Category Archives: Perfume thoughts

Behind times

I've been thinking, Perfume thoughts, World of Perfume February 4, 2014 Comments: 15

It’s not really surprising I’m behind perfume news considering how much free time for it I have (basically none). It’s a busy time at work and after it there really isn’t that much time (or energy) left for anything but bed.

But I don’t want to bore you all with the fact I have no free time, I was more shocked with the fact that pleasantly surprised as I was with what I thought were news about the new Dior Collection Privée Elixirs Précieux (Rose, Ambre, Oud and Musc) – a short Google search showed it was only news to me. 🙂

Even though it is only news to me, I got very excited after reading the French Vogue article where they said they were meant for layering. I must say I have high hopes of them smelling good by themselves and together.

Seeing though that they cost 280 €, I might have to decide they don’t really smell that great… 😉

2013. The year that was

I've been thinking, Perfume thoughts, World of Perfume December 31, 2013 Comments: 24

I have no better words to describe it. It was, it’s over now.

I look back on it and all I can think is, thankfully, it’s over. Nothing bad happened to me but it still felt like a bad year, full of bad news (both domestic and international), lethargy, indifference, deaths – generally, a year that didn’t display human kind at its best (an understatement) and did display it at some of its worst.

I always feel guilty for thinking like this, I feel I am being ungrateful. Compared to most of the world, I lead a life of plenty. And realistically speaking, it’s true. I lack for nothing, quite the contrary, I have a great family, a nice job, a good education, great circle of friends. I live in a beautiful country. I travel. I can buy perfumes and books. I am also healthy and hopefully will remain so.

So why feel like my year was one I just went through? Because it was. It mostly feels like a year where I went through all the motions of my everyday life when actually it felt more like hibernation with some small sparks of life.

But I want to focus on all the positive things this year brought me (because it feels like the hibernation period might be over) and one should always bring in the new year on a positive note. 🙂

 

PERFUME

This year has brought me some true treasures. 🙂black smoke

I discovered Cuirelle by a lucky chance and fell in love completely.

Suzanne opened my eyes to what incredibly happy perfume 24, Faubourg is.

I listened to Maurice Roucel give a talk on perfumes and met some new perfume friends.

And then the new Puredistance Black came out. And speaking of black, it really has become my favorite color to wear.

 

 

BOOKS

I discovered I am hooked to post-apocalyptic novels of any and every caliber – YA, horror, zombie, romance – you name it, I’ll probably enjoy it. I do wonder about what that says about me because I’m scared of the actual possibility (some of them sound too realistic). Am I preparing for the possibility?!passage

I haven’t read World War Z but I did see the movie and loved it. I’m guessing the book is better. When someone asks me what I want for birthday, that will be on my list (although I can already see the eye-rolling accompanying my wish for more books). 😀

I also think I will never reach my annual goal of 100 books. Last year I came closest, but this year, I think it’s the worst so far. Maybe I should sign up for the 50 books a year challenge, I would be able to finish that one. 😉

 

THE REST

The highlights of my year have been the trips to Vienna and Rome. In Vienna I finally got to meet the lovely Birgit and her boys, with an additional surprise of meeting Sandra and her son as well.

Rome was a trip we planned while in Paris in 2012. I cannot say how happy I am that I got to meet with Suzanne, Mark and Asali in Rome again. I thought there wasn’t a city in the world that could remove Paris from the top of my list of places I would love to live, but there’s Rome. I love that city and I hope to visit it again soon.

View from the park above Spanish steps

View from the park above Spanish steps

It might seem like I had a very active year, what with finishing 4 half-marathons in 3 different countries, but that was an uphill fight all the time, as all I wanted to do was stay home and read, and not go out and run. Still, you can’t tell that from the races, so at least it looked good on the outside. 😉

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See how tired I was?!

But I took time off for the last two months as I needed to replenish my physical and psychological energy levels. I actually feel better now.

So, without further ado,

Wishing you all a successful, fulfilling New Year full of happiness, laughter and joy!

*off to toast to that with a glass of champagne*

Champagne_glass_flower_stem_shape

The Rose of Morocco – Andy Tauer’s Phi Une Rose de Kandahar

Perfume thoughts, World of Perfume December 30, 2013 Comments: 19

Actually, it’s the rose of Afghanistan but I’m calling it the Rose of Morocco in my mind as it smells of dry and thorny rose, on the familiar Tauer base which always makes me think of L’Air du Desert Marocain (not that they smell similar).

But the idea of dryness and dust is there, accompanied by light acridness and the feeling of thorns being hidden so you better beware when approaching it.desert rose

HEAD NOTES: natural apricot extract,cinnamon,hints of bitter almond, bergamot essential oil.

HEART NOTES: rare rose essential oil with its unique scent of spices, plums and flower petals, rose absolute from Bulgaria, Bourbon geranium,dark tobacco fond, absolute of dried tobacco leaves.

BODY NOTES: patchouli, vetiver, vanilla and tonka, musk and amber gris.

I would say smelling the notes is not what is important here. Sure, I can smell the bergamot, spices and almonds in the opening together with a beautiful rose note. And then the warmth of the vanilla and tonka, together with a pinch of tobacco. Finishing off with a warm, dry base resting on incredible patchouli.

What I find incredible is that it actually smells and feels like a warm, dry, rough region where the most succulent rose comes from. Not that I would know what dry, rough lands smell like, whether in Afghanistan or Morocco, but in my mind, this is how.

And once the night falls down, the rose closes its petals and you are left with the warmth of dry lands, reminiscing what bounty there was to smell when the petals were open.

This rose has so easily captured my heart and climbed the list of my favorite rose perfumes.

My sample was provided through http://www.tauerperfumes.com/ and the notes were taken from there as well.

Black is my new favorite color

Perfume thoughts, World of Perfume November 13, 2013 Comments: 17

And not only because I have a new perfume love called Black. 😉

This is more of a side note, but after years of trying to fix my wardrobe so it’s not dark and colorless, and now after actually succeeding, I again feel the need to wear black specifically. Other dark colors are as good as bold colors, but it’s black I crave and black I feel good in.black pure

Back to Black. 😉

As with most Puredistance perfumes, (in the beginning) no one actually knows what are the notes. Except the perfumer of course (Antoine Lie – I had  already joked on account of his last name but decided it might be inappropriate).

Anyway, what I wanted to say is, we all depend on our noses. And in order for other noses not to influence what mine smells, I was very good in avoiding all the reviews so far. Now I’ll be able to go and read what other people smelled.

So what do I smell?

It starts feeling masculine (which I love!), I would call it fougere-like with lavender + something else reminding me a bit of HdP Veni with the warmth and cardamom and dryness. There is some kind of a herb that makes it smell a bit medicinal but there are definitely more spices wafting around a boozy note I imagine rum should smell like.

It is a lightly boozy, woody, ambery concoction where you can tell that the base holds more of the lovely, oozy notes – you know, dark, mysterious and thick (like patchouli, camphor?, and I would say oud).

You can see here the smoke you smell

You can see here the smoke you smell

Because there is a smokiness appearing after the initial blast passes.

And then tobacco hits you. 🙂 You better be prepared because it’s not for the faint of stomach. OK, so I’m being overly dramatic, but I did smell it on a day my stomach was feeling queasy and I can tell you, tobacco is not good for your stomach.

Now that you know what richness of notes this perfume is, I can tell you, it’s a pleasure wearing it. It comes close to its name. It fits with the image of an athletic man wearing a black sweater that flatters his figure. And makes you look repeatedly.

I just hope when I wear Black, the black sweater will flatter my figure too. 😉

My sample was provided by Puredistance.

And now I’m no longer sure what my favorite Puredistance is. I love I, Opardu and Antonia, but M and Black make me swoon.

I’m a perfume snob

Perfume thoughts, World of Perfume August 31, 2013 Comments: 21

A small one. 🙂

I’ve been wondering about that for some time now, but it became clear today. I cannot deny smelling other people’s perfume and thinking they might consider improving their perfume taste.

Honestly (it seems this is going to be a rant), I can understand companies forbidding perfumes because if my colleagues wore stuff like that, I wouldn’t mind the ban.

I don’t know if I was specially sensitive to it today or it’s the fact that everyone is back from vacation but the times today I inwardly cringed (at least I hope it was inwardly) at the marine and synthetic perfumeCloudmusk notes in the air is still making me wonder how much money do those perfumes actually bring to their companies.

They are actually the ones guilty for the companies being allowed to ban perfumes from their midsts. I mean those perfumes are radioactive – they take over the space of 5 square metres and once there, they are relentless in their need to occupy it forever. I shudder just thinking about it.

I don’t think other person’s perfume should clobber you over the nose and then keep you there without any help. Because that’s what they do, they take over your space if you closer than 2-3 metres from it.

Sillage is all good but if I can smell so much of it in the middle of a city, well, I’d say that is way too much of it.

Now I’ve said all this, I generally don’t judge people by the perfume they wear. Personal taste is just that, personal. But when your personal taste takes over my space and won’t let me be, well, I do have a problem with it. And I do believe it’s a modern perfume problem, sillage used to go with you in times before and lessened after an hour or so, this seems to hang there in the air for what feels like forever.

Is it just me? Is there anyone else who slightly judges people by the perfume they wear? And is it just me or are the synthetic long-lasting musks going on other people’s nerves as well?

 

pic taken from:http://www.makeupfiles.com

The Scent of the Ballet – Penhaligon’s Iris Prima

Perfume thoughts, World of Perfume August 27, 2013 Comments: 20

Recently another company released a perfume based on the ballet story which unfortunately did not live up to the idea I had when reading about it.

If you watch the movie done in collaboration with the English National Ballet, all I can add is – this perfume might (live up to the idea of ballet).

“Iris Prima is a work of olfactory choreography, with Iris Absolute in the role of the prima ballerina. In a unique partnership with English National Ballet, Penhaligon’s has set about capturing the very essence of the ballet, turning to master perfumer Alberto Morillas as choreographer.  Iris Prima will launch on the 9th of September…”

I got goose-bumps watching it. 🙂

 

P.S. My favourite part: ” Hard work and Deep Heat.”  (it’s what I use on my aching muscles too)

The odd woman out

I've been thinking, Perfume thoughts, World of Perfume July 18, 2013 Comments: 10

Would be me actually. :-S

It seems that I, in my blogging efforts, have completely missed the fact that there is a lively perfumista scene here in Croatia, thriving through different fora, mostly the ‘local’ version of Fragrantica (punmiris.com).

And if it weren’t for my decision to sell some of the perfumes from my (unfortunately still growing) collection, I would still be unaware of this fact.

I met another of those lovely perfumistas today and realized she actually knows all the other people I meet through these sites rather well. It is only I who is meeting everyone just now (or in the last year).
Well better now than never. 😉

And I’m loving it!

(I hope that didn’t sound like the McDonald’s commercial…)

Zagreb is a linden city

I've been thinking, Perfume thoughts, World of Perfume June 20, 2013 Comments: 12

I’ve been thinking about this for the last two weeks since the weather turned warm enough for all the blooms in the city to start releasing their scents.

I do wonder though how come I never realized it before – I grew up with a linden tree in our court yard and I know the smell. I just didn’t realize it before this year though how much linden trees there actually are in Zagreb.

The wonderful thing about the smell of linden is the fact that it can be both sultry and refreshing. I wouldLinden never have thought it, but the heat wave we’re having at the moment is making the smell of linden blossom permeate the air in a wonderfully sultry manner – the air is very humid and hot and the smell of linden flowers just fits with the idea I usually have reserved for tuberose (and some other white flowers).

But, if you climb some of the city hills and enter into a bit more fresh air, the smell of linden feels refreshing. Reminds me actually of having a glass of cool juice made of elder syrup (rather common here).

Basically, if you’re walking or driving an open vehicle, the city smells great.

It’s just a matter of where you are, whether you will be feeling languid, warm and saturated with the smell or a bit refreshed and lively.

Mr. Roucel rules!

Perfume thoughts, World of Perfume June 17, 2013 Comments: 9

I was away for the weekend, otherwise I would have written about it on Saturday ASAP. 🙂

It was great fun and I was a bit surprised to find myself nodding to many things Mr. Roucel discussed. I somehow thought perfumers were more than just real human beings one could have a fun conversation with.

It was supposed to be a talk on the subject of Noir perfumes but the discussion spontaneously moved on in  another direction and we got to hear Mr. Roucel give his opinion on many subjects.

He makes a lot of sense and sounds very down-to-earth and realistic in his thoughts on many different perfume  subjects.

Some of the things he mentioned:

“Oud is fantastique!” – as he went on to explain it has so many different facets and is therefore a good material to work with.

“Perfume is about smelling good” – and not about sex (on the subject of how fashion perceives perfumes these days).

And he loves Suskind’s Parfum – thinks of it as a work of art actually, which makes me ashamed to admit I haven’t read it yet.

Anyway, I would say Mr. Roucel has a new fan club in Zagreb now (as evidenced below):

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A quick photo session at Velvet

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The chandelier getting in the way

ines i m

One blurry photo with me

And before you all go thinking I had a chat with Maurice, it was just two sentences in which he asked what I was wearing, to which I happily replied L de Lolita Lempicka. 🙂 My little perfume company all wore Mr. Roucel’s creations in honour of his talk.

 

P.S. I made a video with my phone, some 20 minutes of the talk . I’m trying to make it available on request (it’s still in the process), I will not be posting it publicly though.

Tuberose term, starting… Now!

Perfume thoughts, World of Perfume June 12, 2013 Comments: 20

TuberoseActually, it started this morning but still, today is the day.

Our spring weather has finally decided to stop channeling autumn and we are finally heading for summer warmth and that means TUBEROSE. 🙂

I am very happy that the weather has consented to allow me to happily wear my lovely white flowers and I started this day with Vamp a NY.

That was a very good choice.

Other tuberose choices I will be dealing with in days to come include: MdO Tubereuse, Guerlain Mahora, Noix de Tubereuse by Miller Harris, the HdP Tuberose trio (Virginale, Capricieuse and Animale), L’Artisan’s Nuit de Tubereuse, Le Labo’s Tuberose, Estee Lauder Tuberose Gardenia and possibly Fracas(and I’m including here Songes, Une Voix Noire, Wildwood flower by H&M and Cruel Gardenia as they fit with my ideal).

For special evenings, I will be choosing between my samples of Carnal Flower and Tubereuse Criminelle.

If you have any suggestions what other tuberoses should get into the rotation, I’m waiting eagerly to hear them.

I’m also always open to receiving some.

You know, like the Bolt of Lightning… 😉