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.

Notes from the Plague Den, Part 5: The Plague Girl Bloggeth!

A Review of Aftelier Perfumes Cepes and Tuberose EdP

Rejoice and be glad, dear reader, for I have seen the light at the end of the plague tunnel. I went back to the doctor yesterday because I thought I might be developing a secondary infection. They just called – nope! My sinuses acting up are more likely “environmental irritants” and as of Monday, I should be all clear to go to the office and return to my new work endeavors. Yay! After my chest infection became bronchitis became walking pneumonia and three months of suffering last year, I cannot tell you how happy I am to have a job that supports my efforts not to drag my immuno-compromised self all over town.

In celebration of this turn of healthful events, I will now share with you my favorite of the Aftelier Perfumes offerings thus far. Aftelier Perfumes Cepes and Tuberose is described as follows:

Wild mushrooms, with animal undertones and one of the world's most voluptuous florals. Wild porcini mushrooms and Italian tuberose play a mysterious and earthy duet.


Featured Notes
Top: bois de rose.

 Heart: tuberose, Moroccan rose.

 Base: cepes absolute, benzoin.

Cepes and Tuberose, which Aftel describes as a “Fougère family” scent, was chosen as one of “100 Perfumes Every Perfumista Should Try” by Now Smell This.

Chocolate, tobacco, hay, roses, tuberose, oh my! Cepes and Tuberose reminds me of a confection made to look like a mushroom with a chocolate cap and powdery spores. It is sweet without being sweet, foodie without being specifically edible, beautiful and supple and deliciously, delightfully weird! Mushrooms in perfume have never had it so good.

In her review, Marina talks about Cepes and Tuberose containing something that is a “tongue-coating” 5th taste. I find – interestingly – that I can always 'tastesmell' (i.e. I put my mouth over my wrist and inhale through my mouth, breathing in the taste of the scent – weird, I know, but I made it up so go with me) Mandy Aftel's scents as well or better than I can smell them through my nose. Sometimes I even get different, delightful notes this way. Cepes and Tuberose has this earthy, savory, “tongue-coating taste” smell in spades.

Cepes and Tuberose gets slightly sticky, sweeter on the drydown with me. The sillage is moderate, and the lifespan is....great! Cepes and Tuberose succeeds in long, lovely wafts from my skin where Candide and Trèvert fail me. I have tried it several times, and it is so beautiful. It is unique and wonderous; it completely deserves to be on the list of 100 scents every perfumista should try. Mandy Aftel's greatest strength as a perfumer may be in her uncanny ability to put together one-of-a-kind creations that continue to impress and wow even the most experienced noses.

Cepes and Tuberose EdP is available direct from Aftelier Perfume. $6 will get you a 1ml sample of the EdP. For $170, you can have 30ml of the EdP or ~7.5ml of the pure parfum. I will probably try the parfum before I settle on a purchase, but make no mistake – I will be buying this one. Delicious, delightful, delovely. A full 5 stars.

Want more reviews of Cepes and Tuberose? Try…
~ a review from Olfactoria's Travel
~ a review from Perfume-Smellin' Things
~ a review from Martha of Chickenfreak's Obsessions
~ a review from Indieperfumes
~ a review from Scent-and-Sensibility
~ a review from Another Perfume Blog
~ a review from Lipstick Musings
~ a review from Smelly Thoughts
~ a review from fragrantfanatic


In the interest of full disclosure, the perfume sample above was provided by the perfumer.

Over the lilies there that wave and weep above a nameless grave!

Esscentual Alchemy Moon Valley

Dear reader:

Happy All Hallow's Eve! Today is the day that all things spooky, scary, eerie, unsettling, and otherworldly come out and have a heyday. And while we're celebrating the unexplained mysteries of the world, let's talk some more about about primordial scents, particularly those that celebrate the mystery of the unseen, shall we?

Today we reach Day Four of Six in our exploration of the Primordial Scent Project: Air Scents. As befits our holiday, I bring you a dark and lovely perfume for this, the Day of the Dead. Esscentual Alchemy Moon Valley, created by Amanda Feeley, is a natural perfume that...

...opens with a hint of the dew that falls at night. Following with a fresh heirloom muskmelon scent, and exotic herbs. Mouthwateringly enticing. Next comes the smell of well-travelled luggage, that has seen alluring, glamourous, and out of the way ports of call, and has stood the test of time, and the rigors of the journey. Ends with a spicy dry down 

Perfume Ingredients: Vetiver, Antique Oakmoss, Hyrax, Orris, Jasmine Grandiflorum, Lilac, Tuberose, Carnation, Peach Accord, Virginia Cedar, Heliotrope Accord

The first time I tried Moon Valley, it reminded me of standing on my front porch on the first real night of winter, wisps of cold night air bringing me the mixed scents of fireplace and woodstove fires inside homes all over the neighborhood, people burning up the night to warm themselves. The smoke snap freezes in tiny crystals that float, unseen, toward me, each one a tiny orb carrying a view into the lives of others, like the floating bubbles of dreams in Jim Henson's '80s classic Labyrinth. FN1.  That smell is one of my favorite winter smells, and it is always best the first night of every season.

The second time I tried Moon Valley, I thought of death. Specifically, I thought of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Valley of Unrest."

Now each visitor shall confess
The sad valley’s restlessness.
Nothing there is motionless—
Nothing save the airs that brood
Over the magic solitude.

The third and final try before I ran out of perfume because I liked it so much, what I thought of constantly was the smell of cracking a fresh package of bleached white lined paper, taking out a sheet, and writing on it in a rich, thick, black blue ink with a fountain pen. Heavy words flow from that pen, words of sorrow or ending or resolution.

Overall, this scent is air meets darkness. It is a kind of liquid night, dry and bitter. Is it wrong to say this is, for me, the perfect perfume for a winter funeral? It is. It is rich and lovely and foreboding. I'd recommend it for Halloween, but this scent lacks the candied fun of children trick or treating. This is the real stuff of spirits, mean and serious, not in the modern torture-porn horror way, but in the way the classic Mexican surrealist film The Exterminating Angel is deeply unsettling without any of the gore that seems to be required today. FN1.

Musically speaking? I can think of no better music than this:


The scent reminds me most closely of INeKE's Evening Edged in Gold, but less fruity or sweet. This is darker, earthier, and more, well, primordial. Less pretty, more...guttural. It comes from a place somewhere in the core of the self. Fundamental. The Quintessence, if you will.

Moon Valley is available direct from the perfumer. You can buy samples for $5, 5ml EdP for $22, and the perfume in 1oz spray for $115, 1/3oz gift presentation for $150.

You can buy the entire Primordial Scent Project: Air Set for $28.00 here.

For more reviews of the Primordial Scent Project: Air Scents, try: Perfume-Smellin' Things; The Perfume Critic; John Reasinger, writing for Perfume Pharmer; Indieperfumes; Donna Hathaway, writing for Perfumer Pharmer.

_____________________________

FN1. The film is available for watch for free on Hulu and I recommend it highly to any of my readers who like art films.  Directed by Luis Buñue, it is considered one of the top twenty films in all of Mexican cinema. Without going too much away, I think is a deeply interesting exploration of group psychology and human beings ability to create hell here on earth that likely exceeds anything we'd have to fear is a traditional hell.

FN2.  P.S. How GREAT is this cover of "As The World Falls Down"? Allow me to answer for you. Really f-ing great.


All photos taken by me, copyright 2012. All rights reserved.

For the love of water.

A Study in Water by Shelley Waddington of EnVoyage Perfumes

Dear reader:

I love water.

Seriously. And not in the "I'm athletic and water is the drink of life" kind of way. I mean in the "though I'm not into astrology, I am supposed to be a water sign and I do entirely freak out if I live too far from the ocean or go too many days without rain" kind of way. Seriously. My one year of residence in the high deserts of Santa Fe were miserable, and my loathing for Riverside was disproportionate because of the relentless sun. I even preferred Houston over Austin in part because Austin is too far from the ocean and the Lake is not prominent enough in the geography of the town to satisfy my tastes. FN1.

I am one of those people who literally prays for rain, and not because I am a dust bowl farmer or cattleman with a desperate herd. When I was young and they sent me to Girl Scout camp, while the other little girls were making lanyards and God's Eyes out of yarn and popsicle sticks, I sat in the corner, imagining I was a water witch, and trying to summon storms. The last year I went, I simultaneously 'became a woman' (FN2) and managed to bring a huge tropical storm down on us that washed out the road to the camp and closed it down for two weeks. Coincidence? Probably. But try telling that to an eleven-year-old.

So when I was approached to be part of the Primordial Scents Project a while ago, I immediately said yes. What's not to love? Elemental-themed perfumes for the water witch in my heart? Sign me up. While normally I despise aquatics, which is about what passes for 'water' in mainstream perfumery, I was deeply hopeful based on the amazing talents I saw involved in the project. I love a disproportionately large amount of beach/coast scents -- from Annick Goutal Songes to slumberhouse Sana to CB At the Beach 1966 to even a small bottle of Coty Sand & Sable -- but these are 'beach' scents or 'coast' scents, and what I wanted was the smell of water. I wanted the smell of rain, the smell of the ocean, of a lake, a river, a stream. You know those ridiculous face cleanser commercials where women splash water on themselves and half the bathroom as though that ever removed the smallest hint of make-up or soap?

I wanted that, but in a scent. And, as usual, the amazing men and women who traffic in the alchemic magic of perfumery did not disappoint.

First up: A Study in Water by Shelley Waddington of EnVoyage Perfumes

Study in Water was inspired by the element of fresh water. My goal in making this incredibly sheer, wet, and innocent fragrance was to retain the elegance, longevity and sillage of the most excellent of classic perfumes. ~Shelley Waddington

Top notes: muguet, lime, green apple, bergamot, dew
Heart notes: rose water, jasmine, green leaves, neroli, muguet
Base notes: sandalwood, guaiac wood, cabreuva, watery notes, musk

A Study in Water is ahhh-mazing. Do you hear me, reader? Amazing. Like I've almost used my entire sample in less than three weeks and I've already set aside money to buy a bottle before the end of October. That amazing. The first time I put it on, it was that startling slap of instant love for me. I thought, "I should hate this," but while my head said, "Aquatic - bleck!," my heart was like, "Shut it, foo! I WANT MORE!" It's gotten under my skin in the best way.

I'm not going to tell you it smells like a glass of water. In fact, I just sniffed a cup in front of me to make sure. And yet, it does smell like water. Like water dripping from the skin of an apple, from the tip of a flower petal, running down grooves in polished wood. It's water that has taken on the essence of the flowers, fruit and wood listed in the notes, until it seems like an infusion of dew along so those items. Of the five scents in the set, I found A Study in Water to have the highest sillage and duration on my skin.

I really can't say enough good things about this scent. If you like the smell of rain, of the first morning dew, or something that isn't quite, but somehow is the closest I've ever smelled to real water, this is for you. Truly masterful.

You can by A Study in Water for $55.00 for .5 oz, or $80.00 for 1 oz. direct from the perfumer. While I'm on the subject of EnVoyage Perfumes, this is my third or fourth scent of Shelley's, and she never disappoints. If you're newish to perfume or new to indie perfume or merely looking to branch out beyond your local Ulta/Sephora/Nordstrom offerings and into the web based wilds, I encourage you to consider sampling her line. She continues to hit it out of the park for me.

If you'd like to try the entire Primordials Water Set, it's available here for $25.00.

For more reviews of the primordial water scents, try: EauMG; The Perfume Critic; Fragrantica.

The water is wide, I cannot get o'er,
neither have I wings to fly.
Give me a boat that can carry two
and both shall row, my love and I...
~ "The Water is Wide," Traditional Irish Folk Song

____________________
FN1. This is partly why I thought I could handle life in Madison. The city is surrounded by water, it actually rains there, and the great lakes, while a lesser substitute (sorry, Hilary S., but it's true), were at least within a few hours driving distance.

FN2. ...which by the way was the worst, especially since this was a swimming camp, I was eleven, and the camp counselors -- all 16-18 y.o. teenage girls -- did not understand why I was terrified of the tampons they kept shoving in my general direction so I could just get back in the water...

Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn...

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 Vanille Botanique, 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. Vanille Botanique 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 Botanique is 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

______________________
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.

Take me out to the black, tell them I ain't coming back...

I recently switched cell phone providers to an Android phone, and uploaded a bunch of music to Google Music to try it out. It turns out that I forgot I had a bunch of audio clips from TV shows and movies I love on my hard drive, because I will occasionally build a mix CD off some other medium -- a piece of visual artwork, but more frequently a quote from a poem or book or film or show -- and I like to use the audio clip to open or close the mix CD. FN1. So now occasionally I get these clips mixed in with my music, which is surprisingly delightful, particularly when the following song seems to pair with the quote.

I aim to misbehave.

One of the quotes I keep running into is this from one Malcolm Reynolds, captain of the firefly-class space ship Serenity: "The darkness. Kind of darkness you can't even imagine. Blacker than the space it moves through."
So imagine that you are me, mindlessly drafting away on legal documents, listening to music, and then these words pop into your head. What perfume do you instantly think of?
For me, it's obvious: Bvlgari Black.
Created in 1998 by Annick Menardo, Bvlgari Black is described on the Bvlgari website as follows:

Black is unconventional, a fragrance conceived around the smoky, woody notes of Lapsang Souchong tea, that celebrates the pleasure and freedom of expression. A fusion of cool, stripped-down design in high-tech matte rubber with a chrome cap and transparent glass.


Notes are black tea, rosewood, bergamot, cedar, oakmoss, vanilla, amber, sandalwood, and musk.

What can I say? Black is  a multitude of wonderful smells, and yet, difficult to describe. Its immediately evocative of hard vanilla candies, incense smoke, hot rubber, the smell when you pull cold water rushing over stones into a cup in your hands and bring it to your lips, the smell of the inside of your boyfriend's leather coat when you are held with it wrapped around your whole body. 

But that's just me.  Other people get "celery salt and rubber" and "pale green;" "dark vintage cashmere allure;"  "urban cool;" and a tie for my favorites: "biker eating an ice cream cone" and "most likely work best on attractive young yuppies or hipsters of either gender." It's somehow everything, and nothing, and appears to change a lot, based on the person wearing it. Not unlike looking out into the Black, I suppose.

Do I like Black? Of course I do.  It's sweetly strange, delightfully sexy, and weirdly delicious.  I can't decide if I want to taste it on my lips when I kiss someone's neck or spray it on a riding crop or spray it on my scarf on a cold morning.  Perusing reviews, it seems the real test of Black, though, is how it holds up next to one of my all-time favorites, the equally avant-garde L'Artisan Dzing!

Ah, the infamous hockey puck!

Trying them side by side, Dzing! and Black seem like cousins. Okay, perhaps less cousins, and more like.... You know how, when you see someone from the back or the side or at a weird angle and you are110% sure that it is someone you know and it is not until you actually walk up to them and say something that you realize they are a complete stranger and you have made a complete fool of yourself? That's what mistaking Dzing! and Black is like.  You are sure they look alike, but when you really pay attention, you realize they are nothing alike. FN2.

 I never thought there'd be two of them, and there aren't really.  Black is sweeter, smoother, and less aggressive or muscular than Dzing! Dzing! is heavier on the rubber and salt on me, while Black is heavier on the amber and sandalwood end of things. I like them both, and I think my preference for one over the other would probably hinge on my mood, or the weather, or the day, or my destination, unlike the great LT, who put Black in the top 10 fragrances of all time. FN3. Me? I think I might be more of a Dzing! girl, but I'm biased. After all, I've lived with and loved Dzing! for years now.  That said, at the low price point one can acquire a bottle of Black, I say, why not have both? I found a 100ml bottle on Amazon for $35 of all places!

Black is marketed unisex, and that's a good thing, because it is a lovely scent that could work great on anyone.  And at the low, low price of practically next to nothing, I command you to get thee to a Sephora to try it, and don't be dissuaded if they happen to have stuck it on the 'men's' perfume wall. 

 Want more? Try:
~ a review from Robin at Now Smell This!
~ a review from I Smell Therefore I Am
~ a review from Muse in Wooden Shoes
~ a review from Bois de Jasmin
~ a review from + Q Perfume Blog
~ a review from ChickenFreak's Obsessions
~ a review from All I Am - A Redhead
~ a review from Pere De Pierre
~ a review from Nathan Branch
~ a review from Scent of the Day
~ a review from Scentsate
___________
FN1. Yes, I love the mix tape, for lo, I am a child of the 1980s, and I *still* have tapes x-boyfriends made me twenty years ago, even though I have nothing to play them on, because I think they are some of the most personal gifts I ever received.


FN2. Or, Oh! You know that tumblr of Lesbians Who Look Like Justin Bieber? It's like that! Like mistaking one of those lesbians from a distance for the real Bieber! (BTW, I have an IRL friend who was actually featured on the site.) (It's even Bieber approved (See video clip below.))

FN3. LT = Luca Turin, author of Perfumes: The Guide, and other fancy perfume accomplishments.  If you don't know, google it.

My derring-do allows me to dance the rigadoon around you.

Perfume Challenge Week 35: Monday, 9/12/11, to Friday, 9/16/11

This week's challenge brought
to you by Papaya Kitteh!

A strange and interesting mix of scents this week, which made for some interesting testing, some much better received by my partner and friends than others. Without further ado...

Monday: Tauer Perfumes Vetiver Dance - A twirling dance, notes revolving joyfully around vetiver. Exploring the dark, raw and almost damp earthiness of vetiver oil you may discover hidden gems; delicate lines of green leaves, clear spices and soft flower petals.Notes: Head - A crisp grapefruit, black pepper seed and clary sage set a green spicy accent. Heart - Bulgarian rose with a hint of clean lily of the valley plays with a rich vetiver. Body - Woody ambergris and cedar wood, with soft Tonka beans and a touch of cistus.

I have a love/hate relationship with vetiver. Sometimes it really lands for me (Dana English Leather) and sometimes it does not (Jo Malone Black Vetiver Café). Here, I am in cedar/vetiver looooooooove. It's so...assertive, but without being harsh. If there's one critique I have English Leather is that sometimes it is so strong an fresh it practically sears the nostrils; Vitver Dance has a softness to it that cleans up those rough edges and makes everything about the scent plush and indulgent and wow. Just completely wow. I find this scent to be a complete turn on! It's so sexy and confident, with a playful hint of sweetness that dares you to come in a little closer. 5 of 5 nods once again for the brilliant Andy Tauer.

Papaya says "The Daily Show"
is  serious business.

Tuesday: slumberhouse Rume - Pralined fur laced in dark red spice. Inspired by a room - the explorer's hideaway. A burgundry/silver cologne with animalic pulse paired alongside a warm hush of clay, cola, filbert, and hay. Rume is an idea, communicated through fragrance, of the desire to constantly seek out, experience, and explore; an idea that contentedness is a poison and regret is the aftermath. Notes: bay, myrrh, labdanum.

Chocolate and spices and rum and...fruitcake? Holy hell this is one confusing but decidedly cool weather scent. It really does smell like a fruitcake liqueur someone distilled down into a gel and then smeared it onto the chest of a chest of a person with a terrible cough trying to sleep. Does it sound disgusting? It isn't. It's awesome. It's the Christmas of vapor rubs. The fall evening aromas of humidifier mist. I am freaking in love with this weirdo scent. 5 of 5 nods.

Wednesday: I did my review of EnVoyage Perfumes L’Emblem Rouge. Don't forget to enter the drawing, which ends this 12:01AM, Friday, September 23, 2011 Pacific Standard Time.

Papaya makes love to the camera!

Thursday: Annick Goutal Encens Flamboyant - Captivated by the Orient and its mysteries, Camille Goutal and Isabelle Doyen wanted to go back to the very source of scents. At the time when incense was lit and burned to perfume clothes with its smoke. When the bark of desert trees was stripped to extract drops of resin. When scents were enigmatic, sensual and assertive. Notes: Fresh, Woody, Spicy (Essence of frankincense, pepper and roseberry - Frankincense resin, cardamom, sage and nutmeg, "Old church" frankincense, lentisque absolute and balsam fir).

Created in 2007, and part of the "Orientalists" Collection, which is tagged by Annick Goutal as a unisex collection. In so far as it is meant for anyone, I suppose it is a unisex scent. The opening is a nose full of black pepper and gunpowder. If there's incense in here, and there is a little, it isn't a church incense. It's more of a pagan ritual room kind of incense. It's....weird. I keep wanting to layer it with something, something gourmand or floral or... something. But maybe that's where I fail the scent, and not the other way around. It's muscular, assertive, and not at all me. Give it a try and see if it is you, though. It's well done for its concept; I just don't like the concept. 2 of 5 nods.

Friday: Lubin Gin Fizz - In 1955, a star captivated the crowds: appearing in films by Alfred Hitchcock and John Ford, playing alongside James Stewart and Cary Grant, Grace Kelly embodied the very elegance of America. Her mysterious charm even captured the heart of a Prince. It was in honour of her extraordinary beauty that Henri Giboulet created a perfume for Lubin which marked the decade, a very chic perfume, sparkling and fresh, evoking the cocktail in fashion that year in the ‘American bars’ of Paris, Gin Fizz. Notes: Bergamot, lemon, mandarin, juniper berry, iris, galbanum, orange blossom, rose absolute, jasmine, lily, benzoin, vetiver, oak moss and white musk

Papaya says, reviewing perfume?
Exhausting.

Well, I can't exactly say it smells like a gin fizz tastes, but it is a delightful little scent. Gin Fizz is playfully floral, with a sparkle that is reminiscent of carbonated bubbles fizzing in your nose. I get the impression from the overall sweetness they went with an olfactory cocktail that followed the traditional Old Tom Gin recipe, which is nice. I wish I'd tried this earlier, when the temperature was still in the 80s and almost uncomfortably warm. I'll make a note to retry next summer, since those hot summer nights have passed us, I'd wager. I think I can make it work with a little dress and strappy shoes to great advantage on date night with my gin-loving partner. 3.5 of 5 nods.

Winner of the Week: I'm giving it to Tauer Perfumes Vetiver Dance, though I think I'm more likely to buy slumberhouse Rume. Or both...eventually.

"Please forgive me for my distance.
The pain is the 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

People Who Don’t Know Nothin’ ‘bout Hurricanes Call Us Crazy

Short Fiction Inspired by & A Review of Demeter Fragrance Library Salt Air 

I knew I should have left. Most people left the peninsula days earlier, when the first warnings came out. The big one was coming. It was a topic often belabored during hurricane season in these parts: a hundred year storm. Over due by almost a decade, the weather men, the politicians, the local LEOs were all clear on one point: if you’d never evacuated before, now was the time to start.

A Galveston, Texas cemetery
flooded after Hurricame Ike.

The stories of the last one were famous. The dead floating up out of their deluged graves, the wooden caskets suddenly buoyed by the onslaught of water, six feet of  storm soaked earth nothing in the face of the swirling currents washing through the city. Those left on the island who survived never got over the terrifying sight of their dearly departed coming up out of the ground and parading through the streets, a sure sign that if you’d made the choice to stay, you were already dead.

Issac’s storm wiped out the island, turning a bustling gem of a city into a waterlogged ghost town that had to be rebuilt from the ground up, literally. After the storm, the city brought in tons of earth to shore up the water fronted edge of town, covered the area in six foot tall slabs of concrete to create a wall between the residents and the sea. The dead were no longer buried in wooden crates; they were stacked in mausoleums or cemented into the ground, a pledge to returning residents that such horror would never befall the city again.

Except now it was.

The new storm was set to wipe out the town again, perhaps forever if it was as bad as anticipated. The news people said anyone who hadn’t left either had a head full of delusion, a love so strong for the city they’d rather die there than contemplate living anywhere else, or was certifiably insane. There was no two ways about it, said the radio and tv folks. Staying in the city was a resignation of your life to the Fates and the Furies.

Knowing all that, I still stayed, and I wasn’t even in the city. Given how dire things were on the main island, staying on the long narrow spit of land that made up the peninsula I lived on was more than pushing your luck; it was a death wish written on paper, stuck in a bottle, and cast into the sea begging it to claim you. Some people went for death by cop; this, quite simply, was death by hurricane.

So what was I doing here? Watching the hundred year old pear tree in the yard next to the rickety house twist and sway in the increasing winds, even I couldn’t say. If I had to put my finger on it, though, I’d have said because it was the only place I’d ever known peace and happiness and love, and if it was going, then maybe I didn’t want to remain in the wake. Looking at the peeling wall paper and fading paint, I knew the little two bedroom house wasn’t anything much to look at. Built on stilts with a room downstairs that various male relatives had talked about finishing but never got around to, it was a crazy place to ride out waves estimated to top well over the second story.

The kids had said as much when they’d called, pleading with me to head to Houston. They’d begged, but I knew they were all too far away to get here fast enough to force me out and I wasn’t having any of it anyhow. First of all, I didn’t have a car to get there, because I couldn’t drive after my cataracts developed, and I wasn’t about to go begging strangers for a ride. I had more pride than that. Second, I told them what I told them every single time a storm came. I’d made it through the ones that had come before; I’d survive this one. I wasn’t about to leave my home and all my worldly possessions abandoned for looters to get at if it took me too long to get back to the peninsula.

But it was more than that. I’d buried my first dog in that yard, and squinting into the wind, I could just make out the little row of stones shaped in a cross where his bones laid. I’d had my first love in that rickety house, I’d unexpectedly given birth to my first baby in the old claw foot bathtub, and after the kids had grown up and moved away and the old neighbors had sold their houses to summer people and my husband of thirty years had up and died on me too old to remarry and too young not to be lonely, this house was all I had.

Standing on the porch, I curled my gnarled fingers around the banister that encircled the balcony, and let the wind slap me in the face as it pulled my wispy white hair out of its bun. Looking down at my hands, I could still see the ghost of younger ones in their place, and I wondered when so much of my life had passed me by, like sand washed out to sea. Everyone I loved had left or died. I was eighty-one years old. I loved my house. It was all I had left.

Inhaling deeply, I caught a whiff of the storm wind pulling the ocean closer and closer to the bay side of the peninsula, where the house sat waiting to make a last stand, and me with it. The air was so salty it stung my nose and eyes, and the brackish edge told of all the driftwood and kelp and sea creatures being dragged in along with those thousands of gallons of water, pushed harder and closer every passing minute.

Looking up at the sky, I said a prayer to God. If this is it, Lord, then you can take me. I’m ready. I just want to know that the last thing I’ll remember is this place – the way it felt, the way it looked, the way it smelled. If you gotta take me now, then I’m leaving this world knowing the last thing I’ll ever see will be my home.

Nodding as if in agreement, I wandered back inside. I couldn’t hide in the tub because I’d filled it with water in preparation for the storm, so I curled up on the floor next to it with a blanket and a book and waited for the beginning of the end.

A single surviving house in Gilchrist,
Texas after Hurricane Ike.

Three days later, the house and I were still standing. Rumor was only about ten houses in our little town had survived more or less intact. Mine was one of them. 

 When the search and rescue people brought me a little prepaid cell phone with some groceries almost a week later and I called my daughter, she burst into tears and yelled for a half hour that the next time she was coming down to drag me out if she had to, but she wouldn't let me take that kind of chance again. She’d been sure I was dead. I told her to hush, that I knew enough about living and dying to know that if it was my time, no amount of her caterwauling was gonna change things. The good Lord would take me when he was ready, I told her. And apparently he wasn’t ready yet.

He took the pear tree, though, and I was awful sorry to see it go.

Honey, you're so fine...

Challenge Week 28: Monday, 7/25/11, to Friday, 7/29/11
Scent Spotlight on DSH Perfumes Lush Honey

Life. Sometimes it gets in the way.

No, seriously. Often times I'd rather be here. I'd rather be sniffing new perfumes and talking to you about all the ways scent can pop me out of a dark day and reset my mood because it reminds me to appreciate the magic and beauty of the world I live in.

I was supposed to do a week of reviews, but instead I'm just going to review one scent I have worn in excess of five days easily since I got it.

But before I do, let me give you a little unsolicited, friendly advice. I rarely ever talk about my job, because honestly? I love this. I love writing. In my head, I’m not a lawyer. I’m a writer. Even at work, I write, all day long. Because writing is what I love and do best and feel proud of. Being a lawyer? Not high on that list.

That said, let’s just say that I work in law and in the insurance industry. Being in insurance, I am always thinking about the worst possible scenario. In my world, one of the things that means is the idea of something happening to my home, like an earthquake or a fire. I worry about how I would evacuate my cats, should I keep a go bag with copies of critical records and cherished items, do I have enough renter insurance.

It’s this last one that bothers me most. I have ordered a copy of my renter’s policy, but I feel pretty sure it won’t cover perishables like my perfume collection. I did a little loose math last week. If I had to replace my collection, without any consideration for time and effort, it would take a lot. It wasn’t until I was moving it all for the second time this summer, carefully wrapping it and boxing it and unwrapping it, devising new storage, etc. that it dawned on me. In four years, I’ve amassed a large collection that is monetarily worth as much or more than my car. I don’t even know how or when it happened, but my perfume collection has taken on a large place in my life, larger than I had realized. How the hell can I protect it?

I’ve reached out to some specialty collectors and insurers, companies and individuals who are collectors or ensure collections of things like antique dolls and stamps. I’m looking to find out if my perishable but beloved collection is insurable, if an appraising methodology exists and what it might be, and how much it might cost. If I find out, I’ll let you know. But I thought I’d tell you about my dilemma and my progress, because some of you are just as protective of your collections as I am.

And speaking of perfume…

On to DSH Perfumes Lush Honey. I have been wearing Lush Honey at least part of a day a couple of times a week since I bought it back in April. Sometimes I put it on in the morning when I’m having a bad day. Sometimes I dab some on just before bed and drift off to sleep with it scenting my sweetest dreams. It’s been like a secret love affair, Lush Honey and I. I have no idea why I didn’t write this review earlier except to say that I can’t remember I was so crazy for a particular scent. Usually when I like something I wear it for a few months maybe twice a month. By comparison, this has been hot, heavy, passionate, obsessive. So let’s talk about my amor secreto.

Lush Honey is described as follows:

Luscious and seductive honey with a light, sweet, floral top note and a super sexy, musky-gourmand dry down. Va Va Voom! Notes: Bitter Almond, Muguet (Lily of the Valley), Violet, Hazelnut, Honey, Honey Beeswax, Ambergris, French Vanilla, Heliotrope, Musk, Tonka Bean.

This scent is by far the sweetest thing I own. Sweeter than Il Profumo Vanille Bourbon, sweeter than Guerlain Shalimar or Guerlain Spirituese Double Vanille, sweeter even than By Kilian Love. In other words, so sticky-heavy-sweet it could choke you if you wore enough, and since it is a perfume oil it packs quite a wallop.

Giant cinnamon roll!

I’d tell you it smelled, you know, like honey, but that seems completely inadequate. FN1. It is edibly sweet and spicy. Name every sweet bakery scent you can – maple syrup, cinnamon, honey, frosting, brown sugar, hazelnut coffee syrup, baking vanilla. You’re likely to use any of these to describe the scent if you try it yourself. Personally, I think it smells like the famous dinner plate-sized cinnamon rolls they serve out at Camp 18 on Highway 26 between here and the Oregon coast if they covered it in honey.

 It would be overwhelming if it weren’t so snuggly, cozy, fantastic. I mean, I want to lick my own arm; I assume in a close moment it couldn’t hurt the mood. Take note though: this is not a scent for the edible faint of heart. If you don’t like smelling like a bakery, run, don’t walk, in the other direction. For me? It’s heavenly.

Sadly, Lush Honey is discontinued. In fact, that's why I bought it in the first place. It was a unsniffed purchase, bought in a mad rush of DSH rollers I grabbed at the beginning of the spring and summer during her sale. I loved almost everything I bought, but this? A-mazing. It's a shame it is discontinued because it is the ultimate tribute to over-the-top gourmand decadence. I loved it so much I actually bought a second 10ml roller almost immediately. I hope it comes back. Everyone who loves sweet and gourmand scents should have the chance to try it.

"I wanna be with you all of the time.
I couldn't tell you just how much I loved you,
but now that you're mine I'll tell you all the time.
Honey, you're so sweet.
I wanna be with you every week..."
~ "Honey," Best Coast

_______________________________
FN1. Anyone who knows anything about honey knows the taste is significantly impacted by the kind of flowers the bees who make the honey are feeding from. Clover honey is the most common in the U.S. Alfalfa honey is also very popular. If you’re into gourmet foods like flavored salts and varies of flavored oils, though, you know honey comes in all kinds of varieties and blends. Personally I’m a big fan of sag honey and fireweed honey.

A Midsummer Night's Dream - JoAnne Bassett Perfumes Night Queen

JoAnne Bassett Perfumes Night Queen (Reine de Nuit EdP)

"Like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays.
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely.
Hey, that's me and I want you only."

Stop number three on our Shakespearean adventures is brought to you courtesy of JoAnne Bassett Perfumes. This is also a meditation on the Queen of Fae, Titania. Given the broad themes of the play, the interesting and various characters, even the play within the play, I have to say I’m surprised how many of the perfumers were drawn to a scented meditation of Titania. I think it speaks to how large she looms in the imagination of those who encounter the work.

The notes for Night Queen are “rhododendron, night queen, peru balsam, rosewood, damask rose oil, neroli, tuberose, vintage jasmine sambac, frankincense, yuzu, clove bud, tulsi, frankinsense noir, champa, vetiver, violet leaf and ylang ylang.”

Image by
Howard David Johnson

The initial impression is mossy but not minty, of pines but not firs, which have a strong presence in the woods here. This feels more like the pines of the Blue Ridge, the Appalachians. The open wears close to the skin, and it isn’t what I’d call aggressively green or earthy. There’s a little bit of a briny quality to it, as well, like a warm, wet ocean lies just beyond the edge of the trees and hangs heavy in the moist air.

About forty-five minutes in, the mossy greens and briny blues fall away and the scent becomes a sweet floral scent. I do get the clove, frankincense, and ylang-ylang strongly, but the interesting center of this seems to be the night queen. I love the idea of the scent for this play being centered on a night blooming flower, something that comes out to bring a sense of romance as day turns to darkness, much like the fae in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The loveliness is even more wonderful because it is so unexpected; I can hardly detect the scent that it will become at the beginning of Night Queen. Having never encountered the flower before, I'd describe it here as a sweet gently edible floral, and reminds me of a rich tea blend with a chamomile center. There’s more sillage here, which is great! I really liked this one came in strong, because it is so, so pretty. The only other scent can think of that this drydown reminds me of even a little bit is INeKE Evening Edged in Gold, but when I put them next to each other, I have to think the resemblance is mostly in my mental landscape.

When one holds the scent under the nose, it smells like one thing, the application is a second, but the majority of the wearable scent comes in as a completely surprising third act. The overall scent reminds me of the bloom of love. It grows from an earthy attraction to the polite engagement of first dates and early courtship until it becomes love affirmed and deeply requited, a lush and sensual emotional experience.

“Show a little faith.
There's magic in the night
You ain't a beauty, but, hey, you're alright,
Oh and that's alright with me…”

I don’t know that I’d identify this with scent with the Queen of Fae as I envision her. (Incidentally, I don’t know what I’m looking for in a scent for Titania; I can't think of any scent I know of that would fit, but my nose is loving all of these scents made in her image as different potential ways she could be played.) To me, Night Queen instead reminds me of the young, fresh faced lovers who play out their lost, confused love quadrangle throughout the majority of Shakespeare's comedy.

As for Midsummer, if this scent were made into a production of the play, I’d expect it to be set in the 1950s in the Appalachians and focus on the interplay of the teen love and angst the play could contain. Hermia, a pretty young blonde, refuses to have a romance arranged by her parents with Demetrius, who in my version is a star high school athlete and a bit of a player. Demetrius has won approval to date Hermia by working part-time in Hermia's father's garage after school and charming Hermia's mother with his nice family and nice manners.

Hermia, a straight-A student and very popular and pretty girl, prefers instead the love of Lysander, who is a hardworking student bound to inherit his dad's hardware store one day. Lysander has won Hermia's heart over the course of many months of Sundays spent helping out Hermia with the Sunday school class she teaches, where they spent time together in light of Hermia's father's strict rules that did not allow Hermia to date.

Hermia's preference for Lysander is also important to Helena, a pretty but slightly dingy cheerleader. Helena was hot and heavy with Demetrius before he decided Hermia made for a prettier picture come prom time. Helena still pines for Demetrius, and laments her lost love to Hermia over their brown paper lunch bags regularly. As Hermia and Lysander plan to make their escape to Lysander's aunt on the eve of Hermia's eighteenth birthday so they can get married before Hermia's parents can stop them, Helena hopes that by telling Demetrius of their plans, she can finally convince him to give up on his pursuit of Hermia and choose her instead.

Then they all head into the wooded mountains in classic American cars along dark old highways, getting lost and eventually finding themselves bewitched by the fae and the old magicks that have always lived among country folk in the American south, and still do even today.

While Hollywood is all obsessed with remaking everything old new again, someone should get on this. And the screenplay writers should be required to wear "Night Queen" and listen to Bruce Springsteen's "Thunder Road" while they create the retelling. Because when I close my eyes and inhale this rich and wonderful perfume, I hear big engines and poodle skirt swishes and Bruce Springsteen playing as the scent glides through the open windows, playing at the hair of our young lovers, as they roar off into the night.

Well, now, I'm no hero, that's understood.
All the redemption I can offer, girl, is beneath this dirty hood.
With a chance to make it good somehow,
Hey what else can we do now?
Except roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair.
Well the night's bustin' open, these two lanes will take us anywhere.
We got one last chance to make it real
to trade in these wings on some wheels
Climb in back.
Heaven's waiting down on the tracks…”

To see more visit A Midsummer Night's Dream: A Perfume Event, running June 14-24, 2011.