Food for Thought: Flowers, Chocolates, and Super Sweet Scents for Valentine's Day

Dear reader:

I should be in bed right now. I am so tired. My new job is good, but kind of exhausting. So why am I writing you? A lot of reasons I guess. Despite being bone tired, I'm feeling restless. I don't know what it is, exactly. Something under my skin. A weird kind of itching.

So while the wickedness within refuses to give me peace, let's talk about that cheesy commercial holiday bearing down on us. The men I work with are surprisingly on top of their game, Valentine's Day speaking. They have reservations. They have gifts. These guys got game.

It's probably why they're all happily married.

I'm surprised by how happy they are about participating in V-day. I never dated anyone who embraced Valentine's Day. I was sort of under the impression most people tolerated Valentine's Day. I'm not used to it being whole-heartedly embraced.

So you know what, reader? Let us try to get a little into the hearts and sparkles spirit, shall we? After all, Beautiful Creatures comes out next week, and we all know that I have fangirlish feelings for Ethan and Lena and their trials and tribulations. Plus, I do get go see two of my closest friends next weekend. So let's embrace the love a little, shall we? After all, the Greeks had as many words for loves as there are kinds of love to be had. So let's talk love, romance, music, and—of course—perfume.

First up on my list of V-Day scent selections for 2013? By Kilian Good Girl Gone Bad. Released as part of the In the Garden of Good and Evil collection, Good Girl Gone Bad is described as follows on Luckyscent:

GOOD GIRL GONE BAD typifies a special sort of woman. A perfume that represents a kind of voluptuousness beloved by Kilian : sensual and unrestrained. A woman who is game for anything in the world of love, of desire, of naughtiness.

GOOD GIRL GONE BAD is a composition of fruits and flowers, a perfume as bewitching as bursts of laughter, a barrier moved beyond, a forgotten prohibition.

The perfume opens on the fresh innocence of the petals of Jasmin Sambac and the apricot sweetness of Chinese Osmanthus. But that feminine ideal does not continue to fool anyone for long. Letting go of their demure appearances, the flowers toss off their inhibitions and reveal the other, decadent side of themselves. The Rose of May gives off its honeyed heat. The Indian Tuberose nakedly exhibits its milky roundness, while the narcotic sensuality of Egyptian Narcissus surges forth, uncontrollable and deliciously haunting. Notes of Virginia Cedar and Amber open up and try to assert their dominant character In order to contain that outpouring of opulence, but they never succeed in taming it completely. The tension is palpable; the addiction exacerbated; the pleasure consummated.

GOOD GIRL GONE BAD, when the woman become a temptress, a sinner - when she dares and when she proves her audacity.

Notes: Jasmin Sambac, osmanthus, rose, tuberose, narcissus, violet accord, plum accord, cedar wood, amber, patchouli, vetiver, musk.

Okay -- overbearing ad copy aside, this is a pretty, well-made scent that would make a nice Valentine's Day choice.

Good Girl Gone Bad is feminine but with an edge. This scent starts out floral but quickly becomes a little dirtier thanks to the base notes.  For me, though, Good Girl Gone Bad is less about dirty florals than it is about the sticky sweet floral. I don't get nearly as much patchouli as I get hefty sweetness.  Good Girl Gone Bad is heavy on the amber note for me, as well as the sugar heavy edge of the florals ( the sweetest part of rose, narcissus, violet) mixed with the jammyest of plums.  On the whole, I like it.  It make my sweet tooth ache in the best way.

Any list of sweet scents that could be romantical would also have to include A Lab on Fire What We Do In Paris is Secret, particularly for the perfume lover with a wicked sweet tooth. Another super sweet favorite? By Kilian Love.

Not into super sweet? How about chocolate! First of all, Aftelier Perfumes Chocolate and Saffron Body Oil & Hair Elixir is described thusly:

This romantic and sensual body oil leaves your skin of smelling of chocolate and flowers. Featured on the blog, Brainy Beauty for Product Junkies: "I put this on my arm & now I want to eat my arm... it is such a delicious smell."

Chocolate and Saffron is sweet without being aggressively so. It leans toward the foodie side of chocolate, but the saffron balances it nicely so it isn't overly edible. Instead the chocolate is counterbalanced against the slightly floral spice of saffron so it just feels simultaneously fresh and light. Pretty, polite, and subtle, Chocolate and Saffron is sexy without being provocative, and at 105 ml for $50, the price point is perfect for a lovely holiday gift that will last a long time.

Other chocolaty scents I recommend? Try the spicy chocolate of Il Profumo Chocolat EDP or one of my absolutely favorites, the light and airy chocolate rose of S-Perfumes 100% Love.

You know who else makes a great chocolate and rose scent? Ayala Moriel Natural Perfumes! Roses et Chocolat, originally created as a Valentine's scent, is now available year round, which is lucky for all of us. That means any time of year you can have...

...three pleasures in one elegant flacon: a bouquet of red roses, melt-in-your-mouth chocolate truffles, and, of course - a perfume! The most sensual and sumptuous way to declaration of love. Kisses not included. Notes: Allspice (Pimento Berry), Amber, Benzoin Siamese Cocoa Absolute, Mace, Nutmeg Pink Pepper Absolute, Rose de Mai, Rose Maroc Rose Otto (Turkey)

If 100% Love is the barest brush of a feather, then is is chocolate and roses as a full-bodied seduction. Strong chocolate notes balance against a rose with a tangy bite like the taste of rose petals. It is a dark rose with a bit of...is that pepper? Talk about your spunky Valentine! Long lasting and elegant, like a heavy china plate with a 14 carat gold rim. You can have it as an EdP or a parfum extrait, or even as a real chocolate bar! How awesome is that? And if I had the money, I'd buy the whole Ayala Moriel Natural Perfumes Broken Hearts - Valentine Coffret 2013! A truly luxurious gift for the scent addict in your life.

And if you are going to talk about sweets and chocolates, we might as well talk about flowers, reader. Since I couldn't have the Broken Hearts Coffret, I will have to console myself with DSH Perfumes Les Rouges Collection Box.

PASSION, POWER, LUST, RAGE, ECSTASY… such are our associations with RED; our wildest emotions and greatest HEAT are bound to this primal color. Inspired by the radiance and intensity of RED, my Les Rouges Collection Box contains a miniature (5ml) bottle of all four of the exquisite members of this collection.

The Les Rouges Collection includes Fleurs d’Oranger (Orange Blossom); Oeillets Rouges (Red Carnations); Poivre; Piment et Chocolat – four lovely scents that cover a range of florals and a chocolate to boot! I feel pretty confident that I, for one, will be pleased by own Valentineal thoughtfulness.

So that's it for me this year. Some more traditional Valentine's recommendations this year. While I'm here, I'll also direct your attention to my Valentine's post from last year, where apparently I also talked about BC, and then wrote about a lot of really great perfumes that I still whole-heartedly endorse, including a list of less conventional recommendations.

Overwhelm, destroying so sweetly...

A review of A Lab on Fire's What We Do In Paris Is Secret and a Drawing!

Snacks! (I'm like a horse, really.)

Dear reader:

So here's a little thing all ten of you out there should know about me. FN1. I have what could be considered a super human tolerance for sweet scents. Seriously. One of my favorites of all time? By Kilian's homage to the marshmallow, Love. Stuff that sets other people's teeth on edge - say Sud Pacifique Vanille Abricot (which, let's be honest, most people think smells like an insane carnival snack) or Guerlain Spiritueuse Double Vanille (boozy and tons of vanilla, but you need a serious sweet tooth to love) - sets my proverbial hair on fire. FN2. So when I tell you that I have found a scent so sweet it might actually be almost too sweet for me?

You should take that statement seriously.

15ml?
You know that's right.

A Lab on Fire, according to nose in the know Robin at NST!, is a sub- or sister-brand of S-Perfume, makers of the much adored (by me) chocolate rose scent, 100% Love. FN3. So when I managed to get my grubby hands on a 15ml bottle of Dominique Ropion's creation, What We Do In Paris Is Secret, I was psyched! FN4. Would I love it? How much would I love it? Let me count the (imagined while it was still in the mail) ways!

Though it isn't much, here's what A Lab on Fire says about What We Do In Paris Is Secret:

Rue des Petits Champs ou rue Montorgueil. Place des Vosges ou St. Germain. Eau de Parfum What We Do In Paris Is Secret captures every part of the city. The glamorous as well as the edgy. Dominique Ropion, one of the most technically advanced perfumers in the world, has created a scent that shows his virtuosic skill and his ability to discover something new. The chic, au courant sensuality of What We Do In Paris Is Secret makes the magical real and Paris's secret palpable.

Notes - Top: Bergamot, honey, lychee; Mid: Turkish rose essence; Dry: tonka bean, vanilla, heliotrope, tolu, sandalwood, ambergris, musks.

Well kids, I'm here to let you in on the secret. In Paris, apparently the secret is sugar.

Froooooosting...

Oh holy crap, is it a lot of sugar! You know how sometimes a thing is so sweet it kind of sears your tongue and you get a twinge at the back of your jaw? This is the olfactory equivalent. I saw some reviews that got playdoh (I didn't) and a lot of almond (only a pinch over here.) Like Robin, I get a fleeting whiff of citrus and rose immediately, but it gets shoved aside almost instantly in favor of massive tonka and heliotrope. I know the notes say musk, but to me the base is more like a bowl of butter cream frosting mixed with the sweetest tobacco you could imagine. Some people say they get sweet floral, but I only get sweets and sweet smoke.

What We Do In Paris... will definitely be too sweet for ninety percent of the people who smell it. FN5. For example, my very own bestie, The Kate? She would run in the opposite direction. It's pretty much everything she hates in a perfume. FN6. My friend Amye, who likes to sniff scents then give them descriptions like "A beachy disaster - sunscreen and sand in your crotch!" or "It's as if a cosmo threw up all over you," would, I'm sure, have some choice words for this. FN7.

 Me? I'm all about the hearts and sparkles here, and in this case, the hearts are sugar cookies and the sparkles are made out of glittery crystallized sugar. While What We Do In Paris Is Secret is decidedly not for the perfumey faint of heart, I got good feedback on it from a girl a work today, and in a world of poseurs, this thing is the real gourmand deal.  I feel very lucky to have some, even if I am going to wear it sparingly for special occasions.  Honestly? It feels special occasion-y to me.  Like a very delicate, very fine, very expensive treat. If you ate it every day, you'd get a tummy ache, but every once in a while? Heaven.

Be forewarned: this sillage will run away from you (or make others run away from you), so give yourself a wide berth or go knowingly into the world cloaked in a confidence made out of candy glass armor. In terms of longevity, I put on the tiniest squirt this morning and twelve hours later I could still easily smell it, though it had lightened considerably. Definitely NSFW if you are in a fragrance limited/fragrance free environment. (Oops?)

You can buy What We Do In Paris Is Secret from Luckyscent in a 60ml for $110. They will also sell you a sample for $4.

But why wait? If you comment below, you can get a sample of What We Do In Paris Is Secret from yours truly, along with a few other of my current favs and a mix CD of music I'm listening to while writing. If you enjoy music from the Brill Building and the teeth gnashing and hair pulling of lost girl groups of the 1950s and 1960s, then between the super sweet scent and the super sweet music, you'll be all set.

Post here by 12:01 AM PST Wednesday, June 13, 2012 to enter. Open to anyone. I'll ship anywhere.

Want more? Try...
~ a review from Robin at NST!
~ a review from Smelly Thoughts.
~ a review from For The Love of Perfume.
~ a review from Legerdenez.
~ a review from 1000 Fragrances.

"Eyes, burning a way through me.
Overwhelm, destroying so sweetly.
Now, there is a fire within me.
A fire that burns...

This fire is out of control.
I'm going to burn this city,
burn this city..."
~ "This Fire," Franz Ferdinand
_______________________
FN1. I kid, of course. There are clearly at least twelve of you.

FN2. Not literally. That would smell waaaaay different. Though I'm deep enough into perfume mania at this point to think, "But I bet there's a decent perfume to be had in there somewhere."

FN3. If I'd had 100% Love when I got married, I give it 70/30 odds it would have been my wedding scent.

FN4. Full disclosure - I won it in a draw on Now Smell This, because Robin is both wise and generous.

FN5. Okay, one minor complaint - could this name be any longer? It's like that band -- "...And you will know us by the fact that our name is ridiculous and longer than necessary."  They're just asking for a bad acyronym.

The perfumers, I mean.  The band already has one.

FN6. The Kate because in a world full of Kates, she is the Kate. The one, the only. Also/formerly known as cKate, until she usurped all other Kates, as was her due.

FN7. These are actual quotes from when we went a-sniffing one afternoon, because Amye is hilarious. And according to this Forbes piece, she's also too busy to date you, so no, you can't have her number.

Love is not love until love's vulnerable.

Love.

It is the worst good thing that ever happens to a body. You don't have to take my word for it. Literature is riff with examples. Shakespeare said it best: "For never was a story of more woe than this..." Or, to put it in a more modern way: "To love is to destroy, and to be loved is to be destroyed." Thanks Cassandra Clare.

Then there's poetry. T.S. Eliot: "I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me." Or Auden: "I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong." Or John Donne: "My rags of heart can like, wish, and adore, but after one such love, can love no more."

Oh! I forgot the movies... Lloyd Dobler said it beautifully: "Maybe I want to get hurt!"

And then there's the music. I could go on and on about the music, but you get the point. Being in love means being vulnerable. It means being to willing to get hurt. And even when it goes well, trust me when I tell you it still sometimes hurts.

What makes me say these things in this holy sanctified Hallmark season of Love? Well for one, I finished reading Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl's third book in the caster chronicles series, Beautiful Chaos, where upon I bawled my eyes out.

Also, David and I usually don't celebrate Valentine's Day. We usually celebrate Not-Valentine's, picking some other less commerically busy and more personally happy day to say, "I love you." But because lots of people do celebrate Valentine's Day, I thought I'd provide some shopping-related thoughts.

Envoyage Perfumes Carmel Bohême is a lovely Valentine's option. Inspired by the French novelist and poet Henri Murger: “Bohemia is a display of exuberance set against dark, silent edges; a glass house of exotic orchids”, this amber floral has notes of "Sweet Orange, Plum, Muguet, Enfleurages of Gardenia and Tuberose, French Jasmine, Honey, Patchouli, Frankincense, Labdanum, Amber, Sandalwood." It is described as "colorful, unpredictable, original, outrageous, edgy, tumultuous."

Personally, I find Carmel Bohême full of wildly delicious white flowers, a warm, lush, lovely scent. It is a wonderful blend of gardenias and tuberoses and jasmine, sweet and soapy and a little tart. Sure, you could buy your loved one a bouquet of real white florals, but trust me when I tell you this is just as beautiful and will last long after the buds are moldering in the bin. It has great longevity, and after four hours, it turns into a honey/amber/sandalwood sweetness that rides close to the skin. Truly lovely, and worth checking out even if you aren't in the market for a Valentine's scent.

Not super excited about white floral bouquets? No problem. Jo Malone is happy to supply you, not only with a bottle of beautiful Red Roses, but with a whole Red Roses Fragrance Chronicle for V-Day. You get a bottle of Red Roses, plus three accords to layer with it: "Sweet Lemon brings tantalising transparency; Scarlet Velvet Rose adds richness; and Honeycomb, a nectar-like warmth." I like the Jo Malone layering system, which in this case allows me to make seven different roses, plus several other scents that don't include the Red Roses center piece. In addition, there are always bonus gifts when it comes to Jo Malone, so when I ordered my set, I got a free 9ml of Grapefruit, which I don't own, to boot. That's a gift that stays beautiful for much longer than thorny reality of the flowers themselves. The collection is a limited edition offering, so if you like Red Roses, you may have to pretend some Valentine-y love to get it.

Not into flowers? Then go with food!  Ayala Moriel Natural Perfumes makes one of the all time best foodie scents in Immortelle l'Amour. Chocolate, vanilla, liquor, maple syrup, waffles all in one, it is a top grade, incredibly lickable scent that can bring happiness even to a wounded heart. She also makes teas and truffles, so it's a one-stop, deliciously aromatic shop to make all your edible love-themed purchases. Prefer jewelry?  You can get solids in compacts and poison rings, so your gift will be both visually and olfactorially beautiful.

Can't stand anything too edibly sweet? Well, here's a scent that you can love even when love itself turns sour. Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab's (The Maglignant Dreams of) Cthulhu in Love is "an amorphous mixture of incense, sea weed, sea salt, sticky dark ocean plants and chocolate." Dry chocolate and sweet dry herbs, it is a surprisingly love and high quality scent for the BPAL price point. It was a random-no-special-occasion-just-because-he-loved-me gift from David, and appears, now that I write this, to be sadly discontinued. Just like slumberhouse Ore which I also have a tiny, precious vial of. Chocolate scents are lovely, but apparently not all that long for this scented world...much like real chocolate is in my house. If you can find Cthulhu in Love, give is a whirl. It's delightful.


Speaking slumberhouse, I'll add Grev  to the mix, though I am probably the only person who will ever put this on a Valentine's list. But then, I'm not like anyone else in most other respects, so here it is. Grev is made of "copaiba, fir balsams, clove, birch, orris, and cedar" and is meant to be a marketed as a masculine, but I think it is a warm, sexy scent for a woman. It's unique, it's unusual, and it is decidedly unexpected. If you're the sort of person who gets married in a dress with blood red corset back and trim at a historic poor farm turned local brewery, then this might be your idea of sexy, too. It reminds me of waking up next with someone you love on one side and on the other, open windows of streaming sunshine and the wet, green smell of fir trees. It's a smell I associate with falling in love.

Which brings me around to my last thematic recommendation: take the ultra-realistic approach. If your love is associated with the smell of new fallen snow, try CB I Hate Perfume Walking in the Air. Working together in a garden? How about CB I Hate Perfume In the Summer Kitchen or Memory of Kindness? Find you love in a library? CB I Hate Perfume In the Library.

Alternately, you could go the Demeter Fragrance Library route, and buy a handful of large minis to create a unique perfume bouquet that hits the high notes of your romance: Vanilla Cake Batter for the birthday cake he made you, White Russian for the drink you shared on your first date, Beeswax for the homemade honey you bought on your first weekend away or the smell of the wax seal on the back of a handwritten love letter, Mistletoe for your first drunken kiss at the company Christmas party. Whatever your memory is, one of these companies probably has a scent that could represent it and give you a way to show that you remember, in a visceral way, the moment you knew you were in love.

And if all else fails, you could always go with the classic, old school approach: say it with love. S-Perfumes 100% Love or Creed Love in Black or Creed Love in White, or any of the By Kilian l'amour-themed scents (Love, Beyond Love, Taste of Heaven, Straight to Heaven, or for those of a more cynical, Amy Winehouse-bent, Back to Black and Love and Tears) are all beautiful scents, and nothing says love like L-O-V-E.

Yes, it's also a CD case!

What about you, dear reader?  Have I told you lately that I love you? Well, if you feel I haven't, then let me make it up to you with this awesome V-Day drawing. Included for one lucky winner will be the fabulously tacky fuzzy pink CD holder with a couple differently themed, love-related mix CDs made and decorated by your truly, PLUS some candy and some lovely samples that will include, but are not limited to S-Perfumes 100% Love, By Kilian Straight to Heaven, Cthulhu in Love, slumberhouse Grev and some other things not listed above.  But yes! At least five samples! Plus music! Candy! A giant pink fuzzy heart CD case! (Don't lie, you know you want its garish wonderfulness.)


POST A COMMENT BELOW talking about perfume!, love, romance, the death thereof, music, movies, perfume!, poetry, books, perfume!, whathaveyou on or before 11:59pm PST on Monday, February 13, 2012.  Will ship internationally. Winner to be announced on V-day.

So come on then: who wants to be my Valentine?

Like a wet log, I sang within a flame.
In that last while, eternity's confine,
I came to love, I came into my own.
~Theodore Roethke, from The Dream

Too Much Love Will Kill You.

Is there such a thing as “too much of a good thing”?

Sure there is. I myself have eaten that last sushi roll or that last inch of sour patch rope, and thought, “I chose…poorly.” I’ve decided to stay in bed those last few minutes that move you from “barely on time” to “definitely late for work.” I’ve stayed in the shower those extra ten minutes, running the hot water just enough that you run out at the last minute and are freezing and tense instead of relaxed when you cut the water off and get out. I’ve taken on too many good opportunities at once until I didn’t have the time and energy for any of them. I’ve gone for that final third round on Space Mountain that moves your slightly tipsy disco ball delight to oh-lord-why-did-I-have-that-fourth-tequila-shot?

In short, I’ve done excess and known the regret of it. And that is what I think of, every time I see someone posting about “pairing down their collection” or “giving up all but their favorites” or “cleaning out their perfume cabinet.”

Have I got too much perfume? Have I gone too far? Do I really appreciate the perfume I have? Do I really want or need more? FN1. Would some of it be better off in someone else’s hands, someone else’s home, where it might be better appreciated? That is the sentiment that stayed my hand Saturday night when I looked at my bank account, looked at my computer, and then thought, “Okay, let’s go shopping!” As I began looking through my options – limited editions here, sales over there, decants verses bottles, samples verses either, the list of things I thought I wanted, the list of things I’ve got – I was haunted by the thought that maybe I had enough already.

Tonight in the car Rafaela, who has never been subjected to a stroll through Diana’s perfume collection, asked me how many bottles I had. I don’t know, I responded immediately. But you must have some idea, she pressed. You were just telling me that you redid your inventory spreadsheet today.

Truthfully, though, I didn’t know. I hadn’t bothered to look. Hell, I hadn’t even finished updating my excel file. I’d only made it through bottles, not decants or minis, and certainly not through samples, which remains untackled. Somewhere, somehow, I genuinely lost count of my perfume.

So tonight, I counted.

85 bottles. EIGHTY-FIVE. And this is genuine “this is not our sample size, you are buying some larger quantity of this perfume” bottles, which does not even include Demeters. Minis and decants? Another seventy-four. Samples? Back in September it was over 500, and I know that number is a measurable quantity larger now, but my recatalogue is not yet complete. This doesn’t count the two bottles or handful of samples I did finally order Saturday night, or the samples headed my way for review, or the bottle I gave away to LillieMae just because she liked it and I had more than enough. FN2.

Yet, I feel like I’ve only dipped a toe into the wide world of beautiful perfumes out there to smell. For example, I haven’t ever smelled Chanel No. 19. I think I’ve tried maybe three Le Labos, and none of them were the location restricted ones. My familiarity with Creed and Serge Lutens is (in my opinion) wafer thin. For every Caron or Goutal or Worth or Guerlain I have tried, there are four or five I haven’t. I haven’t tried nearly enough from Aftelier Perfumes or Frederic Malle or so many others I can’t think of right now.

But looking at my collection, I couldn’t deny it. I have a ton of perfume, and yet, I feel I owe it to myself to keep trying all the beautiful scents out there to try. But I knew I crossed a certain perfumey line when LillieMae was loving a particular perfume and, without hesitating, I gave her the bottle. I remembered the day Angela from Now Smell This! did the same things for me, handing off a bottle of S-Perfume %100 Love without batting an eyelash. She knew I’d get more out of it, and I did. I have almost finished the bottle. So maybe this is also the beginning of a new phase, a phase where I not only continue to explore perfume, but start to focus my collection, creating something that isn’t just a bunch of random perfume, but a beautiful wardrobe and art collection, so that I better appreciate what I have and some lovely perfume gets a more appreciative home.

So welcome to our season of spring discernment at Feminine Things, both perfume related and more broadly. I feel strangely excited about it. I hope you do, too.

___________________________
FN1. Okay, I always want more. Instead it’s a question of whether I should buy more and do I already have more than I know what to do with.

FN2. Because I know you people: I bought samples from DSH Perfumes and JoAnne Bassett. I would have bought some from Ayala Moriel Natural Perfumes but the site order system wasn’t cooperating; I bought a bottle of L’Artisan Dzongkha from the sale; and slumberhouse Mur from IndieScents because I am apparently probably their biggest fan, and I bought it in anticipation of warmer days ahead.

Editor's note: I got the loveliest follow-up email from Ayala herself, apologizing about the web difficulties and welcoming me back.  Not only was it the sweetest thing, it also completely underestimated my willingness to walk through fire for perfume as good as hers. :)

The Monthly Spin: The xx - The xx

The Monthly Spin is a newly recurring feature on Feminine Things wherein I talked about an album I'm loving and the perfumes I think go with it.

If you have not yet discovered this amazing duo, your life is about to get way better. I found them when they did a random interview on a local radio station here in Portlandia. This album was released in August 2009, but I don't run into it alot here in the states, despite it making it to 9th on Rolling Stone's list of Best Albums of 2009. Where I do hear this album, though, is all over young adult-oriented TV and movies -- tracks have been featured on Vampire Diaries and 90210, as well as in the film I Am Number Four, so for those of you YA-oriented types here in the states, you may feel like you recognize them.

The album has been described as having a "sleek, whispery" quality due to being recorded in a small garage that was part of the XL studios, often at night, and I'd say that is accurate. It's great bare bones, slow groove romantic material, the kind of music you can imagine dancing close in dim lighting to. The fact that there are male and female vocals telling what feel like two sides of the same story makes it a particularly romantic album.

Him: Please don't say we're done. I'm not finished. I could give you so more. Make you feel like never before. Welcome, they said, welcome to the floor.
Her: It's been a while and you've found someone better but I've been waiting too long to give this up. The more I see, I understand. But sometimes, I still need you.
Her: Sometimes I still need you.
Him: Somtimes I still need you.
Her: Sometimes I still need you.
Him: Somtimes I still need you.
~ "Heart Skips A Beat"

I have some friends who used to date, both cool applied-art types who live the kind of purpose-driven/wandering lives that make the rest of jealous, and sadly don't anymore. FN1. If I were going to pick an album that sounded to me like the quality of their story, sweet and a little sad and not yet finished, this would be it.

The new album has been such a hit tracks have been covered by everyone from the Gorillaz to The Antlers. So don't take my word for it; it's great stuff, so go get it.

Recommended if you like: Lykke Li, Portishead, CoCoRosie, The Cure, The Smiths

While spinning, wear: S-Perfumes 100% Love, Bond no. 9 West Side, DSH Perfumes Tea Rose



_____________
FN1. Though I still hold out hope they'll get a rom-com ending together instead of an awful, indie-style "of course they're not together, this is the real world" ending that seems so depressingly true-to-life.

I'm so tired but I can't sleep.

2011 Perfume Challenge Week 17: Monday, 5/2/11, to Saturday, 5/6/11

Pass week! Yeah I know, I'm super weaksauce. This week I wore S-Perfume 100% Love, L'Artisan Vanilia, CB I Hate Black March, Jo Malone Red Roses, and  Juliette Has a Gun Citizen Queen.

What can I say? My only excuse is that it was a sad week, and I needed the comfort.

But hey -- I've got business cards now!

"Standin' on the edge of something much too deep.
It’s funny how we feel so much but we cannot say a word
We are screaming inside, but we can’t be heard..."
"I Will Remember You," Sarah McLachlan

Happy Anniversary to Us.

in spite of everything

in spite of everything
which breathes and moves,since Doom
(with white longest hands
neatening each crease)
will smooth entirely our minds

-before leaving my room
i turn,and(stooping
through the morning)kiss
this pillow,dear
where our heads lived and were.
-- ee cummings

Four years ago today I put on a white strapless dress with blood red trim and, escorted by my brother, in front of many of my friends and family, promised to spend my life with David, my husband.

Four years later, I love him more than ever and I have no regrets.

That day, I wore Origins Ginger with a Twist, because he loves ginger and I like citrus, so it smelled like a good match.

Today, I’ll wear S-Perfumes 100% Love and comfort myself with knowing that, in one week, I’ll be headed back home to him.

Happy Anniversary, David.


A complimentary pair created at the same place
we got married, McMenamins Edgefield

Romantic piscean seeks angel in disguise...

Top Ten Scents of Summer 2009


I'm a little late to the party on top 10 summer scents of 2009, but I have an excuse -- a midsummer move! That's right, readers, I am now located in lovely Riverside, California, which is in the greater Los Angeles area. I can *drive* to the LuckyScent bar -- lord help me and my wallet!

Moving from a temperate rainforest to basically an arid desert climate caused me to retry all my scents to ensure that, new climate taken into account, I would still be rocking these all summer long. Particularly now that I live in the land of perpetual sunshine it seemed pertinent to ask -- will I still love you tomorrow? For the following ten scents, neither life in the rain shadow nor life newly sprung amidst the desert flowers could dissuade my affections. without further adieu, the list!

1. L’Artisan L’Eau de Jatamansi
Spicy and sultry, I smell in L’Eau de Jatamansi salt and pepper, licorice and lime (at least that's how the grapefruit and wood notes read on me). It's like someone dressed me for a summer grill. (I mean that in a good way.) I think its sexy and light, a wonderful hot weather fragrance.

2. CB I Hate Perfume I Am a Dandelion
This one deserves a full review, which I hope to do soon. Its sweet, green, its all about the best of things that the Earth gives us, just growing wildly around us, overlooked and underappreciated. A must have for me. More on this excellent fragrance very soon to come. Can Christopher Brosius do no wrong?

3. Chanel Coco Mademoiselle
I bought this on a summer vacation to L.A. because nothing I had with me was standing up the long days and hot sun. Coco Mademoiselle is great for summer because it is light and spicy, perfect for summer. See my full review here.

4. Tauer Perfumes L’air du desert marocain
Ever wondered what a woman who wanted to attract a cowboy at the state fair would wear to overcome all the varied and wild smells of a livestock show and radio? This beautiful concoction would turn heads anywhere, but seems particularly at home for the kind of warm night outdoor fun befitting a rugged summer in Montana or Eastern Oregon. See my full review here.

5. CB I Hate Perfume At the Beach 1966
On of the best summer perfumes ever made. It’s what you imagine suddenly finding yourself as an extra in “Where the Boys Are” would smell like – fifties swim suits, sand, sun, and waves.

6. TDC Sublime Balkiss
Mixed berries & flowers, but not overly flowery sweet or powdery and becomes less so over time. The black currant is particularly strong on me. It reads on me the way edible flowers -- like sugared violets -- taste. The patchouli comes in around the ten minute mark on me, making this not a classically fruity combination because it has a little more dirty/musk to it, which creates nice warm undercurrents.

7. S-Perfume 100% Love
Chocolate and roses – a summer love affair I enjoy every year. One of my all time favs! See my full review here.

8. Serge Lutens Bois de Violette
I love this! Of all the violets I’ve tried this is the most beautiful. Not overly ‘soapy,’ but sweet and warm and woody. I love it all year round, but it especially sings in the warm weather. A snuggly kind of summer fragrance, like what one wears on a warm night out along the boardwalk. LT gives it five stars, so you don’t have to take my word for it – this is lovely.

9. Comptoir Sud Pacifique Vanille Abricot
Some people are going to hate this, which is strong, long lasting, and smells (deliciously IMO) like cotton candy. I think this is an amazing candy floss, and if you can get behind smelling so much like confection that people will want to lick you like an amusement park treat, then you may enjoy this, too!

10. Annick Goutal Songes
Wearing this one today. I never seem to grow tired of it. Sillage is strong, but its like being hit with a swarm sea spray on a hot evening -- who wouldn't enjoy it? Perfect for a warm night spent barefoot on a beach along the Gulf or other sultry locale. See my full review here.

So that's my list! Now it's your turn -- what are your favorite summer scents?

And it's you & me in the summertime.
We'll be hand down in the park,
with a squeeze and a sigh
and that twinkle in your eye.
All the sunshine banishes the dark.
And it's you I need in the summertime
as I turn my white skin red.
Two peas from the same pod, yes, we are!
Or have I read too much fiction?
Is this how it happens?
The Sundays, "Summertime"

Check other summer top 10 lists from Now Smell This!, Perfume Posse, Bois de Jasmin, Grain de Musc, and Perfume Smellin' Things.

We could be heroes...just for one day.

I am always neglecting this blog. I have an entire box of beautiful samples waiting to be reviewed, but real life always seems to get in the way. For instance, it took me over a week to finally get my last final done after we got snowed in here in Portland during the Snowpocalypse of 2008. During this period there were at times as many as eight people hanging around my house, needing food and company and, I, ever the hostess, wanted to provide.
I have not, as yet, received all my gifts, but I think the chances of fragrance being among them is low, despite it being on my list. I had asked for any of the following:

1. Costume National 21
2. Domenico Caraceni Ivy League
3. Kai
4. L'Artisan Ananas Fizz
5. CB I Hate Perfume Burning Leaves
6. CB I Hate Perfume To See a Flower
7. CB I Hate Perfume Tea Rose
8. CB I Hate Perfume At The Beach 1966
9. CB I Hate Perfume Wild Hunt

I am saddest about not getting the 21, though At The Beach 1966 or Kai would have added more depth to my collection.
Which brings me the big question: in this, my maiden year as a perfumista, which perfume rocked my world with the most regularity? 
S-Perfume's 100% Love

This is totally unexpected by me because I really thought it with would be L'Artisan's Dzing! Dzing! is so unique, bold, and dangerous as a scent because who knows if people will like it or think it's awful. I mean, there's even a little bit of a burning rubber note in there, but I love it.

100% Love, on the other hand, is everything you expect to like in a perfume. It's soft, unassuming, and combines two things lots of people like -- the smell of baking chocolate and the light smell of roses -- into what has got to be the ultimate ad for Valentine's Day advertisers. And yet. And yet...here I find myself shamelessly loving it, too, because it deserves all five stars that Lucia and Tania gave it. It's subtle and sweet and deliciously delicate. I found myself wearing it, over and over, on days when I wanted to feel pretty. (As opposed to Dzing! which I tend toward when I'm feeling a lack of confidence.) So 100% Love gave what I needed when I needed it, which it turned out was fairly frequently this year.
I am so curious to see what comes of next year.

Image courtesy of The Scented Salamander.

Election Day Jitters!

On this historic occasion, where we will inevitably elect either a minority president (GO OBAMA!) or a minority VP, getting dressed was easy. I picked clothes in the traditional reds, whites, and blues and a progressive style -- black knit skirt, black hose, blue docs, blue jean jacket covered in liberal pins, and my Obama'08 tee shirt.

But I had a terrifically hard time choosing a scent. Do I go cutting edge and revolutionary? Do I go staid and traditional? Classic French foreign? Homegrown American? Old traditional perfume house or new, young, net-sales based independent perfumer?

I considered a lot of options. CB's Memory of Fire, in honor of the rockets red glare and all the burning pages of history and the burning desire for change we have today. CB's Black March , because it's cold and wet and rainy here in Oregon where we march to our boxes to drop off ballots in an effort to change a country. S-Perfumes 100% Love because no matter who you vote for today, voting means you love this country and you believe in the way it works and you are engaged in the act of patriotism, which is its own special kind of love. And many other options...

In the end, though, I went with Chanel No. 5 EDT. Classic. Traditional. Purchased after I sampled it in a duty-free in the Sea-Tac airport on my way to Philadelphia to campaign for yet another equally historic candidate in the primary. French, yes, but hey -- they love a good revolution as much as the next gal. High-quality. Because the choice I made today, I hope, will be a radical choice in how normal, how mainstream, how overwhelmingly populous it turns out to be. That we have the opportunity to confound external critics and embrace ourselves -- in all our diversity -- is something that I hope can become the artful choice. The classic choice. In a country founded by radicals and malcontents and rejects, may our election of a man who blends so many different aspects of ourselves and who ran under a banner of change become the stuff of our normative fabric, for surely it already is.

Thinking Perfume

Part of the difficulty of loving the bottles I have is that it seriously slows down my sampling. Yesterday, I wore CB I Hate Perfume’s Smokey Tobacco Accord, which fit my desire to smell warm and smoky on a clear cool fall day. The day before that, I wore S-Perfume 100% Love, during which I noodled around my house before going to the hipster-est joint in town for dinner with some friends. Today, I ran straight for another CB creation, Black March, in honor of the rainy misty foggy morning I awoke to.

And this is my problem. I have a lot of samples, many I have not yet reviewed here. But I have many lovely bottles, and when I am in a hurry, I reach for them first. I even carry samples around with me, but I love what I am wearing so much, I am frequently loathed to sample over it.

Weak as it is, that is part of my excuse for being behind on my blog. I am trying to push myself toward my samples and away from resting on my bottled laurels. Hopefully I’ll be posting a couple of new reviews this weekend. Until then, dear readers, have faith that while I may not be writing about perfume, I am thinking perfume.

Sweetness Follows: 100% Love.

It would be a lie to say that I never had good experiences with family. While our relationships were, at best, complicated and difficult, and, at worst, violent and cruel, there were things and times and people that I loved and love still. It’s the kind of love forged from common experiences and common roots and the formation of some fundamental building blocks of identity, not from common goals or values. It’s the family/personhood of origin, not the family/personhood of creation or choice, held in common with those people who, for whatever reason, you share blood and history with.

In that same vein, I’ve realized how great 100% Love is. Like the idea of going home, it took a while for 100% Love by S-Perfumes to grow on me. The Guide saddles it with the handle of “chocolate rose.” Created by Sophia Grojsman, 100% Love is described as

The pulpy erotic part of a secret red fruit, the rich, deep and velvety skin of a dark natural rose by L.M.R., a ray of green sap from the rose's thorn, a mystical "concoction" of incense and black cacao.

My love (no pun intended) for 100% Love is, in part, a reflection on the improvement of my nose. When I first sniffed it, about six months ago, I did not love it. Too light, too airy, too thin, too simple. Nope. Not for me. But, like a good little level one perfumista in training, I took the advice of those with vastly more developed sniffers than mine. I set it aside to try again later. About a month ago, I bought a small spray sample to try it again (the first came in a 1.5ml tube sampler, and the sprayer with this one really did make all the difference), and all of the sudden, I saw its genius. 100% Love was a light, sweet and liquored cloud hanging around me, like single barrel whiskey or really good rum mixed with sweet cola and grenadine. One of the more pleasurable memories I have from my childhood is that when my father would drag my brother and I around to the extra jobs he worked at a group of 610-Loop Houston hotels, he would lead us into the bar and ply us with all the Roy Rogers we could drink, complete with red plastic swords stacked with cherries. When I smell 100% Love, it smells like those drinks.

100% Love also reminds me of the boxes of cherry cordials my father bought every year at holidays. While there was always the inevitable Whitman Sampler for Christmas, and my mother received a giant heart-shaped box of chocolates every Valentines, the cheap cherry cordials picked up at the local drugstore meant a good mood, a happy time to be shared. And when I spray on 100% Love, I feel a lost sort of love, the love that comes from having had certain shared wins and loses, shared joys and sorrows, shared anger and resentment and regret…and the naivete of youth and its inability of processing the complex emotions that come with family at the time. Nostalgic and sweet, with a tiny sour note or dark mark inevitable on the horizon. Like a little girl in a bar with her drunken father, blissfully unaware of the alcoholism that will eventually kill him, slurping down Roy Rogers with lots of cherries. Like the soft and fluttery feeling of rose petals from the bush my grandmother’s backyard brushed across skin, rose bushes that would one day later, unforeseeably and inexplicably, cease to bloom again. A little drunk…a little sad…on chocolate and roses and an unshakable love that lies so deep inside you that you can run from it, but never escape.

Readying to bury your father and your mother,
what did you think when you lost another?
I used to wonder why did you bother,
distanced from one, blind to the other.

Live your life filled with joy and wonder.
I always knew this altogether thunder
was lost in our little lives.

Oh..., oh..., but sweetness follows.

Another perspective can be found in Robin’s review over at Now Smell This! Also, special shout out to Angela, who gifted me with a totally undeserved bottle of 100% Love. It made my week.

Drink image courtesy of instructables.com.
Cordials from Sanders Candy.