Category Archives: Joint blog project

My top 15 perfumes

To grab when the building is burning. 😀

I decided to participate in an impromptu series of other bloggers (Vanessa, Tara and Undina) and must say it was fun to think about the 15 bottles I would hurriedly gather. The only problem being they are not in the same place but let’s ignore that part. 😉

I had a problem with the last place. It was a tie between two perfumes so instead, I added an imaginary bottle (a perfume I wish I had).

In no particular order but how they appeared in my mind (and two are decants but I would grab them instead of a bottle of something else).

  1. Guerlain Shalimar
  2. Guerlain Jicky
  3. Guerlain Cruel gardenia (yes, I see a pattern here) 😀
  4. Penhaligon’s Artemisia
  5. Aedes de Venustas Iris Nazarena
  6. Frapin Caravelle Epicee
  7. L’Artisan Parfumeur L’Eau d’Ambre
  8. Ramon Monegal Cuirelle
  9. Shiseido Feminite du Bois
  10. Honore de Pres Vamp a NY
  11. Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess
  12. Chanel Coromandel
  13. Frederic Malle Bigarade Concentree
  14. Puredistance M
  15. April Aromatics Tempted Muse

The Oil in the Alabaster Box – Spikenard Giveaway

Alabaster Box

A Guest Post that will be appearing on several blogs today in preparation for the celebration of Easter. Featuring my favourite character from the New Testament, one whose name I share (my Christening name that is).
Today we taking a fragrant journey back in time with Jordan River from The Fragrant Man.

We also have a gift to give away. 🙂 Brie in New York has made some spikenard foot oil especially for this post. If you would like to encounter this scent and look after your own or your loved one’s feet please leave a comment below.

The gift recipient will be announced on Easter Sunday and mailed to you on Tuesday.

Spikenard or nard originates in India and Nepal, high in the Himalayas. The root of the plant is the source for one of the rarest and most precious oils.

Brie would like to say that she is not a professional perfumer. This is an interest for her. She blends with the best of intentions, carefully choosing oils for their healing properties as well as for the enjoyment of smelling. Brie says that spikenard is quite tenacious and challenging to work with as in her experience it takes over the blend (similar to tea tree oil).

Are you spending too much on perfume? Here is a scented tale for you.

The Oil in the Alabaster Box
There are many faiths in this world. There are also many myths and legends. It’s up to you to find the truth on your fragrant journey. Let’s travel to the east this Easter to visit with a woman living on the boundaries of her culture. She has recently met a man. She believes him to be her spiritual guide. He is surrounded by men at a dinner party. She is uninvited and has to make her way past the guests to be able to offer her teacher a scented gift. The gift is spikenard oil, a costly perfume ingredient which at this volume, a Roman litra, costs the equivalent of spending a year’s salary on a scent; a scent so potent that the home where this story takes place becomes filled with fragrant air.

image

The room grew still
As she made her way to Jesus
She stumbles through the tears that made her blind

She felt such pain
Some spoke in anger
Heard folks whisper
There’s no place here for her kind

Still on she came
Through the shame that flushed her face
Until at last, she knelt before his feet
And though she spoke no words
Everything she said was heard
As she poured her love for the Master
From her box of alabaster

Don’t be angry if I wash his feet with my tears
And I dry them with my hair
You weren’t there the night He found me
You did not feel what I felt
When he wrapped his love all around me and
You don’t know the cost of the oil
In my alabaster box

– lyrics: Janice Sjostran
for chanteuse Cece Winans
– an interpretation of Mark 14:3-9

Judas the accountant thought this money would have been better spent feeding the poor. Nevertheless the teacher accepted this gift from a woman’s heart.

Jesus looked at her with a smile “your deed will never be forgotten. Your story will be told throughout all the lands and for all time and in ways you have never even dreamed of“.

Little could she have imagined that one day the story of her alabaster box would be told on the World Wide Web.

– a Roman litra ~ 327 grams


Album Version – Cece Winans – The Alabaster Box
A more melodic version.

Ines:

I’m guessing that by now you all know who was the person I spoke of in my introduction. Long before I had any connections to the world of perfume, back when I was a child choosing to have a baptism after the fall of communism, my heart chose the name of Magdalene. She was the character from the New Testament I somehow understood the best and felt a connection to. It was only recently I learned she was also the patron saint of perfumers (shame on me for being so slow in learning that information).

Although that is no wonder if she chose such a precious fragrant gift for Jesus. 🙂

Visit other participating blogs for more chances to win. 😉

Australian Perfume Junkies

CoolCookStyle

Scents Memory

The Perfume Dandy

A Dozen Roses

Participating in joint blog projects is always fun. 🙂 A big thank you to Ayala for inviting me to think about roses and name a dozen in any way I find them interesting.

I realized, roses feature as people, places and ideas in my mind – so here, in short order are those that managed that:

The Poison RosePaestum Rose by Eau d’Italie

I realized not everyone agrees with me on this one, but I still think of it as featuring thorns while you wear it.

The Seductive one – Lyric by AmouageDozenRosesX12

Sweet and seductive. If you are not careful, you might not even realize it’s a rose. Or that you are seduced.

Spending a day at the SPA?Eau Egyptienne by Cinq Mondes

Easy to like and enjoy during the day where enjoyment and relaxation are the order of the day.

The sexy-contemplative rose Costes by Costes

I’d say it’s sexy if worn by a contemplative man, I don’t think many would agree women are sexy when being contemplative. 😉 Or am I wrong? A great review by Suzanne.

Is that a siren coming out of the sea?!Rosam by Histoires de Parfum

The strangeness that is this perfume can shortly be summed up by what a strange sight it would be seeing a siren.

The Prim British Rose –  Mohur by Neela Vermeire

Rose-cheeked Miss drinking tea.

Can it be called a rose? Jabu by Mona di Orio

Possibly not, but there is some rose in there and it deserves a mention for being a perfume evoking happiness.

Dark viney rose – Baie Rose by Le Labo

Hmm, a rose perfume for Batman perhaps?

Dangerously sexy and seductive – Worth Courtesan

I talked about it yesterday – if you want to get noticed, you need not look further. 🙂

Rose for dessert – Rose flavoured rahat loukhum

The most decadent non-chocolate sweet ever. Leaving a dusting of sugar on your fingers so you have to lick them as well.

It’s been a pleasure and now for some more, please visit other participating blogs:

Girls Just Want To Have Fun! (part 2)

Up until the time I sat down and started writing this post, I had a completely different idea in my mind of what it will look like. But after Asali’s post yesterday and turning on radio this morning to the sound of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” (talk about synchronicity), I decided to go with the flow.

It’s my birthday after all. 🙂

I have to filch parts of Asali’s post though. 😉 After last year, which has been a successful one if one is to look at what I managed to accomplish during it, it was also extremely difficult, tiring and stressful for me so I decided to take this day as the beginning of a new year that is bound to be more happy and less stressful. By the Aquarius3light covering of snow to which I woke today, I’m taking it is a sign from providence that my life might be on a much easier route now.

Enough of that, I’m sure you want to know more about my perfume choices for having fun. 🙂

I started my day with Chanel 18. 🙂 I want to feel as sparkly and happy as that perfume smells. I might privately think of it as the diamond-type of perfume (due to its sparkly feeling) and even though I won’t be wearing anything sparkly today, it’s the way I want to feel today.

Plus, being a rather low projecting perfume, it is fitting for small gatherings where you don’t want your perfume to take over space but just enhance it.

But, if I were to have fun with girls and decide to take over some space – I would go with Guerlain’s original La Petite Robe Noire. I always smile when I think about that perfume as in my mind it fits perfectly for a girls’ night out (which I will probably have soon). It’s flirty, fun, and makes you noticed. I’d say the right combo for a girls’ night out, wouldn’t you?

And last, but not least, the perfume I remembered just this morning as the perfume for calling out your inner sultry seductress which both takes over space and everybody in it – Worth’s Courtesan.

I still live in the belief that there is an inner sultry seductress I could call forth (but, honestly, I’m not sure I’m that kind of woman) but even if there isn’t, that is the perfume that can make everyone believe it.

The strange thing about Courtesan is that it’s actually a lovely (albeit strong) flower perfume. Which can make you overlook the hidden “dirtiness” inside it. And the fact that if you wear it, no one is going to overlook that fact as that one will definitely take over any free space around you (in the radius of at least 5m). You are warned. 😉

Wishing everyone a lovely Sunday like the one I have planned for myself (and there’s going to be some champagne in mine). 😉

See you in two days at Undina’s!

 

P.S. A big thank you again to Valerie Rodriguez for creating the pictures for our little blog bash – this one is practically the color of my hair at the moment. 🙂

 

 

Girls Just Want to Have Fun!

By Asali

It is my pleasure to invite you to a 4 day birthday-perfume-blogger-bash.

I hadn’t known Ines for long, before I realised that our birthdays were only one day apart, and when Undina wrote her story about finding a Guerlain in Las Vegas , I realised that her birthday had to be close to mine and Ines’. I thought that this would be an ideal opportunity for a 4 day long birthday-celebration. And luckily both Ines and Undina agreed.

As a child I loved the excitement of birthdays, the presents, the cake, the guests and all the surprisesAquarius4 the day consisted of. I am aware that I probably kept this excitement a great deal longer than most of my friends. One thing about becoming an adult was realising that if one wanted a birthday party, one would have to make the party and arrange the surprises if there were to be any. Celebrating one self, seemed such a hard thing to do, and has made me hesitant of any bigger celebrations over the last many years. However Feb 9th 2013 is the date where finally I will have finished a lot of things which have burdened me over the last year; I’ve sold my old flat, moved out, I managed to find a new flat (although it won’t be mine till later in the year), I will have finished an exam, for which I definitely did not have enough time or energy to study, and I will finally be able to find more time for the things that matter and things that make me happy. So this year, on my birthday, I will not be shy of celebrating, I’m determined to have as much fun as possible. So why not also celebrate with you here?

Of course this should be about perfume too, so here come the scents of my birthday 2013.

It will most definitely start with the smell of freshly ground coffee, shortly followed by a cup of the hot drink itself, and a croissant. Hopefully I’ll wake up and smell the coffee…

I was planning to wear something light during the day, so that I can wear something different for the evening. Light in all ways; light-hearted, easy-going and a bit fleeting. I am thinking the new L’Heure de Nuit; because it’s L’Heure Bleue without the melancholia, and for this occasion that’s just perfect. It’s elegant and a bit cheeky, but only slightly so. Despite the name, I think of this for daytime wear and when it will have evaporated I’ll wear my evening perfume.

I plan for there to be enough champagne for the evening – I haven’t thought of much else, just as long as there is enough champagne; and to match that, I’ll wear some happy-bubbly, sparkly, head-high- stilettos on – Arpège. My bottles are well packed away (and alas the purple peep-toe stilettos too), but I do have a sample of the Eau de Arpège, and I plan to spend it all.

No birthday is complete without gifts and wishes, so here they are:

My perfumed gift that I’ll grant myself (sooner or later, it’s been on the list for long enough) MDCI Promesse de L’Aube.

My birthday perfume-wishes include (I’m being adult and restraining myself here, pretending to be a person of measure): Vintage L’Heure Bleue parfum and Puredistance Opardu.

Please spend my birthday with great enjoyment. See you tomorrow.

 

A big thank you to Valerie Rodriguez for creating the wonderful pics for us to have for this perfume bash. 🙂

Winter 2012 Top Fragrances & Other Stuff

I always enjoy participating in joint blog projects as they make me organize my thoughts on a certain subject and it’s fun to take a look back and see what my top winter perfumes and other stuff wore.
Thanks to Helg of the Perfume Shrine, today you can check some of the winter favorites both here and on the other participating blogs (the list is below). 🙂

So, in no particular order, this winter I’ve been enjoying the Voluspa Winesap Apple Spice candle in the evenings. I light the candle, and curl in my favourite armchair with a book. This winter has seriously sapped my energy levels (not the weather, but the period) so this is my way of relaxing and enjoying some down time.

On the plus side, when the candle burns out, I will have a beautiful cup to put in some of my favourite decants. 🙂

This winter, I also found out that if one is to go by perfumes, I had a completely wrong idea of what India smells like.
I have been lucky to test the Neela Vermeire perfumes (proper reviews to come soon) and I was completely taken by surprise by the perfume interpretation of India.

For some reason I thought that all the spices and notes will turn into an oriental perfume fullbodied and heavy.
Instead, what I found is the warm, summer air saturated with all kinds of smells but at the same time breezy and light-hearted. I can’t wait to be able to wear them once the weather turns slightly warmer, I believe the cold we are having these days would kill their light happiness.

And that brings me to the fact that this winter, I’m all for warm and sweet when it comes to my perfumes, so I’m wearing vanillas and ambers and Shalimar in the evenings.

L’Artisan’s Vanilia and L’Eau d’Ambre, MdO Vanille, Un Bois Vanille by SL and of course, Ambre Sultan.
Among all these ambers and vanillas, a strange little cinnamony gem also found its place – Un Crime Exotique.

Those are my go-to scents when I want to feel wrapped up in my little warm cocoon where the world can’t get me (and they work rather well in that context).

As does my first ever cashmere sweater! 🙂 Ok, so I might be late to that party but I just never thought there is a type of wool out there that could work with my extremely sensitive skin when it comes to clothing texture. Not to mention that the price wasn’t exactly making me eager to buy one.
All I can say is, I might not be buying cashmere sweaters regularly, but they will slowly start appearing more and more in my wardrobe.

And last but not least, my list of top stuff couldn’t be complete without a mention of an alcoholic beverage. 😉
This winter I discovered my favourite cognac and cognac house. Not that I’ve tried many but Frapin are my clear favourite. Not surprising though as I love their perfumes a lot as well (if they can make such great perfumes, imagine what they can do with cognacs which they’ve been making for 20 generations).

And here are my fellow participating bloggers with their thoughts on winter favourites:

The Non Blonde

Perfume Shrine

Katie Puckrick

I smell therefore I am

Under the Cupola

Waft by Carol

Apples and wine pic by http://www.gasparic-pejzazi.com/

O Tannenbaum! (part 2)

Welcome to my part of the O Tannebaum! blog project. 🙂
I’m running a bit late after my co-bloggers but that’s because I tried to put my thoughts on my 3 choices in order, only to discover I can’t.
I find all 3 beguiling, extremely interesting, strange and therefore meant for me. 🙂
In a random manner (not as to how much I like them) here they are.
Parfumerie Generale – Un Crime Exotique
My readers probably remember that I was on a hunt for a Christmas perfume. This one fits the bill only partly. The cinnamon and ginger are here, as is the black tea, but Christmas here doesn’t smell like this perfume.
But I surely wouldn’t mind spending it where it does smell like UCE. 🙂
With this perfume I keep going through what of the notes I can smell and then trying to guess how in the world do they combine into what I smell.
Notes: Chinese osmanthus, gingerbread, tea, cinnamon, star anise, mate absolute, vanilla sugar, South Sea Island sandalwood
It starts sweetly gingery-cinnamony (I don’t know how gingerbread smells like so gingery it is) and now that I know what to look for, I can smell the tea underneath (of the black variety). My notes made me look for a bit of raspberry-ish fruit but I guess the osmanthus-anise-tea combination could make me feel the fruity aspect in this.
I keep having problems describing this but I blame it all on the anise. It gets more barky-cinnamon and there is the underlying smell I cannot describe that I’m guessing is made refreshing by mate, anise, vanilla and sandalwood.
The good thing about this perfume is that it doesn’t lose the cinnamon tinge, even though it lessens, it is still there. And the wonder lasts.
La Via del Profumo – Oud Caravan no1.
I was lucky to win a sample of this from Suzanne and it came in time to be included in my O Tannenbaum choices.
If there are notes for this listed somewhere, someone please let me know as I had to smell this blindly (so all manner of strange associations might crop up). 🙂
First of all, I need to say it doesn’t smell as oudy as I keep thinking oud perfumes should (having the previous Montale experience). Then again, it does smell oudy, in that good, smoky, serious, lightly leathery and incensey way. The way that makes you a bit scared of the aura it is projecting.
At the same time, it makes you come closer to try and define what is it that makes it enticing.
As I don’t know the notes, it makes it easier for me to describe what I’m smelling without wondering why am I not smelling something (or smelling something that isn’t there). 🙂
Sometimes I smell it and think there is a light herbal tinge to it – the kind that makes your nose clear but in this case it’s not very apparent.
Anyway, a bit later, light balsamic feel emerges (as in the woody-resiny kind) giving this just a hint of sweetness so as to not make it too dry to smell. But it still smells dry with a light woody creaminess in the background. And all the time preciously oudy.
It seems Burren Perfumery is this very well hidden little perfumery in Ireland because so far I’ve never seen a single perfume review of any of their scents (including myself who is aware of their existence).
Winter Woods is their latest release and I was lucky to receive a sample when the release was announced (along with all other of their perfumes).
Notes: rosemary, bergamot, lemon, iris, lavender, cedar, pine and vetiver.
I see they are calling this a quietly masculine fragrance – I can’t really judge, I like it and I have a tendeny to fall into the “masculine” part of the perfume world.
It starts with a refreshingly bitter – powdery feel. Considering the fact that both bergamot and lemon are listed, it is remarkably subdued in the citrusy department. I mean you can smell the light citrusness, combined with a bitterness and what I tend to call shampoo freshness (which always reminds me of nettle but that’s not listed as a note).  Before I lose your interest, the clean freshness doesn’t last that long. I’m pretty sure iris is exorting its effect on this whole composition, making it bitter and powdery.
At the same time, the idea of winter woods is becoming more and more true. But these winter woods are covered in snow (the wihiteness of the perfume comes very clearly out) and you can smell the crisp air, the wood bark and the powdery feel of the snow.
I’m not one to fall for powdery (at least I never did before) but the bitterness and powderiness of this are getting under my skin.
(actually they already got there)
I could go into details of the notes but unless you really pay attention to what you’re smelling, they won’t reveal themselves (they will if you really want to know them).
But I find that I don’t want to deconstruct them – I want to walk in those woods.
Please visit other participating blogs for some more Tannenbaum perfumes. 🙂

Another Perfume Blog
Beauty, Bacon, Bunnies
Beauty on the Outside
EauMG
Eyeliner on a cat
Fragrant Reviews
Muse in Wooden Shoes
Olfactoria’s Travels
Parfumieren
Redolent of Spices
Scent of the Day
Suzanne’s Perfume Journal
The Candy Perfume Boy

O Tannenbaum! A joint blogging event

I adore participating in joint blogging projects so when Joanne and Krista asked if we were interested in this year’s Christmas project of course we said yes (that includes Asali and I).

So here are Asali’s mini reviews for O Tannenbaum! project:


Pick #1:

Iunx, L’Ether; Only recently I discovered this fragrance, and I can’t get it out of my mind, so it is definitely my Tannenbaum perfume no 1 – in spirit, even if not yet in material shape.

Because this incense perfume invites introspective thoughtfulness, and in the middle of this almost spiritual swirl of fragrance there is a discreet rose heart, and there is the golden hue of saffron softened by sandalwood. Even if this can be worn all year round, somehow it manages to sum up the soul of Christmas to me. A divine creation by Olivia Giacobetti

My pick #2;
Another Giacobetti gem is Safran Troublant (L’Artisan Parfumeur), ok so it isn’t exactly an imaginative choice, but it practically IS all that is nice about December to me.  It smells like the most delicious bun that the Swedes do for Lucia day called Lussekat. The fragrance like the bun manages to sparkle in all its glorious saffron spiciness, rounded and softened by vanilla sweetness.  It is alluring and smooth, and a most wonderful fragrance. Sharing many of the same notes including the creamy sandalwood, it couldn’t be further away from L’Ether in its expression. On the 13th of December you can experience a little scenery of girls dressed in white with a candle clad garland on their heads singing the Santa Lucia song, and you can eat Lussekatte (plural), and you can relive it every time you wear ST.

Pick #3

Last but not least the ultimative Christmas party fragrance: Marron Chic from Nez a Nez.

It’s less “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire” and more sleigh ride style “We’ll be singing the songs we like to sing without a single stop, at the fireplace while we watch the chestnut pop, just hear those sleigh bells jingling , ring ting tingling too, come on it’s lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you ”

Comfy cosy and yet very sensual, it truly comes alive on the skin, oozing chic radiance, and like some of my most cherished perfumes turns you into something a little better than yourself.

Please visit other participating blogs to read more about what Christmas season perfumes bring happiness to them:

Another Perfume Blog
Beauty, Bacon, Bunnies
Beauty on the Outside
EauMG
Eyeliner on a cat
Fragrant Reviews
Muse in Wooden Shoes
Olfactoria’s Travels
Parfumieren
Redolent of Spices

Scent of the Day
Suzanne’s Perfume Journal
The Candy Perfume Boy
Undina’s Looking Glass


P.S. I’ll be posting my reviews later in the day.

Coming up!

I don’t know if anyone noticed the lack of posts recently here (luckily, I can count on Asali to put in one or two to make it look like something is happening).

Well, at least tomorrow, I can happily announce there will be some perfume reviews (both by me and many other wonderful bloggers).

Sometimes I really need a shove at my back and everything returns to normal again (I hope tomorrow is that day). 🙂

So stay tuned and have fun tomorrow with us!

Brave New Scents: Jessamine by Charna Ethier (Providence Perfume Co) and Sweet Water by Liz Cook (One Seed Perfume)

I don’t think I’ll be able to review all of the Brave New Scents, but I do want to talk about some others in the project that caught my heart.

Jessamine

Top notes: Cedrat, Yutu, Galbanum
Heart notes: Jasmine Auriculatum, Aglaia, Linden Blossom, Pink Lotus
Base notes: orris, hay, Tahitian vanilla Bean tincture

“Evoking Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, southern drawls, Jessamine covered verandas and the hum of cicadas.”

I can’t start by saying that this perfume evokes a cologne-ish feel at the beginning. Because even though that was the first idea that came to my head, the citrusy-green opening isn’t light and floaty, but full while at the same time beaing so fresh. I guess that is needed during Southern summer.

This freshness is soon resting upon a nutty feeling and you are happily starting to enjoy the sunny, fresh smelling flowers in the air. I can’t say I can tease out the participating flower notes but the whole feeling is yellow (and you can see some of the flowers here are yelloy, jessamine stands for yellow jasmine).

I love it that I cannot tease out the individual notes but am left with enjoying their interplay and smelling the lovely mix they made.

But, the evening in the Garden approaches and the sunny flowers are no longer playing and wafting. What we are left is a broody vanilla.
Are you sure you still want to be outside?

Sweet Water

Top notes: clementine CO2, distilled lime, basil absolute
Heart: mimosa absolute, linden blossom absolute, honey absolute, hay absolute, sweet clover absolute, jasmine sambac CO2, mint absolute
Base: tobacoo balkans absolute, amber oil, copaiba balsam, iris butter, tonka bean absolute, labdanum absolute clear, green tea absolute

The first thing that came into my mind upon smelling this was LOVELY! (and I do mean that in capital letters)
But I don’t think that would count as a perfume review. 🙂

I hope you didn’t pay much attention to the notes because they can’t convey the loveliness of this. It starts sweet and spicy, lightly fruity (I’m thinking citrusy/basil combination with mint playing along).

It’s like you are blasted by good chear. 🙂

And then the sweetness blossoms. The flowers and the honey. The real honey. The one you smell when you open your pot. For me, this pot contains chestnut honey, a slightly darker smelling version of honey.

Btw, here is where I have to say that this is not the type of honey that makes people run screaming in the other direction. The one that actually doesn’t smell like honey but like a candied, awfully synthetic imititation of one.
Here, the honey smells as honey is supposed to. And if anyone had a chance to try it, I would love to hear if someone else got the pure honey note from this.

Eventually though, honey sweetness dissipates and you are left lying in dark hay, smelling tobacco from afar.
Like I said, lovely. 🙂

Just a little reminder, you have until tomorrow midnight (October 4th) to enter for a chance of winning either Carmine or Avalon.

Jessamine pic by http://providenceperfume.blogspot.com/

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