This is the second of my seasonal posts for vetiver (I’ve already done a list for summer), and as always, the line between the seasons is perhaps a bit arbitrary and/or personal: some of these fragrances wear just as well in summer or winter, and some of them work perfectly fine all the year round. But certainly any of the five would work just fine for autumn weather. As always, do add your own picks in the comments…
French niche line Parfums de Nicolaï will launch Incense Oud, a new oriental fragrance, in September. Oud Sublime follows 2013’s Rose Oud and Amber Oud and 2016’s Oud Sublime…
French niche line Parfums de Nicolaï has introduced Oud Sublime, a new fragrance. Oud Sublime follows 2013’s Rose Oud and Amber Oud…
It has been said of great poetry — as well as of pornography, of course — that you know it when you see it. A few perfumes have struck me with an analogous revelatory force.1 Many of my favorites have crept up on me, gaining in beauty and mystery over the course of several exposures. In a small number of cases, though, a first encounter with a fragrance has been more like being within 50 feet of a lightning strike: no immediate definition or description does the matter justice. Since my perfume hobby started, I’ve watched the epiphanies of several of my fellow fume-heads. Upon processing the first sniff, two enthusiasts have wept. One friend laughed in surprise, and another pirouetted. My reaction to such new love is to blush beet-red, regardless of whether there is anyone around to witness my surrender. Apparently, if I am greatly moved, my sympathetic nervous system must become involved.
Does it say something about me that I have spent a great deal of time ruminating on these singular events, trying to identify a unifying thread? (Short answer: yes.) In fact, I have noticed there are similarities between my own heart-struck moments…
As the curtain rises on the charming Ambre-Cashmere family, everyone is talking simultaneously on stage — there are grunts, witty asides, chuckles, humming…and whispers delivered with a hissssss; no one is willing to ease up or shut up. We meet happy Lady Mandarin, handsome/smooth-talking General Pepper, the self-effacing Misses Violet and Iris, and bitter Mrs. Lemon, the cook (hissssss!) who brings in a tray full of tiny cups filled with hot cocoa. Chilly Cousin Clove attempts to stifle the conversation as Mr. Tonka Bean steps in to try and add sweetness and reason to the proceedings; but neither Clove nor Tonka Bean are a match for loud-mouthed / hard-drinking “Patch” who loves nothing more than creating a scene. Cashmeran (aka “CC”) — as the other cast members’ voices falter — gets the final, reassuring (and long-winded) speech. The End.
Parfums de Nicolaï Ambre Cashmere Intense’s1 initial cacophony is not unpleasant…it’s attention grabbing…