Kelley Armstrong: The Reckoning

World of Books May 14, 2010 Leave a comment

It’s been almost a week since I finished this and this whole week I’ve been thinking what to write about it.

After finishing The Awakening I was really anxious for the book 3, but now I’m sort of ambivalent. I read it really fast but it feels like something is missing from it hitting it with me. I still can’t believe that the whole series happens in only 3 weeks or so.
I was already suspicious as to how much can happen in book 3 to resolve the whole situation with the genetic manipulation regarding supernaturals in the previous books and I think I was right (I will have to check what other bloggers thought of it).
If you read the first two books, you probably got an idea who is Chloe going to fall for even though she gets terribly surprised when she realizes it. 🙂 Teenagers.
Anyway, a lot of things happen, some people get killed and it seems that the kids will have to keep hiding for the rest of their lives since it turns out the whole project had backing from a Cabal. And if you read anything of Ms Armstrong before, you know about Cabals and how ruthless they are. So yes, it feels like there should be more story to this Darkest Powers thrilogy. But I was also thinking that since we are talking here about the world K. Armstrong created and that the characters from the previous Otherworld books know each other and keep appearing in others’ books, I guess we can assume we’ll be seing more of Chloe and friends in some other books to come (I certainly hope so).
In the end, I thought there should have been some more elaborate closure but since Chloe’s flight is nowhere near its end (even though the series is), I suppose we’ll read more on that in the future so I’m not actually upset. And I did enjoy the book after all.
To leave you with a final thought, I think that only young people can have so much trust in each other in so little time.

Swapping is so much fun!

Uncategorized May 13, 2010 Comments: 4

I’m a bit late but it took some time to deal with the photos. Yesterday I came home to find 3 packages waiting for me through swapping. The strange thing though is that they were all shipped at different times so I don’t even want to start thinking what do the people in post office do with our packages (I received one some time ago with a shoe imprint on it!).

The first one was from Germany with some Arabian oils I am trying to get to know and a new Italian house for me (and I still don’t know the name – I’m just lousy with new names).


The second one, a more interesting from my perspective because there was some Ava Luxe, DSH, Roja Dove (which unfortunately arrived broken – maybe someone stepped on this one too?) and Van Cleef and Arpels from Canada.


And the last one, which probably seems like the smallest and containing nothing of any interest but you would be very wrong. Because two of the smallest vials contain precious (and by that I mean extremely expensive) drops of 2 Amouage attars (Homage and Al Mas).
Thanks to Susan from USA.

Btw, I really like the word attar, it connotes many things for me without me even knowing what exactly does it mean. 🙂 So I did look it up today and got some basic knowledge on the subject. Just enough to understand that attar does not correlate to smelling oudish (which is what I somehow thought).

This was just a quick post, I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to smelling those attars (everything else as well, but attars are at the top).
Pictures are mine.

Puredistance I – my story

World of Perfume May 10, 2010 Comments: 19

And where to begin this story?
How about, here is what true niche house and exclusivity are. One perfume, not many places to buy it in the world but available to anyone with an internet connection. Well, available might be putting it a bit optimistic – you know, the cheapest bottle goes you can buy is 165 Euros. But there are always samples…
Ok, this doesn’t tell you much about what I think about it. I will try and do it justice but you know me, I sometimes (often) lack the words to describe things as accurately as they appear in my head, so I can only say I will do my best.
Honestly, the first sniff and my initial thought was, this is of the type of perfume I usually don’t wear (due to the fact that I haven’t actually smelled any of the classics I find wearable). And believe me, it won’t take you long to realize it’s a classic, even though not the classic as I seem to have understood it before Pure Distance I came along. You know, it’s hard writing about something which creates new associations each time you smell it. 🙂
I will follow Suzanne’s lovely example and skip the notes. They are really not that important, they can never describe the actual feeling. You might already be impatient to hear what that feeling is and now I’m going to say that the booklet I got with my bottle is completely correct and quote them:
“A lady stepping into a room crowded with people. Conversations stop. Everybody loooks at her. It is not here serene face.. there is the elegant, natural way she mover. And her simple, stylish white dress… So beautiful. Beautiful in a pure and natural way.”

“The name Puredistance originates from this dream. What makes the lady stand out from the crowd is her understated elegance. Which is the essence of Puredistance.”

I’ve been looking for the right words to describe this and then I read the booklet and there they were. But not only elegance. For me, Puredistance is exactly the way a woman seduces. It is a bit austere and cold at the beginning, with flowers hinting at femininity but not so much that you can be sure before she slightly smiles at you five minutes later. And still, you enjoy the company so much, the talk is gentle and intelligent, the atmosphere relatively relaxed but not really completely at ease. You can’t say she likes you yet, you are already falling a bit for her and she is standing there elegant, relaxed and with a little smile curving her lips. But after a while, you can see the signs telling there is warmth underneath that smile and the woman behind that elegance is the one you will never find tiresome.

That is what Puredistance I smells like to me. It’s there one minute, the next I’m wondering where did it go, only to find that it’s playing with me, seducing me with each new sniff I take.

And just so you know how strong a character I am, it took 3 tries for me to fall in love, while my boyfriend only smelled it from the bottle and asked me instantly: Are you going to wear this? For me? (with that knowing look). 🙂
I wish I could have given you more with my review. You can always go read Suzanne’s (she did it wonderfully).
I also had this serious doubt – you know, they were so kind to send me a bottle of this expensive perfume, what if I don’t like it? But I shouldn’t have had doubts. 🙂
And since people from Puredistance were so generous with me, I want to give you 2 samples from my bottle. Just comment and you will be entered. I can’t give more, I already promised my good friend a decant. 🙂
P.S. I remembered while getting to sleep I didn’t put the date until you can enter, until May 17 when I’ll randomly select the winners.

The smell of matches

Perfume thoughts May 8, 2010 Comments: 8

I have no idea actually how come I am talking about the smell of matches – I mean I do, but I still find it a bit strange. First, I read this morning Carol’s review of XIII which is all about smoke and then, I smelled matches at a barbecue (another smoke smell) and realized I haven’t smelled matches for quite a long time (everyone uses lighters these days) and that the smell of matches is actually quite particular.

Which got me thinking that even if I had smelled it before in a perfume, I probably wouldn’t have realized it because the smell of matches just wasn’t a smell I had a conscient thought of recognizing.
I really like the smell of smoke in my perfumes and today realized I love the smell of matches.
So there must be a note that might not smell exactly like matches but is close enough to it. I mean, there are so many perfumes out there with smoky notes, does anyone know of a one that has a note of matches’ smoke?

Same thing each month

I've been thinking May 6, 2010 Comments: 15

Ok, I’m warning you now, there might be TMI in this post so you might want to stop reading now.

Otherwise, you’ll read a bit on my musings of a female life.

Since it’s been more than a year of me writing this blog, I noticed certain things happening each month (or would that be cycle?). You know, the time of monthe when nobody better cross your path the wrong way or says something with the wrong intonation.
Well, it’s that part of the month and I (again) have no wish to smell anything new and consider how much can I learn from it or how much I like it (and it’s not that I don’t have unsniffed samples at home). The only thing I want is some rest (ok, a lot of rest) and a book. And if there is a nice smell wafting around, all the better but I can’t be the one who applied it or who thinks about what’s in it that smells so good.
Does this happen to anyone else?
I also noticed that my English deteriorates at the same time (ok, not only English, my Croatian vocabulary is down to 20% of its usual size). And I cannot say a sentence without having to start over for it to sound normal and understandable. Couple of days from now, and I’ll be back to my normal optimistic scenting self but until then, this is all you get.

And a quick note to say I will be giving 2 samples of something special next week when I will also be in my normal review-thoughtful mode.

Patricia Briggs: Silver Borne

World of Books May 5, 2010 Leave a comment

The Mercy Thompson series is one I like and enjoy very much but now it has come to that point that I like and enjoy several of those type of series and it’s harder and harder to remember what happened before since there is always enough of a gap between books that I read so much else i the meantime, I cannot for the life of me remember all of it.

But that is not important today, I remembered enough to be able to thorougly enjoy this Mercy installment. Mercy Thompson is a coyote shifter, not to be mistaken for a were animal (start reading the series if you are interested in what constitutes a difference). 😉

Anyway, this book is far enough in the life of Mercy that she is already mated with the werewolf pack’s Alpha who happens to be her neighbor.

In each book she ends up in trouble so you can imagine her life is not exactly safe which comes to bite her in the back when friends are considered in this book.

This time the story revolves around the misterious book she was lent by the half-fae, bookstore owner Phin. As you can guess there is more to that book then meets the eye and it is quite interesting once you find out.

Of course, bad fae want it so there is some bad stuff happening along with the fact that Samuel (Marrok’s son who lives with Mercy and is a lone wolf) is having a serious life crisis that resolves itself quite interestingly out. I loved that part.

There is a quality to Ms Briggs’ writing that I cannot determine what it is but makes for easy, not too long but full of meaning reading. It feels like the story is much longer and the connection between Mercy and Adam finally clicked into place for me.

The only thing that scares me is that this was book 5, meaning the next one is book 6 where usually someone dies at the end and the book ends for readers with incredulity – how did the author dare do this and make me wait for the next book?!! – which is usually a year or more in the future. 🙂 This is speaking from personal experience.

The smell of gardenias?

World of Perfume April 30, 2010 Comments: 7

I still don’t know what they smell like even though I was testing two gardenia named scents, Chanel Gardenia and Guerlain Cruel Gardenia. That didn’t help much. 🙂

It’s great how much decants and samples I managed to accumulate even before starting this blog and now I rumage through them and come up with things I smelled 2 years ago and completely forgot how they smelled because at that point I still wasn’t writing anything down (that is one of the reasons I started this blog, to make myself write down what I think, otherwise I forget).

Btw, I slightly like better the Chanel’s Gardenia – but Cruel Gardenia is great too.

Notes for Gardenia: tuberose, orange blossom, gardenia, jasmine, sandalwood, patchouli, musk vetiver

Initially (this time for a minute), I thought Gardenia was going to be an austere, serious and iris-like smelling perfume. That didn’t sound terribly appealing but it didn’t take long for me to start wondering if what I smelled initially was just a figment of my imagination (I believe not and blame it on vetiver).

And then you get this sunny flowers of the meadow variety (but not as happy, sweet and colorful as Ninfeo Mio), with a slightly bitter or root-like undertone (my guess that’s vetiver peeking out, probably some patchouli giving that off even though I didn’t smell any patchouli).

The combination is so wonderful it practically leaves me without words to describe it, and since I was smelling it in combination with Cruel Gardenia, trying to force the gardenia out, I have to say, I think Cruel Gardenia might be more appropriate for the Chanel variant. It was terribly cruel to me, it didn’t let me approach closer that the general feel, whenever I tried to get to the individual notes, it wouldn’t let me. 🙂 So the best I could do was guess that the root quality came from vetiver and the saltiness in the end couldn’t come from iris (where I usually get some) so I think that it was the sandalwood (which I could detect) combination with white flowers. I’ll have to get some more of this once my decant is empty.

Notes for Cruel Gardenia: damask rose, peach, neroli, violet, ylang-ylang, white musk, sandalwood, tonka bean, vanilla

Well, Cruel Gardenia started in such a lush manner that when sniffing it first, I thought I will prefer it to Gardenia.

It starts warm and creamy and tuberosish. I know that’s not a word but what I smell feels like it. Like slightly sweet white flowers. I thought it smelled like fat, creamy, lush petals. And then I read the notes and got angry with myself. What is wrong with me that I can’t recognize rose when I smell it until I read it among the notes?! I recognize the smell and each and every time I’m asking myself whati sthis? I know this and until I read the notes I cannot for the life of me remember. Now that I know I have this problem, rose will be the first thing I will think of even if it’s nowhere near. Just to eliminate it. 🙂

So, if it smells creamy, it doesn’t smell cruel to me. I think I might be missing the point here. But at least it’s a great smelling point.

The drydown is actually similar to Gardenia, slightly less salty and more sweet but quite alike.

The bottom line, I have no idea what gardenia smells like but since it appears in stuff that smells great, I’m sure I love the way it smells.

That’s all from me – have a great weekend everyone! I plan to.


Laurell K. Hamilton: Narcissus in Chains

World of Books April 30, 2010 Leave a comment

Yes, I did manage to through another Anita Blake novel without reading anything else in the mean time. But it seems the urge is slightly lessening (and some other interesting books have found their way toward me) so I might be reading something else soon (after I finish Cerulean sins first).
Narcissus in Chains is interesting because we learn more about Jean-Claude’s past and by that I mean more of the sordid details of what he had to go through to become what he is. Anita has to learn to deal with a bad side effect to being a vampire servant – and this is the book where the sex starts appearing everywhere and with some new people (the number of people is just going to grow from now on, so if you decide in this book it’s too much, stop reading the series). 🙂 I don’t mind – especially because – SPOILER – it is going to be Asher’s time soon.

Narcissus from the title can be attributed not only to the head of werehyenas (he is called Narcissus) but to several characters who are either chained in this book for real or chained i life by circumstances.

We also learn that werehyenas are matriarchal and that there exists something called a panwere – a were person who can change into several animal forms.

And even though Anita seems to contract the leopard variant at the beginning, which leads to serious problems with werevolves who consider the possibility of Anita becoming a wereleopard as losing her as the lupa. And of course Richard being Richard has led to some serious problems inside the pack.

Of course, all these problems are resolved by the end of the book, except for ardeur which is here to stay and Anita isn’t terribly happy she needs to feed it by sex regularly. Especially since she cannot feed on the same person all the time.
But more on ardeur in the following book.
I like it that still in this book we are following again two parallel stories that end together and there is quite a lot of happening – you never get bored reading through Anita’s life.

Meeting a fellow enthusiast

Perfume thoughts April 27, 2010 Comments: 12

Until yesterday, I never met a fellow perfume enthusiast in real life, someone who won’t mind talking hour and half about perfumes, perfumers, notes, niche perfumery, what can be bought where in Zagreb, where is a good place to shop both here and online… It was only hour and a half because I had some other stuff I had to do, otherwise it would have taken longer. 🙂
We talked about what our favourite notes are, genres, perfumers, what do we think of the non-niche stuff, we smelled the samples we had with us, discusse why some things are just unbelievably expensive…
The time just flew by and there are so many things we didn’t even touch (so much left for the next time, and the time after that…)

Ankica is this lovely, vivacious, smiling young woman full of creative energy and ideas. And her ideas are not limited to her work, she was happily pointing out things I could do with my blog if I wanted to give it more time and effort. You never know, I just might listen to some of her advice.

What’s great in all this is the fact that Ankica is interested in creating her own perfumes and has already given me some of her creations to try. She has a much deeper knowledge of basic ingredients and how to mix them to get some wonderful results – I am totally in love with one of the creations she gave me to try, I really like one other and the third I tried is just not me, but there are more hidden gems in the little bag of samples she gave me so I’m already looking forward to trying them all out.
And I’m also looking forward to the next time we sit down surrounded by samples and enjoy some mutually enthusiastic company. 🙂

Is tea a spring note and other musings

Perfume thoughts April 21, 2010 Comments: 15

I’ve been meaning to write about this for some time now but I’m glad I waited and had a chance to smell some DSH creations that arrived last week.

As the spring started, I thought a lot about things I would like to wear, what feels right in spring and came up with tea among other things, smelling it in Amaranthine and The Silk Road (also by DSH). But the tea note I crave is not black tea, I need greenery now in all forms. Not the tea that makes appearance in CdG Tea – that smells like some Chinese tea I tried some time ago and hated. That is just a total scrubber in my case.

So, in my mind, green tea is one of the spring notes I like and prefer.

Then I read Katie’s comment to my Scents that sing Spring! post and realized she is right. My choices are zesty and yes, I enjoy citrusy stuff because it gives off an energetic vibe I seem to need in the spring. Everything is waking and after the initial surge in energy, my energy level slowly decreases so I crave smells that will help with that.

So, you can imagine I was happy when I discovered some new gems in the DSH package.

I just wish that they weren’t letting go Wasabi-Shiso. That is bottled spring energy! And I have no idea why is it considered an autumn scent on DSH site?!

I have the notes now but when I smelled it for the first time it was a rush. 🙂 The description at the DSH site says Whoosh! Well, that certainly is one way of putting it. You get this strong lemon peel vibe underscored by green (those are my initial ideas – lemon peel and perhaps basil and majoram). It is very optimistic and energetic and once I saw the notes, I realized there was quite a lot to give that citrusy vibe. It is almost grapefruity, smells more like lemon peel and pits and is just a limey, juicy, happy thing. It practically fizzes with all those citruses. Later it settles down and I lose my note detection ability. Some easy vetiver and sandal.

I am happy to have a little bottle of this, especially if it’s going out of production.

And now on to the one that has my spring cravings. Bancha.

Here is what DSH has to say about it:

“The season of new life, new beginnings and renewed wellbeing, Spring signifies a rebirth through a harmonious celebration of balance and revitalization. To welcome this invigorating time of year, we’ve created a special ayurvedic, all botanical scent elemental to the season, Bancha. Charismatic and refreshing, the bold citrus top notes of Bancha intertwine with a base of earthy, green aromas for a crisp, lively fragrance that will revive the senses and restore harmony.”

My initial thought was osmanthus perhaps and it smelled like lemon-tea but better. 🙂 I know, I really smell a lot. 😉

The problem was I smelled this after Wasabi-Shiso and thought it smelled like a watered down version of it. With citrusy opening but with the grapefruit association, some lemon peel no pits.

It doesn’t have the juiciness and doesn’t project so much energy but it grows on you. Me especially because there are similarities with Charmes et Feuilles and whatever is similar to that is guarantueed my love. The mandarin and lime peel underscored by greenery hinting at spearmint and basil, what more could you ask? And then it mellows even more and the tea note comes from somewhere (have no idea where, it is not listed, perhaps yuzu and rose?). Anyway, it is really a calming scent and totally for me and my spring cravings.

Although, you know, nothing beats spring. I guess that is why I keep looking for something to wear in spring but I don’t think anything will ever compare.