Xerjoff - Irisss

I usually like perfumes with iris (orris root). You can find iris in a lot of different varieties, like Frederic Malle´s warm and powdery Iris Poudre and Serge Lutens cold and foggy Iris Silver Mist. Prada´s light Infusion d'Iris, Odori´s masculin and papery or maybe D.S & Durga´s filled with soil and minerals.


Xerjoff´s Irisss manage to collet all those different varieties of iris in one single scent. On my skin and to my noxe, Irisss is the most complex iris scent I´ve tried. It opens with notes of dark, rich soil and crispy, fresh carott. It feels like I´m digging up a very different kind of root from the ground. Soon the scent of carott are mixed with some note remindning of violets, the soil is still there, but becomes dryer. I can imagine a strange violet root (the one on the pic is a purple kohlrabbi and has nothing at all to do with orris root, but I think it look so strange and interesting) slowly I dig the root up...


Eventually Irisss become more and more saturated. On me it´s mostly a warm scent, even though I can sense streaks of coldness in it as well. On me, Irisss is also quite sweet (but as i discovered during this weekend, my skin really lifts up sweet notes), but with obvious elements of saltiness, soft floral notes and the amazing soil as a backdrop. I can suspect that Irisss will smell very different on different persons. And it´ll work great on both men and women. Irisss is also ratjer complex, but more like layer on layer than all notes swirling around each other. It´s like when one layer are about to fade away you can sense the bottom layer start growing. The note of carott are replaced by violet that are replaced by soft florals. The soil note is first fresh and tick and after that more dry, dusty and after a while salty and then mineral with a little more moist in it. The note of iris is first of like root vegetables and then iris floral and slowly become more woody...


As you can understand, Irisss is an incredible fine, interesting and beautiful iris scent. It is a must to try it for all iris lovers. I suspect I will be able to understand and like Iris Silver Mist better thanks to Irisss. Irisss has medium sillage and good lasting power, but even though I really like it, it is much to expensive for my budget. Irisss is also a challenge to wear, thanks to it´s complexity and the different shapes of it, it seeks attention all the time.


What kind of iris (orris root) do you prefer? Iris Silver Mist or Iris Poudre? Maybe you have tried Irisss as well?





Pic: gardenplansireland

The perfume meeting!

Many thanks to the people that showed up yesterday at NK. I had so much fun all the time. It´s the first time in my life that I´ve been able to test as many perfumes as i wanted to without feeling that someone else is being totally bored. Even though I must say my husband has a wonderful patience, and is so lovely and perfect, but I know he don´t share my interest for perfumes...


I belive it was a historic moment at NKs perfume department, never has so few people tested so many perfumes in such a short time! :P I do wonder what the staff tought about us? Maybe they don´t want us to ever return? But what a great selection of perfumes there was at NK now.


I can still smell some of the perfumes I tried yesterday on my arms/hands. And what did I try? Well, here are some of them: Etro´s Messe de Minuit, and now I have several vitness that can verify that it has a significant note of coca cola on me! Piguet´s Fracas (can still smell it), Bond No 9´s Success is a job in New York (very interesting, must test it more), High Line (cute floral, but not so unique) and Eau de Noho (also interesting), Laura Mercier´s Marron Glace (which I think smelled really gorgeous on me), Annick Goutal´s Ninfeo Mio (a wonderful green opening, one of the participants said it smelled like you had fallen into a ditch, a must try for green lovers), Byredo´s Tulipe (really good, but reminded of Neil Morris Rainflower) and Baudelaire (mmmm jummy), Hermessence Vanille Galante, Osmanthe Yunnan and Rose Ikebana (all of them are good, but kind of bland on me) and I probably tried a lot of others that I don´t recall.


It was also so interesting to compare a scent that some of us tried simultanusly, it was a really big difference between some of the scents. My skin lifted the sweet notes in perfume very much when i compared with others, another lifted drier notes and yet another lifted fresh notes. very interesting and very much difference in some of the scents, even though the scent itself was recognisable.


With me we where 7 (and 8 with Pansylady from Fragrantica, but she stopped by and said hello and had to leave); Habit Man, Maria G, Triplex, Helle, Susanne B and Mimmi. It was a very good group. We waited for some others that didn´t show up, I hope you can join next time, cause we´re talking about doing this again in the end of summer or early autumn.


We also manage to stop by COW where a bottle of Profumum Roma where bought and I tried to smell CdGs new Holy Grace and Holy Graphie, non of them was so much to talk about. And I also tried some CB I Hate perfumes, which smelled really good/interesting at start but soon faded. I guess my sense of smell was quite exhausted by then. We went to a café and have a bite and compared some more perfumes there. Four in the group had intended to split a travel set of Hermessence, but unfortunatly one of the fragarnces wasn´t available. :(


Very much fun, intense, interesting and I hope we can do it again.

Winner of the draw

Usually my son helps me with screen shot when I hold a draw, but he wasn´t around now and I tried to do it by myself, without any success. :(


Anyway I manage to make a draw on random.org and here are the result:

List Randomizer

There were 23 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Ylva
2. Katarina
3. Ulf
4. Ines
5. Joakim/Hanna
6. Diana
7. Nina Z
8. Siiri
9. Jorid
10. Tara C
11. em
12. Habit Man
13. Marte
14. Karin
15. Susanne B
16. Nina
17. Emmanuel
18. Pärlbesatt
19. kjanicki
20. Helle
21. Lotta
22. Bipbap
23. Anja

Timestamp: 2010-05-28 06:48:39 UTC



Congratulations to Ylva! :) I send your little parcel with samples and something else soon.


Besides from me being sick the whole week everything is just fine. I´m really look forward to the perfume meeting in Stockholm tomorrow. I wish that my ear is allright by then, because right now I can´t hardly hear a thing with my right ear! :(


It´s because I´ve been ill I haven´t written so much on the blog this week, but I´ll hope for recovery and fresh reviews next week.

Xerjoff - Oesel

I´ve been lucky enough to try scents from the Italian luxury brand, Xerjoff. before I recieved the samples i didn´t know that much about them except that the bottles are stunningly beautful, the raw materials used are really high quality and that they are really, really expensive. You can read more about Xerjoff here: http://www.xerjoff.com/


Of course I hoped that the scents would be really good, but I´ve tried perfumes from really expensive brands before without being that impressed. But, Xerjoff manage to be all that I had hoped Amouage to be.


Usually when i write about some scents from one perfume house i save my favorite scent to last, but with Xerjoff scents I decided to do the other way around. I start with my favorite, Oesel. Oesel is a part of the Shooting Star collection, a line of perfumes named after a meteorite impact over Siberia. every bottle in the Shooting Star collection are decorated with a piece of meteorite. You can find Oesel and other Xerjoff scents at Aus Liebe Zum Duft and Luckyscent. The prices are really high (about 250 euro) and well... hmm... not that I have that kind of money but if... Oesel is soooo worth it.


Xerjoff manage in Oesel to unite comfort, luxury and beauty with excitement, charm and advanced perfume making art. Oesel feels so abundant, over flowing and rich that I doubt it´s possible to pack a single scent more than this.


Oesel transform me to a small bee, or a butterfly, a humming bird or maybe a adorable little fairy with golden wings that lives her whole life in an acacia tree among golden clouds of flowers, pollen and precious drops of sweetest nectar. Oesel caresses me as the sunbeams. Oesel is a horn of plenty with charisma and power as an ancient divinity. Oesel is golden yellow and soft as the fuzz on a chicken. Oesel makes me dream when I´m awake and follows me in my sleep...


Notes, besides of acacia is orange flower, petitgrain, jasmine sambac and Bulgarian rose. Oesel starts of slightly lighter but soon the whole deliciousness follows. The heartnote is seamlessly blended it´s like a adorable, rich and golden floral cloud. Oesel wraps me in and make my pale skin turn golden...


The perfumes from Xerjoff make me feel happiness, amazement and gratitude. Non of the other real high end-brands that I´ve tried have manage to do that. Oesel is the one captivating me the most, but when I´ve tried to decide which of Xerjoff fragrances to write about, it has been a hard time not to write about them all, since they´re all deserving a proper review even though not all of them suits me as good.


Oesel is a slow scent, a scent to hang around with, but when the base notes slowly arrives I can see why Oesel is originally intenden for men (!)... The warm, woody base has some male characters, which of course only manage to make Oesel more interesting to me. Generally speaking you can´t accuse Xerjoff to make ground breaking, provocative or radical scents, they rather conduct the best in perfume making and still... Oesel is on the border to provocative... that is provocative beautiful, no matter if it´s worn by men or women...


Oesel might be my holy grail in perfumery. Usually I tend to question brands that chose to present their scents in overly pricey bottles, but with Xerjoff scents I can´t see them in anything but the most exclusive bottles. Each fragrance are like a grand jewel and as such, you wouldn´t wear them around your neck in a plastic ribbon. At the same time I´m painfully aware that the bottles are part of the reason why Xerjoff perfumes are out of reach for me. And I do hope that the people that afford to by Xerjoff´s scents really appreciate them as much as they deserve.


Anyway, I do think of saving money for my own bottle of Oesel. Do you have any loved perfume that is much to expensive for your budget? That you have bought anyway or hope to get some day?







Pic: Pbase

Finally grandmother! And a draw.

It has been a weekend filled with action. The little grandson was born on Saturday night about half past ten and the delivery went just fine. So now I´m a newly in love grandmother to a pretty little boy (even though he´s quite big for a newborn, 54 cm long and weight 4 kilo). We visited the little treasure and his battered parents yesterday, he is so cute and fine and I could hardly take my eyes from him! I hope I´ll see him again soon, almost every day.


Our oldest daughter and her family was also here during the weekend, so fortunatly they manage to see the little boy also before they leaving for home yesterday. Besides from being a grannie, we also had some barbecue, going to the sea and rolled some sushi.


I do feel like celebrating that I´ve become a grandmother, so I decided to have a small draw. leave a comment if you like to join before friday morning 28/5 and I´ll draw one (only one on both the Swedish and English blog) lucky winner. I´ll put together a small surprise lot of samples, some that I´ve wrote about here on the blog. Good Luck!

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab - Bien Loin d'Ici

I wasn´t much of a shopper when I was small. I hated to go with my mother and shop for clothes, it was sooo boring. But, during pre-puberty that changes. No, I was still not that interested in clothes, but at least my pocket money went to something else than just candy. Comics, barettes, recordings (ABBA, Baccara, Boney M), lipglosses and stickers.


People from my home town, Boden, often went to the bigger neighbor town, Luleå for shopping. Especially we used to go shopping at "Shopping" a big mall, the first in Sweden built with American shopping malls as role model. It was two things that made it funny to visit "Shopping", first it was my fathers cousin working as a shop decorator in a big apartment store, his work shop was really exciting with display dummies and part of them all over.


The second thing that was fun with "Shopping" was store called Anarkali. It was a really small, narrow and dark shop that was hiding in a corner behind the stairs. I thought of it as a really small shop when I was about 11, so it must really have been small. Despite it´s lack of size, Anarklai was filled with a lot of strange and interesting stuff, incense, jewelry and trinkets, clothes in bright colors made of thick velvet or silky chiffong, bags and shoes. I bought a pair of black chinese shoes there, cheap jewelry, a bag and a lot of incense. I loved incense and since my mother also liked it, it was OK. But later on I become so allergic to it.


Now I wonder if I didn´t visit Anarkali much thanks to the smell of the shop. It was a mix of incense, strong perfume oils, dusty clothes and textile color (beck then all kinds of Iniand clothes was so overly colored you get color on your fingers only by touching them, my mother HATED it). Some years later, Indiska ( a big chain) opened a store in Luleå, at Shopping. Indiska had a big, bright and airy shop and pretty much the same kind of things as Anarkali, but so much more of it. At first I didn´t liked Indiska, and kept on visiting Anarkali. But, however, I couldn´t resist Indiska for so long. I even had bad consience and didn´t want the lady at Anarkali to know that I also shopped at Indiska. Well, shortly after, there wasn´t any Anarkali shop left...


Well, after a long time of waiting my "imps" (samples) from BPAL finally arrived (I ordered 27/3 and they arrive 15/5). Even though I love perfumes from Serge Lutens, Frederic Malle, L'Artisan and all the others I also love me some perfume oils now and then.


One of the oils takes me back in time about 30 years. Bien Loin d'Ici smells exactly like the shop Anarkali. It is a little stronger then the shop itself, but apart from that spot on. It make me become 11-12 years old again, and standing in front of the desk in the shop with my spare money in my hand... Before smelling Bien Loin d'Ici I didn´t hardly remember that I remembered Anarkali...


Bien Loin d'Ici smells of spices, incense and flowers and are almost overwhelming strong from start. It is a warm, rich and saturated scent, it feels oriental in a very genuin way. Maybe not that exclusive or refined, but still filled with emotions and memories, at least for me. One fun thing with the oils from BPAL is that they smell one thing from the sample vial and a little different on the skin, and that it goes through several stages of changing until it dries down. During the first phases Bien Loin d'Ici smells likes Anarkali, later on it changes to something else.


The light floral scent and the spices dissapears and now it´s all about incense, wood and amber. It is a really warm and comfy, maybe more suitable for colder weather then now, during a heat wave. During the first phase it has good sillage for an oil, it become more of a skin scent later on. Lasting power is absolute great, at least 12 hours. I put it on last night and still it´s lingers clearly on my skin. The dry down is most about glowy amber and soft, sensual and sexy musk. Really nice and easy to like.


I have several imps to test and it´s so much fun since they are quite different from most other perfumes. And just the other day I´ve got samples from a very exclusive perfume house. And now I mean very exclusive! It´ll be wonderful to try them to. All the time I get enchanted by the variety, richness and differences that can be found in the art of perfumes. Isn´t that amazing!?


My daughter in law is two weeks past time (expected birthd date) and they will start the delivery by saturday if it doesn´t start by itself. My oldest daughter and her family arrive here later today, I guess they was hoping to meet the new baby....





Pic: shopping_interiorer, tirsen aili

Perfume meeting in Stockholm 29/5

There will be a perfume meeting in Stockholm 29/5 12.00 at NK, the small café at the Regeringsgatan entrance.

We´ll start at NK and then move on to COW and/or Byredo, maybe also a look at PomPom Parlour and other shops that sell perfumes like L'Occitane. We are invited to one of the participants afterwords for coffee and perfume sniffing, if we´re not that many. Right now it seem like we´ll be around five persons. Everyone that are interested and curious are welcome to join us.

If you have any suggestions or questions leave a comment or send a mail.

I am soo looking forward to this. :)

Parfumerie Generale - L'Oiseau de Nuit

I was planning to write about the other new scent from Parfumerie Generale Gardenia Grand Soir. But, whatever reason I didn´t get any inspiration from it, all I could think when I tested it was that I wanted to write about another Parfumerie Generale scents instead, L'Oiseau de Nuit.


By now, I´ve tried most Parfumerie Generale scents, but for some reasaon it sin´t until now I´ve got me a sample of L'Oiseau de Nuit. But wow, it´s really worth waiting for.


The opening is so colorful and sparkling that I get stunned. It has some vague similarity to M.Micallef´s Gaiac, but kind of "Gaiac on acid", the scents are swirling around on my skin in a way that makes it almost like a psychedelic scent experience. Why is that we have so few words to describe olfactory experiences with? Is there any language, any culture that has a bigger vocabulary when it comes to the sense of smell? Normally I don´t feel I lack of words, but the opening of L'Oiseau de Nuit make me feel that way.


What kind of scent L'Oiseau de Nuit is, it´s hard to pinpoint. There is supposedly a note of leather in it, but I can´t detect it. On my skin, the scents is resting on a base of warm, golden wood, and the wood is similar to the wood in Gaiac. The opening is gourmandic with notes of fruit, syrup (sweet, but passes on right away), smoke, aquatic notes as well as something that gives the scent an airy quality. All these notes kind of raises from my skin creating a cloud of swirling scents, but just be calm, L'Oiseau de Nuit will also calm down soon.


When it has calmed down, the woody note is still there and the smoky note (could it be leather?) reminding of incense. It´s also very gourmand and at the same time some aquatic feeling. Not watery aquatic, more like precious woods and fruit has been made to some sort of tincture. There is also a a lot of ambery/labdanum notes in it, which gives the scent a depth and a warm, glowing and animalic character.


Despite the strong personality of this scent, there is also something vague and subtle in it. It is longlasting, but something in it makes me think it won´t last that long. This contribute to the fact that L'Oiseau de Nuit not really manage to get a favorite place among my other favs from Parfumerie Generale (Aomassai, Lounges Profanes, Drama Nuui, Felanilla and Cadjmere).


The basenote is warm, caressing, sexy and mature. L'Oiseau de Nuit is still sweet and full bodied, but not as complex and contradictive. It last about 6-8 hours on me and have medium sillage. May work on men too, but leaning towards the feminine side.


Which is your favorite from Parfumerie Generale?





Pic:tartlime, flickr

Parfumerie Generale - Bois Naufrage

Usually I am a quite well behaved and suggestible perfume nerd. If a scent is called "Black Afgano" I don´t hesitate to come along to the Afghan mountains and feel the smell of darkness, camfire and haschisch. If the name is Sienne l'Hiver I gladly wandering around in a wintery Sienna. If it is called Lipstick Rose all I can think of is red lipstick, red roses, red smiles and a happy spirit. But, that is also depending on the fact that the scent is actually fitting it´s name. But occationally the scent don´t manage to convince me about it´s name. Sometimes I find that another name would be more appropriate...


Parfumerie Generale´s new scent Bois Naufrage is one of those scents. As I understand Bois naufrage means something like Forest of shipwrecked wood or maybe wood from shipwrecked ships... Pierre Guillaume was inspired of the pic above, a photo by Lucien Clergue. The picture, the name and the notes (carobtree, seasalt and ambra) makes me expect something totally different then what I get...


What I get is: A cloud of milky flowers rise from my skin as soon as I put on some drops of Bois Naufrage, soon it changes into something very similar to Pina Colada, but kind of a light version. More milk, not as sweet, but still with pineapple and a large dash of rhum. Carobtree is also known as Egypt fig, and I guess that is what makes this scent smell so gorgeuos milky. Usually I´m not a big fan of fig in perfume, but now... even though it isn´t really a fig note, it is so extremly smoth, creamy and with suggestive notes of coconut and I like it a lot. The boozy note is from start almost as pronounced as the mily note, but fades must faster. Also to weak note of pineapple soon hides in the background and are followed by note of soft flowers.


The heart phase is quite linear and pretty much consists of that milky note together with some kind of shy floral boquet (impossible to tell which flowers). The scent of Pina Colada still lingering in the background, but very subdued. How this have anything at all to do with driftwood or shipwreckes I can´t say. I can´t detect any kind of woody notes in Bois Naufrage. But however, Bois Naufrage manage to, with it´s notes of tropical beach and gourmands, be a quite melancholic kind of scent. It´s the beach after a big party rather then the becah during a big party. The ffeling in Bois naufrage is abandoned, dreamy and subtle and that makes it stand out.


Towards the end, the scents is changing, the flowers and gourmand notes vanishes, but the milkyness stills lingers now in compnay with a harsh note, maybe it´s the wood even though I rather think it´s a soft, salty note. Longvity is OK, and so is the sillage.


I think of Bois Naufrage as quite an unique scent, i have never encountered a tropical punch, so subtle, dreamy and melancholic before. The milky note is also really nice, creamy and thick without being to sweet or sticky. I think Bois Naufrage would suit both men and women, and I also suspect it can smell really different on different persons. I think it´s worth to give it a try even though it don´t match it´s name (according to me).





Pic:
abow: Naked in Driftwood, Lucien Clergue
below:copyright-brian-brown

Van Cleef & Arples - Gardenia Petale

It happened to be quite a few gardenia-dominated perfumes lately. And I don´t mind, even though I hardly hadn´t tried any gardenia perfumes before the one´s I´m trying now.


Gardenia Petale is also my first acquaintance with Van Cleef & Arpels perfumes and i think it´s a really nice acquaintance. In common with kriglers Pleasure Gardenia 79 it has some kind of clear, white cleanness. But apart from that and the smell of gardenia there isn´t much more that unify them.


Gardenia Petale has nothing of Pleasure Gardenia 79`s sexyness, body, richness or tropical sweet feeling. Gardenia Petale is tight, elegant and even though I like it, I can smell something almost clinical clean. There is a neat, perfectly ironed and minimalistic feeling surrounding Gardenia Petale which makes me think it would suit a classic Nordic blond kind of beauty perfect, someone that loves the term "less is more".


And no, this don´t sound overly me, but still I kind of like it. Sometimes opposites attracts and i think that is the case here. Gardenia Petale is a quite monotone scents, but with several layers. One of the layers is cool, serene and pure as water. Another is the smell of gorgeous flowers, beautiful, but still restrained enough to make Gardenia Petale not one of those huge white florals (which in this case is a good thing). The third layer is similar to a papery scent to me. A really nice, dry and almost fragile paper scent. Like handmade paper of the most exclusive quality and with flower petals mixed with the paper. This may be one of the reasons why I like Gardenia petale, since I´m usually very found of the smell of paper.


In Gardenia Petale this scent makes me think about gracile white paper flowers flotaing on a calm water surface. A flourishing tree in the darkness, but lightened with hundreds of lanterns of white paper. Besides the aquatic feeling, there is also a soft airy feeling in Gardenia Petale, which makes the scent both high and deep in a nice way. Still, this don´t have any killer sillage, it´s rather well behaved from start to finnish and on the border to a little boring almost. But, beacause the papery notes and the fact that it isn´t a killer floral I think it´s different enough. It would suit a young, conservative woman on her wedding day. It would be a perfect wedding scent for the Swedish princesse Victoria, that are going to get married in about a month.


Considering the price for Gardenia Petale it isn´t likely I´ll ever buy a full bottle of it, but still I´ll enjoy the little sample I´ve got.


Still no little grandchild. My daughter in law has now gone more than a week over time, but I know as soon the miracle arrive that won´t matter any more. Every time the phone rings I think it´s the son that will tell me that I´ve become grandma. Oh, it´s going to be so much fun and I´m looking forward to it so much.


Only two weeks left until 29/5. If you´re planning to meet me (and other perfume lovers) in stockholm, please let me know in a comment. Maybe NK would be a good place to meet?





Pic: Chanel E

Annick Goutal - Mandragore

If Annick Goutal´s Eau de Charlotte is a short, but sincere love poem (to a daughter, the scent was created to Annick Goutal´s daughter, Charlotte), then Annick Goutal´s Mandragore is a magic and very efficient spell. Ever since I first heard of Annick Goutal´s scents I´ve been interested in and curious about Mandragore, still I haven´t test it until now. Other scents has come in the way, and I´ve been a bit put off because many of Annick Goutal´s scents don´t have any lasting power.


Now there is even a "flanker" for Mandragore (Mandragore Poupre), and finally I decided to order samples of both of them. To my sense of smell, Mandragore is MUCH better than it´s flanker. Mandragore Poupre may have a little better lasting power, but instead it lacks all of the magic and charm I find in original Mandragore.


Mandragore starts of all bubbly and sprightly on my skin, peppy notes of citrus that almost become alive which are followed by a note of star anise which smells almost like liqorice, but more herbal, warm and complex. All I´ve got is a little dab on sample, but this short phase of the scent is nothing but stunningly gorgeous on me. It captures me and I´ve become enchanted, Mandragore is moodlifting, happy and easy to like, but also mysterious, magic and unique. A not that common combination.


The opening is a blast, but lasts very short on me, I can soon smell notes of mint, but that is a warm minty note, more like I´ve been rubbing min leaves in the garden between my fingers than mint a tothpaste or chewing gum. I can´t think of any other scent that manage to make such a nice mint nore and also so interesting. It´s like the combination of notes manage to make each note more interesting than it is on it´s own, even though that´s true for most perfume mkaing, I find it particullary so in Mandragore.


During the heart of the scent I can smell ginger and also some cardamom, at the same time Mandragore also becomes more earthy, darker and herby. Citrus and mint is still there and contribute to a lively impression. Unfortunatly, Mandragore don´t lasts that long either, and after about an hour there is only a quite flat scent left, even though it´s soft, nice and really comfy. I would love to try spraying on Mandragore to see how it´s behave then. Despite it´s lack of lasting power I think of buying a mini or decant of Mandragore soon. I also belive it could be a really pleasant summer scent.


If you´re curious about Annick Goutal I do recommend you to try Mandragore, it´s suitable for both man and women. I also fint it to be an outsider among Annick Goutal scents.




Pic: Misummer´s Eve, Edward Robert Hughes

Annick Goutal - Eau de Charlotte

When I tell people about my perfume interest they often wonder if I don´t get tired of it. And if I really need that many perfumes? Of course I don´t NEED that many perfumes, but that I would get tired of my perfume interest is as likely that I would get tired of reading or listening to music.


I am and have always been (since I´ve learn to read anyway) a bookworm. In our family´s bookshelfs you can find anything between Swedish female mystery writers as well as classic masterpieces of Russian, Greek and English writers. Modern litterature, poetry, non-fiction about art, animals, history and sience. Fantasy, sci-fi, love stories and adventures. Well, not only me but my husband as well has a hunger for all kinds of books.


I´ve got plenty of time to wondering about a lot of things. I do think a lot about perfumes, but as often I think about books that I´ve read. So one day I start thinking about if perfumes/perfume houses where books, what kind of books would they be?


Of course Serge Lutens perfumes would be rich stories filled with life, fortune and adventourus scenes. Serge Lutens scents are as memorable and packed as Gabriel Garcia Marques novel One hundred years of solitude.


Frederic Malle´s scents are a little more intellectual and European, not as straight forward. Maybe a little like Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir rather than too cherful and noisy.


L'Artisan often manages to capture scents from all over the world, colourful, beautful and also modern. Crossover. Maybe our Swedish novelist Jonas Hassein Khemiri would suit the, he is good in mixing different cultures.


With Annick Goutal´s scents it´s that way that I was prepared to meet a novel filled with adventure and didn´t realised that it was a delicate love poem or a sparse japanese haiku. For some reason this is a very attractive thought for me. That I imagine that Annick Goutal scents rather being short, well expressed poems than several hundred pages of reading. This is a parable that works well for me, even though others might find it strange.


On me, there is only a few Annick Goutal scents that last for a long time or make a bold impression, actually Songes is the only this far. Eau de Charlotte is as all the others, ethereal, light, soft and transparent. Still, I really love it during that short moment when it smells the most and the goodest on me. This moment is about 1-1½ hour on me, but with Eau de Charlotte it´s a really nice hour.


The opening is shy and quite, warm berries together with something powdery that remind me of lipstick, even though lipstick in a really sheer and discrete color, which makes your lip looks nude. There is also some weak green notes, but hidden under the others and I can´t really tell what it is.


In the heart of the scent I can find powdery flowers, smelling mostly like lilies. And there is also a soft note of cacao, that together with vanilla makes a nice gourmand base. The berry notes are returning once in a while and I discover something that smells like biscuits or even, milk in Eau de Charlotte. Whatever it is, I love the smell. Not long time after tha, Eau de Charlotte starts to become so sheer and discrete that I almost forgot about it, and the next time I try to locate it on my wrist, it´s gone.


Yes, it´s sad that many of Annick Goutal´s scents has so short lasting power on me, but still Eau de Charlotte (and others) smells really, really good while they last. The short, but impressive moment while Annick goutal scents last are more memorable than many much more long lasting scents manage to receive.


Are you more lucka than me with the lasting power of Annick Goutal scents? My middle daughter loves almost anything from Annick Goutal, but then they also last as least twice as long on her...




Pic: levasomkarin

Krigler - Pleasure Gardenia 79

Thanks to a swap I´ve got some Krigler samples. An old fashionable perfume house that has been resting for quite a few years, but have been brought back to life just recently. Now, Krigler is a New York-based company and they have re-create several of their scents. You can learn more about Krigler, their history, their perfumes and such here: http://krigler.com/index.html


I´ll probably return to other Krigler scents later, but among the samples I´ve got one immediatly captured my interest; Pleasure Gardenia 79. The number behind the names indicates when the scent was released, 79 means 1979 not as early as 1879, and this makes Pleasure Gardenia to Kriglers youngest scent.


Pleasure Gardenia 79 starts of really loud, it´s like the scents jumps off my skin when I dab it on. It seem like all the different notes are trying really hard to be the first one reaching my sense of smell. But it end´s up all of them at once, flowery, fruity, sweet, strong, vanilla, some tobacco, coconut, chewing gum and a lot of different impressions are all over me. My first tought "Oh my, I´m usually not that found of tropical scents" the second "Hmmm... but... oooh... yeah" the third "Well, I may as well surrender".


This extremly skittish opening don´t last that long, maybe cause I´m not spraying it, but what comes afterwords aren´t worse, just slightly more peaceful.


Pleasure Gardenia 79 is a very multi-faced scents. It´s at once peaceful, relaxing and comfy, but also exotic, constantly changing and exciting. It is much of a tropcial blast, with creamy and coconutty nuances, but also plenty of elegance, sensual and erotic. Pretty fast I realise that Pleasure Gardenia 79 is among those really erotic floral scents. And it really manage to make it´s namesake the flower Gardenia justice. I do belive the flower gardenia has something deeply sensual, fleshy and voluptous in it´s apperance. It is among the most sensual and erotic flowers I think. And my middle daughter confuses Pleasure Gardenia 79 with Sls Muscs Koublai Khan, and that is something to add to Pleasure Gardenia 79 sexual aura.


Pleasure gardenia 79 happens to be much more than a blast of erotic pleasures, it is also from time to time clean, clear and almost soapy. Still with that voluptous, radiant and nude colored scent in the background. It is at once truly innocent, pure and white but also very in your face, barely dressed and seductive. To be honest I´ve got some kind of "Lolita-feelings" from it, but this could sound so wrong, becasue I don´t mean it in any tacky or depraved way. And it isn´t girly or childish at all, it has more in common with florals like FMs Carnal Flwoer and as I mentioned Muscs Koublai Khan. Still, Pleasure Gardenia 79 is kind of a cougar dressed in lamb clothes, without it being something strange, wrong or awkward about it. This is really hard to explain, I guess best way to find out is to try this scent by your self!


Besides from sleeky and dirty it also has some fruity sweetness (I can smell pear) and sweet, smoth and even though I think of it as quite discrete it has this wonderful lingering sillage that returns now and then. It is partly tropical, but more like visiting a top class tropical spa in a city somewhere than palm trees, fruit punch and sandy beaches. It has good lonvity about 7-8 hours and the base note is soft, comfy and extremly sexy. Pleasure Gardenia 79 isn´t much of a gender bender, it is utterly feminine.


You really, really, really have to try this if you´re at all interested in a charming, sexy, ambigous and thriving floral scent. You can order samples through Krigler home page, but I´m not sure about shipping to Europe. If you show up on the perfume meeting in Stockholm I might bring my sample with me.


Today I´ve got some nice samples from Luckyscent, the two newest from Parfumerie Generale and some other cool scents (two gardenias among others), more about them soon. Do you have any gardenia fav scent?





Pic: Omnia, flickr

Eau d'Italie - Bois d'Ombrie

Just as with Sienne l'Hiver you´re transported to another place with Bois d'Ombrie.


Bois d'Ombrie takes me to a forest, maybe somewhere in Italy, but I think it smells wonderfully foresty like in a forest anywhere. Bois d'Ombrie has a lot in common with Sienne l'Hiver, but they are taking place in totally different surroundings. Also, Bois d'Ombrie takes you for a slow walk, rather than on adventure. The scents of Bois d'Ombrie is much more complex than just "woods", but it is a wordly wood I visit, I don´t expect to meet elfs, trolls or any other kind of fairytale creatures in this forest. Probably I´ll meet some kind of huskies like lumberjacks, hunters or charcoal kiln watchers...


Bois d'Ombrie is also an unisex, but leaning toward the masculin side. Despite that, I think of Bois d'Ombrie as a little easier to wear, but maybe Sienne l'Hiver is just a little more interesting and unique.


Bois d'Ombrie is softer, more friendly and also a little sweeter than Sienne l'Hiver. In the top note Bois d'Ombrie is strong and compact, I can smell some volatile notes of something boozy, but shortly after it is all about rustic leather and something that makes me think about the smells of the forest floor, you know like soil, resin, mossy and very aromatic. On my skin, this is the notes that dominates for a good while, but I can also smell some vetiver, iris and soemthing that to my nose smells almost like weak cinnamon.


The start of Bois d'Ombrie is heavy and strong, but manage to capture me very well. All the time I´m curious about what comes next. I become really happy when I discover small traces of something smoky, you see there is after all a charcoal kiln somewhere in the forest! When I detect the smoky note, the scent is going for a softer phase, I discover a nice, dry note of tobacco, it becomes sweeter, softer and really comfy. Very, very nice!


Bois d'Ombrie might have alittle more lasting power then Sienne l'Hiver, but the sillage is at the same leavel. On me, Bois d'Ombrie becomes a genuin woody, leather scent, but on my husband -this one also- becomes slightly better and more interesting. His skin chemistry seems to scrub of sharp corners of this kinds of scents. On me, Bois d'Ombris isn´t sensual or sexy, but on my husband it is... I wouldn´t mind watching the charcoal kiln together with him...


Like with Sienne l'Hiver I recommend Bois d'Ombrie to everyone that is interesting in well made and unique kind of scents, especially to men. It is really nice and exciting.


Why I´m keep nagging about charcoal kilns is that my grand father used to make charcoal kilns when I was small, it is long time ago (70'ies), but even then they where very uncommon. I think the art of making charcoal kilns (in Sweden) died with my grand fathers generation (even though it´s probably possible to take a course in charcoal kiln making, but it isn´t really the same). Therefore it is no wonder I like a scent where I can imagine I sense the smoke from a charcoal kiln...





Pic: Tre nycklar

Eau d'Italie - Sienne l'Hiver

Eau d'Italie is an Italian line of perfumes that has been inspired by a wonderful hotel in Positano, Le Sirenuse. Look at the pictures and admit that I´m not the only one that would love to go there:

http://www.sirenuse.it/Intro.asp



Eau d'Italie offers six different scents, Eau d'Italie, Paestum Rose, Sienne l'Hiver,Bois d'Ombrie, Magnolia Romana and Baum du Doge, or really seven, but I´ve not tried their newest, Au Lac. You can read more about Eau d'Italie´s products here:
http://eauditalie.com/index.html


Eau d'Italie and Magnolia Romana didn´t impressed me. But, I am anosmic to all of the heart not in Magnolia Romana and cousln´t smell almsot anything for several hours except of a little aquatic note, I´m sure Magnolia Romana is a great perfume on people that can smell it. But, it´s impossible to like everything just as much.


However, I have been enchanted by Sienne l'Hiver, a scent that one of my blog readers made me curious about. Sienne l'Hiver means "Winter in Siena" and I can sign for that. Not that I´ve visited Siena neither in winter or any other time, but Sienne l'Hiver seem both wintery and Italian to me.


Some scents that takes me on olfactory trips are filled with adventure, imagination and almost a little wearying, but Sienne l'Hiver isn´t at all like that. It´s sober, slow and very unique. It takes me on a walk through a wintery Siena. I imagine I follow a little boy around that like to show me the town.


We´re starting in the boys grandmothers and grandfathers Italian deli store. Here it´s cozy and homey. The air is filled with scents, pickled olives, truffle, some smoke, soft vinegar and hints of leather. This sin´t like any other scent I´ve tried. In this phase Sienne l'Hiver is a gourmand, but a very different one. I can´t help wondering if I really wants to smell like an Italian deli, but no matter what I think about that, still this smells really good, genuine and also odd in a pleasant way. Sienne l'Hiver is a subdued scent, but not discrete, you don´t have to hunt it down, it takes an obvious, self-consious and masculine place at once.


Just when I´m getting used to sitting in the cozy deli, it´s time to go out in the streets of Siena. The alleys of Siena is narrow and winding, and now Sienne l'Hiver become a little colder and more like an outdoorsy scent. I can smell a very prominent scent of moist bricks (tiling), just like I´m walking in the shadow of old houses. The scent of bricks are really unique and I find it interesting and nice. The scent of smoke and wood also becomes more noticable now. Below this barren and somewhat inhospitavble scents I can also sense the scents of soft flowers and/or something sweet. But only when I sniff up close. Sienne l'Hiver is pretty much a very unsweet scent.


Sienne l'Hiver is an unique and refreshingly different scent. It´s filled with imagination, happiness and creativity. On me it becomes a little hard to wear as a perfume, but my husband wears it from start to end without any problem. I´ll surely return to Sienne l'Hiver but more because the feelings and moods it manage to wake within me, than to wear it as an ordinary perfume. Even though Sienne l'Hiver is different on the border to odd, it isn´t as odd as some scents that become impossible to wear at all.


The lasting power of Sienne l'Hiver is good, but not amazing, around 6 hours. The sillage is obvious, especially from start. The basenote is a little softer than the rest with nice notes of warm wood, smoke and very, very soft sweetness (maybe from chestnut?). Sienne l'Hiver is an unisex, but towards masculine. There is probably women that can wear this without problem, but on me it becomes alittle to "large". I recommend it to anyone that feels like testing anything very different and no perfume interested man should miss this one!


Sienne l'Hiver isn´t the only interesting scent from Eau d'Italie, but to me it´s the most unique if not the easiest to wear. Do you have any favorite fragrance that smells unique and different, but that you don´t really want to go around and smell like?


Pic: Above from flickr, and below from Panoramio

My favorite perfume

Swedish site Parfymguiden has annonsed a blog contest. You can read more about it here: http://www.parfymguiden.se/


The task is to write about "My favorite perfume", which seem easy enough maybe, but not for me. I have wondering about it a lot, but then an evening... why is that you always have inspiration, ideas and insightw when you´re about to sleep? Anyway, it was that evenigt I got the answer.


And the answer was in my heart, not in my sense of smell or in the memory bank in my brain where I have stored hundreds of masterpiece perfumes. Now, when I sit here and had put on some of my favorite perfume I can feel in my stomach that I´ve made the right choise.


To put on my favorite perfume is like meeting an old dear friend after a long time. To wear it is like reading that old favorite book for the tenth time and recognise every formulation, intrigue and mood in it. To smell my loved perfume lingering around my body, is like listening to old songs with Beatles or Patti Smith instead of something with Lady Gaga or Black Eyed Peas that are played constantly on the radio. To me, wearing it is like coming home...


There is no other perfume I´ve bought that many bottles of. Now I´ve soon finished my forth bottle of it, and I know I´ll start looking for the fifth bottle. My favorite perfume came to me when i was adult, I was stuying at the university and it was a good time in my life. But since then, I´ve been trough both good and hard times. But, my dear perfume is a mood lifter, I always feel a little bit more happy, more relaxed, more good looking and more adventurous when I wear it. It is one of a kind.


My dear old perfumes is the only one that I still use, like and appreciate among the perfumes that I used to wear before I become a perfume nerd. It has been with me through thick and thin and i hope it´ll hang around for many more years. Maybe my favorite perfume isn´t the most complex or interesting one, but I still love it.


It houses warm, sunriped, exotic, spicy scents as from an Indian market a hot day and still it manages to convey an adventourus, dark and sensual mystique as from a grand party in the palace of a wealthy maharadja. With it´s richness of juicy fruits, exciting and unexpected spices, among others also note of licorice, tropical almost stunning flowers and extremly rich, sensual and saturated base note of vanilla, amber and patchouli you might belive this scent is for winter wear only. But, I like to wear my favorite perfume at warm summer evenings as well. It fits me like a match made in heaven.


My darling scent ahs been with me since 1996. It was created by the talented Dominique Ropion (that also have created several other favorites such as Alien, Carnal Flower and Anglomania). My favorite perfume is Kenzo´s Jungle L'Elephant. Which is your favorite perfume?




Pic: Wikimedia

What´s up?

Have had a nice, but slightly cold, weekend with my family. We watched some movies, Hachiko, Sin Nombre and Inglorious Basterds and they where all good. Otherwise me and the whole family goes around waiting for the little grand children to come, it´s only 3 days to go now, but babies comes when they wan´t to so we have to wait and see. I´m so looking forward to meet my grandkid for the first time soon.


My order (that i placed more than a month ago) at BPAL is finally on it´s way, so I hope it´ll arrive soon. And I´m testing some Italian perfumes, but it will take some time.


This morning I visited my middle daughters folk collage and talekd about perfumes with her class and teachers, it was so much fun and they where all (maybe except of a young man with a cold) so nice, curious and interested. It would be fun to do such things a little more often.


And I will probably participate in a blogg-contest for the very first time, I´m kind of excited about that.


And the perfume meeting in Stockholm seem to be on the 29 of May, around 12 will suit me good.




Pic: fine art america

Hors La Monde - Lady Shiloh

I do prefer Shiloh before Lady Shiloh if I have to chose, but that doesn´t mean that Lady shiloh is a weaker scent. Just like with Shiloh, you can tell Lady Shiloh is made with high quality ingrediences, serious perfume skills and interest of composition. And, just as Shiloh, Lady Shiloh is a "keyscent" for me. With keyscent I mean a kind of scent that manage to deepen my feeling for and knowledge about a certain (or many) note. A scent that helps me appreciate and like a note that I have had troble liking earlier. A scent that I´ll recommend to others for understanding a kind of note often a little hard to be familiar and comfy with.


And what is the key note in Lady Shiloh? Well, it has a musk note I recognize from V.Westwood´s Boudoir and Miller Harris L'Air de Rien. That certain musk smells like body odour and unfortunatly in both Boudoir and L'Air de Rien it smells like dirty kind of body odour. Some people love Boudoir and L'Air de Rien thanks to that note, but on me it turns nothing but bad... But, this is so strange... the same note in Lady Shiloh suits me quite well .


Most of all, Lady Shiloh is a fine tuned, powdery and soft floral, even though I can smell the musk at once, it is very dirscrete and light. Since I recognised it, I start waiting for it to grew on me, I belive that I´ll have to go and wash it of. But, however, Lady Shiloh never reaches that point. The flowers in Lady Shiloh manage to keep ground all the time, even though I think it´s amazing that flowers so soft and gentle can dominate anything at all. Jasmine and violet are the elegant, beautiful and ladylike parts in Lady Shiloh. Yes, it is a very elegant scent, suitable for any arketypical lady, but Lady Shiloh is so much more than a well behaved lady... I guess Lady Shiloh is a lady in the same way as the lady in Lady Chatterley´s Lover... Lady at the outside and thanks to good training, but also a creature filled with both sensual and erotic spirit if only someone wake it up.


In both Boudoir and L'Air de Rien the musk note (on me) become overwhelming, dominant and dirty. Lady Shiloh won´t go that far, the erotic qualities are all the time on the right side of a thin, delicate line it is sensual, erotic and full bodied without ever being raw, dirty or animalic. And thanks to that lady Shiloh become the most erotic of them all, since it leaves a lot to me and my imagination. This is a really exciting and very well made scent. The name itself contribute to the overall impression in a most intelligent way.


As with Shiloh, I do recommend Lady Shiloh to everybody that appreciate a good and interesting scent. But mostly to the one´s that love Boudoir or/and L'Air de Rien, Lady Shiloh would suit well, even though lighter and more discrete. And for those of you that not really manage to like Boudoir or L'Air de rien, Lady Shiloh is an excellent starting point for this kind of musk scents.


Lady Shiloh is in the skin scent category (at least with a dab on sample) and have good longvity, about 7-8 hours.




Pic: Lladro porcelain