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.

andy warhol union square

I love that Andy Warhol was buried with a copy of Interview magazine and a bottle of Estee Lauder Beautiful perfume. Popular legend (i.e., Wikipedia) doesn't tell me whether he loved this particular perfume, but he was, by all accounts, a perfume lover, and I could see how he might like a big, bright, plastic-y floral like Beautiful. And I've become curious to compare Beautiful with two recent Bond No. 9 perfumes that were inspired by Andy Warhol, i.e., Andy Warhol Union Square and Andy Warhol Silver Factory, so here goes.

First, Andy Warhol Union Square. This perfume is a recent launch, and like nearly all of the Bond No. 9 perfumes I've tried so far, it goes on like gangbusters. Andy would certainly approve. The first blast of top notes is very pleasing to my nose, and includes the smell of grass, sugar, and possibly chlorine. There are also some bold white and green florals here, and maybe a touch of asphalt or other building materials. First impression is that this perfume pretty much nails the smell of Springtime in the city. The middle notes emerge fairly quickly, and include some big, sweet flowers - it's here, especially in the fabulous lily, where I definitely recognize some of Estee Lauder's genetic material. It's also at this point that I realize that what I mistook for chlorine earlier appears to be a wood - a bright, sharp wood that furthers a resemblance to Beautiful. But Union Square has more going on here than just Beautiful's big, bright floral. To me, it smells like the playground and the playground attendant, if it were snack time and the attendant were wearing Beautiful.

Okay, now Andy Warhol Silver Factory. I love this perfume. Although both Silver Factory and Union Square are perfumes that grab one's attention, rather sharply, I don't so much see any resemblance between SF and Beautiful. What I'm struck by instead is that both Silver Factory and Union Square have what seem to me to be very distinctive and well-integrated floral accords, each of which works an unusual job. For Silver Factory, I think the florals are what create that metallic/silver note; in Union Square, they result in more of a dessert note (maybe it's the freesia doing the work there?).

After another couple of hours, I am starting to really fall in love with Union Square. I don't know if it's the amber in the base or what, but it seems as though the combination of bright woods and sweet greens has lasted through to the end, and gained a really wonderful softness. Bond No. 9 calls this perfume warm and cool at the same time, but I would characterize it more as bright and dark - and at the end, it has a very nice depth that manages to elude melancholy. It's a little heavy and sweet for a Springtime fragrance, but I will definitely be wearing this one in the next few months.

One last note on what is probably my own favorite Estee Lauder perfume - i.e., White Linen. White Linen is such a nice, pleasing perfume in the bottle or the air that it makes me chuckle. On me it mostly smells like crayon, for some reason. Which is still a pretty nice smell.