Cats and Iceland

I feel so out of the olfactory loop that everyone seems to be in now. First everybody had spring but we had winter. Then everybody had summer, we had the coldest June in 20 years and the most rainy one for 100 years! Now everyone is having heat waves and what did I do? I went to Iceland. No heat waves there.

But I did have a great few days. I managed to meet up with my relatives, spend lots of time with my kids, youngest sister and mom and catch up with the local gossip of Reykjavik. I also managed to get some cat pictures for you. My mom has 4 georgeous cats. 3 are Maine Coons and one is a local blend.

Tara

Bertil

Birta

Kissemissan

I also managed to try 2 Icelandic perfumes at the airport, Ella Day and Ella Night. Ella Day started with a harsh lemon note that wasn't my thing at all but Ella Night was actually quite lovely, smelling of fur and vanilla, making me miss the cats even more. It lasted the whole trip on my wrist, the fur fading and the vanilla getting thinner and thinner and more like vanillin sugar as the hours went by. Not terribly complicated, but I'm not complaining, I seldom like vanillas so I'm happy I came across this one.

Bijou Romantique by Etat Libre d'Orange

A while ago I stopped by at the Etat Libre d'Oranges website and saw that their 2 new scents, "Bijou Romantique" and "Fils de Dieu du riz et des agrumes" are now available for ordering. Of course I couldn't resist and now I've had the chance to try them out.

Now, Etat Libre d'Orange are known for their, eeeh,  vivid, so to say, sales texts but there is nothing explicit in their description of Bijou Romantique:

"This is the portrait of a lady. She can be seen in the feminine cameo, in the soft, delicate profile, in the dreamy image of an incandescent beauty. What once was shell has been carved in relief by a devoted artisan, to emerge as an idealized woman. Jewels, too..."

I think this is a spot on description, Bijou Romantique does indeed come across as a cameo, only ELdO forgot to mention that it's a 15 foot tall cameo, made of  cream and powder, fixed on a slab of granite.

Bijout Romantique starts as a big cloud of pastry cream. There is white chocolate, vanilla, a hint of strawberry milkshake and lots of fluffy whipping  cream, fresh from the farm. There is a powdery cosmetics note in there as well, getting along just fine with the cream. Even though it's full of sweet confectionery notes, BR never gets cloying or overly sweet, its very well balanced. As the scent wears the sweetness evaporates. Steely iris is revealed and the powder moves towards chalk dust, blue ink, faint pencil shavings and cold stone. At the extreme drydown, after a good nights sleep, there is a beautiful vanilla and tobacco accord lingering. A very nice transition!

I keep keep having these associations to how a womans life in the 19th century might have been. As the scent starts out she's a young girl, sweet, all smiles and eager to see what life has in store for her. Maybe she marries that handsome captain. He sails his ship on the seven seas, she sits at home, waiting for him, doing needlepoint, raising children, everything appropriate for a decent woman of her standards. But deep down inside she wonders, is this all? I have everything a woman can wish for but I'm still not happy? Lets see if we can tight up that whalebone corset one inch more, that might push those silly thoughts right out of my head!

The children grow up, time goes on. Her husband always had a bit of a drinking problem and after he's killed in a brawl she realizes there was a gambling problem as well. He has gambled away everything they had and then some more, leaving her dirt poor. She takes up a position as a governess in order to pay back the debts and gets pneumoconiosis from all the chalk dust she breathes in, trying to teach those dumb, despicable kids to read from the blackboard. By now, there are no smiles to be seen. Life has hardened her. Her hair is gray and the children call her a witch when they think she cannot hear. Unfortunately she dies before it is discovered that she's the rightful heiress to a grand fortune. One that had allowed her to pay back all debts and then live in luxury for the rest of her life.

So, what is my verdict of Bijou Romantique? Well it is a big time "lady"-scent indeed. I'm sure fans of powdery cosmetic type of scents will love it, it does remind me of a tamer, but more sophisticated, version of Labdanum 18. I might be the wrong person to review it as I still haven't "got" the powder thing but who knows, a few more wears of BR and maybe "powder" will show up on my list of acquired tastes for spring 2012?


Official notes: Bergamot & Italian lemon, pink berries essence, ylang-ylang, sage, iris of Tuscany, evee, coconut JE, vetiver from Haiti, benzoin, vanilla...

Pic:  Fuckyeahcameos (where else?) and Wikipedia

Tea for Two - l'Artisan Parfumeur

Tea just has to be one of the most comfortable and versatile scent notes around. It can be light and dainty, perfect with crustless cucumber sandwiches. Green tea goes from tasting like lightly toasted rice towards tasting like whole bales of hay, begging for something intensly sweet to cut through the astringency. And there is smoky tea, black tea, spicy tea, the list goes on and on. And, weirdly enough, most of them can, at some point, be detected while wearing Tea for Two.

First thing that happens when applying is a huge blast of smoky Lapsang Souchong. It's very intense and smoky but somewhere behind that smoke one can detect a balancing gormand note. To me it smells like biscuits. Dry, not very sweet, but with a smattering of vanilla added for flavour.

After an hour the smoke has faded and now we're having a very robust green tea. It tastes strongly of hay and unlit tobacco. The gormand note has also evolved, it's still sweet but it's also spicier now. Mabye there is gingerbread served with the tea?

Fast forward two more hours and most of the hay is gone. Now I get more of a regular, good quality black tea. It's served hot and a teaspoon of honey has slowly melted and been stirred into the cup.

At the extreme drydown all the tea and spices seem to meld together, forming a cup of nice, sweet Indian chai. The perfect warm, comfy ending of an intense day


I percieve Tea for Two more as a olfactorian recording of a series of nice moments than a classical perfume. It's amazing how it manages to morph from one cup of tea to the next. The notes seem to  swirl one around the other and I'm very intrigued how the sweetness first seem belong to the gourmand half of the scent, then in the tea. Same with the spices, first they go with the cake but thy end up in the chai. And its's not just an "interesting" scent, it smells very good indeed. I love it on cold winter days when you'd rather stay cuddled up under a blanket. And it's even better on days that I've anticipated as going to be rather bad. It's like carrying around a warm cuddly teddy bear, nudging you through any challenges out there that you'd rather not have known anything about.


Official notes from l'Artisan: ginger, smoked tea, honey

Notes from Fragrantica:
Top: bergamot, star anise, tea
Heart: cinnamon, ginger, spices
Base: honey, vanilla

Created by Olivia Giacobetti

Foto: http://old-photos.blogspot.com

RiverCali from Anya's Garden

As with everything, there are different types of perfume lovers out there. If I'd try to categorize myself I'd say I'm the analytical type. I spend a lot of time thinking about the notes I encounter in a perfume. Which ones are there, how do they get along, play each other up etc. I also think a lot about what type of person would wear a certain perfume and what associations in general a perfume brings. When I talk about perfumes I tend to describe them by the different characteristics I find in them, I might say they are woody, floral or "remind me of some old pervert I met once". The ones I like I tend to describe as "interesting". Surprisingly seldom I encounter a perfume that "just smells good", but RiverCali from Anya's Garden does just that.

The first time I tried it was on one of those days. The whole family was in a bad mood due to sleep deprivation and low blood sugar. Everybody was cranky and complaining. But somewhere in all that crankiness I did catch a whiff of something...else. Something happy and comforting that cut right through the drudgery. An unexpected little smile coming from my very own wrist. It made me lower my shoulders, relax, realize that I had a choice about letting all the stress get to me. I could take charge and make the best out of the situation. Which I did.

RiverCali starts with an uplifting leafy lemon note. As the citrus fades a soft, beautiful, creamy floral is revealed. It's hard to pick any one note as they come together near seamlessly but the main players are rose and orange, lingering on a bed of vanilla. When I read the list of official notes I was very surprised to see that there is pink pepper in there. Pink pepper, as well as black pepper, are notes I usually don't get along with. In RiverCali I first didn't notice it but when I really searched for it I realized that there is a hint of pink pepper and it's that tiny sharpness that somehow helps bring focus to the other notes, keeping them on their toes, adding character.

In all, I find RiverCali being calming and energizing at the same time. I tend to always have lots of threads of thought running in my head and it's very unusual for me to find any fragrance, good or bad, that I don't seem to think about all the time. It seems to give that part of my brain a rest but at the same time I don't get bored, which I do get if I don't wear anything (as in no perfume, duh). I reckon this is a very good thing. Like meditation. Really, if I had the chance to rename it, it would be "Blissful Meditation".



Official notes:

Top Notes: pink pepper, pink grapefruit

Middle Notes: petitgrain bigarade, jasmine, petitgrain lemon, neroli, orange, orange flr water,

turkish rose otto

Base Notes: bee goo tincture – tinctured beehive end caps and floor of the hive litter, mitti attar, ambrette seed tincture, vanilla, sandalwood from vanuat

Le Labo - Labdanum 18

Some time ago I read Tarleisio review of Neil Morris Rumi. She wrote how she, in general, didn't like ambers as they are "so obvious", Rumi being one of the exceptions. I must say I didn't really understand what she was getting at. Amber is one of those notes I haven't given much thought. I don't reach out for them but I don't avoid them either. When a sample comes my way I dutifully try it on and think "this was nice" and then forget all about it.

But then I tried Le Labos Labdanum 18. My first thought was, "I can't believe I'm smelling like this. It's like 8 o'clock in the morning. On a weekday. I have to do lots of errands and meet people I barely know. And I smell so ... [eyes rolling] .... obvious."

I went on, thinking, who'd wear this? At first I pictured a young girl going out on the town, spraying on some Labdanum 18 in order to seem older and more "experienced". But a while later I thought, no, that's not it, there is just way too much skank in it. This is a middle aged mama going out and after a few drinks she thinks it's a good idea to rip open that leopard print blouse, tie it around under generous boobs, baring her midriff and dance like Britney in One More Time. When even this does not get her enough attention she starts rubbing herself up against everyone on the premises.

So what does it smell like? All the way through there are two sides of Labdanum 18. There is a soft and clean side, featuring lots of baby powder, chocolate, resins and creamy vanilla. That side does not change very much as the scents wears. Then there is another, utterly dirty, side. At first the dirtyness manifests itself as a small bitter harshness, a harshness that smells like unwashed hair. It's faint compared to the powder but it gives that eyebrow lifting "Did I just smell what I think I was smelling..." thing.

A while later civet enters the stage. Now Labdanum 18 smells like someone who has had a big workout but is to lazy to shower and tries to conceal this fact by  caking herself in vanilla baby powder. It's almost working. (And, I can see how this question might be arising at this point: I do take daily showers that include a hair wash, just so everybody knows...)

During the drydown there is that musk note that is somewhere between piss and pipe tobacco, the same one you get in Serge Lutens Muscs Koublai Kahn or Bois et Musc. I'm intrigued about the fact that it feels so intensely perverse but I can't put my finger on exactly why.

So, what is my final verdict of Labdanum 18? After all, I do like it. But keeping some around the house worries me. Because I can very well imagine the following scenario. At some time me and my girlfriends manage to get babysitters on the same night and decide to have a grand night out. First we have some drinks at my place and when it's time to leave I just make that last trip to the bathroom and start thinking, oh, I really need some more perfume. Wasn't there this scent I reviewed that was such a smashing party scent, Labdööööch.... something? Oh yes, here it is, lets put some on, and then things are just going downhill in a straight like towards that bare midriff Britney scenario....

Pic: picture2video.com

Doing the classics - YSL Opium

A while ago I was the lucky winner of "Perfumes, the A-Z guide" by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez in a draw on the lovely blog Feminine Things. "Perfumes", if you don't know of it, contain reviews of 1200 or so perfumes. The authors do not hold back on critisism, neither good nor bad, making it a very entertaining read.

There are several ways to read the book. The reviews I've found the most useful are the ones reviewing the classics. Even the saddest little perfume shop, among all the clelbrity scents and cheapo fruit blends there tend to be a few classics still hanging around. They might look sad and out dated but, when you think about it, the reason for them being there is that someone has dearly loved them, loved them so much they've gone back time and time again to buy them, in some cases during more that 50 years. And by reading "Perfumes" I've gained two pals to hold my hand and giving me a guided tour on what's so remarkable about those classics.

Yesterday, after delving into "Perfumes", I decided it was time to try on the legendary icon YSL Opium. It was originally launched in 1977 and, as far as I understand, pretty much dominated the scent scene during the years thereafter. How to describe it? Well, if Opium was a movie it would be from 1977 (duh!). The plot would take place in an old antique shop, specializing in intricate oriental wood carvings. It would also turn out that the owner is dabbling in Chinese medicine, in his bathtub he's trying to create a elixir of youth, based on equal part old school sun tan lotion and Nivea cream, spiked with a secret blend of oriental spices, resins and balsams. Main character is played by Linda Lovelace (seen on the left) and the plot itself (or lack thereof) I will leave to you, my dear readers, as an excercise.

Or, trying to be a bit serious here, Opium starts out very two sided. There is strong, freshly cut up, wood and a creamy generic sun tan lotion. After half an hour these merge into a malange of vanillia, cinnamon, balsam resiny goodness. It's soft, smooth and well integrated. I kept thining of Opium as a Ormonde Jayne Tolu, but everything golden is replaces by a 70-ies hue of mahogany brown (if that makes any sense to anyone). Opium also turned out to have remarkable staying power, I sparyed it on at 10 a.m. and it was still strong 12 hour later.

What surprised me most about Opium is that I fell in love with it. I thought this would be a little experiment, aiding to my general perfumista knowledge but I found I seriously enjoyed wearing it. So much I'll be getting a full bottle somewhere in the near future.


Disclaimer: I don't own a sample of Opium. This blog post is based on my one time experience, spraying some of the reformulated 2003 version of Opium on, at a store counter.

Cucumbers and horses - "Celadon, a Velvet Green" from DSH Perfumes

It's nothing new that I've been seriously into vegetable notes this summer and the first time I saw DSHs website I was in awe. So many perfumes, so many with vegetable notes in them. Where to start? What do I want? I went for cucumber.

Now, most people that have perfumes as a hobby know that what you get is not always what you had expected. With "Celadon, a Velvet Green" I had zoomed in on the cucumber note and somehow managed to ignore all the others. I was expecting something light, aquatic, green and fresh but what I got was completely different. Look at the picture below, I got that! Well, everything except the horse, that is.

Celadon took me back in time to when I was maybe 8 years old. All my friends went to riding school and the conversation topics that mattered was gossip from the stable; what horse was the cutest one, who would get to ride what horse during the next couple of lessons, that type of stuff. I badly wanted to attend riding school, but no. My dad is a plastic surgeon and he had met more horseback riders than you'd like to know - on the operating table trying to reconstruct various parts of their bodies after being kicked or fallen off. So this was a very "No Discussion"-type of no. But a girl can dream... I read books about horses, read magazines about horses and watched horseback riding shows on tv, thinking, one day, I'd wear one of those stylish riding outfits, have a horse of my horse and we'd be best friends forever.

Celadon is the scent representation of my childhood dream of a horse. There are two sides of this scent, one is green, containing clover, grass and lots of hay, complete with that slightly sour note that it tends to get by laying around in damp environments. All the stuff I'd be happily feeding my little horsie, the two of us hanging out in the barnyard. The other side is soft vanilla/tonka. Sometimes it's a dreamy marshmallow cloud to dwell in. Sometimes I get fabric softener, like riding outfits smell in fantasy land where no one ever has to clean out the stables or get horse sweat all over you.

Now, me and vanilla "are in a relationship and it's complicated", as you see on Facebook sometimes. There are some scents in which I like it, but in this one it's brushing me the wrong way. The green side of Celadon I like though. And I admire how it brings up memories that I thought I'd forgotten all about. Who needs a shrink when you have a perfume blog?

And, did I ever get that horse? No, it was not meant to be. Some years later my parents actually encouraged me to try horseback riding. At that time they probably had realised that one of the most likely pastime I'd chose would involve beer and boys with motorcycles. By then, horses had lost their appeal.


For other reviews of "Celadon - a Velvet Green", see:
Olfactorias Travels
I Smell Therefore I am 


Composition:
Top notes: Clover Leaf, Cucumber, Lime Peel
Middle notes: Green Grass, Liatrix, Orris Root
Base notes:Balsam Fir, Hay absolute, Narcissus Absolute, Tonka Bean, Violet Leaf Absolute



Pic: pennydreadfulvintage.blogspot.com

This sample was sent to me.

Vessel Parfums - Occult and my first ever DRAW!!!

Before I had kids my favourite past time was reading books. All kinds of books. I still love them but nowadays I've hardly ever get the time to read one from start to finish. I often get books at the library, feeling all excited, but at the time I get those mails telling me that I better return the books right away or get fined, I've usually haven't managed to even open them...

Last week though, I picked up a book named "Cirkeln" ("The Circle" in English) by Mats Strandgren and Sara Bergmark Elfgren. This book is really aimed at teenagers and tells a story about 6 high school girls who find out that they are witches with superpowers and only by working together they can prevent the upcoming destruction of the world. I probably would not have looked twice at a book like this if it wasn't for the fact that several reviewers have hailed it as the best thing since Harry Potter. And, was it that good? Yes!!! I haven't been able to put it down during the last few days, all I've been thinking about is "What will happen next?". The good thing about it is not the story about the paranormal stuff in itself but the portraits of the characters, the dynamics between them and their lives, going to school, in a God forgotten Swedish small town. I don't think it has been translated to any other languages yet, but keep an eye out for it any ways because I'm sure it will be.

I've also been lucky to been wearing the perfect scent while reading this book, namely "Occult" from Vessel Perfums. First note to stand out is sweet burnt honey. After a while there is incense. This reminds me of the type of incense my grand mother used to burn when she was trying to hide the fact that she had been smoking indoors. She claims that she quit smoking in the 80ies, but we still catch her with a cigar behind the house every now and then... But back to Occult, there is vanilla, wood, hints of soft leather and musk. In all, the notes are very gentle and well blended. If I'm to picture someone wearing this it would be a girl sleepwalking over a graveyard, hair blowing in the wind, she's wearing a long white cotton night gown and a silver cross around her neck. It would be perfectly innocent if it wasn't for that strange silvery smoke and strings of ectoplasm coming out of her mouth...

My only complaint is that Occult is rather faint and doesn't last that long on my skin, but, I suppose, one can always dab on some more.

Vessel Parfums is a relatively new company, founded in 2010, by Hollis Schwanz.  According to their website: "She was bored by the high volume of generic fragrance launches in the marketplace, and decided to develop a line of perfumes inspired by eras in time and the moods they evoke". Occult is their first fragrance release and it was: "Made to enhance the wearer’s personal mystery, not to coat him or her in a pre-fabricated narrative". One can only say YAY to that!

Now to the part everybody has been waiting for! I've been sent a small bottle of Occult that you can see in the picture above. It's fitted with a small silver pendant and a necklace string so it can be worn around the neck. As much as I'd love to keep it to myself I also love to help out new ventures, so I've decided that one lucky reader will be eligible to win my bottle. There are a few drops of perfume missing due to me making this review. If you want it, all you have to do is make a comment on this blog post and tell me why you want to try Occult. This is no essay competition, something like "It sounds nice" is perfectly acceptable.

More rules for the draw is that you can live anywhere in the world. Last day to make a comment is 2nd of September 2011. The winner will be chosen randomly and announced some time next weekend. I will not be responsible for damage or loss caused by postal services. Now, go ahead and make those comments and Good Luck!

Official Notes
Top: Laotian Beeswax, Black Plum, Somalian Olibanum
Heart: Texan Cedarwood, Haitian Vetiver, Leather, Amber, Indonesian Patchouli, Sandalwood
Base: Benzoin (Laos), Vanilla Bean (Madagascar), Civet, Opulent Musks

For more reviews of Occult, see also:
The Non Blonde
kjanicki-sotd

I ♥ les carottes - Honoré des Prés

Carrot notes in perfuems are not that uncommon. As far as I understand they are often used to support the mighty iris. Therefore I was intrigued when I heard about "I ♥ les carottes" by Honoré des Prés where carrots get to play the lead, with the support of, among others, orris butter. And "I ♥ les carottes" is very much about carrots, carrots that come in 4 liquid servings.

First, there is an aperitif. I♥LC starts with a huge blast of alcohol, and there is nothing smooth about it. This is a 80+ proof bad ass Carrot Vodkatini. Putting on I♥LC on feels like waking up under the bridge, reaching for my bottle in a brown bag. Fortunately I do find it, it's still not empty but someone has stuck a carrot in it! Weird, I think as I take a swig, but, whatever.

After 5 minutes or so the alcohol has evaporated and the next serving comes along. It's a super healthy, freshly made, carrot juice with a hint of minced orange peel and ginger for that extra bite. I find the carrot note at this stage amazing, it is so dead on carrot juice. It has that feeling of being a little thinner and having a tiny hint of funk that carrot juice has that I do not get when crunching away on fresh carrots.

After an hour or so the sharpness of orange peel and ginger has faded and I start getting vanilla. Now we're having a milk shake made of carrot juice and vanilla ice cream. It's still on the thin side, but hang on, this is a bit of transitional phase, lasting maybe an hour...

...until Orris Butter enters the stage. If I♥LC started out interesting, an experiment in unorthodox ways to smell, it's now getting truly beautiful. The orris butter, vanilla and carrot notes come together into something soft, velvety and very "cosy boozy". Maybe this could be a carrot mudslide made with French unpasteurized cream and the very best brandy? I've no idea. It's probably a good thing I don't know how to make something like this, I might end up under that bridge, madly ranting about how carrots are to blame for everything.

In all, I♥LC was great fun to try. I like how much it changes on my skin, going from very sharp to super soft, showcasing an array of carrot cocktails. The first hour or so is not exactly mainstream perfumery, but because of the soft dry down I think I♥LC is worth trying by anyone who thinks vanilla and iris make a good combo.


Image: Organikal

This sample was sent to me for review.

Finding my way through the woods - comparing the Serge Lutens boises

So quickly, my apartment has turned quiet again. Husband is back to work after his holiday. My son is back at pre-school. My baby girl is having a nap (I don't know if she technically is a baby any more, she turned one a month ago, but anyway). At the same time the weather has been getting chillier. All of a sudden there is autumn in the air.

So, now I'm going to write about some perfumes that I feel have a somewhat autumnal feel to them, namely the Serge Lutens boises. I've been comparing 5 of them, namely:

• Bois Oriental
• Bois et Musc
• Bois et Fruits
• Bois de Violette
• Shiseido Feminité du Bois

The first four all came in 1992 and rely on the same cedary base. I find it hard to describe, but there is sunny wood, sweet fruits (I'm getting raspberry or blackberry jam and quinces) and resin, blended to perfection. Anyone who is serious about perfumes should try at least one of these once.

Bois Oriental

This scent The Perfumed Court touts as a "Gateway Serge Lutens". The reason for that is that the woody cedar base is a lot less intense, I'd say there is about half of it, compared to the other scents. Instead there is a big component of sweet vanilla added. I have to say, this is my least favourite. I really like that woody part, smelling it makes me think of talking a walk in a magical forest I know and love. But all that vanilla, it feels like there is a sticky sweet fog obscuring everything worth seeing. This one is not for me.

Bois et Musc

Do ware panthers pee in the wood?

This one consists of 2 main tracks. There is the good old cedar base and a hefty dose of musk. The musk is faint at first, but grows stronger and in the end overtakes the cedar, as the musk is very long lived.
I've reviewed this one before and I wrote something about "feminine musk" and "a great scent to wear to the office". I must have had a massive cold or possibly suffered from some temporal sort of brain damage that day. That musk is pure animal and lands somewhere between blackberries and cat pee. It's similar to that "after shave" note found in Muscat wines. Everyone who has smelled Muscs Koublai Khan will know what I mean. So, I just want to make this clear - please try before wearing to the office...

Bois et Fruits

Here the fruity parts of the cedar base have been amped up. That means A LOT of raspberries, blackberries and quinces. The fruits are all on the sweet and jammy side, creating a cheery and youngish feeling concoction. I wear this one when I want to smile. I have reviewed it before and I don't feel there is that much to add. The old review can be found here.

Bois de Violette

Another great one, I love to wear this one when I'm feeling a bit introspective and dreamy. Here the cedar is matched by violets, creating a darker but still very beautiful forest. This one I've also reviewed before, the review can be found here.

Shiseido Feminité du Bois

Now, here is a real woman. This one makes the others look like teenagers going through phases, not having found themselves yet. Feminité du Bois is the classiest, sexiest most elegant scent I've come across in a very long time. The cedary base in this one is different, I can't say exactly what is the difference. It's similar to the others, but when comparing them wrist to wrist there is a notable difference.

I'm not sure about the connection between this one and the others. As far as I understand (and correct me if I'm wrong) Shiseido Feminité du Bois is the forerunner, created by Christopher Sheldrake and Pierre Bourdon before the Serge Lutens perfume brand was born. There is a "Feminité du Bois" launched under the Serge Lutens brand as well but it seems like the formula is slightly different according to random Internet sources. I haven't tried the Serge Lutens version myself so I can't really say.

What I can say is that the SFdB is true magic! This is a fairy forest at it's sunniest and most intense. There is a lot of fruit there and I think the most prominent one is plum. If you've been watching True Blood, I'm also thinking of the glowing lumiere fruits. The downside of eating them is that you loose track of time but as long as you get to stay in Fairy and smell like this, I don't see this as a problem. I also get a hint of leather and spices that I don't get from the others. Overall SFdB is more of a skin scent, inviting people in. And it's up to you to use the fairy powers in SFdB to decide if you're ever going to let them go again.

Special thanks to Ines for sending me the sample of Shiseido Feminité du Bois

Pics: trueblood.wikia.com

Sharp by Andrea Maack

Two days ago was my birthday and the fragrance I chose to wear that day was "Sharp" by Andrea Maack. It turned out to be a very good choice. As I have two little kids I don't have to much time for pursuing my own interests (perfumes are an exception, thinking about how you smell is one of the few things you actually can do while taking care of small kids). But since it was my birthday I got a few hours to myself in order to bake a decent cake.

The cake I went for had had 2 chocolate cake layers and a filling consisting of vanilla/mascarpone cream and strawberries. I didn't manage to get a photo of itcake before it was gone, but I found a photo of a cake made from the same recipe ("Strawberry Celebration Cake" from Bittersweet by Alice Medrich, highly recommended btw) at the Mad Bakers blog, and this is what it looks like:

Sharp, my scent of the day, started out very much like the cream filling in the middle. Lots of soft, sweet, dreamy vanilla mixed with wild strawberries. The note that I interpret as strawberries is an interesting one. It's milky and a bit artificial, like those strawberry milkshakes that don't contain any real strawberries. It also reminds me of paper. This I find very intriguing, I've never thought of strawberries and paper smelling anything alike before. After a while the strawberries left and there was mostly vanilla left. I also got chocolate at times and that really made me really feel like my cake :)

The official sales texts talk about Sharp being a soft scent with a subtle poison note hiding behind all the lull, hence the name. First I thought this being  just nonsense. I can imagine a sales person coming up with something like this in order to make a scent seem more interesting. I could also imagine people, wearing Sharp, going "Ehhh.....ummmm... yes, now I do get a little sharpness..... ehhh....ummmm....very interesting...hmmm", but really not feeling a thing at all. An "The Emperors New Clothes" type of practical joke.

But then, after spending some hours inside a cloud of vanilla, there is this tiny hint of something dirty. All of a sudden I'm getting sawdust left on stable floors to soak up the horses urine. Later during drydown there is sea water and musky sweat. And that paper again, but different now, not as sweet. What happened? This little darling of a scent went from a super sweet vanilla to a salty, dirty one. A birthday cake stumbling upon hard times? Or did she grow up into a pony girl?

All the scents in Andrea Maacks line are interpretations of her artwork. Above is the picture that goes with Sharp. I'm not sure I get the connection, but maybe it's about a facade breaking up and you get to see what is underneath? Or about how life moves in mysterious ways? Or maybe something completely different?

I'm rating Sharp a 4 out of 5. The start is way to sweet for me. I'm fine matching a birthday cake scentwise one day in a year but not more. Great for people who like sweet foody vanillas though. The drydown, however, I love it! I don't have a straightforward relationship with vanilla but with enough dirt and edge mixed in, then we're talking! I'm overall very impressed with both Andrea Maack fragrances I've tried. They are interesting and unique and longlivity is great.

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!

Le Maroc Pour Elle by Tauer Perfumes

Wearing "Le Maroc Pour Elle" has been a bit of a challenge for me. I'm sure that for at least 10 times or so, I've sniffed my wrist and thought, "Oh no, that's a note I don't like". Then, when leaning in to take a closer whiff, ready to condemn it forever, I realised "Hey, this is so not me, but I like it". The scent has been tip toe dancing on that thin line of wearability but every time so far it has landed on the ok side. 

In a way "Le Maroc Pour Elle" makes me think of Degas, a French painter that lived 1834 to 1917. He is famous for (among other things) his paintings and drawings of ballet dancers. When taking a first look at his drawings you sometimes think, "Oh, that can't be right, that girl is all wrong looking" and then you look closer and realise that he's been drawing his model correctly, all right, he just caught her in a very odd angle or in a middle of a movement, out of equilibrium. "Le Maroc Pour Elle" is just like that, I keep thinking "The guy who made this, what was he thinking?" and then then I sniff a bit more and go "Hmmmm, interesting...". And I'll choose interesting over perfect any day.

So, what does "Le Maroc Pour Elle" smell like? In the top note there is orange blossoms, sawdust, bad breath and tooth decay. To be honest, it's nasty. But fortunately this only lasts a couple of minutes. Things soon settle into a jammy rose, jasmine and cedar accord. I'm also getting vanilla. At this time "Le Maroc Pour Elle" reminds me a lot of SL "Cuir Mauresque" and I've been trying them wrist by wrist to compare. They both pack a similar rose and jasmine but "Le Maroc Pour Elle" is rougher and has a much more powdery vanilla feel to it. Cuir Mauresque is fruitier, tighter, and leaning more towards leather and cinnamon.

During drydown "Le Maroc Pour Elle" turns into a different beast altogether. The flowers go away and the wooden notes, cedar and sandalwood, get more prominent. At times I feel cedar with a hint of orange and rose jam. At times I'm getting rice pudding, spiked with vanilla, covered with dark chocolate shavings.

Another interesting thing about Degas is that he never really completed his paintings. When looking closely there tend to be some areas that are perfect and other areas that are just sort of smudged over as he didn't bother about them. I find this rather endearing, since I'm just the same, the fun stuff gets done and other things I tend to forget about. I feel that "Le Maroc Pour Elle" also is a little bit like this. The notes dance around, at times they come together perfectly, at times something is sticking out a little bit to far but mostly everything just comes across as charming and fun.

I'm rating it 4 out of 5. This has been a character building experience for me that has broaden my views on what I like to wear and I always take an extra liking to scents that broaden my horizons.

All pictures are made by Degas.

Fourreau Noir by Serge Lutens

Another day, another Serge.

Fourreau Noir starts out masculine with notes of ashy lavender and dusty vanilla set against a backdrop of smoke that varying between the burning of fresh wood, charcuterie and incense. Vanilla and lavender are homely notes that I didn't have very high hopes about but putting them in a setting like this makes them interesting and very disturbing. I'm thinking about a post apocalypse movie photage. First you see a deserted city, houses in ruins, fires, rubble everywhere. You zoom in on the rubble and you see it consists of burned childrens toys and smashed up household items. If anyone remembers the intro of Terminator 2 you know what I mean. Then camrera zooms out and in the midsts of all destruction there is a single lunatic in a tattered robe, conducting a caricature of a Chatolic mass by himself. That's the start of Forreau Noir.

After an hour everything changes. The movie is over and it's time to go home and grab a snack. It also seems to be time for a gender change. The smoke has faded and what is now left (on me) is one of the nicest gourmand scents I've encountered. Imagine going to France and having the most exquisite lavender and tonka caramels ever. Or crumbly lavender butter cookies that melt in your mouth. That's what I've been smelling like in the past few days. And there is something more in there, something magically delicious I can't get a grip on that makes this scent come together perfectly on my skin. Something that feels a little bit salty and dirty. Something exciting.

I'm rating Fourreau Noir 5 out of 5. I've been bad mouthing vanillish scents on this blog before and like almost every time I bad mouth anything I'm living to regret it. So, vanilla or tonka bean or whatever guise you come in, I'm sorry for all I've said, you're really ok. As long as you're sticking with your new pals, lavender and smoke, I think I love you.

Santal de Mysore by Serge Lutens

Go ahead, press the play button on the YouTube clip above. This blog post has a soundtrack.

I've been wearing "Santal de Mysore" for a couple of days now, and the best way to describe it  is like a Bach concerto, firmly built around a central theme that is indefinitely varied but never gets old.

The theme is, of course, sandalwood and the infinite variations are the way the other notes seamlessly intertwine, playing one off the other, managing to render the sandalwood in different lightings again and again. There is "woody sandalwood" flanked by oak chips and wine barrels. There is "spicy sandalwood", flanked by cumin and Indian curry spices. There is "gourmet sandalwood", flanked by liquorice, vanilla and good quality dark chocolate.

The wine barrel note I find especially interesting. My first impression of "Santal de Mysore" was, my god, this smells just like an Australian Chardonnay. They sometimes carry some pretty aggressive oak notes as they are not only aged in oak barrels but some producers have been known to throw in oak chips for that extra little oooomh (nothing you see on bottle labels though, this is a trade secret). As the perfume dries down the wine barrel note goes softer and after a few hours I've caught notes of softly oaked young Cabernet Sauvignon.
It's funny that the oak notes are so prominent for me in "Santal de Mysore", that is not officially supposed to carry oak, but I didn't catch any oak in Chene, that is supposed to be all about oak, just generic wood.

So, how do I feel about this one? It's not a classical "woody" fragrance to me, it's a sweet, dark and seductive fragrance. I find it  pleasant, but I think it will be even better in winter. I'm rating this a 4 out of 5 for now, but I might very well up that at Christmas.

Music: J.S. Bach Double Concerto for 2 violins in D minor, 1st movement. Solemn and a bit stiff arsed at fist listenings but once you start hearing how the two violins sometimes support each others, sometimes tease, a whole new landscape (soundscape?) opens up. Very much like the process I've had with "Mysore de Santal".

Rahät Loukoum by Serge Lutens

This is one perfume that forever will rub in the fact that the smell that comes out of a bottle might be very different than how that perfume will smell on your skin.

When I open my vial, out comes a strong whiff of bitter almonds. On skin the bitter almond note lasts only for a second or two. Then there are toasted almonds for about 10 seconds. These turn to sweet marzipan, but within a few minutes the whole almond thing dissappears, making place for cherries. The scent keeps on morphing, inpersonating among others cherry liquorice, cherry liquor, marshmallows, cherry nougat and vanilla pudding. This lasts for about two hours. After that there is mostly musk and vanilla. Rahät Loukum is the arab name for Turkish delight, "Candyshop" would also be a decent name for this scent.

My first thought when trying this one was "Oh my god, this is way off my sweet-o-meter, far into diabetic zone, I can't wear this". But since then, I've found myself reaching out to this scent several times. Today I wore it after first using a coffee scrub, leaving faint bitter-sweet notes of coffee and dark chocolate all over my skin. In my opinion, that bought out the best in the Rahät Loukoum. Layered like that, I got deeper and darker notes like cherry tobacco and Kriek, Belgian cherry beer, two party staples when I first started uni. I'm no big consumer of any of them nowadays, but I loved catching a whiff every now and then, reminding me of happy, carefree days :)

Rahät Loukoum is most wearable gourmand scent I've tried so far, but still, I wouldn't wear it out of the house. Or, well, actually I did today, and I felt rather uncomfortable doing it. This is not a scent when you want people to take you seriously, but great when wearing your slouchiest clothes, realxing around the house. So, I'm rating this a 4 out of 5.

Picture: Cherry Almond Nougat, yum

Chergui by Serge Lutens

Chergui is named after a wind that blows in the Moroccan desert. It is supposed to be persistent, very dry and dusty, hot in summer, cold in winter. I think the idea to create a perfume inspired by the chergui is stunning. Before I've tried on the perfume my head is full with vivid pictures out of Arabian Nights; rubinesque harem ladies cooling off by the pool, bedouin musicians playing intricate tunes outside their tents at night, camel caravans carrying riches beyond imagination... 

Now, if I return to reality, I haven't been to Morocco. The only desert I've visited was in Rahjastan, in India. The major scent note I remember is dust. A dry chalky scent when the sun warms the sand to the point that it burns your skin when touching it. There are dry, scarred shrubbery smelling a little herby. Animalic scents from camel dung and sweaty camel fur all around (I was on a camel safari). Sometimes spicy curries stewing over small, wood kindled, cooking fires.

So, what does Serge Lutens Chergui have in store for me? Initially there is honey and vanilla. These are backed by traces of smoke, which adds character and keeps the sweeter notes from getting cloying. While the scent plays on, the vanilla is ever present and on and off I feel soft amber and musk. It feels like a sweet whisper, close to my skin.

So how can this have any relation to the Moroccan desert wind? I think of it as a dream of how desert life would be without all the dirt and grime. Just the sweet, soft and the pleasant remains. The honey note comes from piles of sweet confections. The smoke whirls up in the air where friends share a water pipe. The only scents coming off the camels are from their cargo of sandalwood and vanilla while musk tell tales of secret amorous encounters behind harem walls. The only one who knows is the ever swirling desert wind.

This is the most expertly crafted Oriental I've tried this far. I personally don't feel comfortable wearing vanilla, so I'm rating it 3 out of 5. That doesn't mean this is a bad scent, it just isn't a scent for me, but for anyone (of any gender) who's into orientals, I consider it a must try.

Pic: "The terrace of the sergalio" by Jean-Leon Gerome.

"Bois Oriental" by Serge Lutens

Sleeping Beauty, 1912 by Maxfield Parrish

When I first tried on a drop of this one I was sure that something had gone wrong with the labelling on my sample. It smelled strongly of violets, exactly like I remember "Bois de Violette", the only Serge Lutens I'd tried before my latest haul from The Perfumed Court.

But while I was getting myself together in order to write an angry letter, demanding a new sample, the scent started to transform. It was still packed with violets, but all of a sudden there were lots of vanilla pushing through and I don't remember that from "Bois de Violette".

Some 4 hours later there are still lots of vanilla. Not the creamy velvety type like in "Un Lys". This one is sweeter, drier and more powder like, like vanilla sugar. I can't pick out the wooden notes implied in the name ("bois"). A pity.

This is a very feminine scent. A a lot more feminine than I'll ever be. I love the scent of violets. It's a small flower, easy to overlook, but very unique scentwise. The vanilla I'm not as crazy about. The problem with vanilla for me is that I associate it with passivity and placidity. It's the goto scent and spice when you can't think of anything better. If I'm going to associate a person with this scent it would be a curvy, luscious sleeping beauty. Just laying around, waiting for someone to come along and shape up her life. Not what I want to feel like every time I sniff my wrist.

So, I'm rating this a 3. Great but not for me.

Annick Goutal - Le Mimosa

This is the first Annick Goutal I've tried and I chose it because I was still mesmerized with the Summer By Kenzo,  blogged about my last post. I wasn't sure that I understood exactly what note was the mimosa one, so I figured that trying a perfume named "Le Mimosa" might help figure that out.

To me, this one started off with sweet ripe peaches, boilt in syrup. After a while I realised that there had been a vanilla bean in the syrup, or maybe the peaches were being served with vanilla ice cream. One of my favourite desserts!
Some 6 hours later, the peaches were gone and there was mostly powder left, with faint traces of vanilla and spun sugar. I never caught any florals, so the Mimosa is still a mystery to me.

Annick Goutal is an upscale perfumery house, often mentioned when talking about niche perfumery, so I had hight hopes for this one. Unfortunately I found it much lacking in complexity Great scent if you want to smell like a sweet little peach, but too one-dimensional for me, personally. I suppose I can layer it with other scents, perhaps a drop of vetivier to add base and some citrus to freshen it up? Hmmmm...

I'm rating this 3 out of 5. A pleasant little scent but nothing special to me.