Holiday Perfumes

My favorites:

Noir Epices, Frederic Malle
Coco, Chanel
Five O'Clock Au Gingembre, Serge Lutens
Dzongkha, L'Artisan

Merry Christmas!

if you think you hate patchouli

You must experience Chanel patchouli. I have no idea how Chanel gets the patchouli in Coco, Coco Mademoiselle, and Coromandel (Les Exclusifs) to smell so good. Seriously. Try them. They will make you swoon with ecstasy.

my favorite Frederic Malle/Editions de Parfums fragrance

Is Noir Epices. No, Carnal Flower. No, L'Eau D'Hiver! I can't decide!! AUUUGGGHH!!!!!

fleeting impressions

I have not been around these parts for a while, and though I've been reading about and smelling plenty of fragrances, I just haven't had the time to post a whole lot. But here are some windshield surveys of a few perfumes I am wearing lately:

Apres le Mousson: This one, a Hermes scent created by Jean Claude Ellena, gets a bad rap in some quarters, but I really enjoyed it during the overly warm weather a month or so back - back when I would be hot and tired and cranky and my non-air-conditioned car would be breathtakingly stuffy, and my tank top would be sticking to my back, and sweat would be dripping down my neck - I would catch a whiff of my perfume and have an actual moment of delight in the middle of all that misery.

Angeliques Sous la Pluie: Not much to say about this one yet except it's a clear cousin of Apres le Mousson; another Ellena salty-damp-spicy creation that smells delicious.

Secret Obsession: This one was love at first sniff - or, smile at first sniff, which is my favorite personal reaction to a perfume. I've read stuff calling this one loud, but it seems fairly quiet, or maybe soft, to me. The floral notes are definitely subservient to that "warm woods" thing in this one, yet the woods are very nicely complemented by other stuff going on underneath and all around, including a plummy note that bursts through when you least expect it to, and a green/dry (chypre?) thing that was more than welcome. A not at all obnoxious and not exclusively "feminine" fragrance, one that bears about as much resemblance to the original Obsession as Vivien Leigh does to Pamela Anderson.

CB I Hate Perfume, Musk Reinvention: Something about the woods in Secret Obsession reminded me of Musk Reinvention, so I pulled this one out to wear again and was struck, again, by how magnificent it is. I may be right that the wood in this one is related to the wood in the other, but there the resemblance ends - this is an overt, masculine fragrance, albeit one that somehow escapes being obnoxious (though it certainly makes you sit up and take notice). After a while, it's like the best-smelling auto repair shop you've ever been to - grease, leather, sweat, dirt, rubber, solvents, Corn Nuts. And in the middle of all of that, a little bit of mint!

I was with my sisters in Sephora the other day - my younger sister B might be the master of the perfume windshield survey. Here are her one- to two-sentence summaries (I hope I've remembered these right):

Hermes 24 Faubourg: "Very nice. Smells like money."
Bulgari Parfumee The Verte: "Food-y. Not my thing."
Armani Code: "Ooh, I like it. I'll have to go back to that one."
Kenzo Flower: "Something familiar about it! Does it smell like something Mom used to wear? Or bake?"

girly

I haven't been writing or posting much, but that should change soon. I don't have much to say today except that I've switched to ultra-girly fragrances lately, for whatever reason. Chanel Coco Mademoiselle and Juicy Couture, most often. And I'm not just spritzing, I'm dousing myself liberally. I usually go for something drier, greener, more masculine and more understated, but lately it's all about the girly. And even though I'm overdosing, it seems no one in my near vicinity is recoiling in horror upon encountering me. 'Cause I smell so pretty, that's why.

ormande jayne man and woman

I finally got my nose back after my cold, and while I haven't had a chance to do a whole lot with it, I have really been enjoying the Ormande Jayne sampler set I received in the mail a couple of weeks ago. Perfumes from this line seem to pop up a lot when I am reading perfume blogs - most often, it seems, Ta'if and Ormonde Man. I am working my way through the samplers and I am here to tell you that they are all good so far. A couple of them - Frangipani and Ormonde Man - are fast becoming favorites.

When my family was living in Micronesia, we had frangipani trees in the yard, and I can still remember their distinctively sweet, milky, gingery smell. Frangipani the perfume smells a bit different from my memory of the flower, but it is recognizable, and I love it so much I am having a hard time tearing myself away from it to try some of the others. But I did manage to also spritz two perfumes - Ormonde Jayne Man and Ormonde Jayne Woman - on either wrist this evening. Ormonde Jayne Man is another one that I pretty much adored from the first sniff - very peppery without being annoying, with some nice woods, including oud - and this will go on my growing list of masculine scents that I can't resist. Ormonde Jayne Woman is wonderful - soft spices somehow paired with dark greens, among other things. This is a captivating, complex perfume, and while it didn't grab me instantly like the other two, I know that I will be going back to it, like a particularly good Edith Wharton novel.

stuffy nose

My nose has been crippled by a cold for the past couple of weeks, and I'm dying because I just got the Ormonde Jayne sampler pack and I can't frickin smell any of 'em. Last night I tried, but the only one I could smell even a little bit was Frangipani (smelled good, from what I can tell). I am practically in tears from the frustration of it all. But it will probably be at least another week or so before I'm recovered, so in the meantime I will do other stuff, like work and laundry and stuff.