If you come here often, you know me pretty well now, after a fashion. Certainly you know many of my passions. After all, this has largely become the place for my passion: this cool white imagined room in my head, where I keep the things I treasure: bits of conversations; snatches of music floating by; the impressionist fiction arising unbidden from a particular scent; a really important memory. You know, if you come here, that I love, in no particular order: road trips, rain, perfume, music, books. BUt there are others I don't talk about often or at all: boxes of nail polishes that shimmer in a multitude of hues; the ways leaves change color in fall so that I take hundreds of pictures that are never as good as the ones in my mind; the ocean, always and often foremost, the ocean.
Here's another: poetry. I love poetry. I have so many books of poetry, so many favorite poems I've read again and again. I particularly like modern American poetry. I have a few books of modern poetry, mostly anthologies, that I've purchased several times, when I couldn't find the original copy or was worried the original was out of print and I wouldn't even find another. And because I like you, dear reader, and because I only very recently moved into a place where I could open ten years of boxes and look at all my books and I'm excited to have ready access to all those books at once, I have a little gift for you. I'm going to begin sharing a few of my favorites with you, along with some random things I string together with them...songs and memories and...things, just things. Things that create the full experience of the poem for me.
I hope you like it.
. . . . .
Privilege of Being by Robert Hass
Many are making love. Up above, the angels in the unshaken ether and crystal of human longing are braiding one another’s hair, which is strawberry blond and the texture of cold rivers. They glance down from time to time at the awkward ecstasy— it must look to them like featherless birds splashing in the spring puddle of a bed— and then one woman, she is about to come, peels back the man’s shut eyelids and says, look at me, and he does. Or is it the man tugging the curtain rope in that dark theater? Anyway, they do, they look at each other; two beings with evolved eyes, rapacious, startled, connected at the belly in an unbelievably sweet lubricious glue, stare at each other, and the angels are desolate. They hate it. They shudder pathetically like lithographs of Victorian beggars with perfect features and alabaster skin hawking rags in the lewd alleys of the novel. All of creation is offended by this distress. It is like the keening sound the moon makes sometimes, rising. The lovers especially cannot bear it, it fills them with unspeakable sadness, so that they close their eyes again and hold each other, each feeling the mortal singularity of the body they have enchanted out of death for an hour or so, and one day, running at sunset, the woman says to the man, I woke up feeling so sad this morning because I realized that you could not, as much as I love you, dear heart, cure my loneliness, wherewith she touched his cheek to reassure him that she did not mean to hurt him with this truth. And the man is not hurt exactly, he understands that life has limits, that people die young, fail at love, fail of their ambitions. He runs beside her, he thinks of the sadness they have gasped and crooned their way out of coming, clutching each other with old, invented forms of grace and clumsy gratitude, ready to be alone again, or dissatisfied, or merely companionable like the couples on the summer beach reading magazine articles about intimacy between the sexes to themselves, and to each other, and to the immense, illiterate, consoling angels.
from Human Wishes, 1989
On moving, the Aurora, Colorado shooting, and DSH Perfumes Vanille Botanique
Dear reader:
This is a three-part post. It is long. (What can I say? I missed you!) Feel free to skip ahead to the perfume if you want. Everyone else, hang on, and remember: keep your arms and legs inside the car at all time. <g>
Part One: On Moving.
That's great! It starts with an earth quake, birds and snakes and airplanes. Lenny Bruce is not afraid.
~ "It's The End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)," R.E.M.
My old original LC mail box!
Goodbye forever!
Rejoice and glad tidings, for I have a place to live! For those of you who know nothing about the Portland real estate market, let me tell you a harrowing tale of a town where young people come to retire, no one wants to buy, and the rental market is a brutal, awful place. Luckily, David and I found a lovely house with a week to spare. We have to be off campus on August 1, so we are in the midst of a massive move. Like everything else in the new economy, we found the house through friends, and we are living with friends because (1) he's starting school so we could use the rental discount, and (2) after being in a fishbowl, we would probably die if suddenly we were locked in a room with just each other day in, day out after a decade of constant visits from friends. We need some transition time.
We are moving into a lovely one and a half story. We have a deck. We have fruit trees (green apple, plum). We have a fireplace, dishwasher, and a clothes washer/dryer of our own. There are flowerbeds for me to plant and walls for me to decorate and at the holidays, I can actually put up decorations people can see. I will finally be able to get a welcome mat.
Moving is tiring...
Group house or not, I feel awfully grown-up all the sudden. FN1. It's not quite how I imagined my life as a kid. I mean, I remember my parents when they were my age, and I am still a lot less 'grown-up' than they were at the time. But I'm a lot happier and my life is full of good friends and laughter and love, so as far as I'm concerned, I ended up in a much better place than the place I thought I wanted to be.
Hmmmm. I believe there's an Amanda Palmer song in there somewhere. FN2. That's appropriate, since I saw her last weekend. It was a small venue show to raise money Literacy Bridge, an organization that provides a "talking book" to help spread educational programming in Africa (best practices for pre/post-natal care, subsistence farming, etc.). The whole thing was terrific, especially the cause involved. The tickets were a belated birthday present from El Hubs, and it was a great night/gift and our local friends, The Doubleclicks, were the opener.
Part Two: On The Aurora, Colorado shooting.
"Sometimes I feel like I can't even sing. I'm very scared for this world."
~ "You are Everything," R.E.M.
Before I get to the perfume in this post (and yes, I'll eventually get there), I wanted to say a few words about the Aurora, Colorado shootings. I bring this up in part because Amanda talked about it a lot at the show, and also because I'd be thinking about it regardless.
Depending on how you count, this is the fifth, sixth, or hundred and twelfth mass shooting since Columbine. FN3. FN4. I know we spend a lot of time on the "why?," but if we are trying to figure out what makes someone crazy and destructive, while that question is worth exploring, it is probably besides the point. There have always been and will always be crazy people, destructive people, people who are not satisfied with killing themselves and want to take others with them. Why would they hurt others and/or hurt themselves? There are socio-cultural debates about the state of mental health care, hopelessness and disconnection in the digital millennium, and the fetishization of violence that we could talk about for hours. Me? I just keep hearing, "I Don't Like Mondays" in my head. Stupid, but true.
Ukuleles save lives!
We keep asking these questions because we all want answers. We want a solution, something that makes us feel safer and helps the world make a little more sense. We want to feel like there is something we can do, actively do, that gives us back our power over the insanity of the world. I get that, too. I feel it as much as the next person.
The question is: what concrete thing can you and I do to make a difference?
When you sit and ask yourself, "Why is this happening so much now? Why is the impact so much larger now than when people went crazy in the past?", I think we all have to own the fact that the proliferation of guns, specifically automatic and semi-automatic guns, is 80% of the answer. I'm not saying someone can't do a lot of damage without one six round revolver, but if you want to know why the number of injured and dead keeps going up and up, I think we all see this is a huge part of the problem.
Now, I am not anti-gun. Yes, you read that right. Not against personal gun ownership. Given my general leftie swerve, this probably surprises many of you. Part of it is my upbringing, as I was raised in a world where every man I knew was a cop, or in the military or a sport hunter or a combination thereof. In my mind, it felt like gun ownership was something that came with adulthood, like getting a driver's license or drinking alcohol. Grown-ups had guns. All of them. FN5. My house came replete with a plethora of guns, including an AR-15, one other guns we know was used in Aurora.
This assault rifle, which had *no business* in my suburban home for a lot of reasons, was used throughout most of my life to prop up a fan next to my parents bed so the fan blew directly on my father while he slept. "Be careful getting out of bed on that side," they'd tell John and I, "there's a gun over there." John and I were raised with what I believe was a healthy if somewhat non-specific fear of guns, taught to think of them with the same kind of fear one treats a poisonous snake; it lives over there, stay away and don't even come close to it, it could kill you if you touch it.
The result of this upbringing is: I know how to shoot a gun. I do not own or carry one, but if I felt compelled to, I'd be fine with it. David doesn't have a gun, but it would not have been a barrier to our relationship if he had. Having a gun in a home doesn't scare me or worry me; I just don't really see the reason to have one. I don't need it for work, like most of the people I grew up with, and I'm not interested in sport hunting, like the rest of the people I grew up with, because I have other hobbies. In my mind, a gun is a tool for a specific purpose, and since my life does not contain such a purpose, it doesn't contain a gun. If that were to change, I'd be fine with it.
So when I tell you that the solution is the complete ban on the sale of some weapons to the general population, I need you to understand that it has nothing to do with me
hating guns or wanting to take your guns. When I tell you that background checks and gun control laws and waiting periods are the key to a better world, it is not because I am some knee-jerk reactionary hater when it comes to guns. I just generally believe that it should not be easier for me to go buy a gun than it is to buy Sudafed. I believe those who have a documentable propensity toward violence or mental instability do not need 24/7 immediate access to fast-firing, high volume weaponry.
This doesn't seem like a political issue to me. It seems like common sense. It has become a political issue because gun manufacturers have a lot of money and they know how and where to spend it. We have ways to fight them, though. It's our vote. Politicians don't like being laid off any more than the next person. If you believe in gun control, tell you elected representatives that this issue matters to you and will be an issue you follow when it comes to their donations and voting record. You can find out who your reps are here (Fed and State), and check their voting records on any issue here (Fed) and get their record as it relates to gun control (and any other issue) through their organization report cards here. Your voice does matter, and let's face it: all the money in the world can't save a politician we choose not to vote for.
Though I don't think Jim Morrison meant it quite this way, I am reminded in this moment: "They've got the guns but we've got the numbers." Or, to put it another way, "I believe in peace, bitch." Thanks, Tori Amos. You always know how to say what I'm feeling with a twisted flair.
We need more gun control. More guns will not result in less violence. And for anyone who thinks armed civilians in the theatre could have stopped this incident, I will only note the following: 1. the theater had a sign up telling gun owners to leave their weapons in their cars, so any law abiding citizen would have been unarmed anyway; (2) two members of the military were shot and killed in the incident. All the training in the world, including how to avoid live fire, isn't going to save you in a crowded, smokey stampede; (3) even the best trained people will struggle with a surprise attack requiring a response that includes accurate shooting in a moving crowd in a smoke filled room. More guns would have meant more people shot. Again, we're not talking about rocket science. This isn't a movie; it's real life. Common sense says more shooters, no matter how well trained, experienced, and/or armed they were, would have meant more wounded, more dead.
The answer isn't more guns. It's fewer guns.
Well, that was decidedly non-perfumey, wasn't it? So let's talk about what I'm wearing right now.
Part Three: A Review of DSH Perfumes VanilleBotanique, aka "Dear gods in the ether, where have you been all my life?"
The world is collapsing around our ears. I turned up the radio but I can't hear it..."
~ "Radio Song," R.E.M.
As we make our move today, I am currently sporting Dawn Spencer Hurwitz's Vanille Botanique, a 100% botanical designed for Indiescents. DSH Perfumes describes it as:
Vanille Botanique is a luscious, balsamic vanilla in the classical style. A soft jasmine heart and bergamot top note balance and round out the bouquet. Such deliciousness!
Top notes: Bergamot, Lemon, Rosewood (bois de rose) Middle notes: Bulgarian Rose Absolute, French Beeswax, Grandiflorum Jasmine Base notes: Australian Sandalwood, Buddahwood, Civet, Labdanum, Peru Balsam, Siam Benzoin, Tahitian Vanilla, Tolu Balsam, Vanilla Absolute
Indiescents' description adds the following: "Rich, decadent vintage style vanilla perfume; all botanical. Subtle citrus in the top, warm, sensuous florals mixed with rich gourmand notes in the heart and luxurious base of balsams, resins and of course vanilla."
So now we have the perfumer's description, some notes, and some ad copy, let's talk vanilla perfume for a second, shall we? Lots of houses make vanilla perfume. It's, ummmmm, how do I say this....abundant almost to the point of being unwieldy. People love the way baked goods and old books and sweet cocktails smell, and every tom, dick, and bath and body place in the mall will tell you that this or that vanilla is a well-paced selling standard for them. I think most fragrance and flavor companies would bear me out when I tell you that vanilla/vanillin, real or synthetic, is a primary note available in abundance.
Because of that, it's a crowded field out there -- good, bad, and ugly. So I'll tell you right now that are already a number of good vanillas to be had. My personal favs are, in no particular order: Annick Goutal Vanille Exquise, Atelier Cologne Vanille Incenseé, Guerlain Spiritueuse Double Vanille, L'Artisan Vanilia. I am happy to report Dawn Spencer Hurwitz has once again found a way to seperate me from my hard earned dough with Vanille Botanique, which will round out my All-Time, Top Five Des(se)rt Island vanilla scents. Releasing at Number Five, with a bullet.
Why am I so quick to proclaims its supremacy? In keeping with the theme, here are my top five reasons.
1. VanilleBotanique is so warm!Vanille Botanique is almost a hot scent on my skin. It works the way I'd expect a hot pepper taste to translate into perfume. It rises in smexy wafts from my arm in a way that is decidedly unfoodie. I bet it's the civet in the base that's making me feel all ha-cha-cha about it, but about a half hour in -- wow, do I want to have sex wearing this perfume. (There, I said it). It smells the way I'd write a scene with people licking vanilla frosting off each other. I know, I know. You're taken aback by my frank dirtiness, but there it is. What can I say? I learned it by reading you, Chandler Burr.
Spray sample from Indiescents. GET ONE TODAY!
2. Vanille Botaniqueis strong. I mean this in a good way. Not like, "Hi, I'm here to knock you down with my perfume," but more, "Who was that masked woman leaving a terrific scent wake behind her!?!" When it comes to Vanille Botanique, a little dab (or spray) will do you; the scent keeps blooming. Vanille Botanique is a scent that will love you for a long time (seriously, why am I being so dirty!?!), and for me that makes the price point totally worth it. I'll buy a bottle and it will last me forever. FN6.
3. In no way does Vanille Botanique smell fake. There are so many vanillas out there that smell like cleaner, or bathroom spray, or cheap candle, or floor wax. This is definitively not one of them. It smells beautifully natural, and if you were trying to sell me on the differences/purposes/superiority of pure botanicals, this would be a good scent to point to.
4. Vanille Botanique is vanilla, yes, but so much more.It's not foodie. I can't believe it is so strongly vanilla and I do not get food at all. No candy, no cocktail, no baked goods. It's -- dare I say it? -- floral, but without being very green, like L'Artisan Vanilia is. The opening is lemons and roses and vanilla bean pod skins, not something to put into food and drink. It is more something I'd expect to get from a beautiful floral centerpiece. The middle is dry and light, without being angular and open like Vanille Incenseé. Some aspects as almost...I don't want to say soapy because it has potentially negative connotations, but yes, soapy. This is not the vanilla of your local bakery or your mom's kitchen, and even if you think it is, I challenge you to smell deeper, because there is simply something more about Vanille Botanique.
5. Vanille Botanique is the vanilla you've been searching for. If you're one of those people who always tries a vanilla, especially ones that get continually high praise, and think, "This is close to what I want, but not exactly what I was looking for," I bet this is your huckleberry. It is just so damned beautiful that I keep thinking, "How did I not know I wanted this?" But that's the truth. As someone who loves vanillas and tries them at all price points and in lots of forms, I didn't even know vanilla could smell like this -- dirty and hot and sexy, of earth and sweat and skin and very much alive. Perfume is amazing that way, isn't it? You think you know what there is to know about a thing and then, bam! A whole new world opens up.
Bottom line? Get some DSH Perfumes Vanille Botanique.It's terrific.
Five Nods. No question.
Vanille Botanique sells from Indiescents at 30ml for $130.00. You can also get samples there. You can also go straight to DSH Perfumes, where the scent is available as a body wash, shea butter body cream, body lotion, massage oil, a water-based spray concentrate, and in a couple of EdP sizes.
Want more? Try....
~ a review
from Perfume Pharmer
~ a review from *jen at This Blog Really Stinks!
~ a review from CaFleureBon
~ a review from Victoria at EauMG
~ a review from Trish Vawter in The Perfume Magazine
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F1. Also all our roommates are 26 or older, so this isn't your typical college-aged group house.
FN2. Video of said song...
FN3. I seriously do not understand how people can remember Columbine, Virgina Tech, Congresswoman Giffords, and Batman, but somehow forget that time a woman-hating lunatic used three guns to shoot up an LA Fitness in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I think it is because only three people died and nine were wounded, because otherwise it was an equally terrifying attack on a benign public location where people generally do not expect to be attacked and believe they are safe. Also, the shooter killed himself, so there was no meal of a trial for the 24-hour news cycle to feed on. But seriously? Dude killed several women and would have killed several more because 1. he was crazy, and 2. he couldn't get laid. (No, really. That's the reason. He said so in videos and letters.) In my mind, this is also a huge tragedy.
FN4. The cynical feminist in me requires I also tell you that part of me believes the
reason no one cares about this shooting was because it was a clear example of misogyny, and no one in America cares about that, because our society is perfectly fine with hatred and violence against women, even when it costs women their lives. She needs to say that, just for the record.
FN5. Don't ask me how it escaped my attention that few women I knew had guns. They all knew how to shoot them and had access to them in their homes, so I guess I always felt like they 'had guns' in the same way that two people sharing a car both 'have a car.'
FN6. Incidentally, I will say that I find this almost universally true with my DSH perfumes. They have great longevity and good sillage and I have never regretted a single purchase, which is impressive since I went nuts during the site redesign sale and now have about 12 different scents in roller form.
All photos were taken by me. The video belongs to Amanda Palmer.
Perfume Challenge Week 30: Monday, 8/8/11, to Friday, 8/12/11
Thanks to Undina, I now have wonderful ammo cases to store my samples in. I initial bought *muffled sounds* hundred sample slots worth, and I managed to get my estimate pretty close. I also managed to get some of them organized by house immediately, which was great for being able to, you know, find things. Now I need about twice as many boxes so I can take all the scents I don't have enough of to merit a house section and break them up by notes. Because I'm completely neurotic, and as Rob Gordon so succinctly put it in High Fidelity, "Fetish properties are not unlike porn. I'd feel guilty taking their money, if I wasn't… well… kinda one of them."
I'll try to post some photos next week, but if you look at Undina's post you get the basic idea. I need more of those grey ones though...
Perfume has taught me so many things. One of them is that the word 'need' is entirely relative.
Monday: L'Artisan Navegar - Notes: Lime, Red pepper, Ginger, Rhum, Star anise, Black pepper, Cedarwood, Guaiac wood, Incense.
Lime and pepper are all over this opening, and the woody base is very strong on me. It's like a super classy version pencil shavings (always my thought when it comes to cedar) but then it turns into a pretty lime flower. I find this less about the fruit and more about the plant when it comes to the lime aspect which I don't often encounter. (It's usually all about the fruit flesh or the fruit peel, or even the fruit leaf...but never the flower.) This is exactly what I wanted Jo Malone Lime Basil & Mandarin to be. Refined and elegant, yet youthful. Pret-tay nice. 4 of 5 nods.
Tuesday: Atelier Cologne Grand Neroli - A romantic ingenue; wraps elegant orange blossom flower around layers of clean herbal notes, warm musks and addictive brushstrokes of vanilla.” Additional notes include neroli, lemon, bergamot, petitgrain galbanum, moss, birch leaves and white amber.
WOOHOO! An extremely light dry citrus aspect makes Grand Neroli even more orange than your usual neroli. It is so pretty, and the first almost edible orange flower scent I've encountered. The vanilla aspects are much like those of Atelier Cologne Vanilla Incenseé as Grand Neroli has a similar dryness to it that gives the scent an open air quality I find unique and enjoyable about several of the Ateliers. It's a very crisp scent and not at all weighed down by the vanilla sweetness. At a mere $55 for 30ml, a great bargain for neroli lovers everywhere; I'd chose it over a lot of other comparable scents. I like wearing my Jo Malone Orange Blossom in the warm weather, but this would make a great Fall neroli/orange blossom thanks to the dryness of the vanilla. 4.5 of 5 nods.
Wednesday: Comme des Garcons Series 2 Red: Carnation - Notes: red carnation, essence of red pepper, red rose, cloves, absolute Egyptian jasmine, absolute red pepper.
My first carnation. One critical review I saw called it "big red [chewing gum] in a bottle" but I think that really undersells this Comme des Garcons. It is decidedly traditionally 'feminine,' which naturally makes me want to spray on the most dudely dude I can find just to see how I like it. Carnation is not overly peppery and the clove is smooth like the finest grained powder instead of sharp the way I find in so many clove heavy scents.
It does smell like carnations, which I would have thought I'd hate; my only instructions to my wedding florist was that I wanted funky arraignments and NO CARNATIONS. FN1. So when I tell you I find this carefully balanced scent that is equal parts rose and carnation frosted with clove delightful and compelling, no one is more surprised than me. I do question if I'd like it as much if they had used something other than rose, since roses are one of my addictions. That I suppose is a question for another day, a different carnation. Today, this carnation, for me? Wonderful. 4 of 5 nods.
Thursday: Penhaligon's English Fern - Notes: Geranium, Lavender, Clover, Patchouli, Sandalwood and Oakmoss.
My first Penhaligon's and it turns out to be one of the nicest fougeres I've ever encountered. The geranium is very strong in the opening, and the lavender makes a nice accent without being overwhelming. Apparently considered more of a masculine (I'm sure the complimentary scented shaving soap helps), I actually think this is lovely for a woman, particularly when the opening moves off and the sweetness of the clover and sandalwood come in. It's like a woman wearing an expensive men's dress shirt as a nightshirt. Sexy as hell due to, rather than in spite of, the 'traditional' gendered item juxtaposition. Some find it a difficult scent to tame, but I find it classic, sophisticated, and a wonderful scent for summer. Be careful, though. It's got strong legs, lasts forever, and has generous sillage. At $125 for 100ml, this bottle would last you approximately forever given the strength of the scent, so it's probably best for a bottle split. 4 of 5 nods.
Friday: Parfums de Nicolai Week-end à Deauville - Notes: basil, peppermint, tarragon, calone, helional, jasmine, lily of the valley, cardamom, galbanum, apple, cedarwood, leather and white musk.
Week-end à Deauville is a lot of white flowers with healthy accents of peppermint and basil. I like the basil here, because it isn't overwhelming and fuses together with the peppermint for a fresh bright opening best fitting for Spring. Unfortunately, that part burns off too quickly on my skin, so all I get is white flowers and light musk. I do get some apple sweetening the middle of the drydown, but not enough to suit me.
Bois de Jasmin describes it as "salty-sweet", and I can see that. Week-end is pretty and floral, so if you like those things, try this. It's supposed to be a beach scent of sorts, but this isn't any beach I've ever known. For me, this scent suffers from the same problem I have with L'Artisan Mure et Musc. It's just so...nice. That doesn't make it boring, it just feels so young and...naive to me. It doesn't feel innocent necessarily, just the opposite of worldly.
When I young I had this old anthology of poetry that divided love into two categories: "Young Love," and "Love, Older Grown." This is decidedly the former. There is no passion here or bitterness, just sweetness and romanticism. It's about as scandalous and sultry as Rebecca Black's idea of fun on a "Friday" night. Like if an extra wore it to the filming of Weezer's "Buddy Holly" video, they wouldn't be in on the irony. All that said, it is very pretty, so pretty that I can imagine it scenting the air during the filming of the scene from West Side Story when Maria tells us how pretty she feels because she's in love with a "pretty wonderful boy." So if that's your wheel house, get yourself a sample. Also, only lasts four hours on me, which I don't generally think of as long enough. 3 of 5 nods.
Winner of the Week: Atelier Cologne Grand Neroli edges out Penhaligon English Fern, but barely. Oh Wait! Comme des Garcons Series 2 Red: Carnation! Sigh. Okay, once again, I cannot choose.
Also, I want to give a special shout to my friend LillieMae, who is moving to Chicago this weekend for graduate school. Study hard, be all smart, and then come home. I miss you already.
"Every Friday, just about midnight,
all my problems seem to disappear.
Everyone that I miss when I’m distant.
Everybody’s here.
Yeah, my friends cause they’re so beautiful
Yeah, my friends they are so beautiful
Yeah, my friends...
~ "Friends," Band of Skulls
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FN1. Arrangements; not arraignments. Sometimes lawyer life is bleeds over into my blogging...
Dear reader, let's try a thought experiment. Close your eyes and concentrate on the hottest day you can remember experiencing last year. Think of the way the sum baked the skin, the vinyl seats of the car stuck to the backs of your legs, how the wind was stagnant and the air heavy with heat to the point that the whole world -- animal, vegetable, and mineral -- seemed to bow under the burden of it.
Now try to imagine a vanilla scent that would work under those conditions.
I will straight up tell you that until today I would said I'd never found one. Maybe, maybe, my beloved and now woefully defunct L'Artisan Vanilia might have been able to tackle the task.FN1 But, and I say this is a woman who rarely meets a vanilla I find mediocre, much less unlikeable, that's hot weather is not typically the vanilla arena. The rich sugary deliciousness I imagine is a cozy smell, a warm smell meant to hold back the cold. It is a kitchen filled with baking love or a snuggle in a blanket. It is not meant to feel light, cool, and refreshing in withering heat. For that, even Vanilia probably would have been just a touch too much on the assertive side.
But thanks to Atelier Cologne Vanille Incenseé, I now have a vanilla for the hot days of summer! Atelier Cologne introduces Vanille Incenseé with the following romantic lead in:
“He wove through the crowd when suddenly his heart quickened. That scent. It was hers. He had worn it first until she stole it for herself. Now, there she was before him and the magic of years past came flooding back in a moment.”
Vanille Insensée, an electrical current runs through the subtle sweetness of vanilla, jasmine and fresh lime to bond with rich oak moss, woods and spicy
Top notes: lime, cedrat. coriander Heart notes: jasmine, vetiver and oak moss Base notes: vanilla from Madagascar, oak wood and amber
I am so in love with this scent! What is most surprising to me is how fresh and unique it feels. Light, clean, present without being smothering, it seems like the perfect antedote to the malaise that hits mid-summer when you tire of smelling like green tea and beach florals. FN2. FN3. And while the sillage in moderate, the staying powder is terrific. I sprayed maybe 3 sprays on this morning before 8am and it's fourteen hours later and I'm still getting light hits of it. Normally anything that lasts this long packs such a wallop, scent-wise, but this is light.
And when I say light, I don't mean wispy like a cloud or thin like fine lace or soft as angel's wings. I mean light the way glass and space can open up a building, allowing movement and air and vitality to stream in. Light in the way that your spirit can be light. And yet, the scent is still powerful and strong. Because it isn't overly foodie or cozy but brings a light freshness to the scene, it is the rare vanilla I think would work beautifully on a man.
There are areas within the realm of scent that are a crowded field. When it comes to these themes (vanilla is one; rose is another), it can be difficult to create something that catches a sniffa's nose, head turning to follow. Though no one means to, it can be hard not to get a little jaded, in a "been there, sniffed that" kind of way. I applaud Atelier for doing such an interesting interpretation on vanilla.
You can purchase 30ml for $60 or 200ml for $170 of Vanille Incenseé from Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, LuckyScent, or direct from the perfumer. While I highly recommend you do, I'd also like to add that, thanks to the generosity of the perfumer, I'm giving a 5ml decant to one of you lucky readers! FN4.
Post by 11:50 PM PST March 8 if you want to enter, and tell me your favorite vanilla.
"Every heart, every heart
to love will come
but like a refugee.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in."
~ "Anthem," Leonard Cohen
Want more? Try... ~ a review from Kevin at Now Smell This! ~ a review from Perfume Shrine ____________ FN1 Which I would *still* straight roll a body to get a bottle of. FN2 I like smothering vanillas, so I don't mean that as a bad thing. FN3 Again, no disrespect. I've got at least three bottles of different "perfect for the beach in summer" scents. Love'em all. FN4 Scent provided to Feminine Things by Atelier Cologne for review.
Monday: puredistance Antonia - The initial impression I had was of a milky soapy substance with a hint of bitterness around the edges, like the sap from the Texas milkweed I remember growing up. You'd crush the flowers between your fingers and the scent would rise up at you. FN1. It also has a powdery aspect that is nice and unique. Carol talks about this one being rendered strongly enough to taste it, and I get that sensation as well. It's green, but not in a sharp way. It's more powdery and supple and slightly floral than sharp, like the tender stems of a weaved wildflower crown. I think it would be a great scent for Spring, though sadly not for me. I don't know what it is. It's unique and pretty and lush, but I've tried it three times and I still can't see myself wearing it. I recommend giving it a whirl, though. Everyoneelseseemstoloveit. 3 of 5 nods. FN2.
Tuesday: Bond No. 9 Andy Warhol Union Station - Truthfully? The opening smells exactly like a high quality version of Gap So Pink! I know because I wore it for a couple of years in high school and still keep a little bottle for nostalgia.
Two hours later: Still very Gap So Pink!. I'm gonna go home and try a side-by-side comparison and get back to you.
Later that night: Okay, so on my left arm I have Union Station, and on my right arm, So Pink! Putting them right next to each other, I can see the obvious differences but there is absolutely no denying the similarities, especially after a couple of hours. On application, So Pink is more citrusy, but in a fake cleanser smell kind of way. Union Station, on the other hands, smells like a basket of pale pink flower petals, like roses and tulips. The scents are like half-siblings. In fact, let's imagine it together, shall we?
Imagine two girls.
Union grows up in an upper middle class ranch-style house on a block in a suberb full of the same micro-McMansions. She's an A/B student on the JV cheerleading squad and always has a date to Homecoming. She will probably make the Royal Court for Winter Formal this year. She drives a light blue Cabriolet convertible her parents bought her for her sweet sixteen. She got a good score on her PSATs and already has contacts in the admissions office of the big state school of her dreams, where she never pauses to doubt she will be accepted.
Then you've got Suz. She lives in a cramped two bedroom aparment in a rundown complex with her mom and her mom's boyfriend, Bob (rhymes with "knob"). She doesn't know anything about her dad, except that her mom dated him for a while, but he broke it off when she got preggo, which gives Suz some pretty dim views of dating. Suz makes okay grades, with the occasional A, not because she isn't capable of more, but because she hates going to that damned school full of the bubbleheaded rah-rahs and their beefy boyfriends makes her teeth ache from the fake sweetness of their hallway gropings. Suz rides the bus or bums rides off her friends, and avoids dances like she getting ready for for the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott.
The girls have a few run-ins during high school -- invites to the same parties, interests in the same guy -- that are just enough to allow them to torment one another with their mere respective existence. As they grow older, look so much alike they could even be twins if you look past Union's dyed hair and nose job (broke it on a seesaw as a kid, had to have *that* fixed) and Suz's colored contacts.
Years later, purely by chance, they end up working at the same large company. Union is a corporate account exec and Suz one of the top HR people, completely unaware of one another until they run into each other in the elevator one afternoon. There they realize they not only know each other, but may have more in common than they ever realized when they were sixteen and sitting on the opposite sides of bitter enemy lines, the kind that can only exist in high school.
That's what wearing Union Station is like compared to So Pink!. Like the stylish, better heeled half-sibling of my beloved high school scent in a plastic bottle. So if you like So Pink! this is a nicer version of a scent so similar after about two hours I could barely discern a difference. If you like Union Station okay but think it's a little on the pricey side, give So Pink! a try.
Just remember -- the money you spend going to make a huge difference in the quality of the opening salvo. Later...well, not quite so much. 3.5 of 5 nods.
Wednesday: Andrea Maack Sharp - Notes: orange blossom, angel skin, sweet vanilla, white musk and soothing softness. The opening is all black pepper and bitterness, probably from the orange blossom, but I'd expect to see white pepper among the notes, and I don't. In other words -- sharp! This part lasts about half an hour as it blends into the middle, which is anything but.
The middle is sweet, but not in a floral or foodie way. It is very ambery without, apparently, any amber. The sweet is a little on the dry side, as if you could make dried herbs of sugar cane. The overall experience reminds me of the way it would taste if you ate the coating off roasted spcied nuts, but without the nut part.
Except....except it has this little medicinal edge to it that keeps tugging at the edge of my brain, refusing to be ignored. It's interesting, as sweet as it is, you'd think I'd say it was floral or gourmand, but truthfully, it is sweet in the way that makes me want to meet the man who would wear it because I think, at least in a small dosage, it might be sexy as hell on a man with the confidence to wear it. FN3. Of course, this is the same phantom dude comfortable with wearing Theirry Mugler Angel, who I still have yet to encounter. FN4.
Now the big question: Do I like it? I think...yeah, I think I do. I can't quite call it an oriental, though it is definitely in that direction, because it lacks the complexity and incense-y edges I normally associate with orientals. I don't think it's overly aggressive (though, woah baby, it's got some sillage) as far as orientals go, so if you don't normally like things of that nature you might really like this. For me, it was like wearing the smell of Katy Perry's new album, Teenage Dream. Seriously. That album cover? That addictive poppy bounce? This scent has it. So look at the visual aid to the right, and you essentially have this scent. A lot of nice, but more than a smidgen of naughty, too. And you know what? I think I'm developing a crush on Katy Perry...and on Sharp. FN5. 3.5 of 5 nods.
Thursday: Keiko Mecheri Cuir Cordoba - Notes: black violet, bergamot, elemi, suede accord, patchouli, sandalwood, benzoin. Immediate impression: "Medicinal at first, but the sweetness underneath makes sniffing this feel the same as the feeling of velvet rudding against skin. I feel like a cat; I want to pur and rub myself against this one."
Okay, I wrote that before I read the Luckyscent description which says "Cuir Cordoba is like the softest, most supple suede." *AND* "Luxuriously tactile and equally gorgeous on a man or woman: Cuir Cordoba purrs utter sophistication." Seriously, how crazy is that? Soft fabric and purring? But I mean to tell you, those are the two things that come immediately with Cuir Cordoba. In fact I don't really know what else I can say: it's sweet and soft, the patchouli is very light, providing a kind of shading on a mix that smells 70% sandalwood and violet/10% benzoin/10% whatever the hell "suede accord" is. The only thing I didn't really get a lot of was the bergamot. And it doesn't smell like velvet or suede. It smells like the feel of velvet or, yes, I can see suede, against your skin. Definitely sexy, and could be worn by a man or a woman.
1 hour, 31 minutes later: Why is my lovely fabric scent turning into a copper penny dipped in blood? WHY!?! I loved it! It was one of the best scents I'd tried this year. I could have gone along rubbing my hand on my face for hours. But now? Smells like someone bleed all over my velvet gloved hand.
~ 3 hours in: The coppery blood smell has faded somewhat, but still there. It's better, but I don't so much want to spend hours with my hand glued to my face anymore. The coppery notes are less obvious from a distance of say, a foot away, but if you sprayed it on and someone went to kiss your neck or wrist, they might get an unpleasant undernote surprise. This makes me really sad to say, but I think I have to downgrade my initial impression, which was in the 4.5 to 5 range, to only a solid 3.5 to 4 nods.
Friday: Atelier Cologne Orange Sanguine - Notes: blood orange, bitter orange; heart notes: jasmine, geranium; base notes: amber woods, tonka beans, sandalwood. It is hard to do a good orange scent. I don't know what it is about orange scents, but so many of them smell a little like cleaner to me. I don't think it is the perfumers' faults, it is just that citrus smells get used in cleansers a lot, so that's the first thing that spring to mind.
With that disclaimer, this is one scent that does not smell like cleaner! It is a very good orange scent. Right out of the gate, it is like a blast of realism, sweet orange fruit flesh all over you. It fades down quickly into a quieter scent, which allows a slightly sweet floral aspect come to play underneath. I think it screams summer scent, as you can practically feel the warmth coming off it in waves. It also works as a unisex scent, I think because citrus notes are found so often in genderless air fresheners and cleansers. My only complaint is how light and fleeting it is, though that makes it pretty safe for those of you in work aren't scent friendly. 3.5 of 5 nods.
Winner of the week: Andrea Maack Sharp edges out both Atelier Cologne Orange Sanguine (for being too light) and Keiko Mecheri Cuir Cordoba (because of the weird coppery part I can't get over). That said, would love to any of them. Great scents all. In fact, this whole week was consistently pretty good to great, which says nice things for all these perfumers.
This week's song dedicated to the Tuesday's scent and the warring fictional perfumey teens in my head.
"She lives her life like it's a party and she's on the list.
She looks at me like I'm a trend and she's so over it.
I think her ever present frown is a little troubling.
she thinks I'm psycho 'cause I like to rhyme her name with things.
But sophistication isn't what you wear or who you know
or pushing people down to get you where you wanna go.
They didn't teach you that in prep school,
so it's up to me: no amount of vintage dresses gives you dignity..."
"Better than Revenge," Taylor Swift (You can hear a clip of the song here.) FN6.
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FN1. Why was I crushing flowers between my fingers and sniffing at them? I dunno. What can I say? I was a weird kid. I also ate mint picked wild from my backyard even though my mom told me not to.
FN2. My sample was generously provided by Perfume-Smellin' Things and Luckyscent
FN3. Like Ted from How I Met Your Mother and his red boots. "Pulling them off."
FN4. I suspect this is a mostly American problem.
FN5. Seriously, did you see her on HIMYM? So cute! See the video below...
FN6. I love Taylor Swift. I love her new album, Speak Now. If you want to debate her as an artist or a positive icon for girls/women, we can do that, but I can tell you that if I had a guitar and her talent at twenty-one, I'd be writing songs just like hers. And I love her for that. I love that her music feels like a window back to young love and loss, because it feels real, even if it isn't perfect in its maturity or awareness. After all, who's perspective is especially at twenty-one?
Sorry for posting a day late this week. The road trip threw me off. I drove 1000+ miles across four days, but oh! The sights that were seen! More on that later. To the perfume!
Monday: Atelier Cologne Bois Blonds - Notes: Tunisian neroli, pink pepper, Moroccan orange flower, incense, Blond woods, musks, vetiver from Haiti The open is, as promised, lightly orange citrus with a peppery edge. Then it gets dry and stay subtly sweet. I really don't know what to think of this. It's not overly floral (look at those notes) but about fifteen minutes it's got a lightly clean floral thing going on. I'm not getting any musk or incense or vetiver, unless their sole purpose is to give this a dried, as opposed to live, flowers feeling. It's nice, but just that.: nice. 2.5 of 5.
Tuesday: Calypso Mimosa EdP - Well, hello Palmolive. Seriously, I put it on and immediately thought, "Wow, I smell like Palmolive." I had a friend sniff me, and she confirmed, yes I do indeed smell like a walking dish of famous green soap. This is one of those times that I'd usually go wash it off, but I made a commitment to you, my darlings, and this is the first test. So here I sit, Soap Girl, able to remove water spots from your precious crystal glasses you stupidly stuck in the dishwasher in seconds! FN1. FN2. Let's see it gets better in the next couple hours...
31 minutes later: Lots of Palmolive in water! Seriously considering setting my hand on fire to avoid another three hours of this. It's so strong!
2 hours, 10 minutes later: Yep, still very strong Palmolive. No other notes, no subtly, and very little fading. No longer notice the scent unless my hand comes near my face to reinforce its awfulness. Trying to treat said hand like a vestigial limb and ignore it.
4 hours, 17 minutes: OH DEAR SWEET JESUS, I MADE IT! And let me tell you, friends, it STILL smells exactly like Palmolive. Exactly. Okay, maybe it has just a tiny sweet undertone, but the overwhelming effect is still Palmolive, and also still about 50% of the initial strength.
The worst part? I just dabbed a little on my hand this morning. I cannot imagine full spraying this on anyone. Or anything for that matter. For any reason. Okay, maybe on a zombie, but I can't decide if that would be to make said zombie's rotting corpse smell better or try to frighten it away.
Excuse me, I have to go wash my hands right now. ZERO of 5. FN3.
Wednesday: Annick Goutal Ninfeo Mio - Notes: bergamot, citron, petitgrain, bitter orange, galbanum, lentisque, lavender, fig leaf and lemon tree wood. You know the part of the orange peel that isn't orange, it's white? The rind part? Someone made it a perfume! No, not really, but that was my first response to this scent.It's actually a really lovely, complex scent, but you must love the citrus, dear reader, to love this one. I smell bitter orange rind, lemon juice, and pepper, and oh wait for it -- five minutes the dreaded Play-Doh note. Man, it's been a long time since I hit a perfume that had that Play-Doh thing! A mild Play-Doh scent, comparatively speaking; like more an impression of Play-Doh, a play on Play-Doh, if you will. We will see if that drops out in the next twenty minutes or so. I really hope it does.
20 minutes later: Looking at reviews, a lot of people get figs out of this, and I guess I can see some fig in there, but it is working so hard against the citrus and lavender for me.
1 hour later: I guess I can see figs. An hour in, it's much more interesting, but the conflict keeps produce a background that is decidedly Play-Doh like on me.
2-4 hours: Okay, I see the figs, and they are nice. I really do like the dominating fig part and the bitter citrus at the openning was interesting; I wish they'd left the lavender out completely because it feels like it is in a rolling on the ground tussel with the figs, which I think I would have liked better alone. 3 of 5.
Thursday: Tauer Perfumes Orange Star - I like this. It's sticky, sweet, and hot -- not warm, mind you, but hot -- and delicious! It's like someone took an orange, starred it with cloves, covered it in honey, and rolled it in dry herbal spices before setting it to simmer in a mixture of wine and vodka to scent a house for the holidays. It's strikes me as festive, but in a Christmas-in-Miami sort of way. And also it reminds of the taste of me of red hots! It's like red Fourth of July sparklers for your nose.
On me, there's very little development throughout, so I admit it's more or less a one note song, but what a note! It is nice now, but again, this is one that is probably better in warm weather. I will definitely set it aside for a summer revisit. 4 of 5.
Friday: Pacifica Tahitian Gardenia solid perfume - You know those free vacations they advertise on late night television, the kind that is really a trick to get you stranded somewhere and try to sell you a condo? If those ads were scented, this is what they would smell like. Gardenia and coconut and artificial sunlight, the sort of scent appropriate to be piped into a casino on a tropical cruise ship for soothing the savage gambler and separating him from his money.
Which makes it sound like I don't like it, but I do. But if Annick GoutalSonges is long satin dresses with elbow gloves and symphony by the water, and CB I Hate Perfume At the Beach 1966 is driving in a Cadillac convertible along the coast with "Palisades Park" playing on the radio, then this is the elevator Muzak version of "Girl from Ipanema," leis made of silk flowers and plastic piping, "Eat at Joe's" t-shirts, and tiki torches with glowing light bulbs. It is the summer beach scent equivalent of a college co-ed "WOO" girl in a bikini and hot-pink cowgirl hat. FN4.
It has its place, which is frivolous and fun and not to be taken seriously...and there's a time for a scent like that, too. 2.5 of 5.
Winner of the week: Tauer Perfumes Orange Star by a landslide.
"Come on, shine your heavenly body tonight
'cause I know you're gonna make everything all right.
You may be my lucky star,
but I'm the luckiest by far..."
~ "Lucky Star," Madonna
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FN1. Why did you put them in there in the first place? You don't dishwash crystal! That's madness, I tell you! Madness!
FN2. Stupidest super power ever. They would kick me out of Xanth.
FN3. For those who think this was a really harsh review, I'd like to mention that this is only the second ZERO I have given EVER, so if you love this scent I am very sorry but it is TOTALLY DESERVED.
FN4. "Woo Girl" best explained by the following video:
