Interview with Pierre Guillaume, Parfumerie Generale, at Fragrantica.

A short interview with Pierre Guillaume, note that he is thinking about offering his perfumes in 30 ml bottles. :)

http://www.fragrantica.com/news/Pierre-Guillaume-founder-perfumer-of-Parfumerie-Generale-933.html

Calé Fragranze d'Autore - Assolo

I didn´t plan to write about another scent from Calé Fragranze d'Autore today, but sometimes it isn´t me that chose the perfume to write about, but the perfume that choses to be written about. Assolo is one of those perfumes. Honestly, I don´t know if I like it, of all the Calé perfumes this is the one I find most difficult to wear, at least for me. I tried it after I´ve tried Tepidarium and belived that I would have something similar, but with fresh, sweet apple instead of tropical creamy fruits. But oh no, Assolo is something totally different than a simple, apple scent!

I tested Assolo, and put it away, since I found it annoying. But out of all perfumes from Calé, it constantly returned to my mind. I tried to find words and emotions to describe the unexpected scent experience, I was thinking about it when I´ve got to bed and well, I even dreamed about it! Do you happen to dream about perfumes?

So, I might think I was ready with Assolo, but Assolo didn´t think it was ready with me! Sometimes it´s only to accept such things!

Assolo starts off with a fresh and sweet apple note and this far everything is just nice, but only after a few minutes there comes some brisk, abresive and murky notes. Oh my, what is this? No, it doesn´t really smell bad, only very demanding, special and very different. It doesn´t make me think about a sweet apple, but about a whole apple tree. It is a discovery of a whole, big old apple tree even the smallest corners of it. Assolo is one of those perfumes that manage to make me feel very, very tiny. Like I am some sort of smallest bug living my whole life among the branches, bark, leaves and apples of an old, long time forgotten apple tree. It might be that kind of apple tree spending it´s last years close to an abandoned cottage deep inside the forrest. An apple tree no longer cared for by any people. Well, you understand that for such a small bug, a whole world of apple scents can be quite overwhelming!

As you guess, Assolo is a very interesting scent, one of the most interesting olfactory experiences I´ve encountered. And it´s that way with perfumes, the one´s that smells the best isn´t always the most interesting, and the most interesting one´s isn´t always the easiest to carry off.

On the right person, I can imagine Assolo to become a pleasure of an apple tree in bloom and with fresh fruits and sunny leafs. Isn´t perfumes the most exciting thing?

The small note of apple, stays long in assolo, but the brisk, abrasive notes also grows and grows. Have you ever chewed on some fresh tree, Assolo capture that feeling excactly. It´s a very genuin and natural smell of wood, but very difficult for me, with a skinchemistry that seem to make brisk notes so much brisker. Still, Assolo is the apple trees own story.

I can´t imagine anything better to try, if you´re looking for a scent with all the aspects of a tree. I also think this could be really interesting on a male skin chemistry, even tough I haven´t let my husband try it yet.

Don´t miss Assolo, if you like woody perfumes. I recommend it to anyone who likes strange olfactory experiences. Really strange, really big but also really "not me"...



Pic: The old, old apple tree by Davydutchy, flickr

Calé Fragranze d'Autore - Dolce Riso

The picture above is of italian actresse Anna Magnani, from the film Riso Amaro (Bitter Rice). I saw that film when I was quite small and Anna Magnani make some impression on me. And now when I´ve got the opportunity to try Dolce Riso from Calé Fragranze d'Autore I come to think about that film and wish that I could watch it again.

Well, Dolce Riso isn´t a bitter perfume, but it´s so much more than just sweet and nice. I find it hard to place, it´s really comfy and sothing, but in what group of perfumes does it belong?

Gourmand? Yes, you might think so considering some of the notes being apple, rice, cereals and vanilla. But it´s also much to fresh, light and summery to be just a gourmand.

Is it oriental? Kind of, it´s without doubt warm, soft and sensual but also much to cooling and light to be an oriental.

Calé Fragranze d'Autore call it a soft amber, and well I guess it is.

Dolce Riso is a caressing, pleasant and sheer kind of perfume. There isn´t any sharp, edgy or exciting hiding in it, like there is in many of the other perfumes from Calé. Dolce Riso is calming and friendly. It might go as well on man and women, and I like it most because the tranquile serenity I find in it. Dolce Riso is the smell of something you can trust and feel totally relaxed with. Like an old, reliable friend, your loved grannie or maybe that worn-out, but really comfy favourite sweater.

I doubt tough that Dolce Riso would attract youngsters filled with energy, the kind of youths that likes to follow trends, being in and feel young, sexy and hot. But there is already so many perfumes marketed toward that group.

Dolce Riso is a mature, full-bodied perfume. But not a ladyscent, no it´s much to modern and different to be classic or traditional. Notes of rice, cereals, white pepper and artemisia gives it a soft, but also bubbly freshness that smell very new. Dolce Riso has it´s very own style and personality. Strangely enough I don´t consider it to be powdery, wich is easy to belive when you read the notes.

The basenote is incredibly soft and warm, and also quite longlasting for an EdT. A little warning, be aware that you want to be really taking cared off by a man wearing Dolce Riso, so make sure you got pleanty of time. The other way around would also be nice or if you have a small one at home with fever and bad throat. This is a perfume for massage, lighted candles, soft music and relaxation.

I still got others from Calé Fragranze d'Autore to write about, and several of them are really great and interesting. I will get back to them, but I think I will write about something totally different on the blog next.

Pic: Riso Amaro

Calé Fragranze d'Autore - Brezza di Seta

I can´t belive that I claim that the perfume I will write about today was loud and noisy yesterday, it must have been some other trying to work their way to the front. Calé Fragranze d'Autore is the only in the line marketed towards women, six of the others are unisex and one, Mistero is aimed at men.

Brezza di Seta is an all together whispering, caressing and calming perfume. The top notes are green, but not a loud chypre kind of green, no more of an easy, light almost pastel coloured way. Heavy green scents I am having trouble to appreciate, but Brezza di Seta catch me at once, not at all like CdG 3, but still with the light, subdued kind of greenery in common, tough two totally different subdued green colours.

In the soft greenery little by litte there shine trough some light violet notes, a discrete powdery note and a very understated nuance of flowers slowly lighting up the scent from within. Having in mind that rose is among the notes, I must say that it has been threaten the most delicate way, making me think rather of little pink rosebuds than fully blooming roses.

As readers of the blog already know, I have a weakspot for powdery perfumes, and Brezza dfi Seta isn´t an exception, but it´s manage to be idfferent from most powdery perfumes I´ve tried.
Why is that? Well, I have this way of thinking of notes in perfume in certain colours and usually I think of powdery notes as being light salmon pink or creme coloured or maybe some very light shade of lavender, you know what kind of colours I mean... but in Brezza di Seta I rather discover the most soft and light nuances of green, up close maybe with some light violet nuances, but the overall impression is the most caressing nuance of light green one can imagine.

It is like the smell of violet leafs just before the violets starts to bloom, or the memory of how my mothers powder smelled when I was a kid, mostly the scent of Brezza di Seta is transparent and light as a weil but yet also caressing and comforting. It make me think in terms as drems, memories and embraces.

Brezza di Seta is a delicious, adorable and truly comforting. But as the base notes enters, there comes a certain papery like note, wich I guess is from the vetiver. Yes, there is very clever to use vetiver in this! I am being more and more drawned to the note of vetiver, knowing that just about half a year ago I was alittle skeptic to it. Just wait and see, in about half a year I will even appreciate heavy chypres.

Well, anyway the basenote in Brezza di Seta is really sooo utterly gorgeus, reminding me a little about L'Artisan´s Timbuktu. Do you like Tombuktu, but wished that it would be alittle more feminin? Oh, then you would love Brezza di Seta, even tough I think of it as a scent standing very well on it´s own two feets. It doesn´t resemble Timbuktu at all in the beginning, just some small similarities in the basenote.

I haven´t yet tested trough all the perfumes from Calé Fragranze d'Autore, mostly because I like the three I tested first so much. I think of them Brezza di seta is my favourite, even tough Tepidarium is also very good, it is more of a summer scent to me, while I think of Brezza di Seta as a scent I could wear all year round. And the one I am thinking about to write about here after, well maybe I just think I love Brezza di Seta the most because it´s the one I wear right now?

Yesterday I wrote that Calé Fragranze d'Autore has found a middleway between traditional italian perfumery and the more post-modern varieties, but today I think that they are also building abridge between more concrete italian perfumery and the more transparente french perfume making.

I know there is a lot of perfumistas wondering if there´s really room for more niche-lines? In my nose, Calé Fragranze d'Autore definitly manage to find it´s own spot. I really recommend you to try their perfumes if you have an opportunity.

Calé Fragranze d'Autore´s perfumes are comfy, nice and just when you feeling safe and there is something unexpected showing up. That is so interesting and funny I think.

Well I am off to the archipelago of Stockholm this weekend, so I won´t write here until monday.

Wish you all a nice weekend!

PS. The pic is of decoration cabbage, isn´t it beautiful?

Pic: unt.se, botaniska bloggen

Calé Fragranze d'Autore - Tepidarium

I am not really an ice cream lover. But that is when I think about those cheap big packs of ice cream you can buy at the local grocery store, luxoury ice creme filled with goodies I love to eat. I rather have one cup of Ben & Jerry ice cream every other month than a big pack every week. Or one jummy ice cream made by the dutchman in the harbour of Nyköping each summer, than a cheap ice lolly some days a week. And of course, I wouldn´t say no if someone offer me some real italian ice cream, also knowned as gelato.

Italian ice cream may be the best ice cream in the world, I belive I think so at least. But italian ice cream tastes the best in Italy of course. One of my best ice cream expereinces was in Venice, I know I have written about Venice before, but I try tyo keep it short, ok? It was summer, it was really, really hot and St. Marcus square in venice is like made for sunstroke with all those giant light buildings, the stone covered square and all that water surrounding it. Well, the sun can really be cruel there. After sweating around there for some time together with thousands of japanese tourists and ten thousands of pidgeons an ice cream can be really good. More than good actually, amazingly good... italian ice cream is kind of sweetn´sour and almost chewy, filled with nuts, fruits and other goodies.

I don´t really remember wich flavours I chose, but probably some lemon sorbet and vanilla with something good in it and maybe a pineapple sorbet as well. Anyway, the ice cream tasted almost precisly as the Calé Fragranze d'Autore´s perfume Tepidarium smells!

This is such a gorgeus summer perfume! When I test it, it take me to a small alley close to the St, Markus square where I have my first taste of an wonderful italian ice cream. If we haven´t lost our camera in Munich, I could have paste a photo of the event above, but at least I think the gelato looks really, really good.

Calé used to be a distributor of naiche-perfumes, before having it´s own line of perfumes. The president of the company, Silvio Levi dreamed about having his own line of fragrances. Out of that came Calé Fragranze d'Autore a line of perfume with a narrative theme. Silvio have told the stories and expereinced perfumers have translated them into perfume. I think it sounds like an interesting co-operation and the result is really good. With, this far 8 perfumes, of course I don´t like all of them as much, but some of them are really good, one of them is Tepidarium.

Over all, Calé fragrances feels quite modern and different from traditional italian perfumery. They aren´t heavy or very sweet. On the other hand, ther aren´t as post-modern or even hard to carry off as some from the Nasomatto line. No, Calé seem to have found a comfortable in the middle of the road path in between traditional italian perfumery and advanced hard to pull off-perfumery.

Tepidarium isn´t that complex, but it isn´t either linear and simple. After the starting ice cream note, there is notes of delicious flowers floating around, but still I can sense the feeling of ice cream. And it is not att all to sweet, it is just enogh sweet n´sour as italain ice cream should be. And to be an EdT with quite light notes, it´s also sursprisingly longlasting, on me about 4-5 hours, and concidering it´s quite hot now...

The basenotes are really nice, you can imagine when I tell you they consists of vetiver, white musk and green tea. I suspect the vetiver to make this nice ice creamy perfume so nice and interesting as it is, without the vetiver it could have been plain old boring floralfruity. But no, Tepidarium is a nice summery floralfruity, but with an interesting edge, and oooh I like it!

More about Calé you can find here: http://www.cale.it/negozio.asp

And no, I don´t understand italian either!

More about some other perfume from Calé shortly, if I don´t chose some other interesting italian perfume, I have two of them in the line wanting to be reviewed. -Chose me!, -No, take me! they shout, and jumping up and down to get noticed, -Well, if you don´t behave well, I might chose a french or even an american perfume to review before you, I say and look harsh on them. And see, so nice and quiet they become, perfumes are so sensitive.

pic: gelato by archangeli, flickr

Profumum Roma - Alba

Anna Gran, Sollefteå.nu
The last coupple of weeks I´ve got a whole lot of samples in my mailbox. I made a gorgeus swap with the renowned perfumista Jackie Daniels. Only to sniff trough those samples will take a long time. I also received a whole lot of Profumum Roma (also called just Profumum) samples from a generous reader of the blog, thank you N! And as if that wasn´t enough I also just recently got a whole collection of samples from an italian perfume brand. I have to work real hard for some time apperantly, but since I have the most lovely work (even tough I think with lowest pay) it is only so much fun!

Once in a while you stumble upon a perfume you can´t smell. Of some reason you have an olfactory blindness to it or the combination of notes in it. Gucci by Gucci is one of these perfumes for me, I could as well try to smell fresh water. Another is my husbands Lacoste Elegance, I can smell it on him, but when I tried it, it smelled nothing on me. Strange, but interesting I think.

Among the Profumum-line there are some perfumes I really like, some I think is ok and some I don´t care for at all and then there is one I can hardly smell, Alba. And that´s the one I am going to write about today.

Well, I have to admit I kind of smell it, otherwise it would be pointless to write a review, wouldn´t it? I would simply have to write that I can´t smell a thing.

But that would be only partly true, since after all, Alba do smell, but it´s so subtle, elusive and softspoken that it make me utterly charmed, but also confused. The first time I tried it, I could hardly smlle it, but after trying it a coupple of times I have slowly get a grip on what notes to hunt in order to smell it. And, the scent is spellbindning.

This is skinscent at it´s best, Alba is a comfortable and sothing scent, but also alluring and very hard to catch. As a perfume I can´t hardly smell, I find my self sitting with my nose against my wrist a whole lot of time.

Alba consists of notes of different woods and amber, on me it´s clean, powdery and warm. But also something in it that is cool and uplifting, like some menthol or maybe eucalyptus? These contradictionary notes make me think of trees in snow, trees all covered with hoar-frost in a snowy world. Trees as concrete as trees in the summer, but surely a winter wood make a whole different impression than a wood in summer? I think that Alba remind me a little of CdG 3, but while I am chasing CdG 3 in a tropic jungle, I am chasing Alba in a white winter wood.

Tough, Alba isn´t a cold perfume, it is mostly a warm perfume, but with just enough tension to make it so exciting (at least in my nose). Did I wrote that it is clean, yes it has a name to live up to. But Alba is also sort of sexy, not in a raw, animalic or erotic way. No Alba is more like deep kisses and cuddles. It may leed to more, but that´s a different story...

Alba has this almost negative sillage, oddly enogh my family can smell it, even my husband. So I can´t really smell it porperly, but others notice it. Alba blend with my skin in the most penetrating way. It should be the top notes standing out a little, but with Alba it´s the other way around. Alba´s aura grows little by little and as I said, Alba is a strange, but lovely perfume.

It is amazingly longlasting, as almost all perfumes from Profumum. Alba still lingers on my skin after 10-12 hours, almost as noticeable as newly applied. Would I consider a big bottle of Alba? Not really, I think Profumum are quite pricey, and there is a lot of perfume I would buy in big bottle before Alba. But a nice decant would be fine! :)

Do you have any favourite from Profumum? Or maybe from some other italian (niche)brand? I think italian perfumes standing a little in the shadow from the french perfumes, why is that? Aren´t the italian perfumes as good? Or is it becasue they are generally a little more expensive? What do you think?

I think I have a lot of italian tidbits to write about, but as usual I will probably write about other perfumes as well.

Pic: Anna Gran, Sollefteå.nu

Article at Fragrantica about Star Sign perfumes - It´s Me!

I´ve written another articla at Fragrantica. An interview with Robert Boehm, astrologist and creator of Star Sign perfumes - It´s Me!

Robert is a really pleasant and interesting person and so easy to get contact with.

If you want to read the interview, just follow the link: http://www.fragrantica.com/news/Robert-Boehm-founder-of-CnR-Create-Star-Sign-perfumes-It-s-Me--914.html

I´m a sprinter!

On the pic above Marion Jones are running. If I was about to be chased by a wolfpac I think it would be a good choise to borrow Marion Jones' legs if the closest tree, house or where ever to get sheltered was some where close. If it was a longer distance I would prefer borrowing the legs from a medium-or long distance runner.

Ok, what can a sprinter possibly have to do with perfumes? Well, I am so obsessed so quite about everything could lead me to think about perfumes.

My personality is kind of a sprinter-personality. What ever I work with, I am done fast. I don´t have that good pateince and I am not much of a saver. When I was studying I usually start preparing for an important test/exam only a coupple of days ahead, the times I tried to start much earlier it always become just crap. When I want friends to come over for a dinner or party, I always want them to come the same evening or weekend, beause the next weekend maybe I wont feel like having a party? When I am reading, I am reading really fast, therefore I love thick books, because hopefully they last a litlle longer than one or two days. Of course this kind of temper also influence the way I am when it come to perfumes.

My obsessed interest of perfumes started a coupple of years ago, but it isn´t more than 1½ year ago I ordered my first samples. During the time since that I have sniffed hundreds and hundreds of perfumes. Some have been dismissed fast and others I have had cravings for. Some days I have tested 4-5 perfumes. And of course you understand that they don´t get time to evolve their basenotes in that phase. To have patience and enjoy a perfume for a long time isn´t one of my strong sides. But of course I return to the perfumes I like and try them more properly a little later. But I tend toi miss some really good one´s when I am doing this way, for example it was so close that I missed Ambre Sultan because of this (se earlier blog article) but now I even have my own precious mini-bottle of it.

Yes, mini-bottles and decants is the best thing happened to perfumes according to me. They are so suitable for my temper and personality. I wish all perfumes would come in 5, 10 or 15 ml bottles. Because, during this time I have ordered samples and decants, I haven´t yet, bought a single big bottle of beloved niche-perfume.

Samples I have bought, and swapped and begged(!) actually I am always waiting for some new samples to hit my mailbox.

Decants as well, not as many, but quite a lot tough. And mini-bottles, I ve got 5, 8 or 10 ml bottles from Serge Lutens, Guerlain and Frederic Malle, and a nice 15 ml bottle of Hermessence Ambre Narguile.

You might think I don´t have any big bottles at all, but I have, even tough I think they are not so many. Yes, I´ve bought some big bottles during this time, but they´re all mainstream perfumes I found cheap on the net. The very few niche-perfume I´ve got in big bottles I have bought or swapped in used condition at internet.

I´ve understand this is quite common for a newbie-perfumista. After a while the phase slows down, and you start saving up for those desireable big bottles. Or buy at once, if you´re having some more money lying around then I usually have.

How about you? Do you swap and buy a lot of samples? Or do you test new perfumes very orderly and slow? Do you always want a big bottle of the most loved perfumes or do you settle with a nice decant?

pic: panachereport.com

Bvlgari - Petits et Mamans

I don´t really now where to start. At first I was thinking of writing that some perfumes are so complex, intriguing and multi layered that I can write myself blue without even being close to how they really smell.

Then I tought about writing about vanilla, and even tough I love vanilla in perfume, not everybody does. And if you still is on the search for something light and comfy to layer a more powerful scent with, what shall you use then?

Then I tought about writing that it´s very unusual to use perfumes on babies, or even older kids, in Sweden, But that that is pretty common in other parts of the world.

Then I tought about writing about those comfy, relaxing and soft perfumes that are wonderful to put on when it´s time to go to bed. Actually I have about 3-4 "go to bed favourite-perfumes" Lavendula by Penhaligon´s, Sicily by Dolce & Gabbana, Puppy Love by Moxie Beauty and last but not least or... Petits et Mamans by Bvlgari.

On me, Petits et Mamans smells like a tart and sticky lemon lipgloss. At least at start, after a while I can smell notes of chamomille and sunflwoer, appearantly there is notes of rose as well, even tough I can hardly detect them at my skin. The base notes is quite longlasting and it consists of some kind of baby powdery smell on me. Some vanilla is in there to, but not making much noise on me.

No, Petits et Mamans wouldn´t go to history as the worlds most complex perfume. It do smell good, but in way a little artificial. I also think you can make an odd impression if you as an adult, or even teenager, wears it in public for an ordinary day or night out. Some people worries about wearing their most dirty and animalic musks in public, I am more worried to wear Petits et Mamans in public!

As readers of the blog allready know, I am having some troubble with wearing the most heavy and deep leathery and chypre scents, like Lonestar Memories and Bandit. If you want to escape the Bvlgari (!) Black feeling you got when layering them with something light vanilly, you can try layering them with Petits et Mamans instead.

Petits et Mamans isn´t always easy available in Sweden, but you can find it really, really cheap on internet. Despite it´s simplicity I would like to always have me some Petits et Mamans in my collection. It isn´t always the most great perfume experiences that are the most frequent used one´s.

Do you have some simple, easy and even cheap perfume that is almost embarrising to like?

Pic: Mmmmm by Letheravensoar Flickr

Ego Facto - Poopoo Pidoo and Prends Garde A Toi

I´ve got thistles in my flower bed. And I like them. Globe thistles and sea-holly are a futuristic and exiting companion to dahlias and lilies.

I have tried two perfumes from the new french perfume house of Ego Facto (I realise that I written much about new perfume houses lately, but I promise I will take on something slightly older soon).

http://www.egofacto.com/ I like their homepage by the way, there is a lot to look at and do, even tough I don´t really understand what the barbie dolls got to do with the perfumes? Maybe it´s just a funny and humoristic touch to it. The perfumes are not at all barbie style (if barbie style would be something childish) .

At first I tought I would write only about Poopoo Pidoo wich is a soft, comfy and fluffy perfume. The kind of perfume that smells sweet and nice at the first, second and third sniff, but then it starts to evolve. As you figure out by now, I´ve got a weak spot for pleasant, powdery perfumes that hide something animalic and erotic under the pleasing surface. Poopoo Pidoo is doing really good in that genre. Dominique Ropion (Carnal Flower, Une Fleur de Cassie, Alien and Kenzo Jungle l'Elephant) is behind Poopoo Pidoo, so it isn´t much to ask for something a little extra? At first there is notes of orange blossom and after a while there is rice powder and it was about here I started to get really interested. Something about it remind me of something else that I really, really like but I can´t figure out what it is. Happy and content I sniff the pleasant scent, just to realise that the real exiting notes comes to play now. A leathery, animalic musk joins in. Well, at least it got me!

I happens to have tried several powdery, fluffy perfumes with something completly different under the surface. Something raw, animalic and erotic, so Poopoo Pidoo is in excellent company. In my opinion not quite in the top, but not at all far behind. Even tough it remind of something else, Poopoo Pidoo still got a very unique character. And the best thing is that Poopoo Pidoo is so very longlasting. The warm and musky basenotes is there for hours, at least 10-12 hours I can smell it at my skin. I can´t remember any other perfume in that category with as good longvity. And the sillage is pretty good also. Well, everyone with a likening of powdery, sensual and surprising perfumes should give it a try.

Poopoo Pidoo is so good, that I didn´t give the other sample, Prends Garde À Toi much notice. I tested it once and it was very, very green and would be suitable for those who can carry off heavy, saturated and also brisk scents. Yesterday evening I did it agian. Happened to spray on Prends Garde À Toi instead of Poopoo Pidoo. Well, I have to put up with it I tought.

And well, am I gald I did? Prends Garde À Toi take me for a really intriguing olfactory trip. The green notes started to change, they darkened and wrapped me in. Almost blackish green greenery smelled on my wrist and smelled a lot. There isn´t anything careful about it. For some reason it make me think about Snowwhite´s evil step mother. I become aware of an evil castle built with winding and dangerous thistles and nettles, a castle where the evil queen lived. You realise, you have to be in quite a mood to pull Prends Garde À Toi off...! After a while it´s softens up, but just a little, it keep it´s strong, green character until the end. Honestly, Prends Garde À Toi isn´t really my kind of scent, but if Bandit is among you favourites, you must give this a try! I am sure it would suit my husband just fine, I consider it to be an unisex. Buy the way, if Poopoo Pidoo is lon-lived, Prends Garde À Toi also is, when I wake up this morning some lovely velvety green notes of soft moss still remain.

Unfortunatly Ego Facto´s perfumes aren´t available outside France yet. They are only sold at Marionnaud. But I do hope they become available outside France soon, because I am so curious about the rest of the perfumes ("Fool for Love", "Me, Myself and I", "Sacre Coeur", "Piege À Filles" and "Jamais Le Domanche").

I do love to live here in our little house, but sometimes I dream about moving to France, I guess the life for a perfumista is much easier there.

Pic: Thistles in the sun/ Arkwolf

Parfums 137 - Hollywood Stromboli 1950

Around 1950, Ingrid Bergman wasn´t only one of Sweden´s most famous actresses, she was in fact world-famous. A Hollywood-star as big as todays Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts and Angelina Jolie. Ingrid Bergman manage to make scandal as well, 1950 she had the main role in italian director Roberto Rosselini´s movie Stromboli. During the work with the move, they fell in love with each other. Since they where both married, the scandal was a fact. After that Ingrid Bergman didn´t get any roles in movies for several years!

The new french perfume house Parfums 137 are inspired by different stories in their perfumes, or perfume-kits. This far they offer two different kits, Nara 1869, inspired from Japan and also Hollywood Stromboli 1950. Well, perfume-kits, each perfume consists of three different bottles owich you can wear one by one or blend. Since I´ve got a weak spot for anything new and different in perfumes, this is right up my alley. Of course I was very happy when I won two sample sets on http://graindemusc.blogspot.com/

The name Parfums 137, is 1 story, 3 scents and 7 different perfumes! During the last days I have played with both of the kits quite much. Before trying them I tought I would like Nara 1869 with it´s notes of bigarade, osmanthus and olibanum the best. But when I was trying both kits at the same time (one on each arm) I realised that it was the arm with Hollywood Stromboli 1950 i sniffed on all the time!

Hollywood Stromboli 1950 has notes of spearmint, myrtle and immortelle. Before trying them, I tought the spearmint note would be to much, to minty and to fresh. And yes, at start the spearmint do cover up the other notes with loud, clean freshness. But after all, spearmint is a topnote and dissapears quite fast. After a short while I start discovering a wonderful nutty and warm scent, it´s from the myrtle, this together with the left overs from the spearmint, some green notes, makes the scent very special and different. When the spearmint still around I´ve got a sense of nut chewinggum, wich isn´t that pleasant, but just wait...

Well, honestly I enjoy Hollywood Stromboli 1950, it manage to wake a mediterrean feeling, but in quite un-typical way. It manage to be both warm and fresh at the same time, and I discover that I like it a lot!

The single bottles holds an easy, but not singlenoted, perfume. I am not that found of the spearmint, but both myrtle and immortelle are sweet and simple scents wich can be used by it self. The spearmint can refresh anything during summer I think. You are supposed to mix the notes within the kit, but I am convinced they works well to layer with almost anything.

The note of myrtle is maybe the easiest to like among them, the base is nutty, warm and creamy vanilla. But the one I like the most after all is the immortelle. Quite hard to describe tough, some strange mix of fruity, floral with some dust. In my opinion the best to wear alone of them.

The sample set I´ve got are in a pretty black organza bag and the bottles have a dripper in the hat, wich feels quite luxurious when it is only a sample set! You can get your own sample set at

http://www.parfums137.com/index.php unfortunatly my french is real bad, so I cant figure out if it is possible to order outside France, but I am sure it´s possible to contact them if you are curious. And you should be, this is an interesting idea and the individual notes are all good, even interesting. Together they create so much more than 7 perfumes, and I am looking forward to their next kit.

The sillage is discrete and the longvity is ok, not excellent.

Pic: Gordon Parks, Life

Ava Luxe - Heart of Glass

As most of you have understand by now, I really like to write. It´s quite essential to like writing when you have a blog, but of course it´s also good to be able to write "well" and also have something to tell. When it come to perfumes I have an never ending source of inspration, there are so many new perfume releases each year that is hard to belive, and the you got all the older masterpieces released years and centuries before I was obsessed with perfumes. There will always be interesting perfumes to write about. But of course I am not as inspired all days.

To have a blog is also so much more than to write, it is spending time with research, preparation, waiting for the right perfume sample to arrive and another very fun and inspiering task, to find the right pic for the article. I admit I have been lazy and really bad to tell where I have found the pics ( I am overall kind of lasy as a person). I promise I will get much better on that, and internet is really a chamber of treasuries when it come to pictures! Sometimes I find the "right" pic at once, and other times the "right" pic find me! Other times it become some totally other pic than I imagine it would be and sometimes the hunt for the perfect pic never ends and I have to seattle with something not as good as I was hoping for. www.flickr.com is, just like Etsy a place where it´s easy to get lost in time when you have start searching there. I think it´s amazing how many talented photographers there are!

The perfect pic has something to do with todays article. I have tested Ava Luxe´s Heart of Glass, another perfume starring tuberose. Heart of Glass manage really good among big shots like Frederic Malle´s Carnal Flwoer and Serge Lutens' Tubereuse Criminelle. On me, Heart of Glass become something in between the two of them. The top notes in Heart of Glass remind more of FMs Carnal Flower than SLs Tubereuse Criminelle. Eventually it become more unique, and ends up being a self confident interprention of tuberose.

Heart of Glass got some buttery, creamy almost chocolaty gourmand notes on me. It is full bodied, creamy and if it wasn´t so light at the same time it would easily become as sticky as Tubereuse Criminell on me. But in the middle of the heavy almost tranquilising floral notes, there is a note of pure clearness. I guess it´s that part Serena (the perfumer behind Ava Luxe) refer to in the name. I also think that this clear, almost serene note easily gets lost if you don´t think of it. I didn´t noticed it before I´ve tested Heart of Glass a coupple of times. Wich of course is one of the things that makes perfume testing so interesting, amazing and surprising. Maybe this clear note don´t show on everyone, it´s after all a question of skin chemistry (and sense of smell of course!).

Yes, you can imagine how hard it can be to find a pic that could describe so many different and complex impressions. I was looking for pics of tuberose in crystal vases surrounded by creamy chocolate cakes, and guess what, I didn´t find any!

I suspect Heart of Glass is more liked by the people prefering Carnal Flower before Tubereuse Criminelle. I love Carnal Flower, but it is a demanding perfume, it has a glory and radiance few people (at least not me) can pull of any day. Then I find Heart of Glass as a good substitute, it´s a big, shiny and powerful tuberose-scent, but not enormous. It´s longlasting, easily lasts 6 hours or more on me, the sillage is good but not huge. Thanks to the little cool and clear note, I think Heart of Glass works in summer, but you have to count on you get quite popular with all sorts of flying creatures! Well, I am sure it´s a pretty winter scent as well!


Pic: tuberose by pgoeltz/flickr

Serge Lutens - Tubereuse Criminelle

Before I start writing about Serge Lutens Tubereuse Criminelle I would like to tell you that the trips to Örebro was really pleasant, apart from the fact that it was heavy rain during most of our time there. Strangely enough it is always raining when we´re in Örebro!

When we got home again, I´ve got to nice little perfume parcels. One of them a "winning" from http://graindemusc.blogspot.com/ two nice sample-sets of Nara 1869 and Hollywood Stromboli 1950 from the new french perfume house Parfums 137. I will write about them later. There was also some samples from another new french niche line. More about them also later.

I am testing Serge Lutens Tubereuse Criminelle and what a challenge it is. I like the top note, no I love the top note, as a matter of fact, the top notes is beyond words! But I like to babble so I will do an attempt.

Welding flame. Icicle in strong late winter sun. Flourescent giant, white flowers. Rocket fuel. Hoar-frost. Ray of lights in darkness. Angels. High tuned C. Bach. Speed of light.

Nah, I told you, it isn´t easy! The top note is anyway the highest, clearest, cleanest and most crosscut I´ve encountered in a perfume. Unfortunatly, or thankfully, it isn´t longlasting. At least on me, it is there, like a scream, but then it´s gone and all that remains is like whisper on my skin to remind me of the most beautiful... Like when you are so moved by music that you got goose bumps or your tears starts running over. Or a movie so emotionally close that you get all drawned in to it. Or a book that make you feel everyting the main character feels. It is true art to make something that remind of the feeling you´ve got when you have been separeted from somebody you love and then see that person again. Like your heart screaming silently with happiness inside your body.

Yes, some things are hard to describe. You have to experience it. Such a thing is the top note of Tubereuse Criminelle. I am dissapointed on my skinchemistry that make perfumes evolve so fast. For how long is the top note of Tubereuse Criminelle there on you?

When describing the top note, there isn´t really much more to say. To me, the top notes is the real deal with Tubereuse Criminelle. What comes after it is to sweet, to chewing gummy and even stale. I do envy the people that goes well with Tubereuse Criminelle the whole way, but I´m not one of them. I prefer Frederic Malle´s Carnal Flower, it mixes very well with my skin chemistry and also are much more longlasting than Tubereuse Criminelle.

Well, now I´m sitting here with the smell of Tubereuse Criminelle sticking to my skin, like a poor baked spounge cake.

But I´ve got another perfume with tuberose in main character coming up, a perfume that surprised me a little. Wich? Oh, you just have to wait and see...

Off to Örebro.

I am leaving Nyköping for a trip to Örebro where I shall visit my oldest daughter and her family. As usual the most difficult before a trip is to chose wich perfumes that shall be packed. As I am only away for a coupple of day I wont be neding that many.

Have decanted some perfume surprises for the daughter as well.

Will be home again on friday!

Parfumerie Generale - Lounges Profanes

Once again I has been spellbound by a perfume from Parfumerie Generale. And i really mean it, for now there isn´t any other perfumes that matters, except of Lounges Profanes.

I am drawn towards it, like a moth towards the light. I am trying to analyse why I like it so much, without much success. Yes, it do smell good, but I can´t feel that it smells so much better than everything else right now, that it would justify such an obsession. Sure, it is a nice olfactory trip, but not as stunning as others I´ve tried. I belive it touches something in me, something I can´t hardly remember... even tough I think it remind me of the smell in my grandmothers bedrom when I was small. There is something old fashioned with Lounges Profanes, but to think of it as a perfume for old ladies is kind of stupid. At the same time it manage to have an old fashioned charm but also being very modern.

I think of having some of the 20ies most celebrated beuties on a time travel to our days, modernise them a little but still keep their time typical style.

Well, that might sound weird? But if you can imagine a modern interprention of Kiki du Montparnasse (the women at Man Ray´s photo Le violin de Ingres).

Anyway Lounges Profanes is one of the best powdery scents I´ve encountered. It remind me of the smell of really high quality make-up. Really red lipstick, ivory coloured powder, black kohl. A lot of champagne-coloured pearls, a feather boa and a tight laced corset. A glass of sparkling champagne. And a vase filled with lilies. Yes, there is lilies in Lunges Profanes, but they´re toned down just enough. Eveything in Lounges Profanes is just enough according to me, it is perfectly suitable for my skin chemistry. It is like my whole body get soaked with it, like it is something I´ve missed for a long time!

I feel very content, safe and comfy when I wear Lounges Profanes, it is also one of the best comfort-scents I´ve tried. Maybe it´s because of olfactory memories of my grand mother, that was a very soft, friendly and caring women. And she always smelled very, very good. Actually teh only person from my childhood having a scent of her own, soft and yet a little perfumed. No body remember or know what perfume she use to wear, but I think it could have been Chanel No 5. Maybe not the perfume, maybe she was content with a scented body powder or body lotion? Anuhow she smelled slightly perfumed powdery, and I smile when I realised she would also have enjoyed Lounges Profanes.

Well, ok there is a slight smell of old lady. But, I can also imagine how wonderful Lounges Profanes would smell on a women half my age. Cause Lounges profanes may be caressing, comforting and old fashioned, but it is also sexy. In a refined sensual and laid back way. Like someone waiting, knowing she will get what she wants anyway. Someone aware of her magnetic attraction force, but a little more introvert than extrovert.

I am having big troubble describing Lounges Profanes in a proper way. It is much to good for my words to make it justice, you just have to try it! But if you´re not a fan of powdert scents you might try it with some care. Even tough I´ve heard of others on wich it isn´t at all powdery!

Many of Parfumerie Generale´s perfumes are complex and developing on me, Lounges Profanes isn´t. It is quite linear and simple, it smell as gorgeus from start to finnish, well almost. The last basenotes that still remains after 4-5 hours smells like the memories of soft incense on my skin.

Lounges profanes have some similarites to Annick Goutal Songes and Chanel No 5, so if you like those, don´t miss out on Lounges Profanes.

It has good longvity (not incredible) and heavy sillage. Another perfume from Parfumerie Generale I simply must have more of!

Nasomatto - Black Afghano

Is there any sheik romanticism still around? Do young western girls dream about visiting middle eastern countries and to be kidnapped by a darkeyed sheik? I belive that kind of romanticism is pretty much gone these days, after the attacks against World Trade Center and all the things that have come after that. Maybe it was something for women from my grandmothers generation, when Rudolf Valentino was a big moviestar? Well, I still consider "Arabian Nights", ladies of the harem and assasins to be very intriguing.

And it seem like the guys behind Nasomatto´s Black Afghano is with me on that, or actually Black Afghano is more of a drug romantic name than a sheik romatic name. The name refer to a very high quality kind of hash from Afghanistan. Well, no matter what´s behind the name, Black Afghano is so much more than the smell of high quality hashish. When I try Black Afghano... eeeh, sound a bit weird maybe? Well, when I put on some drops of Black Afghano I am greated with a top note that strongly resemblence the smell of hash, no not really resemblence it IS the smell of hash without doubt and I think it is the most spot on hashish note I have ever come across in perfumes, while the others I have tried have been kind of interprentions this is the real thing.

Ok, I realise that people somewhat less drug romantic than the creators of Black Afghano can be a little put off now, but please keep on reading. Black Afghano is sooooooo much more than a realistic interprention of hashish. Or... honestly Black Afghano takes me on trip. I am off to a barren and mountainous landscape, to a gropu of people around a bonfire, the day have been long, hot and filled with hardship. It is late evening and the sky above is filled with stars, finally some coolness. But behind the back you can feel the cold kreeping closer. A strange pipe is going around the fire as the most natural thing, a sweet, aromatic and also kind of brisk smoke, makes the tired humans relexed, soft and content. Someone starts to tell a story, a story that take place in this very area, but long ago, when the story tellers grand father was young. We have some tea and some halawa, stare at the starlight sky above and is drawn in to the exciting and suggestiv story, is it really true, can such things really happen? It doesn´t really matter, I am fully content and as transported to the realm of "Arabian Nights"...

Black Afghano is a very complex scent, the note of cannabis is constantly there, but also notes of light smoke, spices, warm wood, sweetness, flowers and something slightly animalic. The different notes constantly evolves around each other, like they are going in and out from the perfume. In it´s genre I must say that Black Afghano is pretty much perfectly made. Even tough the price is about 98 euro, for as little as 30 ml, I think the perfume is worth every penny for a person the perfume suits. I will cherish my few drops, but also realise that Black Afghano, no matter how good it is, isn´t really for me. It having troubles to agree with my skin chemistry, smoky and brisk notes often become a problem together with my skin chemistry, and even if Balck Afghano almost isn´t a problem, there is still a tiny disturbance in it. I think it is mselling extremly good, arousing and definitly wake my imagination, but I don´t think it smell that god on ME! My youngest daughter complained all day about how I smelled yesterday! And it was almost all day, because a tiny drop (I mean, really tiny, since I´ve paid 6 euor for about ½ml) on each wrist will go on smellling for hours and hours, and the sillage is huge. I suspect that people might think I have smoked the real thing when having it on!

But for those of you knowing you can pull off a scent with smoky, aromatic, woody and lightly brisk notes, I think Black Afghano is a must try! It would fit as well on the right man as the right women. On me it reminds a little about Serge Noire, but more accesable but at least as complex. Finally, Black Afghano become softer, rounder and sweeter and the basenote is a true pleasure. Despite that Black Afghano is to me more of an olfactory trip than a smell good-perfume.

Apart from that I´ve recived some samples this passing week. One of them is Amouage´s Reflection Women, and as the others I´ve tried from Amouage it smells good, it smells for a long time and it smells rich, but it doesn´t smell me, even tough it is Maurice Roucel that have created it!

Chopard - Casmir

This year my strawberries wasn´t ripe in time for midsummer, so I had to by some packages of strawberries instead. I made cake filling with rhubarbs and they was my own. There is something special to eat things you have grown on your own I think. Even something that simple that get some leafs from my thyme-plant make me feel more comfortable.

Making a pie with my own rhubarbs or during autumn with my own apples is so much nicer than with fruits from the store. I belive I´m not alone thinking that way, even tough it may depend a little of the fact that I grew up in northern Sweden where the summer is short and intense. Where I live now, it´s posible to grow both grapes and peaches against a warm wall turning south. I suspect the peaches can´t posible be as sunripe golden sweet as they are when eating them in southern France tough. But there is something about eating your first very own peach tough.

My brother and his family lives in Chile, some miles south of the capital Santiago. They´ve got huge avocado tree´s and during season they eat avocado in every form. They´ve also got a lot of different citrus trees, but unfortunatly they ripe during winter, when it´s summer here and my brother and his family almost always visits Sweden, so they can´t really enjoy their lovely citrus fruits!

Abundance of fruit, sun and sweetness you also find in Chopard´s Casmir. When I first got it (I´ve got a bottle of 30 ml) in a swap I didn´t think of it as any special. It smelled good, but much to sweet. I haven´t used it that much, but my youngest daughter borrows it from time to time.

But now the heat has come, and yes, it´s nice with cool, fresh perfumes in the heat, but I have also discovered that I like warm and sweet perfumes during summer. So at this time Casmir is a really good choise for me. Casmir is filled with sunriped mango, peach, apricot and red berries. In Casmir there is no shadow to find. It is like being in the middle of a tropical fruit market, in the sun and the smell of almost over ripe fruits are all over and around. There is also some warm spices and dessert sweet vanilla. Casmir is almost overly sweet, but strangely enough it suits me really good in the heath. So if I am going around all hot and sweaty I can as well doing it in a cloud of tropical sweetness obviously.

Casmis isn´t a complex or unique scent. It´s quite linear and the smell of tropical fruits are around from the start until the end. It´s quite longlasting, but not more than about 4 hours. The sillage is great. Since Casmir can be found quite cheap on the net I can spray me all over with it, and ´knowing I don´t want to use it until the next heatwave.

Casmir is an excellent choise to: sunbrown skin, orange tank top, flipflops and vanilla flavoured lipgloss.