She thinks I'm psycho 'cause I like to rhyme her name with things.

Monday, 2/14/11, through Friday, 2/18/11

Texas milkweed

Monday: puredistance Antonia - The initial impression I had was of a milky soapy substance with a hint of bitterness around the edges, like the sap from the Texas milkweed I remember growing up. You'd crush the flowers between your fingers and the scent would rise up at you. FN1.  It also has a powdery aspect that is nice and unique. Carol talks about this one being rendered strongly enough to taste it, and I get that sensation as well. It's green, but not in a sharp way. It's more powdery and supple and slightly floral than sharp, like the tender stems of  a weaved wildflower crown. I think it would be a great scent for Spring, though sadly not for me. I don't know what it is. It's unique and pretty and lush, but I've tried it three times and I still can't see myself wearing it. I recommend giving it a whirl, though. Everyone else seems to love it. 3 of 5 nods. FN2.

Tuesday: Bond No. 9 Andy Warhol Union Station - Truthfully? The opening smells exactly like a high quality version of Gap So Pink! I know because I wore it for a couple of years in high school and still keep a little bottle for nostalgia.

Two hours later: Still very Gap So Pink!. I'm gonna go home and try a side-by-side comparison and get back to you.

Later that night: Okay, so on my left arm I have Union Station, and on my right arm, So Pink! Putting them right next to each other, I can see the obvious differences but there is absolutely no denying the similarities, especially after a couple of hours. On application, So Pink is more citrusy, but in a fake cleanser smell kind of way. Union Station, on the other hands, smells like a basket of pale pink flower petals, like roses and tulips. The scents are like half-siblings. In fact, let's imagine it together, shall we?

Imagine two girls. 

Union grows up in an upper middle class ranch-style house on a block in a suberb full of the same micro-McMansions. She's an A/B student on the JV cheerleading squad and always has a date to Homecoming. She will probably make the Royal Court for Winter Formal this year. She drives a light blue Cabriolet convertible her parents bought her for her sweet sixteen. She got a good score on her PSATs and already has contacts in the admissions office of the big state school of her dreams, where she never pauses to doubt she will be accepted.

Then you've got Suz. She lives in a cramped two bedroom aparment in a rundown complex with her mom and her mom's boyfriend, Bob (rhymes with "knob"). She doesn't know anything about her dad, except that her mom dated him for a while, but he broke it off when she got preggo, which gives Suz some pretty dim views of dating. Suz makes okay grades, with the occasional A, not because she isn't capable of more, but because she hates going to that damned school full of the bubbleheaded rah-rahs and their beefy boyfriends makes her teeth ache from the fake sweetness of their hallway gropings. Suz rides the bus or bums rides off her friends, and avoids dances like she getting ready for for the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott.

The girls have a few run-ins during high school -- invites to the same parties, interests in the same guy -- that are just enough to allow them to torment one another with their mere respective existence.  As they grow older, look so much alike they could even be twins if you look past Union's dyed hair and nose job (broke it on a seesaw as a kid, had to have *that* fixed) and Suz's colored contacts. 

Years later, purely by chance, they end up working at the same large company. Union is a corporate account exec and Suz one of the top HR people, completely unaware of one another until they run into each other in the elevator one afternoon. There they realize they not only know each other, but may have more in common than they ever realized when they were sixteen and sitting on the opposite sides of bitter enemy lines, the kind that can only exist in high school.

That's what wearing Union Station is like compared to So Pink!. Like the stylish, better heeled half-sibling of my beloved high school scent in a plastic bottle. So if you like So Pink! this is a nicer version of a scent so similar after about two hours I could barely discern a difference. If you like Union Station okay but think it's a little on the pricey side, give So Pink! a try.

Just remember -- the money you spend going to make a huge difference in the quality of the opening salvo. Later...well, not quite so much. 3.5 of 5 nods.

Wednesday: Andrea Maack Sharp - Notes: orange blossom, angel skin, sweet vanilla, white musk and soothing softness. The opening is all black pepper and bitterness, probably from the orange blossom, but I'd expect to see white pepper among the notes, and I don't. In other words -- sharp! This part lasts about half an hour as it blends into the middle, which is anything but.

The middle is sweet, but not in a floral or foodie way. It is very ambery without, apparently, any amber. The sweet is a little on the dry side, as if you could make dried herbs of sugar cane. The overall experience reminds me of the way it would taste if you ate the coating off roasted spcied nuts, but without the nut part.

Except....except it has this little medicinal edge to it that keeps tugging at the edge of my brain, refusing to be ignored. It's interesting, as sweet as it is, you'd think I'd say it was floral or gourmand, but truthfully, it is sweet in the way that makes me want to meet the man who would wear it because I think, at least in a small dosage, it might be sexy as hell on a man with the confidence to wear it. FN3. Of course, this is the same phantom dude comfortable with wearing Theirry Mugler Angel, who I still have yet to encounter. FN4.

Now the big question: Do I like it? I think...yeah, I think I do. I can't quite call it an oriental, though it is definitely in that direction, because it lacks the complexity and incense-y edges I normally associate with orientals. I don't think it's overly aggressive (though, woah baby, it's got some sillage) as far as orientals go, so if you don't normally like things of that nature you might really like this. For me, it was like wearing the smell of Katy Perry's new album, Teenage Dream. Seriously. That album cover? That addictive poppy bounce? This scent has it. So look at the visual aid to the right, and you essentially have this scent. A lot of nice, but more than a smidgen of naughty, too. And you know what? I think I'm developing a crush on Katy Perry...and on Sharp. FN5. 3.5 of 5 nods.

Thursday: Keiko Mecheri Cuir Cordoba - Notes: black violet, bergamot, elemi, suede accord, patchouli, sandalwood, benzoin. Immediate impression: "Medicinal at first, but the sweetness underneath makes sniffing this feel the same as the feeling of velvet rudding against skin. I feel like a cat; I want to pur and rub myself against this one."

Okay, I wrote that before I read the Luckyscent description which says "Cuir Cordoba is like the softest, most supple suede." *AND* "Luxuriously tactile and equally gorgeous on a man or woman: Cuir Cordoba purrs utter sophistication." Seriously, how crazy is that? Soft fabric and purring? But I mean to tell you, those are the two things that come immediately with Cuir Cordoba. In fact I don't really know what else I can say: it's sweet and soft, the patchouli is very light, providing a kind of shading on a mix that smells 70% sandalwood and violet/10% benzoin/10% whatever the hell "suede accord" is. The only thing I didn't really get a lot of was the bergamot. And it doesn't smell like velvet or suede. It smells like the feel of velvet or, yes, I can see suede, against your skin. Definitely sexy, and could be worn by a man or a woman.

1 hour, 31 minutes later: Why is my lovely fabric scent turning into a copper penny dipped in blood? WHY!?! I loved it! It was one of the best scents I'd tried this year. I could have gone along rubbing my hand on my face for hours. But now? Smells like someone bleed all over my velvet gloved hand.

~ 3 hours in: The coppery blood smell has faded somewhat, but still there. It's better, but I don't so much want to spend hours with my hand glued to my face anymore. The coppery notes are less obvious from a distance of say, a foot away, but if you sprayed it on and someone went to kiss your neck or wrist, they might get an unpleasant undernote surprise. This makes me really sad to say, but I think I have to downgrade my initial impression, which was in the 4.5 to 5 range, to only a solid 3.5 to 4 nods.

Friday: Atelier Cologne Orange Sanguine - Notes: blood orange, bitter orange; heart notes: jasmine, geranium; base notes: amber woods, tonka beans, sandalwood. It is hard to do a good orange scent. I don't know what it is about orange scents, but so many of them smell a little like cleaner to me. I don't think it is the perfumers' faults, it is just that citrus smells get used in cleansers a lot, so that's the first thing that spring to mind.

 With that disclaimer, this is one scent that does not smell like cleaner! It is a very good orange scent. Right out of the gate, it is like a blast of realism, sweet orange fruit flesh all over you. It fades down quickly into a quieter scent, which allows a slightly sweet floral aspect come to play underneath. I think it screams summer scent, as you can practically feel the warmth coming off it in waves. It also works as a unisex scent, I think because citrus notes are found so often in genderless air fresheners and cleansers.  My only complaint is how light  and fleeting it is, though that makes it pretty safe for those of you in work aren't scent friendly. 3.5 of 5 nods.

Winner of the week: Andrea Maack Sharp edges out both Atelier Cologne Orange Sanguine (for being too light) and Keiko Mecheri Cuir Cordoba (because of the weird coppery part I can't get over). That said, would love to any of them. Great scents all. In fact, this whole week was consistently pretty good to great, which says nice things for all these perfumers.

This week's song dedicated to the Tuesday's scent and the warring fictional perfumey teens in my head.

"She lives her life like it's a party and she's on the list.
She looks at me like I'm a trend and she's so over it.
I think her ever present frown is a little troubling.
she thinks I'm psycho 'cause I like to rhyme her name with things.
But sophistication isn't what you wear or who you know
or pushing people down to get you where you wanna go.
They didn't teach you that in prep school,
so it's up to me: no amount of vintage dresses gives you dignity..."
"Better than Revenge," Taylor Swift (You can hear a clip of the song here.) FN6.
____________________________

FN1. Why was I crushing flowers between my fingers and sniffing at them? I dunno. What can I say? I was a weird kid. I also ate mint picked wild from my backyard even though my mom told me not to.
FN2. My sample was generously provided by Perfume-Smellin' Things and Luckyscent
FN3. Like Ted from How I Met Your Mother and his red boots. "Pulling them off."
FN4. I suspect this is a mostly American problem.
FN5. Seriously, did you see her on HIMYM? So cute! See the video below...



FN6. I love Taylor Swift. I love her new album, Speak Now. If you want to debate her as an artist or a positive icon for girls/women, we can do that, but I can tell you that if I had a guitar and her talent at twenty-one, I'd be writing songs just like hers. And I love her for that.  I love that her music feels like a window back to young love and loss, because it feels real, even if it isn't perfect in its maturity or awareness. After all, who's perspective is especially at twenty-one?

It could be witches! Some evil witches!

Keiko Mecheri Datura Blanche

I mentioned yesterday that I love mysteries. I tend toward the supernatural variety, and I love noir, but really any type of mystery will do. I owned all fifty-two of the original Nancy Drew novels in hardback. FN1 I watched Murder, She Wrote religiously each week with my grandmother. (I always felt that Angela Lansbury's character had the world's greatest job -- wealthy successful novelist/murder mystery bellweather/semi-professional sleuth.) One Halloween I actually went as Miss Marple from the Agatha Christie novels. (Yet another year of me explaining my costume door-to-door.) I sometimes think my love of the law, particularly criminal law, is less about the law itself and more about the mystery solving and the meting out of righteous justice. I never really wanted to be a lawyer (my love for old Perry Mason episodes notwithstanding). I just wanted to be a little old writer lady living in New England, bringing mysterious death and intrigue along every time I went on vacation.

Today's scent is pretty interesting in that respect. It's name derives from a plant often used as a poison. Datura belongs is a classic "witch weed," like deadly nightshade, henbane, and mandrake. Also, like the other witch weeds, it's known to possess hallucinogenic properties. While it might be more appropriate to be thinking witches in the fall, this is definitely more of a summer scent for me.

Keiko Mecheri's line is intend as "an inspired pallet of olfactory poems." Datura blanche is described by Keiko Mecheri as follows:

An unknown town, a tranquil closed garden of a riadh glowing under the moonlight. The perfect alchemy of a dream. A sumptuous composition almost narcotic gives Datura blanche its empowering presence.

Notes: White Datura, Indian Tuberrose, Heliotrope, Bitter Almond, Myrrh, Tonka Bean, Vanilla Madagascar

On application, I get a lot of coconut oil (apparently the Datura there)  and vanilla candy coating, but the sugar candiness melts quickly into a dry, warm scent that reminds me of skin and hot rubber on the road, only to pop back up later in the lingering end notes. The dryness reminds of of the scent of linen sheets freshly washed and dried on the line in the warm sun. To me, this screams total beach scent -- tanning oil, warm skin, car wheels baking on searing hot sand. There are other scents that scream summer beach trips to me: CB I Hate Perfume At the Beach 1966, L'Artisan La Haie Fleurie du Hameau, and Annick Goutal Songes all immediately spring to mind. And you know what they have in common? Jasmine. FN2 So it's interesting to me that I think of this one as equally sun, sand, and surf-inspired when I would never have guessed I'd find a tuberrose/heliotrope scent that didn't make me think of say, cherry pie filling and baking almond cookies. One of the best things about how well this is balanced, in fact, is that it doesn't smell at all baby-powdery or provoke visions of play-doh, like so many heliotropes do. It's just sweet and warm and lovely. A great beach evening alternative for those who hate the soapy jasmines, if this is a poem, then for me, that poem is a warm and reflective experience that would be happily appropriate for the wearer of any age.

You can buy Datura blanche in a 75ml spray for $110 direct from the perfumer, LuckyScent, or First-in-Fragrance. Luckyscent also has samples.

"Which is ridiculous,
'cause witches they were persecuted,
Wicca, Good! And love the Earth!
And woman power!
And I'll be over here."
- "I've Got a Theory," from BtVS: Once More, With Feeling
(You can listen to video featuring the song here)

Want more reviews? Try...
~ a review from I Smell Therefore I Am
~ a review from One Thousand Scents
~ a review from The Fragrant Foodie
~ a review from Fashion Tribes

______________________________________
FN1 I haven't read them in years, but my recollection of the Nancy Drew books (the original 52, anyway) is of a pretty self-possessed, independent and brave young woman. I think they make a wonderful gift for any young girl.
FN2 Okay, with At the Beach 1966, I'm guessing, but since Brosius never gives us a notes list anyway, I get to make one up as a non-professional, and my 1966 has, I think, some jasmine in it. Or I'm crack-addled. You decide.

I want to, I need to be under your skin...

Keiko Mecheri Iris d’Argent

About a week ago Angela at Now Smell This! wrote a piece about finding scents that mingle with your scent and compliment the way you smell naturally. Scents that you wear, rather than having the scents wear you, as it were. These scents vary greatly from wearer to wearer since perfumes smell so differently from person to person as they mingle with one's own body chemistry and personal scent. I've only found a couple of scents that work like this for me, but luckily Keiko Mecheri Iris d’Argent is another.

According to Luckyscent,

Keiko Mecheri’s masculine floral scent is centered in silver: the ice cold glint of steel or the glistening filaments of a spider‘s web stretched taut between branches. Iris d’Argent masterfully combines delicacy and strength. A sparkling blast of citrusy-floral notes introduces the fragrance, conjuring the cool heart of a bearded iris. Be careful to not label Iris d’Argent as a polite, scrubbed up scent for polite, scrubbed up men, however... when the fresh, clean introduction subsides, the powdery, earthiness of a finely plumed creature begins to open its wings, transforming the fragrance into a multilayered, nuanced composition. A subtle note of cedar wood enhances the balsam character and strikes a classic chypre chord, which quietly provides the backbone to the scent. Brighter than a dime and drier than gin, Iris d’Argent is a thoughtful and complex masculine fragrance that is only strengthened by its inherent fineness.

The notes for Iris d’Argent are listed as “Iris, white iris, heperides, chypré chord, cedar wood, amber.”

On me, Iris d’Argent is strange iris, indeed. It’s light and floral, at first, in a creamy and faintly lemony way. The Lemony is like a sugared lemon peel or curd, though, not acidic like juice. Then the lemony edge backs off and I smell a scent that reminds me of the taste of a barely ripe, almost green banana. If you could take that light green taste and cook it into a creamy pudding, with sweet, heavy cream and scrapped vanilla beans, then serve it over tender steamed greens, then you’ve got this scent.

This is the closest thing I’ve ever smelled to L’Artisan Vanilia, but it isn’t Vanilia; it’s entirely its own. This is smoother, gentler, than Vanilia. It’s an entirely original scent, and if this is an iris, then it is the scent that would come from taking iris blooms and stems and crushing them to take the milk from the pulp for wearing. Among the irises I’ve loved before, this one of the top. It’s wonderful because it’s so gentle and still strong and beautiful, not gentle simply for lack of substance or stamina. Definitely now added on the “to purchase” list for 2010. In this humble sniffa's opinion, where Keiko Mecheri Iris Pourpre is nice, but not outstanding, Iris d’Argent is a true winner.

You can purchase 75ml of Iris d’Argent for $115 from Luckyscent. Samples are also available from Luckyscent, and you can get samples or decants from The Perfumed Court.

"Our love is quicksand -- so easy to drown.
They steal the gravity from moving ground.
Remember? You promised me.
I'm dying, I'm dying, please.
I want to, I need to be
under your skin."
- "Dying," Hole

Reviews? I can’t find any other reviews of this one.

So good on paper, so romantic but so bewildering.

This has been a strange couple of months for me, being jobless. It’s weird not going out regularly to interact with the world. I am what you could call a “true extravert”, someone who deeply enjoys and feels renewed by interaction with the world. I need the stimuli, the unpredictability, the newness. Without there being a specific need for day to day outings, I just never seem to get it together. This creates a weird isolation, and at the end of the day, dear reader, I feel as though I have nothing to tell you. What did I do today? I don’t know. Nothing. Everything. I made dinner for my husband, who is really sick. I managed three entrees to cover varying needs, and I made them all without a recipe, which means I’m finally becoming something of a cook. I played a video game for a couple of hours that means nothing to me with people who are everything to me – close friends all across the country, which allows us to talk to each other for free. I spent quality time with my cats, who are probably as close to kids as David and I will ever get, and who love me unconditionally (as long as the food bowl get filled at the end of the night). I took all the ornaments off our Christmas tree, dug out some paperwork I need to send the Bar, and had a minor breakdown about my isolation.

It reminded me of, in short, of that song Carly Simon sang, “Coming Around Again.” “So don’t mind if I fall apart. There’s more room in a broken heart.” It’s strange not knowing what I want to do next with my life. I’ve been moving from goal to goal, year after year, for a decade. My future, for the first time, is a lot hazier. It’s a strange feeling.

With that in mind, I hope you’ll be patient with me if I’m less routine with my posting than I should be. I don’t have a real routine yet – I’m starting one Monday to help structure my studying – but I’m still here. Still smelling lovely, new things. Still trying to find a way to share them with you.

After rummaging around in my sample box, here are the random things I’ve got for you today.

Keiko Mecheri Iris Pourpre

I generally really enjoy irises. They can be refined and elegant, like Iris Pallida, simultaneously natural and ethereal, like Serge Lutens Iris Silver Mist, or youthful and accessible, like Prada Infusion d’Iris. It’s amazing to me that one flower can be so magical, so flexible, so many things in the hands of different artists. Keiko Mecheri describes Iris Pourpre as follows:

When creating Iris Poupre, Keiko Mecheri drew inspiration from a precious lacquered panel from the Edo period. The sparkle of the embedded gold-leaf inlay is delicately captured in the perfect black stillness of the panel’s glossy coat. The art work depicts the nobles of Kyoto contemplating from the height of a wooden passerelle over a field of gracious wild indigo and golden iris. You would be right to expect a corresponding fragrance to be characterized by a classical elegance. From the subtle sweetness of the white bloom to the rhizomatous powder of the orris root, the iris in its entirety resounds. A trace of ylang ylang lends a full richness to the sheer iris blend. Iris Poupre’s chypre chord echoes the tree-sap-derived raw materials of the lacquer painstakingly applied to the Edo panel with control and finesse. This perfume defies the expectation of a floral fragrance dripping with an instantly recognizable honeyed nectar. Iris Poupre recalls the elegant refinement of an antique jewelry box. A scent that is breathtaking in its masterful restraint, naturalistic charm and undeniable mystery.

Iris Pourpre a strange combination of a lot of different aspects, and thus ends up kind of muddled. It’s got a dryness to it, which is nice, but also seems accessible in the same way that Infusion d’Iris is. When I say accessible here, I mean in the way that some music is less about being artful and more about being appealing. Or the way some television or movies are meant to entertain, not to produce an act of art. This isn’t a knock on Iris Pourpre; it seems like a nice iris for people who don’t think they like perfume (though I’d still give them Infusion d’Iris to start with). I’ve seen some reviews that describe the scent as “purplish”, and I’d second that, which is fitting given the purple flower. But there is perfume crème brulee, and there is perfume popcorn, and this feels like it tends toward the popcorn end of the spectrum. Even as popcorn goes, it’s pretty excellent – just the right amount of butter and maybe one of those fancy shaker salts. Give it a whirl if you like irises, particularly if you’re looking for a masculine iris because of the chypre undertones. You can get samples from Luckyscent as well as a full 75ml for $115.

More reviews can be found here: Fragrant Foodie

Stacked Style Baroque Bleu

Stacked Style described Baroque Bleu as

an intoxicating scent that lingers long after you’ve left the room. While the heart of the fragrance is gardenia and tuberose, added notes of sweet coconut and rhubarb lend an unexpected twist to this sexy, white flower. Inspired by the romantic, bygone Baroque era, Baroque Bleu is a modern floral with a classic sense that’s perfect for any occasion.

Onward marches the review of florals. I’ve sampled this one several times now, but haven’t gotten around to reviewing it. That’s not for lack of affection. Baroque Bleu has been in my little tin of perfumes to remind me to review it for quite a while. I really like Baroque Bleu in part because it is exactly what it says it will be. It’s a very nice gardenia and tuberose, and the coconut is present, too. About half an hour in I get a rubbery, musky thing underneath that makes me love it all the more. It feels less like a fake flower and more like a real, living beautiful thing you could experience…or be. And it does remind me of a simpler time, but I think more of the 1920s. I sniff at Baroque Bleu and I think of a young Daisy Buchanan, twirling in circles in the arms of charming men at parties held on beautifully manicured lawns under twinkling lights, reflecting in repetition in the gently breaking waves.

I think it’s possible to idealize any era, any moment, and if there’s a way to bottle that sentimentality, that idealism, then perhaps Baroque Bleu is that idealized 20s glamour for me. It’s not rouged knees and flapper dresses and partying away the pain of the Great War, it’s more white woven cloche hats and white lace drop waisted dresses. It’s about feeling innocent and free and full of hope in a moment between two terrible wars and a horrible economic depression, without even realizing it while it’s happening…and yet knowing just enough about the world to know that even if war is temporary, well, so is peace. So you better enjoy it. Baroque Bleu samples are available through The Perfumed Court has a partial bottle for less than $40, and I saw some new bottles similarly priced through other online outlets. Baroque Bleu is also part of the Perfumed Court Gardenia Sample Pack, which I dropped my $20 to explore. At such affordable prices, this is a great scent to own, and I highly recommend it.

That’s all for tonight folks. Tomorrow I’ll finally get a bunch of packages to the post office. (Draw winners, I apologize for the delay.) I’ll finish up some laundry. Get the lights off the tree and get the tree put away. David said we might go to the bookstore, get some coffee, take a little walk around the outdoor mall if the weather is better. We do that sometimes. While I’m out, I’ll see if I can find a story to tell you, or a scent to share. Thanks in advance for reading. It’s nice, sometimes, just knowing you’re out there and still listening.

“And I believe in love.
But what else can I do?
I’m so in love with you.”
- “Coming Around Again,” Carly Simon