It's an indecent obsession I know, but it could be worse. What if I had allergies? What would become of my collection??
My scent memories started early. My first perfume memory actually was the taste of it instead of the scent. For some inexplicable reason I gargled a bottle of my mother's cologne, and even though I don't remember the smell, I do remember the taste. Unlike most little girls I never went through a Tinkerbell stage. My mother was a recreational shopper, so I got to spritz good perfumes on my baby self fairly early. I do remember J.P. Allen on Peachtree street having a perfume fountain set into the wall of the store's foyer and you could anoint yourself with what ever scent they were featuring. Maybe I need one of those in my foyer....
Though my mother had a few perfumes, her signature scent was Nina Ricci's L'Air du Temps. Tragically this classic scent was reformulated with synthetic ingredients in the late 1980's and bears no resemblance to the light and lovely composition created to embody the new spirit of post WWII Europe. "L'Air du Temps" is one of those subtle French euphemisms with a dictionary of nuances, but it translates loosely to "spirit of the era" or when something is so of the moment that it actually becomes a symbol of it. God love the French, they're so subtle even they don't know what they're actually saying. But they do make some wonderful scents. The lovely crystal bottle created by Lalique was topped by twin doves symbolizing hope and peace.
I don't remember my grandmother having a favorite scent. She was a lipstick person and at any time might have thirty or more lipsticks taking up residence in handbags and pockets. She did sell Avon products later in her life and their scent line was the first I ever memorized. She and I would play a game of "name that scent" by giving base note hints and making the other person figure out which scent contained them. Looking back I realize she must have had a "nose" also or she wouldn't have been able to do this. It must be a strange genetic gift, if I smell a scent I never forget it.
My passion to acquire designer perfumes begain early. At a time when friends were dousing themselves with Love's Baby Soft, I was after my first bottle of Halston. Another classic that has been rendered unrecognizable by reconfiguration, the original created by Bernard Chant was marvelously sophisticated. Especially on a seventh grader. I also loved Charlie, the highly successful Revlon scent. Who didn't want to look like all American leggy Shelley Hack, clawing her way up the corporate ladder and discoing all night? Plus it was cheap! Since the modern career women it was geared toward were only making about .60 cents to a man's dollar, they could actually afford to buy it for themselves. It still smells good today, my mother has a friend that wears it as her signature scent and it's wonderful.
Remember Babe by Faberge? Good old girl Jerri Hall hawked the hell out of this scent. It was Charlie's slutty sister. You still can find a bottle here and there on Ebay, but Unilever (owns Faberge now) has no plans on bringing it back.
Let's take a quick hustle down 70's lane favorite perfumes: Chloe (Karl Lagerfeld's version, not Stella McCartney's cheap fabric softener scent version), Coty's Muget du Bois, Jovan Musk, and Cachet. I think Cachet probably set me on the road to preferring chypre/floral mixtures.
A word about chypre. This is for my non-perfume whore friends. Sadly I have found that none of my friends are perfume obsessed. However, I am working on it. One by one, I am dragging them to the scent bar and forcing them to try on things. God knows I have something for everyone in there.
Anyway back to chypre. First of all is pronunciation. It's "Shee prah", not shypree. Chypre refers to scents that are resinous, warm, and earthy. They frequently contain bergamot, oakmoss, amber, patchouli, and often are described as incense like. Chypres are the demimonde of the perfume world, they are scandalous but never straight up trashy.
Which brings us to the '80's. Everything was so over the top, including the scents. I'm surprised anyone wore perfume after this decade; I felt like I had a perfume hangover when it was over. It started out good. Remember Ralph Lauren's first scent, "Lauren"? Gorgeously green and fresh, if debutantes had an odor, this would have been it. This scent too has been reformulated and now is a pale ghost of it's former glory.
As we strode into the mid-eighties with our huge hair and shoulder pads, the scents became even more aggressive. My theory is that all that coke numbed our noses until the only thing we could smell were some of these boomingly loud fragrance cliches of the times. Here's a sniff before we go-go: Fendi, Poison, Red, Obsession, Giorgio, Opium, Samsara, Magie Noir. All beautifully crafted scents, but remember walking into dance clubs? The combination of these scents, plus Everyman's Polo, was enough to knock anyone out. I do love that Obsession is making a comeback and using Eva Mendes as it's muse. Perfect! She looks dated and is certainly old enough to have worn it the first time around.
Sadly, some scents did not get the recognition they deserved as they were a bit too reserved to flash themselves around. If you get a chance to waft a little of Guerlain's Jardins de Bagatelle over yourself then by all means do so. Created in 1983 by Jean Paul Guerlain, it is an overlooked masterpiece. Balmain's Ivoire also was a quiet classic. Clean, green, and a little soapy; it was totally trampled over by the big girl scents. I also adored Rocha's Byzance, which disappointingly ended up in T.J. Maxx's bargain bin.
The '90's were defined for me by some unusual scent accords. Two of my favorites of that era were of course Angel from Thierry Mugler and Lolita Lempicka. If you're a perfume junkie, stop and remember the first time you smelled Angel. And smelled it again. Then misted your wrist and wandered around sniffing yourself. Amazing. Created in 1993 by the perfume legend maker Olivier Cresp, I must say this is the all time seductress of perfumes. Described as an "oriental gourmand" scent, it has a unique undertone of dark rich chocolate that grabs you and won't let go. Whenever I wore Angel, men followed me around in droves. Something in that scent signaled "sexy" and "has some sort of candy on her". No wonder most of the men were under 18...
I also got more into Sophia Grojsman scents. She did the fabulously fresh Calyx for Prescriptives in the '80's, another good perfume that didn't make you smell like a cocotte. She did a perfume for Karl Lagerfeld called "Sun, Moon, and Stars" that was unique and also Boucheron's Jaipur, which was so fabulously exotic. I would have to consider her possibly one of the most versatile of the famous perfumers in this century. A majority of my favorite perfumes have been created by her and they are all completely different in mood. From the ethereal Eternity, to the elegant White Linen, and then the controversial Outrageous! from Frederic Malle.
I tried some of the other big releases of the '90's too. Dolce Vita and Champs Elysees were two favorites. Guerlain's Champs Elysees took a horrible beating from the critics, but I thought it was pretty in a candy flowery sort of way. For me it was a nice break from all the big scents I normally wear.
I began to appreciate the classics more at this point. Fracas made a place on my perfume shelf. The '40's iconic scent was created by the great Germaine Cellier and is right up there with Joy, Chanel No. 5, and Shalimar as a serious Diva with a capital D scent. Fracas instilled a love of tuberose based scents in me and is still the only perfume I wear during the vernal equinox. I'm serious. Perfumes have a season, a clothing style, and even activities. It's hard for me to believe that some women wear the same scent no matter what season, ensemble, or time of day they are in. Fracas does not smell correct in any season for me except spring, and even then it depends on the heat index. This is one of the few classic French scents that has been reformulated to meet EU standards and still smells fabulous. You can thank Pierre Negrin for that, in fact you should send him a card for pulling this off considering the stringency of these draconian edicts for perfume.
On to the new millennium! I think this is when the niche and boutique scents began to call me. I have become jaded on the big perfume houses. It's easy to create a blockbuster scent when you have a huge budget and can hire the Christopher Sheldrakes or Calice Beckers to formulate it. But I wanted to try some fresh and new takes on olfactory satisfaction, so I branched out a bit.
Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs is one of my favorite seriously inexpensive perfume companies. I love, love, love their website: //www.blackphoenixalchemylab.com/ It's all very gothy vampire Aldous Huxley, Aubrey Beardsley. They make sexy, romantic, original perfume oils with wonderful names and stories. If you have nothing else to do, spend a few hours on their site. All the oils are handcrafted, plus cheap, cheap, cheap. Lust is one of their oils I cannot live without. It smells like sex in a Catholic church. Frankincense, myrrh, and pheromones; what could be more sacrilegious that that?
Frederic Malle perfumes are too beautiful for words. The epic Carnal Flower is the most original tuberose scent ever. How do you describe this scent? It smells like blood and juicy fruit gum, but in a great way that only perfumistas can relate too. Lys Mediterranee is much more accessible, it is a fresh lily scent that smells of flowers and sunshine ala Riviera.
I like some of the Bond No. 9 scents, namely Madison Soiree. For me it takes up that space in my heart where Lauren (the original) used to reside. It's demure and buttoned up. Very Charlotte from "Sex in the City". I wear it when I don't want men panting after me.
Which means I clean house in it.
Now my favorite two slutty scents of the moment are Agent Provocateur's Maitresse and Lancome's Magnifique. Agent Provocateur produces some wonderfully sexy lingerie for the under 100 pound set and sexy perfume for the rest of us. If Maitresse was a person, it would be Dita Von Teese. It's sexy, yet not pole dancy. It teases and insinuates. My husband liked it so much that he didn't shit himself when he worked out the exchange rate price from AED to dollars. I found that when he tried to work out the math I could confuse him by leaning my Maitresse soaked cleavage his way. This is some powerful voodoo perfume! Magnifique is Lancome's latest offering. It is just a big old classic FM perfume. I just can't figure out why they used Anne Hathaway as the face for it. She's gorgeous and young; this perfume needs a much more sophisticated person as an image. I can't see many 20 somethings wearing this one. It's a lot like their fabulous but discontinued classic Magie Noir; it's a scent for a woman with a past. It's dark and mysterious, it's a little exotic. I'm trying to think of a face that would work for this one and I'm thinking maybe one of the gorgeous Bollywood actresses. Unfortunately most of them are unknown here, but have millions of followers worldwide. I don't see Magnifique doing as well in the States as it would in the Middle Eastern countries or India. That wonderful saffron accord with the other spice scents of cumin and nagarmota are overwhelming for most skin types, but perfect for darker skin. I know as much as I love little delicate scents like Diorissimo, they don't work on my oilier, darker skin. They are gone before I leave the house, but these big florientals work like a charm.
However one light scent that does work on me in Serge Luten's Un Lys. This is another scent that almost killed my husband when I bought it. We were in Dubai this summer and the only thing you can do there in the heat is shop. Harvey Nichols at Mall of the Emirates (the one with the ski slope) has an amazing perfume department. I could have spent all day there but for the obnoxious Eastern European shop girl hounding me, plus it was hard throwing my body over price tags with my husband breathing down my neck. I finally quit pretending just to look and grabbed one of Luten's scents to buy. I couldn't take the pressure anymore. I kept trying to get my husband to go off somewhere so he didn't see the price, but I just had to throw austerity to the wind or I would never have left Dubai with this little treasure. It's a soft lily, unlike Frederic Malle's greener Lys Mediterranee. It has an almost creamy, powdery feel from vanilla and a hint of lilac. Created by Christopher Sheldrake (who's since moved to Chanel), it's a classic soliflore that is gorgeously wearable.
I also adore Kai. I found this little known cult classic at a niche store in Jacksonville. If you like gardenia, this is the perfume for you. Not trampy like Jungle Gardenia, not elegant like Isabey, it's just right. Green, pretty, and guaranteed to make people ask you what you have on.
My latest treasure however is Tocca's Cleopatra. I don't normally buy a bottle after only wearing the scent for a few moments, but this was an exception. Tocca had the Cleopatra candle first, but perfume is quite different from that scent. This is a head turner. Grapefruit, greens, tuberose, jasmine, patchouli, amber. Sounds like a perfume cacophony, but is gorgeous on. I want to smell this all the time, in fact I have been wearing it daily for a month and that's unusual for me. If you try one new perfume this year, try this one.
I did mention to my husband a new perfume I'm after. Well, it's not new but it is new to me. JAR, the perfume line of jeweler Joel Arthur Rosenthal, is a niche line represented at Bergdorf Goodman in NYC and the JAR boutique in Paris. They are the most difficult of the niche fragrances to get one's hands on. I looked at a sample on Luckyscents yesterday. For $61.00 I can get a 1 ml vial of Bolt of Lightning. I believe a bottle runs around $800 and is perhaps one ounce. I have not been able to pull that up to verify. I do know that BG does not sell it on their website, nor can you buy it at the reclusive jeweler's shop. He opens only by appointment, and unless HRH is part of your title you have very little chance of getting in...I mentioned I had the need to acquire a bit to my kinder half and he offered to see if he could get me the designer imposter version at one of the souks. I tried to explain good perfume to him...I did...It's okay. He can't make me understand car thingies either.
Well run along now and go scent yourself. If nothing else, hopefully today I have given you a reason to appreciate perfume more than you did already.
Article Source: //EzineArticles.com/1992596
staub 3 5 quart pumpkin cocotte orange,
staub cast iron eggplant round french oven 5 qt,
waring pro wpt400sa professional 2 slice toaster,
panasonic 27 stainless steel trim kit for 1 5 cuft convection microwaves,
kitchenaid khmc1857wwh microwave hood combination oven,
all clad stainless 8 quart stockpot,
hamilton beach set forget 31230 six slice toaster oven set forget 6 slice digital toaster oven broiler wmeat thermtr othelc bake broil toast keep warm,
all clad stainless steel 6 quart french braiser with rack,
staub 8 875 quart round cocotte basil,
le creuset stoneware 5 34 quart covered oval casserole white,
cuisinart tob 175 convection toaster oven broiler,
calphalon tri ply stainless steel 13 piece cookware set,
panasonic 27 stainless steel trim kit for 1 6 cuft stainless steel microwaves,
sharp 950 watt 1 25 cubic foot over the range microwaves,
farberware rotisserie grill indoor hearth broiler,
aquachef sous vide water oven,
fagor 7 piece cast aluminum cookware set,
staub round 2 75 qt cocotte dark blue 1102291,
ge profile pvm1790 stainless steel over the range microwave oven,
magic chef mcm1110st 1 1 cubic feet 1000 watt stainless microwave with digital touch,
le creuset enameled cast iron 4 12 quart round french oven flame,
portmeirion botanic garden individual 5 12 inch fruit salad bowls set of 6,
frigidaire fpmo209kf professional 2 0 cu ft built in microwave stainless steel,
amana 1 5 cu ft over the range microwave amv1150vas stainless steel,
cuisinart 66 17 chefs classic nonstick hard anodized 17 piece cookware set,
flavorwave turbo platinum professional package,
whirlpool mt4155spb 1 5 cu ft countertop microwave oven black,
cooks standard multi ply clad stainless steel 10 piece cookware set,
kitchenaid architect series ii khhc2090sss 2 0 cu ft over the range microwav,
sharp r 520lkt full size countertop micro
ผู้ติดตามบล็อก : 1 คน [
