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Browsing by author: Angela

Acqua di Parma Blu Mediterraneo Ginepro di Sardegna ~ fragrance review, with an aside on Eaux de Cologne

Posted by Angela on 10 November 2014 43 Comments

Acqua di Parma Blu Mediterraneo Ginepro di Sardegna

Yes, this will be a review of Acqua di Parma Blu Mediterraneo Ginepro di Sardegna (Juniper of Sardinia). But first, let’s talk about cologne.

What do you think of when you envision cologne? To me, a true Eau de Cologne is a revivifying splash of fragrance that wakes up you then fades away. I want a cologne to apply to my temples if I’m feeling faint, like in old novels, and to freshen me up when the world wears thick and dirty.

What I don’t want is a substitute for a perfume. To me, a cologne shouldn’t bill itself as a quick reviver, only to stick around for hours with a thick residue of citrus and resin. To me, that’s simply a mislabeled perfume. I don’t want to smell someone at the office who meant to have simply freshened up with a fragrance after his shower, but who trails the scent like a bad furniture polish for most of the day…

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Eight Years of Lemmings

Posted by Angela on 3 November 2014 69 Comments

Luctor et Emergo, The People of the Labyrinths

When I first dipped my toes into the world of internet perfume appreciation eight — or was it nine? — years ago, there were only a handful of perfume blogs. Of course, for me Now Smell This was tops, although I regularly cruised to Perfume Posse and Perfume Smellin’ Things.1 Perfumistas hung out at Makeup Alley for reviews and swapping.2 We were glued to Luca Turin’s blog. Way too often, we charged after the latest lemmings like they were stray tennis balls at the dog park.

Anyone remember what those perfumes were?

I remember a few. The People of the Labyrinths Luctor et Emergo — aka POTL — was one…

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Fragrant: The Secret Life of Scent by Mandy Aftel ~ book review

Posted by Angela on 27 October 2014 10 Comments

Fragrant: The Secret Life of Scent by Mandy Aftel, book plus kit

In fiction, an effective writer uses plot not just to move the story along, but to illuminate an underlying theme. If Mandy Aftel’s Fragrant: The Secret Life of Scent were a novel, the plot would be the five essences — cinnamon, mint, frankincense, ambergris, and jasmine — around which she structures the book. The theme would be beauty.

In Fragrant’s first chapter, Aftel writes about how she became involved with perfume, then says:

As I researched and thought about the deeps ways that perfume touches our most primal selves and the collective self of our species, I realized that I had the makings of an adventure story of sorts…

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Dawn Spencer Hurwitz Scent of Hope ~ fragrance review, with an aside on Jacques Fath Iris Gris

Posted by Angela on 20 October 2014 25 Comments

Iris

I can’t think of another fragrance that matches the mystique of Jacques Fath Iris Gris. Sure, perfume lovers scramble for vintage Mitsouko and study its qualities by the batch number, but Mitsouko is still on the market, and vintage bottles are relatively easy to find. Jacques Fath, perhaps Dior’s closest competition in the New Look years, died in 1954 at the stupidly young age of 42, and Iris Gris — even the name is mysterious and moody — disappeared soon after. Scent of Hope is a recreation of Iris Gris that indie perfumer Dawn Spencer Hurwitz originally made for a private client.

Perfumer Vincent Roubert developed Iris Gris in 1946, just as France was shaking free of World War II.1 Thanks to Denyse Beaulieu of Grain de Musc, I’ve been lucky enough to smell a sample strip dipped in a bottle she bought unopened. I was surprised at how clean it smelled, and how rich the iris was, but of course that bottle was at least 60 years old. I cherish the amber-stained but now-scentless strip as a talisman. But how would Iris Gris smell fresh…

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Serge Lutens L’Orpheline ~ fragrance review

Posted by Angela on 13 October 2014 21 Comments

Serge Lutens L'Orpheline

Do you ever think of certain scents as “warm” or “cool”? I do. Amber, leather, oakmoss, and wood smell warm to me, while herbs, citrus, green notes, and ozone smell cool. Florals can go either way, especially rose. Most perfumes seem to have an overall warm or cool flavor to them, too, or they start out cool then turn warm. Serge Lutens L’Orpheline bucks the trend by straddling both cool and warm notes at the same time. In the end, the fragrance feels like a worthy complement to a rainy autumn afternoon.

In true Serge fashion, the press material surrounding L’Orpheline’s release is more mystical than practical. (I imagine members of some future cult bowing to a huge black-and-white portrait of Serge Lutens while chanting bits from leather-bound perfume box inserts.) We do know that the fragrance was developed by perfumer Christopher Sheldrake and includes notes of incense, ashes and musk…

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