Calvin Klein CKone

Another of what I had hoped to be a fresh summer scent to see out June. It's raging hot here and fairly humid.

Alas, CKone didn't quite fit the bill, even though from its bottle and the initial spray there was some promise, and over and over I have seen it described as fresh and clean. I did see a few descriptions of it as overly chemical, toilet cleaner and flat. I have to agree with those latter perceptions.

After opening up floral eau de cologne-ish, this rapidly shifts into artificial weird floral. It is light certainly, but way too cloying for what it is. It is described as a citrus fragrance, but it doesn't have the tanginess I associate with a good, sharp citrus scent.

Diptyque L'Ombre dans L'Eau

It's still very hot here, but now the air is heavy with moisture as well. So, I went in search of another scent that looked to be appropriate to hot, heavy summer weather.

I had seen Diptyque L'Ombre dans L'Eau, which came out in 1983, described as intensely green, the fragrance of a riverside garden, which sounded good for the heat and humidity.

Strange. On me, this is not green, but initially heavily sweet, almost to the point of gourmand. Then, it is powdery and musky. Then, onward to vegetal. The vagueries of chemistry, I guess.

The only notes quoted for this are blackcurrent leaf and Bulgarian rose. I'm not partial to blackcurrent fruit. I do like rose fragrances, but with a twist that mutes the overblown full fragrance of rose (I love Serge Lutens' Rose de Nuit, an animalic chypre of a rose). I can't say I'm particularly partial to this fragrance, however. It has a dried-rose aspect on me that isn't really that pleasant.

The lasting power is decent: at least four hours. I guess I have to say I'm rather perplexed by this in the end. A scent that makes me shake my head in confusion. Here's hoping I'm less befuddled tomorrow.

cjscents on sale

cjscents is having its summer sale.

Lots of different fragrances on offer -- and there's a custom perfume service if you're interested in having your own perfume.

Have a look at this US perfumer's site at www.cjscents.com.

Enervating / Energising

It's been a bit weird here the past few days. Beautiful, sunny, thankfully summery. However, the air has been strange and heavy, too much of a push and pull for the lungs: probably very high pollen count, polluted air. My son came downstairs the other morning and declaired that he couldn't go to school because his limbs were too heavy (he was convinced otherwise fairly easily).

So, I went in search of a fragrance as an antidote to the lethergy and found it in the form of Acqua di Parma Colonia Absoluta. As a general principal, I'm not into fresh or clean scents. I prefer heavier, more indolic things.

This is something wonderful, however, and wipes the floor with a lot of other things in the genre. The noses on this were Bertrand Duchaufour and Jean-Claude Ellena -- what a combination! Not surprising, then, that this is a hot weather scent that is interesting, beautiful and complex.

Discontinued

A few days ago I was chatting to one of the mums in the schoolyard at my son's school. We are friendly and have discussed all kinds of things in the past. But, we never talked about perfume. The other day, however, we got talking about this blog and--lo and behold--she turns out to be something of a perfumista.

I explained about posting on mainstream as well as more unusual fragrances. A huge smile spread over her face and she said, "Do you know Balmain Ebene? I love it. It's a men's fragrance but it's been discontinued". It's not one I am familiar with, so I asked a few more questions about it and said I would take a look at the fragrance boards and blogs and ask about it on Makeup Alley. As we parted, I suggested she might check ebay for a bottle.

Van Cleef & Arpels First

If minimalism is at one end of the perfume spectrum, Van Cleef & Arpels' First is far away, right at the other end. It is big, complex and seriously composed: a formal garden of a perfume.

This is truly beautiful, meaning it has the oddness, the necessary 'difference', that lifts something above the ordinarily pretty. It is full-blown, lush, very slightly powdery: it has presence and gravitas, but with a wicked sense of humour.

First is what it says it is: the first fragrance composed for the luxury French jeweller Van Cleef & Arpels, which was established in 1906. First was released in 1976, so the proprietors apparently took their time with the idea of releasing perfume under the house name.

Ormond Jayne Ormonde Woman

I tried to upgrade my mobile phone yesterday, which doesn't appear to be possible because of the contract for my current phone. So, I will need to move mobile suppliers in order to get the phone and services I need.

As an antidote to the stressful backing-and-forthing associated with this aspect of modernity, I put on Ormonde Woman, the first offering from independent UK perfumer Linda Pilkington. As far as I'm concerned Ormonde Woman smells as far from modern as you can get with perfume. It is the fragrance of a medieval forest: Maid Marian in Robin Hood might well have smelled of this.

This is a monumentally beautiful fragrance and I haven't yet come across anything else that is remotely like it.

Guerlain Shalimar

Shalimar. Jacques Guerlain's fragrance from 1925 is the classic of classics. The well-known bottle looks to me like an elaborate fan. 

Luca Turin calls this a 'reference oriental' in The Guide. I don't quite get that because to me orientals tend to be 'big' and Shalimar is not. It has no need to be. 

The apocryphal story behind it is that Jacques Guerlain dumped a load of a new synthetic vanilla into Jicky and Shalimar was born. An animalic vanilla. What a glorious thought: not a gourmand, not sweet.

Histoires de Parfums Blanc Violette

In today's post I'm finishing up Histoires de Parfums' Parfums de Couleurs (Soliloquies) grouping with Blanc Violette. I have to say straight off that violet isn't a note I have been greatly drawn to in the past. I don't think this perfume will convert me to being a total violet lover, but, still, this is a very good fragrance indeed.

On the Histoires de Parfums site, this is labelled as a powdery floral. Once again, HdP does something wonderful with the top notes in this. With each of the Histoires de Parfums I have tried, the opening has been particularly unusual, well thought out and beautiful.

One of the fascinating things about each of the HdPs I have tried is the way the fragrances ebb and flow, with aspects rising, then receding, but then re-emerging in a different sort of way throughout the development of the perfumes.

Not two for tea

Why this title today, you ask? Well, I was going to review two fragrances based on teanotes and call the post something trite having to do with tea parties. But, the first fragrance I tested lasted all of a half hour on me. So, instead of two perfumes I have a full sense of one, but only a bit of another.

Today's review is on L'Artisan Parfumeur's Tea for Two, with an addendum on Bulgari Eau Parfumee au The Vert.

It had occurred to me recently that I hadn't sampled any of the tea-based scents on offer. This seemed a gap in my perfume education.

One very inviting wolf: L'Artisan Parfumeur Mechant Loup

Another masculinetoday. But, I'm a bit more excited about this one than I was regarding yesterday's fragrance.

I've tested L'Artisan Parfumeur's Mechant Loup several times over the last ten years. I find it immensely attractive. I don't want to wear it. What I really want is to smell it on more men when I'm out and about. Only once, several years ago, did I smell it on a stranger on the tube. If only he knew the yearning his scent evoked in me.

The French adjective mechant translates into English a number of ways, including 'naughty' and 'vicious' (in an animal). The English name I've always seen for Mechant Loup is big bad wolf. I'm not sure how apt that is for this fragrance. I think this wolf, while certainly a bit rough and edgy, is approachable. What I mean is that this fragrance is different and interesting, but it isn't strange or hard to wear at all. I think this is more like the sexy, protective shape-shifting wolves in the Twilight series novels than the scary or forbidding creature of a wild forest.

Creed Green Irish Tweed

I'm with Luca Turin in that I don't much like the Creed fragrances I have tried and think they seem very very expensive compared to many other niche offerings. Green Irish Tweed is one for which I have seen consistently good comments, however. I've read that a lot of male celebrities wear this, including George Clooney. I like George Clooney, but the fact that he wears this doesn't mean it is necessarily wonderful. I'd been meaning to try it for a while, though, and I finally did.

I think I understand the hype now. But, this turns out not to be something I would wear myself; I wonder if I would like it on a man.

Gucci Flora: I don't get it

How to get a handle on this one?

I decided to sample this and to review it on the basis of having been so surprised by how good Dior's Miss Dior Cherie is. Alas, I can't say the same for Flora.

This fragrances gets the same blurred, sweet innocent, tea dress treatment as Miss Dior Cherie in its marketing materials. But, I think its target demographic is from mid-20s, rather than from a bit younger for MDC. Also, I think Flora is meant to be bohemian, the wearer a free spirit, whereas the Miss Dior Cherie wearer runs in a bit more classic direction, per the marketing material (which is strange, since Miss Dior Cherie is the more ambitious and unusual fragrance).

Lists: a window into a life

Earlier in the week, I spent a rather static period of time in the local laundrette (three minutes from my house) watching the duvets spin around in the big tumble dryers (I went home while they washed, as I knew it would take 40 mins -- drying time can't be specified, so I had to wait around). The duvets can't be washed in a domestic machine -- thus the visit to the laundrette.

In any case, for whatever reason, while watching the hypnotic twirling of the duvets I got to thinking about lists. I'm a list-maker (I know some people are more spontaneous): I takes lists to the supermarket if I need to get more than three things; I make lists of things I need to do in a day or over a week; and, I make lists of smells I love, though I rarely write them down. The latter isn't a list of perfumes. Rather, it is an ever-changing (though some smells are pretty permanent entries) roster of smells from everyday life.

Histoires de Parfums Vert Pivoine

Vert Pivoine, Green Peony, is, like Noir Patchouli, in Histoires de Parfums' Couleurs de Parfums series (website's English rendering of the series name is Soliloquies). If Noir Patchouli is the dark and brooding end of the spectrum, Vert Pivoine is the light and vibrant one.

Peonies are bright, blousy flowers and this fragrance translates their appearance well into a perfume. To me, they are an integral part of an artfully disarranged garden.

Boadicea The Victorious

This is a newish UK-based perfume and candle line (see http://www.nstperfume.com/2008/09/22/boadicea-the-victorious-new-fragrances/). It's gotten a real pop of PR because US First Lady Michelle Obama visited with the line's creator, Michael Boadi, while in London for the G-20 meeting (see http://www.stylelist.com/blog/2009/06/01/michelle-obamas-date-night-scent/).

The fragrances and candles are available at a number of places in London, including Selfridges. So, I took myself off to central London to have a look.

Histoires de Parfums Noir Patchouli

I am doing another Histoires de Parfums today: Noir Patchouli. This is the company's scent that seems to get the most commentary on the fragrance discussion boards and I now understand why.

I love patchouli. Santa Maria Novella's Patchouli was once a holy grail fragrance for me: moist, loamy, a bit grating. Absolutely adored it. It was my pre-pregnancy perfume. Post the arrival of my child, my chemistry changed and no matter how many times I re-try it, I know I can't wear it now. I have tried to convince myself that I can, but it's no use. It just doesn't work.

So, it's very pleasing indeed to find a patchouli that I enjoy -- even if I can't see myself wearing this on a regular basis.

Histoires de Parfums Cult Book series

I have a lot of time for the French niche company Histoires de Parfums. First off, they have a good, easy-to-navigate website (www.histoiresdeparfums.com) and a generous sample programme. Second, the juice is well-priced for the size of the bottles (120ml of eau de parfum for €130). Third, they do very interesting scents infused with a bit of irony, and I enjoy their naming conventions.

Today's post covers the two Cult Book perfumes, 1969 Revolte and Ambre 114.

Starting with the former, it's a very interesting idea: trying to capture the nature of a time period in a perfume. I appreciate the concept and the effort.

Garden report

I was watering the garden a few evenings back. We had had a run of hot days here (25 degrees vs the usual average seasonal temp of 19) and the plants have been outdoing themselves.

My dwarf Philadelphus has loads of blooms. Alas, the fragrance isn't as strong as I hoped it would be. The white rose tree's blooms are stinky as ever. Big blousy fragrant flowers.

However, it's the jasmine that's the standout. The vine has spread all over the back wall of my little garden and there are currently loads of new shoots. I started the jasmine off from a cutting a few years back and it's really taken off.

Hilde Soliani Bell'Antonio

The first time I sprayed on Hilde Soliani's tobacco and coffee scent Bell'Antonio I thought it might be a scrubber, the sort of scent you have to wash off immediately. Luckily, I got very involved in something and forgot about it (I'd only sprayed on my wrist and spent the next few hours outdoors, with a jacket on, meaning I wasn't drawn to my wrist).

I was surprised I wasn't immediately drawn to the scent on application, given the positive comments I'd seen about its composition and who on the MUA board was liking it. Usually, I can accept it if I don't like something even if I had expected it to work on me. I can let said scent go. But for some reason, it didn't make sense for me not to love Bell'Antonio. So, I gave it another go a few days later.

Reading about perfume

I was planning to do a review for today, but the scent I put on was so confusing I decided a post on it would have to wait until I could sample it for a few days in a row.

So, instead, today is a book day. Yes, indeed: there are some really good books on perfume. Not only do you get insight into the perfume industry from these books, the information on aromachemistry is fascinating (well, it is if one is obsessed by smells).

If you google perfume books, all kinds of things pop up, mostly about making perfume. And while I enjoyed Patrick Suskind's novel Perfume that's not what I'm interested in for today. Rather, it's books on the industry and on the perfumes themselves. Of the ones I've read I really enjoyed the following (with brief commentary).

Christian Dior Miss Dior Cherie

I kept seeing the new ad for Christian Dior's Miss Dior Cherie so I decided to try it.

I'm not big on mainstream fruity-floral perfumes. I do like fruit in fragrances, but there's got to be a twist, something to lift it above the average (eg, the sensual peach in the chypre Mitsouko, the dense, animal plum of Rochas Femme, the melon and leather accord of Frederic Malle's Le Parfum de Therese). I'd read that the core of Miss Dior Cherie was strawberry and was intrigued.

This came out in 2005 to mark the 100th anniversary of Christian Dior's birth. It was conceived by the Dior's John Galliano, the wondrous pirate designer for that house.

I really like this. I really really do.

Strange Invisible Perfumes Magazine Street

Well, I didn't manage to do any sniffing in Paris. Instead, we ate ... a lot: an Ispahan macaroon at Laduree (a large rosewater macaroon split in half and filled with rosewater cream and raspberries) and something from Pierre Herme that was sublime and mysterious. I bought it for how it looked (light brown macaroon with chopped pistacios on top and once again cream and raspberries within). My father and his partner were going to return to the store to find out what it was (such investigative hardship -- I wonder what pastries they came away with). I did come home with a couple of samples my father carried over from the US, one of which was Strange Invisible Perfumes Magazine Street.

Now, although I lived in the US for a loooong time, I never visited New Orleans. Given the tangential relationship with France, I thought I would review this today in order to stretch out that Paris feeling.