Robin Here at NST® has a PhD in Hermès Eau de Merveilles and its spawn: she’s reviewed all seven perfumes. I have an easier assignment; Hermès has launched just three Terre d’Hermès flankers: Terre d’Hermès Eau Très Fraîche, Terre d’Hermès Parfum and the new Terre d’Hermès Eau Intense Vétiver.
Hermès in-house perfumer Christine Nagel developed Terre d’Hermès Eau Intense Vétiver, and its description is pretty straightforward…
How many leather fragrances do I own? Three. Chanel Cuir de Russie, Robert Piguet Bandit and Frédéric Malle Monsieur. Stand-out leathers are hard to find; many leather fragrances smell so similar.
Cuir de Russie is a perfume version of a sleek, quirky, man-made bibelot (my house is full of these, too; see my current lemming — the eyeball paperweight from L’Objet —below). Bandit is more of a stand-out ‘natural’ object that’s showy and hard to miss: a glossy chunk of red coral, say…or a hot-pink seashell the size of your head, a Haida basket full of aromatic betel nuts from India. Monsieur’s raunch and libertine paunch prompts a “leather” virtual reality experience…
While growing up in the hot and steamy South, I loved autumn and its coolness, and you’d think that after Seattle’s oven-like temperatures and dangerously smoky skies this summer, I’d be looking forward to autumn. Wrong. I’m already counting the weeks till spring and wishing I could move to Buenos Aires for the next six months and enjoy spring and summer all over again. Perhaps I’ve changed (emotionally?) but fall feels sad this year; I reckon it’ll be dark, sodden, the beginning of The End — the interminable winter months.
This year I’m going to avoid sentimentality, Japanese death poems, lethargic piano music and drama (I won’t be stoking my self-pity). I’ll tackle my negative autumn (and winter) moods with fun things…
For those of you whose first response to the words CUMIN + PERFUME is to clutch your pearls or bite your pinky ring…you may ignore Heretic Parfums Dirty Ginger;* this guy is dirty with the ‘raunchy’ spice.
Dirty Ginger starts with the aromas of traditional medicine (I’m thinking Ayurveda): dried fruit peels and herbs, leaves and seeds, stored next to a block of white camphor. The herbs move from the medicinal to the culinary realm quickly, and if you’re in the mood for a good curry or Indian pickle (with its mustard seeds, ginger, vinegar and coriander), you may start to salivate…
For me, some of the best summer days revolve around lying on the sofa and reading, listening to music, (taking a nap), and eating and drinking indulgent concoctions (LOTS of gelato, ice cream and cocktails). I surround myself with vases full of scented flowers from the garden — right now there are sweet peas, roses, tuberose, plate-sized southern magnolias, gardenias, phlox, even tiny bouquets of spicy, bright orange marigolds. And, of course, I wear perfume.
For the past three weeks, Seattle has sizzled with temperatures often hovering between 89 and 93 degrees Fahrenheit (31-34 °C); on some days, it’s been downright unhealthy to be outside, with smoke from raging fires reaching us from California, eastern Washington/Canada and…SIBERIA. I feel zero guilt for whiling away a morning and/or afternoon “in contemplation.” Today I’d like to introduce you to my most recent “Summer Quartet” (the individual parts change, but the pattern remains constant)…