I’m sure you have heard about this by now, but if not: Ari of Scents of Self is organizing a fundraiser for British Women’s charity Refuge. Take a look at her post here.
You can donate any unwanted perfume you might have lurking around your closet and do good! All details are to be found on Ari’s blog.
I have donated two perfumes myself. Let us help Ari in making this a huge success!
Quickly, before the season is over, I want to talk about my favorite things of this past winter.
Perfume: Aside from enjoying my ususal ambers, I fell for the Guerlain L’Art et la Matiere line (Angelique Noire is here, other reviews coming soon), but that obsession is alive and well and will certainly continue into spring and beyond.
We have all been sick a lot, probably because this was such a harsh and cold winter. Being sick is not fun, but being so sick that I can’t even wear perfume is torture. Enter Jean-Claude Ellena and his lovely new Hermessence Santal Massoia, this was my savior this season. Calming, cooling, soft and tender it was the nurse that made us all better.
Beauty: I didn’t buy any new make-up this season but I’m going through my Chanel Glossimers and I enjoy them a lot. One of the best lip glosses out there, in my humble opinion.
Skincare: Shiseido’s Bio-Performance Advanced Super-Revitalizer N is pure indulgence. I don’t believe in any of the claims it makes regarding anti-aging, but it definitely is a superior, non-irritating moisturizer and one that feels awesome. It does nothing simple Nivea wouldn’t do either, but it is a wholly different feeling. I thoroughly enjoyed my little golden pot as long as it lasted and plan to use it again next year, when the cold sets in.
Books: It is constantly nagging at me that I can’t find the time to read for pleasure. I used to read at least 50 books a year, but sadly that is a distant dream… I know that eventually I will get there again (probably needing reading glasses by then).
But what I did read (finally!) was Tarleisio’s Quantum Demonology. Once you start it is well nigh impossible to stop. Sheila Eggenberger aka Tarleisio has an inimitable style that draws you in from the very first page.
Also I’m saving for the new book by Frederic Malle. I’m so looking forward to that one. Has anybody read it yet?
Music: Nothing clears my head and calms my frazzled nerves as well as listening to baroque music. Especially Vivaldi has such a power to lift my spirits.
This is a good example of what I listen to a lot recently.
What are your current favorites? What helps you get through the winter? Or are you already in a spring-mood?
By Tara
How often can you get luxury for a bargain basement price? Not often, but with Cuir de Lancôme you can smell like a million dollars by spending relatively few. Released in 2007 as part of Lancôme‘s “La Collection” it seems to have barely seen the light of day, going pretty much straight to the discounters. So, for reasons unknown, this gorgeous fragrance has become the famously reclusive Greta Garbo of the perfume world.
Lancôme’s La Collection fragrances are based on their archives of vintage scents and the original perfume that Cuir is based on, dates back to 1936. The modern reconstruction was done by Calice Becker and Pauline Zanoni. It is incredibly well blended with top notes of mandarin, bergamot and saffron, middle notes of hawthorn, jasmine, ylang-ylang and patchouli, and a base of birch, orris and styrax.
Cuir de Lancôme is the finest, creamiest of leathers and it’s that butteriness which helps make it so swoonworthy. It is stylish and feminine, emanating a kind of “pulled together” chic. Subtly smoky, it shares a kinship with Chanel’s Cuir de Russie but Cuir de Lancôme is softer, more floral and less animalic. I’d class it as a “socially acceptable” leather perfume. Not because it’s lacking in character, but because it lacks any harshness.
The opening combines a burst of citrus with a good dose of birch tar, but it soon becomes sweeter and smoother as the florals come to the fore. What really makes this leather perfume special though is the stunning saffron note that’s apparent for most of the development. A dusting of this precious spice gives Cuir a sophisticated and beautiful twist.
Lasting power is excellent and the sillage is just about perfect. I often sit at my desk and wonder “what smells so good?” before remembering I’m wearing Cuir de Lancôme. This is something that doesn’t happen nearly as often as I’d like. The bottle is pretty standard with an ill-fitting cap but considering the low cost, I‘m not complaining.
I had to purchase my bottle unsniffed because it’s hard to find in stores, but I’m so glad I took the chance. Cuir de Lancôme is a hidden gem.
Cuir de Lancôme is a 50ml Eau de Parfum
Thank you all for participating in the recent giveaway. I assigned a number to each of your comments and let random.org do the work.
A 1ml sample of La Femme Bleue and a 5ml sample of Hermes Santal Massoia go to:
Seecancan! Congratulations!
Please contact me through email or the contact page and let me know your details, I’ll get your prize out to you as quickly as possible.
I thought I’d make that a tradition to give out a sample of every Bottle of the Month! So stay tuned for the March giveaway by the end of the month.
I knew of Histoires de Parfums of course, I even liked one of their perfumes very much – 1740 Marquis de Sade – but other than that I did not seek them out. The embarrassing truth, and I know I am not alone in that, is that I just can’t remember the names of the perfumes as they are dates, and my history professor will remember, I am not very good with dates.
But curiosity got the better of me lately and I ordered a sample pack from the website since it is a very good deal. You get six samples for 10€ including shipping AND a voucher for those 10€ to be deduced on a full bottle purchase in the future. That is so inviting, I just had to do it, if only to support such programs.
The first perfume of the six that I tried was Moulin Rouge, for the simple reason that it has not only the date 1889 on the vial but also the name Moulin Rouge, and poor, number-challenged Olfactoria is very thankful for such consideration. 😉
Created in 2009 by Gerard Ghislain for the 120 year anniversary of the Parisian etablissement, Moulin Rouge includes notes of tangerine, plum, cinnamon, absinthe, rose, iris, patchouli, musk and fur.
“1889 celebrates the MOULIN ROUGE, the legendary Parisian cabaret, a smell of feathers and sequins, sensual and vibrant, a trace, elegant and powdered as a boisterous ode to feminity.”
-from the Histoires de Parfums website
We all know of the Moulin Rouge in Paris, banned masterfully on celluloid by Baz Luhrman. So if this is the atmosphere Moulin Rouge, the perfume wants to capture, we are in for a ride, a loud ride.
Those were my thoughts before I tried it.
“Warm iris, lipstick, face powder, plum, spices, patchouli – soft and almost delicate.” Those are the few words I have written down in my notebook, when I first wore it and they still hold true.
Moulin Rouge is not a loud, screechy fun ride, not a head-turning, intoxicating, disorienting perma-can can, but a truly lovely old-fashioned in the best sense of the phrase, rose and iris fragrance with fruity-spicy accents and a soft and sensual musk-patchouli base.
Moulin Rouge evokes the backstage area of the Moulin Rouge when the show is finally over. There is a quiet, exhausted hush, the scents of lipstick, powder and a hint of sweat and booze hang in the air. The music is silent now, the dance is over, but the smiles linger on the faces still.
As I wrote in my previous Looking For Spring post, this time of the year lends itself to fresh and uplifting perfumes that jolt me out of my cold-induced rigor.
I received a sample of Guerlain’s newest addition to their former Les Voyages Olfactifs line, now renamed Un Ville, Un Parfum – a perfume featuring my favorite city, London. I will go there in spring, but until then, I’ll rely on Guerlain to bring me closer both to London as well as springtime.
London was created in 2011 by Thierry Wasser and includes notes of rhubarb accord, grapefruit and bergamot, rose absolute, rose essence, cardamom, black tea, vetiver and cedar.
Like the one other scent of the line I have tried Moscou, London reminds me of something, but it was clear from the outset what that is – Hermessence Rose Ikebana.
Both share the refreshing bergamot – rhubarb top, the rosy heart and tenderly woody drydown. Although where London clearly beats the JCE creation, is in strength and longevity. Its Eau de Parfum concentration and generally bolder stance that makes the Guerlain preferable for me.
The top notes are exuberant and simply gorgeous, they stick around very well, as the perfume develops the heart of rose and cardamom gets stronger and deepens the perfume’s character without lessening its vibe of cheerful and carefree happiness, but just enough to add more gravity and dimension.
London sweetens over time on my skin, and the drydown is a woody rose with a bit of tenacious rhubarb hanging on until the very last moment. Over the whole fragrance lies a tea note, like a veil, transparently holding the flighty, airy notes together before they can take off.
So does spring live within that bottle? You bet it does!
How does that make me feel? Pretty damn good!
The lovely Lady Jane Grey is a long-time reader of this blog and happens to be one of the few actual Perfumistas this city of Vienna seems to harbor. I met her a few times already and not only is she an elegant and beautiful lady, but she also is a very generous one.
The last time we met she presented me with a sample of Caron Farnesiana extrait directly from the urns of a Parisian Caron store.
Lady Jane Grey has an uncanny ability to clock my taste, since her previous gift of Angelique Noire was a total winner for me (and also for my dear husband, but not in a way any of us imagined!)
Farnesiana was created in 1947 by Michel Morsetti and includes notes of mimosa, sandalwood and hay according to Luckyscent and the Caron website, I found a more extensive notes list on Now Smell This: mimosa, blackcurrant, bergamot, jasmine, violet, lily of the valley, lilac, vanilla, sandalwood, opopanax, hay, and musk.
The perfume has been reformulated (what hasn’t?) and this is a review of the contemporary extrait version.
Farnesiana is a mimosa scent, and there are not many of those around. But what it is to my nose, first and foremost is not a floral, but a gourmand.
Farnesiana opens slightly harsh and sharp, but soon mellows into a sweet and golden concoction where almond and hay dominate for me. There is a slight fruitiness provided by a pretty blackcurrant note, but mostly the resinous opoponax and the intriguing floral accord of mimosa (Acacia Farnesiana: sweet mimosa) combine to evoke a delicious almond cookie smell that is strong and present, but applied judiciously it is incredibly good.
Farnesiana (I’m guessing in the extrait especially) is not something you wear without second thought. Lady Jane warned me of its possible head-ache inducing strength and I know what she means. But at the right time, the right weather (the colder the better) and the right mood there is nothing better than Farnesiana’s unique, enveloping almond-y warmth.
Farnesiana is a gourmand for grown-ups, something that is edible but not quite, that is heavy, but not oppressive and that is sweet but not too much.
Farnesiana would be an amazing perfume to wear to a grand gala, an evening at the opera or an elegant ball. In my case, a few drops give a gilded shimmer and a hint of glamour to an afternoon on the playground.
There is no place where a little golden aura is wrong, is there?
By Tara
What is your typical method of applying perfume?
Does your application technique differ depending on the concentration of the perfume?
Do you spray liberally all over, walk into a cloud of fragrance or dab judiciously?
Do you apply to the pulse points or somewhere less conventional, such as the nape of the neck?
Or do you have a sensitivity that means you only apply perfume to clothing and not to your skin?
My Answer:
I used to just spray copious amounts of perfume in the general direction of my upper body and then smear it around with my wrists. Classy, eh? This all changed when I read the wonderful book “Quintessentially Perfume”. In a chapter about application, Roja Dove advises never to apply fragrance to the neck and décolleté because of the astringent properties of alcohol in perfume which could result in “crepey” skin. Although this makes perfect sense it’s not something I’d ever considered doing anything about it. I’m pretty careful about this now but not overly so.
For the application of eau de toilette or eau de parfum, Roja advocates spraying onto the palm of the hand and then applying to the skin, in order for it to “affix” better. I don’t do this because my hands are prone to eczema but I do follow his application technique for parfum ”which should be applied to the wrist, inside of the elbow and in the small dip between the collarbone under the earlobes”. How fantastically specific is that?
So how and where do you apply yours?
My resolution for the coming year in fragrance is that I am allowed to purchase one bottle a month, and only one I had a crush on for more than a month. In this series of monthly posts, I will proudly present that bottle.
The month of January saw the advent of a new bottle I had been craving for quite some time – Armani Privé La Femme Bleue.
For February I was planning on adding Chanel Coromandel to my collection, but a friend (Thank you, E.!) generously sent me a decant so that purchase was pushed back. Instead I got lucky and found a full bottle of Hermès Santal Massoia, the newest Hermessence on eBay, I pounced and a few days later my big and beautifully greige bottle arrived from France.
I need to learn to make better photos though… please try to ignore all the fingerprints, I didn’t have the chance to do them over.
I’m happy with Santal Massoia, it has a back to the roots feel for me, since Ellena and his creations were my first love and a huge part of my way into Perfumeland. Also it is a wonderful perfume for sick days, of which we had many in the past weeks.
The next months are already filled with ideas for my next additions to my collection. We’ll see what March has in store soon… 🙂
And now for the Giveaway:
I will pick one lucky reader to win samples of La Femme Bleue (1ml) and Santal Massoia (5ml). The winner will be drawn among the commenters, who let me know what would be the perfume of your dreams and why.
Comments are open until Wednesday, February 29 midnight and the winner will be announced on March 1.
Good luck!
In the last few days my personal state of bliss of recently having started my own perfume blog, gaining a few readers and forging cyberfriendships through Twitter and other blogs, was a little bruised by discussions flaring up around the perfume community about the proliferation of blogs and other venues where discourse over fragrance and perfume takes place. Apparently, there is a feeling that some venerable older bloggers may perceive that too great a variety of new blogs with too little value on credentials is taking hold.
Getting on the soapbox
This made me a little sad and I felt almost discouraged, but then I picked myself up and started to think about why I blogged and what this site means to me, not considering anything else for the moment.
I am no perfume critic, no perfume expert, no perfumer, no chemist, no journalist, no writer, in fact I have no ties to the industry whatsoever.
I love perfume. I love fragrance of any kind and I have a nose of my own, as well as a brain and a heart and I tend to strive to utilize all three of them to the best of their capacities. That I also like to write down what I smell, think and feel about perfume is another thing. The writing part is new, the other three I’ve been practicing for some time. And you know what? I love the writing part. I enjoy putting my humble ideas out there and I absolutely adore getting feedback from like minded people. Until starting the blog, perfume was something of a semi-secret obsession, I did not talk about it, I did not discuss it, I just smelled really good 😉
So what if there are many fragrance blogs (and millions of other blogs on pretty much any theme conceivable) out there?
A professor of mine always said “Everybody finds his audience” and that I find to be true, also in this case.
The people who read my blog are not under the impression that I am an expert, I think they can see that I am just a regular person with a passion for perfume and a love for writing about it. I am not pretending to have unique insights into anything, but what I provide is my personal, reflected view, for anybody to take or leave as they see fit.
And isn’t that okay?
Of course the world of blogging is large and one can’t read everything, everywhere. One is bound to make decisions. Decisions based on personal preferences, nothing more, nothing less. That fact surely has changed over the last decade. But that is not something exclusive to perfume blogging, it is a fact having to do with the change in media and the increasing accessibility of the internet for many. But that is nothing new, and everyone knows this.
I don’t see a reason for anyone to feel threatened or encroached upon his/her territory. Cyberspace is limitless after all!
I don’t want to be involved in any kind of fight or dispute over anything. I hope nobody feels attacked by this post, since that is not at all my intention.
What is my intention here is stating clearly, that I blog because I love to do it, I will keep on doing it and I appreciate each and every reader that takes it upon her/himself to come visit, because what I have to say maybe just a little interesting or informative or helpful or funny in some way.
Blogging about perfume and interacting with people who like it just as much as I do, gives me an enormous sense of satisfaction, energy and joy.
That is why I blog.
And that is why I keep on smelling terrific.
Olfactoria's Travels 