With Love from the Link(wo)man!

Tomorrow is Valentine's, dear reader, and since I will be unavailable for most of the weekend due to out of town-ness, I bring you the following links of love and entertainment to keep you busy whilst I am away.

~ Any Valentine's Day perfume review round-up from around the netosphere would have to include this blog event from a group of lovely perfumers and bloggers who came together this week to offer the proverbial dozen roses for Valentine's Day by recommending rose-scented products to their readers. I could give you my list of roses, which would be long, but instead I'm going to give you my thoughts on their lists:

• I really like this list from Gaia at The Non-Blonde. I like the way she broke her list up, and I enjoyed the inclusion of "Vintage and goners" if only because they remind me to appreciate the perfumes I have; they won't always be available. The list is really good, too! Tauer Perfumes Une Rose Vermeille, Le Labo Rose 31, DSH Perfumes Rose Vert, and Aftelier Perfumes Wild Rose--oh my! I'm adding Providence Perfume Company Rose Boheme to my "To Try" list.

• Scent Hive has a great list, including one of my personal favorites, DSH Perfumes Dirty Rose.

• Ayala Moriel's SmellyBlog contribution includes a few familiar lovely delights--Rochas Tocade, Agent Provocateur--and a few items I am adding to my "To Try" list, in particular Jo Malone Rosewater & Vanilla and Velvet & Sweet Pea’s Purrfumery Kashmir Rose Whipped Body Butter.

• Perfume Shrine has the list that is probably the most similar to mine, and includes L'Artisan Parfumeur Voleur de Roses, Juliette Has a Gun Lady Vengeance, and L'Artisan Parfumeur Drôle de Rose, which I have full bottles of, and Tauer Perfumes Une Rose Chyprée, which I really should buy since I reviewed it glowingly twice.

• Ines of All I Am A Red Head, one of the loveliest reviewers I know, comes in with a list I am less familiar with, which makes me want to try them. I do like Worth Courtesan, though. It was one of my earliest rose loves.

• EauMG has an intriguing list that covers everything from perfume to tea to bubble bath to flavored syrup. I'll add yet another endorsement to Aftelier Perfumes Wild Roses which I can't believe I left out of my own Valentine's post, and Frédéric Malle Lipstick Rose.

• Katie Puckrik Smells also has a list with a lot of variety, including Jurlique Rose Hand Cream, which I love. Love, love, love. I need to order some more, in fact.

• Last but certainly not least, Roxana Villa of Roxana Illuminated Perfumes' contribution offers up a list one could only get from an all natural perfumer, and I love it:a list of her twelve favorite rose essences, as well as this curious link to a book entitled, How to Eat a Rose.

~ Also, because I myself have crashed my share of these organized events, I'm including The French Exit's list of rose scents for Valentine's Day. Thanks to Elisa for adding a few more "Must Trys" to my list!

~ In other perfume news, I f**king love this post from Angela at NST! about "Awful Perfume You Love." If you ever wanted to know my secret perfume shame, check the comments, dear reader. I confessed all.

In non-perfume related posting:

~ First up, I give you this hilarious (and yet somehow still creepy) video of Twin Peaks brought to you in the form of LEGOS! Yep. That's right, reader. Twin Peaks in Lego form. "Directed by Duplo Lynch and music by Angelo Brickalamenti." SPOILER ALERT if you have not seen the series.

 ~ In YA entertainment news, it appears Emma Roberts is set to play Lena in the Fox adaptation of Lauren Oliver's Delirium series.

I really like this series, both in concept and execution. I recall Emma Roberts was about as good in the Nancy Drew movie as she could have been given the material, so I'm hoping this pilot results in a pick-up for Fall.

~ Speaking of YA on the small screen, I saw that the CW's jettison pilot for Kiera Cass' The Selection is getting a reshoot. I haven't read the book yet (on my To Read list despite the epic GoodReads controversy/fiasco -- Google it if you're interested because I don't really want to link to/go into it), but I'm surprised it's getting a reshoot for a couple of reasons.

• First, CW's ratings for Vampire Diaries have been taking a beating lately. (I feel like I'm a Hobson's choice when it comes to ratings, live viewing, and Community vs. TVD scheduled head-to-head.) FN1. With Gossip Girl retired, The Carrie Diaries premiered to disappointing ratings, and the ratings for 90210 have also been weak. We all watched The Secret Circle crash and burn last season, and Life Unexpected ate itself as well 2010-2011. I'm wondering how much time and money the CW is willing to give teen-oriented material considering the success/failure rate.

• Second, Arrow has performed--for a CW show--better than expected and Beauty and the Beast is likely to be renewed based on its current ratings. Both of those shows tend to skew older than TVD and TCD. The backdoor pilot for TVD spin-off The Originals is already in the pike and I expect it to skew toward that same slightly older demo. If The Originals is a hit, I am doubly skeptical they'll be willing to sink money into a teen drama for Fall 2013.

• Thirdly, Cynthia Hand's Unearthly series was in development with the CW, but that project has since fizzled, and it is a wildly different series from The Selection. I get the vibe that CW wants to find another YA-novel-series-to-TV hit. I think they can't figure out what they're looking for, and they are kind of hitting all over the grid. If the real commitment is to trying to hit the moving target of 'of the moment' taste, that doesn't make for a high probability The Selection will make it, because I don't know how committed the developers of the series or the network execs are to making it work.

• Last, I also think the CW execs are critically underestimating that sometimes it isn't the source material that makes a show work; sometimes its the TV writing that makes the show work. (Cough! TVD! Cough, cough!) Just because Dystopian books are sohottrightnow doesn't mean making a dystopian-book-based series is going to work. It has to have good writing and a committed cast. You don't have to take my word for it; just look at the difference in performance between TVD in its target demo vs. Moonlight, both of which launched in the midst of Twilight-renewed vampire mania.

Wow. I did not know I had so many opinions about the CW programming at the moment. Moving on.

~Speaking of CW programming, my incredibly sweet friend Cara pointed me toward these virtual CW Valentine's cards featuring their male stars.  And while I'm all for upgrading my relationship with Ian SuperSmolder to "It's complicated," I'm a little peeved they didn't have cards featuring their female stars, too. Lovers of ladies don't deserve V-Day images? Does CW think it's only objectification if women are involved? Because new flash: you can definitely objectify men, and doing so does not mean we've reached 'gender equality.' As a lover of women as well as men, I'd have appreciated a Claire Holt option...or a Candice Accola option...or a Willa Holland option....

~ Did anyone see how #TellAFeministThankYou trended for basically an entire day on Twitter this week?  All trolling aside, it turned out pretty great.

~ In radio-oriented entertainment, I was introduced to the hilarious and hilariously named Irrational Public Radio. If you have any familiarity with NPR whatsoever, you are going to laugh so hard at this. They completely nailed both the tone as well as the voice acting.

~ In feminist things that delight me, let me direct your attention to The Hawkeye Initiative. What is THI? I'll let their explaination tell you all you need to know: "A blog with Clint 'Hawkeye' Barton being placed in the same provocative, female poses that are featured in superhero comics." Yeah. That is happening, and it is awesome.

~ Last, because it's Valentine's Day, I'll leave you with this animated short from Disney, Paperman. Paperman is a small romantic treat, like a satisfying piece of candy. Watch it and consider it my V-Day gift to you.

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FN1. As I wrote this, TVD, Arrow, and Supernatural all got renewed early. YAY for TVD fans everywhere. But seriously? Supernatural got another season? I, for one, am shocked. Not because of the ratings, but because I feel like they ran out of story about a season ago. I loved the early seasons, but at this point Sam and Dean's bickering over their trust issues feels like a character development fail. It would be nice to see them do something--anything--else.

Observe the blood, the rose tattoo, of the finger prints on me from you.

Aftelier Perfumes Wild Roses EdP

Dear reader:

I am currently captivated by a song called "Marlene On the Wall." Suzanne Vega wrote it about a poster of Marlene Dietrich she kept on her bedroom wall, and what Marlene might think of Vega's life if Marlene could talk. It is an intriguing song about the elegant and coldly beautiful Dietrich's observation of Vega being her own worst enemy in love:

Marlene watches from the wall.
Her mocking smile says it all
as she records the rise and fall
of every soldier passing.
The only soldier now is me.
I'm fighting things I cannot see.
I think it's called my destiny
that I am changing.

The song is about a woman with serious trust issues, a woman who's inability to connect is makes it impossible to know when/if she's met someone she can really trust. Though she seems to be breaking out of this pattern, it is unclear how that will effect her current relationship. I've listened to the song more than a dozen times, and I settled on two different and conflicting meanings.

In the one sense, Vega seems to be unable to reach beyond her own boundaries, the walls she constructs for emotional safety, to reach a deeper connection. The song seems to ask if she will be able to muster to the courage to be vulnerable with her current paramour, to allow him to reach into the heart of her, not keep him at arm's length.

My second reading is of a woman who cannot break out of a bad pattern with a man she loves, but whom she remains in a self-destructive loop with. Whether that loop is one she repeats with different men who are all lacking in the same specific way or the same man she can't break free of seems ambiguous. The point is that, whomever the soldier(s) is/are, he is interested in Vega for her body only, and Vega cannot keep herself from falling into bed with a man/men who have no interest in her beyond what he/they can get from her physically.

I love the tension in the song. Will she be able to love? Will she think well enough of herself to demand love in return? If she is changing, is it for good or for ill? The narrative arch, left unresolved, allows the song to contain both hope and hopelessness in tension, both the bitterness of betrayal and the disappointing knowledge that one has allowed oneself to lose something potentially stunning out of fear.

I also enjoy the (admittedly mildly) feminist overtones I find lurking in the text.

"Don't give away the goods too soon," is what she might have told me.

I consider myself a sex positive feminist. I generally think that talking about sex clearly with your partner is good, that reproductive freedoms are fundamental, and that shaming people around sex is counterproductive to health and safety. At the same time, I think it's worth admitting that, emotionally and physically, we have a tendency to give ourselves away sometimes thoughtlessly to people who neither respect or deserve what we have to offer. I think women in general are often inclined to do this for a variety of reasons that revolve around the historical commodification of women's bodies, mass media messages about beauty image that are anathema to self-esteem, and competing messages about the value of virginity and the desirability of sexual prowess. There is something to be said for thinking highly enough of yourself to believe - regardless of whether this is your first, fifteenth, or fiftieth partner - that you are worth of love, attention, admiration and respect on your own terms. Virginity isn't magical, but human intimacy is a valuable experience, and not one worth wasting, as Laini Taylor's surrogate father Wishbone so accurately puts it in the terrific YA novel Daughter of Smoke and Bone, on "inconsequential penises." Or inconsequential partners, for that matter.

I like the idea that Marlene Dietrich, if she could talk to Suzanne Vega, would tell her, "if he's using you, don't give in, or at least have the good sense to be aware of what he's using you for." I always think of it as the Norma Jean approach to navigating the sexual pitfalls of modern pop culture commodification. You only have two options: don't play at all, or decide what you want to get out of it and play on your own terms. While I find it odious that the world constantly decides a woman's value based, at least in part, on sex appeal, I have a hard time telling the girl who would be Marilyn that she's a sell out for attempting to harass her own sexual agency for benefit and profit. Instead, I'd rather tell her to keep in mind that you have to know what your giving and what you're getting in return, and you better be sure it's worth it it in the end. Also, stay away from the Kennedys.

What does all this have to do with Mandy Aftel's new perfume, Wild Roses, well, in my mind, a lot actually.

If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times: I love rose scents. Roses and vanillas are the two kinds of scents you can almost bank on my running toward. As a result, I've smelled a lot of roses on the market at a lot of different price points, from low dollar minis of Demeter Fragrances Pruning Sheers to L'Artisan Voleur de Roses and Drole de Rose to niche scents like Teo Cabanel Oha, Agent Provocateur EdP, and Juliette Has a Gun Lady Vengeance to true independents like DHS Perfumes Beach Roses and the now sadly defunct American Beauty. And that's just naming the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Name a rosy category -- patchouli roses, dirty roses, leather roses, powdery roses, realistic roses -- and I've probably got a fav or two.

So when I tell you Mandy Aftel has created in Wild Roses an inventive take on the rose that might merit the creation of a new subcategory, it's worth taking note. Aftelier Perfumes describes Wild Roses as follows:

I wanted to capture in perfume the experience of walking around my garden and smelling each rose, as their perfumes blended in my nose. Wild Roses perfume evokes the garden in our imagination and memory -- the book of a hundred petals unfolding: balsamic, spicy, apricot, and honeyed roses, mixed with the smell of warm earth and herbs.

The apricot-rose heart is perfectly rooted in a base of tarragon absolute -- its herbal round anise aroma giving a nuance of both earth and leaves. The balsamic vanilla absolute and the whiskey-ness of aged patchouli support tarragon’s warm, powdery aspect. Indole contributes the almost animal aspect of ripeness in a rose. The heart is punctuated by pimento berry, lending its nuances of clove, ginger, and cinnamon. The candied-orange flower aroma of methyl methyl anthranilate, the soft powdery floral of heliotropin, and the slightly floral citrus of bergamot contribute a modern freshness to the opening.

Top: rose CO2, heliotropin, bergamot, geraniol, m-methyl anthranilate, damascenone.
Heart: apricot, Turkish rose absolute, pimento berry, p-ethyl alcohol, rose petals attar.
Base: tarragon absolute, vanilla absolute, indole, aged patchouli.

Upon application, Wild Roses is a sweet, dark cocktail of rose petals swirling in a sweet berry liqueur and strong shot of vodka. Slightly stringent or medicinal, this largely candied opening slides across the olfactory palette like a good drink or a terrible poison, the kind one imagine was concocted by a dark Queen with a serious grudge. It is a kind of biting sweetness, a traditional beauty that cuts, the thorn of the proverbial rose that, pricking a finger, sends one off to a dark sleep. As it ages on the skin, the medicinal aspect fades, leaving a berry-oriented jammy rose.

Wild Roses has a realistic quality, but clearly isn't meant to be exactly like a smelling a rose. It's more wearable than sticking a bloom in your hair. It's a rose plus a sweetness that draws you closer so it can take a bite. It manages to be both pretty, strong, alluring, and vulnerable, but without the direct sexiness of a patchouli rose or the delicate femininity of a powdered rose. 

Lots of terrific samples!

And the reason I told you that whole thing about Suzanne Vega and her Marlene Dietrich poster and my general sex positivity being tempered with a desire that we simultaneously promote sex respect is this: Every time I tried Wild Roses, I heard the song in my head. I imagined this vulnerable woman acting tough and trying to protect herself from being hurt and acting like she doesn't care when she really does, and this is what she smells like.

Beautiful. Vulnerable. Strong.

It's a heartbreakingly lovely audiolfactory experience.

So let's all welcome the new world of the candied rose! It's decidedly worth trying. Wild Roses EDP is available direct from the perfumer in 30ml for $170. Samples can be purchased $6.

And even if I am in love with you,
all this to say:
What's it to you?
Observe the blood, the rose tattoo,
of the finger prints on me from you....

Other evidence has shown
that you and I are still alone.
We skirt around the danger zone
and don't talk about it here.

I tried so hard to resist
when you held me in your handsome fist
and reminded me of the night we kissed
and why I should be leaving.
Marlene on the wall...

___________________
In the interests of full disclosure: this perfume sample was provided by the perfumer.

Saved by Steampunk: BPAL The Obsidian Widow

Yesterday I walked into the student lounge outside my apartment and was immediately taken with the scent roses, patchouli, and tobacco smoke. "Who smells so good?" I wondered. Turned out my friend Hilary was there, looking all awesomely steampunk and smelling terrific. FN1. "What are you wearing?," I asked/demanded.

What was she wearing? Dare I tell you? Something steampunk, of course! It was Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab The Obsidian Widow. The scent is described as follows:

 

Tinkling tiny feet scuttle across a massive oak desk, navigating through a flurry of papers and a maze of discarded books, wires, and bolts. Glistening green venom beads at its chelicerae, and a ruby hourglass flashes from the creature's underbelly as it begins to weave.  

Notes: Pinot noir, dark myrrh, red sandalwood, black patchouli, night-blooming jasmine, and attar of rose.

The scent is terrific, a total knock out. All night long I kept sniffing at her and sighing. The Black Widow was a strong smooth patchouli rose with strong jasmine and sandalwood notes. I don't own it, or have a sample, so I can't tell you how it stacks up against other scents with similar notes like L'Artisan Parfumeur Voleur de Roses, Juliette Has a Gun Lady Vengeance, or Frederic Malle Une Rose. All I can tell you is that the smell of it was pretty and it made me happy.

I've been struggling for a while now. I keep smelling good things but I am having a hard time finding new words to describe them. New ways to explain to you the happiness I feel with I ind a particularly nice scent, even when I don't have new words to describe it. I kept trying to talk to you, and feeling like what I have to say is not good enough. I kept starting and never finishing, doubt defeating my feeble words and dumb, numb fingers over and over. I think I'm done with that, now. I never thought I'd say these words (outside of some piece of fiction, anyway) but The Black Widow freed me. So I'm going to tell you what I can about what I'm smelling and what I like and how pretty it is in the best way I know how, and you'll have to take what I have to say with all the authority I have ever had: none whatsoever, sans my own perfumey wanderings.

Yep. I'm back, friends. Thanks for waiting for me.

The Obsidian Widow is a perfume oil, and is available in a 5ml bottle for a mere $17.50, available direct from the perfumer here. The stuff is very strong, so a little goes a long way. In gratitude for to BPAL and The Black Widow, I'm thinking of buying some myself.
_______________________

FN1. Seriously, she looks camera ready for a spontaneous photo shoot all! the! time! -- I'm convinced she probably even looks awesome when sleeping. Two days ago she was rocking a purple hat with a giant white and purple plume on it, and she did not look ridiculous, she looked awesome!

Who can do that? Not me, let me tell you. But Hilary? She looks kind of like this girl on the right every single day. She wears pirate boots without irony, works them like she's working a catwalk, and then pulls her keys or a knife from them at convenient moments, for like cutting up an apple or opening a door. She's more like a comic book superhero than the college student she masquerades as.

In fact, maybe she is.

Images from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab and Pegasus Inn, respectively.

Mrs. LaClette's Roses

Short Fiction Inspired by & Review of Demeter Fragrance Library Pruning Shears 

     “I do not like it.”

     Snick, snick, snick! went the pruning shears in Mrs. Lureen Ann LaClette’s gloved hand. 

     “Well, Momma, you don’t have to like it,” Ruby said with a sigh. “Because it’s happening whether you like it or not.”

     Snick, snick, snick! was the response.

     “I just do not see how he can do this to me,” Lureen heaved dramatically, wiping nonexistent sweat from her brow with the back of her glove.

     “He’s not doing it to you, Momma. He loves her. He wants us to meet her.  I think…,” Ruby hesitated. “I think he’s gonna marry her.”

     Lureen whirled around mid-snick! “He will do no such thing!” She panted.  Turning back to the rose bush, she freed the fallen stem she’d left hanging half-trimmed with another loud snick! and placed it in the top of the large basket on her arm before moving to the next bush. 

     “Momma, what exactly is your objection to her, anyway?” Ruby asked hesitantly, fearing the next thing to get deadheaded in the garden would be her.

     “She’s just…” Lureen spluttered as she went at the next bush with the shears like an angry badger after a piece of good wood.  “She’s not like us.”

     “Meaning…”

      Lureen looked at her daughter in exasperation. “We do not know this girl.  She is not from around her. Who are her parents? What do they do? You know she’s not even Baptist? Your brother is bringing home a Catholic girl, Ruby Mae. A Catholic.” Lureen spit this last bit like the very word left a foul taste in her mouth, attacking the bush renewed vengeance.  

     “First of all, she’s not Catholic.  She’s Lutheran.”

     “As if, that makes a difference,” Lureen muttered.

     “Well,” Ruby said evenly, “I suspect it does to the Lutherans.”  Lureen shot Ruby a traitorous look, but Ruby ignored her. “Secondly, of course she’s not from around here.  He went to school over a thousand miles away.  Did you really expect that when he met someone they would come from a family down the block?”

     “I don’t know what I expected,” her mother huffed, moving across the broad walk to the next section of the garden where she began to maim her fourth flower bed of the afternoon. 

     Lureen Ann LaClette’s prize winning roses were legendary in Meridian, Mississippi, and her garden was her pride and joy, having won every floral and landscaping distinction in the state, including an unprecedented three straight titles as Reine de Roses from the Ladies Auxiliary of the Lauderdale County Beautification Society.  The fact that Lureen had cut more flowers in one afternoon than she probably did in the previous month was a true testament to how much Jonah’s announcement he was bringing a guest home to meet the family had shaken her, and Lureen Ann LaClette was not a woman whose feathers were easily ruffled.  Lureen prided herself on being as perfect a representation of good Southern breeding as her roses, and she’d raised Ruby and Jonah to follow in her elegant footsteps. 

     Ruby suspected she knew what was really bothering her mother, but she didn’t want to be the one to bring it up, so she quietly watch as her mother went on massacring the rose bushes.  Perching primly on the edge of the wrought iron bench nearby, Ruby examined her nails and waited.  She knew eventually Lureen would work herself up into a tizzy and confess all, no matter how indelicate, and it was better that happen before Jonah and his girlfriend arrived. In fact, Ruby felt confident that in approximately three-two-one—

     “And,” her mother spun around to face Ruby, pruning shears waving wildly, “she’s going to be an architect!”

     Ruby stifled a smile. “What’s wrong with that?”

     “What kind of girl wants to be an architect?” Lureen demanded, pointing the shears at Ruby for emphasis. “And not wants, dreams! Jonah said she’d always dreamed of being an architect! What kind of little girl dreams of being an architect instead of a princess or a ballerina?”

     “One that wants to build things?” Ruby asked blandly and her mother narrowed her eyes in response.  “So she wants to be an architect.  Momma, who cares?  She’s educated and she’ll have a good job. “

     “Which means I’ll never get any grandchildren.”

     Ruby rolled her eyes. “Momma, that is the craziest thing you have said yet.”

     “No, it is not,” Lureen threw down the shears in a huff, and they stuck in the ground blade down perilously close to her shoe.  Lureen didn’t notice. “Girls with career don’t want to be mothers. They’re making their husbands stay home. I saw it on The View.”

     “Don’t you think you should wait until you meet her before you decide if she’s good enough to be the mother of your grandchildren?”

     “I don’t have to meet her, Ruby Mae,” Lureen wailed, hand pressed over her heart in true Scarlett O’Hara fashion. “A mother just knows.” 

     Lureen flung herself down on the bench next to Ruby as if the weight of her burden were too much to bear any longer.  “I just don’t know,” she heaved wearily, looking at Ruby from the corner of her eye to make sure her daughter was watching, “what I did to deserve this.”  Lureen rolled her eyes heavenward as if accusing God himself of personal betrayal.

     “Momma,” Ruby said, trying to hide her exasperation, “why don’t you just say what’s really bothering you?” Lureen responded with an innocent, questioning look. “You don’t like where she grew up, do you?”

      “Ruby Mae!” Her mother said, glancing around as if someone might hear them.  “How can you say such a thing?”

     “Because it’s the truth and you know it!” Ruby said pointedly.

     “Alright, fine,” Lureen replied.  “You’re right. I’m sorry. I know it’s old-fashioned, but that is how I was raised.  I just never expected that when your brother finally brought someone home to meet the family he’d be bringing – a Yankee.” Lureen whispered this last bit as though it was a dirty word and deadly disease all in one.

     “Jesus Christ, Momma—"

     “Ruby Mae LaClette!” If Lureen could make herself pass out for dramatic effect, this would have been the moment.

     “I’m sorry, Momma.  I’m sorry.  I apologize, Lord, for taking your name in vein,” Ruby said grumpily, but her mother continued to look thoroughly scandalized. “It is two thousand and eleven.  Two THOUSAND and eleven.  Being born north of the Mason-Dixon line is not a crime.  It never was.  I love you, but if that is what is really bothering you, you have to get over it.” Ruby looked at her watch. “By my count, you’ve got about ten minutes.”

     Ruby stood up to leave, feeling she’d done her part to spare her brother and his girlfriend the brunt of her mother’s theatrics, for which Ruby felt her brother owed her greatly. 

     “That’s not the reason,” her mother said softly, and Ruby looked down in surprise.  Lureen Ann LaClette, who had not cried even at her own mother’s funeral two months earlier, had tears in her eyes. 

     “Then what is it?” Ruby narrowed her eyes, expecting her mother to come up with some last ditch crazy reason to dislike a girl Ruby suspected was probably very nice if Jonah thought enough of her to bring her all the way from Chicago.

     “What did I do wrong?” Her mother sniffed, gazing forlornly at her gloved hands.  “If that’s the kind of girl your brother wants to spend his life with, then what must he think of me?”

     Of all the possible ways Ruby had expected Lureen to make this all about her, this had not been anywhere on the list. “What do you mean, Momma? Jonah loves you. We both do.”

     “I know that, Ruby Mae,” her mother said as Ruby took her seat on the bench again.  “I know you love me.  I just worry your brother may not…like me very much.  Or maybe his friend won’t.” Ruby opened her mouth to protest, and Lureen shook her head as she pulled off her gloves wearily. “I didn’t go to college.  I never worked.  I never left this house, except to take you and Jonah to school and your lessons."

     “And we appreciate it, Momma,” Ruby said, taking her mother’s hand in her smaller ones.

     “I know, Baby,” Lureen patted Ruby’s hand.  “I know you do.  But I’ve spent my whole life being a wife and a mother.  I’m proud of the job I did raising you kids with your daddy gone for work all the time.  But I’m an old woman now.  You kids are grown. And all I’ve got to show for my life is this big empty house and my roses.” Lureen looked down at the basket, only now registering with horror the amount of stems she’d cut. 

     “Momma,” Ruby said, squeezing her mother’s hand to draw her attention away from the flowers.  One crisis at a time, Ruby thought. “Just because Jonah may someday marry a girl who wants to work and have a career doesn’t mean we don’t realize how lucky we are to have had a mother as dedicated as you. And we're not for sure that Jonah’s marrying her.”

     “He’s bringing her home,” Lureen said plaintively and Ruby sighed in response.  “I just don’t know what I could possibly have to say to a girl like that, Ruby Mae.”

     “Just be nice, Momma.” Ruby patted her mother’s hand. “That’s all Jonah wants.”

     “I’ll try,” Lureen said with all the enthusiasm of a kid on the way to the dentist.

     “Momma?” a male voice called from inside the house.  “You out here?”

     “Well, try harder,” Ruby hissed to her mother, standing. “Because here they come.”

     A tall athletic boy strode into the middle of the garden, followed by an equally tall, willowy girl with long brown hair walking uncertainly behind him.  She carried her large purse carefully with both hands, as though trying to protect the contents from being squashed or damaged.

     “Jonah!” Ruby exclaimed, throwing her arms around her brother to cover her mother’s slowness to greet them.  “And you must be Emily. I’m Ruby, Jonah’s beautiful and talented sister. I’m sure he’s told you all about me.”

     Jonah smirked. “About how you can’t carry a tune in a bucket and constantly trip over your own two feet?”

     Ruby slugged him good-naturedly in the shoulder. “Lies,” she whispered to Emily.

     “Hey Momma,” Jonah said, stepping around Emily to hug his mother.

     “Oh, my baby boy’s come home!” Lureen cawed, hugging him tight in her thick arms and swinging them both back and forth. Jonah extracted himself from the prolonged hug, and took a step back.
     “Momma,” he placed a hand on the small of the girl’s back and pushed her forward, “this is Emily Smythe-Owens.”

     “It is nice to meet you, Mrs. LaClette,” Emily said, shyly extending her hand. 

     Lureen hesitated, and Ruby gave her mother a sharp look, then looked pointedly at Emily’s hand.

     Lureen seized it with an energy that was just a little too rich to be genuine. “It’s nice to meet you…Emily.  I hope you’ll enjoy staying with us.” Ruby frowned behind Jonah’s back, but Jonah didn’t seem to notice.

     “Momma, do you have any empty pots?” Jonah asked. “And some soil?”

     Lureen shot him a perplex look. “Of course, Sugar.  What size do you need?” Lureen turned toward the small storage shed in the corner of the sprawling yard where she stored various gardening implements and supplies.

     “Something small,” Emily said, reaching into her large purse and pulling out a crepe myrtle clipping, which had a plastic baggie full of water rubber-banded tightly to the bottom. “I want to pot this clipping and see if I can get it to root.  We don’t have crepe myrtles at home and it’s hard to get it to grow in our climate, but I’m hoping I can get it big enough to transplant in a pot back at school and then give it to my mother for the holidays.”

     If Ruby was stunned, you could have knocked Lureen over with a feather.  “Do you like flowers, Emily?” Ruby asked with eager interest. 

     “Of course she does!”  Jonah hooted.  “What would you expect from someone who’s studying to be a landscape architect?”

     “A landscape architect?” Ruby raised an eyebrow at her mother, who looked equally surprised.

     Emily nodded.  “I've loved plants and flowers since I was a little girl. I’m hoping to design public parks and botanical gardens someday like Beatrix Farrand.” Emily squinted in the direction of one of the rose beds.   “Are those hybrid teas? I don’t think I recognize all these varieties.”

      Jonah smiled at the girl, and his eyes glowed with affection. “My momma has the best roses in all of Mississippi.” He turned toward Lureen, and look he gave her was equally admiring. “Don’t you, Momma?”

      Lureen Ann LeClette glowed positively pink with pride. “I don’t know about all that,” she demurred with obviously false modesty.

      “Would you mind giving me a tour?” Emily asked.

      “Darlin’, it would be my pleasure,” Lureen said sincerely as she took Emily by the arm and began leading her around the enormous backyard.

      Ruby collapsed onto the bench in relief as soon as their backs were turned.

     “What’s your problem?” Jonah inquired, taking the seat next to her.

     “Never mind,” Ruby said to her brother as she threw her arm across her face. Going twelve rounds with her mother always wore Ruby out. “Turned out to be nothing.”

      Jonah chuckled, stretching his arm across the back of the bench behind her, the picture of relaxation. “That’s your problem, Ruby.  You can make a mountain out of a mole hill.”

      Ruby dropped her arm from her face and fumed at Jonah, who took that as the sign to make his exit. “Don’t worry about it.  It’s not your fault.” He said as he headed off toward the corner of the yard where his mother and girlfriend were deep in conversation. “You’re just like Momma.”

I want your leather-studded kiss in the sand.

Perfume Challenge Week 23: Monday, 6/20/11, to Friday, 6/24/11

Whew! It's been a busy week and quiet weekend for me since I'm headed out of town next weekend.  Where to, you ask?  Well I just got my very first passport and shiny passport card, so I am headed to Victoria, B.C. for part of the weekend.  I'm also dropping by my favorite vampire-ridden Washington town for Independence Day festivities.  I mean, who doesn't enjoy a good old-fashioned frog jump? So this weekend is about work and projects and chores for the most part. I finished Lauren Kate's Passion, the recently released third book in the Fallen series, which I enjoyed, although the ending was not what I expected.  I also watched two of the three episodes of BBC's Sherlock, which I am lov-ing.  Whatever Sherlock's damage may be, that man is fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine.

I need to say two quick things about current events before I get to the reviews.  I am very happy that the fine state of New York has joined the ranks of those states to approve marriage equality for same-sex couples.  The arc of history truly does bend toward justice, and these days when it can sometimes be hard to remember that, a group of people will come through in a clutch and remind you of just how much we are capable of when learn to overcome our petty differences in favor of the things that unite us.

Simultaneously, I am very sad that Peter Falk has died.  He was an angel walking among men, but I'll always love him most as Columbo, a man who made beige trench coats cool and whose squinty-eyed demeanor was remarkably charming.  I hope he has found the peace now that eluded him so much in the last few years of his life.

In fact, here's a little musical interlude, in honor of our bumbling, beloved fallen member of the host.

When you're following an angel

Does it mean you have to throw your body off a building?

Somewhere they're meeting on a pinhead

Calling you an angel, calling you the nicest things

I heard they had a space program

When they sing you can't hear, there's no air

Sometimes I think I kind of like that and

Other times I think I'm already there.

Thank you Mr. Falk for reminding us that merely being human is sometimes worth the greatest of sacrifice.  Also, note to self, get tickets for that TMBG show this fall.  Okay, now we can move on to the perfume.

Monday: As part of The Midsummer Night's Dream event, I reviewed JoAnne Bassett Perfumes Night Queen.

Tuesday: Olympic Orchids Olympic Amber - This was originally formulated as a base for other perfumes, but it stands beautifully on its own. A rich amber scent full of natural labdanum ornamented with vanilla, benzoin, incense, resins, patchouli, and woods. A true oriental fragrance that will transport you on a jeweled magic carpet of olfactory delights. Let's say you wanted to like Guerlain Shalimar, but it was just too big and loud and floral, like your Aunt Earlene's taste in heavy curtains. This might make an excellent alternative. Where a person might find the former full of big loud floral prints loved by women with frizzy hair, here there is resin and dirt and decaying leaves and wet wood.

I, however, love Shalimar. As a descendant of the kind of women who love those curtains, who employ design firms like Sugarbakers Design to install them, I would love it for sentimental reasons even if it were all those garish things. That said, I personally find it fashionable and fun, and if there is big floral print, it's the kind you find on a tiny summer dress with a swishy full skirt and big Hepburn-style sunglasses. Haters gonna hate, but I don't care; Shalimar is still wonderful.

But I was here to talk about Olympic Amber. As a Shalimar lover, I love this, too. And I love it for the differences. This is a very naturally scented amber, an amber that derived from the earth and forest and sea, nestled in notes that make it feel like a jewel discovered there.


Holding Olympic Amber up against Shalimar and Beyond Kilian Love to my friend LillieMae, who has an affection for perfume that I would describe as in its infancy, but growing, she agreed that she could smell the strong vanilla/amber notes across the three. Her completely uninfluenced opinion was that she thought Shalimar was nice, wanted to eat Love, but the one she'd want to wear, actually wear as an expression of herself? Olympic Amber. I am inclined to agree; as strongly vanilla/ambers go, I'd like to wear this one, too. 3.5 of 5 nods.

Wednesday: Boadicea The Victorious Divine - Notes: Jasmine, mandarin, aldehydes, styrax, sandalwood. Primarily jasmine, the aldehydes are a wonderful blend here so this stays away from becoming a heavy floral and stays light and pretty. This is a wonderful floral scent for summer. It doesn't have the best staying power (about 4 hours) but that does mean it is excellent for summer weather. Also, you don't always want a floral to bloom so large that it feels like you're carry a virtual hedgerow in front of you. Sometimes, light floral is exactly what you want, particularly in a jasmine. 3.5 nods.

Thursday: As part of The Midsummer Night's Dream event, I reviewed The Scented Djinn Peaseblossom EdT.

Friday: Soivohle Cordovan Rose - Notes: leather, smoke, plum, rose. If I think of just one of the listed notes and close my eyes, I can find it here, right here, in the opening.

Unfortunately, the combination, if I'm not trying to pick out a particular note and just hit a whiff of the opening? Chewing tobacco. Yeah, that's right. Dip, snuff, chaw. Call it what you will -- my dad dipped, my brother used to dip, hell my great gramma and great aunt used to dip, that's how deep south my family roots go. Sadly, this makes the opener of what would otherwise be a hugely unique scent experience for me a complete bummer.

And that is terribly sad. Because, and once again I will drag my perfume machinations into this, when I made LillieMae smell it and then smell it again a half hour later, the middle and end of the drydown read as the smell of a wonderful old leatherbound book or a beautifully made leather couch with a vase of two dozen strongly scented roses on the end table next to it.

So basically it repulses me unfairly, when I would obviously otherwise love it. It would work beautifully on a man and makes an awesomely unconventionally attractive scent for a woman, the kind of woman who could pull off the outfit to the left, say with some matching boots. So, ignoring my weird associations with the opening, 4 or 5 nods for its uniqueness.

Winner of the Week: For me personally, Olympic Orchids Olympic Amber. That said, I think Divine and Cordovan Rose are every bit as good.

"You know that I want you
and you know that I need you.
I want it bad, your bad romance.
I want your love and
I want your revenge.
You and me could write a bad romance."
~ "Bad Romance," Lady GaGa

Love sticks, sweat drips.

Monday, 3/21/11, to Friday, 3/25/11

Sorry I'm late this week. It's been a writing heavy weekend. While I was chained to my writer's desk I noticed an email from Dawn Spencer Hurwitz (DSH) Perfumes. DSH is going through a website redesign and a Spring Cleaning, eliminating surplus stock and pairing down some of its lines. There is nothing I like less than figuring out I love a scent after it is no longer available, so this sort of sale scares the bejesus out of me. Thus, in honor of this talented perfumer, and never one to miss a sale, I dug through my sample box and pulled all the DSH scents I had but had yet to review. It was exactly five. Hence I welcome you to Challenge Week 12, a DSH Spring Cleaning week of reviews.

Monday: DSH Perfumes Acqua de Venezia (Italian Journey No. 1) - Top notes: Bergamot, Blood Orange (Israel), Galbanum, Lemon, Petitgrain; Middle notes: Red Fruits, Syringa; Base notes: Ambergris, Musk. Has a clean bitter edge to it. If you could suck on the pith of an orange and instead of citrus you got an essence of green that was also covered in pepper, you'd have something similar to this. I love it conceptually, but I just don't think I'd reach for it very often. A fond farewell item. 2 of 5 nods.

Tuesday: DSH Perfumes The sur l’Herbe (Tea No. 2) - Top notes: Bergamot, Lavender Flower, Lemon; Middle notes: Tarragon (Estragon), Green Tea, Verbena; Base notes: Brazilian Vetiver, Sandalwood Very lemon and verbena to start. The tarragon and tea, which on me reads kind of pepperminty, adds a weird sweet/sour thing, which is supported by the vetiver. I get basically no sandalwood, but as green herbal tea masculines go, its lovely. A fond farewell item. 3 of 5 nods.

Wednesday: DSH Perfumes The´ du Monde (Tea No. 3) - Top notes: Bergamot, Cassis Bud, Fig; Middle notes: Black Tea, Green Tea, White Tea; Base notes: Brazilian Vetiver, Sandalwood, Treemoss The open is a sweet liquoredresembled treat that made me run for the liquor cabinet, trying to place it. After several well-placed sniff, I determined that it most a mixture of Don Eduardo Anejo, a top shelf tequila that is aged in whiskey barrels, mixed with a tea spoon of honey and served warm. It gets a little of a green herbal quality in the drydown, but never loses it's hot, sticky, sweet and sexy charm. So much so that I am crushed it is a fond farewell item. A great option for warmer weather, get it while you can. 4 of 5 nods.

Thursday: DSH Perfumes Giardini Segreti (Italian Journey No. 3) - Top notes: Bergamot, Bitter Orange, Honeysuckle, Italian Neroli; Middle notes: Egyptian Rose Geranium, Gardenia, Grandiflorum Jasmine, Mimosa, Orris, Tuberose Absolute; Base notes: Amber, Ambergris, Galbanum, Musk Wow. If you like florals, particularly gardenia, you must try this. I've tried a lot of nice gardenia, but the amber and tuberose in this make it truly spectacular. Also a really nice summer option. 3.5 of 5.

Friday: DSH Perfumes Il Bacio di Firenze (Italian Journey No. 2) - Notes: iris, narcissus, jasmine, bergamot, musk, and hillside herbs This scent, the "Kiss of Florence," may not even be available anymore, which is too bad because it's very pretty. It's a green floral mixture, like flowers blooming out of a moss covered garden. I hope it gets resurrected, but but given that two Italian Journey scents are in the fond farewell category (No. 1 and No. 6) and No. 7 is also already disappeared, I have my doubts. 3.5 of 5 nods.

Winner of the Week: Another great week, but for me the winner is DSH Perfumes The´ du Monde (Tea No. 3), which I must run off to purchase immediately.

DSH Perfumes La Rose Fleurette (Rose No. 2), which I reviewed here, is also on the fond farewell list, so grab it now while you can. I already did.

You hit me once.
I hit you back.
You gave a kick.
I gave a slap.
You smashed a plate over my head.
Then I set fire to our bed.
~ "Kiss with a Fist," Florence + the Machine

I've been wanting to touch you since we met. You don't give a girl a chance to forget.

Jo Malone Red Roses

Sweet and neglected reader, it's been too long. It's always so hard to come back when I've been gone this long because I forget my train of thought.

So let me just jump in here in the middle and let's see where we end up, shall we?

I'm finally settled into the new job. It's boring, but better than no job. I got a new laptop. I bought some perfume, significantly changed my diet, made some new friends, some significant work on creative projects beyond this blog got done, took a fabulous solo weekend trip...

...it's been a busy few weeks.

But let's talk a little more about the perfume I bought. I bought two bottles from Jo Malone -- Pomegranate Noir, which I have a long held and seemingly unwaivering affection for, and Orange Blossom, a scent that surprised me when I reviewed it because I liked it more than I expected. I am pleased to say that I continue to enjoy them both post-purchase and I am happy to say I have no buyer’s remorse. In fact, the saleswoman at the downtown Nordstrom was so happy to sell me a bottle as a blogger thaat she plied me with about six 4ml sprayer samples, and made some interesting suggestions for layering the various scents.

Which brings me to the topic of this post – layering.

I’m of a very divided mind about layering. On the one hand, it opens up a world of scent combinations one might otherwise never experience. On the other hand, I feel very strongly that perfume is art, truly a real art form, and that layering subverts the artist’s true vision of the scent they intended to create and put out in the world. But on the gripping hand, it’s my perfume, bought with my money, and my scent wardrobe to wear, so if I want to expand it by buying scents and layering them, then who has the right to tell me not to, even me?

So, having never really tried layering since, quite frankly, there’s so much out there in the world standing alone and waiting for me to try it, experience it…judge it, that I never bothered. But I was having an adventure on my adventurous weekend, so I figured what the hell? They are small and easy to pack. It’s a weekend of weirdness, let’s get weird!

I received a sample of and Jo Malone Red Roses. I like Roses and try them a lot. As roses go, this one isn’t bad.  You might even call is "classic;" certainly some reviewers have.  To my mind, it just does not particularly stand out. The words I’d use to describe it are “average” and “unremarkable.” In a world heavy with remarkable, unique, innovative roses, that might as well be a condemnation. However, when I layered it with CB I Hate Perfume’s Black March, it was a delightful experience. Now, honestly, most of the uniquenesss to the combination came from the CB scent, but in this case it was a good thing. I can’t imagine layering Black March with Teo Cabanel Oha, L’Artisan Voleur Rose, Juliette Has a Gun Miss Charming, or Agent Provocateur, just to name a few. But the general unremarkableness of Red Roses, much like it’s bland name, made it a great compliment to Black March, like burying your face in a blooming bush, not in sunny summer, when it’s easy to stop to smell the roses, but in the cold, creeping wetness of winter, when appreciation is hard won and, perhaps correspondingly, more deeply felt.


I don’t know if I’ll end up buying a bottle of Red Roses. I doubt it. But I have loved the experience of seeing Black March in a new way, and that was worth quite a lot to me. Plus, I’ll probably forever associate the combination with my trip, and that might make it worth owning both.

What do you think, dear reader? Layering -- an invitation to bliss or a crime against the art of scent? Is a bottle of unremarkable worth owning if it’s really only good for sentimental reasons and because it’s association with a higher quality scent? I think it will end up falling into that category of "would love to get a bottle as a surprise gift, but don't think I'd go out to buy it for myself" category.

Inquiring minds want to know.

P.S. And just so you don’t think me a tease, I will get to trip specifics. In another post, which I promise will come as soon as I can write it down and convince Blogger to cooperate.

You can buy Jo Malone Red Roses in a 30ml for $55 or 100ml for $100 direct from Jo Malone and in a number of department stores. If you are a PDX local, I'd suggest hitting the Jo Malone counter at the Pio Square Nordstrom. You can tell the lovely woman, whose card I have tragically lost, that I sent you for a layering lesson.

"You came up behind me, grabbed my wrists in the dark
And said, 'Don't look at what you can't see.'
Now all night, all night.
I've been looking for you all night.
All night. All night.
I've been looking for you all night..."
- "All Night," Sam Phillips
( You can listen to the song here)

Want more? Try...
~ an incredibly comprehensive guide to roses including this one from Muse in Wooden Shoes
~ a review from The Scented Salamander
~ a mention from I Smell, Therefore I Am
~ a review from Scentsibility
~ a review from Bees Who Buzz
~ a review from We Heart This!
~ a review from Brainspam

You strike with dry poison; I am possessed.

SOTD: More thoughts on Tauer Perfumes Une rose chyprée

Hilariously, I realized after writing this review and posting it that this is my SECOND TIME reviewing Une rose chyprée. The first review is here. I'm leaving this posted, though, because I honestly think Une rose chyprée is good enough to deserve double the raves. Think of this as a reflection on the scent of the day, since Une rose chyprée is what I am wearing.

. . . . . . . .

At the other end of the rose spectrum from DSH Perfumes la Rose fleurette (Rose No. 2), you have Andy Tauer's rose creation, Une rose chyprée, the first in a line called "The Mémorables." According to the perfumer

All of [The Mémorables] are like a praline: I offer them in small 15 ml flacons and all are bottled and packed by hand. They are delicate and precious and truly hand made in Switzerland. The Mémorables are fragrances that I compose around hard to get, outstanding, traditional materials. They are rich in essential oils and absolutes.

Une rose chyprée is an oriental rose on a chypre base. It is an elegant perfume built around two natural extracts from rosa damascena: The absolute and the steam distilled essential oil. 15 ml Rose chyprée contains one pound of fresh rose petals, steam distilled in the traditional way.

Its heart is lifted by spicy Bay and hot cinnamon and a fresh accord built around bergamot, lemon and Clementine essential oils. Green Bourbon geranium oil lets the rose petals shine and contrasts with the dark resinous accord in the base, built around labdanum, oak moss, patchouli, vetiver and vanilla.

The immediate rose note is overwhelmed quickly by the hot, spicy, medicinal scent. "Dark, resinous accord" is right; somehow Andy, that genius, has made a rose where I smell the rose, I smell the vanilla, I smell the geranium, but balanced with the spices and labdanum, it becomes the most muscular rose I've ever smelled. Like so many of Tauer's creations, I have never smelled anything like it. Une rose chyprée is wholly original, and I make it a point to stop and smell the roses (in life and perfume) when I have the opportunity. It's warm. It's hot. It's spicy. And yet, it also somehow smells like a wonderful hard candy, held in the mouth until it melts, slowly, all over your tongue, oozing into the different corners, so that you get the different aspects of the taste -- spicy, sweet, tangy -- over and over again. If it were a lip color, or better yet, a nail polish, it would be red, brown, black, and gold all at once, depending on how the light hit it. Over time, the medicinal notes fade out and the mix gets sweeter, and more reminiscent of a hot spicy drink.

I just love this. I love it for being big (it is -- your neighbor will be smelling this one on you), for being bold, for being muscular and strong and yet vulnerable. I strongly recommend trying this, just like EVERY SINGLE OTHER TAUER PERFUME I HAVE EVER SNIFFED. You can buy everything in one fail swoop right here. Don't think. Just buy. Frankly, I'd recommend just buying the bottles unsniffed because they are excellent, reasonably priced scents, but I recognize that not everyone has that kind of money. (Sadly, I am unemployed and do not. But when I get a job -- woah nelly!) Une rose chyprée is a highly concentrated 15ml for only $75 either direct from the perfumer, or here in the US, from Luckyscent. And should you do so, and hate what you get, send it over. Whatever it is. Truthfully, I want them all. <sigh>

Want more reviews? Try...
~ A review from Angela at Now Smell This!
~ A review from Perfume Posse
~ A review from The Non-Blonde
~ A review from Perfume-Smellin' Things
~ A rather steamy review from Legerdenez
~ A review from Sorcery of Scent
~ A review from Nathan Branch
~ A review from Sniffapalooza
~ A review from Fragrantica

"How can I be drunk?
You strike with dry poison. I am possessed,
still engaged in some kind of advanced shackling.
Girl, you got to find you the man who
can smoke this out, Bad Medicine.
Girl, you got to find you the man who
can smoke this out, more Good Medicine."
- "Fast Horse," Tori Amos (you can hear the song here.)

And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong...

DSH Perfumes la Rose fleurette (Rose No. 2)

I didn't manage to finish rose week last week, so I'm wrapping up today. I am now T-minus 3 weeks and counting from the dreaded Bar exam, which is the licensing exam for practicing attorneys. This means that I want absolutely nothing more than to talk to you all the time, and also that I have absolutely no time to do so. Forgive me if the posting becomes a bit sporadic over the next three weeks. I promise to make a list of topics that occur to me during that period to bombard you with.

Since the last time I posted I was talking about Papaya, I'll give you an update. Her heart appears to be enlarged slightly. They can't tell us more until we get an echo-cardiogram. It may be a small problem that will have little to no impact on her life expectancy, or it may be...more serious. My tendency is to assume it is worse; my husband is the opposite. I'm trying to take his approach for the time being since it will be a few months before we get the echo done to see if the hole closes on its own, which sometimes happens in kittens. Meanwhile, despite ridiculous vigilance on our part and a 24/7 sentence to a short collar of shame, she has managed to get at her stitches, so she and I are headed back to the vet today. Also, I have to keep her away from our second youngest, Aldor, because they play too rough for her right now, which has led them to sit on either side of our closed bedroom door like they're Romeo and Juliet.

And speaking of ill-fated love, let's talk about roses and attempts to bottle their essence, shall we?

DSH la Rose fleurette (Rose No. 2) is my third and final DSH rose. According to the perfumer, la Rose fleurette is "Delightful. Blushing. Flirtatious." and has the following notes:

Top notes: Apple Blossom, Bergamot, Violet
Middle notes: Centifolia Rose Absolute, Damask Rose Absolute, Egyptian Rose Geranium, Moroccan Rose Absolute, Sweetbriar
Base notes: Heliotrope, Honey, Honey Musk

This is, as it says, a light, flirty rose. It is another true rose, which is an impressive feat because it's a hard perfume get and Ms. Spencer Hurwitz has managed to create two: this and American Beauty (Rose No. 1). It does not fall into either of the popular rose camps of late, the patchouli rose or the honeyed rose. Instead it is fresh and light and delightful, with a little but of a soapy edge from the violet and a little bit of fruit sweetness from the apple blossom. This is a rose I think a man could wear, though I don't think anyone think of it as manly on first sniff. The apple blossom bit reminds me, on immediate application of the taste of apple brandy, but the whole production isn't overly feminine. It just seems...authentic. Though all three of the DSH roses I've tried -- American Beauty, Beach Roses, and this one -- are well made and worthy of owning, I think I might choose this on for its originality and versatility. By being not what all those other roses are, it becomes something better. At the same time, anyone could easily make an argument in favor of one of the other two over la Rose fleurette and that would be totally legit.

You can buy la Rose fleurette direct from the perfumer in 1oz EdP for $30, as well as the parfum in various sizes and presentations, including antique bottles and limited edition charms. American Beauty is also available in shea butter body lotion and foaming creme, which is currently on sale.

Just remember in the winter
far beneath the bitter snows
lies the seed
that with the sun's love
in the spring
becomes the rose.
- "The Rose," Bette Midler (you can listen to the song here)

Want more reviews? Try...
~ A review from Fragrantica