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Browsing by author: Kevin

Bond no. 9 High Line ~ fragrance review

Posted by Kevin on 28 July 2010 70 Comments

Bond no. 9 High Line perfume

I couldn’t have been Lilly Pulitzer in another life because…she’s still alive, but I’ve always had a soft spot for the preppy “pink-and-green” color combo Pulitzer often uses in her designs. I was initially attracted to Bond no. 9 High Line because of its pink-and-green bottle — not its juice; High Line is a type of fragrance (rather artificial, high-pitched and “Fresh!”) I usually shun, and yet….

Bond no. 9 describes High Line as “the scent of wildflowers, green grasses…and urban renewal” with “a hint of industrial grit.” High Line (perfumer: Laurent Le Guernec) was created to celebrate the “new” High Line* “neighborhood” of New York City which is: “An improbable aerial walkway lined with concrete planks and railroad tracks, landscaped with meadows, wetlands, and wildflowers, the High Line hovers 30 feet above street level as it meanders along its route from the Meatpacking District to the former 34th Street rail yards — sometimes bridging its way through buildings along the way.“

High Line, the fragrance, is categorized as “an androgynous floral-marine” perfume (the “marine” notes reference the nearby Hudson River); it includes notes of bergamot, purple love grass (Eragrostis spectabilis), Indian rhubarb, red-leaf rose, orange flower water, Lady Jane tulips (Tulipa clusiana), grape hyacinth, sea moss, teakwood, bur oak and musk. (I found nary a hint of “industrial grit” in the notes.)

High line starts with a burst of bergamot and a clean and tart “vegetal-fruit” aroma…

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D.S. & Durga Pomelo Blossom ~ fragrance review

Posted by Kevin on 22 July 2010 23 Comments

Pomelo

Citrus-floral fragrances are made for hot weather; the best of them smell light and airy, brisk and cooling (all the sensations I want from a scent on a sultry day). I like summer fragrances to smell “clean” but also possess a hint of sexiness — a “bare” quality. The fat and heavy pomelo (Citrus maxima), which you may have encountered in Southeast Asian cooking (think: mild, sweet grapefruit), is an excellent inspiration for such a summer perfume.

Pomelo Blossom is part of D.S. & Durga’s spring-summer 2010 (limited edition) fragrance collection for Anthropologie, and it contains notes of pomelo blossom, grapefruit peel and white musk. Pomelo Blossom goes on sharp and juicy (smelling like fresh oranges, a mix of cool peel and juice). In mid-development, floral notes become apparent; these floral notes remind me of slightly indolic jasmine and pungent, “wild” orange blossom.

My favorite part of Pomelo Blossom is the oily grapefruit rind note…

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L’Occitane Verbena Summer Secret ~ fragrance review

Posted by Kevin on 14 July 2010 51 Comments

L’Occitane Verbena Summer Secret

This will be a summer-short and summer-sweet review of L’Occitane Verbena Summer Secret. I was wondering if spring would ever arrive in Seattle this year, let alone summer, but the weather went from cool and rainy (the heat came on in my house on the Fourth of July) to 92 degrees…in just a few days. During the hot spell, I didn’t feel up to trying out any abstract, complex, or heavy fragrances (I barely felt like writing) so Verbena Summer Secret’s blend of verbena, basil, mint, green apple, “green” anise, cedar and musk sounded like a perfect scent to review.

Verbena Summer Secret begins with citrus and hints of basil, anise, and a great, fuzzy mint note (no, I didn’t mean “fizzy”— this mint is dry and “rough”). Verbena Summer Secret’s opening notes are refreshing but fleeting…

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Astier de Villatte Eau Chic ~ fragrance review

Posted by Kevin on 7 July 2010 59 Comments

In just a few weeks, a “fragrance battle” will rage in my sunny, hot and dry front yard: tuberose vs. milkweed.

I trust most perfume fanatics know the scent of tuberose; if not, either smell Robert Piguet Fracas or Frédéric Malle Carnal Flower or go to a florist and purchase a few stalks of fragrant tuberose and let the blooms perfume your home.

Many years ago, I ordered some milkweed seeds from an organization that advocates the planting of flowers beloved (utilized) by Monarch butterflies. Those few milkweed seeds thrived, and now, milkweeds would take over my front yard if I let them. Milkweed flowers have a strong, tropical, pollen-rich aroma: there’s a hint of its rival tuberose, a fragrant “flour” note and an interesting mingling of green and “damp loam” aromas. When milkweed blooms, you can’t miss its penetrating, soulful perfume; the fragrance throbs. I categorize milkweed flowers’ scent as ‘poignant’ and ‘spooky’; it follows me like a spirit from my yard into my house and lingers, whispering:“Remember when….”

As I smelled Astier de Villatte Eau Chic by perfumer Françoise Caron for the first time, I was shocked…

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Reminiscence Patchouli Pour Homme ~ fragrance review

Posted by Kevin on 30 June 2010 67 Comments

Reminiscence Patchouli Pour Homme

Reminiscence Patchouli Pour Homme is not a strange, cocoa-sprinkled, cramp-inducing patchouli fragrance like Serge Lutens Borneo 1834 (whenever I smell Borneo 1834 my stomach begins to ache). Patchouli Pour Homme is certainly not a loud, “crude” type of patchouli perfume favored by provincial nouveaux riches. (See Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, where the prissy, aristocratic Leonid Andreyevitch Gaev enters a room, sniffs the air, and complains: “It smells of patchouli in here.” Someone’s wearing cheap perfume…and it’s none other than peasant-turned-entrepreneur Ermolai Alexeyevitch Lopakhin!) Patchouli Pour Homme is also not the variety of oily, overbearing patchouli used by old-time hippies to scent their greasy hair and beards or their sweaty leather boots. Patchouli Pour Homme is a staid patchouli fragrance.

Reminiscence Patchouli Pour Homme contains mandarin, lime, geranium, cedar, patchouli, labdanum, tonka bean, tolu balm, white musk, and benzoin. Patchouli Pour Homme opens with warm lime and geranium leaf; quickly other notes pop: ‘fossilized’ cedar (almost too “dry” to detect), sheer labdanum, well-behaved and CLEAN patchouli…

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