Wow, Bob, wow.

Wow, I wasn't going to post this week, but I just have to stop by to say how much I heart ya'll, how amazing and supportive you all re and how glad I am that I have this blog.  Also here are a few fleeting perfume-y thoughts I had today:

* Bath & Body Works Velvet Tuberose is not as sucky as it could have been.  As tuberoses go, it's not a bad one for the novice to encounter, and might lead a body to something like Prada's tuberose, and then eventually to Fracas.

* Speaking of tuberoses, here's a little tip for you perfume sales types: don't try to sell me various versions of a note I've already told you I have a favorite of.  If I tell you I own and love pure parfum Fracas, this is not a sign to fling every tuberose-based scent at me.  Also, don't try to sell me every flanker variation of a scent if I tell you I own it.  Perhaps I am merely trying to demonstrate to you that I like things that aren't necessarily tuberose.  Though, thank you, incidentally, for the Prada Infusion de Tubereuse, since I liked it -- but generally DO NOT DO THIS (especially after I tell you I collect and review perfume!)

* I got some solid perfume for Christmas. I liked it so far. I think I'd like it even more a crazy locket (note to self).

* Also, check out this adorable little clutch I got today (see above). Anyone have suggestions on scents I could wear with an outfit that is seriously built around this?

You said you'd help me disappear, but that could take forever.

Dear Reader:


I am floundering.


It's sad. It's true.  It's what it is.  2010 is coming to a close; what do I have to show for it? I don't know.


I guess this is the hard part of being, for reals, a grown up.  I've always been going, going, doing, doing.  Cross some item off a cosmic list.  Making some haunting spectre's dream for me come true.  I turned to David about six weeks ago and said, "I think I've finally accomplished everything every dead person I ever loved really wanted for me.  Now I have to figure out, what the hell do I actually want for myself?"


And that's what I'm trying to do.  


I'm in the middle of a project I really want to finish, to the point that I sometimes feel irritated at the rest of my life for getting in the way of it.  I haven't really made any progress on a project I'm committed to.  My perfume storage is too small and cramped to be really effective, I've been sniffing but not really loving anything new, and thus returning over and over to the things I already have.  I've been neglecting this blog because I'm not sure what to say.  Any review I would have written in the last two months would have come out "meh."  I just haven't loved anything seriously, though I do want a bottle of Jo Malone Red Roses to layer with my CB I Hate Black March so bad my teeth ache.


I put off taking the bar until July 2011, though at this point I'm resigned to doing it so I can practice, even though at this point I'm pretty sure being a lawyer is just another thing I'm going to pass through rather than be.  I wish I could find a way to make the things I love -- perfume, and writing, and music, and story telling, and fighting for women and my own voice -- be what I do every day.  I like to think I'm working toward it in a lot of little ways, but I emphatically do not want to wake up an other five or ten years and still be trying to make other people happy.  I'm lucky in that David seems pretty cool with me never really knowing, to be supportive as I try and toss away various hats.  And my friends love me for who I am, whoever that is today, and that's lucky.  And I have John, who knows me, really only he does, and I will always have him, though his being in Iraq has been really hard this holiday season.  But I don't know who I am yet;  not really.  I have axioms.  I have codes.  I have rules and  theories, faiths and scars, expressions and philosophies, hand gestures and nervous tics, but I feel like a work in progress, all the time.


I just want to be me.  And for that to be happy.


I'm going to give myself the week of between now and 01/01/11 to sniff around and think and maybe listen to some music and make some notes and be inspired before I come back to you.  Until then, I love you.  I really do.


Thanks for listening.


~ Diana


"I want my chest pressed to your chest
My nervous systems interfere
Ten or eleven months at best
I think I'll wait another year

This weather turns my tricks to rust
I am a lousy engineer
The winter makes things hard enough
I think I'll wait another year."


~ "Another Year," Amanda Palmer

Happy Election Day!

There is still time here on the west coast to get those ballots in!  

Get out there and vote!

A little grin, a little groan, oh baby...

Etat Libre d'Orange Antihéros

So it's one week until All Hallow's Eve.  Is everyone else as excited as I am?  I doubt it.  I have a good costume this year, which I promise to post you pix of next week, and I am going to a party this year, so I actually have somewhere to where it other than the 24-hour pie house I always seem to end up at on Halloween.  It's weird, but true  Every freaking year.

But we're here to talk about perfume...

Etat Libre d'Orange describes Antihéros as follows:

Take me as I am » seems to say this fake Mr Everybody. An anti-hero never lies about who he is, hence the seeming simplicity of this hedonistic and sun-drenched creation, entirely centered on lavender flower. This hero of everyday life fights very ordinary battles at work, when driving, at home without every taking anything too seriously. His innate modesty is extremely appealing and he knows it. He cultivates his imperfections with wit and with natural unconventional elegance. With his tousled hair and look, this somewhat unexpected superman catches the eye and still cannot believe it – that’s why we adore him.

Composition: lavender, musk, wood...

The lavender and wood combines for a clean smell, so the initial impression is a light, almost lemon or lime wood scent, after a few minutes, though, it arms up as it sweetens and deepens.  The lavender is really dominate at this point, and reminds me of the lavender cupcakes my friend Jill made for my friend Tiff's birthday.  The wood feels less like a base thank a kind of side note afterthought  The musk is almost no where to be found, leaving the combination with a sort of tea like feeling over all.

The words "innate modesty" are, I think, a fitting way to describe it.  It feels like a masculine to me in a Chuck Bass sort of way, but it also makes for a nicely cozy winter scent.  Personally, I prefer L'Artisan's Tea for Two, but if that's to spicy for you and you'd like a scent that is a little more toward the floral tea side, you might really like this one.

You can buy Antihéros in 50ml and 100ml bottles, as well as get samples, from LuckyScent or direct from the perfumer.


"If I could just turn back the clock and hear you hum along again
I'd give up all this tea I bought hoping you'd stop by.
At least a case of Orange Spice. 
Now tea is something I don't like.
I like coffee. I like it dark.
It's not for wimps.
You're not a wimp, but you're a Buddist.
That's like..voodoo.
Tea tastes like doodoo.
But for you I'd buy tea
just to have you hum along."
- "Just to Have You Hum Along," Betty Elders


Want more?  try....
~ a review from Fragantica
~ a review from A Minx by Any Other Name
~ a review from Aromascope
~ a review from One Thousand Scents
~ a review from Antihéros

And the winner is...

The Astoria column, at night.

So my dear readers, here are the results of the anniversary draw!

I know you're all itching to find out who won.  thus we turn to Randomizer, who gives us the following results:

There were 9 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

Screenshot or it didn't happen!

1. Oh, True Apothecary
2. Bellatrix
3. PearlSugar
4. Elisa Gabbert
5. Ines
6. amberleigh
7. Fresh Local and Best
8. JoanElaine
9. Kathy

Timestamp: 2010-10-19 04:13:57 UTC

Congrats to Oh, True Apothecary, our grand prize winner (with an awesome name, I might add -- thy drugs are quick)! You get a mixed cd, candy, two samples (my random choice) and a $15 gift certificate to either Luckyscent or The Perfumed Court, your choice.

Second prize winners are Bellatrix, PearlSugar, Elisa Gabbert, and Ines, who will get a mixed cd, candy and three samples  (my random choice) each.  

Thanks everyone for entering, and keep reading because there will likely be more fun drawings soon.

Winners, please email me at femininethings@gmail.com with your addresses so I can get your prizes in the mail by the end of the week.

Until tomorrow, dear ones.  

Do our gay ballet on ice, bluebirds on our shoulders...

Etat Libre d'Orange Don't Get Me Wrong Baby, I Don't Swallow

I'm back from my anniversary trip. We had a lovely weekend that went by, in my opinion, far too quickly. Since the 5th anniversary is "wood" and David, very sweetly, always buys me something along the anniversary theme, he bought me a very nice wooden box, a wooden book mark, two wooden magnets, and even a card made of wood from my favorite stationery store in town, oblations papers.

 Not just any wooden box, though. He got it for me specifically to hold perfume! That's right, perfumistas. It is exactly the right height to hold all of my decants, which were falling out of the sides of the wire basket I had them in previously. See the picture (to your right)?  They fit so perfectly!  And the box also fits great inside my cabinet. So now my unboxed scents are in the basket and the decants are in the box, and he even offered to buy me more boxes for my 1 and 1.5 ml want samples if it would help me store them properly.

I swear to you, if I weren't already in love, that would have won me over right there.

But enough gushing. Let's get back to perfume reviews, shall we?

First up for review this week is Etat Libre d'Orange's Don't Get Me Wrong Baby, I Don't Swallow.

It all starts with a hand on the nape of a neck. The hand of a man familiar with the practice of attracting young women, accustomed to crumpling their sleek hair and to getting the better of their well-behaved manners. This is the story of a man in a car at night, of a manly hand that draws a perfectly fresh face towards him - expressed at the start by a bouquet of white flowers: lily of the valley, jasmine and orange blossom –, and who anticipates the chocolaty taste and tenderness of a mouth. It is also the story of a woman who at first resists and finally goes down on him. The art of the “American kiss” unfurls on accords of ambre solaire, almond, sugar cane and marsh mallow. The man will discover everything there is to know about her: the warm roughness of her tongue, the rousing sensation of her back and forth. All there is to know and no more than that! The appetizer ends in a whisper: “Don’t get me wrong baby, I don’t swallow”.

Notes: jasmine, aldehydes, lily of the valley, orange blossom, solar amberey accord, patchouli, cacao, musk, and guimauve.

Don't Swallow, as I internally think of it, is so sweet and innocent it's hard for me to reconcile the naughty name with what's going on under my nose. I get the cacao and amber a bit right up front, which combine with the jasmine and lily of the valley to create a sort of bubblegummy sweetness. It's strangely delicate, though, and pretty soon just devolves into a light floral. It's a strange juxtaposition against the name, which I would expect to have a harder, edgier scent that was defiantly sexual. But maybe its just the shock value that makes me read it wrong. Maybe I'm supposed to encounter it as the gentle tease it reads as, like what one imagines occuring after they cut away from passionate bedroom embraces in films from the 1950s. It's a nice enough scent, which gets a bit musky and warm on its way through the dry down, but it reminds me of L'Artisan Mûre et Musc because I just find it too nice to wear.

I'm never gonna be a white lace dress with wrist-length gloves and a lavender satin ribbon around my waist. At my wedding I wore a dress with red bordering the bottom and corseting down my back and ending in a long blood red trailing bow. I wore nail polish called "I'm Not Really A Waitress" and bright red lipstick. Plus, I got married in the attic of a historic power station house on an old poor farm that has been converted to a pub and hotel with a bar two floors below me. I'm not really a sweetly demure, eye lash fluttering, bubblegum pink type. In musical theatre terms, I am not and have never been Sandy; I'm Rizzo, right down to the bad reputation.

That said, if you like the idea of flirting in too tight sweaters and pencil skirts while wearing thigh highs with seams up the back like a character from Mad Men, you might just love this scent. I can think of at least one friend I'd spray it on before we went out to bar hop, me in ballet flats, chucky jewelry, and heavy eye make up and her in tea length dresses and pearls. If that sounds like you, or at least someone you like to be on the weekends, check this one out.

You can get samples of Don't Get Me Wrong Baby, I Don't Swallow from direct from the perfumer.

"Stay out super late tonight
picking apples, making pies.
Put a little something in our lemonade and take it with us.
We're half awake in a fake empire."
- "Fake Empire," The National

Want more? Try...
~ a review from Perfume-Smellin' Things
~ a review from The Scented Salamder
~ a review of the line from Bois de Jasmin

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Dear reader:

I've been remiss.  I've been a cad.  I've toyed with your readerly affections by coming and going like the changing breeze.  I have no excuse.  I'm busy.  Life has been calling. When it does, I tend to pick up the phone.

But I'm here to make it up to you, reader.  Not only with pretty words and promises, but in the way all suitors try to woe wronged objects of affection -- with gifts, of course!

Here's another sign in a litany that I am a bad blogger.  I never remember my bloggy anniversary.  I think it's in a few months, but I always seem to miss it somehow.  But my real anniversary, that is something I always remember.  And that, my dear friends, is tomorrow.

Yes, as of tomorrow David and I have been married 5 years.  It seems like a long time on paper, but in my memory it has been far too short.  It sounds sappy, dear reader, but the thing I've learned most in the last five years is that, while love is neither easy nor a fairy tale, it's still one of the best things that has ever happened to me.  If I could go on holding this man's hand and waking up next to him in the morning for the next twenty five years more, I'd consider myself blessed and lucky. 

So in celebration of my wedding anniversary, I'm doing a giveaway.  That's right Sally!  In fact, there will be FIVE winners. For winners 2-5, there will be perfume samples, there will be mixed CDs, there will be candy. For the grand prize winner, all of the previous will apply *AND* there will be a $15 gift certificate to either The Perfumed Court or Luckyscent, winner's choice.

So let's everyone celebrate the fact that life, though sometimes difficult, is also beautiful and that those people who find love in their lives, in any form, are truly lucky indeed.

To enter: post your anniversary perfume suggestions.  We're going out of town two nights and three days to the wintery Oregon coast. What would you take along? Alternately, if nothing strikes you as anniversary appropriate, I will also take recommendations for romantic scents or beach scents. 

Post by 12:01AM PST Monday, October 18, 2010 to enter.  Winners will be chosen at random and announced October 19, 2010.

 Until I return, dear reader, and with love from me to you, happy sniffing! 

I don't have forever, but I'll live like I do.

Prada Infusion de Tubereuse 

So let's talk tuberose.

I have 15 ml bottle of pure parfum Fracas, which I love and were often.  That said, with pure parfum Fracas, that tiny bottle is likely last me a lifetime of super strong buttery rubbery tuberosey scent.   In fact, it was Fracas that convinced me tuberose could be wonderful when so many previously encountered tuberose scents had left me cold.

So let's fast forward to me killing an hour in Nordstrom while waiting for some friends to meet me for happy hour.  Jo Malone's ridiculously expensive effort to take over the entire internet one banner ad at the time meant all three sales associates were swamped, so I steered clear of the counter completely.  

I wandered past the Hermes collection and after trying Hermes un Jardin sur le Nil (I read Chandler Burr's The Perfect Scent last year and wanted to sniff for myself) knowing that come Spring I'll head back for a bottle. But this is fall, damnit, and despite it being sunny and 80 degrees out yesterday (back down to a blissful rainy 60 today, thankyouverymuch) I wanted a scent for fall.  I wandered past the Annick Goutal sales woman who tried to press a collector's edition bottle unsniffed on me after I mentioned I owned several of the line, then headed over to the Prada shelf because I had not tried the vetiver or tuberose.  I love Infusion de Iris; I hate Infusion de Fleur d'Oranger.  So I was feeling pretty much like this one could go either direction.

Prada describes Infusion de Tubereuse as follows:

A playful tuberose mosaic inspired by an archive Prada print adorns the outer packaging, its charming naivety a reminder of the playfulness within. Instead of green, the leaves appear to have been dipped in a degrade mauve ink. Tuberose from India: Tuberose is a symbol for creation, intoxicating and penetrating. In Infusion de Tubereuse, the flowers are delicate and young, like morning buds not yet touched by the sun. Petitgrain Bigarade: Made from the leaves of the bitter orange tree, petitgrain bigarade is reminiscent of fresh green leaves after the rain. Blood Orange from Italy: Juicy citrus notes of blood orange from Italy are blended with precision to give a sparkling freshness to the tuberose. Dynamone: A rare and luxurious ingredient in perfumery, dynamone brings sensuality to Infusion de Tubereuse. Its woody notes bring the citrus and floral notes into harmony, enabling this fantasy infusion.

So let's talk about the Prada, particularly in comparison with Fracas.  Fracas is a demanding tubereuse.  Sure, it's beautiful.  But it is big.  It's bold.  It's in your face.  Fracas demands you take notice of it, that you live up to it.  Wearing Fracas takes commitment, because you will still smell it hours later, still strong and sultry, still wanting you to be good enough for it.

That's a lot to ask from a perfume wearer, particularly when days get short, the skies get darker, and the flu starts your back muscles aching.  In my opinion,  Infusion de Tubereuse is a really good starter tubereuse, particularly if you stick your nose deep into Fracas pure parfum and all you think is "sour grape koolaid."  The orange blossom in  Infusion de Tubereuse is evident to me, providing a dry crisp edge.  Where Fracas seems like this intense distillation of the beauty of nature,  Infusion de Tubereuse seems like a lighter, modern version of the same, as if someone painted a modern painting of the same field of flowers that you make Fracas from, and you could wear that painting.  

Lots of people have had not so great things to say about Infusion de Tubereuse (see below).  I really liked it through.  No, it's not perfect.  Infusion de Tubereuse does not last as long as Fracas.  Objectively, it isn't as beautiful as Fracas.  But  Infusion de Tubereuse is a nice starter scent in the tubereuse family, one that can be easily worn, doesn't expect too much, and provides a light accent to your already simple and chic cardigan and skirt set, like the addition of a pair of funky earrings or a vintage brooch.  You wear it, rather than it wearing you or the two of you fighting for attention.  And sometimes that's plenty enough to make you love a nice not overly demanding scent.

You can buy Infusion de Tubereuse in 1.7 OZ for $74.00, 3.4 Oz for $100.00 and 6.75 Oz for $135.00. I got the mine as part of the summer promotional set, which came with a 3.4oz bottle of the scented lotion, for $100.00.

"I don't have a reason, but I live like I do
The sky could crash into the ground, and we like the view
The flood runs through the canyons in New York City
I know when the hurricane comes, it's comin' for me..."

 - "Perfect in my Mind," Gold Motel

Want more? Try

~ a review from Robin at Now Smell This!
~ a review from Perfume Shrine
~ a review from I Smell, Therefore I Am
~ a review from Bois de Jasmin
~ a review from Pere de Pierre

Happy Autumn!

Just a quick note to say hello to everyone and a Happy Fall!

David and I went on a real date tonight.  He took me to see a movie and bought me a giant slurpee.  He even let me pick the movie, which was Easy A.  And it is SUPER FUNNY!  Really.  Loved it.  I haven't laughed that hard in a while.

In about three weeks, David and I will celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary.  It's nice how, even after all tis time, he can still make me blush.

And in case you are wondering, I wore L'Artisan Vanilia, which I still cannot believe has been discontinued.  I love it.  When my sample finally runs out, I will be crushed. Completely crushed.  I really wish I'd bought a bottle while I still could.

You can't change things; we're all stuck in our ways.

I <3 you, PNW!

Jo Malone English Pear & Freesia


So...my trip.


If you’ve been reading this blog for any significant amount of time, you’ll know I m a fan of the inexplicable in books, tv, and movies. Werewolves, ghosts, vampires, slayers, witches, necromancers, angels, demons…you get the picture. If it reeks of otherness, I love it. My favorite section of the library as an eight year old was the section with nonfiction books documenting haunted places in America.


When I was eighteen and I got to visit the Pacific Northwest for the first time, it should have no surprise that the one place I wanted to go was to Snoqualmie Falls, the filming site for David Lynch’s cult classic tv show Twin Peaks. But it’s one thing to go to a place where a movie or television show was filmed. You know it’s real. You’ve seen video and pictures.


It is entirely another thing to step right into the middle of a fantasy novel.

Forks welcomes you!

Because my Mister is currently toiling away 3 day, 4 hours a week (plus homework!) in a LSAT prep class (apparently one lawyer wasn’t enough), I find my weekends very free and not a little bit lonely. To rectify this situation, I have endeavored to get out and about more. Trips to the beach, hiking Multnomah Falls, street fairs, open air markets, gardens, outdoor movies in the park, whatnot. But I wanted more. I have a lot of friend who do not enjoy traveling alone, but I’ve always liked it. I like the sense of adventure and discovery and independence I feel, though I generally don’t like to be gone on a solo vacay for more than four or five days at a time. So I started looking at weekend trips I could road trip to, since I love to drive, and came up with a few interesting options.


So I decided, on a whim, take a little trip to one Forks, Washington. For those of you who fall outside the teen novel phenomenon loop, Forks is the setting for Stephenie Meyers Twilight series. I’ve been all over Washington and Oregon, but I had never been west of Olympia and into the Olympic National Forest, where Forks is located, so I googled it.

And no one parks here. Really.

I was overcome with information vis-à-vis the wonders to be found. I was totally overwhelmed. It’s one thing for Universal to build a theme park that creates a fictional fantasy world that one can visit. It’s entirely another thing for not one, but essentially three communities (Forks, Port Angeles, and the La Push Reservation) to embrace their fictional personas to the extent there is a reserve parking space at a real hosptial for a fictional person. There is, apparently, a weekend long celebration in honor of protagonist Bella Swan’s birthday, which falls on September 13, every year and includes a proclamation from the town mayor.

Ah, young love...

Suddenly, I was possessed. I had to go. How often in one’s life can you step into a real world place, where real people live real lives, and yet simultaneously feel overwhelmed by a sense of otherworldliness, or the kind of possibility that can only be wrought with magic. And the fact that, in this particular case, the author went to the area and researched it and kept in enough detail that when the book says it’s a fifteen minute drive from point A to point B it actually is only a fifteen minute drive. Even if the local communities had not seized the opportunity to cash in and save themselves from economic obsoleteness, if you were familiar with the books you’d still find yourself amazed by continuity. There’s no other word for it. The fictional and the real weirdly flow together, and the locals embrace of it so that there is fictional graffiti on a real desk in the real high school the fake characters attend make it that much more of a mind trip.


But enough about the trip. This is where the weird Jo Malone sample laying comes in. Packing for the trip, despite having my car, meant I didn’t want to take all that many different bottles with me and I am desperately low on decanting supplies. So I took CB I Hate Perfume Black March, S-Perfume 100% Love, Jo Malone Orange Blossom, L’Artisan Dzing!, and a handful of Jo Malone samples. (Yes, for three days. Yes, I considered this light packing, scent-wise.) I tried Jo Malone Red Roses layered with Black March and liked the results.


Another Jo Malone I tried was the new English Pear & Freesia. Jo Malone describes it as follows:

The World of Jo Malone introduces English Pear & Freesia, a scent that is inspired by a walk in an orchard and captures the luscious scent of just-ripe pears, cooled by the autumn air, ready to twist free from the tree. Experience the surprising, sensuous freshness of sweet pears, wrapped in a bouquet of white freesias, on a subtle background of scrambling wild roses and skin-warming amber, patchouli and woods. 

Notes: pear, quince, green rhubarb, white freesias, wild roses, patchouli, white amber, musks 

English Pear & Freesia is a wonderful liquered delight to start off, reminding me strongly of my favorite desert wine, Moscato d'Asti. About half an hour in, though, it becomes a floral syrup-fest. For my part, I love that almost too sweet thickness. Lots of people will hate it, I’d wager, or think it’s the perfect scent if you are a fifteen year old girl. To me? Positively delightful, and a scent I’d wager will make a lovely Spring to Summer transition scent.


On the recommendation of the Jo Malone rep at the Pio Square Nordstrom, I tried layering it with the Jo Malone Orange Blossom. It’s nice enough, I guess, but not nearly as nice the scents are on their own. However, if you are a person who would like English Pear & Freesia if it felt less like layering on syrup, then you might try to convince your local rep to give you samples of both to try layered.


On the other hand, you could also just find another scent you really liked in and of itself. As it stands, I’ll probably buy a bottle of English Pear & Freesia. I think it will go perfect with some spangly earrings and my favorite little black dress on a night that’s more Cajun Tapas and a modern dance performance and less fine dining and the symphony.


You can buy Jo Malone Red Roses in a 30ml for $55 or 100ml for $100 direct from Jo Malone and in a number of department stores.


"Like when you wake up behind the bar
Trying to remember where you are
Having crushed all the pretty things
There but for the grace of God, go I.
But I still believe.
And I will rise up with fists..."

- "Rise Up With Fists" by Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins

Want more? Try...
~ a review from I Smell Therefore I Am
~ a review from Perfume Shrine
~ a review from The Scented Salamander
~ a review from My Perfume Life
~ a review from The Jet Set Girls
~ a review from Scentsibilities

When your perfume tries to kill you....

Sometimes I smell things and think,
 "Yeah, this is assaulting me, and not in a good way."
Penny Arcade has now provided me a visual.

I've been wanting to touch you since we met. You don't give a girl a chance to forget.

Jo Malone Red Roses

Sweet and neglected reader, it's been too long. It's always so hard to come back when I've been gone this long because I forget my train of thought.

So let me just jump in here in the middle and let's see where we end up, shall we?

I'm finally settled into the new job. It's boring, but better than no job. I got a new laptop. I bought some perfume, significantly changed my diet, made some new friends, some significant work on creative projects beyond this blog got done, took a fabulous solo weekend trip...

...it's been a busy few weeks.

But let's talk a little more about the perfume I bought. I bought two bottles from Jo Malone -- Pomegranate Noir, which I have a long held and seemingly unwaivering affection for, and Orange Blossom, a scent that surprised me when I reviewed it because I liked it more than I expected. I am pleased to say that I continue to enjoy them both post-purchase and I am happy to say I have no buyer’s remorse. In fact, the saleswoman at the downtown Nordstrom was so happy to sell me a bottle as a blogger thaat she plied me with about six 4ml sprayer samples, and made some interesting suggestions for layering the various scents.

Which brings me to the topic of this post – layering.

I’m of a very divided mind about layering. On the one hand, it opens up a world of scent combinations one might otherwise never experience. On the other hand, I feel very strongly that perfume is art, truly a real art form, and that layering subverts the artist’s true vision of the scent they intended to create and put out in the world. But on the gripping hand, it’s my perfume, bought with my money, and my scent wardrobe to wear, so if I want to expand it by buying scents and layering them, then who has the right to tell me not to, even me?

So, having never really tried layering since, quite frankly, there’s so much out there in the world standing alone and waiting for me to try it, experience it…judge it, that I never bothered. But I was having an adventure on my adventurous weekend, so I figured what the hell? They are small and easy to pack. It’s a weekend of weirdness, let’s get weird!

I received a sample of and Jo Malone Red Roses. I like Roses and try them a lot. As roses go, this one isn’t bad.  You might even call is "classic;" certainly some reviewers have.  To my mind, it just does not particularly stand out. The words I’d use to describe it are “average” and “unremarkable.” In a world heavy with remarkable, unique, innovative roses, that might as well be a condemnation. However, when I layered it with CB I Hate Perfume’s Black March, it was a delightful experience. Now, honestly, most of the uniquenesss to the combination came from the CB scent, but in this case it was a good thing. I can’t imagine layering Black March with Teo Cabanel Oha, L’Artisan Voleur Rose, Juliette Has a Gun Miss Charming, or Agent Provocateur, just to name a few. But the general unremarkableness of Red Roses, much like it’s bland name, made it a great compliment to Black March, like burying your face in a blooming bush, not in sunny summer, when it’s easy to stop to smell the roses, but in the cold, creeping wetness of winter, when appreciation is hard won and, perhaps correspondingly, more deeply felt.


I don’t know if I’ll end up buying a bottle of Red Roses. I doubt it. But I have loved the experience of seeing Black March in a new way, and that was worth quite a lot to me. Plus, I’ll probably forever associate the combination with my trip, and that might make it worth owning both.

What do you think, dear reader? Layering -- an invitation to bliss or a crime against the art of scent? Is a bottle of unremarkable worth owning if it’s really only good for sentimental reasons and because it’s association with a higher quality scent? I think it will end up falling into that category of "would love to get a bottle as a surprise gift, but don't think I'd go out to buy it for myself" category.

Inquiring minds want to know.

P.S. And just so you don’t think me a tease, I will get to trip specifics. In another post, which I promise will come as soon as I can write it down and convince Blogger to cooperate.

You can buy Jo Malone Red Roses in a 30ml for $55 or 100ml for $100 direct from Jo Malone and in a number of department stores. If you are a PDX local, I'd suggest hitting the Jo Malone counter at the Pio Square Nordstrom. You can tell the lovely woman, whose card I have tragically lost, that I sent you for a layering lesson.

"You came up behind me, grabbed my wrists in the dark
And said, 'Don't look at what you can't see.'
Now all night, all night.
I've been looking for you all night.
All night. All night.
I've been looking for you all night..."
- "All Night," Sam Phillips
( You can listen to the song here)

Want more? Try...
~ an incredibly comprehensive guide to roses including this one from Muse in Wooden Shoes
~ a review from The Scented Salamander
~ a mention from I Smell, Therefore I Am
~ a review from Scentsibility
~ a review from Bees Who Buzz
~ a review from We Heart This!
~ a review from Brainspam

You come on with a come on. You don't fight fair.

Tyron Creek Park

Fall has come to Portland.  Really, truly, overcast days and rainy nights Fall. School has started here on the hill, the kids are all back in their rooms, and the sky is gloriously overcast. It's just like I like it best here. Also, the new season of Vampire Diaries started tonight, which considerably brightened my day.

I'm heading out of town this weekend, so I don't have time for a full update, but I'll tell you this: I've been buying perfume while I've been away.  I bought a bottle of Guerlain L'Heure Bleue, Jo Malone Orange Blossom, Jo Malone Pomegranate Noir, and L'Artisan Tea for Two. I'm averaging two bottles for every three pay checks, which is pretty conservative after the desert of unemployment curtailed my purchasing power pretty significantly.

I'm enjoying everything I bought, but I'm especially in love with Pomegranate Noir.  I think it's the darkness lurking underneath that fruity heart.  This fall, I'm in the mood for darkness -- leathers and dirt and musk and chypres. So I'm looking for suggestions, my friends.  Hit me with your best shot.

For now, I've got to get back to packing and watching my 'wamp-iiiires.'  It's a great day for television when one vampire show run's its season finale and goes on hiatus (True Blood) and another one starts right up in it's place.

"That's okay -- see if I care.
Knock me down, it's all in vain
I'll get right back on my feet again."
"Hit Me With Your Best Shot," Pat Benatar

Oh where, oh where, has our perfumista gone?

Cape Lookout, August 2010

Just a quick word, Dear Reader, to assuage any lingering doubts you have.  I am coming back.  My new laptop arrives on Wednesday, allowing me to regularly write again.  I have so many perfume-y things to tell you!   It just may take a few more days.  Thanks for your patience, and I promise that in exchange I'll have hilarious and wonderful stories and even a drawing to make it up to you.

Until then, I'll leave you with two things -- a couple of photos from my recent trip to the beach, and the following horoscope, which was written for Pisces (which I am) a week or two ago by Free Will Astrology's Rob Brezsny. It is a LOL and a half!

Allure magazine sought out Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez, the women who wrote the book Perfumes: The A to Z Guide. "What are the sexiest-smelling perfumes of all time?" they asked. Turin and Sanchez said Chinatown was at the top of their list. Their explanation: "If wearing Opium is like walking around with a bullhorn shouting, 'Come and get it!', Chinatown is like discreetly whispering the same thing." The Chinatown approach is what I recommend for you in the coming weeks, Pisces.

Chinatown!?!  First of all, Bond No. 9 has some waaaaay nicer scents.

Secondly, I'd be more inclined to listen to you if you had not INCORRECTLY IDENTIFIED Luca Turin AS A WOMAN.

Lastly, and more philosophically:  forget it, Astrology man.  I'm going with Opium -- it's go big or go home in my world.

See you in a few days, dear readers!

A word about slowness of posting...

I am having serious fits with Blogger recently, to the tune of trying to post my review of Etat Libre d'Orange Tilda Swinton Like This for basically a week, but the posting page kept being far too broken to function.  As much as I love my blogger-blog, I am thinking of relocating to WordPress if this keeps up.  Anyone have any thoughts? Opinions? Advice? 


Also, fall is already coming to Portland.  David's staff arrives this week!  Can you believe that photo above that I took?  For realsies.  

"The summer ends and we wonder who we are.
And there you go, my friends, with your boxes in your car.
And today I passed the high school, the river, the maple tree.
I passed the farms that made it
through the last days of the century.
And I knew that I was going to learn again,
again, in this less hazy light
I saw the fields beyond the fields,
The fields beyond the fields..."
~ "End of Summer," Dar Williams

I love you when you give me things.

Etat Libre d'Orange Tilda Swinton Like This

"The real science is discovery, Charles, not invention. The truths are there, whether we find them, or not." - Peter MacNicol as Dr. Larry Fleinhardt, NUMB3RS

I heard this said on a tv show I watch recently, and of course, like everything else, it made me think of perfume. Do we ever ‘create’ scent, really? Or is the creation of perfume really just a matter of discovery? Out there lays a vast ocean of scent, and we just wander around in it, waiting to happen upon a new sensation or old memory. So when it comes to the new Etat Libre d'Orange scent, Tilda Swinton Like This, I have some discovery related intrepidation. You see, the Rumi poem that supposedly inspired the scent? Also the poem from whence my husband’s wedding vows to me came from.

Yep.

He took it from an illustrated book of Rumi poetry I gave him early in our courtship.  So, basically this scent had a lot of very specific things it had to live up to in order to please me.

According to Etat Libre d'Orange , the scent came about like this:

I have never been a one for scents in bottles.

I have always located my favourite fragrances at the doorways of kitchens, in the heart of a greenhouse, at the bottom of a garden. Scent means place to me: place and state of mind – even state of grace. Certainly state of ease.

My favourite smells are the smells of home, the experience of the reliable recognizable after the exotic adventure: the regular – natural – turn of the seasons, simplicity and softness after the duck and dive of definition in the wide, wide world.

When Mathilde Bijaoui first asked me what my own favorite scent in a bottle might contain, I described a magic potion that I could carry with me wherever I went that would hold for me the fragrance – the spirit – of home.

The warm ginger of new baking on a wood table, the immortelle of a fresh spring afternoon, the lazy sunshine of my grandfather’s summer greenhouse, woodsmoke and the whisky peat of the Scottish Highlands after rain.

I told her about a bottle of spirit, something very simple, to me: something almost indescribable, so personal it should be.

The miracle is that Mathilde made it.

The great Sufi poet Rumi wrote:

If anyone wants to know what “spirit” is,
or what “God’s fragrance” means,
lean your head toward him or her.
Keep your face there close.
Like this.

This is possibly my favourite poem of all time. It restores me like the smoke/rain/gingerbread/greenhouse my scent-sense is fed by. It is a poem about simplicity, about human-scaled miracles. About trust. About home.

In my fantasy there is a lost chapter of Alice in Wonderland – after the drink saying Drink Me, after the cake pleading Eat Me – where the adventuring, alien, Alice, way down the rabbit hole, far fro m the familiar and maybe somewhat homesick – comes upon a modest glass with a ginger stem reaching down into a pale golden scent that humbly suggests: Like This…

My goodness! She does go on, doesn’t she? Well at least she had some ideas about what kind of scent she wanted her name on, distinguishing her from a lot of celebrities.

The purported notes are “yellow mandarin, ginger, pumpkin, immortelle, neroli, rose, vetiver, heliotrope and musk.“ Other reviewers have described it as a non-foodie pumpkin, pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, etc. scent. Me? Here are, unedited, my immediate stream of consciousness reactions:

Wow. This is weird. What the hell do I smell? Celery smoothie, a fresh box of crayons, cantaloupe juice spilled on a silk tie, and day old instant coffee all at once. Or...pumpkin bread with an overwhelming dose of coriander, if it were left in the sun on the sidewalk for three days in a plastic baggie and is now covered in that whitish mold. And then taken and covered in maple syrup and served for Sunday brunch. Or maybe someone made you a pumpkin latte with soy milk but the flavor syrup they used was cantaloupe?

Despite all those food words I just used, I agree with everyone who said it isn’t foodie. The scents I can think of that Like This reminds me of are SJP Covet and Bvlgari BLV Pour Homme. I tried all three together after my first go with Like This on it's own so that, like the bear who went over the mountain, I could see what I could see.

Like This is a more muted version of both, making it better than Covet (which is the weakest of the three) and making it less rich than BLV Pour Homme. While Covet is sharp like astringent, BLV Pour Homme is savory like a main course and Like This is sweet like a fancy dessert of fresh fruit poached in dessert wine. At this point, about 30 minutes in, Like This is the best of the three if you're trying to find a feminine in this vein. Around the two and a half hour mark Like This and Covet are completely indistinguishable on me, and neither is a particularly likable experience.

And I hate that. I do. I hate it when a scent everyone else seems to love just fizzles on me. And I really can't believe no one else noticed the similarity to Covet, as far as I can tell.  Of the three, I'd be most inclined to buy the muscular BLV Pour Homme for about a fifth of the price of Like This instead. But when I think of the Rumi poem, this is, in no world of mine, what it smells like. Ah, well. On to the next scent.

And with that, I leave you with this: The song David and I had our first dance to, five years ago this October.

"The book of love is long and boring
And written very long ago
It's full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes
And things we're all too young to know but
I...
I love it when you give me things and
You...
You ought to give me wedding rings."
- "The Book of Love," Magnetic Fields (You can listen to the song here)

You can buy Tilda Swinton Like this in 50ml for $99 from Luckyscent. However, I strongly recommend trying before buying on this one. You can get samples from either Luckyscent or The Perfumed Court.

Want more reviews? Try...
~ a review from Angela at Now Smell This!
~ a review from Perfume-Smellin’ Things
~ a review from the Non-Blonde
~ a review from Perfume Posse
~ a review from The Scented Salamander
~ a review from 1000 Fragrances
~ a review from Perfume Shrine
~ a review from London Makeup Girl
~ a review from peredepierre