I just realized my love of perfumes is back but my writing skills aren’t.

I can write about things but I’m drawing blanks when it comes to perfume. I’m really not happy about that but I lost the practice and now it will take a while to get it back.

In this post I’ll try to explain why I love the perfumes I’m writing about.

I’ve been wearing April Aromatics’ Tempted Muse before my vacation and loved it so much that the decant is gone. Btw, thank you Asali for sending it – you really know my taste. 😀

Which brings me to Undina’s post and her explanation how perfumes are thunked.

Of all the muses out there, the one that speaks to me is Urania (surprise, suprise)

My decant is done but the perfume is definitely not thunked.

After a long time, I used up a decant and now I know I want a bottle of it. It’s kind of funny that when I look back at the bottles of perfumes I fell in love with, ones that I purchased in the last few years, they were all perfumes that I labeled completely wrong with my nose.

For example, the beginning of Tempted Muse reminds me a lot of Jicky and therefore I concluded the perfume must contain lavender. Turns out, that’s not one of the listed notes.

Notes: Frangipani, tuberose, jasmine, rose otto, tonka bean, sandalwood, ylang ylang, pink grapefruit, vanilla, anis fruit accord.

Which brings me to the seductive one.

On summer vacation evening I went out for a stroll along the seaside and as this was a quick weekend getaway I brought no perfumes and just fished out of my purse one of the samples I  always have there for backup. Turns out it was Andy Tauer’s Une Rose de Kandahar.

What an amazing perfume to wear on a hot summer night!

I would never have guessed it and feel a bit ashamed. I always felt ouds were too much for heat which is the opposite of where they originated. Luckily, I found out for myself how great they work in heat.  I could smell it wafting off of me all the time but in an easy wave that is enjoyable to smell. You’re not sure where it’s coming from but you like that it’s here and want it to remain in the air around you.

Notes: Apricot, cinnamon, almond, bergamot, Bulgarian rose absolute, rose from Kandahar, bourbon geranium, tobacco leaf, patchouli, vetiver, vanilla, tonka bean, musk and ambergris.

Being true to the introduction, I cannot describe it better than that it’s a rose oud but I’ll work on that. 🙂 I mean out of all these notes, in the drydown I get vetiver in addition to the beginning of rose and oud. Which also isn’t a note of this perfume (oud) but hell, obviously the base notes combine well to give that impression. And that makes it even more amazing.

Now that I wrote this, I realize that it’s the small niche brands I’ve been enjoying the most lately. Little gems of novelty brilliance in the sea of sameness.

Tagged: Andy Tauer, April Aromatics, Jicky, lavender, oud, Perfume review, perfume thoughts, Tempted Muse, Une Rose de Kandahar