is Edith! 🙂
Please contact me with your shipping address so I can send the decant your way.
The Roman holiday (part II)
Where I talk about perfumeries and put in a little give-away. 😉
Even though Paris might sound like the city for a perfumista, Rome definitely has perfume merits of its own. Personally, I am generally not one for Italian perfumery but among all the available choices, even I found an Italian perfume to like. More on that later.
Our perfume wanderings started with the Alé parfum perfumery which we discovered by accident as it was just down the road from where we were staying.
It’s a small shop full of wonders. 🙂 I find it incredible how many different perfume brands were there. The perfumes that stand the most in my memory are Iris Nazarena I finally was able to try and the new Jovoy perfumes which I would need to smell better at leisure. I did like Iris Nazarena just not that much to warrant the price tag.
The next shop on our perfumista quest was HB Profumeria. It is a rather large shop with many cosmetic and perfume brands and here is where we spent the bulk of our perfume money. 🙂
Of all the Italian perfumes I smelled there, I decided to take home Electra by Sigilli which is a really strange perfume with metallic/ozonic vibes and radioactive longevity. It really requires you to spray it sparingly. 🙂 It’s labeled as an amber which it is but only after being so much more.
One of the main reasons to visit this perfumery became obvious after Asali’s talk with the SA after she spied an old version of L’Heure Bleu. 🙂 It seems the owner of HB Profumeria goes out of his way to procure the old Guerlains. So, who knows, if you’re lucky in Rome you might come across one for you.
The last perfumery we visited has several stores in Rome and after visiting the first, smaller one, we were told to go and visit their main store where they have more lines and which they use for perfume events (F. Kurkdjian’s event was this past week which unfortunately we missed).
If you’re going to visit just one Campomarzio 70 store, my advice is to go to the flagship store at Via Vittoria 52 and hope the beautiful blonde, blue-eyed SA is there. Unfortunately, I don’t know her name and didn’t think to ask at that point but it is very rarely you come across such a great SA. After learning a bit about our general taste in perfume, she proceeded to offer perfumes to try that would fit with what we had said. And she was guessing unbelievably well. As luck would have it, they ship all over Europe so if I decide I need a bottle of Isabey’s L’Ambre de Carthage, I’m getting it from there. She was also kind
enough to help me on that way by giving me a sample. 😉
She also gave us Giulietta Capuleti perfume to try which you get on a cloth tissue. It has 20 different rose essences in it (and the price shows it, over 400 Euros for 100ml) but smells wonderful (if you like rose perfumes).
This ends our Rome perfume journey and as it was such a good one, I would like to share a 10ml decant of Electra with one lucky winner. Just state your interest in the comments. 🙂
Pics for Ale Parfum and Giulietta taken from their respective sites.
The Roman holiday (part I)
Where I talk about Rome (the perfume will be part II).
I never expected to like Rome so much, I always thought Paris was my city. Now it seems I have two cities where I wouldn’t mind living if it weren’t in Zagreb.
It’s so very easy to fall in love with Rome and its smiling citizens, hordes of tourists, local wine, great food, even better desserts, and don’t let me start on the coffee…
Did I mention the weather?! The summer one, with temperatures reaching 32 degrees Celsius?
Not to mention it’s probably heaven if you have an archeological streak, or a Catholic one as each street either has a ruin or a church, or both.
I also finally understood there is a political background to everything anyone with any power does. Walking around St. Peter’s basilica is a testimony to that – making you feel small and insignificant in front of such a monumental shrine to a god you should worship. I could actually feel my religious sentiments waking, luckily it didn’t last long. 😉
Walking around Rome is like walking on a movie set. At least for me. I suppose I saw it in the movies so many times now I walked through it, I couldn’t help but feel like I was a part of one.
One where I spent my days having fun with fellow perfumista. Basically, the best kind of a movie, friends, in a lovely city, smelling many perfumes, enjoying good food and each other’s company. Who wouldn’t want to star in a movie like that?
Ok, no more talk, here are some of the photos.
Amfiteatro Flavio – better known as the Colosseum
Pictures don’t do it justice
The Roman forum
Colosseum
The Roman forum
Detail from Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo
The Trevi fountain
The Pantheon – incredible is all I can say
St. Peter’s Basilica
Inside the basilica
One more inside the basilica
View from the park above Spanish steps
Suzanne and Mark in the park
When the Carabinieri pose, you take a photo 😉
There is no photo of the Sistine chapel as you are not allowed to take one (which I didn’t see so I got shouted at for trying to take one). And there is also no photo of the leather goods you can buy in Rome (like gloves and a jacket…). 😉
Lindsey Fairleigh & Lindsey Pogue: After The Ending (The Ending Series)
Yes, there’s no way around it, I got involved in another series. 😦
Luckily though, it’s terrific and the next book is out in November. Also, it’s not a short novel so it can be stretched into 3 books, this one is actually longish (I don’t how long exactly as I read an e-book but considering the time it took, it’s nicely sized).
It reminded me a bit of J. Cronin’s The Passage, less dark and with more romance (no vampires either) but a post-apocalyptic scenario that unfortunately for me, becomes easier and easier to believe.
Not exactly this particular one, but some kind of a virus (or other man-made catastrophe) seems more and more like a possible scenario for the world we live in.
We follow the story through two friends, located in different cities but more connected than sisters, losing the life they led because of the virus and finding unlikely fellow travelers on their way to the military camp where everyone is being kept safe (if you can reach it). Of course, not everything is as it seems and slowly it becomes visible.
I’m going to warn you know, the first book ends with a horrible cliffhanger so if you want to know what happens next, wait until November and then you can just continue on with the next.
I loved how there were some smart references in there, how one of the main characters seems a bit bitchy, how they are both insecure even though they are in their twenties – there are many parts to this book making the characters come alive because of the little things you learn about them or see them do.
I often mention the predictability of a story as a bad thing (because I think it is), then again, some authors take it so far to other side of a spectrum you cannot make heads or tails about what’s happening. Here, you cannot guess where the story is going to take you but it makes sense (of course you can guess where the romance will go). 😉
The story starts slowly and the builds up until you cannot stop reading. I enjoyed reading it a lot and consider it one of the best new books I read this year (HP is a league of its own).
There are so many great moments to this book, funny, sad, tragic, honest, scary, life-enriching that all I can say is – go read it. 🙂
Quick bookish reviews
I don’t think my thoughts on each of them would suffice for a post, so I’ll just talk about them all together.
James Rollins: The Eye of God
Reading a James Rollins novel is always a thrilling ride. The fact that he can take legends or rumours and turn them into a credible alternative that is always a bit scary to ponder but unbelievably believable (couldn’t find a better phrase, sorry) – is what makes his novels always my top choice once they are released.
Basically, an action-packed, thrilling ride through the world with interesting bits of history thrown in for a possible alternative view on what we think we know.
Which is why I’m leaving you with this quote I found a bit scary to ponder:
“Could that be possible? Could Plato have been right all along: that we are blind to the true reality around us, that all we know is nothing more than the flickering shadow on a cave wall?”
John Oehler: Aphrodesia
I admit, thinking that there might be a true aphrodisiac in any form is scary. Seems I’m reading books with scary ideas in them. 😉
The book is full of interesting tidbits from the perfume industry which I found fascinating (loved the part where IFRA is criticised).
I also loved the idea on which the story is based and the difference a minute thing can make. What I had a problem with was the main character Eric. As he seems to lack much of a character. It seems like his nose and perfume ability is his only defining quality. He certainly doesn’t seem to have read a crime novel in his life because it was kind of obvious who was behind his perfume disgrace/fall (well, I had 2 people on the list but it became clear rather quickly that one of them didn’t do it).
It might just be me, as far as I can tell, nobody else had a problem with Eric. But he’s such a bad read of people’s characters, it’s tragi-comic and basically, in my opinion he came off as a bit stupid for real life (one outside perfumery).
That said, how cool is forensic perfumery?! Love that!
Alex Connor: The Rembrandt Secret
Another novel with an interesting crime twist. Turns out I either read too much crime novels in life or writers no longer try to hide who the killer is.
I admit, I expected it to be more of an art crime thriller when it’s actually an art crime novel. The only thrilling part of it was learning that Rembrandt was a bad person and that a character in the novel wears Bal a Versailles.
Even though the letters this novel revolves around are fiction for the story of the book, the fact that the woman who wrote them existed and suffered at Rembrandt’s actions remains true.
I can’t say I was excited after reading this book but I did enjoy it a lot and will definitely pick up the other thrillers by A. Connor. I got a bit hooked on the art history you can learn about reading this. 🙂
Cristin Terrill:Â All Our Yesterdays
I’ve kept the best for last. 😉
Now, this book has really amazed me. This won’t sound nice but it was better than I expected when I started reading it. It’s an intricate YA story of time-travel, power-hungry people and friendship.
The great part? You really need to think through some parts where time travel is involved. 😀
The story switches from the perspectives of the future characters come to the past and the present people who, it won’t take you long to realize, are the same. This doesn’t even qualify as a spoiler.
I don’t want to mention what exactly it’s about because I don’t want to spoil it for you. But you can probably guess if the future characters returned to the past, it is because of something that needs to be changed in the past.
This was just so well written, I enjoyed it a lot. Even though Marina in the present day is a bit of a self-centred teenager. 🙂
But the fact that my heart beat faster at some points, and then constricted at others, and kept me awake when I should have been sleeping… Those are clear signs how good I found it.
The best thing? It’s not part of a series! Finally! 🙂
I’m a perfume snob
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 
musk 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
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)
Cinda Williams Chima: The Enchanter Heir
I’m back in the YA universe it seems. I was re-reading HP this summer and now I read The Enchanter Heir so it seems my feet are firmly back on the YA road. Ok, I’ve been reading some other stuff but nothing as much as these.
I admit I almost stopped reading this book, since in the beginning I had a problem getting into the story. A new world with different types of let’s call them “gifted” people with their words for everything and no explanation forthcoming for a while. It all got explained eventually and it’s possible other readers might not have this particular problem as it seems there are other books in the series.
Unlucky for me though, those books are single ones. This one isn’t. So I’m back to my standard pet peeve. I really hate it when a good book ends up nowhere and you have to wait for the sequel which never comes out in a month.
What’s wrong with writing a longer book?! I mean, I know what’s wrong with that – you only get paid for the one book then. But that is not a question for this post.
Of course I wouldn’t get so upset over it if I didn’t enjoy the book so much.
“They called it the Thorn Hill Massacre-the brutal attack on a once-thriving Weir community. Though Jonah Kinlock lived through it, he did not emerge unscathed: like the other survivors Jonah possesses unique magical gifts that set him apart from members of the mainline guilds. At seventeen, Jonah has become the deadliest assassin in Nightshade, a network that hunts the undead.Â
Emma Claire Greenwood grew up worlds away, raised by a grandfather who taught her music rather than magic. An unschooled wild child, she runs the streets until the night she finds her grandfather dying, gripping a note warning Emma that she might be in danger. The clue he leaves behind leads Emma into Jonah’s life-and a shared legacy of secrets and lingering questions.Â
Was Thorn Hill really a peaceful commune? Or was it, as the Wizard Guild claims, a hotbed of underguild terrorists? The Wizards’ suspicions grow when members of the mainline guilds start turning up dead. They blame Nightshade, bringing tensions between the groups to a head.
Racing against time, Jonah and Emma work to uncover the truth about Thorn Hill, amid increasing concern that whoever planned the Thorn Hill Massacre might strike again.”
Emma and Jonah are really well done characters. Sometimes I wonder with so many YA novels out there, if the writers have a hard time making their characters become singularly different. These two are. I just wish I got further in their story than I did. 😦
Once you get into the story and understand who is who, it gets very interesting. There are some lethal political games being played in the background (which will hopefully be explained in the next book), the Thorn Hill survivors turn out to be freaks but not because of their strange abilities, but because of the characters. I mean this in the best possible way. I like freaky people. 🙂
I loved the fact that such a prominent role is given to music. I can’t wait to read how it will all unravel in the next book…
The sun, the sea and Bronze Goddess
That last will never be applied to me. Not only do I not think of myself in divine terms, but bronze is also a word that people would never apply while looking at me.  I actually got asked (this year again) if I even went to a vacation, considering the amount of tan I got.
I do get tanned but compared to most people here, I’m still fair skinned.
So this where Bronze Goddess comes into play. It is my go-to vacation scent. I should also remember that for next year’s packing as there is no need to bring a whole bunch of decants when all I’ll be wearing is BG.
But I don’t recommend wearing it to work which is what I did one day when the weather was extremely hot and I was wishfully thinking of the vacation to come – a colleague was sniffing around our room asking who’s wearing sunscreen? 🙂
You’ve been warned.
Now the vacation is over, Bronze Goddess is back to its place to be forgotten until the next summer vacation.
And if you are ready for some wistfulness with me, here are two photos to help you with that:
Meeting Nat of Another Perfume Blog
Honestly, I really didn’t think I would actually get a chance to meet a perfume blogger in my home city. 🙂
I mean people don’t usually choose to visit Zagreb when deciding on what European city/country to visit but luckily for me, Nat and her husband decided to spend some of their vacation at the beautiful Croatian seaside so Zagreb found itself on their itinerary as well.
I got to meet with Natalie, twice, first when she arrived and then again when she was leaving which was great, as the first time I got to know her and answer her questions about Croatia and the second time around, I got to hear of what it was like for them spending a vacation here.
What can I say, I certainly hope they share their thoughts on Croatia to as large a group as possible. 😉
Those of you who met Natalie probably already know what a lovely, beautiful person she is. We certainly didn’t lack subjects when we met and I was so very happy that when we visited Top perfumery, our host Borut provided us with some yet unreleased perfumes to smell (he is just a great perfumista himself with a large knowledge of perfumes).
So that’s a place you need to visit once in Zagreb.
I was very happy to learn on our second meeting that I installed a bit of a curiosity in Nat and her husband when it came to Croatian drinks and I also realized that in their commitment to try them all (or as many as possible), they landed upon one of my favourites called Pelinkovac (meaning done from the plant mugworth/wormwood – I needed a dictionary for that one).
I know you all know what an incredibly lovely experience it is meeting perfumistas in real life but I still need to say it.
It was great fun meeting Natalie and I certainly hope we get to see each other again.
But you know, I cannot but help thinking that recently that trend has been on the rise so I have feeling we all might be meeting each other more and more often in the future.
And that is just such a happy thought for me. (I could probably do a Patronus on it!) 😉
P.S. If you’re wondering where did the Patronus part come from, I am, again, re-reading Harry Potter. 😀
All I am - a redhead 