Tag Archives: spring

Spring-y thoughts

Croatia, I've been thinking, Perfume thoughts, World of Perfume April 21, 2015 Comments: 17

It is finally real spring here. It’s warm, everything is blooming and the sun shines for most of the day (and it’s day most of the day – no more early night).

People tend to ask what is your favorite season. And even though I really love them all, I think spring is slightly my favorite. It always feels like I’m waking from hibernation, I have more energy and I have will to do many things so days just fill up with fun activities. It seems everyone is more in the mood to be friendly and go out more.

I, for one, feel enthusiastic again about all the things I love doing. It seems I prefer doing them in the light of day. 😉

Perfume (and smell)-wise I’ve been wearing Shalimar Parfum Initial quite a lot lately (thanks to Birgit’s sale). I’m also waiting for the air to get fragrant as it’s spring but not much has been happening in that regard. The best I could smell was dewy grass and warm, wet sidewalks (we did have our share of rain lately).

But I know only days from now the air will be fragrant and it will just keep on getting better as spring gets in full bloom.

I’ll finish today with some photos I took on Sunday while at a friend’s barbecue (outside the city).

DSC_0584 DSC_0588 DSC_0589

I missed my blog birthday. Again.

I've been thinking, World of Perfume April 8, 2015 Comments: 31

One would think it wouldn’t be so hard to remember the date you started blogging but so far, I only managed to remember it’s sometime in March. 🙂 And this is my sixth anniversary!

Anyway, it’s become a tradition for me to celebrate my blog birthday with a little giveaway so lucky three people will receive some Croatian chocolate and a decant or two of my choice (haven’t yet decided which).

One will also get a sample of Puredistance White because it needs a better home than I can give – it pushes all of my clean, synthetic musk buttons. I can just add to that that I think it will be a huge success. 🙂

Wishing everyone a happy spring (that would have been completely appropriate if I had done this on my actual blog birthday – March 20) and hopefully you’re enjoying it with sunny weather and among just blooming plants and flowers. 🙂

DSC_0871

The smell of candy in the air

I've been thinking, Perfume thoughts, World of Perfume April 1, 2014 Comments: 12

This candy to be precise (PEZ):

pez

Basically it’s a lightly sweet smell permeating the air close to blooming trees.

As my knowledge of trees and plants is somewhere around kindergarten level, I can’t tell you what trees those are, but my guess would be some wild/decorative kind of fruit trees. Whatever it is, the air is rather warm these days so the smell wafts around you as you walk and all you can do is breathe it in and smile as childhood memories beckon with a grin of their own.

I grew up with those candies and even though I still remember the smell, I don’t really need to as now my nephews are the ones who are growing up with them.

So, tell me, who else remembers PEZ candy (and the accompanying dispensers) from their childhoods? And their powdery fruity smell?

 

P.S. It just never occurred to me before now how the smell of those candies was actually reminiscent of the smells in nature.

(I guess someone did a really good job with those aromas)

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. 😀

Spring is here (and hopefully, so am I)

I've been thinking March 6, 2012 Comments: 20

Ok, so spring might not be exactly here, but it’s definitely coming (the sunny day today is rather cold and biting).

We’ve been having sunny days and some rather high temperatures for this time of year but mostly, it’s a slow rise of temperature into real spring.
But spring is definitely here as evidenced by the photo my boyfriend sent me the other day from a large park (partly woods) in Zagreb (Maksimir):

Anyway, I have big plans for this spring and I do hope I make some of them come true (knowing me, some is fine as I tend to plan for more than is actually possible).
One of the plans is another trip to Paris in very late spring (probably summer weather by then) as Suzanne already announced on her site. I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to meeting Suzanne and having fun with her and Asali in Paris. 🙂

I also hope, now that the hectic period is over at work, I’ll be able to write more regularly and sniff more regularly as for the past few weeks all this was on hold.

Happy spring time everyone!

Time flies by when the sun is shining

Short perfume review March 31, 2011 Comments: 14

I think I’m suffering from spring laziness. I’m not really tired as that is what everyone keeps talking about these days when the sun keeps shining all day long and everyone is smiling because of it. I’m actually running around, trying to do all sorts of things and I’m managing but the writing sort of got lost in the middle of all that.

During last week’s fumechat, I got some wonderful recommendations for spring scents from Persolaise, only to manage to locate one of those samples and basically just try that one. One would think if I’m looking for new perfume loves, I’d put more effort into it…

So, the one I tried was Vert Pivoine by Histoires de Parfums, and while I was already amid those samples, I tested Blanc Violette too.

Vert Pivoine

Notes (in French):
Top note : Pivoine, Feuille de Lierre, Eau de Rose.

Heart note : Pivoine, Rose, Mimosa, Gardénia, Fruits Rouges, Baies Roses.
Base note : Pivoine, Santal, Cèdre, Musc, Vanille.

One of the good things about perfumes is that I learn many new words through them. Especially for flowers. 🙂 So now I know the name for peony in both French and Croatian and thanks to google, I even know what it looks like. Before, peony was just another name of a flower.
So, what does it smell like? For me, it starts with the smell of flowers stalks that give off a slightly peppery twist. It’s not sweet at all, more like spring flowers after rain when you can’t smell the sweet grass and pollen residue in the air but just clear scent.
It smells serious and elegant to me with the smell of real rose (at least that’s how I think of that particular smell, the one where you actually have your nose in the rose and can smell the surrounding air and leaves) complementing the elegancy.
These are soliflores by Histoires de Parfums site so it’s no surprise when I say that this one smells pretty much linear with some detours – a bit greener in the drydown.
Very easily wearable if not a great love for me. It’s more like a nice blouse you know fits well, even though  not the most spectacular you own.

Blanc Violette

Notes (also in French)
Top note : Violette, Bergamote, Iris.

Heart note : Violette, Ylang-Ylang, Anis Badiane.
Base note : Violette, Santal, Vanille, Musc, Poudre de Riz.

I’m not the one to fall for violets in my perfumes, but I actually liked this one better than Vert Pivoine (and I liked that one).
The interesting thing happened right at the beginning – I couldn’t say what I was smelling. I was smelling it but my mind refused to put any name to it so I wrote down – white and sligthly bitter. 🙂 I’m just so good with words. 😉
After that, it got slightly powdery and lightly irisy but I can’t say I could recognize violets in there.
Then another interesting thing happened – it started smelling like it was being suffused with light. I don’t know where that came from and I was very surprised to get that idea in my head. I wonder if someone else has tried this and had the same revelation?
I like it when I smell something that strongly questions my perfume knowledge as it was very hard for me to put into words what I was smelling and still can’t really describe it well enough – I guess my flower notes knowledge is seriously lacking. 🙂
To me it basically smells good, easy, light, elegant and smoothly powdery in occasional whiffs.
Notes by: http://www.histoiresdeparfums.com/
 
Pic is mine of trees blooming in Zagreb.

My vintage miniatures find

Uncategorized March 20, 2011 Comments: 21

Actually, it’s more the case of them finding me than vice versa. 🙂
Last autumn I decided to try my hand at possibly finding some vintage gems in Croatia so I put an add in the most read add neswpapers here and it keeps re-appearing. I only got two calls so far. One was for a vintage Max Factor Hypnotique with a cat and the other one was a week ago, for two little cabinets containing vintage miniatures gathered over the course of 40 years or so.

Yesterday, I went to check them out. 🙂 As you can probably guiess by now, I’m the proud owner of those 2 cabinets and the 220 miniatures they contain. Yeeeeeeeey!!

I just can’t decribe how happy that makes me feel. 🙂

Here are my (not well taken) photos of them:

I do wish I could take better photos of them – it’s not very visible what’s in there.

These were too big for the cabinets so they came in a bag of their own.

I don’t even know what some of them are but it’s going to be so much fun smelling them, discovering what the ones I’m not familiar with are and talking about them.

Pics are mine.

Spring is here II.

Uncategorized March 12, 2011 Comments: 6

These were taken at my boyfriend’s yard  – a week ago, spring was being hinted at. :)

I didn’t realize it was already time for shoots to start becoming flowers.
And then yesterday, crocuses are open.
And enjoying the spring sun.

Pics are mine.

Spring is here!

World of Perfume March 11, 2011 Comments: 14

Although not in my step. I have a terrible cold for days now so I’m not able to smell anything and if something is strong enough to register, it hurts my nose and throat. 

But the weather is warm (incredibly so for this time of year) and the sun has been shining all week and should keep doing so in days to come even though it shouldn’t be this warm.
So, it’s the perfect time to dive into spring scents and I’m dying to do so, but at the moment, it is only a heartfelt wish that will have to wait.

In a vain attempt to smell spring, I sprayed Dawn’s Dutch Blue Hyacinth this morning only to smell the barest whiff of something first 5 minutes and nothing from then on. I couldn’t  decipher what it was that I was smelling before even that disappeared (as only the first strongest whiff managed to pass through my runny nose).

Oh, I am so very much looking forward to the moment I can enjoy spring through my nose!

Pic by: http://www.proprofs.com/