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Tom Ford Venetian Bergamot ~ fragrance review

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Tom Ford Private Blend Venetian Bergamot1 was just released. (Does anyone know the connection between Venice and bergamot? Me neither.) A nice, but distracted — there was a Seattle Seahawks’ player standing next to me — sales assistant at my local Nordstrom made me a huge sample of Venetian Bergamot, and he let me know it was selling, selling, selling (sotto voce) “…as all Tom’s things do.”

Venetian Bergamot starts with dark bergamot seasoned with pepper, ginger and indistinct, cheap-smelling, “flowers”; the ginger is of the preserved, not fresh, variety. Venetian Bergamot then presents a so-so bergamot-ginger-light floral combo for about an hour on my skin. Then: things turn unexpectedly nasty…

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Tom Ford Fleur de Chine ~ fragrance review

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Branch of Flowering White Jasmine

I believe (tell me if I’m wrong) I have given more attention to the Tom Ford Private Blends than any other contributor here at Now Smell This (and I’ve liked more of the Private Blend perfumes than my cohorts, too). But over the last couple of years, my interest in the brand has waned, as one overpriced, under-thought-out perfume after another joined the range. Tom Ford’s Private Blend Atelier d’Orient Collection has been out 18 months and I’ve just sampled all four fragrances; three were yawners to me, but Fleur de Chine1 was a happy surprise.

Fleur de Chine opens with a brash salvo of aldehydes, floral spice (very wisteria-like), tart citrus, and semi-indolic magnolia…

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Tom Ford Private Blend Tuscan Leather & Acqua di Parma Colonia Leather ~ fragrance reviews

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Buffalo bag

Last year I bought a new bag made of American buffalo hide to replace my ancient black calfskin bag that has traveled around the globe with me for ages (and is now retired and ‘resting’ in a cabinet). The moment I held the new bag I felt guilty, for buffaloes are one of my favorite animals. I get excited, and am emotionally moved, to be in the presence of these “beasts” that have always symbolized, for me, the part of the U.S. I love most, the West. Since getting my new bag, I’ve been in two car accidents (only my car was injured) and lost two jobs. Am I cursed? Are the buffalo spirits I’ve always admired pissed off, feeling betrayed — egged on by cows (“He never worries much about US!”) Anyway, I’ve not used the new bag at all; it sits pristine in my closet, encased in a soft wool sweater.

I like leather fragrances as I like amber and tobacco perfumes: I need only ONE specimen of each in my perfume collection.1 Likewise, I need only one leather bag (I like simplicity); testing these two leather perfumes has led me back to my bison bag, whose aroma is still present…

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