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Browsing by tag: cheap thrills

Demeter Gingerale ~ brief fragrance review

Posted by Robin on 4 April 2007 16 Comments

gingerale

I’ve slowly been working my way through the many recommendations I got the last few times I posted about Demeter scents, and so far, the clear winner is Gingerale.

As with any Demeter review, this will be brief: it is not a complicated fragrance, and does not require any lengthy description. Still, some of the Demeters are better than others at evoking whatever it is they are supposed to evoke. This one is perfect. It smells like — drum roll, please — ginger ale, and the opening is almost astonishingly effective at calling up the carbonated part; it literally tickles the nose. Admittedly, the fizz part is not long lasting, but the dry down is far from dull. It is a soft but bright ginger…

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Gucci Pour Homme fragrance review

Posted by Kevin on 2 April 2007 28 Comments

Gucci Pour Homme fragrance

Mainstream men’s colognes — a wearying bunch of scents that more often than not smell of “cold” citrus (harsh, metallic, faux citrus) floating on a sea of “marine” notes or buffeted by ozonic winds. This type of fragrance (apparently beloved by market research guinea pigs) rules the mainstream male perfume world and no matter how many interesting ingredients are mentioned in ad copy — May rose, myrrh, olive wood, hay, nasturtium, etc. — chances are, when you sniff a new men’s fragrance, you will detect only citrus, ozone or marine notes, a touch of wood, and a squirt of tepid musk. Boring, boring, boring.

When Gucci released Pour Homme in 2003, I was relieved to read its list of notes: white pepper, pink bay, ginger, papyrus wood, orris rhizome, vetiver, amber, white olibanum and leather — no citrus, no evocations of the shore or high altitudes…

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Essence of Vali Balance Massage and Bath Oil ~ scented body products

Posted by Jessica on 1 April 2007 7 Comments

Essence of Vali Balance Massage & Bath OilBalance Massage and Bath Oil is my favorite product from Essence of Vali, a small, New York-based company created by trained aromatherapist Valerie Bennis. Bennis has been offering her botanical formulas since 2000, and her thoughtfully focused product line includes various concentrations of a blend called Sleep, for a “Bedtime Ritual,” and a citrusy, uplifting Eau de Parfum simply named E.O.V., as well as a range of nine Massage and Bath Oils. These multi-use oils, composed of various plant essences, are intended to evoke different moods and responses, including Calm, Detox, and Passion.

Balance, my choice from this spectrum of Massage and Bath Oils, is scented with a mix of lavender flowers, grapefruit peel, clary sage and geranium leaves. The grapefruit is most evident as a top note, and it is sweet enough to remind me more of a blood orange. It is followed by a clean, soft lavender essence, with a healthy dose of earthy clary sage woven into the base. These cheery citrus notes and more soothing herbal notes complement each other well, achieving an equilibrium — a balance — that does indeed seem to induce a similar emotional state…

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Voluspa Japonica Aroma Room/Body Spray in Santiago Huckleberry

Posted by Kevin on 31 March 2007 13 Comments

Voluspa Japonica Aroma Room/Body Spray in Santiago Huckleberry

When I was growing up in Virginia, every summer my grandmother and her sister Delia would take me huckleberry picking. Huckleberry bushes grew along ditches at the edge of woods, so one had to contend with ticks, chiggers, mosquitoes, gnats, horseflies, and the occasional snake as one picked the fruit. To foil this onslaught of biting varmints, my grandmother would wear a striking outfit that made her look like a character from a Charles-Dickens-Meets-Flannery-O’Connor tale: a long-sleeved, ground-dragging dress, a tall straw-and-linen bonnet, a gauze scarf that fell to her hips, and, most strangely, kerosene-moistened cotton rags tied in bows around her ankles and wrists…

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Crazylibellule and the Poppies Aux Anges, Amoureuse & Tout Oublier ~ fragrance reviews

Posted by Robin on 26 March 2007 31 Comments

Crazylibellule and the Poppies Aux Anges, Amoureuse & Tout Oublier solid perfumes

Last Friday I talked about Vanilla Moka, Vanilla Macarons & Vanilla Pralines, three fragrances from the vanilla-based Poule de Luxe collection by Crazylibellule & The Poppies; today, I’m trying out the Les Divines Alcoves collection. Like the others from the line, these are solid perfumes done up in adorable little twist-up containers with colorful paper wrappers, and like the others, they are unbelievably well done given the bargain basement prices: $16 for 5gr.

Les Divines Alcoves comprises 7 fragrances inspired by “stories of love”. Aux Anges / On Cloud Nine, with notes of bergamot, tangerine, ylang ylang, jasmine and white flowers, was my early favorite of the group. As Victoria has already pointed out at Bois de Jasmin, Aux Anges is very much in the vein of Christian Dior Diorissimo. As in Diorissimo, the lily of the valley opening is a bit sharp, but it settles to a lovely blend of jasmine and lily of the valley, lightly accented by green. It is sweeter than Diorisismo, and lacks the crispness and sparkle that render Diorissimo, to my mind, the very personification of spring…

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