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Browsing by tag: cheap thrills

Blackbird Triton ~ fragrance review

Posted by Jessica on 4 July 2014 17 Comments

Neptune and Triton via NASA

I wrote about the Seattle-based business Blackbird last winter, when I posted a review of their incense cones (which are still favorites of mine). At the time, none of their personal fragrances really captured my fancy; the names were memorable and provocative (Tinderbox, Pipe Bomb), but the actual scents just didn’t fit my personal taste. But you just never know: Triton is the latest release from Blackbird, and I’ve been happily wearing my sample for the past few days.

Triton includes notes of violet leaf, iris root, cedar, aldehyde, incense, mimosa, carrot seed, dry amber, vetiver, styrax and black pepper. It was “named after the moon of Neptune that was in turn named after the son of Poseidon,” and “its scent carries the nose to the icy surface of its namesake moon. . . . It’s about finding and relishing the beauty of a frozen landscape.” It’s a tricky fragrance to classify: I’d call it a unisex mineral-earthy-woody scent…

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5 perfumes: spicy fragrances for summer

Posted by Robin on 26 June 2014 78 Comments

Spices

For many of us, this is about the time of the year when we start to shuffle the contents of our perfume collection, moving the darker and heavier fragrances towards the back. It’s not at all unusual for me to reach for a light citrus or beachy fragrance in winter as a form of denial, but it’s sometimes harder to pull off the reverse, that is, to wear a spicy comfort scent in summer. Many of them are just too thick and rich and overwhelming to wear when it’s hot, or worse, hot and humid. Here are five sheer spices to try in summer when you’re missing your winter favorites.

Demeter Gingerale ~ a perfect rendition of gingerale, including the fizz…

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Korres Jasmine Shower Gel ~ quick body product review

Posted by Robin on 3 June 2014 39 Comments

Korres Jasmine Shower Gel

I’m always on the lookout for great shower gels in my favorite floral fragrances — and that’s especially true now that I’m running out of two of my favorite Lush gels, Rose Jam (gosh, I do hope Lush brings back Rose Jam!) and Flying Fox.

Flying Fox, for those of you who haven’t tried it, is jasmine, and jasmine in a big way. It’s sweet and strong, and I can often smell it in the hallway outside my bathroom hours after I used it, although it doesn’t linger on skin to speak of. Every other jasmine shower gel I’ve tried smells positively wimpy in comparison, but I recently got a bottle of Korres Jasmine to test,1 and it’s a possible contender…

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Rituals Foaming Shower Gel Sensation ~ scented body product review

Posted by Jessica on 9 May 2014 13 Comments

Rituals Foaming Shower Gel Sensation

Rituals is a Dutch bath-and-body company founded in 2000, but since it only began selling its products in the United States about six months ago — first at Barneys, then in a Rituals storefront in New York’s SoHo neighborhood — I didn’t have the chance to try them until this winter. The Rituals product line is extensive, so I started with one of its best-selling products: Foaming Shower Gel Sensation, a new twist on an everyday shower item, available in six scents.

Whereas most shower-friendly body cleansers are thick liquids sold in bottles with flip-tops or pump dispensers, Rituals’ shower gel is packaged in a metal canister like a shaving product. It acts like a shaving product, too, turning from a stream of translucent gel into a fluffy, foamy lather when it hits a damp washcloth or a mesh puff. (I prefer the latter for all my shower needs.) I’m not sure what the benefit of this foaming technology is; maybe it’s just a gimmick? As a body product, this gel-foam is effective and seems gentle on the skin, but I wouldn’t be recommending it if I didn’t enjoy the fragrances, too…

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Coty L’Aimant ~ fragrance review

Posted by Angela on 5 May 2014 43 Comments

Coty L'Aimant, vintage advert

“Look what I found for you,” my coworker said and handed me a Coty L’Aimant perfume ad shrink-wrapped on cardboard. It was all in gold and red, featuring a woman in a 1950s coiffure gazing into a tiny stage peppered with various L’Aimant products, from perfume to compacts to body powder. Each product was adorned with a horseshoe magnet encompassing a heart. “To be a magnet — wear a magnet — always!” the copy said.

Well, I could use some magnetizing. Who couldn’t? I remembered the bottle of vintage L’Aimant Eau de Toilette stashed in my perfume cupboard. It was time to put it to the test.

François Coty and Vincent Roubert created L’Aimant over five years, and the fragrance launched in 1927 — for context, the same year that saw the birth of Lanvin Arpège, Caron Bellodgia, and Jean Patou Chaldée. In his book Perfume, Nigel Groom lists L’Aimant’s notes as bergamot, neroli, peach, strawberry, jasmine, rose, ylang ylang, vanilla, vetiver and sandalwood. The fragrance fell out of production, then relaunched in 1995, when Groom claims it became the most popular perfume in Great Britain…

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