Scents my husband hates

This weekend me and my little girl have been home alone, My not-so-little boy is off to granny and my husband is off with his mates on their annual all-guys golf trip to Spain. About my husband, he hardly ever comments on the scents I'm wearing, neither in a positive or negative way but there is this one note that I know he absolutely hates - patchouli. So I figuered this weekend would be a great time to get out my patchoulies and take them for a test drive.

The first one I've been wearing is a scent that's also, in my household, known as "that smell". My husband picks it out anywhere, on anyone, because he hates with a passion. Since he's done this since long before I became interested in perfume I haven't really given it a chance. It's a very well known perfume and I don't think you can pretend to be a perfumista without having at least tried it on a couple of times. So, I dropped by at my local KICKS, and since I was in a hurry and had my biggest and thickest winter jacket on, the only bare patch of skin I could find in a jif was my decollage, so I went for it and big splash of .... Angel.

I'd really hoped I'd dislike Angel, considering my husbands opinions on it, but no such luck. The sensation of then sitting in a commuter train and have that...thing...whafting up on me from under my clothes invoked a giggly, exhilarated feeling, a similar one I imagine a flasher might have, walking around before the actual flashing, thinking about what a surprise those innocent bystanders would have if they found out what he was wearing underneath his trenchcoat. Except, with a sillage like that the whole train car probably had a very clear picture about what I was wearing beneath my clothes with no need to take them off. Hereafter, Angel will be my own secret little pleasure to indulge in whenever husband's out of town.

And I also feel disqualified to write about what it smells like, because it smells like SO MUCH and I've just tried it this once, but please head over to  the Candy Perfume Boy who has an excellent review here.

Björn Borg

Next day I tried on ELdO s Nombril Immense. Another love that I feel is not getting the attention it deserves. The way I perceive it there are two antagonist sides, there is the an obnoxious, mothbally and penetrating patchouli set against soft, sweet balm of Peru. The dynamics of NI makes me think of a tennis match featuring Swedish tennis legend Björn Borg, wearing the colors of the patchouli because of his hairdo and alleged accusations of drug abuse. He's playing against someone I can't say because I don't know any other tennis players, sorry! In this game they look like they are be competing but it's really just a show. They're doing this in order to set each other off, look like they're engaged in a struggle but it's really just a convenient way of looking good in front of girls. I'm not sure if my rantings here makes sense to anyone, but it's a scent I enjoy wearing, nonetheless.

And then, no test round of patchoulis would be complete without Chanels Coromandel. Coromandel is one of the very few scents (I can count 3) that my husband has asked me not to wear when I'm near him. And I'm "????????" How anyone can NOT like Coromandel? But the intro can be a bit overpowering. Think about a spot where your local wicca coven might meet at full moon midnights to harvest the mandrakes needed in their rituals (see the top picture). The roots are ripped from the soil, leaving big black gaping holes in the ground. Coromandel starts like what one of those holes migh smell like. Wet, damp and very black soil. But then it changes...a lot. The patchouli calms down and along comes chocolate and vanilla, the whole concoction morphs into dessert bliss from heaven. If there is any one perfume that I'd like to see rendered as an ice cream flavour it's Coromandel. Seriously, it would be so neat to have a perfume themed dessert parlour. With Fils de Dieu Rice Pudding, Coromandel and Bois et Fruit ice cream and a few more flavours for caramel I'm close to have skeleton for an actual menu :)

Last of the patchoulis is Serge Lutens Borneo 1834. It has taken me a while to "get" this one, when I first smelled it it was to weird and bitter but now it's awsome. To me, this one is the cosiest, most relaxed scent of the ones I've written about today, it's also the one where the patchouli is most integrated with everything else. It starts out with lots and lots of tobacco. Then comes along that warm and steamy note, the same one that's present in Fumerie Turque and for a very short while in the intro of Boxeuses. In a very no-frills way Borneo 1834 smells like walking around in a small Asian country-side village. It's hot, the humidity is extreme, you can smell the dirt on the roads and the wood the huts are made of. Someone is burning old palm leaves far away, the smoke barly detectable. As it wears it sweetens and it moves toward cocoa. But it's not the obvious chocolate you get from Coromandel, this is unrefined cocoa, dark and raw, complete with a hint of camphor. Righ now, I feel like I could wear Borneo 1834 forever.

In all I have immensly enjoyed my weekend. I often set up goals like "this week I'm only going to wear citruses", or "lets have a Sonoma Scent Studio Marathon this weekend", but this is the only time I've gone through with something like that. Usually I do one scent and then I'm craving something completely differet. But the patchoulis are so NICE. I've felt relaxed and calmed. As the weather is bad I've mostly stayed at home, relaxing, thinking and playing wth my daughter, and the introverted, meditative feel of patchouli has been a great backdrop to that.


Photoes: D-addicts, Gaygroom, American Folcloric Witchcraft Blog

Etat Libre d'Orange, 3 from 1

Finding perfect peaches is a bit of an obsession of mine. I love them but here in Sweden it's very hard to get good ones. It's to cold to grow them and even in the middle of summer the ones we get in the stores tend to be hard and taste mostly of cardboard. I guess that after they've reached that perfect state of juice dripping, sun ripened perfection, they don't travel to well.

The second best thing would be to smell like a perfect peach. I haven't found that scent yet but whenever I see peach listed among scent notes I give a scent a try. Etat Libre d'Orange Vrai Blonde is mostly about peaches. It starts surprisingly heavy with notes of cocoa, baking powder and peach brandy, feeing thick and gooey. Soon the heavyness fades and there comes along a nice, light and yummy peach note with a hint of vanilla. One has to apply rather much of the perfume, in order to get the scent to last, and I really recommend doing that as the dry down is the very best part!

Encens et Bubblegum also has peach listed among the official notes, but here the peach is a team player, supporting the bubblegum accord, along with raspberry, vanilla and musk. I've read a few other reviews where people claim that it smells exactly like you might expect by the name - equal parts bubblegum and incense. Only on me I clearly feel the bubblegum but I get no incense at all. But for being a bubblegum scent I find it very wearable. It's not cloying but light, sweet and airy, great for a summers day when you're not taking yourself very seriously. This is a pretty faint scent that does not last very long on me. But, I suppose, bubblegum is fun for a while but to reek of it forever wouldn't be very comfortable.

Just as most family come with a hippie aunt or two, most perfume lines spot a patchouli, for Etat Libre d'Orange, that's Nombril Immense. According to the official notes it contains patchouli, balm of Peru, vetyver, black pepper absolute and more. One might think this would be a heavy and male oriented scent, but it is not. It's woody all right, but relatively light and very easy to wear. I'd say this is a beginners patchouli. Perfect for someone insecure  that really want to get into the hippy dippy thing but doesn't want the dirty nails and natural smelling hairy armpits of the real thing. Or for anyone that likes a hint of patchouli but not to much, like myself.

Nombril Immense, intrestingly enough, means giant belly button. I like that. When I'm thinking about it I picture this giant space ship in the sky. All of a sudden, in the middle of the underside, this huge hole opens up, the belly button of the ship. It goes bigger and bigger. A thick fog gushes out of the hole, sailing downwards, towards earth. Everybody who breathes in the fog immediately feels so smart and enlightened, they now understand it all. With a peaceful smile on their faces they all marching toward the space ships food storage compartment where a very special welcome has been prepared for them... (Yes, I've been watching the "V" remake)

One might think that the Etat Libre d'Orange scents would also be provocative or garish. Some of them might be, but the ones I've reviewed here certainly are not. They are light and enjoyable, and most of all, fun!

Craft by Andrea Maack

According to Wikipedia: "Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events, that are apparently causally unrelated or unlikely to occur together by chance, that are observed to occur together in a meaningful manner." This happens to me so often I'm sometimes wondering if I have a team of supernatural beings working full time hitting me over the head.

The other day I wrote a blog post about Perfume Shopping in Iceland. The next day I went visiting my favourite perfume store here in Stockholm, Cow Parfymeri, in order to smell their Amorages. When I stood there, complentating my smelly wrists, I saw a perfume line that I had never seen before. There were no labels on the sides of them so I turned one upside down and guess what? They were made in Reykjavík, Iceland. Unknowingly, I had stumbled over Andrea Maacks line. She is an visual artist and she has had 3 perfumes made that are supposed to be olfactory representations of her artistic work.

The first one that I've tried is "Craft", a very unusual scent. The piece of work it's representing is a jacket, seen below:

And here is the print on the jacket, an intricate, organic pattern of pencil lines:

So, how does this smell? At Andrea Maacks website Craft is being described as: "Like being lost in a foggy forest with metallic trees and citrus fruits hanging from the metallic branches." Does this sound weird? The funny thing is that once you sniff the perfume it makes perfect sense. First, there is a strong burst of tonic water mixed with bitter grapefruit rind and metal. I'm also reminded of the chemical taste of aspirine. The citrus note comes from eleni, a resin with a spicy and citrusy scent. There is no sweetness whatsoever and if this will not wake you up, nothing will.

After a while, the tonic metal seamlessly moves on towards cedarwood. For a while the scent notes seem to be jumping between tonic and wood every other time I smell. At the end there is patchouli, and once you've come this far you realise that is has been there all the time, nudging everything else along.

So, is this something anyone would want to wear? Yes, considering the metalness, it's suprisingly wearable. It's great on a scorching summers day when you want your drinks to be dry, tart and bitter and just can't stand anything too florid. If I was to describe Craft in one sentence it would be a "High-tech and long lasting gin-and-tonic cologne". I'm rating it 4 out of 5.

Samples of all Andrea Maacks fragrances are available on Luckyscent.

Pics: www.andreamaack.com

Perfume Shopping in Reykjavík, Iceland

Hi again, now I'm back! I've recently been on a trip to Iceland in order to visit my family there and I've been travelling in Sweden as well, but now I'm back in Stockholm for at least a week! When I go abroad on shorter trips I usually bring a few samples but not to many. Instead I rely on that I'll discover new and interesting scents and just spray them on whenever I see them in the shops. Iceland used to be a great place for that, there used to be a consumer culture that equals nothing I've some across. But as they have been in a major economic recession the last few years, things are very different now. As most Icelanders have no money there are hardly any imported luxury goods available. Even McDonalds has left (I'm not kidding).

But, even if Icelanders themselves have no money, there are lots of people that do - tourists! It used to be very expensive to go there, but not any more. And tourists like to buy local stuff and partake of local culture. So there seems to be a boom in arts and creating things locally. And there are not just souvenir polar bears and little wooden vikings. I found, surprisingly, 2 new local brands of perfume as well.

First one is EFJ, manufactured by Gydja. It's described as a classic, spicy, light and fresh fragrance with hints of citrus, vanilla, roses and bergamot. The perfume is clearly marketed towards tourists as it's made with with glacial water from Eyjafjallajökull and every bottle comes with a small lava rock from the volcano.

The only chance I had to try this one was at the airport, just before leaving.  It's a very generic floral with some rose and citrus thrown in. I didn't get any vanilla. It didn't impress me. But to it's defence I must say that while I was wearing it, I was carrying my very reluctant one year old daughter. First for an hour inside the airport terminal, then I had to try keep her entertained  for 3 hours straight, sitting in my lap, during the flight back home. Not the best conditions for perfume sampling...

The other Icelandic perfume brand I came across was is an extension to an Icelandic clothing brand, named Ella, founded by Elinros Lindal. There are two scents, "Ella" and "Ella Night". The official scent notes of Ella are lemon, verbena and patchouly. Ella Night smells of roses and fur.

I never got to wear these ones. I must admit I was put off by the bottle design, it was so clearly a bad Byredo copy. Normally I'm not too sensitive by such things, I believe that the best product will win in the end, but as I don't care much for Byredo to start with I just felt tired when I saw these. But if anyone has tried them I'd love to hear what you think.

So, I'm not super impressed by Icelandic perfumery yet, but at least there is an embryo of a local perfume industry. That, I believe, is a very good thing, and from now on things should only be able to get better! However, what is impressive are some of the Icelandic clothing designers. I'm including a few links here for anyone who's interested in checking them out:

Spakmannsspjarir , if I was a foot taller and a little more goth looking I'd buy all of theirs stuff! Amazing!

Kron by Kronkron, very cool shoes and stockings.

Elm, apparently Oprah has stopped by here and bought stuff.

CB I Hate Perfume, 3 from 1

I've been going through my stash of CB I Hate Perfumes and here are reviews of 3 of the ones I like.

Winter 1972 is what I reckon CB:s masterpiece. There is a very skeletal version of the CBIHP signature soil accord, giving the impression of breathing crisp air outside on a chilly winters day. This scent supposed to be about snowy fields and hand knit woollen mittens. I'm not getting that. I'm getting being outside on one of the last days of winter. Most of the snow is gone, but the ground is still frozen. It's still cold but there is a, barely noticeable, hint that spring will be coming this year as well. The way CB captures the sleeping nature and the promise of what is to come never ceases to amaze me.

To see a flower is really rather similar to Winter 1972, when smelling them side by side. There is the soil accord again but with a generic floral element added to it. The fresh air that I'm getting from Winter 1972 is not as strong. There is no walking on an airy field, with this one you're crawling on all fours, marvelling at the wonders of nature, looking at insects buzzing around and finally burying your nose in a delicate little flower you've just found. This is a subtle and very realistic rendition of nature that I love. According to the CBIHP site, this scent was inspired by a poem by Georgia O'Keefe:

In a way,
nobody sees a flower really,
it is so small,
we haven't time and to see takes time like to have a friend takes time.

Beautiful, isn't it

Patchouli Empire starts out resinous, bordering on rubbery, but within 10 minutes it settles into unadorned patchouli. It's peppery with a tiny hint of mothballs. I find it a unique scent among the CBIHP:s. There is no signature soil accord, no nature, it does not feel like a time or a place or a situation, it's just patchouli. Maybe I'd say this one feels more like a conventional perfume in that aspect. It's light and wearable and great if you just want patchouli and nothing else.

For other, a bit meatier, reviews I've done on CB I Hate Perfume, take a look at:
Russian Caravan Tea
In the Summer Kitchen

Pic: Wikipedia