The wind was blowing. The graceful petals of the cherry blossoms were dancing like snow flakes. Suddenly, she got closer to him and he fell into her jet black eyes. He thought that his spell started to take hold. Her beauty was unique. Despite feeling guilty, he kissed her.
Sad. Falling into her poor black eyes (ouch!) and then giving a guilty kiss … as recompense? (thanks for nothing). I guess we’ll blame the translator of Atelier Cologne’s Encens Jinhae1 PR…
Dictionary.com defines “facade” as:
1. Architecture.
2. a superficial appearance or illusion of something. (think old-style Hollywood movie lots that portrayed Roman temples, Parisian streets, Old West saloons, Colonial villages and Small Town America using facades propped up by stilts)
My definition of “Facade Fragrance™”…
Since he joined Guerlain as in-house perfumer in 2008, I’ve blamed Thierry Wasser for all the new Guerlains that are awash in white musk. I even thought he might not be able to control himself and add some white musk to Mitsouko or Eau de Cologne Impériale or L’Heure Bleue. I imagined him in charge of the installation of an Olympic-size swimming pool under Guerlain headquarters that, upon completion, was filled with white musk. (Guerlain is doing well financially, so white musk works for them and lots of perfume consumers…if not for me.)
I may have been putting too much blame on Wasser’s shoulders because his cohort, Sylvaine Delacourte, until recently the Director of Fragrance Evaluation and Development at Guerlain, just launched her own perfume line with a collection of fragrances centered around — white musk. Now I imagine Thierry and Sylvaine cavorting in the Guerlain musc blanc pool, planning their next nose-ache in a bottle…
My favorite musks smell animalic: wild, oily, hairy and sweaty. In a word: sexy. Such musks are an endangered species (much like many of their original animal sources). Whenever I’m asked what fragrance notes I hate, white “toddler” musks always get a mention (as do Calone and Iso E Super and Cashmeran). Yet, I can easily name you perfumes I own that contain each one of those ingredients and I absolutely love and wear these perfumes all the time. I enjoy Jardins d’Écrivains George and Hermès Eau de Gentiane Blanche — both contain white musk. All ingredients can be used masterfully to highlight or to augment other notes in a fragrance; white musk in the right hands (or Nose) is not juvenile, obnoxious, cloying, utilitarian — or readily apparent. But, to be frank, white musk is not ‘musk’ to me, and if a perfume house puts ‘musk’ in the name of a fragrance, I expect some colorful MUSK (not white fluff).
I was interested to try two new musk fragrances that found their way to me in December; these are the first perfumes I’ve smelled from the niche lines Aether and Mad et Len…
To be honest, I wanted to review DS & Durga White Peacock Lily1 even before I smelled it because I could, finally, use a white peacock to illustrate a post. Apropos of nothing, I have come to regard white peacocks as my ‘spirit animal’…and have warned friends that after I croak to pay attention if a loud-mouthed white peacock crosses their path — or blocks it (could be dear ole me; you’ve been warned).
White Peacock Lily is one of a trio of releases DS & Durga launched in 2016…