Vivienne Westwood - Let it Rock

I don´t write negative reviews so often. Partly because I like most fragrances that I test, not love, but most of them smells at least nice and pleasant. And that isn´t anything to write about. It´s also a matter of time, I have to keep up to manage to write about all the amazing scents out there, so where would I squeeze in the bad one´s?

Sometimes I do an exeption. Today is such a day.

Usually I like Vivienne Westwood´s fragrances, even though I have to admit that Anglomania, Boudoir and even Libertine kind of are perfumes from an earlier stage in my perfumania. Still I think they are interesting, obvious and very Brittish. Now Vivienne has launched a new scent, Naughty Alice, the bottle is almost hiddeous cute, but I don´t know about the scent, yet. Unfortunatly I do know everything about another Vivienne Westwood scent, Let it Rock...

When you don´t like a fragarnces there can be sevreal reasons. Some are headache inducing, still you can like the way they smell. Others makes you nauseaus, a little or way to much. Some don´t make your head ache or your stomach turn, but smells so disturbing, strong, cheap, screamy, synthetic or sweet that you can´t stand it. Let it Rock gives me headache and make my stomach turn and smells cheap, synthetic, sweet, vulgar and strong. It´s like a scent created by Jordan (above) rather then by Vivienne Westwood.

Actually Let it Rock is among the worst scents I´ve tried! Without suspecting anything I put on a few drops of Let it Rock from a sample. The very first minutes it was kind of OK and I almost belived that I would eventually like it. But then it starts to get stronger and stronger and stronger... It smells like if both patchouli and freesia was made of some strange plastic materials. Just plastic! Tranquilising fake flowers smushed with plastic and the worst kind patchouli that screams to you and makes your eyes watery.

Yes, Let it Rock becomes terrible on me. And I´ll never try to find out how it becomes on any other family member beacuse I don´t want it in my house. I would never want to encounter this scent ever again. Of course it´s a scrubber. And washing of just a little won´t help, you´d better get yourself in the bathtub with lots of lather.

As I said, it´s extremly rare that I react this strong to a scent, I think Etat Libre d'Orange´s Viergos et Toreros is one of few others.

I don+t recommend Let it Rock to anyone, because I don´t want to smell it on anyone. Fortunatly it seem to be very, very rare in Sweden.

Have you tried Let it Rock? Some people seem to actually like it, what do you think about it?

Pic: Katie Price aka Jordan

Vivienne Westwood - Boudoir (orange version)

Both my grandmothers are dead now, but they both lived quite long and I still had them around when I was grown-up. Especially my maternal grandmother was longlived, she become more then 90 years old even though a little scattered towards the end. Now I´m a grandmother myself and even though it´s wonderful with grand children (and I hope I´ll get many of them, which I pretty much van expect since I´ve got 5 kids!) I don´t feel like the perfect grandmother.
But I don´t think that anyone does it? Maybe if you had to wait for years and years to become a grannie and then finally the first grandchildren comes when you way past 60? Maybe it was easier and more natural to be a grandmother during the rustic society? Even pretty young women at 40 or 5o was certainly more worned out back then, and maybe it was a comfort to stay at home looking after the grandkids when the younger generation took on the hard work?


The thing is that my grandmothers also was young once upon a time. They where both young duirng the happy twenties and both of them had for sure experienced a lot of things that I have no idea about. Somehow, high age seem to take a bit of a persons personality and identity, a person that is 80 or 90 years old has soooo much past, when we´re living in a time of constant nows and celebrating the youth.


I am happy with my age, and seldom want´s to change it. It´s very rare for me to wish me younger, but even more rare that I think about being older. I suspect that most of you that read this don´t go around and wish to be 82 or 94? But if you´re 17 I can totally understand that you wish to be 18 or even 20.


Vivienne Westwoods Boudoir (orange version) makes me wish to be at least 80 or a healthy 90 years old or even 100 years old!


I had Boudoir with the pink juice, and that didn´t work at all on me. But everyone said the orange version was much better, and different so when I found one (used bottle) on ebay for practically free I bought it. And I so don´t regret it!


Boudoir makes something with me. Some scents just do that, it is like they are communicating with me. If it is a single note or some skinchemistry thing, I´m not sure, but something triggers my imagination.


Boudoir smells like something that has been around for a long time, like someone that was young and happy and danced between the two world wars. Like someone that attached black silk stockings to a salmon pink garted belt. Like someone painting her eyes with black mascara and some saliva. That smoked cigarettes in a holder and had her hair in a modern bob. Boudoir is like the smell of an old sepia colored photo. Like worn out, but still elegant vintage-underwear. Like something that have been used, loved and lived.


Boudoir is a very powerfull and strong scent, still it smells like something that has been left behind. Like and old chypre scent that has faded. Like a flower bouquet that had been forgotten on a table with a white lace cloth. Like the maku-up forgotten in the bathroom, because a mother to several small kids don´t have enough time to use it... It is something melancholic with Boudoir, but at the same time happy spirited. Like thinking of old happy times, but also realised that they are long time gone...


Oh well, but what do it smell like? It´s amix of a lot of different flowers, blended that way I can´t smell any single flower. There is also a bubblegum scent, and powder, make-up and smokey tobacco. It´s vanilla, milky sandalwood and a tad of skank. But just a little. The skanky note that is blown up in the pink Boudoir is in this version just a pleasant hint. Like comparing the vintage erotic pic on top of this article with a modern porno pic. In this version, the skank is subtle without being spread all over over the place, Whish I like. I don´t understand why they chagned it at all?


This version of Boudoir has some similarities to Libertine, Boudoir being the more retro and feminine of them. Boudoir is a powerful scent, one spray on each wrist is more then enough for me. It have great sillage and good lasting power. Really, I think everyone shuld give the orange version at least a sniff. It si really good, and interesting!




Pic: Vintage erotica

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...