Frederic Malle - L'Eau d'Hiver

A snowflake on the tounge that melts away in a few seconds. Ice cold cherries covered by a thin layer of hoar-frost. A small childrens winter pale skin, but with bright red cheeks. Lovikka-mittens. Dried flowers in washed out colors, brittle as old paper. The sun, small and dirt-yellow on an enormous greyweather sky.

Frederic Malle´s L'Eau d'Hiver (Winter water) takes me on a winter trip. It´s strange that such a subtle scent can make such a large impression. It´s like the perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena have manage to take every single accords smallest smellable part and turned it into a perfume. On em, L'Eau d'Hiver is so discrete that I can´t smell it if I don´t sit with my nose up close. Still, it´s surprisingly longlasting. I kind of expect that it would fade away and dissapear as quickly as a snowflake on warm skin, but no, L'Eau d'Hiver is going on for at least 6-7 hours on me.

The topnotes are a little sweet, with some cherry (heliotrope) and citusnotes. In the heart notes I can detect almond, something milky and a dash of vanilla. Sublte but very soft floral notes comes and go, I can´t really tell what flowers, on me they become a very well blenden vague floral note. There is something in L'Eau d'Hiver that reminds me of Bois Farine, but much more subtle.

L'Eau d'Hiver is that kind of scent that you can wear when you shouldn´t wear any perfume at all. It is so discret, that it is that kind of scent you wear mostly for your own sake. I doubt anyone can actually figure out that you wears a perfume, if you haven´t drenched your self in it...

I do like L'Eau d'Hiver, even though I generally prefers perfumes with a little more power in it. For me, L'Eau d'Hiver would be a great bedtime scent, really comforting to sniff at when I try to sleep.

pic: Sjöfartsverket

Rest in peace, Robert.

Earlier today I found out that one of my fellow perfume lovers had died. I never learned to know Robert closer, but he was an extremly intelligent, creative and interesting person. His personal perfume reviews didn´t leave anyone neutral, for good or bad. Except our common interest of perfumes we was in about the same age and as me Robert was a devoted punkrocker during his youth in Boston.

I so hope that you have found the peace you longed for, Robert.

Frederic Malle - Une fleur de Cassie

Some flowers get a lot of attention. Roses, lilac, jasmine, tuberose, sunflower, lilies, tulips, dahlias and cherry blossom. Others not so much. Still, most flowers deserve some attention and when watching a dandelion a little closer you discover that it´s a really beautiful, lively and happy little flower. Maybe we don´t want it in our gardens, but a field with thousands of dandelion in the sun, isn´t that beautiful?

Frederic Malle´s Une fleur de Cassie, haven´t really anything in common with dandelions. Still, this scent makes me think about those kinds of flowers that is easy to forget about when you think about flowers. Not only dandelions, but thistles, scented mayweed, hawkbit, buttercup and mugworth. There is something with Une fleur de Cassie that makes me think about those slender little flowers close to the pavement. Flowers that no one but a 2 or 3 year old would like to pick.

On me Une fleur de Cassie wears very discrete, almost elusive, but still with a strong present. Something in it smells dirty, animalic and almost pale greyish. The flowers smell seem blanded, with elements of cucumber, water and something oily. But there is also a sweetness, a pale golden feeling and deep down inside, a happy, unbeatable spirit. Une fleur de Cassie has charm, but of the silent, whispering sort. A scent that don´t demand a lot of room, but still show to be much stronger then I first thought.

Yes, first I wasn´t shore about Une fleur de Cassie, but when I used for the second time I had to surrender for it. I belive that Une fleur de Cassie is one of those scents that you either like a lot or don´t care for at all. Now, when I´ve decided to like it, I realise this will be another fave from Editions de parfums, and really, I can´t afford an other favorite from that line. :P

Good lasting power, but discrete sillage, at least on me. What do you think about Une fleur de Cassie?

Pic: Pioneer woman

Chanel - Coromandel (Les Exclusifs)

I have noticed that "several" established, skilled and talented perfume bloggers seem to be strucked with some kind of perfume tiredness now and then. That is not that strange, if you live with perfumes the kind of way that is necesarry to write review after review. Personally I not at all tired with perfumes, but when testing scents I can realise that I am really longing for that kind of scents that have that little extra.


Since I try a lot of scents I have discovered that I can test 20 or 30 perfumes in a row that are nice, well made, good ingrediences, but all of them lack that certain something that makes a perfume standing out in a crowd. Most perfumistas I know of have those magical kinds of scents that dances, glow, whispers, caress and tells stories on your skin. Scents that you couldn stop smelling and that you wish to go on smelling like that for ages. These scents can be different from each other as day to night, but they have in common a certain charm, a personality that makes you return again and again.


That Chanels Coromandel is one of those scents come as a big surprise for me. Usually Chanels scents don mixes well with my skin chemistry, and apart from Chanel No 5 Eau Premiere, they all have a scent of wet diapers in common on my skin...


Well, Coromandel is as far from wet diapers as possible. This is in all way a cozy, soft and also interesting scent. The one thing about it that isn so good would be the price tag and the fact that it is quite hard to get.


With Coromandel I feel totallt contempt to just be, I don have to sniff it all the time, I can feel it surrounding me with a strong precense, even though I would say it has quite an average sillage.


Coromandel is a rich, sweet, full bodied scent with notes of wood, incense and amber. The opening is a warm, slightly animalic amber. The amber in Coromandel is both mystic and living but also soft and powdery. Coromandel is one of those scents that changes a little between every time I sniff it.


Some time the element of incense is more prominent, but after that I can feel that the woody notes are dominating. During this time of year I don think Coromandel is as its best, but I sure it would be lovely during the cold and dark months that are on their way.


The drydown is soft, woody and warm and with some kind of soft spicy scent. The patchouli note recognised by others are not at all strong on me, just barely there. Coromandel has great lasting power, I can still smell it on me skin at least after 10-12 hours.


Coromandel is a must try for all lovers of woody and oriental scents. I really, really likes it, but for a perfume with THAT price tag I must admit that it dont really reaches all the way, but almost. It has charm, presence, high quality ingridiences, but lack a little of originality.

Carthusia - Ligea la Sirena

My back is much better now, and that is a relief. The worst thing is that I don´t know why it get bad, so now I don´t now what to avoid to stop it from get back. Besides that, everything is good, my kids will go back to school in a coupple of days and middle daughter are off to Markaryd (in southern Sweden) for studies. And oh, our usual computer aren´t working right now, so I have to bribe my youngest son to have some time at his computer.

Some coupple of years ago I scored a almost un-touched vintage bottle of Carhusia´s Aria di Capri at Tradera (Swedish Ebay), I´ve got it for a really good price, as I remember maybe 7-8 euros. It was a really, really good price, Aria di Capri is a well made perfume with quality ingrediences, but however, it didn´t suit me that good, on me Aria di Capri smells a little masculin and it was soon swapped. Oh, I wish it had been a bottle of Ligea la Sirena instead...

A perfume interested friend of mine has just recently bought a bottle of Cartusia´s Ligea la Sirena, and she got it for a really good price, without testing it before, I decided to buy a decant unsniffed and I don´t regret it.

Ligea la Sirena is most of all an opoponax scent, and usually I like opoponax in fragrances so I had high hopes for Ligea la Sirena. But, when I tested it for the first time I was quite dissapointed at first, the opening is sharp and very soapy soapy. That means soapy in not a good way. not like soaps on a luxury hotel or all natural soaps made of the finest and most caressing ingrediences, but instead you know that cheap smelling kind of soap at a gas station... Honestly, this soap note was so bad at the beginning it was close to a scrubber...

But, thankfully this note is quickly fading and I can smell sweet and juicy notes of mandarin, and some time later also opoponax. The soapy note is still present, but blended with citrus and opoponasx it isn´t disturning any more. About 20 minutes later Ligea la Sirena smells so good that I forget about the naughty opening.

Opoponax is a kind of note that has the ability to smell both powdery and wet on me at the same time. The powdery note in Ligea la Sirena is warm, feminine, woody and easy to like. The wet note (something in opoponax makes me think about swimming pools, but in a good way) makes Ligea la Sirena credible as a scent for a mermaid (sirene). Ligea la Sirena is an allring, sensual and also kind of playful scent. Opoponax is anote that makes me happy, but Ligea la Sirena is even better, it makes me kind of a little in love with myself. Like someone smelling that good must deserve to be loved.

Ligea la Sirena is a seductive scent, warm, interesting and mystical. But also relaxed and natural, like a scent for pillow fisght with a person you love and trust enough to be totally relaex and comforatble with, and the pillow fighting leads to some wrestling that leads to... well, you now...! There is something with Ligea la Sirena that is both very playful but also not giving in without a battle.

If you´re familiar with opoponax since before, you know it´s a multi faced note, with both powdery and wet aspects, but also woody, smoky and sweet. Shortly speaking, opoponax is a soft, warm, easy to like and full bodied oriental fragrance. If compared with Imperial Opoponax (another opoponax favorite) Ligea la Sirena is sexier, smells more expensive and also mystical. Imperial Opoponax feels like a funnier scent, and with that swiming pool note more apperant.

Ligea la Sirena has really good lasting power, at least 7-8 hours. Sillage is also good, but not to much. It´s must try for everyone liking opoponax, but also for everyone that usually are found of oriental and woody scents. It´s hard to not sniff your wrist all the time when wearing Ligea la Sirena. But, it still has a little left to be one of those magnificent master piece perfumes, even though it might very well end up as one of those on you! Absolutly worth sampling! Over all I think Carthusia is a perfume house that deserve more attention. Anyone that have tried anything except Ligea la Sirena or Aria di Capri?

Pic: Clickz.it

Out of order...

Now it´s one of those break downs again, and this time it isn´t because of some lovely friends or relatives visiting. No, I´ve got a serious back breakdown and can´t sit for longer then 5-10 minutes at the time. Anyway, now I´ve got me some painkillers and piled up a lot of crime novels and caressing myself witj some drops of Ava Luxes Midnight Violet so I guess I´ll manage...

Hope to see ya all soon again, until then there is after all several other nice perfume blogs to read.

Tuberose - Polianthes Tuberosa

Every time I goes in and out through the front door I can feel a wonderful scent. It´s a rather weak, but still very alluring scent. Since it´s so alluring most of the times, I bend down to feel the scent even better.


Usually I wrote about perfumes here, but sometimes I can write about some other things like scents I remember from my childhood or some travels or other special occations. Sometimes I write about general toughts I´ve got considering perfumes etc. Of course perfumes itself are the central piece in my hobby, but over all I find scents and fragrances very interesting.


Indoor I feel inspired by the idea of using fragrances in home decorating, so much in fact that I bought a scented candle for about 50 euro and litterary burned the money! Since I´m also interested in plants, flowers and gardening I spend some money on that hobby to. And this spring I´ve got my lovely tuberose-bulbs...


In fact they have been very easy to care for. From three bulbs, one is blossoming right now (the one next to the front door) and an other is soon blossoming, while the third one (the only of the three that is planted in a pot of it´s own) seem to have develop a plentyfull of greenery instead of flowers. From this I learn that tuberose plants don´t want to much attention in form of water and manour. Tuberoses are relatives to hyacinth, and they don´t want to much attention either.


And the smell? The smell! Oh yes! From some distant, I can smell similarities to Carnal Flower, but a very weak Carnal Flower. In the floral scent there is elements of green and some menthol like notes, the eucalyptus note in Carnal Flower is very genuin. I dont have much experience in natural tuberose scent besides my own plants and among the tuberose scents Ive tried Carnal Flower is closest to the real thing. The chewinggum note you can sense in many tuberose fragrances I can=t find in the actual flower.


Of course it smell in a different way when I lean closer. If I held the flower in my hand and smell close up I can almsot feel that burning sensation reminding of jetfuel and turpentine also common in some tuberose scents like Tubereuse Criminelle. This burning scent is the top note of the actual flower and it is followed by a multifaced floral scent with elements of creamy alsmot tropical, sweet notes and there is also a kind of tranquilising scent, almost reminding of clove but much weaker. Depending on when in the blossoming they smell a little different, even the buds have a scent, even though it is weak. The flowers almost over blossomed have that humid, almost rotting scent of decay you can also find in some tuberose scents.


You can figure out that I have spend some time close to my tuberose plant, and soon tuberose No 2 starts to blossom as well! I think I could sit besides a flowering tuberose plant for hours and be totally contempt with just smelling. There is not totally wrong that the scent from tuberose is narcotic and arousing.


Longvity, well yes, I strated to sense the smell from the buds about 2 weeks ago and still counting, so the lasting power is huuuuuge! And for being a 100% natyral smell I say the sillage is great to. I recommend everyone that have a least a balcony to grow their own tuberose plant, it is easy and considering what you got for your money, it is a bargain.


Tuberose can not stand cold, so when autumn comes I have to dig my plants up and try to store them during winter. I use to keep my dahlia bulbs in the refrigerator during winter and I think I will try the same with the tuberoses. And then I just have to wait and see.


I understand that most of you read this blog because of the perfumes, but do you have other interests that borders to your perfume hobby? Is there even a certain hobby that your perfume interest was born from?

Sorry for the lack of some signs during this artcle, something is fishy with my keyboard.


Pic My own tuberose plant

Laura Mercier - Marrons Glaces

When we had the perfume meeting in Stockholm in may I tried a lot of perfumes. Despite the fact that I didn´t marked what I tested I manage to remeber most of the scents, but at the end of the day I discovered a small spot at my vrist that smelled incredible and of course, I failed to remeber what fragrance it could be.


It was someting gourmandish, sweet, full-bodied, caramelly and slightly woody and maybe a little tad of milk and well, it was wonderful! I tried to figure out which scent it was, I could only remember trying two scents with some gourmand character, Laura Mercier´s Marrons Glaces and Costume Nationals 21. But then I´ve tried several perfumes that I didn´t remeber or had no idea what kind of scents they should be...


I´m happy to have get me decant of Laura Merciers Marrons Glaces, before trying it again I was almost sure that it would be the mystic scent. But now, when I have it... no, I don´t think that this is the wonderful scent from Stockholm.


I have never eaten chestnuts in any form, Marrons Glaces is a French chestnut desert and looks very jummy, but how it smells or taste I can´t tell. Anyway, I don´t thin of Laura merciers Marrons Glaces as a belivable interpretation of the actual dish, but rather a scent that has been inspired of it, but with some perfumistic freedom.


On my skin, Marrons Glaces become an almost aquatic gourmand. It´s sweet, creamy and nutty, but also with elements of something thin and bland, a little milky, but in that case low diet milk rather than fat and full cream milk. I don´t min Marrons Glaces, I kind of like it, but not at all as much as I hoped for. When I first tested it -at home- I waited for that wonderful scent to reveal, and when the basenote arrived, I realised it was not at all like, the basenote of Marrons Glaces aren´t at all gourmand, but a weak mix between jasmine and very discrete vanilla!


Maybe I happened to spray some other scent on top of Marrons Glaces in Stockholm, and that wonderful scent was a result of un-aware layering? Maybe, but honestly I think I avoid spraying the same place twice quite well. Maybe that fantastic scent was Costume Nationals 21 or one of those scent I can´t remember any more? Hopefully I´ll go to Stockholm again soon and then I´ll try perfumes a little less furious.


Have you tried Costume Nationals 21? I belive it has a prominent safron-note and if it has, it can´t be that scent I tried in Stockholm, cause I didn´t discover any safron in it. Have you had some similar experiences, trying some perfumes and then fail to remeber the best of them? Imagine me in Paris on a perfume testing trip... oh my, I really have to practice before I go!


And by the way, Marrons Glaces has decent lasting power and discrete sillage, I think you must try it if you´re in to gourmands, otherwise you can very well ignore it.





Pic: klaus.fr

Perfumista "stepchild" scents - Gourmands

It´s known that among some perfumistas some scent families have higher status then others. This is of course not applieable on all perfumistas. But even among those of us that try not to care about these status scents, still in our backbone we "feel" some scents are consider much better than others...


On top of the perfumista status list we find the classic perfumes. Sure, classics that still are available can work, but top of the top is classic fragrances not longer available, preferable discontinued some fifhty years ago and only to be found among rarity collectors, some webshops are dedicated to hunt down this kind of scents and retails them for -often- very, very high prives, now and then a real rare bottle shows up on Ebay. It sound a little wrong to call the classic scents for childs, they rather that noble olda ladies we maybe dream about to be related with and wow, the day they die we can look forward to a secret -and huge- legacy...! Of course it´s necessary to honor this relation of obvious reasons.


Another scent family perfumistas usual won´t have second thoughts to welcome in the family is chypré scents. The older the better, but even modern chypres are better than most other modern scents. But, best of the best chyprés are those old one´s with oakmoss enough to suffocate a whole village of astmatic people. Personally it has take me some time to learn to like chypré scents, but now it has finally start working, at least OK.


Quite high in status is also all those glorious, magnificent, lovely, sheer, full bodied, powdery and creamy floral scents. Every perfumista has at least one grand floral fave, it could be jasmine, tuberose or rose, the important thing is that it should be grand and fill up a large space easily. The great florals seem to be slightly higher in status then the little, pretty ones. Pure florals seem to be prefered before blended scents (fruityflorals, woody florals, spicy florals etc).


Oriental scents seem to have a somewhat not so good reputation as the above mentioned, but on the other hand, oriental scents have a huge fanclub. Oriental perfumes has a variety in style most other scent families lack, most scents with a dash of vanilla can be oriental. Often the border between orientals, woody and spicy fragrances are quite fleeting. They have a lot of notes in common, such as patchouli, cinnamon, sandalwood, incense, saffron, pepper etc can be found in all the above cathegories, and patchluli is also common in modern chyprés.


When mentioning aquatic scent, we reach a scent cathegory not as popular as oriental. It´s not at all unusual that perfumistas says things like "This is one of very few aqautics that I really like..." I´ve said it myself, and several times that is. In fact I´ve realised that I do like auqatic perfumes, at least much more than I usually admits.


Say fruityfloral and make a lot of perfumistas to shiver (not by pleasure). This isn´t at all about big flroals, but a strange mix of several fruits and flowers, in best cases smelling like some overly sweet jam and in worst smelling like hairspray (even though that phenomen is most comon among floral woody musk scents). Among this kind of scents it´s hard for me to admit any favorites, honestly I don´t test this kind of scents so often. What an evil stepmother I am. Any tips on good fruityflorals? Please share with me.


Celebrity scents aren´t that popular, but they aren´t all alike even tough most of them can be fiópund within three different cathegories, fruityfloral, woody floral musk and my last scent cathegory for today... gourmands!


It isn´t that OK to like gourmands. Despite that I think gouramnd has more fans among perfumistas than fruityflorals. Look at the pics above, how come something trying to smell like vanilla, chocolate, fudge, ice cream and cookies aren´t popular? That time of month when I´m having chocolate cravings, I can put on one of my huge gourmands and be totally contempt by just smelling it, my choclate craving wears off without eating a single bit of chocolate! Unfortunatly, gourmands seem to have the reverse effect on some! Gourmand scents seem to be a little more accepted if they aren´t really gourmands. If you can smell something like "it isn´t really gourmand, it has some elements of smoke or animalic notes" then it´s OK, a vanilla scent that is described like "a grown up-vanilla" is also OK. Personally I´ve got lot of gourmand-gourmand faves like Keiko Mecheri´s Loukhoum, Profumum Romas Dulcis in Fundo, Comptoir Suds Vanille-Canelle, L de Lolita Lempicka, Hilde Solianis Fraagolaa Salataa and Lostmarchs Lann-Ael(which I should give a proper review of, but I don´t have anything left of it). Bois Farine is a kind of gourmand too, isn´t it? And I love the note of rice in scents, and soft almond, vanilla cookies, lemon sorbet, chewy toffee and nutty caramelle... one of few gourmand notes that don´t work that well on me is chocolate, which often ends up very soapy on me.


More gourmand scent for the people, and especially to me! ;)


Do you have any gourmand favorite that you think I need to try? Or do you have that kind of skin chemistry that shun gourmands? My skin chemistry seem to lift up gourmand and sweet note in an optimal way, which is probably the reason for my liking.

John Galliano EdP

It´s been a while. Have had busy days with name giving (well, I haven´t exactly been involved in the name giving, the parents have take care of that all by them self, but you know a kind of welcome-party) of the youngest grand son and also the oldest daughter and her family staid with us the last week. Very much fun, but now it´s back to normal again.


Some perfumes am I curious about for a long time before I have a chans to test them, John Galliano EdP (or whatever it´s called for real, I find that it´s called Eau de Galliano on some places?) is one of them. With John Galliano I have to admit that the bottle is part of my interest for the scent. The bottle is love it or hate it. It is blackish purple with strange details and crown with a gothic capital G on the top. I´m sure this bottle would look great in my boudoir, but for now I have to settle with a decant.


The opening isn´t a favorite, it smells strangely aquatic mixed with synthetic smelling citrus. Very weird, both bland and almost sticky fresh at the same time. Not at all what I expected from this scent, but soon this strange blend are being filled with soft and pretty floral notes (iris, violets and rose). The floral notes are quite discrete and toned down on my skin, but they are a big improvement compared to the opening. The aquatic feeling is still left, but the citrus dissapears in the background.


During heart note I realise that I like John Galliano, and it´s much prefered that a scent has a weird or unpleasant opening than the other way around. The heart note is soft flwery, but most it is about lingering and easy smoke with auqtic feeling. OK, aquatic smoke!? Well, after all there is in fact underwater volcanos! The flowers and the smoke mixes with soft, powdery patchouli, incense and something that to my nose smells like light, powdery oak moss. The scent has a very old fashioned feeling, but still also kind of modern.


John galliano makes me think about gloomy rooms with couches, velvet curtains and make-up tables. It is a scentas from past times, but also perfect for anyone with some attraction to the gothic, dark, melancholy and mysterious. John Galliano would be a perfect scent for getting in mood for some romantic horror movie!


Lasting power is OK, if not terrific, but at least 4-5 hours on me. Sillage is not that prominent, but still enough to get noticed. I wonder how the new John Galliano EdT is in comparision to this one? Anyone that have tried it? I think I´ll need more when my little decant is gone, and then I must go for a big bottle, cause it would look great in my boudoir.


Thinking about another perfume meeting. Let me know if someone English speaking is interested, and I´ll keep you informed. :)





Pic: Underwater volcano