Bond No 9 - Andy Warhol Lexington Avenue

Both me and my husband has a weak spot for chinese lanterns. The first one, we bought in Amsterdam and now we got tree different ones. I´ve realised they´re not that popular for everyone, and our middle daughter (she paints and draws all the time) hate it when the whole house has (as she calles it) porno-light.


But what on earth does red (but we got a black and a wine red one also!) lanterns has to do with Bond No 9's Andy Warhol, Lexington Avenue? That´s mostly beacuse I think that Lexington Avenue actually are "Chinatown by Night".


Coney Island, which I wrote about yesterday, isn´t the only scent from Bond No 9 that has surprised me. Chinatown also turned out to be a surprise. I had expected a much more lively scent, but what I got was a calm, meditative and comforting scent. And when I tried Lexington Avenue it is Chinatown, but with loud volume.


It´s more of fruits and berries, more spices and sweetness, and a little higher speed as well. Lexington Avenue is a happy, strong and sexy evening scent. And something in it remind me of Swedish hot and spiced wine (glögg). Which of course contributes to the fact that i think Lexington Avenue would be an excellent scent during late autumn and december. But this time of yesr, when winter goes towards spring it is a little to much.


Lexington Avenue also remind me a little of Shiseido´s Feminite du Bois, but much sweeter, louder and even more vulgare. It doesn´t bother me, but lexington Avenue doesn´t manage to become one of my favorites among Bond No 9's scents, even though I think it´s very nice.


Lexington avenue has a grand sillage, but not as good lasting power as one can expect considering how expensive the fragrances from Bond No 9 are. This doesn´t mean that it´s shortlived, it still last for about 6 hours on me.


Do you have any favorite from Bond No 9?




Pic: Khaosan

Bond No 9 - Coney Island

A story, a dream, a perfume...


Summer, the sun is shining from a clear blue sky, a soft sea breeze ruffles your hair, a bottle of pink lemonade. It´s going to be the greatest day, a day at Coney Island´s amusement parks.
The ferry arrives, a short walk, the streets are strangely unpeopled.The wind suddenly feels colder, the sky turns grey and hazy. Fog are closing in from the sea.
The amusement park is totally abandoned, your steps echoes drearily against the pavement. Suddenly you realise that you´re alone in the fog, your company has dissapeared.
And your on the highest hill in a worn out wagon at the long ago closed roller coaster, the wind make the rusty old parts squeak, the track ends some where down in the milky fog...


Bond No 9´s Coney Island is a big surprise for me. I´ve been curious about it for a long time, and though (considering the notes and the name) that it would be a happy, sweet, summery tivoli kind of scent.


Coney Island is a part of New York, famous for it´s beach and many amusement parks. Coney Island was most popular during early 1900th century, but has since then been on decline. Amusement parks has closed down and some of the most famous rides have been close to ruin. But, just recently the City of New York decided to do over Coney Island ant it´s historic tivolies and roller coasters. So hopefully Coney Island has a bright future ahead.


Coney Island lists notes of melon, guava, vanilla, cinnamon, caramel, chocolate, sandalwood, cedar wood and musk. Maybe it´s not that strange that I belived it would be a sweet, yet somewhat fresh gourmand. Sure, it has some gourmand elements, for start it smells like a sour soda pop mixed with sea air. The sour note dissapears rather fast on me and leave me with strange notes of sea, fog, impenetrable milkyness and from some distant, notes of caramell, vanilla and wood. Maybe I´m anosmic for something in it? But even if I am, I think of Coney Island as a very interesting, exciting and melancholic scent.


But, I have tried another scent similar to Coney Island, without knowing it.
http://rebelladensnella.blogspot.com/search/label/Aral
The notes listed for Aral isn´t the same as for Coney Island, and the scents differes in some way. Aral lacks of Coney Island fresh, tart topnote for instant. When I´ve tried them next to each other I find Aral to be slightly dryer and not as complex and thrilling as Coney Island. The base note of Coney Island is also much more prominent, not only the scent drying in and slowly dissapearing on my skin. I still belive that Aral is a very nice scent (if you happen to stop by France, it is also much cheaper then Coney Island), but if I had tried it AFTER Coney Island I hadn´t find it so unique.


Well, whatever... Coney Island is a perfume worth trying. Maybe it become more gourmand on you? I belive I´ll use Coney island quite much during summer, I think of it as a perfect warm weather scent. This time of year, but also during autumn, I think Coney Island enhance the melancholic mood of melting snow, rain and snow and grey weather...


Have you tried any perfume that smelled totally unlike what you have expected?




Pic: Neatoroma

Bond No 9 - Chinatown

A little more New York and Bond No 9. I belive Chinatwon is their most popular perfume. I have to admit that I at first didn´t realise why. Or, actually I thought it was kind of bland, nice and inoffenisice, wich could be the reason for it to be popular.




So while Silver Factory almost at once become a favourite, Chinatown failed to capture me. Slowly I began to realise that that was a part of the charm with Chinatown.




I don´t know about you, but I am picturing Chinatown as a place filled with busy people, noices and a lot of colours. Chinatown isn´t really a whole town, what I´ve heard it´s more of a block or a quite small part of New York. Well, the size doesn´t really matter, I still think of Chinatown as full of life, noices, colours and scents from chinese food, candies and groceries.




How come the perfume Chinatown is so light, soft and calm? On me it starts with a burst of wild strawberries, and then some soft peach and florals. The heart and base consists of cardamom and patchouli, even tough the patchouli seem to be there as a careful support for the other notes rather than something so noticeable. At least on me.




Chinatwon isn´t at all a noicy perfume, but a very light, caressing and discrete perfume. But with a strong and very comfortable presence. When I realised that, I also realised I´ve slowly starting to like Chinatown. Yes, it´s pretty and nice, but it has a strong and unique personality, that I normally -more easily- find in stronger perfumes.




I have also thought about why Bond No 9 choses to interprent Chinatown in this way? That I´ve tried japanese Miya Shinma´s perfumes might have help me to understand why. I belive that (many) chinese people could have similar perfume preferences as (many) japanese people. Light, floral and fruity perfumes with lack of animalic notes like musk and leather. Asian perfumes seem to be lighter, more transcluent and more delicate than western perfumes.




Still they aren´t at all -only- floral fruity. Western floral-fruity is, in my nose, kind of uptempo, fresh, sexy, youth and party. The eastern perfume I´ve tried is something completly different, more of stillness, calm, and tranquile estetics I seldom find in western perfumes.




Oh well, I could be kind of stressed when it come to perfumes. I want it to be ooooh and aaaah and my nose attached to my wrist and how could I get more of this amazing juice??? But that doesn´t work well with more eastern asia influenced perfumes, as I think of Chinatown. Because in Chinatown I find that eastern soul or heart or spirit that I recognise from for instant Miya Shinma´s perfumes. When Chinatown comes to me, I find in it, an almost meditative feeling.




I guess you understand that I really like Chinatown now and that I must get me some more of it soon, my little sample is almost finnished now.




Besides of wild strawberries, peaches, cardamom and patchouli I find a light nuttiness in Chinatown that is really nice. For some reason Chinatown make me think of beautiful butterflies in a sunny orchard.




I am glad that I´ve finally learnt to know Chinatwon and appreciate it and also admire it´s transcluent and soft beauty. That kind of perfumes has it´s very own place in any perfume collection I think.


The sillage is discrete, but constantly there and it´s very longlasting considering the light character of the perfume.


Have you tried Chinatown? Did it become a favourite at once or did you struggle with it? Or do you not like it at all?


















Pic: R.Guskind

Bond No 9 - Andy Warhol, Silver Factory

It is almost unbeliveable how many perfume houses-brands-lines and collection there is out there. I have blogged almost for an year now and hardly mention Bond No 9´s perfumes. Well, for what it´s worth there is also a lot of perfumes I haven´t yet mention at all. And even more brands that I still haven´t tried a single perfume from. When it comes to Bond No 9, at least I´ve tried some of their perfumes. But not wrote about any of them yet. Why is that? Are they bad and boring? Nope, not really, even tough I don´t have any of them on top of my most wanted-list, there are two, Andy Warhol´s Silver Factory, and also, Chinatown that isn´t pretty far from it.


What is special with Bond No 9? Well, it is a perfume collection dedicated to the city of New York, with it´s archetypical skyskrapers, busy avenues and city disctricts so well-knowned globally that they are almost as home, even tough I never set my foot there. The perfumes from Bond No 9 have borrowed their names from famous streets, places and even persons (Andy Warhol) in and from New York, even beaches outside New york can be found among hte perfume names. What about names like Broadway Night, Chinatown, New Haarlem, Coney Island and Bryant Park? At the same time familiar, but also exotic and filled with big city-feeling.


As I wrote above, I´ve never been to New York, even tough it´s one of the cities I most definitly would love to visit. Lucky the one´s that already have been there. But, despite the fact that I haven´t (yet), I think a lot of us have certain picture and feeling of New York. Not at all what it´s really are like, but not as far from truth as it would be if it was another big city, not yet visited, like Tokyo, Buenos Aires or Mumbai. Of course that is thanks too the many movies with New York, if not in main role, at least as the main scene or something like that. In New York it would be possible to recognise buildings and places and to feel almost a little at home, I don´t think that would be possible for most of us if we visited for instant, Tokyo.


Thanks to this facts, you imagine that you´re a little familiar with New York, you almost belive you can tell about the city´s heart, soul and pulse. (Or at least I do!)


This is one reason for me to question if the perfumes from Bond No 9 really are able to capture the spirit of such an amazing city. It´s not little to ask for tough, that a single perfume could capture all that, or even of one single avenue or beach or park. Born new yorkers/ and or passionate new yorkers aren´t all that content with Bond No 9´s interprention of their loved parts of the city. Maybe, the bottles are what succed best to capture New York? Even tough their bottle to the perfume Brooklyn get much critique, at least I think that a bottle decorated with grafiti feels quite much Brooklyn. How the bottles look like, and the names of all the perfumes and a lot more you can find here: http://www.bondno9.com/splash


Now, I will try to focus on Bond No 9`s Andy Warhol Silver Factory. There are several Bond No 9 perfumes dedicated to and inspired from the well-knowned New York artist, Andy Warhol. Besdies of Silver Factory there is also; Lexington Avenue, Union Square and the newest, Succes is a job in New York (if there´s anyone reading my blog that have got the chanse to try it, please tell me about it!). Well, now it´s easy for me that is so easily distracted to start to writing about Andy Warhol instead of the perfume. But at least I van tell you that Silver Factory was Andy Warhols atelie, studio and the place to hang around if you where something in New York back then.


I can´t tell if the perfume Silver Factory manage to capture any of the soul and spirit of the actual Silver Factory, but at least, as a perfume it is strange, interesting but also quite easy to like.


When i tried Silver Factory for the first time during winter, I liked it at once. It starts with some what chilly top notes of citruses, soon joined by some dirty, but quite light animalic musk and some metallic, also very light, note. Maybe not the smell of silver, but a nice and easy metallic note. I immediatly started to plan to get me some more of this strange and also wonderful perfume. It was really nice on my husband too.


If it wasn´t for a slight incident with Silver Factory a month later, I think I would have a small deacnt of it by now!


Imagine, me, my half-sidter and her husband and my brother in car driving all the way from northern Sweden to Stockholm during one day. When it started to get dark, we where all kind of sleapy and my brother asked if I happened to have any uplifting perfume, something eith citrus maybe? Oh yeah, sugarmummy got what you need, namely Silver Factory. It´s not the easiset to put some perfume on another person in a car on the motorway, so I guess I spilled about the half sample all over my brother. And belive me, Silver Factory is much more strong and potent that you might belive only using smaller amounts of it. We spent the rest of the trip in car reeking with citruses, a more and more strange metallic note and an animalic musk slowly but steadily growing towards mushiness and un-mentionable stanks. This was a perfume I kind of like, but I don´t want to think about my poor fellow-passengers.


This incident changed my view of Silver Factory from something strange, funny and easy to like to something with enough animalic contents to attack little children! It become a huge, blury mess of mushy musk with almost suffocating qualities.


But there is hope, now I am sitting her and sniffing it agian, quite content I have to admit. Obviously the car incident have slowly become forgotten. (Even tough I will probably always think about that trip when I wear it!) I like it again, not really as much as in the beginning, but enough to start think about a decant again.


Shortly speaking, I do recommend Silver Factory. It´s an unique, potent and easy kind of perfume, that would suit most people and occations. Normally, the sillage is average and the longvity is ok. You have to try it, even if you´re not that in to citrus. The base is also really pleasant, much warmer than the rest of the blend, as long as you stay away from overdose it.

Pic: smugmug

Who loves the second best?

I think Sweden as a nation lack a bit of winner instinct. We tell our kids to join different competitions, activities and games and that they shall participate for the fun of it, not to win. In other countries the parents and other grown ups are more straight forward and tell the kids that all that matters is to win. An honestly, swedish double moral standars are quite amusing if having it on some distance, because of course we also love when the kids are winning. And yes, the kids love it to!

Most people seem to agree about that it´s possible to compete in sports and athletics, but when it comes to music people become more hesitant. Soon it´s the final for the European Melody Contest in Moscow, and even if it isn´t really ok to compete in music, there´s full coverage in the media, here in Sweden at least. Another thing hard to compete in is beauty, still a new Miss Universe is crowned every year. And in some countries (mostly US) they even held beauty pageants for babies, something quite unfamiliar for most swedish parents.

Well, even when it comes to perfume, there is contests. The perfume industry itself rewards succesfull fragrances, and perfume sites let their members vote for the most popular perfumes. There is perfume top ten, and if you want to be sure about being "right" and feel safe, you can easily chose the number one perfume on such a list, you are sure not to be noticed then.

I am sure most perfumista also have their own top ten list, I do, even tough it´s constantly changing. But at least I know wich perfumes I really love and want! Or...? Do I, really? The answer isn´t that obvious, the winner isn´t always the winner in the long run.

I have a way of becoming almost obsessed about a perfume at the first sniff. It goes like oooh, wooow, and marvellous, beautiful, amazing... This happen once in a while, but not more than about one perfume on ten. That makes, at least nine, not to winners. With ten perfumes I think about four-five-six are counted out almost directly, because I find them so boring that they not even are nice or cute. About two or three are good, fine, maybe a little different, nice but without making it to the top. At least, they are good enough to be tried again.

And again...

And again...

And wow, when did it become this good!? Strangely enogh there is less left in that little sample than in the sample with the superduperamazingpowerfullblast-perfume. Eh? Yes, I´ve noticed a tendecy. I do love serge Luten´s Borneo 1834, and when I´ve got that sample I also got some other SL samples; Datura Noir, Serge Noire and Ambre Sultan. Datura Noir didn´t really make it for me, and Serge Noire is very interesting but a bit difficult to wear and Ambre Sultan was... hmmm ok, good, nice, a little brisk, spicy and just good enough... while Borneo 1834 was incredible.

Yes, I still love Borneo 1834, but it´s heavy, strong, masculin and so concrete that I have to be in a certain mood to wear it. While Ambre Sultan just mingle up with my skin chemistry without making any noice and starts warming up and becoming warmer, sweeter, more golden, more intriguing and... more more so to speak. No it doesn´t really compete with Borneo 1834, but still it is as good, but in another way. I wouldn´t be surprised if I had a bottle of them both, that Ambre Sultan would be the one I reach for more often.

The sam goes for some perfumes from Parfumerie Generale, I love Aomassai, Felanilla and Cadjmere even tough my most obsessed feeling for Cadjmere have cooled down a little. Some of Parfumerie Generale´s perfumes doesn´t work at all for me, and some of them are nice, good, fine and really cute. Like Drama Nuui and Intrigant Patchouli. But, little by little they have won me over. Intrigant Patchouli is at the top among my patchouli favourites, together with Borneo 1834, but in another way. First time I tried Intrigant Patchouli was when I´ve also got Cadjmere, and I thought of it as almost a little boring. Well, I couldn´t be more wrong! When it starts to warm up on the skin it´s transforming to something lush, sensual and the animalic notes in Intrigant Patchuli is among the most erotic I can think of! Just wow, but it took a while to realise that.

And what else? Well, Chinatown from Bond No 9 didn´t get much attention from me. Because in the same shipment was Andy Warhol´s Silver Factory. Really strange, citrus fresh, metallic and with a dirty musky note as well. Cool. But then I started to notice the not so good about it, it hasn´t any staying power (something it have in common with some other Bond No 9 frags I´ve tried) and the fresh citrus fades away and leave some kind of blury musk with no direction. But there was Chinatown, what about it? Doesn´t it smell like something you bake? Something good, a little fruity, little sweet, a little different and a little adorable? Yes, in the long run it is actually Chinatown I like the most from Bond No 9, this far.

Since mentioned Ava Luxe´s Kama in the review about Serge Lutens Musc Koublai Khan I´ve tried a little more. Oh ni, it still isn´t as good as MKK, but I realised it deserve better tough. It´s totallt perfect for layering, you can layer it with almost everything. Kama manage to deepen and strengthen anything. The perfume you blend it with changes, but is still possible to recognise.

Soft, sweet, floral and vanilly perfumes goes from giggly girly to sofisticated warm blooded women in just a moment. I´ve realise I will need a bigger bottle of Kama, real soon...

And Vivienne Westwood´s Anglomania, yes I love it, but there isn´t that much left in my bottle and Libertine is also about to get finnished, and can you guess wich of them I would most likely buy a new bottle of? Hint, the perfume doesn´t start with A...

There are many more seconds best that deserve attention, do you have any? Some perfume you didn´t think to much about from the beginning but the discovered it has somehow sneaking it´s way up...