Fragrance hypersensitivy

Perfume allergy, what is it?


I guess no one have missed that the wonderful world of perfumes are among the best things I know of. That I would get tired of perfumes are as unlikly as that I would get tired of reading good books and listening to music.


Since perfumes has become more then a hobby for me, perfumes are in my thoughts most of the time. When chosing a perfume I think about if I´m going to wear it only because I like it so much or if I am going to chose a perfume for "work" meaning a scent I plan to write about soon. Most thing associated with perfumes are interesting, history, the person that has create the perfume, if the perfume is typical for it´s time, it´s creator or it´s perfume house, the chemistry behind perfumes and all the synthetic ingrediens used (even though I don´t know so much about it yet, still I´m very curious). But, sometimes I am also thinking about the bad things associated with perfumes, favorite scents no longer produced, regulations that forbids use of most loved ingredienses in perfumes. Lately I´ve been thinking about perfumes and the allergies it can cause.


Luckily enough i don´t have many allergic people around me. I have a nickel allergy caused by massive piercing experiences during my teens, and two of my daughters have a light pollen allergic, my sister is allergic to cats and some among my friends have lactos intolerance. Thanks to the facts that I don´t know any person with severe allergy I don´t have to pay much consideration about allergies and I also realise I don´t know so much about it.


There for I decided to ask the people of Swedish Astma-and allergy association a little about perfume allergy and symptoms. Johanna Löf, representative helped me to clear some things out. People that reacts against perfumes doesn´t have any actual perfume allergy, but suffering from something called Sensoric Hypersensitivity(SHS). We all have nerv-endings in our nose, that will provide that the air we breath reaches the lungs in right temperature and quality, but people suffering from SHS have, for some reason, super sensitive nerv-endings. When having an allergic reaction it is the bodies immune system that reacts, this isn´t the case when it comes to SHS, but the symptoms are the same. A person suffering from SHS reacts with symptoms like having a really bad cold. The symptoms comes very rapidly and stays for a coupple of days. And there isn´t any medication that will help (in contrast to allergies). The only thing that helps is to avoid the things causing the problems, perfumed products and also other scents, like cigarette smoke.


Johanna tells me that peoples with SHS often reacts most when they are close to a person that have used a lot of different perfumed products, such as washing detergent, fabric softener, deo, bodylotion, schampoo, hairspray and on top of all that also perfume. And, even though I love perfumes I don´t want to be the one causing someone to have a really bad reaction. And do we really need so many different scented products?


Now, when i know a little more about SHS I´ve stopped buying perfumes washing detergent. And when it comes to perfumes bodylotion I didn´t liked it before, since I think most of them are stealing attention from the perfume. And thanks to the fact that I´m working at home I can use as much perfume as I wish or when I´m walking the dog without disturbing anyone, so I don´t have to use it when I´m going by bus, train or visting places where there can be someone with SHS.


Johanna would like to share a little tips for those of you that likes to wear perfume when going to a party, but has to go with bus or any other public transport. Put on the perfume when you arrive to the party! OK, it can be a little un-convinient to bring a big bottle of perfume in a small purse, but most of us perfume lovers do have sample vials or decant bottles.


I think it´s easy to avoid giving people troubble with my perfumes, what do you think? Maybe you even know someone suffering from fragrance hypersensitivity? Now and then I can get headache from some perfumes, like YSLs Opium. Do you have some scents you´re sensitive to?




Pic: Smart canucks

CB I Hate Perfume - In the Library

CB I Hate Perfumes is really a very special brand. When i first become perfume curious this was one of the first brands that got my attention. Scents with names as Winter 1972, In the Library, I´m a dandelion, Russian caravan tea and At The Beach 1966 are really turn ons for my imagination. Despite that, it took quite a while before I finally tried any of the scents.


Christpher Brosius, the man behind CH I Hate Perfume has a very personal philiosophy about scents. He isn´t interested in usual good smelling perfumes, he likes to create memories and stories in his bottles. Christopher has chose to make two kinds of scents, a water version and an oil version, also many of the scents are possible to get as a room spray. I decided to try some perfume oils, since I´ve heard that the water version isn´t so longlasting.


One of the scents that I´ve been most curious about is In The Library, I love the smell of old books, wooden shelfs and that dry almost dusty air in rooms filled with books, so it isn´t that surprising that this is among the samples I ordered.


But does it smell like a library? Yeah, kind of but still, not really or... On me, In the Library becomes a vague yet very pleasant smell of something a little oily, like leather or maybe wood polish? There is something dusty in the scents as well and something papery. But, In the Library are more like a feeling then a scent I think. I really like to wear this, it feels comfy, homey and and like getting a warm welcoming. But most of all, it makes me think about how it would be as a room scent.


In the Library is more a scent to step in to then to wear I think. Like Christopher stated, it´s more of a story in a bottle then a perfume.


On me, In the Library has at least some staying power, but not more then about 2-3 hours and the sillage is minimal. I´ve also tried Wild pansy, and even though it is the most geunin scent of a shy violet hidden among last years leafs and some mud, it has no staying power what so ever. On me Wild Pansy is totally gone in less then 30 minutes.


One the other hand, it doesn´t matter so much. I would like to have a small collection of CB I Hate Perfumes scents, and use a tiny little drop whenever I feel to wake a certain mood. I have two small 1/3 mls samples and you can´t hardly tell that I´ve tried them.


You can read a lot about the scents at CB I Hate Perfume homepage:
http://www.cbihateperfume.com/home.html


Admit that several of the scents stir both your imagination and curiousity? Despite the poor staying power I´ll order some more samples from this interesting perfume house. Maybe not I would go around wearing every day, but they are after all scents with a soul... and to find such a thing can´t make me dissapointed.


What do you think about CB I Hate Perfume? Have tou tried anything from them? Or are you curious? Or do you think that perfumes are supposed to be perfumes?






Pic: Trinity Old Library

Steampunk and perfumes

I´ve thought a lot about steampunk lately. Before I start hanging out on Etsy I din´t even know there was such a thing. Or, I know that there was without knowing that it had a name. I am probably pretty much dated, but I´m after all more than 40 years old and living in a small town, what else could you expect?


well, for those of you as lost as I am, I can try to explain what steampunk is. It´s a litterary genre relative to science fiction but not taking place in outer space or the future. It´s usual with a Victorian environment, and if you´re thinking about Jules verne, steam engines, zeppelins, geer wheals and early-modern industrialism you´re about to get it. Steampunk can also be contemprary, but a nowadays without digital inventions or computers or jetplanes. Like if we´re driving around in steam engined cars and having big, strange mechanic factories. The environment, mood and clothes you can find in movies like "Wild, wild west" "The Leauge" and "The city of lost children".


I´ve been a little steampunk-inspired when it comes to clothes and home decorating without knowing that steampunk is what it´s called. But I have to admit it isn´t that common that I´m running around in knee high boots, high hat, googles and skirt with bustle. But still, I think it is so beautiful.


If you´re curious about steampunk I suggest that you take a look at Nadya lev´s amazing photos or visit the homepage of Coilhouse, a magasine driven by Nadya lev and a bnch of others.
http://coilhouse.net/


Well, we´re having a small grip on how steampunk looks like, but how does it smell? What perfumes goes with the steampunk-outfit? I´ve thought about some that would be great together with steampunk clothes, and other not so spot on, but still kind of cool giving it a second thought.


The first scent I think about is Be Never To Busy Too Be Beautiful´s Superworldunknown, with it´s more oily less sweet version of Pink sugar paired with warm metallic parts from carousels and the slightest whiffs of roses. Unfortunatly discountinued, so I guess it´s not that easy to come across any more.


Another spot on is CdG/Stephen Jones with it´s smell of romatic and fragile violets mixed with minerals and edgy, sharp metal. I would bet on that some of Stephen Jones famous hats also would go well with steampunk.


Next is Guerlain´s Shalimar. Maybe not as spot on as the one´s mentioned above, but still apropriate. I´ve noticed a scent of something oily and even almost metallic in Shalimar, of course this would be a scent for a steam punk femme fatale.


Etat Libre d'Orange´s Fat Electrician, ooh yeah, this is so great. Vetiver and olive oil is such a cool backdrop to steampunk. It smells like a thich, dark can of grease would smell like if it smelled good.


And if you can wear CdG/Daphne Guiness it is also quite nice in this genre. Unfortunatly on me, Daphne only smells like rancid frying oil. :(


By the way there is also others from CdG that would work well, the cold, metallic Zagorsk (incense series) and Tar of course. I haven´t tried Garage, but I belive it would also make it to steampunk.


Some leathery scents, Histoirs de Parfums Marquis de Sade 1740 and the new, Tubereuse Animale, great scents both of them,


Andy Tauer´s Lonestar Memories, and Le Labo´s Patchouli 24 as well as Oud 27, and also Neil Morris' Gotham, dark, leathery, smokey, rubbery and cool fragrances.


Parfumerie Generale´s Felanilla is a strange, almost oily and medical but still very wearable scent that would suit a steampunker that likes to develop strange poitions in his/hers steam operated laboratory. I think also Montale´s Black aoud could fit in that cathegory.


And then, a little unbacked maybe, Lolita Lempicka (the original scent) It´s both pretty violets and licorice and a dose of the cleanest, most delightful smell of white smoke or steam I´ve encountered in a perfume. Not prominent on everyone though...


And of course, Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab has surely some oils to offer for those of you that wish to explore steampunk scents a little more.
http://www.blackphoenixalchemylab.com/
There are also several sellers on Etsy that has made a lot of interesting interpretations of the steampunk theme (both perfumes and other things). www.etsy.com


Do you know of any good steampunk scent that I´ve missed? Or some other fun facts about steampunk that you will share?







Pics: The two atop are photos by Nadya lev, the next is from flickr and the last one is from Wikimedia.

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

Costamor

Today we´re heading to Costa Rica´s rainforest. No, not really but we shall learn to know a new line of perfumes, Costamore, inspired by the beautiful nature of Costa Rica. Elisabeth Wright, settled in California, but half Costarican wanted to re-create her happy and beautiful memories from childhood visits in Costa Rica.


For me as a frost-bited Swedish, Costa Rica comes close to my imaginations of paradise. Beautiful nature, greenery, flowers, butterflies, turqoise sea bays, beaches and magnificent mountains. The fact that Costa Rica also is one of Latinamerikas most prosperous and democratic (and stable) countries don´t make it any worse, right? Costa Rica have struggled to maintain their rainforest for a long while and are way ahead many countries when it comes to eco-tourism. And, Costa Rica is also one of very few countries that has no army/military what so ever. Doesn´t that sound like a place to visit?


Well, Costamor offers, this far, four different scents. Tabacca, Sugarwood, Beachwood and Dulcess all of them are EdP.


Dulcess is closest to a fruityfloral, the scent of fruits and flowers that lures butterflies. On me, the top note smells a little lika Aqualina´s Pink Sugar, but softer, lighter and not as sweet. I don´t get that impressed, but after a while Dulcess is changing and become more creamy, smoth and flowery. Now, I think it´s closing in to the smell of a jungle filled with lush flowers and ripe fruits. Dulcess evolves to a quite vibrant and loud tropical floral fiesta. Good longvity and good sillage.


Beachwood is the smell of long sandy beaches, sea and driftwood. This is a little odd take on aquatic, lets call it a woody aquatic. The aquatic accord is quite warm, and makes me think more of warm, turqoise and tropcal waters than on cold and stormy oceans. The notes of wood become more and more obvious and at the same time the aquatic note retires. During the base note the wood has become warm, dry and soft and also a nice nuance of sweet creaminess from coconut. Just as Dulcess this is a longlasting scent with plenty of sillage.


Just as the name suggest, Tabacca is a tobacco scent. If Dulcess and Beachwood aren´t really my cups of tea, Tabacca is. For start it´s sweet, golden and sticky aplle tobacco. Actually it smells exactly as the apple tobacco you can buy to water pipes. And, this I like. The sweetness and moist stays for a good while, but suddenly I discover that Tabacca has developed into something else. Now, it has become a embrasive, dry and genuin scent of smoking cigars and cigarettes. Somewhere along the road, Tabacca has left the Tropics and left me in a Brittish gentlemen´s club... and that isn´t a bad place to be either. Now, Tabacca remind me a little of Ava Luxe´s Film Noir, but slightly softer and maybe easier to wear. Tabacca has also good lasting power and sillage.


But really, my favorite of the four has become Sugarwood. With note of sugar cane, just such a thing! And it´s sweet, but not too sweet, at least not on me. It smells like if sugar would be fresh, green, aromatic, juicy and I guess that is what sugar smells like when it still is sugar canes!? I have never encountered any sugar canes in real life, so for me the sugar cane note in Sugarwood is totally unique and unlike everything I know of (OK, maybe there is a hundred of different scents out there with the same scent, but if so I haven´t tried them.. yet, and I will write more about similarities soon, but that hasn´t got anything to do with the Costamor fragrances). Just like the other scents from Costamor, Sugarwood is changing quite drastically. From comforting green sweetness to something different, not entirely different though. Now a note of caramellised, almost burnt sugar develops and from juicy it goes towards soft, warm woods. A total change, but still a logic one...


Non of the scents from Costamor seem to be so complicated, but they are warm, happy and partly, different. The basenote in all four scents are very concrete, and even though it´s differs from the top-and heart it´s still very belivable. Fresh sugar become burnt sugar. Golden, sweet tobacco becomes smoky tobacco. Aquatic notes and wet wood becomes coconut and dried woods. Cotton candy and caramell changes and becomes flowers and fruits (real thing compared to manufactured sweets).


You can find more information about Costamore here: http://www.costamor.com/
For now, you can buy Sugarwood and Tabacca at Luckyscent, but also directly at the Costamore homepage.


Until I go to Costa rice for real, I have to settle with sniffing on Sugarwood, and I do that with pleasure. Have you ever been to Costa Rica? Is it as fantastic and beautiful as I imagine? Or do you suggest some other paradise that are as good?


Coming up... some fumes from New York as well as some more Italian, and I´ve been doing some research that I´ll publish here soon...

Björk & Berries - White Jasmine EdP

Today, I will write about another pleasant note, namely jasmine.


More exactly the Swedish brand Björk & Berries eau de parfum, White Jasmine. Mainly, Björk & Berries are specialised on making wonderful skincare products. Many of their products have a Nordic style, both in design and scents. Björk & Berries offers for example skincare products with the scent of lingonberry/rose, clodberry/jasmine, wild strawberry and blueberry/lavender. Apart from skincare Björk & Berries also offer four different eau de parfums, White Jasmine, Patchouli Man, Patchouli Woman and Cedar Lime. You can read more about Björk & Berries and their products on their very nice homepage: http://www.bjorkandberries.com/


There isn´t any other note that have the same ability as jasmine to evoke an enchanted, mystical and suggestive mood I think. A well made jasmine scent takes me to enchanted realms populated by fairytale figures. White Jasmine isn´t an exception.


As the name suggest, White Jasmine is a "white" scent, if you by white means clear, clean, crispy, even a little cold, but also delicious and kind of high tuned. At once, when i try White Jasmine for the first time I´ve got associations to midsummernight sun, or more specifik, the white nights you can experience in Northern Sweden during midsummer and the weeks around that time.


I have seen real midnight sun, when visiting Northern Norway and Kiruna (situated in the very Northern parts of Sweden). But, where I came from, Boden, we don´t have any true midnight sun, by the mean of the sun being over the horison during night. The sun sets, but just for a very short while, leaving the night in a white, pale state of dusky dawn for a few hours until it rises again, about 1 or 2 in the morning.


These pale nights gives an enchanted mood, even though I never reflected about it as a kid, I think it´s quite beautiful and special nowadays when I´m visiting my home town during midsummer.


It´s this pale, fragile light that White Jasmine makes me think about. Fairy dance. Fog over the marshes. Figures among the trees with their backs turned against me... was it for real or only in my imagination?


But, White Jasmine is also a happy and purling scent, it´s purling and bubbles on my skin like an alpine creek or a clear coldwater well. White jasmine are on the border to being a soliflor, but gets some support from bergamot and ylang. The top note smells fresh and a little berry, like mineral water flavored with some kind of berries. I belive that the jasmine thanks to bergamot avoid being a little sleepy, as some jasmine frags tends to. It hasn´t got that stale character some other jasmine scents got.


The jasmine scent in White Jasmine is pretty much dominant, but convincable, clean but also interesting. I can sense some coniferus, soil, berries and an extremly pleasant scent of suggestive jasmine. White Jasmine is such a pleasant scent, a must try for every jasmine lover.


White Jasmine is made with 100% natural ingrediense, so this is a pretty soft scent, the sillage is gentle, but noticable. And the lasting power is really good for an all natural scent, I can feel the last remainings of the base note after about 8 hours. I love to wake up in the morning to discover the little traces of yesterdays perfume still lingering on my skin. Together with the bodyproducts with cloudberry/jasmine scent, you can layer White Jasmine and make it a little stronger. I love the coludberry/jasmine scent, even though the jasmine is pretty dominant in it, I can at least smell some cloudberries, lovely!


I like the toned down and Nordic style of Björk&Berries, and their eau de parfums (at least White Jssmine) are very affordable.


But I wish for an even more Nordic approach, why not let cloudberries be a note in one of their eau de parfums also? At the same time I realise that skincare products are their main orientation and that the fragrances are a small, but pleasant compliment. But, in my imagination I can dream about small bottles of eau de parfum with scent of cludberry, lingonberry, wild strwaberry, archipelago, alpine marshes and spruce forest, maybe intended for layering with White Jasmine? Well, I can imagine a lot opf things in my perfumaniac mind.


Another nice thing, is that Björk&Berries actually was a part of this years Oscars goodiebag! It seem like they´re in full progress and when it comes to scented products and perfumes I´m a little bit patriotic, since we´re not spoiled with that sort of things in Sweden.


If you could wish for a Nordic inspired scent, preferably quite simple in style, what would it be?





Pic: Thoughts of Greener Pastures by Jo Barry

(I suggest you check out the amazing paintings of Jo Barry on the net!)