Please forgive me for my distance.

Review of Providence Perfume Co. Branch & Vine and Providence Perfume Co. + Jonathan Joseph Peters Mousseline Pêche

Dear reader:

I have been living in a terrible desert of words. I want to write to you. I want to tell you stories. Places I've been, things I've done, people I miss and people I am only just beginning to know. More stories and adventures, those of this world and those of the worlds in my head. All those voices clamoring...

But something has happened lately. I put pen to paper, I put fingers to keyboard, and then nothing. Nothing comes. I can't write. I can barely talk. I feel suddenly, strangely lost. I can't find anything to say to you, to say about the lovely perfume I'm smelling, to round out the worlds that live in my head.

I don't know why, dear reader. I don't know what illness has afflicted me and stolen all my words. But I am going to try, nonetheless. Forgive me if these meager ramblings seem weak or ill at ease on this page, in your screen, from my mouth. Right now, they are the best I can do.

Providence Perfume Co. Branch & Vine is described by the perfumer as follows:

Inspired by a summer garden. Verdant leafy greens, a tangle of tomato vine. Hints of muguet mingle with mimosa, jasmine and cooling violet leaf.

Top Notes: sunflower, green bitter orange
Heart Notes: mimosa, muguet leaf accord, neroli, jasmine sambac
Base Notes: vetiver, fir, violet leaf

The orange is bitter, like the oil from the skin of a not quite ripe orange, and it is blended beautifully with vetiver and violet leaf. Quickly – within minutes – it becomes dry, all sunflower seed taste and the least sweet neroli scent you can imagine. This is a lovely opening. It is light, it is complex, and it smells like you'd want to have a summer romance remember it by this smell somewhere ages and ages hence.

The middle is far more floral than the opening, on me skewing toward a delicate jasmine with hints of violet leaf and muguet leaf. A bad jasmine can sometimes skew toward grape kool-aid or grape bubblegum; Branch & Vine avoids this by having hints of greenery and an almost lemony citrus, making it a truly lovely summer floral. I really liked it. I wore it in high summer heat and felt like it was gentle on the skin but still lightly assertive in a way that only a floral can be, and that the heat brought the sillage a little higher.

This scent is billed as a unisex scent and I believe it would be lovely on a woman, and possibly even more lovely and interesting on a man. Perhaps I will cajole my mister into trying a little, just to see.

A sample sprayer is $6.00 direct from the perfumer. A full ounce is $80.00. Given the lovely experience that is Branch & Vine, I think that's a reasonable price.

Providence Perfume Co. + Jonathan Joseph Peters Mousseline Pêche

Mousseline Pêche is an entirely different experience.  Providence Perfume Co. describes it as follows:

A new limited edition eau de toilette born of the collaboration between fashion designer Jonathan Joseph Peters, of Project Runway and our Providence Perfume Co. perfumer Charna Ethier. A fragrance inspired by the softest, sheerest peach mousseline de soie, the fabric of choice for the designer's summer resort collection.

The sweet smell of peach skin warming in the sun,
A feather light frock of the palest silk mousseline,
Bronzed skin kissed with lush ylang ylang, rose and tonka.

Top Notes: yuzu, pink grapefruit, rosewood
Middle Notes: peach accord, ylang ylang, rose otto
Base Notes: tonka, vetiver, spun sugar (natural maltol)

Wow. Peach and pink grapefruit mingle with rosewood and a strong tonka base note to create a sweet explosion of delicious, feminine fruits mixed with a clean oil basenote that reminds of me baby oil on warm skin in the opening. About twenty minutes in it I get am almost cinnamon note that sugars up the fruit a bit, but not overwhelmingly so. It almost reminds of Chanel No. 5 EdT, but only in the most distant cousin sense.

I've worn Mousseline Pêche on both hot days and cool rainy days and find it pleasing for almost any weather. I get low to medium sillage off my spray sample, even when applied generously. My only complaint is that the longevity is on the short side for me, pettering out at around the four hour mark.

A good peach can be so hard to do; they often come off reek of chemicals like a cleaner or plastic-y like a scented doll. Mousseline Pêche is exactly what a sexy sparkling summer peach should be. It should make you want to bite into flesh until the juices run from your lips. If that sounds as good to you as it does to me, then give this one a try.

A sample sprayer of Mousseline Pêche is $7.00 direct from the perfumer. A 15ml sprayer is $50.00.

There you have it reader. I'm alive, if somewhat buried under. Hang in there with me. I promise, I miss you even more than you can possibly be missing me.

"My derring-do allows me to dance the rigadoon
Around you
But by the time I'm close to you, I lose
My desideratum and now you, so
Now you have it, so tell me baby, what's the word?
Am I your gal, or should I get out of town?
I just need to be reassured
Do you just deal it out,
or can you deal with
What I lay down?
Please forgive me, for my distance
The pain is evident in my existence
Please forgive me for my distance
The shame is manifest in my resistance
To your love, to your love, to your love
~ "To Your Love," Fiona Apple


Samples provided by perfumer. 
Photo of Branch & Vine bottle taken from Providence Perfume Co. All rights reserved.

A heaven, a gateway, a hope: A Review of Jo Malone's Sugar and Spice Collection

Yes, dear reader, I know what you're thinking: where you been, fool?

The answer is everywhere and nowhere, dear reader.  In my heart...in my head....I've been to world that only exist in my own dreams.  In reality? Mostly in Oregon, but also in Washington for a few weekends.

Either way, I obviously have not been here enough.  I hear you, reader.  You love me, but you'd also love a little consistency in posting.  This is a more than fair critique.

So, here's a promise from me to you.  Starting now, my goal is to be here at least once a week, every week, for the rest of 2013.  It's not as much as I'd like, but I wanted to keep my goals and commitments realistic.  And that's my commitment to you and this space.  Once a week. Be here or be square.

 Jo Malone's English Limited Edition Sugar and Spice Collection

Here's something I've enjoying lately -- the sugary sweet fruity food concoctions that make up this season's limited edition Jo Malone offerings, also known as the Sugar and Spice collection.  Christine Nagel of Mane is responsible for these five British dessert inspired delights.  She did the tea line from last season that I felt sort of meh about, but she also made Wild Bluebell and English Pear & Freesia, which I like, so I had hopes for the line.  I love a well made gourmand, and have absolutely no objection to smelling like food. So when they called and invited me to the formal presentation of the collection at Nordstrom's here in Portland, I decided I would find a way to make it work with my ridiculously busy schedule.

I went to their fancy food and presentation 'do, complete with the presence of a delightful British man also known as a national trainer for Jo Malone.  As he laid the thick and delicious patter of a man with a product to sell on us, all I wanted was to get to the juice.  That said, there was something a little delightful about drinking carefully concocted theme drinks and getting to eat the dessert the scent is based on while smelling the scents simultaneously.  And yes, they gave us delightful hand massages and a set of collection-inspired recipe cards, so it as an excellent afternoon of pampering. But let's not make the mistake here that they did there, shall we?  Let's get to the perfume.

The Sugar and Spice Collection contains the following five scents:

Lemon Tart - The mouth-watering tang of lemon tart. Sparkling with citrus fruits and verbena, contrasted with swirls of meringue and lemon thyme. Refreshing. 

Redcurrant & Cream - A summer pudding. Sharp-scarlet juices of redcurrants, lush strawberries and raspberries, rippling through creamy musk. Vivacious and enticing. 

Elderflower & Gooseberry - A voluptuous gooseberry fool. Crushed, summer-green gooseberries, juicy with lychee, enfolded into the soft delicacy of elderflower. Tender and feminine. 

Ginger Biscuit - Just-baked biscuit. Spiced with ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon, melting into caramel. Butter-crumbly with roasted hazelnuts. Warmed by tonka bean and vanilla. Irresistible. 

Bitter Orange & Chocolate - The bite of bitter orange, layered with dark chocolate.  Orange peel counterpoised with warm, powdery cocoa, milky coconut and coumarin.  Sumptuous and addictive.

Based solely on the descriptions, I went into the event thinking I was most likely to walk out with the Lemon Tart or the Elderflower & Gooseberry.  I enjoy a good lemon tart, and I was hoping the sugary aspect of the line would keep it away from the astringent/cleaner end of the citrus scent market.  As for the Elderflower & Gooseberry, I like drinking St. Germain as much as the next girl, so I thought there was promise to be held there.

Lemon Tart was foodie, but it was far too light for my taste.  It felt like it was a barely there scent.  I think part of the issue was that the focus of the scent seemed to be on the crust, and much like a tart with too much crust and not enough filling, it left something to be desired.  Nice, but not for a lemon lover like me.

Elderflower & Gooseberry on the other hand was a strange synthetic mess on me!  I was really sad about it, too.  It opened with the olfactory equivalent of white noise, fruits mash of indeterminate origin,  and something sharp, like alcohol. If you'd asked me before the event, I'd have told you this certain to be my favorite of the group.  Worse still, lots of the attendants seemed to really like it so I have to believe this one was mostly bouncing off my body chemistry. Others found bliss, so you might, too.  For me, though? Nope.  A complete nonstarter.

Next up? Ginger Biscuit. Now we were getting somewhere.  Ginger-in all its various forms-is the favored flavor and scent of El Hubs, so much so that I wore a relatively inexpensive and now defunct ginger scent, Origins Ginger with a Twist, on my wedding day because he liked it and back then I didn't know jack about perfume.  So here is this sweet, foodie delight with a legitimately realistic ginger happening in the opening. David eats candied ginger by the pound, and this is like that first burst when one bites past the sugary outside and into the stinging tartness in the middle.   After about twenty minutes, it slides into a delicious buttery cookie with crystallized ginger topping.  The vanilla and tonka make up the cookie dough, anchoring all that ginger decidedly in the dessert world. This one was a win for me, and I knew it would be a win for David.  Into the basket to purchase it went.

Redcurrant & Cream is a delightful berry in the opening, but that disappears quite quickly. Then it's all about musk and cream, smooth across the palette with a bitter edge, like the berries underneath are sharp and green and not quite ripe.  Foodie? On me, it is decidedly less dessert-y than the rest of the collection. But it did feel like the buzz of stumble drunk bees buzzing in the open u-pick berry fields ones finds around Oregon and Washington in the warm, bright days of summer.  I knew I would want to wear the Ginger Biscuit on those bright warm days, and this was a light, full, colorful berry blend that I could see myself reaching for when late June and July rolled around.  After some lengthy internal debate, it went into the To Be Bought pile as well.

Last up, Bitter Orange & Chocolate.  If I had been laying bets before I smelled the collection, I'd have told you this one was destined to be the great loser of the bunch.  Good orange scents are surprisingly hard to find.  Good chocolate scents? Even harder.  To try to make a realistic blend of both that even remotely resembled one of my favorite holiday treats-the perennial chocolate orange-seemed a feat, frankly, beyond Jo Malone, and I say that as a fan of the line, generally speaking.

Boy, was I wrong.  This smells just like the shiny foil wrapped chocolate orange of my holiday dreams! Orange dominates in the opening, and while not all that reminiscent of the smell or taste of a real orange, it is pitch perfect for the orange that I know from the classic dessert. The chocolate is dry and a little powdery, but terrific. In my opinion, this is the it of this collection.  The trainer announced they had only four bottles of it left in Washington or Oregon, which tells me that my tastes must align with the 'fumies in my area, because I snatched a bottle up immediately.

There it is, my friends.  In the end I bought three bottles, and not one of them was one of the two I expected when I walked in the door.  Proof that try before you buy holds true for all noses. Am I sucker? For dessert scents, apparently I am.  But I've been living with these bottles for about a month now and I don't regret it at all.  I also got a ton of samples from the Cologne Intense collection I hadn't tried and a gift with purchase of 10ml of both Grapefruit, which I find useful for layering but not as a stand alone, and Orange Blossom, which is one of my favorites. Frankly? I feel like I made out like a bandit.

I checked online today, and the entire collection is still available online. All of the scents are available in the 50ml bottle for $60, but I advise you pop by your local Jo Malone counter and give them all a sniff before you commit.

Blackberry winter in a little white church...

Jo Malone Blackberry & Bay

You know what I love, dear reader?

A fancy 'do. I don't mean a fancy hairdo (though those are nice, too), I mean a fancy schmancy party. Doubly nice? Perfume release parties. Seriously. They are the height of indulgence. Nice food and drinks, nice smells, nice people -- the best of all.

Now I know that a lot of people have middling feelings about Jo Malone scents, particularly among the those who are run perfume blogs. I personally find their scent line to have a lot of scents that hit a pleasing note that isn't aggressive or hard to deal with, just pretty and fun and easy in a thoughtless way, which frankly, has been kind of nice given my stress levels of late. I have quite a few of their scents and I know my local reps at the downtown Nordstrom by name, so when they have events, I tend to get invited. I finally managed to make it to the release party for their newest fragrance, Jo Malone Blackberry & Bay. Say what you will about the fine people of Jo Malone, but know this: they do throw a pretty lovely perfume release party.

The event started with the group of attendees being provided blackberry lemonade for sipping and personal blackberry tarts in to-go boxes  and little jars of blackberry jam for us to enjoy at our leisure. We sat in a small group, talking about early remembrances of scent and our experience of the line under the coordinated prompting of the regional training specialist. We were given different scents in the line to try along with a brief description of Jo Malone's history as a company. When they finally came around to producing the scent we were there to meet, they started by passing out fresh blackberries to the crowd along with fresh bay leaves. We were asked to crush the berries on our tongue and describe the way the fruit tasted, then to tear the bay leaf, and after a few sniffs, do the same.

Then out came Jo Malone Blackberry & Bay, which Jo Malone describes the scent as follows:

Vibrant. Verdant. New Blackberry & Bay. Inspired by childhood memories of blackberry picking. A burst of deep, tart blackberry juice, blending with the freshness of just-gathered bay and brambly woods. A scent of innocence. An irresistible collection to savour.

The immediate opening of Blackberry & Bay is more bay leaf than blackberry. The immediate berry aspects coming through is the tart aspects of the berry crushed immediately on the tongue. This part of the scent is interesting. it's fresh without being too light or overly fruity like so many more mainstream scent takes would be on a similar perfume effort. Unfortunately, it doesn't stay in this tart, fresh place as long as I'd like it to. Like the real fruit, it bursts into sweet fruit, and while still slightly tart and green thanks to the bay leaf note, those aspects become side players in the scent, the kind of character actors you wish would come back to steal the story from the supposed stars.

Now don't let me undersell you on the fruity part, because it is very nice. I just wish the tart and green bits were stronger. My biggest beef with the middle to end of the scent is the musky base. It is a little distracting, like the sound of a low radio from another room. Which is too bad, because the fruit part is lovely. As fruity scents go, I can attest that it is surprisingly realistic. The scent is realistic, robust, dare I even say, supple? Go back a moment to the experiment from the experiment from the scent release event -- berry crushed on tongue while torn bay leaves waves under the nose. Honestly? Thanks to the immediate fruit-in-mouth to scent-on-arm comparison, I can tell you they did a pretty good job.

On the whole? I really like Blackberry & Bay. But more than that, I needed it. Fall is late coming here in Oregon. It's been hot, dry, and sunny for far too long for my tastes. I was out watering the lawn today, trying to keep my plants alive, and could not believe it was already October. October! It is the time of leaf peeping and corn mazes and caramel apples and carving pumpkins. It should not feel like summer as the leaves begin to change, but it does. The last golden light of summer. And while I crave a scent that says "Fall," it needs to be a whisper. It needs to evoke Fall without invoking cashmere sweaters or very hot drinks or crackling fireplaces. I needed something that said Fall in the same way that Dar Williams "End of Summer" is about both endings and transitions into something new.

So if you, like me dear reader, think the best time of year for rebirth is the season of 'death,' the moment that gold goes down to grey, then I submit Blackberry & Bay as a terrific scent for this liminal moment of transition. Me? I bought a bottle.

My frequently mentioned partner in crime, the Kate, decided on a whim to come with me to the event, and it was nice to have someone there who wasn't a 'perfume' person because it provided me some additional perspective on these events. I asked Kate to give me a little feedback on how she found the event as someone largely unfamiliar with perfume and with Jo Malone as a line. Her general response?

OMG. I'm eating a pastry that I smell like. I may not be a perfumista, but I endorse this lifestyle.

And as for you, dear reader, I have not forgotten you. I did not tell you this story of fancy food and drink and perfume to show you all I have that you cannot. Nope. I believe that good things should be shared. And while I can't make the delicious lemonade and berry tart appear at your home, I can provide a sample of Blackberry & Bay and a CD for you to enjoy.

She remembers the nights he’d come calling,
his yellow silk tie.
In love, she saw him falling for her in the fire of July.
Then one day as the nights grew longer,
blackberry winter in a little white church
stood a young pretty bride...
~ "Forever Changed," Carrie Underwood

So! Leave a comment to enter, any comment at all, and I will pick TWO WINNERS! That's right, two winners. Twice as nice.

Winners will receive a copy of my Fall 2012 Mix CD and a sample of Jo Malone Blackberry & Bay (and probably a couple of other scents). Comment by Monday, October 8, 2011, 11:59 PM PST! Open to U.S. and International readers.

And the world spins madly on...

Jo Malone Pomegranate Noir

I've started making a list of all the things I have to do/do every day in an effort to remind myself that I am actually getting a lot of stuff done. It's easy to feel, when you are unemployed, like you are just spinning in place all the time. This list is an attempt in my own tiny way to ensure that I, in the immortal words of General "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell, "don't let the Bastards grind [me] down." (FN1) Today that included consoling a friend and giving a girl from China a driving lesson. Tomorrow...taxes.

A big thank you, first off, to Ines at All I Am - A Redhead for the sample of Pomegranate Noir, the first of my Jo Malone scents. According to Jo Malone,

This sophisticated scent was inspired by a red silk dress and the intriguing character of pomegranate. Pomegranate Noir combines the sweet fruity notes of raspberry, plum, pink pepper and pomegranate with patchouli, frankincense and spicy woods to create a scent that’s sensual, totally sophisticated and utterly compelling.

"Utterly compelling." I could say a lot for Pomegranate Noir, because it's really beautiful, but "utterly compelling" really says it all. One of the most remarkable things about Pomegranate Noir is its tartness, which I find very appealing and equally rare in my perfume travels. It is delectable in a realistically juicy way, and the patchouli notes give it a green earthiness that make it seem like fresh fruit right off the tree. I've tried it several times now, and I just can't get enough of it. It's so good I'm sort of fixated. I suspect Spring 2010 will forever be imprinted in my mind with Pomegranate Noir.

In the world of pomegranates, this is probably pretty close to my ideal. This is one of those times where, now knowing that one scent exists, you can't, in good conscious, recommend a scent with similar notes. In a world where Jo Malone Pomegranate Noir exists, why would anyone wear CK Euphoria? Pomegranate Noir is fruitier and louder and less soft, powdery and pink, so I guess that could be a reason. And I can see how if you liked one and it wasn't quite right, you might try the other. That said, as pomegranate scents go, Jo Malone's is vastly superior. It has clarity and focus. It's clean and accessible. CK Euphoria becomes a muddle mash; Pomegranate Noir stays strong throughout. That said, if you like pomegranate but don't like tang or dirt, then you might prefer CK Euphoria. Euphoria certainly smells less girl next door, ironically, and more hip girl in a suede sweater dress. But then, I guess I'm more of an every-girl type.

You can buy Pomegranate Noir in 30ml for $55 or 100ml for $100 direct from the perfumer, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdales (which also currently includes your choice of a sample of either Jo Malone Orange Blossom or Nectarine Blossom), and Bergdorf Goodman. Bergdorf also has a lovely Jo Malone sample box that includes 9ml of Pomegranate Noir and would make, I think, a lovely gift for anyone with an interest in perfume, from newb nose to expert fumehead. Pomegranate Noir is also available in a variety of forms, including bath oil, body creme, body lotion, shower gel, and various candle products.

"I let the day go by.
I always say goodbye.
I watch the stars from my window sill.
The whole world is moving and I'm standing still.
Woke up and wished that I was dead,
with an aching in my head.
I lay motionless in bed.
The night is here and the day is gone
and the world spins madly on..."
- "World Spins Madly On," The Weepies
(You can listen to the song here)

Want more reviews? Try...
~ a review from Robin at Now Smell This!
~ a review from Perfume-Smellin' Things
~ a review from the Scented Salamander
~ a review from Bois de Jasmin
~ a review from Indie Perfumes
~ a mention in Chandler Burr's essay, "The unbearable lightness of scent"
~ a review from Sweet Diva
~ a review from Heapnose
~ a bevy of user reviews from Fragrantica

________________________________________________
FN1 Though I was originally familiar with the phrase from the chorus of one of my favorite U2 songs, "Acrobat." Bono cites the track as one of his favorite U2 songs, too. [Stokes, Niall (1996). Into The Heart: The Stories Behind Every U2 Song. Harper Collins Publishers. ISBN 0-7322-6036-1]