In Case You Missed It: This Week in Victim Blaming...

This week's recommendations for In Case You Missed It:

~ An Australian jury decides the rape of woman in skinny jeans is not really possible -- clearly getting her out of the jeans meant she must have consented and helped. Proof that juries will find any excuse to victim-blame.

~ I tend to side with Justices Breyer and Ginsberg that the US Supreme Court decision to close its iconic main entrance due to fear of 'terror threat' when even Israel hasn't taken such a step is overkill and fear-mongering.

~ Arizona rushes ahead to compete, once again, for top place I don't want to move because the politics are crazy by grading its teachers on fluency, as State Pushes School Districts to Reassign Instructors With Heavy Accents or Other Shortcomings in Their English. As my husband noted, why do I suspect that the "heavy accents" they're referring to aren't the one's my Texas family members have?

~ Elizabeth Hasselbeck's teary apology neither impresses me nor excuses her entirely inappropriate comments that "ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrews has been wearing 'next to nothing' on Dancing With the Stars, and that if she were the stalker behind bars for secretly videotaping Andrews naked in hotel rooms in 2008, she’d think, 'Man! I just could've waited 12 weeks and seen this -- a little bit less -- without the prison time!'" Yes, because when women wear very little, they deserve to be stalked!

~ Blog recommendation: Stupid Nail Polish Names is pretty funny.

~ Grain de musc asks: what notes/scents do you gender and why?

~ Last, but not least, MTV bans Tiombe Lockhart's video "Ropes" for being too graphic in its attempts to address depression and suicide. See it below and judge for yourself -- more graphic, violent, or disturbing than other MTV-okayed videos, say like Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" (homicidal school shootings), Nirvana's "Heart Shaped Box (bird-pecked, emaciated self-crucifixion victim; aborted fetus tree) or hell, even Tom Petty & the Heartbreaker's "Last Dance with Mary Jane" (complete with the manipulation of a woman's corpse for male pleasure and then discards her when bored -- necrophilia, the ultimate in objectification)?

A matter of complication when you become a twist...

Parfums Zero Six Cent-Trente Yuzu Rouge EdT

Summer has finally hit Portland. Just two days ago, it was cold and rainy and occasionally hailing, and today? Warm, summer breeze. It will be in the low to mid-70s by midweek, and David and I will be dragging out the fans for our thoroughly unairconditioned apartment. With the warmer weather, I am on the hunt for warm weather scents. In the summer I tend to shy away from incenses, orientals, and powders and toward citruses and light florals and the occasional leather. (Yeah, leather, because spring/summer is Rodeo and State Fair season to me, and that means leather.) Today, in my search for summer scents, I'm trying Parfums Zero Six Cent-Trente Yuzu Rouge EdT.

According to Parfums Zero Six Cent-Trente,

Yuzu Rouge is a crisp Eau de Toilette that combines the refreshing Japanese citrus yuzu with verbena, grapefruit, and bergamot. The precious rose adds a light floral touch to the freshness of the scent, and a soft sweetness blooms from the black currant, tea, and amber, making this scent complex and refined.

Notes: yuzu, cassis, grapefruit, verbena, damascena rose, nutmeg, bergamot, cardamom, musk, moss, gray amber

On application I get grapefruit covered with brown sugar and sprinkled with lime. It's very light, and I only get a tiny it of rose or verbena. For such a fruity scent, this isn't very juicy. It's more dry, which I suspect is the amber, musk, and moss base. Apparently some people get a tea-like note in this, but if so it's an herbal tea sort of scent, not black or green or hell, even a Lipton tea. It's light, and kind of citrus rosey, but much less strong or warm than, say, Red Flower Guaiac.

Yuzu Rouge also does not grow noticably stronger as your skin warms, either from heat or exercise, and doesn't quite have the staying power of Guaiac, but it is much less sweet than Guaiac. Consequently, it's wearable by just about anyone. I think you'd have to use quite a bit to get some lasting power out of it, and I kind of wish it came in an EdP or parfum because I would like it much more that way. Being as is, it's a nice scent, and worth trying, but as citrus roses go, the holy grail continues to elude me.

You can buy Yuzu Rouge in 100ml $110 from Luckyscent, Barney's, Beauty Encounter, Four Seasons, and First-in-Fragrance. Luckyscent also has samples. The scent also comes in a candle for $40.


"Can somebody tell me now,
who is this terrorist?
Those girls that smile kindly,
then rip your life to pieces?
Can somebody tell me now,
am I alone with this?
This little pill in my hand
and with this secret kiss.
Am I alone in this?"
- "The Power Of Orange Knickers," Tori Amos (feat. Damien Rice)
(You can listen to the song here)

Want more reviews? Try...
~ a review from Robin at Now Smell This!
~ a review from Bois de Jasmin

I can hear the bells are ringing joyful and triumphant...

Strange Invisible Perfumes Urban Lily EdP

I mentioned Strange Invisible Perfumes Urban Lily EdP on my favorite Spring scents last year, but I'm only getting around to reviewing it now. Alexandra Balahoutis founded her house, Strange Invisible Perfumes, in 2000. Billed as "botanical perfumery," Strange Invisible Perfumes are all organic and fall into a current popular trend in perfumery.

I'm of two minds regarding the trend. On the one hand, I in favor of environmentalism and embracing a chemical free life; on the other hand, perfumery is about making the best scents possible, with whatever can be had. Also, Chandler Burr makes a pretty credible argument in The Perfect Scent in favor of synthetics in describing how they are frequently more environmentally-friendly because they can produce approximately the same or better quality ingredients without, say, having to kill musk deer. However, I suspect the 'all naturals' movement is here for a while, anyway. While I don't go out of my way to look for them, I certainly do note when a scent is 'organic' because, while I don't care, I have friends that do and, for the sake of gift giving, it's nice to know.

According to Strange Invisible Perfumes,

Sincere. Resilient. Untamed.

The lush scent of lily of the valley blossoms

Similar to the gardenia, lily of the valley will not yield an essence. Happily, the sweetness of its petals, the strength of its roots, and the lush beauty of its leaves are captured in Urban Lily, a stunning bouquet for the ages.

Urban Lily is dry and green, a clean smell in a world-washed-clean-by-Spring-rain kind of way, not in a hand soap or laundry soap kind of way. It's green and clean like plants and earth. In that respect, it reminds me of CB I Hate Perfumes Black March and CB I Hate Perfumes Wild Hunt. It also induces that catch in the back of the throat, verge of tears feeling. It also has a dryness to it; some reviewers said this was sort of like the smell of hay. I'll mostly have to take their word for it, since where I'm from all the hay has a slightly mildewed smell from the high humidity. To me it reminds me of the smell of incense trapped within the pages of church hymnals. Which brings me to the other scent this reminds me of, CB I Hate Perfumes Fire From Heaven. This scent seems to be a blend of those two, with the addition of the smell of wet concrete drying and hardening in the warm summer sun.

The other imagine that arises in my mind when I close my eyes and beath in Urban Lily is the color of foam on top of waves, after the wave has crashed against the beach and left a line across the wet sand, like the top of a fan or or the rippled edge of a shell. The overall effect in my mind is most akin to...creation. The start of something new, both organic and man-made, of nature and the urban. For those reasons, it seems very oriented toward Spring to me. It's not a particularly gendered smell either, which I appreciate. I think it could easily be worn by anyone without a lot of second glances, which I don't usually find in soliflores, so that's a nice surprise.

You can buy Urban Lily direct from the perfumer in pure parfum (.25 oz for $210) or EdP (1.7oz for $175). The perfumer also has samples available, as well as the rest of the Strange Invisible Perfumes line. You can also get Urban Lily at BeautyHabit

"I'm seeking girls in sales and marketing.
Let's go make out up in the balcony.
Your business dress so businesslike and I'm
Tossing the blouse over a chairback and
I can hear the bells..."
- "I Hear The Bells," Mike Doughty
(You can listen to the song here)

Want more reviews? Try...
~ a review from Ayala at Smelly Blog
~ a review from Robin at Now Smell This!
~ a review from Scent Hive
~ a review from Perfume-Smellin' Things
~ a review from Perfume Posse
~ a review from The Beauty Alchemist

When I'm with you, I'm looking for a ghost.

TDC Bois d'Iris

First off, I want to give a little shout out to my Pio-readers as they go through finals week. My husband was at a campus event last Saturday night when a student, in a slightly inebriated state, told him she liked this blog. To you, in particular, anonymous LC student, my best wishes and congratulations on another semester successfully completed; I agree that perfume is "like -- woah!"

And with that, let's get on with the awesome perfume.  According to The Difference Company,

The Iris Pallida, the most aomatic of its kind, grows exclusively on this site of arid rocks and mild soil. Unlike the osmanthus flower whose epidermis cells secrete the essentiel oil, the iris its olfactory wonders [w]ithin its roots ; this concealment is so skilful that several years of complex processing are required to capture its secrets: planting, frequent hoeing by hand, to avoid damaging the rhizomes (roots), harvesting (three years later), selecting and husking, washing, followed by one month of drying under the sun on lattice trays, and five years of dehydrating in bags ; the grinding and miling in the factory.

The powder that results from these six years of preparation is macerated in cold water. Finally, a steam distillation gives birth to the essence of iris, also called butter, granted that the chemist follows the stringent requirement of moderate heating. Once distilled, this creamy substance turns into a treasure, a priceless marvel : the absolute. Eight years of complex processing are required to extract one litre of iris absolute from forty tons of rhizomes. Hence the scarcity of this aristocratic fragrance in today's perfume creations. The wonderful magic of a flower that blends with vetiver, bergamot, cedar wood, narcissus, geranium and musk delivers us the splendour of Bois d'Iris.

[sic -- the entire paragraph; TDC needs an editor stat.]

This scent was hard for me to pin down, and not only because every review I read after making my initial notes described it in (imo) substantially different ways. Also, comparing it to other irises didn't help as much as it normally does. It's clearly an iris, but I mostly only know how to describe it by telling you what it isn't. It's not as funerary as L'Artisan Iris Pallida and not buttery like L'Artisan Dzongkha. It's not quite as violet as Iris D'Argent, nor does it have the grape syrup sweetness vibe of Keiko Mecheri Iris Poupre. It's less like pop music than Prada Infusion d'Iris in terms of accessibility, but also isn't so much dirt or herbs as Le Labo Iris 39. And it is nothing at all like the the candy floss of Memoire Liquide No. 205 Vanille Florentine.

Bois d'Iris, for me, is most similar to Serge Lutens Iris Silver Mist, but yet isn't. It differs in that, initially, this is an iris that has overtones of lemon and has a very fresh edge, like the scent was distilled not from flower or root, but from iris leaf and stem. The middle becomes powdery and sweet similar to but not exactly like an iris bloom covered in a fine cloud of talc. In this section is becomes more similar to Iris Silver Mist. The bottom (about an hour in) continues to remind me of Iris Silver Mist, though a tad sweeter in a mixed floral way. This isn't as strong as Iris Silver Mist -- the sillage is lighter and it doesn't last.

On the whole Bois d'Iris is a very nice scent and one worth trying. That said, for the price point, I'd rather have a bottle of Iris Pallida (I do), Iris Silver Mist (I will - just have to figure out how to get it out of Europe first), or enough Infusion d'Iris to take a bath in (but who needs that?). It's lovely, and I'm sure it is THE IRIS for plenty of iris lovers. It just isn't the one for me.

You can buy Bois d'Iris direct from the perfumer in 50ml ($161.46), 90ml ($233.22), and 250ml ($448.50 -- comes with a leather case in your choice of color -- red, mandarin, or black). TDC also has an awesome sample program allowing access to the entire line. Other purchasing avenues include LuckyScent (including samples), Beauty Encounter, Beauty Habit, and First-in-Fragrance.

"But you are what you love,
and not what loves you back.
That's why I'm here on your doorstep,
pleading for you to take me back."
- "You Are What You Love," Jenny Lewis
(You can listen to the song here)

Want more reviews? Try...
~ a review from Robin at Now Smell This!
~ a review from Bois de Jasmin
~ a review from Eliza at Scentsibility
~ a review from Scent and Sensibility

In Case You Missed It: The Mary Tyler Moore Edition

In a new series here at Feminine Things, I'll be posting on Sundays to share links I've though were excellent from the last week, both perfumey and not, that you might have missed. 

* Sady from Tiger Beatdown writes about how Rivers Cuomo Messes You Up Forever.

* A good argument for why men should be into feminism: Feminism for Young Dudes

* Bond no. 9 threatens The Perfumed Court with litigation through twitter, of all things. There's no case to be had, but I can't believe that any reputable company would attempt a 'cease and desist' via twitter.  Like when Courts cite Wikipedia in decisions, it just ain't right, yo.

* Another by-product of finals procrastination: an all male a capella review of Lady Gaga's Bad Romance straight outta Eugene, Oregon (Go Ducks, and good luck to Andrew, who is working on his 2nd semester 1Hell finals.)

* Natania Barron reminds male readers to Never Assume Anything About a Geek Girl

* Oklahoma steams ahead in the race for "places I'm least likely to ever move" by passing the most restrictive measures on choice in the nation this week. I thought that Nebraska had the title sewn up the week before, but between Oklahoma' new laws and Arizona's continuing mission to persecute basically anyone brown through racial profiling, more and more places are becoming unlikely. It does make the job hunting easier, though, since now I just refer to my big US map of "Places I Wouldn't Raise a Kid or Want to be a Lawyer" in order to mark possibilities off the list.