Tag Archives: World of Perfume

Miller Harris: Piment des Baies

World of Perfume November 4, 2010 Comments: 4

I seem to be on a Miller Harris kick. Well, not exactly because this is it but it is interesting how the first decant I picked this morning was another Miller Harris. One I forgot I even had and have to thank Carol for sending it. So, this morning, I opened the decant, figured it smelled ok for the warm weather we’re having and sprayed it on.

You know how I said yesterday how when I smelled some of their scents, I couldn’t find anything by Miller Harris to seriously like? I have to take that back. After Noix de Tubereuse which is a scent that makes me smile now (even though I’m not wearing it), I love Piment des Baies. I really do. And I actually think I can wear this all through the year.

And I’ll tell you why – it’s fresh but at the same time spicy and woody – it’s just a perfect balance of the notes.

Notes: bergamot, orange, tarragon, red thyme, pepper, pimento berries, angelica seed, sandalwood, orris butter, Madagascan vanilla.

Ok, so I don’t smell all the notes, but I do smell enough. Btw, google (or better wikipedia) really is your friend. I went to check what exactly pimento berries are and it turns out, another name for it is allspice because the English thought it combined the smell of cinammon, nutmeg and clove. No wonder I like this! 🙂

It opens on a sweet, slightly green citrus note (I found it a bit reminiscent of cologne, but only a bit). It’s not too sweet, or too green, or too citrusy. It’s just right to smell fresh but with a twist. I think the twist is probably given by both pepper and tarragon as it gives barest hints of nose pinching. But only barely.
I thought (before wikipedia) that pimento berries might smell like some kind of berries because there is a really nice juicy fruit note at the beginning of this, but I guess it’s a combination of orange and spices and herbs.

What I like so much about this is that the slight juiciness combined with  pepperiness never really goes away. Sandalwood makes an appearance but never alone, the drydown is perfect, some sandalwood in a small green shrub sprinkled barely with fruit juice. And the lasting power is much better than I expected. Much better.

This one falls straight into the category of scents I never have to think about wearing. I will never mind putting it on. I don’t know what to wear today? Oh, look, here is a decant of Piment des Baies. I’ll put that on and won’t have to wonder anymore. It just fits me.

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

Miller Harris: Noix de Tubereuse

World of Perfume November 3, 2010 Comments: 6

Lately, I’ve been feeling like I’m late to the perfumeworld and everyone seems to have this basic knowledge of almost every line there is out there. Except me.
I did give Miller Harris a try some time ago, but none of the things I tried were great for me and I kept wondering if it’s just me, or I sampled the wrong scents, or something  else, because almost every other blogger out there had a Miller Harris scent they loved. Well, now I have one too. 🙂

Notes: Tuberose leaves, tonka bean, orris amber, wild green clover, mimosa, violet, fig

Hmm, now I see the notes, I see there’s some violet in there. I seem to be in for scents containing violet note lately and not even realizing I’m smelling it. That just makes me consider those scents very good since I’m not getting put off by its smell (it’s not as overpowering as it can be for me).

And can I just say that the name of the perfume is misleading. I mean noix does mean a nut and I don’t see one amid the notes. Oh well, not the first (or the last time).

What I really like about this perfume is the opening. It reminds me so much of the cough syrup  my mom used to make when I was little. It contained common mallow and smelled very sweet and syrupy. I actually loved both the taste and the smell of it.
Noix de Tubereuse has that kind of opening and after a little while, you spy tuberose peeking through it.  I think it’s a very interesting take on the lush tuberose. And after a while, it gets a coconut/walnut vibe to it. I mean, if you can imagine what a nutty tuberose would smell like, you’d get this, it is very true to its name. Also, very sweet and floral, I couldn’t name mimosa but I knew some other flower was hiding in there. As well as some amber giving this a sweet richness that lasts.

I am really happy I have a small decant of this because I realized that tuberouse is (as are all other white lush flowers) actually quite appropriate for autumn. At least for me, I really feel like wearing it.

Pic and notes by: http://www.luckyscent.com/

I don’t like getting disappointed

World of Perfume November 1, 2010 Leave a comment

And I really tried. More than once even though I knew it was no use. But my optimism never wanes so I gave it another try. And got disappointed again. I just don’t know how in the world did they manage it.

The “it” I am talking about is makinga wonderfully lush tuberose/jasmine into a shrill artifical musky floral. I mean that must actually take some serious talent if you ask me. And btw, they cheated on the notes.

Notes: tuberose, jasmine, lilly, spices.

The scent I am talking about is Narcotic Venus by Nasomatto.
The name is so very true for the first hour and I absolutely love it. It is lush and narcotic and everything one might want from a tuberose perfume. It is wonderful. I even get some lilly peeking through, although I wouldn’t recognize it by myself if I hadn’t seen the notes. No spices though.
And there I was, every lush minute of this when strange things started happening. My lush tuberose started shape-shifting into this bland shrill floral that occupies so many shelves of perfume stores around the world. How?! Why?! I want my tuberose back!

But no. Once it disappears, it never comes back. And I’m left here disappointed and sad we got to hang out for an hour.

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

Caron: Aimez-Moi

World of Perfume October 24, 2010 Comments: 6

I started swapping much earlier than I started blogging. So when I decided I wanted to write about perfumes, I already had a significant collection of decants and samples. One of them being Aimez-moi (or Love me).

What I should mention is that, even though I had this decant for quite some time, I never actually wore it. I must have tried it at the time I recieved it, but after that, forgetting what it smelled like, I sort of went around it each time I chose a perfume to wear.
Well, today is the day Aimez-Moi finally got some wear space. And I’m glad I decided to do it.
I can’t say I was smitten, then again, I tend not to like statements as the name of this scent so that is definitely a deterrent.

I was pleasantly surprised when upon application I smelled mint. 🙂 As some of my readers might know, I’m a huge fan of Charmes et Feuilles by TDC which is heavy on mint (more than Aimez-Moi). So, I thought, all right, we’re off to a good start. Some sweet and peppery smelling mint – I’m always ready for that. Especially when I got little whiffs of green grass peeking through. I found the opening totally fascinating because it is not often that I come upon mint in perfume, especially mint not hinting at toothpaste.
 I will give you the notes now so you can see that what I’m getting  is not exactly the stuff listed.

Notes: anise, freesia, violet leaf, bergamot, mint, caraway, magnolia, cardamom, jasmine, peach, iris heliotrope, tonka bean, amber, musk and cloves

The more I smell scent, the more I realize that the list of notes can’t come close to making you imagine what a scent might smell like.
I mean, I can’t say I got to smell the fruit in this one. I mean, I could say it was underlying what I was smelling and giving it sweetness that only fruit can give but that’s about as much as I cansay about the fruit in it. I did smell a flowery accord but getting to particular flowers, not really. Which I think gives credit to the perfume – it is so well-blended that individual notes escape me.
The drydown was what really made me decide I will be using my decant more often. It also made me realize I need to distinguish better between vanilla and ambery sweet drydowns. In this case, the drydown is lighty sweet amber with floral nuances. Quite lovely really.

In the end, I can’t say I was swept off my feet and I love this, but I do like it a lot and that’s a good start for love, don’t you think?

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

I’ll skip morning and proceed straight to the evening

World of Perfume October 23, 2010 Comments: 8

It is a very delicate thing, trying a scent by a house you never before tried. I don’t think it’s possible for anyone to like all the fragrances made by a particular house, so when approaching a new one, you should take care to try something that might appeal to you. Or, you order a Luckyscent sample bag and take your chance. 🙂

I’ve heard a lot of good things about the Maison Francis Kurkdjian (actually read, I don’t think many people I know would recognize the name). So, it was with optimism that I tried the Absolues from the Luckyscent pack. Well, the optimism was half valid. I’ll stick with the Absolue pour le Soir for the whole day and simply skip the Matin one.

I mean, ok, yes, people emerge fresh in the morning from their homes, but I still don’t want to smell sweetly soapy floral like. Exactly like the washing product I use? OK, I don’t use products that smell like that because I really don’t like that smell, but I can see the appeal for other people.

Notes: Calabrian bergamot, Sicilian lemon, Moroccan white thyme, lavender, Tunisian neroli, woody iris accord, dry amber accord, violet accord

The citruses in the beginning could have fooled me. I didn’t get them but it seems that in this scent, the longer you wear it, more citruses appear along the way. In the end (drydown) I kept thinking it smelled like a summer cologne. But in the beginning, all I could think was oh no, the violet accord is there putting the soapiness into this (and I have no idea why I think violets smell soapy but they do to me). I think it sounds bad now but it’s not if you’re into that kind of stuff. And I loved the fact that I could smell thyme but that’s the best thing I can say about it. I do imagine though this will sell wonderfully.

You know, it’s becoming more and more apparent that I’m more of an evening person. Not night, but evening. My best hours in the day are between 5 and 10 P.M. (which doesn’t sound real good for my work efficiency).
Anyway, I wouldn’t mind smelling like Absolue pour le Matin all day long, although people might wonder where did I spend the night. Which brings me back, I think I will have to upgrade my own estimate of my perfume tolerance on Flittersniffer’s scale.
I can definitely see why this would be named an evening scent. First of all, it smells like you’ve already been naughty with someone. Yeah, cumin is in there. 🙂 You’re smelling sweet and floral but oh boy, are you a naughty girl under there.
And I still can’t believe I wrote that. Because when I started this perfume journey, I kept thinking when seeing stuff like that on other blogs, What in the world are they smelling?! I never smell stuff like that.
Well, now I do. And more importantly, I like it! 🙂 Yep, definitely an upgrade on my own estimated place on that scale…

Here are the notes: Infusion of benzoin from Siam, cumin, ylang-ylang, Bulgarian and Iranian rose honey, incense absolute, Atlas cedarwood and sandalwood

Before anyone starts thinking that it’s a bit too much, the cumin wears off eventually and incense kicks in more seriously (it’s there but it gets amplified as the time passes). I’m not always tolerant of incense but here I’m fine with it. although, I would catch a whiff of APLM and think, oh great, another one that reminds me of Caravelle Epicee and then the next moment, incense would make it go away. That is also why I though that there must be some spices in the opening but I didn’t see them listed. Of course, it could be just a combination of cumin and wood but I really thought some clove or cinammon (or even something more peppery) found its way in.
So the incense note gets stronger before it subsides draping itself with benzoin and sandalwood. I am just very satisfied with the way this one turned out.

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

Finally Shalimar! Or how orientals are taking me over

World of Perfume October 11, 2010 Comments: 9

There’s just no point denying it, I’m on oriental perfume freak. I seem to be falling deeper and deeper into the mysterious cloud they are creating around me and more and more are in that cloud.

As you can see from the title, my new oriental find is Shalimar. Or, more like, we finally hit it off. All we needed was a second meeting and we’re ok now. Well, more than ok actually.

The thing is, lately, Shalimar has been jumping out at me from all over. First, I saw a Katie Puckrik clip where she’s also all over it. Then, I was browsing through a store here, and it winked from a shelf. I never ever noticed it before on a shelf anywhere. Only to end this weekend with Angelology and one of the girls (the rich one) wears it as her signature scent at the beginning of the WW II.

So, I located my mini bottle and re-acquinted myself with Shalimar. We’ve been hanging out ever since. 🙂

Btw, if you are ever in search of notes, there is quite a lot of them to be found if you keep searching. Here are all those I managed to gather.
Notes: bergamot, lemon, jasmine, rose, iris, incense, opoponax, tonka bean, vanilla, tangerine, cedar, patchouli, orrise, benzoin, peru balsam, leather, vetiver, heliotrope, civet, sandalwood.

I have no idea if all of them are in my EdT but it certainly smells great. I guess you just can’t barge into the world of perfumes and know what stuff is great or what family you prefer. Some perfumes are going to reveal their secrets only after you cover a lot of ground.

So, what I like about Shalimar is that on me, it is not a sweet oriental. I was actually surprised by the beginning which is dry, spicy, slightly almondy but austere in appearance. It strikes me as being quite strict, no soft smiles on this lady. Only after a while it mellows a bit but don’t you dare think it is a nice and lovely girl. Oh no, it’s a strong woman with serious backbone, one that will seduce you and you won’t know what hit you.
One of the reasons I kept on searching for notes was because I was surprised by smelling patchouli in there (some dryness and earthiness combined) so I felt quite good when I saw it listed together with cedar which I realized was alongside patchouli. The things is, you just can’t describe Shalimar through the notes. Although I can say that jasmine was hiding each time I tried it. 🙂
As soon as I can, I’ll try the EdP to see if the underlying booziness will get stronger (I would love that benzoin to get a more prominent role).

In the meantime, I’m falling asleep each night with my wrist under my nose…

Enveloped in lovely flowers

World of Perfume October 1, 2010 Comments: 11

You know how I said the other day I was smelling perfumes that I didn’t feel I had the right words to describe? Well, I still don’t, but I don’t think I’ll be coming up with them any time soon and I do want to share with you this new-found classic that was born in the 21st century.

The two creations by Annie Buzantian for Puredistance are recent but they smell elegantly classic and as if they weren’t produced in these times.
As with Puredistance I, Antonia comes without any notes listed. Oh, I adore a good mistery. I just wish later someone would tell me how correct was I in my assumptions.
So let me tell you what captivated me with Antonia. Because that is what happened, even though when I first tried it, I still thought it couldn’t possibly beat Puredistance I for my affections.
It starts green, powdery and slightly earthy, there is a bitter quality to that greeness but at the same time, it evokes softness and warmth. A friend told me it smelled fresh to her which made me consider my own idea of fresh. My nose seems to have evolved in time when  fresh in my mind is linked with aquatic, ozonic, fabric softener ideas of fresh. This is not it. I realized later that this is what fresh must have smelled like in historical romance. Classic, soft, green and flowery.
After the initial slightly bitter feel to greeness (and brief flirting with soapiness), it just gets better and better. I cannot stop myself smelling it, I feel like someone perfumed my favourite cashmere sweater with lush flowers so that at the same time I feel warm and enveloped in a cloud of white, velvety flowers. It is like your favourite elegantly stylish aunt hugging you and the warmth and perfume that envelops you with all the love that is in that hug. Elegance and style are forever and smelling like that can never be wrong.
Today I’m finally wearing it not just testing it on my wrist. What can I say? It feels like it’s blooming on my skin. For something so soft and feminine, it has some serious tenacity and wonderful wafting capability. And I absolutely love the fact that 7 hours after applying it, I can still smell it around me.
It is never too sweet, something is hiding in there making it just perfectly poised with florals dancing around a base hiding a note that won’t let them drown in their own lushness and sweetness. It also makes me wonder if there is some kind of a juicy fruit note hidden in those flowers?
I want to thank Ninja of  Puredistance for sending me a sample of their new perfume. There is also one more reason I need to thank them. They made me realize that I actually love classic perfumes (I really didn’t think that before).
Picture was received as part of Puredistance release package.

Visiting ancient Egypt III

World of Perfume September 27, 2010 Leave a comment

And with this, I’ll conclude this mini series. The last scent I’ll talk about is Megaleion.

Top notes: Cardamom co2 Absolute, Cassia, Cinnamon Bark, Fragrant Wine (accord), Lemongrass
Middle notes: Australian Sandalwood, Balm of Gilead (accord), Spikenard, Turkish Rose Otto
Base notes: Copaiba Balsam, Costus, Myrrh Gum, Olibanum (Frankincense), Peru Balsam, Pine Resin, Sweet Flag

This one was the one that moved me the least. Not to say I don’t like it, I do, but it feels more restrained in its olfactory approach. It smells like something Egyptian priests might have worn, and it feels more masculine than the rest. It could be I’m associating it with priests due to the frankincense in the opening. And when mixed with cardamom, I just get the priest in Egypt association springing up in my mind. 🙂

Anyway, the opening is incensey-green, mixed with cinnamon and cardamom but cinnamon in significantly smaller presence than in Keni. It’s warm, resinic and the fragrant wine accord is again in my mind connected with the cardamon and the warm wine you drink in winter. And that’s about the most sweetness you can expect from it, if you associate fragrant wine with sweetness. This is much drier than the other two, like smoky wood, burnt in a temple perhaps.

I’m aware Dawn wrote that this is “Perhaps the world’s first “designer fragrance”… – but I can’t help think of temples and priests when smelling it. But not Christian variant of incense burned in a church (which is a smell to make me nauseous instantly), more the spicy, dry version that I come to associate with dry climates, sun and temples – Egypt is a good picture. 🙂

Visiting ancient Egypt II

World of Perfume September 26, 2010 Comments: 4

It seems I really don’t know much about ancient history since if someone asked me what spices Egyptians used, I’d have no idea.  I would probably guess at some, but I don’t think cinnamon would be on that list.
And then, here comes Dawn Spencer Hurwitz and her Secrets of Egypt and through my nose, I learn some of the things my school books never managed to teach me.

Today  I’ll talk about Keni – the cinnamon fest. 🙂

Top notes: Bitter Almond, Cardamom co2 Absolute, Cassia, Cinnamon Bark
Middle notes: Australian Sandalwood, Benzoin, Fragrant Wine (accord)
Base notes: Atlas Cedarwood, Myrrh Gum, Pine Resin

Ok, as you can see from the notes, it’s not all a cinnamon fest but the opening is, and it lasts for a while so I can call it that.  It’s the most real cinnamon I ever smelled. As with all spices (which I recognize by their particular nose pinching effect, you know, similar to black pepper), this cinnamon is at the same time nose pinching, juicy and bark-like. If you ever tried a cinnamon chewing gum, it smells like that. Wonderful (as I adore cinnamon gums).

As cinnamon starts to subside, there is a light gummy quality to it and then cardamom appears. If you take a look at the notes of the different Secrets of Egypt scents, you will notice many notes being the same in many of them. And then, in the end, they all smell spicy but different.

After cardamon, I start getting some whiffs of sandalwood and after that, it gets tricky. Sandalwood for me gets more dry and resiny and in the end morphs into sweet cedar and then just cedar? I’m not really sure except it’s dry and comforting (but then again, all spicy scents are comforting to me,  and I wonder, does that mean something?).

Pic by: http://www.ground-cinnamon.com/
Notes by: http://www.dshperfumes.com/

Visiting ancient Egypt I

World of Perfume September 24, 2010 Comments: 10

I’ve been interested in the Secrets of Egypt collection of scents from Dawn Spencer Hurwitz since it came out and then I finally ordered 3 samples of scents that were made for the exhibition in Denver Art Museum.

I don’t know how many of you know, I am a huge fan of Dawn’s work and unfortunately for me, I seriously like pretty much anything I smell that she created. 🙂

So, it came as a surprise realization yesterday (I’ve been having those lately) that the reason I kept postponing writing about several perfumes I tried recently is because I don’t feel I can give them a review they deserve. I mean, whatever comes into my mind as something I want to say about them doesn’t feel as good as they smell to me.
But I decided that’s a stupid reason for not writing about them, so here it goes.

The one I will talk about today is Antiu – I won’t go into details about the name, you can read more about it on Dawn’s site.

Top notes: Bitter Almond, Cardamom co2 Absolute, Fragrant Wine (accord), Galbanum, Lemongrass
Middle notes: Australian Sandalwood, Gallica Rose Otto, Honey Beeswax
Base notes: Copaiba Balsam, Mastic, Myrrh Gum, Peru Balsam, Pine Resin, Sweet Flag

For me, this starts as a spicy burst (that reminded me strongly of cinnamon which is featured prominently in the other 2 samples) that smelled at the same time green like peas and almondy. And that’s before I read the notes (I just love it when I can smell something on my own). 🙂
It has  a slightly citrusy tang and in the beginning smells to me like cinnamony grass. You know, spicily green. And absolutely wonderful (those are two smells I adore in anything). I still can’t believe there is no cinnamon in this but then again, we put here in our warm wine cinammon and clove so it’s no wonder that the fragrant wine accord will remind me of it. One variant of such wine is glög (that’s what the Swedish do) and it’s a bit more spicy and has a thicker consistency (I’m not sure from what) but cardamom is put into it.

I’ve heard people say that they don’t like cardamom but I can’t help but associate it with warmth and fragrant wine so when it makes a bolder appearance in Antiu, I really enjoy it.

Even though I mentioned winter customs, for me, this smells like a perfect scent for spring. It has some kind of sunny, breezy, grassy freshness and then gets a sweet aspect around the cardamom but in a light, resiny way.  Well, if you take a look at the base notes, you can come to that conclusion as well. 🙂

Soon, I will talk about the other samples and one that is absolute cinnamon heaven for which a friend told me she doesn’t consider that as something one might wear as perfume. Oh well, more for me.

If you take a look at Dawn’s site, I’m warning you straight away, don’t check the Mummy bottles because they are just way too wonderful not to be wanted for oneself. Which is a terrible torture as one costs 275 $.

Btw, it seems I decided to write about these perfumes at the same time as Krista over at Scent of the Day, so you can head over there and see what she wrote about Antiu.

Pic by: http://www.stanford.edu/