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Browsing by tag: dearly departed

Rochas Audace ~ fragrance review

Posted by Angela on 17 November 2014 27 Comments

Rochas Audace advert, 1970s

Last Friday I was leaving Powell’s when a street fashion photographer asked to take my photo. Now, I’m not a particularly fashionable dresser. That afternoon, I was wearing a variety of clashing plaids — a Pendleton skirt and a jacket from a Western wear store in Oklahoma among them, both culled from Goodwill — and a 1940s floral silk scarf. (I will point out that my boots were pretty great, though.) “Me?” I asked the photographer. “This?”

“I like the crazy mix,” she said. “It works.”

That’s how I feel about Rochas Audace. On paper, it reads like a strident jumble of notes. On skin, it works…

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Lazy weekend poll ~ Day of the Dead 2014

Posted by Robin on 1 November 2014 143 Comments

marigold-garland

It’s the Day of The Dead, or All Saint’s Day, or Samhain, or just November 1st…we are celebrating in any case by remembering our dearly departed perfumes.

Do tell us about a favorite discontinued fragrance, or a favorite that has been reformulated past recognition, or a precious perfume that you lost or broke or spilled, or that spoiled before you could use it up…

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Friday scent of the day 9/19

Posted by Robin on 19 September 2014 160 Comments

Fendi Spring 2014 fashion campaign

Welcome to Friday! Our Friday community project this week: wear something discontinued. What did you pick?

As always, do chime in with your scent of the day even if you aren’t participating in the community project.

I’m wearing Fendi Theorema. My bottle is old, but Theorema has a good shelf life — it seems to smell better every year. Theorema is probably what I should have picked for the signature scent challenge…

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Fendi by Fendi (for women) ~ fragrance review

Posted by Angela on 15 July 2014 62 Comments

Fendi The Kiss

Imagine this: It’s the late-1980s, and Sirio leads you to your table for lunch at Le Cirque. As you dangle your quilted Chanel 2.55 off your chair and consider whether you’ll have the Dover sole or the carpaccio, a cascade of laughter draws your attention to the table next to you. The frizzy-headed woman with Bordeaux-purple gloss lipstick and an armload of bangles is Opium. Next to her sits Giorgio, a blond real estate agent with frosted pink talons for fingernails. Coco, swathed in fur and velvet and jewel tones despite the July heat outside, looks a little embarrassed by their loud conversation. (Boucheron had to be at a committee meeting for a Met gala and couldn’t make it. Neither could Cinnabar — she’s summering at her house in Bali.)

Then the room’s chatter and clink of silverware stops. A curvaceous, full-lipped woman of a certain age glides toward the empty chair at the table. She’s ignored the trend for shoulder pads and somehow combines Sophia Loren’s earth-mother sensuality with Silvana Mangano’s elegance. Still, her silkiness packs no less potency than the assertive styles of the other women at the table. This is Fendi by Fendi…

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Guerlain Parure ~ vintage fragrance review

Posted by Angela on 2 June 2014 60 Comments

Guerlain Parure advert

A “parure” is a set of jewelry, such as a necklace, earrings, and bracelet, or even a tiara and matching earrings. Guerlain Parure has the “complete” feeling and attention to detail of a fine jewelry parure, but it isn’t as flashy as rubies and diamonds. Instead, Parure comes off as constructed to lend an air of Ritz suite elegance without drawing attention to itself.

Jean-Paul Guerlain created Parure, and its notes include plum, bergamot, greens, fruits, hesperides, lily of the valley, rose, orris, plum, lilac, jasmine, jonquil, narcissus, oakmoss, spices, amber, leather and patchouli. Parure was released in 1975, but you know that Ritz suite I just mentioned? I see it in the early 1960s, with a woman crushing out her cigarette before reaching for wrist-length white gloves and a crisp-edged handbag that snaps shut with a click…

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