Paul & Joe - Blanc

What a weather! Half a meter of snow and -15 C cold, and it´s not even december yet!

The change of seasons influences me, this time of year I´m usually a little more tired, a little more keen on candy (yes, I admit I have tried to swap for candy at Perfume Posse´s swapmania) and not as sparkling as I am in may or june. On the other hand the Christmas preparations are mood lifting and yesterday me and daughter made a gingerbread house, it was so much fun.

When autumn turning into late autumn and eventually winter my taste in perfumes also changes. The warm spicy, woody and often amber-based perfumes I love wearing during autumn slowly being replaced by scents with gourmand feautures. I was so close to make a sample order with only gourmand samples, but then an Ebay thing got in between, so I have to wait with those gourmand until after Christmas.

Paul & Joe Blanc isn´t really a gourmand scent, or it is, but it´s a different take on gourmand. I´ve been curious about it for some time without manage to get it. First I visited the only shop in Sweden that have it, but they didn´t have it right then. Then I was so close getting a used bottle of it at Ebay and when I was about to place the winning bid the seller had forgot to allow bidders from outside UK (I´ve asked for it beforehand). Now and then I manage to mess things up, even though I know it´s perfectly simple to order a sample of Blanc from The Perfumed Court. Whatever... Anyway, now I have a sample thanks to a perfume friend.

And I like! Not sure what I like, but Blanc smells a little like this: 60% common, not that bad but still, common floral. This isn´t the part of Blanc making it special it´s the other parts. Another part maybe 30% of Blanc smells similar to much more expensive L'Eau d'Hiver by Frederic Malle, soft, subtle, caressing, cold and a little milky floral. Wonderful and different. But maybe the best part -according to me- the little one remaining (about 10%) smells like my loved Bois Farine by L'Artisan. Or, add some tiny, tiny note of something skankydirty then you get it.

In fact, Bland is much more subtle, well made and complex then to expect for a scent at this price point. I could easily buy a bottle and have instead of much more pricey L'Eau d'Hiver. Floralgourmand-scents without any fruit (is nut a fruit?) and not much sweetness isn´t that common. So in my opinion Blanc manage to fill up an otherwise quite empty spot.

One problem with Blanc is that I´ve heard a lot of people that don´t get neither the nutty or the milky notes from it. This is quite subtle, and I wouldn´t at all think that Blanc was something special if I didn´t get the milky and nutty notes. If it´s because of skin chemistry or sense of smell is hard to say, maybe a combo? I suspect that Blanc smells a little different on me on different occations, but I haven´t tried it enough to be sure.

Without the more odd notes of milk and nut, Blanc is left with some soft floral notes of lily of the valley and jasmine, and some hints of lilac (I´m glad it´s only hints, usually I´m not a fan of lilac in perfume). Blanc is a soft but also somewhat cold floral, like flowers dipped in powdery snow. The nutty note is most obvious during the opening, but some traces of it lingers for a while. The milky note is more apparent in the drydown.

Unfortunatly, Blanc don´t have that great lasting power on me. After about 3 hours it becomes so subtle and close to skin that I tend to forget that I´m wearing it. However, I have just a small dab on sample, and longvity and sillage could be much better if sprayed on.

I do recommend Blanc to all of you looking for a floral scent with an odd, cold tvist. Or if you´re looking for a starnge, not so sweet gourmand or something in between. I hope to get me some small bottle of it myself or at least a larger decant.

Thursday I´ll go away agian. Heading south to my daughter in Markaryd and then to a funeral in Skåne. Back home again on saturday.

pic. flickr

Indult - Tihota

I´ve been home from Gamleby for some days now. The kids have a chanse to almost try borading school life for a weak. Apart from the school subjects they have a lot of evening activities such as movie, pool, bowling, disco and other fun stuff.

It was nice surroundings but bad and boring weather, I belive every small town is easier to like in summer sun then in november rain.

That any of the kids would have notice my discrete scents wasn´t anything that I had to worry about since I was surrounded by big clouds of Pink Sugar, Midnight Fantasy, Christina Augilera and loads of cheap male deo scents. I had Keiko Mecherié Loukhoum, L'Artisan´s Bois Farine, Pure Poison, ELOs Like This, Ormonde Woman and Ange ou Demon with me. Besides that some of the kids smelling really strong they where such nice and friendly atmosphere. I´m sure it had been more chaotic to spend a coupple of days with grown ups on a company kick off-trip...

Finally time to write again, even though I have to admit that todays scent isn´t that inspire me that much. Tihota from indult is one of the most expensive vanilla scents, and I´m only liking it so and so, even though I´m usually a vanilla fan.

But, I do think that Tihota smells reallyreallyreally good. It smells like pure, genuin, warm, creamy and expensive vanilla. The only problem is that in my opinion there are several other vanilla scents smelling as good but for a fraction of that price. I can´t smell anything but vanilla in Tihota and wouldn´t spend that much on such a linear and "simple" scent. Usually vanilla takes me to exotic island with dense greenery and lush flowers, but somehow Tihota don´t manage to do that, probably because I keep on thinking that I should get more for the price then what I get.

Well, I won´t need anymore of Tihota, personally, but the taste differs. My youngest daughter looooooves it! I let her try a small spray (Tihota is potent and longlasting) and the she sat with her nose attached to her vrist for a long time screaming it was the best scent she had smelled in her entire life! And since she´s my daughter she had tried more perfumes then the average 13 years old I belive. I have tried to stir her away from Tihota by letting her smell others not as expensive vanillas, but accroding to my daughter there isn´t anything coming even close. And the fact is that Tihota smells differently on her then on me, it´s more complex and smells kind of MORE on her.

So I´ll manage without Tihota, while my daughter won´t. I have promised to try to get a decant of it for her, 5 or 10 ml, so if anyone that reads this has a little to spare, please contact me.

Tihota is a thick, full bodied, sweet (but not THAT sweet), creamy, genuin and pure vanilla scent. I feel warm, comfy and sensual when I wear it as long as I don´t think about the price (about 160 € for 50 ml I belive). But as far as I´m concerned I can buy a small bottle of Vanillary at Lush and smell almost as good.

Anyway, Tihota is longlasting and if you invest in a big bottle of it you´d have enough vanilla to last you for years and years. Tihota smells as you expect a vanilla to smell and could best in class on that. If you´re not a big vanilla lover, Tihota won´t covert you since it´s a typical vanilla, not that kind of modern vanilla trying to get away from itself....

Oh, and I indulged in Perfume Posse´s hilarious "swapmania" the other day, such a fun event and now I´m looking ofrward to Neil Morris sample, a big bottle of Lorenzo Villoresi´s Musk (if you read my Villoresi-reviews you knwo that Musk become on of my faves from that line) and apart from perfume I´ll also get me some Ameriacn candy, hope they´ll arrive before Christmas!

pic: amamdeusvanillabeans.com

A little time off...

Tomorrow I´ll be leaving for Gamleby for a few days together with youngest daughter and her school. It´s going to be so much fun and really interesting to be a part of her school work during some days. But she have told me not to wear too much make-up and I have to brush my hair! She don´t seem to worry about that I´m going to say a lot of stupid things at least and it´s cool with her if I bring some perfumes.

I don´t really think that school environment are the best place to wear perfume, but since almost all of the girls in my daughters class douce them selves a lot with fragrances from Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Christina Augilera I don´t think anyone will mind if I dab on a few drops of something subtle from Annick Goutal or L'Artisan.

If it is Ok to wear perfume when spening time with (teen)kids, which perfumes would you bring? I plan to take some subtle, soft and warm skinscents. Even if the girls stinks of perfumes I belive they still have a better sense of smell then a lot of adults, so they can easily detect "strange" scent....

My daughter usually wears Jessica Simpson´s Fancy during school time, but when she comes home she can wear anything strange from my collction.

When i get home again there is a lot of interesting things to write about. Hopefully I´ll present some really far away fragrances, even though it still could take some weeks. Also I hope it´ll be a really good offer here, don´t miss it.

Four winners!

List Randomizer

There were 19 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Hanna
2. clivia
3. Susanne B
4. Bellatrix
5. Carina
6. womo531
7. Lilla My
8. Lisa BTB
9. waftbyCarol
10. Julia
11. kastehelmi
12. queen-cupcake
13. kjanicki
14. Lotta
15. Ulrika
16. Therese
17. Matilda
18. Maria G
19. Anna

Timestamp: 2010-11-19 07:40:00 UTC

Congrats to: Hanna, clivia, Susanne B and Bellatrix. Send your address to my mail and I´ll send the samples of Shahrzad Palace Perfumes to you. It may take a while since I have a busy time before me.

I wish better luck next time for the rest of you.

Etat Libre d'Orange - Like This

I´m not always that fast with perfume news here. There are a lot of new releases all the time and of course I´m not interested in all of them. And there is alot of thing that can come in between when I find something new that interests me, like some bargains at Ebay or Tradera... another "unknown" perfume brand I just have to write about or some really good samples in a swap... By the time I order the new scents, they´re not actually new to anyone... but me.

Etat libre d'Orange´s Like This is one of those scents. It was released a while ago and by now it feels like everyone have tried it. Anyway I was really curious about it, Tilda Swinton seem to be a very different kind of celbrity, both her look and what she chose to work with. And that she chosen to aks Etat libre d'Orange to make her scent is also really appropriate and cool. But this isn´t news anymore and I´ve decided to fokus on the scent itself.

Like This isn´t at all as I thought it would be. with notes of ginger, pumpkin, immortelle, vetiber and helioptrope I belived it would be really warm, sweet and autumnal and kind of strong-w

sweet. But it´s not, at least not on me.

On me Like This becomes spicy in a subtle way, pale in an interesting way, citrus sweet, soft, caressing, sensual, gourmand, lovely odd and different and a little, little hint of naughtyness. There is something hotspicy beneath the creamy, soft surface. Actually it´s really suitable for a pale redhead like Tilda Swinton. A scent for strawberry blond hair, pale frequels, soft clothes in creamy nuances, a comfy chair in front of a fireplace and a ginger colored housecat in the lap while reading an adventure novel...

Like This isn´t what I expected, it is at least as good as I hoped. I´ll use it a lot even though I´m not a pale redheaded beuty. At least I can pretend to be when I´m wearing it.

This is so interesting and each time I use it I discover new things about it. There isn´t much left in the little sample I ordered some weeks ago. Like This have manage to get a spot quite high on my wish list, maybe I´ll go for a decant at first, but eventually I want a big bottle of Like This.

Like This is great to wear this time of year, but since it´s quite subtle I think it could work all year round. Somehow it reminds me of Bois Farine, as uniqe and different, still soft but still longlasting. If you like Bois Farine I think you really have to try Like This! Lasting power is good and sillage is medium (from my dab on sample).

Maybe you allready have tried Like This? What´s your opinions about it? I suspect it can be that kind of fragrance you either like a lot or not care for at all...

Pic: Flaming June

A small give away of samples from Shahrzad Palace Perfumes

Since I´m quite alone with this scents from Shahrzad Palace Perfumes I´ve decided to have a small give away of 4 sample sets with all the five scents, Royal Ambar, Musk, Jasmin, Violet and Lotus Flower.

Just leave a comment below before friday 19/10 in the morning (CET) and I draw a total of 4 winners both here and at the Swedish blog.

And I am really curious about what you think about the different scents so prepare to tell me that if you´re one of the winners.

It could take a while before I can post the sample sets since I´m not sure if I have enough sample vials for now, but you will get your set eventually if you´re one of the winners.

Good luck!

Shahrzad Palace Perfumes - Jasmin

Just like the violet from Shahrzad Palace Perfumes, Jasmin is also a bright high tuned and clean scent. The top notes are almost piercingly vibrant and radiant. Despite that this is some kind of perfume oil, is reminds a little of Thierry Mugler´s Alien, but more natural.

Once again I´m strucked with the fact that something that had been tucked in in the bottom of a wardrobe for many years can smell so fresh, so good and so new! Shouldn´t oils been spoiled eventually!? Apperantly not these anyway. I really enjoy the top notes on this jasmine scent, they are like listening on some kind of opera in a strange but very beautful language.

The heart of this fragrance is a little more laidback, with sweet notes of juicy peach and some dry flower petals. As the violet scent, this isn´t the most complex jasmine to be found. Rather a jasmine svent for people prefering natural, clean and simple jasmine.

I become almost most impressed by the Jasmin of the five, since the top notes are so extremly high tuned and radiant, but depsite that I think I wont use Jasmin so oiften since I´ve got a bunch of other jasmine faves.

But among the five I´m least impressed with the Lotus Flower, not that it´s anything wrong with it. But, it´s just a weak aquatic scent and do nothing for me.

I do realise that these scents aren´t likely to be tried by so many of you. Even though I like to try rare scents, it´s kind of dull not to hear others opinions about them...

Pic. flowers.c-s

Shahrzad Palace Perfumes - Unlabeled (Violet)

One of the bottles from Shahrzad Palace perfumes was unlabeled. The seller belived it was some kind of citrus since the liquid was yellowish, but it wasn´t. It´s clearly a floral. Violet to be more precise.

Honestly, at first I had some troubble smelling it was violet, but when both my husband and daughter was totally sure it was, I become convinced. Now, when I sniff it I can´t understand why I couldn´t recognise violet at once... oh well.

Usually I like violet in scents, and this one is not an exception. It´s neither powdery or sweet or green, it´s just plain simple violet. A rather warm violet fragrance with elements of soap, even something vanilly and I can barely smell some little whiffs of dirt in there. Shortly speaking, it´s an easy to like and wear violet. Not as exiting and complex as Musk and Royal Ambar, but still something I´ll use if I´m feeling for violet.

This scents is probably very old, still it doesn´t smell old fashioned or old lady-like, it´s so simple and easy that it´s become timeless.

The floral scents from Shahrzad Palace Perfumes aren´t as longlasting as the Royal Ambar and Musk, but a good thing is that they´re not as sticky either. Still, they have good lasting power, about 6-8 hours. And what amaze me the most is the "height" of both violet and jasmine (I´ll come to that one shortly). The violet smells bright, clear and shiny and new, I can´t figure out how that´s possible?

The violet scent has rather good sillage but not too much. I would love to blend the violet with the musk and see what happens.

What kind of violet to you prefer in fragrances? Powdery, sweet or green or no violet at all?

Pic: outdoor.webshot.com

Shahrzad Palace Perfumes - Musk

I feel almost a little "perverted" when I put on a few drops of Shahrzad Palace Perfumes Musk. Today musk in a fragrance is often a synthetic scent or in some case vegetabilic musk like scents. I can´t tell how much genuin musk is used in modern, western perfumes, maybe some reader nows more about that then I do?

But in Shahrzad Palace Perfumes Musk there isn´t any doubt about that it´s all about geuin musk. That is a fragrance extracted from some kind of gonads at the adult male musk deer. Earlier a lot of musk deer was killed in traps and no one cared if they also killed female and young deers. This way of collecting musk isn´t alloved any more. Nowadays musk can be collected naturally since the adult male animal scrub the gonads off regulary. As you can realise, this method and the fact that musk deers are rare animals explains how and why genuin musk is both rare and expensive.

This background information as well as the fact that the Musk-oil is dark brown in color and at start smells really strange contribute to my mixed emotions about this fragrance.

But, when I don´t think about that so much, I have to admit that I like the smell of this Musk a lot, it smells so good and also both interesting and odd. At first the scent matches the look of the oil, the topnotes are strong and with some medical as well as abresive and aromatic smell. It´s more like I put on some ancient tincture for some obscure health problem then a perfuemed oil...

Still, I happens to like that ambivalent feeling, but I can totally understand if some readers feels a little skeptic towards Musk. But, take it easy, after a short while Musk develops and become a really harmonic, animalic (kind of fur-smelling sort off), saturated, soft and very complex scent experience. Musk smells really good, but also with brisk and strange aromatic notes, which in my opinion deepens the scent and makes it even better. Despite the animalic feeling, it´s more sensual, indolent and comfy then raw animalic and dirty erotic. It isn´t at all as skanky as many modern musk scents.

I can also find floral, powdery and something aromatic like hay in the scent. On me the powdery note becomes quite obvious after a while and quite feminine, but it´s much more animalic and sexy on my husband (all kinds of musk become so sexy on him!), so of coure men could wear it as well. I wonder if people anosmic to some of the synthetic musk fragrances can smell genuin musk? Anyone knows?

Shahrzad Palace Perfumes Musk is more of a skin scent then Royal Ambar, but the lasting power is at least as good, ie. last a really, really long time. Just like Royal Ambar, but even more, Musk is a sticky oil and the dark brown color is also dark on the skin and I wouldn´t wear it with light or sensitive clothes, I suspect it can damage them.

Pic: borealforest

Shahrzad Palace Perfumes - Royal Ambar

A reader commented that bargains could be the worst enemy of a perfumista. And I partly agree, I do have my share of bottles bought or swapped unsniffed that turned out to be not my cup of tea. But, I also got bottles I didn´t had any high expectations about that from nowhere suddenly manage to become a personal favorite.

Roayl Ambar from Shahrzad Palace Perfumes is such a scent. Unfortunatly this is the only of the five bottles that haven´t stand the test of time so good, the cap is broken and almost half of the liquid has evaporate (or been used?), but of course that makes the remainings even more dear.

Susprisingly, Royal Ambar is so similar to another favorite, Ambra Nera from Farmacia Annunziata. The same kind of complex, warm and animalic amber scent. As long as I have something left of Royal Ambar there´s no need for me to invest in abottle of Ambra Nera (whish is on my toplist). I don´t have much left of my sample of Ambra Nera so I havn´t compared tghe two side by side.

Royal Ambar is an erotic, warm, comfy and glowing oriental scent with elements of creamy coconut and sun salt skin, dark sweetness and sensual delight. A perfect comfort scent during the dark time of year.

Not so good is the fact that Royal Ambar has kind of a sticky oil base and also that I discover a weak note of something chalky when smeling it up close, but that note isn´t noticable from some distant. Besides that I have nothing but good things to say about it. Lasting power is amazing, at least 24 hours or even more, a little amount goes a long way and the two animalic scents in the colection is almost thick.

Pic: spermwhale, itsnature.org

Shahrzad Palace Perfumes

When my perfume interest started it was modern and almost provocative brands like Comme des Garcons, Etat Libre D'Orange and CB I Hate Perfumes that got most of my attention. A lot of things has happened since then, and those brands don´t even seem to be that modern and/or provocative any longer? And you find other and/or new brands leading the development now.

Of course my perfume interest also has changed during these years, I still aprreciate scents that are fore runners and edgy, but also scents that just smells very, very good and most perfumes in between.

Vintage scents are a relative new niche in my perfume interest. Suddenly, within a few months I happened to get togehter a small (very small) collection of vintage scents. It´s a small beginning, but as good as anything else...

One thing not changing that much is that is still searching for bargains at Tradera (Swedish ebay). But, Tradera itself has changed a bit. More and more odd scents are showing up, niche perfumes, fragrances not longer in production and some really nice vintages. But, also obviously more of both sellers and buyers seem to know a lot about perfumes. Today, it´s not likely that a Comme des Garcons perfume would be sold for about 8 €. But still, you can make some really great bargains on scents a little below the common perfumista radar. For instant I bought a vintage bottle of Caron Infini for a little over 10 €, not long ago. It was re-formulated in early 70'ies and now has been re-made again, but I belive my bottle is before 1970, I would guess late 50'ies. I´ll write more about Caron Infini some other time.

Today it´s going to be about my latest bargain, the small set on the pic above. It´s really a bargain, maybe one of the best I´ve ever made on Tradera (and I´ve made quite a few bargains there by now). Anyway, this kit was sold as Egyptian perfume essences, and guess what? I won it for 24 kr ( less than 2,5 €). For that price I think it´s fun just to have the bottles and the box, if the perfume smells like sh*t, so what... I´ve got them for free.

I´ve got my set and realised when I opened it that it was almost un-touched. I wouldn´t call them essences, it´s some kind of really thick oil, ready to be used, but I think you can blend them with each other or even other kinds of perfume oils. The different scents are: Musk, Royal Ambar (with broken cap and some if it has evaporated), Jasmine, Lotus Blossom and un-labeled, but it´s smells like violet. And all of the scents smells like if they where made yesterday!

I haven´t yet tried them all, but Royal Ambar (an ambergris scent) smells so incredible jummy I can´t hardly belive it and Jasmine is so pure, clear and high tuned that it´s amazing! In my opinion this oils must have been made out of the finest raw materials.

This kind of bargains make me so excited. And curious. I can´t find much information about Shahrzad Palace Perfumes on internet, the only other thing I find is another kit sold for 70 £ in a webshop. I wonder when my set is made? The box is covered with some kind of waxed paper, and it feels likeit´s along time ago that kind of paper was in use. The bottles are of pressed glass which almsot make them look like citrus fruits. About 1 dm of height. The caps are made of bakelit I think but inside there are stoppers of plastic, so maybe they´re made during the 50'ies?

Anyone else that are good in estimating this kind of sets? Or known of some similar set of perfume oils? If you have anything to contribute with about this set, please tell me, I´m so curious.

I´ll write about the different oils and how they smell. And I will hand out some sample sets so others can try them and share their opinions with me. Don´t miss that!

Pic: private

Amouage - Memoir Woman

Today I´m going to write about Amouage´s Memoir Woman, but before I do I just have to chatter a little.

First of all I´ve become an aunt again, to a sweet little baby girl, born on the other side of the world, in Chile. I´m so happy that everything went well and both mother and baby is feeling fine. Now I have to wait and see how long it´ll take before I´ll meet my newest little relative. Anyway, I have allready see pics of her, Facebook is great!

And, me and two of my daughters vistied Stockholm this Saturday and had so much fun. Times really fly when you have fun and we didn´t really manage to visit all the shops we had plan to visit. I almost didn´t test any perfumes at all! But, I had plenty of that on my latest trip to Stockholm anyway.

And, last but not least, I bought a set of "Egyptian perfume essences" on Tradera (Swedish Ebay), for about 2,50 €. For that amount of money I don´t really care if the scents are stale and old smelling and waisted, the bottles and the box are worth the money alone. But my little set arrived yesterday and I´m so excited about them that I can´t hardly think about anything else! They (all five of them) smell amazing! I´ll write more about them some other day and probably I´ll hand out some samples of these amazing "essences" (some kind of perfume oils in my opinion). Don´t miss it!!!

Oh well, Amouage... any returning reader knows that I haven´t fallen that hard for Amouage´s exclusive and rich charm. In fact, I have only really liked one scent from Amouage this far, and that is Reflection, which after all isn´t really my kind of scent, and even though I like it, I have never planned to buy more of it. The others I´ve tried are without doubt very rich smelling, well made and smelling really good, but not really my style. But now, I´ve found an Amouage suitable for me, Amouage Memoir Woman.

Memoir Woman is different from anything else I´ve tried from Amouage which have been huge florals with some kind of golden feeling to them. Memoir Woman is nothing like that at all...

With top notes of absinthe and citus folowed bu jasmine, rose, cinnamon, cardamom and clove, Memoir Woman is called a modern chypre, even though I don´t really agree with that.

On me it becomes strangely dreamy, floating, dusty (in a good way), spicy, aromatic and fairytale-like. A scent for a goth princesse, with pale powdered face elegant funerals and lingering mountain roads with dramatic cliffs. This scent is what you should wear if you where invited to a party at Count Draculas place. Oh no, Memoir Woman isn´t a happy, bubbly kind of scent, at least it doesn´t ewoke such emotions at me. No this is melancholy, yearning and a woman standing in the storm on an abandoned dock and waiting and waiting and waiting for that ship that never arrives. The sad queen wandering the empty hallways and rooms of the abandoned castle morning her dead king kind and all the dead little princes...

Amouage´s Memoir Woman triggers both imagination and sadness for me, this is a scent I would wear if I ever tried to write some horror novels, actually Memoir Woman inspires me to write that kind of litterature. A muse for horror writers is fairly accurate...

It´s suggestive and adorable in an un-expected way. On me the note of clove can be too dominating, either smelling to much of dust and smoke or to spicy and antiseptic, but in Memoir Woman it manage to stay away from that road. Insted it´s creating a caressing weil together with cinnamon and cardamom, both subtle, sensual and sad at the same time. Like a fragile and grey butterfly.

memoir Woman is a scent worth trying for anyone having some weak spot for darkness and melancholy, but also a must try if you haven´t really manage to find any fave among the other Amouage offerings. There is also a Memoir Man, but I haven´t tried it. Anyway, I belive Memoir Woman can be worn by man to, it isn´t that feminine. It last really good, almost all day and sillage is also good but not to much (at least not from my little dab on sample).

I´m having troubble to smell the musk, oakmoss and leather in the base, on me Memoir Woman is fairly linear but at the same time swirling.

Which is your favorite Amouage scent this far? Do you think they are over prices and not really worth that much money? I belived so before, but however, Memoir has changed my mind, even though I doubt I´ll ever have a big bottle of it, but a big decant would be nice.

Pic: whatthefuckiswater

Frederic Malle - Geranium Pour Monsieur

I belive that almost everyone that´s trying Frederic Malle´s Geranium Pour Monsieur for the first time says "Toothpaste!" when they first sniff it. And yes, you are greated by a onvious minty note when you first put it on. But, when the toothpaste note has settled you will discover other sides of this fragrance, at least I do.

The man behind this scent is Dominique Ropion and I think he has succed to create something both fresh, clean and modern in an amazing way. Geranium Pour Monsieur becomes much more complex and interesting on me then what I´m used to find in other clean and fresh scents. Honestly, I find Geranium Pour Monsieur almost as complex and interesting as the lovely Dans Tes Bras.

Geranium Pour Monsieur makes me think about a serene, deep and stunningly beautiful underwater world. A world in complete silence, but with viewer impressions so fascinating and strange you could as well be in outer space. In my imagination I can also smell this unique surroundings. The cold minty note would be the ocean itself, because it´s a very wet and big kind of mint. The geranium is aromatic with some warm elements and for me it´s the smell of gorgeous milky half see through jellyfish with sher veils and all different kinds of strange shapes like flowers, clouds and living popcorn. If jellyfishes was flowers maybe they would smell like Geranium Pour Monsieur?

There is also some woody and spicy notes in Geranium Pour Monsieur, showing up from time to time. On me the mint note is very longlasting, but on my husband it´s only last for a short while. I belive Geranium Pour Monsieur is quite different on each and everyone, just like the wonderful Dans Tes Bras.

Geranium Pour Monsieur is also suitable for women. It has good sillage and great lasting power. I appreciate it a lot becasue of it´s unique and complex character, but it´s really not my type og scent. It´s possible I´ll take a spray now and then when I want to visit the strange underwater world, but just like Dans Tes Bras it´s a demanding scent that need a lot of attention. Something I´m not always in the mood for.

It´s also nice with a scent where geranium is geranium and not only a cheaper substitute for rose. A lot of people not liking geranium note in rose scents will probably get a different view of geranium if they try this fragrance. Geranium Pour Monsieur is a must try for everyone looking for different, unique and well made scents.

pic: backgroundbandit.com

Escentric Molecules - Escentric 01

Quite often when I´m going to the local store or in to town I think about what if any stranger would ask me of what perfume I´m wearing. Since I use perfumes every day and also quite different kinds of scents, I guess there is a somewhat bigger possibility that someone would notice my perfume than for the average person. But however, it doesn´t seem to matter at all what perfume I´m wearing, no stranger ever ask me about my scents!

There are for sure a lot of different reason for people not asking about other peoples perfumes, I think Swedish people are a little shy and would feel uncomfartable and pushy if they asked, also I belive a lot of people never actaully smell my fragrance and also there´s a possibility that common people not at all think that my scents smells good.

Of course my family members, close relatives and friends ask me about my fragrances, but that isn´t really the same. As far as I can recall, it has happened one time that a stranger asked me about my perfume, and that was a long timer ago up in Umeå, and the scent I was wearing was Kenzo Jungle.

Anyway, I´ve got a decant of Escentric Molecules Escentric 01, and I have never read reviews of any scent that seem to give the people wearing it as many compliments and questions. Another cool thing about it is that people wearing it don´t seem to like it THAT much, but still wear it since they got so many compliments. Hmm.

Unfortunatly I suspect I have to bath in it to get that kind of compliments. On me, Escentric 01 wears very subtle and etereal. The opening is spritzy, peppery and kind of fun, but then it become very silent and shy. When I´m wearing it I think of it more like a kind of vague aura then like a fragrance. I think Escentric 01 would be really nice to layer with almost any other scent. It has a strangley nice scent, but at the same time faceless and easy to forget.

One interesting thing with Escentric 01 is that it during day comes and goes. Sometimes I can´t hardly smell it at all, and then shortly after I re-discover it. After the spritzy opening it develops to a subtle, clean woody scent with some very soft incense features. As a scent I think it´s easy to wear for people of all ages and sorts, but also not so easy to really like. Still it has a strong precense, but lack of warmth, heart and deepth. Maybe not so strange since it is all built around a synthetic note of ISO E Super.

To me, there isn´t anthing to dislike about Escentric 01, but not really anything to like either. But maybe, I would think different of it if someone asked what scent I´m wearing! :)

Weak, but vary sillage and the lasting power is good but also a bit un-even.

Do you get questions about your perfume all the time? Compliments? And now I mean from strangers or people you don´t know that well, as the woman working at the local store, not your hubbie, wife or sweet little mother. Which scent, if anyone, have get you the most attention?

Pic: Emelie Ohlsson