcome. My birthday is coming up very soon and I have some fragrance money put aside for something new. What I really want is a face lift.
I have their Geisha Noir and like it very much, but it only lasts about 4 hours on me. Still, the price point is very good, and my bottle isn’t huge, which is always a plus these days.
Yes, vanilla and hinoki caught my eye too, I have not fallen in love with any of their prior scents but I still want to try it.
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Though art more lovely and more temperate.
Harsh winds do shake the darling buds of May
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
I am very much enamoured with Mauboussin Pour Femme at this moment in time, closely followed by Roma (Laura Biagiotti.)