Two weeks ago, I mused about chestnut perfumes. The topic must still be on my mind, because I just unearthed a vial of Aroma M Geisha Marron in a bag of samples on my desk and decided to give it another spin. Geisha Marron was originally released as an oil (in a roll-on bottle) in 2006, but Aroma M’s founder and perfumer, Maria McElroy, launched a new Eau de Parfum concentration in 2017.
Like its “sisters” in the Geisha collection, Marron is an interpretation of a color —in this case, brown…
I grew up in the South and was often called Honey Child, always by adults my grandmother’s age (mostly by women). I got in the habit of using the term myself, even as a little boy. I still use it when I’m riled up about something and/or intoxicated. Friends use the term around me, in exaggerated fashion, when I’m pontificating or “hogging the stage.”
“Hunny CHIIIIIIIIIIIIIILD!“
I think Hiram Green Slowdive* should have been called Honey Child…
Brrr! This winter has outdone itself already, and it’s only mid-January. I started my year of vanilla last fall, and today I’ve got five suggestions for vanilla perfumes to keep you cozy and warm while winter does its worst. And as always, do add your own picks in the comments!
Guerlain Shalimar: Duh, you knew that, right? If you’re not sure which one to buy, see Angie’s Shalimar Face-Off, and you might also consider the flanker Guerlain Shalimar Ode à la Vanille…
In the 1992 movie Scent of a Woman, Al Pacino, playing a blind, cranky aesthete, walks across a college campus in autumn. He and his companion cross paths with a woman and talk politics for a moment.
Al Pacino’s nostrils quiver. “Fleurs de Rocaille,” he says (in a terrible accent).
“Yes,” she replies.
“Flowers from a brook.”
“Yes.”
As Pacino walks away, he says to his companion, “Don’t tell me. About five feet seven, auburn, with brown eyes….”
Are you a fan of chestnuts? If so, was this an acquired taste for you? I’ve been a chestnut-lover for most of my life, only because roasted chestnuts figured prominently in two family traditions that took place during the holiday season. One: my grandmother and my mother and I would go together to see the Christmas windows of Manhattan’s department stores, and my grandmother would buy me a small paper bag of roasted chestnuts from a street vendor, to eat as we walked along. Two: my grandparents prepared roasted chestnuts as part of the dessert course on Thanksgiving and Christmas, roasting them in the oven after my grandfather had made a small X or cross on each one with the point of a knife (to prevent them from bursting).
These happy memories surrounding the chestnuts, not to mention the chewy, buttery enjoyment of the nuts themselves, would make me want to try any fragrance with a chestnut note. But why do so few perfumes try to capture this sensation…