Parfums 137 - Hollywood Stromboli 1950

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pic: Gordon Parks, Life

Ava Luxe - Heart of Glass

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

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

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

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

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

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


Pic: tuberose by pgoeltz/flickr

Serge Lutens - Tubereuse Criminelle

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Off to Örebro.

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

Have decanted some perfume surprises for the daughter as well.

Will be home again on friday!

Parfumerie Generale - Lounges Profanes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nasomatto - Black Afghano

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chopard - Casmir

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

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

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

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

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

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

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