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.

Let your love cover me; you are my family.

Naked Leaf Perfumes First Breath

As I am writing this, my niece is about to be born.

Okay, yes, she is my second niece, and also, yes, she isn't really my niece.

It's technically my 'adoptive' sister's second daughter. It doesn't make it any less exciting to me, though. Also, I'm technically writing this piece a few days ahead of pasting it because I'm having some weird health issues this week and I like to stay on track. I'm posting this piece today because I am hoping they don't have to wait until next week to induce.  If I am lucky, Ximena will be born today, on All Soul's Day, because it is a special day, a beautiful day. It is a day of remembrance, a day that connects us to our past.

A lot of people feel that our pasts way us down, but I'm a big believer in honoring where you come from, even the less pleasant parts, because they help you know where you're going. Trust me, my past ain't no picnic, but even I can find and pick out the good parts from a distance, and if I can, then I have hope for everyone. The good parts are still back there, and they are good.  And the bad parts?  They are parts I survived, and that makes me strong.

All of it is part of me, and I am comfortable enough in my own skin to be grateful to all those who made me, those who came before.  Every year, on this day, I try to honor that, and to honor the memory of those loved and loathed and lost, but who still live here, in every breath and heartbeat.  For that reason, I'd like to think of little Ximena coming into the world on a day where the wall between the past and the present is thinnest, a time when we honor our ancestors as we look toward the coming year.

But whether she is born today or not, I've been thinking about her and my sister Erica, particularly as I've been sampling our sixth and final Primordial Scent Project: Air Set offering, Naked Leaf Perfumes First Breath by perfumer Suzy Larsen.

In honor of midwifery, First Breath is a liquid prayer to empower when you need an unshakable inner strength and resilience--whether beginning new projects and challenges or birthing new ideas. The mysterious and sensual First Breath is clean, fresh, expansive, innocent and green while being a little sweet and comforting. It's your own midwife in a bottle giving you courage to take that first tentative step in a new direction. Let your inner sage-femme (midwife) guide you.

First Breath is an AIR element-inspired perfumer for Perfume Pharmer's 2012 Perfume Project: 'Primordial Scent'.

Notes: Sage, Lime, Lavender, Amroise, Bergamot, Clementine, Red Mandarin, Green Pepper, Rose Bulgarian, Rose Anatolian, Neroli, Lavender absolute, Black Current Bud absolute, Jasmine grandiflorum, Clary Sage, Fir Balsam absolute, Vanilla, Vetiver, Patchouli, Oakmoss, Benzoin and Hyrax in organic grape alcohol.

Lime, lavender, and bergamot are strong in the opening, which is very green and a little sharp. Ten minutes I start to get some rose and some of the patchouli base. I like rose/patchouli combinations, and the green and citrus notes lighten and compliment the combo, adding a pretty and, yes, innocent quality to a combination that I usually find earthy or sexy or dirty.

This is a pretty scent. A gentle scent. It doesn't have much of a 'skin' quality, or I'd say it was the air of newborn baby skin. This is not the brutal, bloody reality of birth, but the light, fuzzy bliss-fill memory of those first moments, where all you remember of a difficult new beginning is how it was all worth it in the end.

And to Erica and Ximena, and all lucky soon-to-be-moms and their almost-people, may your memories be as pretty as this scent.

You can buy First Breath for $50.00 for a 5ml parfum extrait direct from the perfumer. Samples are also available for $5.00.

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.


Can you fix this? It's a broken heart. 
It was fine, but it just fell apart. 
It was mine, but now I give it to you, 
Cause you can fix it, you know what to do. 

Let your love cover me, 
Like a pair of angel wings, 
You are my family, 
You are my family. 
~ "Family," Dar Williams

There's no place like home for the holidays.

NPG Home for the Holidays: Mermade Magickal Arts EverGreen Incense 2013

November First, dear reader! We have reached November! First! I can now unabashedly run toward the winter holidays with open arms. FN1.

I love winter holidays. I love Thanksgiving and Solstice and Saturnalia and Christmas, and I'm sure I'd love Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, too, given the opportunity. November 1 to January 1 is always my most wonderful time of the year. Also, when I'm super lucky, there is SNOW!

My winter good mood got an early kick off this year when I received the following scentvitation from the Natural Perfumers Guild:

The holiday season means it’s cold outside and everyone is spending more time indoors, with the windows and doors closed.  It’s time to feature beautiful natural scents to highlight the festive spirit.  The Guild members are dedicated to using 100% natural aromatics, and for this season, members of the Natural Perfumers Guild created ambient fragrance for the home and office, using incense, candles, room sprays and wax melts. 

Eight Guild perfumers and associates have independently created lovely ambient scent products to celebrate “Home for the Holidays” 2012.  The natural scents work hand-in-hand with the idea of fragrant Christmas trees, boughs and wreaths fragrancing the homes and offices.

Now I ask you: who could say no to such an offer?


I received a beautiful an exceptionally generous package from Katlyn Breene of Mermade Magickal Arts, which included EverGreen Incense 2013, along with a beautiful electric incense burner, foiled paper, and a carved wooden incense server stick to use with it.  EverGreen is described as follows:

A rich Resin Incense Blend created to celebrate the Ancient Forest. The best of the woody, balsamic and green scents, it is a wonderful blend for the Winter months and seasonal celebrations. It has a base of resins and woods with notes of green fir, pine and cedar. Fresh and invigorating and filled with the scents of the wilderness, of tree resins and growing things. Burn this incense to let the forest in, and enliven your space with the spirit of the holidays.  

Contains: Hougary White Green and Black Frankincense, Copal Blanco, Pinion Pine Resin blended with Cedar tips (wild crafted), Himalyan Juniper, Grand Fir,  Fir Balsam and Western Cedar oil.

EverGreen smells like...evergreens? Ha! How succinct of me. Truly, though, it smells like the beautiful green trees I love among. The primary scent is the smell of dried pine needles and tree resin.  If someone made the floor of the forest into an incense, this would be that scent.  It has that peaty smell of layered greenery moldering and mulching and becoming the death that helps make new life. It has a gently medicinal quality with hints of good dry straw, like the smell of a pile of fresh hay piled onto a cart for a harvest hayride.

This scent is perfect for the winter holiday season because there is nothing commercially 'Christmas-y' about this scent.  It smells like the evergreen woods: dark, lovely, and deep.  I haven't had a chance to try the body incense yet, but I suspect it will be terrific.

In the electric burner provided, set at only a heat setting of 10, less than a teaspoon of EverGreen filled our entire two story house with beautiful scent in under fifteen minutes.  It's been a couple of hours now, and though the incense has been spent for about an hour and the burner has been off for almost two, the house still smells wonderful.

EverGreen is available for only $10.75, and is one of a number of fine quality incense blends available for equally reasonable prices, any of which would make an outstanding stocking stuffer.  While we 'fumies are constantly bombarded with pitches for matching perfumed candles and fragrant oils and reed diffusers, there is something to be said for a well made incense, a scent that is strong and beautiful and requires a little heat to bring it to life.

Also, I'd like to make a pitch for the electric burner. I have never had an electric burner. I have been using incense for probably about twenty years, and both the quality of scent and the method of burning is far superior to anything I've ever experienced.  If you like or use incense or resin, I really recommend getting an electric burner from Mermade Magickal Arts.  It is a beautiful, handcrafted item available for only $59.95, and would make an excellent gift for the scent lover in your life.

I am really grateful to Katlyn for introducing me to this option.

To read about the other NPG Home for the Holidays offerings, check out these other fine bloggers:
~ Ca Fleure Bon
~ Perfume Critic
~ Perfume Shrine
~ The Passionate Perfumista
~ That Smell

Other Natural Perfumers Guild members participating are:

Andrea Shanti of Holistic Body Therapy : Anita Casamento of Happy Herbs Soaps : Anya McCoy of Anya's Garden Perfumes : Elise Pearlstine of Belly Flowers Perfumes : JoAnne Bassett of JoAnne Bassett Perfumes

______________________
FN1. Shut it, holiday haters. I don't want to hear a single word about how it is 'too early.' It is never too early for winter wonderland magic for me.

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.

Happy Valentine's Day from Feminine Things.

Happy Valentines Day!

From my little corner of the world to yours,

I wish you all a happy Tuesday with those you love,

both near and far.

Brunch and a trip to buy the newest
Buffy Season 9 comics -
our version of a V-Day date!

Jo Malone's Red Roses Chronicle - my gift to myself.

And congrats to our winner, ccdouglass!

Thanks for being my bloggy valentine.

Please email feminine(dot)things @ gmail(dot)com so I can send you your lovely gift! And thanks to all those who entered.  More drawings to come!

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

Haul out the holly; put up the tree before my spirit falls again!

Scent Spotlight:  aroma M Geisha Amber Rouge

Tonight "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" was on television, but I didn't watch it. I didn't put my Christmas tree up this weekend like I normally do, I didn't go to the Christmas Tree lighting downtown, and I haven't even driven over to see the red reindeer nose on the new Made in Oregon sign. I didn't even put batteries in the twinkle lights on my wreath yet.

Quite frankly, I am feeling positively Grinchy.

And that's too bad, because thanks to Marie McElroy, I have a new scent to add to my winter holiday favorites. About two weeks ago, I received a delightful surprise in the mail - aroma M Geisha Amber Rouge. And despite my other wise sour puss, I had to tell you about it because it's too good not to share.

According to the aroma M website:

Following in the tradition of the grand perfume house of Guerlain with Shalimar Initial and Chanel with Chanel No. 5 Eau Permiere, we have taken our cult favorite, Geisha Rouge, and given it a new interpretation - Geisha Amber Rouge. This is a beautiful feminine fragrance composed of seductive sensual spices and woods. It is mellow yet racy, smoky and appealing. It is a gentle, irresistible red flame conveying the meaning of vivacious sensuality held in check but just barely.

Geisha Amber Rouge gives a nod to Oriental perfumery in its use of rare vintage ingredients from the desert. Moroccan amber joins forces with deep wood resins, cinnamon, clove and hints of star anis. Characteristically spicy notes of the original Geisha Rouge blend with that of Japanese incense. Inspired by exotic travels to Morocco and Istanbul, Geisha Amber Rouge is a perfume poem, an ode to the Byzantine. Drawing on the treasured oils from the silk road, Geisha Amber Rouge is representative of aroma Ms cross-cultural fluency in creating perfumes, creating an olfactory journey between east and west.

Notes: Tonka bean, tobacco, vanilla, sandalwood, cinnamon, star of anise, clove

What a lovely scent! I've worn it several times since it arrived, and depending on the day, different notes take prominence, but all of them seem entirely fa-la-la-fantastic. Tonight the opening is heavy on the clove, the middle a strong blend of tobacco and tonka bean, and the finish a wallop of sandalwood. When I wore it a couple of days ago, I would have sworn it was all cinnamon and anise and vanilla! No matter what blend I get, they're all warm, sweet, and terrific.

I've seen a lot of reviews that describe the scent as throwing-sparks-sexy, and I'll agree that I get a bit of sparkage, but mine if more of the snuggle together by the fire under a blanket for...discretion. I think it's sexy, but I don't find it quite as viscerally va-va-voom as other reviewers. Instead, I find it sweet and romantic. Moreover, it's so...Christmas-y! It reminds me of sipping holiday cider through a straw, playing in the snow, kissing beneath mistletoe, and lying in bed together with only the lights from the tree twinkling in the room.

They say there's no place like home for the holidays. I say, nothing beats love at the holidays. And this scent says that to me, in spades.

Available direct from the perfumer or from LuckyScent.

Want more? Try...
~ a review from Eyeliner on a Cat
~ a review from Eiderdown Press
~ a review from Pretty in Dayton
~ a review from Perfume Pharmer
~ a review from Perfume Diary

Perfume generously provided for review by the perfumer.

It's the End of the World As We Know It, and I Smell Fine

For the love of God,
DON'T OPEN THE DOOR!

Perfumes for Your Post-Apocalyptic Isolation

If you knew me well, dear reader, you'd understand that my brain is often full of moderately morbid scenarios for the future. FN1.

So in honor of Halloween, I'll share one of these dark mental meanderings, which you can respond to for, naturally, a seasonal prize, for we are all about the prizes here at Feminine Things.

So think with me for a moment, dear reader, about the end times. I don't mean rivers of blood or rapture, I mean post-apocalyptic survival times. Imagine you have survived in a world without people. I don't mean The Walking Dead style survival.

Helllooooo? Anyone here?

I mean finding yourself in a I Am Legend style, you-may-be-the-only-living-human-survivor, complete isolation kind of world. Or, if you prefer, a Tom-Cruise-in-Vanilla-Sky-omg-where-did-the-WORLD-go!?! kind of environment.

It's just you and...

...you.

After you've managed to secure food,shelter, and housing, it would get kind of boring, right? You could raid libraries for books and stores for batteries to power some audiobooks or music for a while. But you're alone. I mean ah-lone. For all you know, it could stay like that for the rest of your life.

Fun Fact: They actually emptied
Times Square to shoot this.

So stop and imagine your city or town in a world where death comes swift and furious, taking humanity in one chilling wind, one moment there and within hours, gone. Imagine the empty art galleries and clothing stores and groceries, the beautiful gowns and hand-stitched linen suits left to moulder on hangers, the fine china and crystal all smashed and covered in dust.

The world, what's left of it, is yours. You can have everything or nothing. Somewhere out there, it all waits for you, the trappings of a life now lost.

Myself? I'd be picking my way through the rubble of my beloved Rose City toward Hawthorne Street, where the remnants of The Perfume House would await me. It might be the end of the world, but at least I would smell great. Seriously -- they'd have almost everything I could want.  L'Artisans, Guerlains, Chanels, Goutals, and more.  Resting in beautiful rows for me to make a day of before some sad fate befell me as well. I like to think, even in my most shell shocked, I'd still find beauty in things: a sunrise, a fresh apple, a supple leather, a beautiful perfume.

In the midst of perfect ruin, what perfume do you search for? What scent would you acquire now that all the perfume in the world is yours for the taking but no one else will ever appreciate?

Answer below to enter!  Winner will receive a copy of my October 2011 Mix CD, also known as "Music For Monster Lovers, Vol. 4," some fun Halloween themed goodies and a $15 gift certificate to Indiescents!


Comment by Monday, October 31, 2011 11:59 PM PST! Open to U.S. and International readers.

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FN1. My David is really tired of having conversations that begin with "If you died..." or, alternately, "If I died...." or, literally, "When a bioterrorist/supergerm zombie apocalypse descends..." I have been told on more than one occasion to stop asking questions about our potential deaths. Also, he actually put together a zombie preparedness kit in the closet to make me feel more secure. Moral of the story? I am super wacky, and he is super tolerant.

It's written in the starlight and every line on your palm.

There's so many different worlds, so many different suns.
And we have just one world but we live in different ones...

I'm in a strange place today, this first day of summer. I thought I would be so excited when the long summer days finally arrived, but as I sit here at 9:30 PST and the sky is not yet grown dark, I am ready for the darker days ahead.

Through these fields of destruction, baptisms of fire,
I've witnessed your suffering as the battles raged higher.

I was thinking about how it is Summer Solstice today, but just half a world away, it is also the coldest and darkest day. And it made me think about how small the world we share really is, how close we all are.

And though we were hurt so bad in the fear and alarm,
you did not desert me my brothers in arms.

It makes me wonder how we can be so cruel to one another, so ignorant and vindictive. But it also gives me hope that someday we will overcome our differences, which are really so small, and find a way to love one another, and the earth, and find ways to live together in peace.

Happy Solstice to all, winter or summer. May you find love and peace in the darkness and the light.

Some day you'll return to your valleys and your farms
and you'll no longer burn to be brothers in arms.
~ "Brothers in Arms," Dire Straits

Thanks to the men and women who serve.

My little brother, who at thirty-one years old will always be my 'little' brother, is currently deployed in Iraq.  He joined up for a lot of reasons, but at the end of the day, it had to do with a fundamental sense of duty.  He felt called to serve and protect.  

I am extremely grateful to him and to all those who serve and have served our nation.  I'd also like to take this opportunity to recommend to my readers a little documentary called "The Way We Get By" available to watch free on Hulu when last I checked, which I found extraordinarily moving. 

As a country, we owe more to our vets than they get from us.  Please consider that the next time you are thinking about who to vote for in an election.  Really ask yourself -- which of these candidates supports veterans programs, like affordable housing, job reintegration, mental health care and counsel, medical care, and education benefits? Then ask yourself if you could see leaving everything you have and all the people you love for years at a time to risk your life in service for any cause.  Then vote accordingly. 

Thank you.

Consider the lilies -- they don’t toil nor spin.

Scent Spotlight:  DSH Perfumes Kenya Lily

Consider the lilies -- they don’t toil nor spin,
and there’s not a king with more splendor than them.
Consider the sparrows -- they don’t plant or sow
but they’re fed by the Master who watches them grow...

I did not expect to do a scent spotlight this weekend, but sometimes pefume moves you. This is one of those times. DSH describes this perfume oil simply as follows: "A strong, bright, and intensely floral lily note."

Wow. It smells like lilies. That probably sounds so dumb and obvious, but so often we say a floral smells like a particular flower, when what we really mean is that is smells the way we expect the flower to smell when it's a perfume, not the way we expect the flower to smell when we put our face to a bouquet. And this really does smell like lilies. It smells like, well, Easter, in my mind. It smells like the resurrection and the life and the promise of unconditional love that we broken humans search for desperately every day of our lives.

I am about to take this to a totally unexpected and unfiltered place,  I guess.

David sent me this today...

First, my brother sent me a Valentine all the way from Iraq, and then I got this in the email:

Hope your significant otter is as lovely as mine.

Happy V-day!

Ten Great Date Movies & Perfumes to Match

Once upon a time, my lovely but somewhat romantically clueless husband convinced by best friend, Kate, to watch the movie The Crow by telling her it was a love story. Now I admit that love is clearly involved in the epic tale that is The Crow and is an overarching theme. But when the story is about a zombie arisen from the dead for a brief period because he is hellbent on torturing to death the evil people who killed him and his girlfriend so he can reunite with her beyond the grave, "love story" probably isn't the first thing that should spring to mind. And when it comes to romantic events, like say, Valentine's Day, you're looking for a date film that has the right mix of meet-cutes, romantic hijinks, minor challenges, and happily-ever-afters to make everyone feel happy and hopeful and, above all, not like they completely ruined their hair and make-up sobbing through half the film. To that end, I give you the following list of what I deem as appropriate films and their according romantic scent pairs. FN1.

1. The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, 1940) - A hilarious rom com about a couple of crazy kids in love who, after making every wrong choice available, finally get what they deserve -- each other. Guerlain Shalimar for Katharine Hepburn, who can even make being soused look elegant.

2. Sabrina (Billy Wilder, 1954; thought the 1995 Sydney Pollack remake is good, too) - A wealthy cynic attempts to seduce the girl from the wrong side of the servant's quarters in order to protect the family business and finds himself stuck with the one problem he can't pay someone to fix -- falling in love. Chanel No.5, because I like to think Sabrina found it while she was studying in Paris and brought it back to the house to seduce David, but in the end Linus bought her a bottle every year for their anniversary.

3. Breakfast at Tiffany's (Blake Edwards, 1961) - When a frivolous young woman meets an equally errant young man, they find that the only thing they are more afraid of than an honest day's work is being without one another. Patou Joy, for so many reasons, last but not least of which because the unassailably talented Ms. Hepburn is rumored to have worn it herself. FN2.

4. Hello, Dolly! (Gene Kelly, 1969) - When a widowed matchmaker is hired to make a marriage match for a dour old merchant, she decides to make a match for herself and goes about setting an entire town to falling in love while she's at it, in song. Guerlain Spiritueuse Double Vanille for Ms. Dolly Levy Vandergelder, who loved to eat and drink and make merry, and would like a scent that reflected her spirit.

5. Sixteen Candles (John Hughes, 1984) - A sixteen-year old girl thinks her life is over when her entire family forgets her sixteenth birthday, but ends up with the best birthday present of all -- the high school hunk of her dreams. Annick Goutal Quel Amour for darling Andy, who has to have one of the greatest film kisses of all time.

6. Dirty Dancing (Emile Ardolino, 1987) - When Francis "Baby" Houseman gets dragged to the Catskills for the summer with her parents, she doesn't imagine she will be taught by a dance instructor how to move with passion and grace...and also dance a little, too. S-Perfume 100% Love beause Baby, even after all of her summer lovin' still has that light and innocent feel to her, which is why Johnny loves her so much.

7. Singles (Cameron Crowe, 1992) - Love in the 1990s -- who the hell knows what that's supposed to look like? If you're looking for the intersecting group of love stories movie that inspired films like Love, Actually and Valentine's Day, look no further. Juliette Has a Gun Miss Charming, because Kyra Sedgewick and Bridget Fonda could have both worn it and still gotten their respective endings.

8. Sleepless in Seattle (Nora Ephron, 1993) - When an engaged woman hears a sad widower on the other side of the country tell a story of love and loss on the radio, she finds herself unable to ignore the feeling that he is exactly what she's looking for. How does she know? "Magic." Jo Malone Red Roses for the lovely and lovable Meg Ryan, who is both traditional and modern in this timeless romance.

9. Grosse Pointe Blank (George Armitage, 1997) - When professional assassin Martin Blank gets an assignment that takes him back to his old neighborhood just in time for his tenth high school reunion, he gets the opportunity to try to make up for the biggest mistake of his life: disappearing on prom night and abandoning the girl he has always loved. Creed Love in Black for Martin and Debbie, who deserve to ride off into the sunset.

And last but not least...

10. The Thomas Crown Affair (John McTiernan, 1999 remake) - A bored multi-millionaire pulls an art heist for entertainment and meets up with an art thief bounty hunter who makes him believe that life, and love, might be anything but boring. One of the sexist movies of the last two decades. Robert Piguet Fracas for Rene Russo to wear with that see-though golden dress she flaunts during the dance/seduction scene.

Honorable mention: Valley Girl (Martha Coolidge, 1983), Der Himmel über Berlin (Wim Wenders, 1987), When Harry Met Sally... (Rob Reiner, 1989), Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, 1991), A Life Less Ordinary (Danny Boyle, 1997), Lola rennt (Tom Tykwer, 1998), Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001), Elizabethtown (Cameron Crowe, 2005), Stranger Than Fiction (Marc Forster, 2006), Wall-E (Andrew Stanton, 2008).  FN3.  FN4.  FN5.

Happy Valentine's Everyone!
____________________________________
FN1: In anticipation of complaints, I want to say I explicitly left off the following films for the following reasons:

Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) - No one wants to watch a love story where the people don't end up together for Valentine's Day. Sorry, but no -- Louie and Rick don't cut it.

Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939) - See Casablanca, plus the crushing poverty, death and destruction of post Civil-War south in general and the burnination of Atlanta in particular. Persevering in the face of crushing obstacles might be inspiring, but it is not particularly romantic.

Ghost (Jerry Zucker, 1990) - Movies where people are dead but still in love are NOT GOOD date movies. Reuniting despite death, a la What Dreams May Come or Always, is a downer, people, not date material for this, the most romantic day of all days.

The Notebook (Nick Cassavetes, 2004) - De-press-ing. The Notebook is a very beautiful story but sobbing until you snot all over the sweater your date lent you doesn't make for a great date for Valentines.

Romeo + Juliet (Baz Luhrmann, 1996) - Again, they're dead! What is wrong with you people?!?

Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann, 2001) - Dead, dead, dead. And with sad dead person music!

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004) - They're caught in a break-up loop! Things can't even change the second time because they don't remember what went wrong with the first try so they can work on it. They're only going to crush each other again. NOT ROMANTIC.

500 Days of Summer (Marc Webb, 2009) - About a failed romance. FAILED. He calls the IRL girl a bitch in the opening credits. Not a love story -- says so right there in the voice over.

Juno (Jason Reitman, 2007) - Unless you're trying to get preggo, then starting a date night with this film isn't going to end up where you're trying to get, I'd wager.

An Affair to Remember (Leo McCarey, 1957) - They don't get together when they're supposed to midway through the film because she's hit by a bus. Sad. So sad. Just watch Sleepless in Seattle. You'll be better off, date-wise.

Wow, it appears I could have also done a "Movies to Watch on V-Day to Remind You That Sometimes Love Sucks And You're Better Off Single" list. With perfumes.

FN2. For an updated twist, may I suggest Hors de prix, starring Audrey Tatou, which I'd pair with CoCo Mademoiselle.

FN3. This is a really heterosexist list. I know that. I apologize. Maybe next year I can do an all-queer Valentine's list. Which doesn't really make-up for this year's and I'm sorry for that, again. My only excuse is that I'm too tired to rewrite it right now.

FN4. So apparently I'm also a xenophobe, since all my foreign choices ended up as honorable mentions and footnotes, when I could also do an entire list of foreign films in and of itself.  I'm sorry.  I'm very Oscar-focused right now, so I keep thinking "American Cinema, American Cinema."  Again, my apologies.

FN5.  Oh! I obviously watch a lot of movies.  You got that, right?

Oh, what can you do with a sentimental heart?

Scent Spotlight: L'Artisan Bois Farine EdT

As promised, this year as I sprint through five scents a week, I promised to pause on occasion to sing high praises for the occasional show stopper.  The first of these is inspired by that most commerical of lover's holiday -- Valentine's Day.

Here's what L'Artisan has to say about Bois Farine, a 2003 release:

Created by Jean-Claude Ellena, perfume composer of great talent and international fame, Bois Farine (Wood Flour) is the product of his encounter with a magic tree in the Reunion Islands. Here, in a forest known as the coloured wood forest, surrounded by evocatively named trees , red wood, yellow wood, iron wood and milk wood, he unexpectedly discovered the fragrant white tree - a rare and nowadays protected species, reputed to have magical powers. This tree is specific to Reunion Island and its red flower smells like flour.

Bois Farine is a single and unique fragrance, a magical union between witch wood and flower powder … As rich and fresh as flour rain.

Notes: white cedar, gaiacwood and sandalwood, white iris, farine flower, fennel seed

A ton of reviewers comment on an initial encounter with what they describe as a "peanut butter" note. My pretties, I am getting none of that, and I like peanut butter enough that you could probably still list a well-made  PB and J among my favorite foods, so I admit it was weirdly disappointing.

Instead I was bombarding my a fleeting litany of imagery I can only describe as Valentine-esque. I was so stunned by  the experience I actually set Bois Farine aside expressly for a very special February spotlight.  I'm on try four now, just to confirm my prior impressions, and if I were going to say that any scent seemed stereotypically Valentine's Day like to me, this would be it.  Here's what I get:

Slide 1: A little girl, light brown curls and cupid's bow lips, cutting a string of paper hearts from cheap red construction paper so faded it actually looks kind of sickly
Slide 2: A thin, almost severe looking woman with black hair tied into a bun in a black satin night gown before a large oval mirror on a dressing table, looking at her hollowed cheeks with an air of discerning judgement, then hitting herself smack in the face with a huge and overloaded powder puff
Slide 3: Tiny hands very carefully gluing, with WAY TOO MUCH glue, hearts cut from paper doilies onto purple paper with "HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY" printed very carefully across the top
Slide 4: A young woman exclaiming in cartoonesque excitment over flower delivery of completely silk flowers straight from the factory
Slide 5: a pre-teen flopping down on a bed, giant "Princess Leia" esque headphone on as she carefully writes out the tracks on the inside lines of a casette tape in smearing pastel glitter pens
Slide 6: A shower of red hots falling onto a glass bowl sitting on a well-floured surface, then pink frosted cupcakes being pressed, frosting down, into them until they are coated with red hots

I could go on.  My initial notes, which are really my immediate, unfiltered, stream-of-consciousness impressions read as follows:

Baby powder and lipstick, silk flowers and red hots.  If I were going to say that any scent seemed stereotypically Valentine's Day , this would be it.

Here I am three weeks and several tries later and I stand by it.  It's woody, but not in a pencil shaving way or an incense-y way like so many others.  It's sweet, but not overly so. I don't think of it as foodie, even though the immediate thought I have every time is red-laquered nails digging in a bin of  waxy holiday candy.  I think I keep getting red hots because it's cinnamon-flavored candies I keep thinking I'm smelling, and I don't think I've ever thought I smelled that in a scent before.  It's not precisely floral, either, but it still has a vaguely sweet floral scent.

So the big question: do I like it?  Bois Farine is a controversial scent when you look through other reviews. People either love it or hate it or cannot decide enough to say, which says a lot for its not smelling like anything else, and that alone is no mean feat.  Bois Farine was the first in the Far Away Travels line, and I have to appreciate the strange pace it set for what followed.  when it comes to the "Far Away Travels" series, which I personally either psychotically love (Timbuktu, Dzongkha) or find really disappointing (Havana Vanille). FN1  This one I'm putting tentatively  into the love category, which surprises me.  I do really like it, though, perhaps because of, instead of in spite of, its weirdness.  It's definitely a "try before you buy" scent; hell, you should probably try it twice.  Like Robin, I wish I could get it in a 15ml sprayer.  I think I'd wear it, but not often enough to merit 50ml.  15ml would be about perfect.  That, or I need to find another Bois Farine loving weirdo to do a split with me.

You can buy Bois Farine direct from the perfumer, as well as at Luckyscent, Beauty Encounter, Beauty Habit and I'm sure a ton of other places. The price? 50 ml for $95 and 100ml for $135, which let me tell you is a downright reasonable price point if this melts your butter.

"O-o-old habits die hard when you got,
when you got a sentimental heart .
Piece of the puzzle, you're my missing part.
Oh, what can you do with a sentimental heart?"
"Sentimental Heart," She & Him

Want more? Try...
~ a rare reconsideration from Robin at Now Smell This!
~ a review from Bois de Jasmine
~ a review from Aromascope
~ a review from Pere de Pierre
~ a review from Olfactoria's Travels, who looks like she started back in October and has a pretty good thing going

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FN1 Yeah, yeah, yeah, you all love it.  You seriously question my taste if I don't. Etc. Etc. Let the stoning begin.

Photo, and all attendant rights related to it: kristelyoneda.