Trying out Lush Gorilla scents

A while ago lots of bloggers were talking about the Gorilla scents, sold at Lush. A few days ago I managed to drop by one of the Lush shops here in Stockholm and finally I could create an opinion of my own.

I chose two solids to try out, "Lust" on one wrist and "Tuca Tuca" on the other. Lust is bright red and leavs a sticky pinkish stain when applied from the stick. It's all about jasmine and  starts out with a staggering amount of indoles in the top notes. Within an hour the indoles do quiet down and there is a beautiful, thick, syrupy sweet jasmine. This is jasmine on steroids and I must say I loved it. I had a vision of a sexy blonde, bursting out of her 3 sizes too small dress, having a date with a boring lawyerish-looking man. While the man is talking about the benefits of reading up on all the details before doing your tax declaration, the girl clasps her hands over her ears, looks into space and goes "La-la-la-la-la-la-la". That's how Lust feels to me.

Tuca tuca is described as a "sensual violet" and I really don't know why I tried it on, as powdery violets are usually not my thing. But I did. Application felt like painting myself with a gigantic crayon and that pretty much sums up the smell as well. I just don't "get" that "lipstick and body" thing. Tuca tuca has a similar feel as ELdOs Putain des Palaces and that one mostly smells like Play-Doh on me. Tuca tuca smells like a sweetened version of the adhesive putty that is used in primary schools to fasten the kids drawings to the walls (which is also called "teachers chewing gum" in Icelandic).

If Lust is the blonde that gentlemen prefer, Tuca tuca is the mousy brunette, sitting in the corner, hoping that one day, her day will come. But unfortunately it will never happen as her creepy, cloying personality repels everyone coming with in three feets distance. Yes, I'm harsh, but we just didn't get along

In all, most of Lush's products smell loud and sweet and the Gorilla perfumes are no exception.They might not fit into the "refined and sophisticated"-category but if they do happen to smell like something you crave they are good buys. They come as both solids and sprays in 2 different concentrations. I'll most definately try out Lust again.

Pics: Lush and Fragrantica

Le Labo Baie Rose 26

There was a time when I thought I'd never ever enjoy smelling cloves again. The reason for this is a trip to Malaysia me and some fellow exchange students did 20 years ago. Somehwere I'd read about Kretek, Malaysian cigarettes made of tobacco mixed with cloves. At the time, they sounded amazing! And, with the power of initiative only found in teenagers about to something that's bad for them, we did manage to get some. I can't say they were that spectacular. Yes, they did induce a spinning feeling in my head and the cloves made my mouth go numb. From a "smoking-weird-stuff"-point of view they were very lame but what they DID do was making me sick every time I smelled cloves for a very long time afterwards.

Fortunately, this has now passed. Le Labo Baie Rose 26 opens with rose, pepper, allspice and lots of cloves. It's a spicy rose fragrance, not soft spicy in the way orietals are spicy, full of vanilla and cinnamon, this is sharp and spiky spicy. The peppers and cloves are contrasting against the rose like a new punky haircut and a fresh facial peircing look on an otherwise sweet and innocent looking 15 years old.

As the scent wears the pepper dissappears, the spices soften, but they never leave  completely. After about one hour, there is a metallic phase when I can almost feel the taste of iron in my mouth. This might not sound very pleasurable, but I don't mind. The rose part of Baie Rose 26 is deep red and prominent.

During the long dry down the rose softens and melds into the wooden notes. The scents mellows and matures just like I imagine the girl in the picture, first hanging out with her edgy emo friends at school but then going home, removing the eye liner, slipping into somthing comfortable and at the end of the day she's in bed, reading Nietzsche.

Official notes:  aldehydes, clove, pink pepper, rose, pepper, musk, virginia cedar, amber

And, yes, I couldn't resist this image that came up when googling for kretek:

This guy has very little to do with the smell of Baie Rose 26

Images: quizilla.teennick.com, swagooo.com

Early spring scented egotrip of 2012.

Spring in Sweden can be divided into two phases. The latter is "real" spring when the trees starts getting leaves, there are tiny flowers on the ground and the air starts to warm. And there is the "not-really-spring" (yes, I'm paraphrasing Undina here :) ). A season that is winter by most peoples standards, it's just that it happens during months normally associated with spring.

When peeking at what other perfume bloggers seem to like during that fragile time of the year many seem to mirror their environment in the scent they choose, going for taut green scents and cold florals, especially roses. I've been doing the very opposite. When the view outside my window says "snow" I've been reaching for my biggest and boldest florals, compensating for everything that's not there. I'm naming this trend of mine "Escapism by Florals".

And, for "not-really-spring" of 2012, there are 3 notes I've been craving more than anything else, they are:

Tuberose - it started out when I unintentionally scented my phone with by Kilian Beyond Love. All of a sudden I wanted to cuddle that poor thing and never let it go. Then, again and again, when I went to stores to sniff perfume, and when I found a tuberose I just relaxed and thought, "Mmmmmmmm, yummy, THIS is what I've been looking for!" Tuberose has become my "relax" note. The note I "slip into" when I come home on Fridays after a hectic work week and want to get a break from any professional, responsible and serious parts of myself. Some scents featuring tuberose that I've loved to wear are Honore de Près Vamp á NY, Penhaligons Gardenia, L'Artisans La Chasse aux Papillons and Frederic Malles Carnal Flower.

Aldehydic florals - in my blog post Winter recap 2012 I wrote about how I was starting to appereciate the "aldehydic clean" note. I guess the next logical step was "aldehydic florals". So, I've been enjoying scents like Amouage Gold, Chanel 22 and Lanvin Arpege. I love how they have this old fashioned luxury feel. While wearing them I can imagine being a wealthy lady during the 50-ies whose biggest worries are weather the servants are careful while cleaning her fur coats or if she's gonna wear rubies or diamonds for dinner. It's a little fantasy I like to nuture when, in reality, my dinners mostly consist of me watching my daughter mash her fish fingers into her hair...

Peach - all of a sudden, I smell peaches everywhere. They're in the exquisite dry down of Amouage Gold Woman, they're in Mitsuko (yes, I seem to be her type, after all). Ormond Jaynes Frangipani comes across very peachy and there is Etat Libre d'Oranges Vrai Blonde. First time I tried it, about a year ago, I was expecting the detonation of a fruit bomb. That's not what I got, and I was dissappointed. Fortunately I've tried it again since and after having unintentionally prepared myself using all those aldehydic florals, I was able to approach the composision from another angle. And it's lovely! Bright and happy like a Bellini champagne cocktail - and it's a well know fact we all need lots of thos in order to get through winter ;)

And, since this is such an ego tripping post anyway, let me share my current music love, Frida Hyvönen. This is a great love song and big nostalgia trip for anyone who grew up with Dirty Dancing...

Image: staffanhuss.wordpress.com

Wedding Bouquets

A while ago Undina, one of my fave perfume bloggers who always writes very down-to-earth posts on perfume in her own, personal style, did a stunning post on "Bouquet to Art 2012: Craft Imitates Art". This is an event that takes place at the "Fine Arts Museum de Young" in San Fransisco every year. The idea is that florists choose a piece of art from the museum and do an interpretation of the art work, through the creation of a flower arrangement. And there are some absolutely stunning arrangements in that post, so if you haven't seen it - head over here and take a look!

Now, a few days after Undina did her post I went to a gardening fair. My aim was to buy some bulbs or flowers for my garden, and I did get some tuberose and lily bulbs that I'm very curious about how they'll turn out. I also stumbled over a florist competition. One of the diciplines was wedding bouquets. So, I figuered it was in order I did a little break from the usual perfume routine and shared some of the bouquets on display, tagging along with Undinas floral theme.

I find weddings interesting. There are some basics that hardly ever change, there is a white dress, beautiful bride, flowers and some kind of party. But within these fundaments, the trending is severe. The cuts of this years wedding dresses are not the same as last year. And the trends in flowers come and go. This year the bouquets seemed to be mostly round, the size of a small roundish hat. The colors were pastels with something either brighter or darker to accentuate them and several of the bouquets contain elements of fabric.

Here's a classic. I love the way the fushia flowersand deep green sprigs offset the pale pink roses and peonies. I had a similar bouquet when I got married, maybe that's why I like it so much :)

Another great bouquet, I love the contrast of colors and the irregular shape (sorry about the mess in the background).

An orgy of pastels with little beads. Very sweet and romantic.

An upside down bouquet. First time I've ever seen one of these!

Playing with chords and ribbons.

Another unusually shaped bouquet. An intense mix of bright colors.

Creative use of a pink cotton ball and chords. Whimsical and happy looking.

And this is the winner. I love how the whole bouquet is based upon the shape of a rose, just letting it go on and on, expanding outwards. My photo is bad and blurry but fortunately I found out that the girl who did this bouquet has a blog of her own. And she knows how to take pictures! So, here's a (stolen) picture of the same bouquet from her blog, vackra.blogspot.se.  And feel free to check it out, there are LOTS of georgoeous pictures over there!

So, do you find any favourites among these? And do any perfumes come to mind while looking at the pictures? The last one is Annick Goutals Rose Splendide, to me, but I'd love to hear what YOU think!

Amouage Gold pour Femme

One of the best aspects, if not THE best aspect, of having perfumes as a hobby is that you get to meet so many wonderful persons. I'm not the first blogger to point this out, but perfumistas are the friendliest and most generous people around and one of the most adorable ones is Suzanne of Suzannes Perfume Journal. In my opinion, her perfume reviews are some of  the best out there, full of cultural references to books, movies and music as well as references to Suzannes own life. Always written with great humour and spirit, draws me in and while I may understand that I might not like a perfume she writes about, according to the notes present, every time I still love to share her olfactory experience through thoughts and words in the blog.

A while ago, me and Suzanne did a little swap and through that swap I got my first real glimpse of the legendary Omani perfume house Amouage (that I thought was named Amourage until a week ago, well yes, I'm a natural blonde...). There were several samples in that package but the one I'm going to write about today is Amouage Gold pour Femme. It was the first Amouage creation, from 1983, and a BIG scent, intended for evening wear.

Gold starts out with a burst of aldehyde and lilies of the valley. As the soapy aldehydes fade the scent slowly opens up and softens. I do get rose and apricots in the heart and in the drydown, some 24 hours later, the flowers have morphed into the most beatiful, myrrh-like peach. Soft and sexy and utterly feminine. Now, just because I can't name that many notes does not mean that there aren't many notes, there are! According to surrendertochance, Gold is made from 120 ingredients. But they are well blended and balanced and fit together like a perfectly tailored dress. Or maybe not a dress, the feeling I get from Gold is more like a wall. A big massive brick wall built entirely out of the essence of femininity.

Sometimes in perfume reviews you see writings like "It didn't feel like I was wearing the perfume, it felt like the perfume was wearing me". Usually this denotes a negative experience. I'm experiencing exactely this with Gold, but in a very positive way. It's like it's connecting me with some feminine aspect of myself that I wasn't previously aware of. Wearing Gold makes me reach for my most elegant skirts and dresses instead of jeans. It makes me take my time putting on make-up in the mornings, going for a full skin routine and red lips instead of the usual transparent gloss. It even affects the way I paint my toe nails. Normally I go for punky neons, crazy holographics and glitters (my former favourite is a Japanese one containing tiny poodle shaped sequins). Now, I've been doing pale pinks and nudes - colors that previously made me shudder in discomfort and boredom. But when wearing Gold, they are not boring anymore, just classy and elegant. And that's the way I feel about myself as well!

Have you ever experienced that a perfume is altering your personality, in good ways or bad ways? I'm very curious to hear if anyone has had a similar thing happening! And, about the video, when I thought about Gold being a song this one popped up in my head. I love Patti Smiths voice, it's so strong and has so much personality. You don't mess with her and you don't mess with Gold.


Official notes (according to Fragrantica)
Top notes: wild rose, lily-of-the-valley and silver frankincense.
Heart notes: myrrh, orris and jasmine.
Base notes: ambergris, civet, musk, cedarwood and sandalwood.

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

Lavender Sea Salt Caramels

Lavender can sometimes have butterscotch-ish facets in perfumes and for a long while now I've been thinking about how great it would be to make my own lavender flavored caramel. This weekend I finally made it and I thought I'd share the recipe here on the blog.

Lavender Sea Salt Caramels

3 dl (1,5 cup) sugar
3 dl (1,5 cup) whipping cream
1 dl (0,5 cup) light corn syrup
1/4 vanilla pod (optional, but feel free to use more as well)
5-10 drops of lavender essence (I use Mandy Aftels Lavender Chefs Essence)
2 big pinches of sea salt
1 tablespoon oil

Prepare by putting a sheet of oven paper on a baking sheet.

Throw together sugar, cream, syrup, scraped seeds from inside the vanilla pod, 5 drops of lavender essence and one pinch of salt in a pot.

At the start the caramel batter will be light tan. Boil vigorously until the color start changing toward deep amber. Stir all the time with a wooden spoon. This takes more or less 20 minutes.

Test if the caramel is ready by letting a small drop of batter drip into a glass of cold water. If the drop shapes itself into a hard roundish ball, the caramel is ready.

When you see that the caramel about to be done, taste it. Be careful, it's VERY hot. If it needs any more salt or lavender essence, add it now.

Add the oil to the caramel batter.

Quickly pour the batter onto the baking sheet. Spread it out evenly with a spoon while it's still hot.

Sprinkle on that last pinch of sea salt.

When cool enough to handle, break it into bite sized pieces.

Done!

A note about the avender essence, there are some bitter and herby notes present when smelling the essence right from the bottle but they did not make it through the boiling. In all the lavender flavour was very smooth and perfectly married the caramelized sugar. Now, I've only tried making these types of caramels with lavender but there are several other essences that I bet would be just as good. How about caramel flavoured with peppermint, cocoa, coffee or Peru balsam (I'm sooooo curious about cooking with that one)...

And, I did have an unexpected guest showing up. I'd seved him caramels if I thought he'd like them but he seemed very content just to nibble on my neibours bushes. Yep, this is another photo taken from my window. As you see the snow is melting away indeed :)