The new Vero Kern fragrance

When the Swiss perfumer Vero Kern released her newest perfume she celebrated by doing a draw on Facebook. 50 lucky commenters would win a sample of her, yet unnamed and not officially described, scent. Before the official release we were encouraged to write down our opinions and the most interested ones were to be published on her site. And guess what, I was one of the winners of a sample! I've had so much fun sniffing blindly and here's my impression:

This is a little chamelion of a scent. I've been discovering new notes on every try. The first time I tried it on was on a very cold day. 6 degrees Celsius and windy outside. I'd been out and was chilled to the bone when I discovered that my Vero Kern package had arrived. The first notes that stuck me when spraying was citrus, herbs and stone. I thought I got lemongrass, lime and white chalky rocks. It felt chilly, strict and severe, but at the same time, classy and smelling very good. One of my initial thoughts was "An Asian take on Chanel No 19". Unfortunately I fell asleep before drydown.

First try

The next morning, another go. This was a mild and sunny morning, warm enough to wear an unbuttoned light jacket to work. My impression of the scent now was a completely different one. No Asia and absolutely no Chanel No 19. I still got rocks and citrus but the composision felt warmer. I smelled a meadow of lemon trees growing in dry, chalky soil. The sun was shining and there was a glimpse of the sea in a dinstance. I would not call it an aquatic, or even marine, scent, but there is definately a feeling of saltiness and minerals.

Second try

Third time was, yet again, completely different. Now it was raining outside and clouds were dark and heavy. During the opening, I hardly got any citrus at all. What I got was freshly cut fennel, complete with fronds. After a while there was lemon oil but only breifly. There were also wet, slippery grey stones. When the lemon oil faded, mild green notes lingered on. I got lettuce and faint grass.

Third try

The dry down is wonderful but hard to pin down as the notes are very well integrated here. I think there might be myrrhe,  some citrusy resins, salty minerals and there is a super tiny hint of something vanillic. By now it makes my body smell fresh, but not in that artificial soapy clean way. Neither in a musky way. It's like breathing fresh air. It smells like my body might have smelled if I had done my excersises, eaten organic food and taken care of myself. It's a "me, but better" scent that actually delivers - and Vero, I applaud you for pulling that off!


http://www.thaiworldview.com
http://bestthingsinbeauty.blogspot.se
http://vegetarianrecipes.wikia.com

In the mood for Spring - Ormonde Jayne Osmanthus

Winter seems to have (at least temporary) lost its grip of Sweden and we've had a week of melting snow, water dripping off roofs and green patches showing up all over the lawn. I'm so amazed with how this affects my perception of perfume. All of a sudden I'm no longer interested in "cozy", "comforting" or even "chilly ethereal". I want florid fruits, vivid florals and prolific playfulness, I've even been wearing my dress with bunny rabbits printed all over it, and I can tell you, that's not a dress for just any occasion :)

A perfume that has proven itself to be perfect for the last few days is Ormonde Jaynes Osmanthus. This is the only perfume that I know of where pomelo plays a major part. Pomelo are sometimes as big as a persons head and believed to be an ancestor to the grape fruit. In latin it's aptly named  "Citrus maxima". The flavour can best be described as a sweeter, milder and more floral variety of grape fruit.

Pomelo also happens to be one of my very favorite fruits and one I'm very familiar with - in high school I spent a year as an exchange student in Thailand and one of my host families there were pomelo farmers. After dinner we used to cut up a pomelo, tear off pieces of the flesh, dip in "nam jim" (= a mixture of sugar, salt and chili that seems maximize the flavors of any fruits it's applied on), shoveit   into our mouths and just "sabai sabai", a quintessential Thai expression that means to relax and feel good about things.

But back to perfume, the intro of Osmanthus is like digging your nails deep into the zest of a pomelo. There is that aromatic sharpness you get when using grated zest in foods, and there is an extra boost from pimento, but there is none of the tartness you get when using citrus juice itself.

About an hour into wearing, Osmanthus goes a bit watery. The zesty sharpness of the intro has mellowed down and I'd almost say it has an aquatic phase. But not to worry, one hour more and the osmanthus absolute seems to be in full bloom, intimately intertwined with the pomelo note. This is my favorite phase, the perfect balance between citrus, flowers and basenots and this is pretty much how it stays for the remainder of the wear.

In all, Ormonde Jaynes Osmanthus is a great scent for spring. It's sunny, happy and energizing, without being annoyingly cheery (as some citruses can be). And it goes great with bunny printed clothes.

Top Notes: Pomelo, davana (sweet Egyptian herb), pimento
Heart Notes: Osmanthus absolute, water lily and sambac (Indian jasmine)
Base Notes: Cedarwood, labdanum resin, musk and vetiver

Acqua di parma Blue Mediterraneo - Fico di Amalfi

There are lots of fig scents around. Some are green, some are woody and some, like Fico di Amalfi are sweet and fruity.

For some reason, when I think of this scent I think of a small dog. Not that it smells of dog, absolutely not, the only notes I'm getting are sweet fig and some initial citrus. But this dog, he's sitting there, waiting the whole day, watching the world go by with his little puppy eyes. Cute, loyal and predictable.

So, is that a good or bad thing? Well, if you're looking for adventure, love surprises or is that kind of person who generally thrives on chaos, this might not be the fig scent for you. But if "cute, loyal and predictable" sounds great or you're having one of those days when you needs things to be easy and undemanding, Fico di Amalfi will sit by by our side, have it's little pink tongue out and pant approvingly, helping you get through the day.

Shiso by Aftelier Perfumes

"You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes."  -Morpheus

That was what come to my mind when I thing about Aftelier Perfumes Shiso - my little red pill. It's really that different, that unique and interesting. A whole new universe of how a scent can be opened up for me. And luckily, I ended up in a truly beautyful rabbit hole indeed.

But, it's not just the scent of Shiso that is unique, it also seems to wear differently on me than other scents. As far as I'm aware of perfumes wear in 2 ways; there is the classic top->heart->base note thing and there is the simpler linear wear, also called WYSIWYG, the way a perfume smells at first sniff is how it will continue to smell, it will only grow weaker over time.

In Shiso I found one single note standing out the whole time, from beginning to end while the supporting notes changed over time. If I was to compare it to Tango, Tango wears like an orchestra playing a symphony. The notes work like the different instruments, sometimes you can discern them one and one, sometimes they all support a bigger theme. Shiso wears like there is one soloist note, playing a concerto with a symphonic orchestra as  support. I'm very interested in hearing if this is just on me or if others are having the same experience.

And what is that note? Well, here I have a dilemma. I don't know. I suspect it might be shiso, the Japanese herb bearing the same name as the perfume, paired with clove and cassia. But I don't know what shiso smells like so I can't say for sure.

One think I know though, and that is that I have ań active mind that happily makes up for whatever gaps there seems to be in my knowledge, Shiso is no exception. Now, my scent markers tend to go into 2 categories, one for wine related scents and the other is for scents of stuff I felt passionate about as a child - which seems to be mostly candy. That note I feel so strongly in Shiso is very similar to a Swedish candy named "Sura Cola Nappar" (Sour Coca-Cola Pacifiers), I'll call them SCNs hereafter. SCNs are made of gelatine, flavoured by something slightly resembling the taste of Coca Cola and dredged in citric acid, making them extremely sour on the outside with a sweet core.

Sura colanappar

And the supporting notes, what are they? Well, that's the cool thing. It seems like everything goes with SCNs. A first I make out exquisite sandalwood. At times I get resin. There is leather and notes similar of the stable notes found in mature red wines. Toward the end Shiso goes a little sweeter and lighter, I get tart green citrus and I also get a little mellower yuzu. According to the official notes there are green peppers and geranium in there. I wouldn't ave thought of them if I hadn't read up, but they are there, adding structure and a hint of sharpness.

Now, SCNs aren't the most exclusive of foodstuffs (even calling them foodstuff is stretching things), but don't let that scare you off. If they are not available where you live, your mind will probably latch onto something else. Trying Shiso was a grand perfume experience for me. It made me realise that all the perfumes I've previously known just take up a small fraction of the infinite universe of smell. Thank God there are perfumers ready to explore what more is out there, and that there are fumeheads, like me, who just love to get to go on those trips!

Pouring my heart out (negativity warning)

I've had a lousy week here, lots of family issues; grandfather is very ill, I have plane tickets to go see him in a couple of weeks, but he might not hang on for that long. My parents are going through a divorce, which means lots of old dirt is coming up to the surface, so to say. All of this is affecting me a lot, bringing me down. And always, when I don't feel good, I tend to make the worst decisions in all aspects of my life, perfume included.

Two days ago I wanted something that would pick me up so I tried Acqua di Parma Blu Mediterraneos Bergamotto di Calabria. It's lemons and bergamot on a bed of ginger, vetivier and cedar. It did not work. Those lemony notes felt like they were just grating and grating and grating on my brain all day. Unfortunately the scent was pretty weak so I managed to wash it off.

Yesterday I tried Ormonde Jaynes Sampaquita. I thought it would be an undemanding generic floral bouquet type of thing. Maybe not that special, but if nothing else, a nice smelling little thing to wear throughout the day. I felt as wearing a hedgehog inside my clothes. An unlikely scenario, but uncomfortable nonetheless.

But one thing I managed to get right and that was randomly putting on a jacket that was smelling enough of Pradas Infusion d' Iris to block out most of the Sampaquita residues. I didn't know I was craving iris myself but it perfectly hit the spot. Iris is a note I find very difficult to describe. You either know what it smells like or you don't. There is no generic "rooty" term for notes coming from roots (or from synthetics pretending to be roots) like there is "floral" or "fruity".

Iris also happens to be my daughters middle name. I didn't name her primarily after a perfume note, it is a girls name in most of Europe (and in other English speaking countries), isn't it? We have a silly little tradition in my family, starting with me, that girls middle names are flowers. My middle name is Soley, which means buttercup in Icelandic, and my daugther got Iris.

Anyway, today, I'm not taking any chances with how I smell. Scent of the day is SL Iris Silver Mist and things are already feeling a little better.

O de L`Orangerie by Lancome

When I'm waiting for people or just have some time to kill I tend to end up in a drug store, sniffing what is there to sniff. This morning I did exactely that as I was early for an appointement. I was greeted by a young and very sweet sales assistant, super enthusiastic about the new O de L`Orangerie by Lancome, a flanker to O de Lancome from 1969. The idea of "Citrus Week" was at the time brewing in my mind so I went for a little trial spray.

O de L`Orangerie starts out with a cheery note of lemon and orange blossoms. The lemons went away almost immediately, giving  the organge blossoms space to sweeten and mature on my skin. After two hours all citrus was gone and what was left was a very generic floral containing jasmine and muguet.

I liked the beginning, just the right amount of sweetness verses tartness. Very appropriate for summer. Thy drydown was one big snorefest.

I'm rating O de L`Orangerie 3 out of 3. Great if you're worried about offending people with your fragrance, there is no way to go wrong with this one. But for myself I like something with a bit more character.


Pic: Fragrantica.com

Announcing Citrus Week

It's finally summer and I've been finding during the last days that I'm carving citrus fragrances all around me. So, I figured I'd run a little citrus theme here on my blog.

Whenver I say "I'm going to do this or that for a week/month etc" it's a sure thing that it will not happen, I get tired of myself and start craving anything else. So my citrus week might not actually be a week. It might be just today or it might last for a very long time, but I'm aiming for about a week. And it will start today, on a Thursday. I'm not the kind of person that get nitty gritty details, like when a week is supposed to start get in my way. So, here is Citrus Week!

Pic: aftonbladet.se

Summer By Kenzo

Finally, first scent in this blog that I'm actually positive about! Summer By Kenzo opens up with some rather sharp citrus tones. There are lemon and limes in there and not the juicy fruity type, but zesty sharpness and a feel of astringency.

When that initial sharpness disappears more flowers emerge. To me this perfume has a feeling of dandelions (that astringency again) and honeysuckle about it. Not the sweet honey dripping kind of honeysuckle you tend to encounter in other perfumes, but a greener and more realistic kind. Like they really smell in real life.

But there are more flower notes in there! I cheated and looked up this fragrance at Fragrantica.com and apparently the main flower note is Mimosa. I'd never heard of it, but in Swedish it's called Sensitiva. Apparently, this is what it looks like, according to Wikipedia:

To me, this is a perfect spring scent. Why Kenzo calls it summer I do not understand. Citrus, astringency and small, not overly sweet, flowers point towards spring to me. Also, it's on the shyer side, not acting up but more anticipating things to come, which I also associate with spring. But anyway, it's a great scent that I enjoy wearing.

I'm giving it a 4 out of 5 rating.