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Browsing by author: Kevin

Francesca Bianchi Etruscan Water ~ fragrance review

Posted by Kevin on 22 April 2020 12 Comments

Perfumer Francesca Bianchi lives in Amsterdam but her perfumes are produced and bottled in Italy. Over the last months, I’ve heard lots of positive mentions of her Etruscan Water* fragrance online and found myself some samples. Bianchi describes Etruscan Water like this:

…being born and raised in Tuscany, we could go to the beach in the South of the region, where hundreds of years ago our forefathers, the Etruscans, used to live. In order to access … the most stunning, well hidden small bays…offering the most transparent water, there was a 30 minute walk through the woods. The smell of typical Mediterranean vegetation is charming…

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Heeley Eau Sacree ~ fragrance review

Posted by Kevin on 8 April 2020 28 Comments

Last Sunday, I took a late-afternoon walk and noticed a wonderful incense fragrance “accord” in the air, a mix of spring flowers (magnolias, English laurel, Oregon grape) and the scent of wood burning in fireplaces. I decided to wear an incense perfume the next day and selected a sample vial of Heeley Eau Sacrée.

I love the ritual of burning incense and watching curlicues of incense smoke move through my house. Prime spots for placing incense? In front of religious images and statues, especially my Ayutthaya crowned Buddha that I “adopted” in Chiang Mai, Indra from Nepal and many Ganesh statues from India (one given to me on my wedding day). I light a candle or burn incense on days a person or animal I loved was born…or died. Incense feels important, not simply a product to scent a space…

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Spring Flowers ~ garden fragrance reviews

Posted by Kevin on 25 March 2020 42 Comments

As COVID-19 rages around the world, I’m grateful I’m healthy and can work from home. All around me in Seattle are people at high risk of infection, and many thousands who have lost their jobs and are struggling to make ends meet. One thing that helps me mute the distraught voices in my head and get through these long, lonely days at home (with two cats to “talk to” until my spouse gets home in the evening) is the great outdoors. And the outdoors in Seattle during spring is one glorious place, full of highly scented flowers emanating their perfumes into the cool, clean air. Today, I’d like to talk about some of the plants I’ve encountered on my walks and in my own garden during the last several weeks…

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Floraiku Part II ~ fragrance reviews

Posted by Kevin on 19 March 2020 11 Comments

Today, I tackle six more Floraïku perfumes; for an introduction to the line, see yesterday’s Part I.

Sound of a Ricochet (vanilla, tonka bean, sandalwood) “A red dragonfly under the burning sky, the sound of a ricochet.”

What a great name: Sound of a Ricochet. I expected something sharp, startling, so I was surprised at the warm notes listed for this scent. This is a cuddly, wool-y scent, with creamy vanilla and tonka bean…

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Floraiku Part I ~ fragrance reviews

Posted by Kevin on 18 March 2020 19 Comments

Floraïku came to my attention not because I smelled one of its fragrances but because I saw one of its bottles; beware beautiful packaging. Floraïku is an offshoot of the niche line Memo Paris and its perfumes are inspired by Japan. At present, Floraïku has 19 perfumes (two of which are “ShadowingTM” fragrances — more on those later). According to the Floraïku website, the perfumes were developed by Aliénor Massenet or Sophie Labbé and each perfume supposedly contains more than 50% naturals (not sure any agency monitors such claims).

Floraïku fragrances are arranged in groupings: Forbidden Incense | Kodo — Sound of a Ricochet, My Shadow on the Wall, My Love Has the Color of the Night; Enigmatic Flowers | Ikebana — I See the Clouds Go By, Cricket Song, First Dream of the Year; Secret Teas and Spices | O Cha — The Moon and I, I Am Coming Home, One Umbrella for Two; Light Shadow — Sleeping on the Roof; Dark Shadow — Between Two Trees. Each scent has a poem attached to the perfume and comes in a gorgeous bottle/10 ml travel spray combo (presented in a bento box). Eight of Floraïku’s perfumes are missing from my two posts this week: Just A Rose, Ao, The Mountain Standing Still, Flowers Turn Purple, In the Rain, Wind in my Hand ($755!), In the Dark and Surprise…

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