Tag Archives: perfume thoughts

Haunted by perfume

I've been thinking, Perfume thoughts, World of Perfume June 1, 2013 Comments: 12

hauntedThe other day there was a post of Victoria’s on Bois de Jasmin which got me thinking.

I realized that I can’t smell perfumes consciously while at work, trying to work out notes for a review for example, as I just can’t focus on that many things. And in the evenings, I’m usually tired so it’s much slower and not as efficient.

As it was Corpus Christi day on Thursday, this being a holiday in Croatia, I took Friday off in order to get some sleep and rest.

It seems my subconscious mind thinks I had quite enough rest, as wherever I go, I smell traces of perfume. That shouldn’t be so surprising as I have samples and decants lying everywhere and I decant perfumes in the house, but I never actually had traces of perfumes come at me unexpectedly as I was reading or just doing chores around the house. Especially as I haven’t done any sampling or decanting recently.

But these days, it seems wherever I turn, some perfume is teasing my nose. I guess being home and rested did its thing – my mind seems ready to smell again and more. Because if I am catching those wafts from forgotten drops of perfume (anyone who did some decanting knows you usually end up with perfume not only being in the bottle), when on most days I usually don’t, it must mean my mind needs the fragrant stimulation (possibly that my nose is getting a bit better too?).

It also makes me smile more often – as perfume always does.

All I need to do now is find a way  to stimulate my mind into writing down what it perceives…

Especially if the hauntings continue. 😉

My first ever perfume workshop

Perfume thoughts, World of Perfume May 21, 2013 Comments: 12

Is behind me. 🙂

I’d say it went rather well considering it was more of an informal meeting of friends and aroma-enthusiasts (no true perfumista except for me).

Spring garden

Spring garden

There was only 8 of us so we could discuss everything around two tables in the museum’s coffee shop where we met.

I am very glad I listened to Undina’s advice and made a little helping card with the flowers to be featured represented in pictures. It was good that I did that because some floral notes were a difficulty for them even with the cards. But all together, I think everyone had fun, sniffed some good perfumes and probabyl wasn’t as excites as me as in my excitement I completely forgot to take a single photo (and I meant to).

So, without further ado, here are my choices for particular floral notes:

1. Dior: Diorissimo

2. Givenchy Harvest Amarige Mimosa 2007

3. Andy Tauer: Zeta which didn’t go well as linden (no on could smell it) so I gave them my back-up choice, MAC Naked Honey

4. Serge Lutens: Un Lys

5. F. Malle: Angeliques Sous la Pluie (that one turned into a clear favourite)

6. Yves Rocher: Lilas Mauve

7. Diptyque: Ofresia

8. Hermes: Hiris

9. L’Artisan Parfumeur: Fleur de Narcisse (I’m rather upset it’s no longer available)

10. Guerlain: Apres l’Ondee

11. Serge Lutens: Bas de Soie (but the hyacinth wasn’t what they managed to tease out)

 

Turned out Hiris wasn’t a good choice for iris, I had some samples with me that would have worked much better, Iris Ukioye wouldn’t have worked either it turned out, but TDC Bois d’Iris and DSH l’Eau d’Iris would have (we ascertained that afterwards when I gave them those to smell).

I might be doing another one in 2 months it seems – on tuberose. 😉

A springtime search for flowers

Perfume thoughts, World of Perfume May 3, 2013 Comments: 18
Spring garden

Spring garden

Is loosely the name I gave the little perfume presentation I will be holding on May 21. 🙂

I still can’t believe I was asked if I wanted to talk about any perfume related subject I chose, as part of an informal group of perfume enthusiasts meeting every third Tuesday of every month.

I still haven’t had a chance to go listen to someone else and now I will be the one talking.

My idea is to bring around a dozen perfumes featuring a flower note that can be easily distinguished and to ask the participants to figure out which flower they are smelling. After that we can talk about the perfume and then move on to the next.

I am very much looking forward to it and I hope people will enjoy our little flowery search.

It’s an open thing and anyone can come so I hope people show up.

I’ll post my choices and how it went afterwards.

 

 

Enjoying the smell of season

I've been thinking, World of Perfume April 23, 2013 Comments: 14

I was thinking of the title in the vein of “Oh, the smell of spring is the loveliest” but then I remembered I do that every season (most recently with the smell of snow) so I decided this one was better. 😉

prolj2
The thing is I really enjoy the smell of each season. And I am possibly thinking I enjoy this one more because the winter was both long and dark which is not usual here. And the spring, now it has arrived, is both sunny and warm. The days lasting suddenly so long…

 

These days I am walking home most of the time, enjoying the various scents in the air. There’s been a little rain and the sunny warmth has made the grass suddenly grow tall. So now you can smell it being cut around the city. Everything is in bloom and so far I haven’t discovered what smell it is, but one of the trees I pass by smells candy-like.

 

Well, it’s probably vice versa, it’s probably a fruity tree in bloom but it’s wonderful. And that is just one of the smells. The air is truly fragrant and the best thing – it is warm.

prolj3

 

Each spring I’m on the lookout for a perfume that encapsulates spring and each year I end up empty handed.

There are many perfumes I associate with spring (Odalisque and Coty Fatale for ex.) but I would love discovering one that smells like spring in my mind.

Many try but fail somehow (Byredo Inflorescence I’m looking at you).


While the search continues, I’ll simply enjoy my fragrant walks when the season is upon me. 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

P.S. Is it just me, or does anyone else feel this incredible need to rest and re-charge?

P.P.S. If you’re wondering why there haven’t been any book reviews recently, that’s because I’m re-reading the HP series. 😀

Vienna calling!

Perfume shopping, Perfume thoughts, World of Perfume April 16, 2013 Comments: 22

I was in Vienna this past weekend and had a wonderful time. 🙂

As you could have read on Olfactoria’s Travels, Birgit’s recap of our meeting, let me tell you what it looked like from my perspective.

Firstly, the reason I decided to run the Vienna City race is because it would enable me to finally meet Birgit in real life. As reasons to choose a race to run go, I think mine was rather good. 😉

Donnerbrunnen_Fountain_Vienna_Austria

I was actually almost late registering for it, I was on the waiting list as I wasn’t aware of the fact that so many people want to run it and you shouldn’t leave your registration to 3 months prior to the race.

The first thing to do on my arrival to Vienna was to pick-up my starting number so I could proceed to meet Birgit and Sandra without any worries.

One thing I learned so far is that when you meet with perfumistas, no time in the world is enough to talk about everything that’s on your mind. Which is exactly what happened. And I always get sidetracked by many things and forget to say half of the stuff I wanted to.

So, after sitting down for drinks, the girls took me to the most lovely little perfume shop you could imagine – Le Dix-Neuf. Which I would also recommend if you are a guy and want to take a look at beautiful Austrian women. 😉 The SA there was everything you could imagine, and quite pretty I should add.

She took me through one Viennese line of perfumes and one from Berlin, but unfortunately, I don’t know the names of the lines (Birgit might though).

In the end, I tried on my arms the Opus VI which I found would fit me great in winter and Byredo’s Inflorescence which smells absolutely lovely and springlike but only in theory. I wouldn’t want to smell like that personally.

Spring garden

Spring garden

Here is also where I parted ways with Birgit and Sandra, after getting extremely good instructions on how to get to Pure Day Spa in order to try the new Malle (people are rarely this good in giving instructions on how to get someplace in my experience).

I limited my curiosity to just the Malle line (forgoing all the beckoning cosmetics on display) and realized I really like the French lover too.

But my main reason for going there was to try Dries Van Noten. Even before trying it, I was pretty sure the chances were high of me taking it home with me. It seems I was correct. 🙂

I just can’t tell you what exactly it smells like. I was sure it smelled floral when trying it in Planet Spa, then when I came home and applied it for work, I smelled the sandalwood that’s in there but I still have no idea in my mind of what exactly am I smelling, I just know it is incredibly lovely and likeable.

Start of the race

Start of the race

On Sunday, I ran in the VCM, my half of the marathon. The weather was gorgeous and the race was an incredible experience. Running with so many people, always in a crowd, I never experienced anything similar. And the atmosphere was so enthusiastic and supportive.

Which is why my heart broke yesterday when I learned of the bombing in Boston. My heart goes out to everyone affected by this terrible tragedy.

Runners are like perfumistas in so many ways but the most important being – they radiate positive energy. We shouldn’t have that forcefully taken from us (the humankind).

Photos taken from: http://cuabroad.cua.edu/programs/austria/vienna-european.cfm and http://www.vienna-marathon.com

Impatience isn’t a virtue but it might be a teacher

I've been thinking, Perfume thoughts, World of Perfume April 9, 2013 Comments: 20

Many people around me think my greatest fault is that I’m stubborn. But if I were to say what my greatest fault is, I’d say impatience, closely followed by pride (which can easily be misconstrued as stubbornness).

If you are wondering why am I talking about my faults instead of perfume (or books) it is precisely my impatience what I believe is not letting me enjoy perfumes as I should.

It all came to me when I decided to put on Santal Majuscule the other day (after having reviewed it when it came out), only to realize in my mind, it’s not really a winter perfume (it’s how I thought of it)

Impatient for this littel gem

Impatient for this little gem

but more of a cold spring perfume – perfect for the time we are having now (it would probably work in autumn too).

I cannot describe how perfectly it felt these few days I’ve been wearing it. Which is something my impatience didn’t make me realize at the time I decided to review it.

And the fact that I look at my VAST collection of samples with what now seems dread is not helping my impatience.

So many times now I said I would start writing short reviews of samples, one each day, and that was my impatience to go through those samples at its best. I hate the fact that I am not familiar with them and they just lie there pretty much forgotten.

The truth is, perfumes don’t approve of impatience. You can try and force your way through the growing perfumes you have/want to try, but then it stops being pleasure. And if it’s a chore, you slowly stop doing it when you feel you can get away from doing it.

That is what wearing Santal Majuscule showed me. I liked it a lot when I reviewed it but it wasn’t a perfect fit at that time. Now it is.

There are several perfumes at the moment I am impatient to write about, but they won’t let me. They know I like them and now they are waiting for us to get to know each other without hurry, just for pleasure. Otherwise they won’t let me write (the words aren’t coming).

And they are right. Because if I don’t let go, I won’t enjoy myself.

Words will come later.

Perfume works in mysterious ways

I've been thinking, Perfume thoughts, World of Perfume April 1, 2013 Comments: 27

vino2The strange thing is, I want to talk about wine actually. 🙂
Yesterday I was lucky (well, I consider that luck) to try 3 rather expensive wines, all of which were good and all of which would work great as perfume drydowns.
But the third one we tried, said on the bottle it should be decanted, and once we poured it into glasses after decanting, I noticed a rather interesting smell. A manure type of one. 😀
Honestly, I never thought I would smell a wine with such a note and consider it a more interesting aspect of the wine.

I know it probably sounds disgusting but the wine smelled reminiscent of it, not really as manure. I have to admit, smelling it and identifying it made me feel rather good about my nose. 2 years ago, I don’t think I would have been able to distinguish it. And I know the only reason I was able to now was because I’ve been smelling perfumes every day for years now.

Btw, decanting helped lose that particular note (we guessed that was why it was recommended).

UPDATE:

Here are the wines in the order we tried them

1. Carmelo Ortega: Saxa Loquuntur Tres 2008 (DOC Rioja)

2. Casato dei Medici Riccardi: Sangiovese Shiraz 2008

3. Le Cloitre du Chateau Priure-Lichine 2007, Bordeaux (Margaux)

Eagerly awaiting!

Perfume thoughts, World of Perfume March 28, 2013 Comments: 5

The new perfume collaboration by Neela Vermeire and Bertrand Duchafour – Ashoka (eau de parfum).

Ashokacard7

The only problem I see here –  it’s going to be available in early autumn 2013. 😉

I can’t help but wonder, judging by the notes, if it would make a good spring perfume…

The Oil in the Alabaster Box – Spikenard Giveaway

Joint blog project, Perfume thoughts, World of Perfume March 22, 2013 Comments: 18

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

It’s been four years…

I've been thinking, World of Perfume March 20, 2013 Comments: 41

Since I wrote my first post. 🙂

I can’t believe how time flies.

I still think my blog is a work in progress and keeping it personal allows me to get away with not writing regularly or about perfume as much as I’d like to.

Which is why I want to thank you, all my readers, for sticking with me and still checking out my musings even though they don’t come often.

And to celebrate another blog year gone by – I’m giving away a Croatian box of chocolates and an 8ml roll-on bottle of Dawn Spencer Hurwitz Festive perfume to one lucky commenter.

Here’s champagne for all of you my dear readers!

champagne_toast