Bloody Frida commented on the number of compliments she receives when she wears L'Air du Desert Marocain. That had me intrigued. Lo and behold, my husband gave me a compliment as soon as I'd applied a tiny dob of L'Air dDM.
This Andy Tauer creation is a long way away from my usual preferences. It's warm and smoky. There's amber and patchouli. According to OsMoz the notes are coriander, cumin, petit grain, rock rose, jasmine, cedar, vetiver and amber.
My nose isn't good enough to single out more than perhaps a couple of these notes. However, L'Air dDM did strongly remind me of elements of Tom Ford's Black Orchid.
L'Air du Desert Marocain is a lovely scent to try if you want to move into the world of smoky gourmands. However, if you want something slightly more accessible, then I would try the Hermes fragrance, Ambre Narguile first.
It's been a week of guest posts. My third and final guest blogger of the week is Linds from Polish, Platforms, Perfume. I really appreciate the effort that all my guest bloggers have put in. It's great to be reminded that tastes and preferences vary hugely.
Many thanks to Linds for her gourmand contribution.
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When I began to consider the possible topics I could write on for this post, the first thing that sprang to mind was a celebration of gourmands. If you’re not familiar with the term, gourmand perfumes focus on smells we associate with food (usually dessert elements such as vanilla, chocolate, and coffee). Even if you don’t know what a gourmand fragrance is, I’m sure you’ve smelled several of them. They are quite popular at the moment and several celebrity fragrances take the gourmand route in order to appeal to a wider audience. It is because of this, and the fact that gourmand fragrances are relatively new, that make them a divisive topic among perfume fans. Some find them juvenile and poorly made, a way for fragrance companies to churn out unimaginative juice solely for profit. While I agree that some gourmands are pretty terrible, there are just as many bright spots in the genre as in other fragrance groups. I love Orientals, and gourmands usually intersect with them in very interesting ways because they share similar notes. In fact, some of the finest perfumes out there, like Shalimar and Jicky, have gourmand elements. In order to highlight the quality and diversity that can be found in the gourmand group, I’ve picked my ten favorite foodie fragrances.
Euphoria was first released in 2005. It wasn't until the current advertising campaign that I really became aware of it. The advertising photos are lovely - although hark back a bit to winter somewhat. Everything else at the moment is very much looking forward to a bright pastel spring.
My sporty friend ThoosaRunningGirl is great at sending me magazine clippings about fragrances. This is from a recent Evening Standard Magazine. It's all about spring fragrances - here's what they list:
I'm delighted to have London Make Up Girl guest posting here today. Many thanks to you London Make Up Girl for putting together such a great post!
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Ormonde Jayne Ormonde Woman
This is my default ‘not-sure-what-to-wear, pick-this’ scent. It has the Ormonde Jayne trademark slightly dusty note to it that I love, and I find it distinctive without being brash or obtrusive (it’s a great work scent for me.) Ormonde Woman is built around a heart of black hemlock, violet and jasmine, with a grass and coriander top note, and a soft woody base. The smell reminds me of walking in Friston Forest in late summer after rain, and the emerald green colour of the fragrance in the bottle adds to the almost potion-like quality of this scent. (I’m not sure if it is coloured green any more; the picture on the website doesn’t suggest it still is, which would be a shame.)
Jo Malone Red Roses
An atypically girly one for me, but still a favourite. This was my first ever Jo Malone, purchased when Miss London was still a very tiny thing and I was surfing a wave of maternal hormones and Boden floral skirts.
Red Roses has quite a crisp, clean feel to it for a rose scent; it isn’t overly heavy or heady, due to the citrus and hint of mint in the blend. I wear this mostly in the spring and summer, but it works beautifully combined with Jo Malone Nutmeg & Ginger or Pomegranate Noir in colder months too. The Red Roses bath oil is particularly lovely, and makes the whole house smell wonderful when you use it.
Serge Lutens 5 O’Clock au Gingembre
Serge Lutens is remarkably good at taking you on a journey with his fragrances. Often I’m not sure if it’s somewhere I want to go (e.g. the rampaging armpit of Koublai Khan) but 5 O’Clock au Gingembre is one of his more restrained offerings; an afternoon tea of lapsang souchong and honeyed ginger cake, taken in front of a log fire. I love this scent in autumn particularly.
Annick Goutal Eau D’Hadrien
A sunny, fizzy citrus that instantly uplifts my mood. I wear this when the weather is wiltingly humid, as I find it very refreshing; it’s a grapefruit, lemon and cypress blend that works well on both men and women. I like that this smells very natural, and doesn’t have the ozone-type note that a lot of fragrance houses seem to use since the 1990s to denote freshness (to my nose that note smells like washing powder.)
Strange Invisible Perfumes Magazine Street
A recent discovery for me, Strange Invisible Perfumes use only botanical extracts in their fragrances, and no artificial or animal-derived ingredients. If you find that you are sensitive to most mainstream perfumes, it’s worth having a sniff of a sample or two from Strange Invisible to see if it is the chemical additives in other scents that bother you. Magazine Street is a glorious tribute to the city of New Orleans; it’s a magnolia/vetiver/vanilla/musk blend that is warm, fresh and sensual. I like that it’s quite an intimate perfume too; although I can still catch wafts of it on myself through the day anybody else has to be quite close to smell it on me.
I was in my local department store this morning and felt like testing something that I would never normally be attracted to. Happy in Bloom fitted the bill completely. I associate Clinique with skincare rather than perfume, so tend not to go near the Clinique counter when I'm looking for a perfume. Happy in Bloom is presumably a flanker of Happy, and I tend to stay away from flankers as you never know how long they're going to be around.
Happy in Bloom is surprisingly pleasant. It's a sparkling fruity floral. The dry down is largely a milder citrus note in in that I do associate with Happy. Citrus doesn't exactly capture the note though - it's a fresh note, that smells especially clean - in that 'just got out of the shower' sort of way.
Happy in Bloom is perfect office wear. It's got enough smell to be a perfume. But it isn't overbearing in any way. If you're looking for a fruity floral with a bit more bite - then try Gucci Flora which is in the same price bracket.
I was reading Pere de Pierre earlier, who commented that it's easy to fall in love with the new Balenciaga Paris just because of the bottle. I tend to agree. But it's not even the whole bottle that I love - it's just the lid. There's something uniquely satisfying about the fake marble stopper effect.
Haven't tried it yet, but will post a full review as soon as I do.
Grazia magazine says this is for people 'Who love the smell of: Traditional florals mixed with modern notes like pepper and earthy mosses.'
Nightscape was one of a collection of jasmine perfume samples that I ordered recently. Some perfumes sound like they're going to smell great. And 'Ulrich Lang' is the name of somebody who knows what they're doing. Something about a German name suggests that the person isn't going to mess around. Well, that's how it seems to me.
I'm not a lover of wood fragrances. I think that's why Serge Lutens has just never done it for me. Bois de this and Bois de that. Give me flowers, give me sunshine, give me dreams. Not sure about smelling like wood, or even a wood.
And Nightscape is all about wood. Not sure what kind of wood. But cedarwood, possibly. Or perhaps sandalwood. In fact, the Ulrich Lang website says that it's "a modern take on Patchouli". For my nose, not even a trace of jasmine.
I wanted flowers. I wanted butterflies in the moonight. And most of all I wanted jasmine. If you want jasmine, then La Chasse aux Papillons is one of the best. And Jasmin Noir by Bvlgari is worth considering if you're looking for a more sultry evening jasmine.
It's a great pleasure to have Left Coast Nose guest blogging here today. Thanks Left Coast Nose for all your work in putting together a great guest post!
Penhaligon “Lily & Spice” ***
Well, I was just tickled pink to be asked by Jessica to guest blog today—nice to get out of foggy San Francisco and head on over to sunny, swingin’ London. (I wish I were there for real!!)
Nothing says “SignatureScent” like some shopping snaps (I swear, Jess—your blog is a wicked good on-going ad to see the world and buy stuff!!) So here are a few pix of my fair city and our shopping possibilities. Here is the southwest corner of the world shopping Mecca, Union Square. (You can see that somebody left their heart right there.)
Here are the gates to Maiden Lane, right off the square, where some of the most posh boutiques lurk.
They have everything you need to shop there, including food:
Fragrance:
And fashion:
San Francisco is pretty swell, but we don’t have the plethora of home-grown scent-meisters like London does. In a cultural-exchange swap for a bunch of CB I Hate Perfumes, Jess was sweet enough to send me this *fabulous* tin of Penhaligon samples:
So pretty!! I haven’t tried them all yet, but I took a crack at “Lily & Spice,” and let me tell you—I loved what I smelled.
I find lily, like most of the indole flowers to be difficult—usually too sweet. And initially, L&S is quite sweet. The strong true lily dies off in 5 minutes or so, however, and once it stabilizes, the lovely spice elements emerge: clove, pepper, and a fabulous, sassy saffron. The structure reminds me of one of my all time favorite scents: Kenzo “Unidentified Fragrance Object.” (Stupid name—great scent.) UFO is super simple and straightforward: vanilla + frankincense. The vanilla gives the frankincense softness, the frankincense gives the vanilla structure.
That’s how I encounter L&S: softly sweet, but the spices give it balance, heft, and fire. Yum!! The whole scent is quiet—I would say that it’s saturated at about a 3 on a scale from 1 to 10 and deliciously refined. (I’d call it a “rich-lady” scent—do with that what you will.)
I’m always happy to encounter a happy scent—even better when it gives me a chance to talk about my dog!! After all, what would a SignatureScent posting be without a gratuitous adorable baby shot?
All of my babies have four legs and fur. Here’s a recent snap of Lily, our newest—we adopted her last October.
Lily is a rescue dog, so she’s got lots of mysteries about her, including her lineage and her age. She’s mostly poodle, weighs about 10 pounds, sports a 1” afro all over her body, and is a total clown. I say she looks like a sheep and hops like a bunny. She is famously shameless, going into what we call “The Dinner Dance” right on time every night at 5:05. (Doggy dinner is technically at 5:30, so the last 25 minutes become a test of wills: can we both avoid going anywhere near the kitchen and put up with all the hysteria, or do we just break down and feed them? Every night, it’s the same…)
And if you needed any more connection to the name “Lily & Spice,” check her out in her bespoke rainbow leg-warmers knit by her Auntie Jasmine: Hot stuff!!
She loves her fashion—she is French, you know.
Thanks again for the chance to guest-post, Jessica, and I’ll be back home at my regular site on Thursday. Cheers!
It seems that the 80s revival is all around us. Completing my current jasmine craze, Estee Lauder Private Collection is relaunching Jasmine White Moss. I'm definitely going to give this one a try as soon as possible.
If you are looking for a sexy, evening jasmine perfume, then Jasmin Noir by Bvlgari could be the perfume to try.
Liberty's Spring/Summer 2010 magazine announces Frederic Malle's new home fragrances. These home fragrances have been created by Dominique Ropion, Sophia Grojsman and Carlos Benaim.
The top photo depicts the Fleur Mecanique fragrance diffuser.
I was inordinately excited to read in the Evening Standard, that Selfridges are giving away miniature samples of the new Serge Lutens' fragrance L'Eau:
"Visit the Serge Lutens counter in the Fragrance Hall at Selfridges London and receive your complimentary deluxe miniature of the New L'Eau Serge Lutens*"
Initially I didn't notice the asterix at the end of the line. Then I noticed it and read the writing along the side of the picture:
"One gift per customer. Valid for the first 100 customers to mention this feature."
What? The first 100 customers. To put this in perspective, I checked the readership of the Evening Standard and found this:
"The London Evening Standard's readership has gone from 556,000 in April to September to 1.37 million in the last three months of 2009"
So, that's 0.007% of the Evening Standard's readership could claim this. Come on. A realistic give away please Mr Lutens.
Interestingly, in a recent Liberty supplement Fracas was one of the few perfumes being specifically advertised.
The description of the fragrance says:
Fracas is an unmistakably feminine, lush white floral scent that's truly intoxicating (that word again!) - it's perfect for creating a little chaos....Tuberose, jasmine and gardenia plus a subtle hint of orange blossom, give way to a fragrant base of sandalwood, vetiver and musk.
Think I've got a sample of this hiding away. I will dig it out and do a proper review shortly.
In a local magazine, SW, Creed's Spring Flower fragrance is being advertised as a great gift for Mother's Day. Is it just because of the lovely pink packaging?
My jasmine samples have arrived from Lucky Scent. Hooray! I'm so excited to try them all. I wanted to love all of these fragrances, but aaargh, I've already found one that I don't like. And what's worse, it was the first sample out of the box.
Boadicea the Victorious is an extremely tempting range, largely because of its curious name and the ornate gothic bottles. The Boadicea website calls Majestic a "lip-licking gourmand fragrance". Sadly, my first reaction was, How quickly can I get this off?
The Boadicea website goes on to describes Majestic as "Opening with a lush garland of precious white flower extracts". This makes me think of pretty fragrances like La Chasse aux Papillons. But Majestic is more reminiscent of the hot houses in Kew Gardens. Without doubt it is evocative of lush greenery, but this overshadows and floral subtlety that might be lurking within the fragrance.
Majestic's dry down is very musky. And musk can go either way - sexy or not sexy. Sadly, for me this one definitely errs on the side of not sexy.
If you're looking for a lush, verdant fragrance that transports you to a hot summer greenhouse then try Memory of Kindness by CB I Hate Perfume. Memory of Kindness is a much fresher, much cleaner smell, which is eminently wearable.
It's Friday, and time to name the winner of the White Patchouli. This is probably the most low-tech method of selecting a winner - but here goes. We wrote out the names of everybody who had commented.
The only hat that we could lay our hands on was a toy policeman's hat.
My son did some mixing.
And the winner is...
Princess Glee! Congratulations!
Please send me your address and I'll get the perfume sent to you straight away.
An imaginative local furniture emporium called L'Atelier stocks a huge range of home fragrances, scented candles and room sprays. They have just one eau de toilette, called Ensoleille Moi. It smells to me like a very mild, warm amber. It is slightly peppery and has a tinge of gourmand spice.
The name of the fragrance means literally Sunshine Me, which suggests a summer fragrance. But I would definitely have this down as a winter scent, despite the name and the yellow and gold of the packaging.
According to Now Smell This, this André Gas fragrance "has notes of tiaré absolute, bergamot, ylang ylang and coconut". Interestingly, tiaré is also known as Tahitian Gardenia. However, this André Gras fragrance has nothing in common with the Pacifica Tahitian Gardenia cream that I bought yesterday.
Reading other reviews, Ensoleille Moi is often referred to as a beach fragrance. The exotic tiaré notes are said to suggest sunshine and suncream. Perhaps if I had tried this on a hot summer's day in Monte Carlo rather than a rainy February day in London, then I might have felt the same.
Best Sunshine Fragrance
For lovers of fragrances that sum up a hot summer's day - then I would recommend trying Annick Goutal's Eau du Sud. Alternatively Clarins Eau Dynamisante is my guilty pleasure at duty-free.
Went on the hunt for some fig fragrances today. The local Fresh and Wild store stocks a loveable Pacifica solid fig fragrance. I had finally managed to find a justification to make the investment. Well, I tried the solid fig tester but it was incredibly mild. I had the feeling that it wouldn't even last until I got out of the shop. So I gave it a miss.
However, Pacifica's Tahitian Gardenia fragrance also caught my eye a while back. One of the babies has got incredibly dry skin. I managed to convince myself that this "Natural Paraben-Free" body butter would be a perfect cure for sensitive, winter-weary, baby skin. It's much easier to justify buying a cream rather than a perfume. A bottle of perfume is more or less always pure indulgence.
Now that I'm at home looking more closely at the label, I think it might have been a bit of a swizz. The packaging says, "Botanical ingredients include shea and mango..". It doesn't actually say that it's all botanical. It also says, "No animal testing, animal ingredients or artificial colors". Hmm - so artificial everything else then?
Now, it's true to say that I have no clue what gardenia smells like. But, handily the tin says, "An intoxicating scent.." (Strange use of intoxicating. Is that like noxious scent alert?) Anyway, "blah blah blah ...An intoxicating scent reminiscent of jasmine and a hint of orange flowers". And it certainly does have that distinctive "white flower accord" type feel. Think La Chasse aux Papillons and you're half way there.
Well, I still feel a bit conned out of good money for something that's not entirely natural. However, the fragrance is enough to keep me out of trouble until my Lucky Scent jasmine frenzy arrives. Still waiting! It's not here yet, but I'm ever hopeful.
This is Peter’s second instalment in MyPerfumeLife's guide to perfume-shopping in Paris. What’s more, Peter has taken some enlightening pictures from inside the inner sanctum of Guerlain’s flagship store at 68 Champs Elysees.
The celebrated Champs Elysees is a natural home to what was a family owned business for five generations from 1828 . Only in 1994 did Guerlain become a subsidiary of the luxury group LVMH.
The founder of the business was Pierre-François-Pascal Guerlain who initially studied Chemistry in London. In many ways the uniform apothecary-style presentations stay true to the foundation of the business as a perfumeur vinaigrier (perfume and vinegar maker).
Stylised window displays, ornate bottles and unique packaging all ensure that Guerlain and its products remain a key part of the luxury goods market.
The sparseness of the interior of Guerlain's flagship boutique is uber chic in a way that only the most prestigious labels manage to achieve.
This is how the official Guerlain website describes the interior design of 68 Champs Elysees, "The visual effects of gold and transparency join forces as light glints through glass bead curtains".
Have been hectically busy this weekend. Went to see some cage fighting. Yes way. Kind of fun, to do once.
Just bought some Michael Kors, which I’m mad about. Will write a full review this week.
Still waiting for my Lucky Scent jasmine frenzy to arrive.
More importantly, Peter Olson, from Peter’s Paris, has just sent me the second group of photos for our collaborative Paris perfume shopping guide. Tomorrow you can see the full second instalment. I’m sure Peter won’t mind if I post just one sneaky preview photo now. It’s inside the Guerlain flagship store on Champs Elysees.
And, here’s an insight into the world of cage fighting. I felt like I was an extra in a Guy Ritchie movie.
This might be one of those perfumes that, give it a second test, and it’s an absolute winner. But, sniffing it for the first time today, it’s a bit of a disappointment. The initial opening notes are all about Lily of the Valley. In itself Lily of the Valley is not one my favourite floral smells. The opening notes last only a couple of minutes. Then, what’s left is a very, very natural dry-down, which is almost characterless. It could be elements of tuberose, which is very mild. There’s an earthiness. That’s about it. All in all, it reminds me of the Hermes fragrance, Jardin sur le Nil, because it’s a barely there fragrance.
According to the Miller Harris website:
Miller Harris Cœur d'Été was created by Lyn Harris during the early stages of her pregnancy when her already acute sense of smell became heightened.
Needing something to nurture her senses she created this very pure scent made up of flowers: white lilac, cassie and heliotrope, blended with unusual ingredients such as chocolate bean, banana and liquorice.
If you want to get that stylish, just out of the shower type feeling – then this could be a great fragrance to try. For me – I need something that bops you on the nose a bit more.
