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Browsing by author: Jessica

Aedes de Venustas Corfu Kumquat ~ fragrance review

Posted by Jessica on 30 June 2022 10 Comments

A few fragrance-friends and I were recently chatting in a group text about our favorite perfumes for very hot days. I’m pretty predictable — as usual, I mentioned Diptyque L’Ombre dans L’Eau and 4711 and last year’s Jo Malone Tangy Rhubarb Cologne. Then I remembered that I have a new summer-favorite scent to add to this list: Aedes de Venustas Corfu Kumquat.

Aedes launched Corfu Kumquat back in March 2022 as a fresh addition to its revamped in-house fragrance line, describing it as “a Grecian sun-drenched citrus marked by complexity and longevity.” This Eau de Parfum is named for the island of Corfu and for the small oval-shaped fruit sometimes known as “the golden orange”…

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Nomenclature Minted ~ fragrance review

Posted by Jessica on 20 June 2022 9 Comments

I recently purchased a few small plants to create a summer “container garden” — basil, dill, peppermint. I’ve done this before, although not last summer or the year before (I must have had something else on my mind?) and I’m looking forward to having a supply of fresh-picked herbs again. And, of course, there’s the smell factor. The mint plant, in particular, had me burying my nose in its leaves on the walk home.

Right around the same time, I was happy to hear that the first release from Nomenclature’s new Modern Eclectics collection is Minted, an “aromatic woody scent” with notes of mint, maté, jasmine, papyrus, Atlas cedar, violet, lemongrass, bergamot and brown sugar for “the fragrance equivalent of a deep breath.” This collection is playful, but in a different way from the original Nomenclature collection, with its aroma-chemical “molecule” inspirations and its lab flask bottles: the Modern Eclectics presentation includes collages by visual artist Rafael Santiago as well as short, whimsical poems, and the descriptions of its scents refer to nature, to flavors, even to internet culture. Minted (created for Nomenclature by perfumer Jérôme Epinette) takes “Moroccan mint tea on ice” as one reference point, but also plays with multiple readings of “mint” as taste, as currency (hence the dollar sign in its visuals) and as the condition of newness…

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Summer greens ~ fragrance reviews

Posted by Jessica on 19 May 2022 6 Comments

Longtime readers here at Now Smell This will be familiar with the idea of the purgatory basket. It doesn’t have to be a basket, strictly speaking: it could also be a bowl or box or drawer, any container that holds an assortment of samples we try, think about, and decide to reassess later. The delay might just be a matter of mood or season or, in my case, a busy calendar that distracts me from my usual sampling efforts.

I recently revisited four releases from 2021 (and one older fragrance) and realized that they all had some kind of “green” theme in common — gardens, vines, mosses. In addition to my usual rotation of L’Ombre dans l’eau and tart rhubarb-y scents, I might be branching out (hah) a bit this summer.

To start: I recently read Muriel Barbery’s A Single Rose, and its descriptions of Kyoto’s Zen gardens sent me hunting for the vial of Le Jardin Retrouvé Mousse Arashiyama (image below) that I’d stashed away for later reappraisal…

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Eris Parfums Scorpio Rising (with a note on Belle de Jour) ~ fragrance reviews

Posted by Jessica on 7 April 2022 15 Comments

Years and years ago, when I was just beginning graduate school, I made a new friend who had an amateur interest in astrology. At the time, this interest was regarded with suspicion (or even scorn) by the more “serious” members of our academic program. I’ve always been curious about the storytelling and symbolism of the zodiac, though, so I was a willing ear for her theories about certain classmates’ behavior.

“We have too many Leos in this group,” she’d murmur to me when the same few individuals kept dominating a seminar meeting. Or, more ominously, “Watch out for the sting of the Scorpio” — in reference to some November-born classmates whom she didn’t trust…

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Zoologist Seahorse ~ fragrance review

Posted by Jessica on 3 March 2022 6 Comments

I’ve been fascinated by seahorses since I was a child. Why? So many reasons. Their heads resemble the heads of teeny horses! They can hold onto things — seaweed, each other — with their prehensile tails! They are monogamous! The male seahorse carries his mate’s fertilized eggs in a pouch on his abdomen! I’ve never actually stopped to think about scents associated with seahorses, though — until now.

Seahorse is a unisex aquatic fragrance developed for Zoologist by perfumer Julien Rasquinet…

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