Cerchi Nell'Acqua - Waves

If Jolie (that I wrote about yesterday) is a soft, comfy and with gourmand elements, Waves is a totally different kind of scent.


Waves starts off like it was an "unknown" classic, Waves could have been launched by Caron for many, many years ago. I don´t think that I ever have encountered a modern fragrances that in the opening manage to smell so alike a vintage greatness. Of course this can partly depend on that this kind of fragrances isn´t asked for by young and not so perfume interested customers. On me the opening is on the border to to much, probably beacuse I didn´t expect such a magnificent and huge start. It´s like looking for a comfy sweater to put on, but by mistake happens to end up in a tight sequin dress. :)


But relax, even though Waves will keep parts of it´s grand opening, it´ll softens and mellows as time goes by. The opening is a blast of bergamott and citrys mixed with splendid florals and a dash of warm spicy cinnamon. After about 5-10 minutes, Waves warms up in the most beautiful way.


Waves is a fragrance that constantly changes, but as the name suggest the changes are soft like waves and without actual start or end. Waves as a scent spins around it´s own axle. elements of opoponax, ambra and sandalwood makes Waves to a warm, golden and glowing kind of scent. Waves is very sensual, even erotic and made for a grown up women with taste for glamour, drama and surprises.


The flowers in Waves are wonderful and warm, on my skin jasmine and orange flowers are most noitceable, but violet, iris and lavender is also present. ActuallyWaves seem to have so many different parts that I belive every single part of my skin, where I tested the fragrance, smells a little bit different. Complex, changing and in constant movement, but as with Jolie, no sharp edges. Waves has a bulit in smothness, soft, caressing and round as a perfect beach pebble.


When the citrus notes has tuned down and the florals has come to rest on my skin, there is golden, glowing, soft and slightly powdery scent of opoponax, ambra, sandalwood and spicy cinnamon left. this smells totally gorgeous, great and really addictive. Five out of five without a doubt!


Waves have good longvity and also a great sillage, even a bit demanding in the start.
Waves is an absolut must try if you´re usually into large, heady florals with some real vintage feel.




Pic: Dahlia close up, flickr
beach pebbles

Cerchi Nell'Acqua - Jolie

Enrico Buccella is a very profilic and creative man, not only is he the creator of Sigilli that I just wrote about, but also he´s the genious behind Cerchi Nell'Acqua (water circles). As for now, Cerchi Nell'Acqua is only available in Italy, but I hope it´ll be available at www.humbra.it soon.


While Sigilli was inspired by the etruscans and feautured a little more rare notes and combination of notes, Cerchi Nell'Acqua´s five (Jolie, White Out, Waves, Piccolo Amor and Ambr'ero) fragrances consist of some well known ingrediences, but presented in a brand new way. What´s new and sursprising with Cerchi Nell'Acqua is that the fragarnce is built in layer on layer, in circles (therefor the name water circles).


And yes, I have to admit I´m really impressed with these fragarnces and also, very enamoured with three of them. I´ll start with Jolie which is the softest and lightest of the five. Notes of vanilla, almond, milk, fruits and musk. Jolie is so easy to like, soft as eiderdown, delicate like a porcelain ballerina, smoth as a mothers caresse and comfy as the softest blanket. Somehow Jolie smells like the equivalent to holding a really soft and rounded stone in your hand, softness without any end or sharp edges.


Since it´s not built as a usual pyramide shaped fragrance, the different notes shows up slightly different from one wear to another. I suspect that Jolie, but the others in the line as well, would be quite different on different persons. On me Jolie starts off with a smoth scent of almond and vanilla, softly followed by a very transparente note of cherry, then I can sense a note of cold milk and those notes runs in and out of each other and it feels like the fragrance is changing in phase with my heartbeat or like waves on my skin. Jolie makes me think of anything soft like little downy chickens, soft baby cheeks, the blanket my son got in Christmas present, powdery snow and powdery sugar, kittens and puppies, whipped cream and vanilla custard.


What makes Jolie stand out from other fragrances with almond and vanilla (there are quite a few actually!)is the roundness, somehow it feels like a scent without an end, like something that goes round and round, and then round and round again (like a perpetual motion machine). As a women it´s natural for me to recognise and appreciate anything cyclic, therefor Jolie, and other fragarnces in the Nell'Acqua line fits me perfectly.


Jolie is a superior comfort scent with soft gourmand character. A must try for everyone usually found of the vanilla+almond combo, but also for everyone curious about a new way of perfumery. Jolie has excellent stating power (+8 hours at least with generous application), sillage is also good and then I only have a dab on sample.


I´ll write about some of the other Cerchi Nell'Acqua fragrances as well. What do you think about the traditional pyramide shaped fragrance, does it feel dated? Today, a lot of popular mainstream scents have a fabolous opening, but after 10-20 minutes there isn´t much left at all... Perfumers have tried to create starshaped or square shaped fragarnces, but in my opinion the round shape seem very natural and not so constructed. What do you think? Of course it can be difficult to have an opinion about a scent that you never tried, but there is some other fragrances with a roundness to them also, for instant I find Guerlains Insolence (edp) to be round and built in layers...


Oh, and there is only one week left to our next perfume meeting. I´m soooo looking forward to it. :)

Pic: Eiderdown and porcelain ballerina

Sigilli - Claudiae

Claudiae is probably my favorite among the Sigilli fragrances. Sigilli´s fragrances are interesting and even thrilling to test, but some of them have been a little hard to relate to for me, mostly because the unfamiliar combination of notes. This makes Sigilli fragrances unlike anything else I´ve tried, which is of course, both good and bad. I´ve also noticed I like several of them better and better when I have got a little time to adjust to them. Sigilli´s perfumes are truly niche when it´s at it´s best, ground breaking, unique, but maybe not fitting everybodys taste.


Such a fragrance is Claudiae. Claudiae is an odd, but also comfy creation. The opening is filled with green, aromatic tomato leafs that soon gets company by a nutty, grainy and very aromtic note of poppy. the opening feels like a very beneficial , but also strange kind of herbal tea or herbal remedy of some kind. I´m usually quite found of medical elements in fragrances, so to me this makes Claudiae interesting and personal.


After about half an hour, Claudiae is chagning a little, rose makes it softer and sweeter, but at the same time a note of fennel shows up, with it´s herbal anise like scents, but also something that underscores the nuttyness from the poppy. This is a really well made and creative fragrance. It feels like a clebration for an ancient fertility or harvest goddess. Despite it´s "antique" character, I´m sure Claudiae would suit perfume lovers in any age looking for something truly unique.


The base is warm, creamy and dense. And with elements of patchouli and musk it gets deeper, darker and more sensual with time. The base feels, in different from the rest of the fragrances, quite modern and very easy to like and wear. During this phase Claudiae is more of a comfort scent and I can´t stop sniffing my wrist.


longvity is good and sillage is also good, even though i only have a little dab on sample. Claudiae has so much of personality and charm that I´m sure I´ll need more of it when my small sample is finnished.


As mentioned, Sigilli has more fragrances to offer, and besides the two I have wrote about here I feel I have to mention both Asprosa and Athunis. They are pretty much each others opposite, but I like them both. Asprosa is a wonderful soft and feminine floral with notes of citrus, rose and orange blossom. If you like L'Artisan´s La Chasse Aux Papillon, you probably love this one too, it´s that kind of creamy citrus floral and with good lasting power too. Athunis on the other hand is all about warm wood and strong smoke, with notes of cedar and vetiver it is a masculin fragrances, but also suitable for women liking really smoky scents, cause it might be the smokiest vetiver I ever smelled. An aboslute MUST try for all vetiver lovers!


for now, Sigilli is available at Aus Liebe Zum Duft, but Enrico Buccella is planning for a webpage soon.


Pic: poppies

Sigilli - Ferfaen

While mainstream perfume brands seem to be inspired only by youth, beauty, and nowadays fame also, some niche-and indie perfume brands seem to find inspiration in past times, with Hollywood glamour, smiling pin-up girls and the happy days of the 20'ies.


Still, it´s not that common to find fragrances inspired by an era more than 50 or even 100 years ago. But, Italian perfumer, Enrico Buccella have found inspiration from the etruscan culture. The etruscan people lived in what is known as Italy in our time, their culture and society flourished around 500 BC. A lot of information about the etruscna people has been lost, but it´s recognised that they where skilled artisans. Eventually the etruscan power diminished and they become assimilated in the Roman empire.


It´s an interesting challenge to test the different fragrances, Asprosa, Claudiae, Tyrsenoi, Ferfaen, Ea, Athunis, Pyrgos, Thu, Hesperia, Volumnia and Tuscia, but with that many new fragrances to evaluate it can be a little hard to overlock them all. They all have one thing in common, they manage to create a feeling of an long time gone culture in avery genuin and trustworthy way. i don´t like all of the fragrances in the line as much, some of them are even a little hard to pull off, but still they convince at least me, that this is how people some 3000 years ago liked to smell...


One of my favorites is Ferfaen, which means verbena in celtic, and yes, this is a scent with fresh verben in the middle, but also underscored by dark and aromatic notes of tobacco and musk. Ferfaen is complex and changes a lot on my skin, the opening is like a mix between herbal and aromatic citruses and some fresh mint. after about 20 minutes - half an hour the scent darkens, tobacco gives a deepth to Ferfaen, while verbena and mint is still noticable. Something in the meeting of verbena and tobacco gives a dry almost papery feeling, but at the same time something that also smells like rugged leather. I´ve never encountered anything like this in a fragrance.
It´s strange and different, yet Ferfaen is one of the most easier to wear among the Sigilli fragrances.


The base is warm, aromatic, sligthly sweet and with some animalic musk. It´s senual and even a little erotic, so I can see why verbena was used as an aphrodisia.


While testing Sigilli, I was reading a book about Pompeiji and the fragrances brought
another dimension to my reading experience.


Ferfaen has good lasting power (about 6 hours), and not that huge sillage, but I´ve tested it with a dab on sample though. To me, I can see Ferfaen being used by both men and women. And I do recommend you to put on any of the Sigilli scents if you´re about to watch any costume movie taking place under the Anticque era. Or of course if you read a book about that time. Sigilli will bring a little extra something to that experience...

Serge Lutens - Jeux de peau

Now about something totally different then a bargain. More precise, a small sample of Serge Lutens latest offering Jeux de peau, which I bought at Ebay last week for no less then about 7 €. Oh, well and yesterday I get an offer to get a sample for free. Win some loose some...

Even though I have lately manage to extend my perfume collection quite much, I also have had time to test Jeux de peau a few times. And yes, this I do like! Comfy yet different, soft and sensual.

It opens with a very genuin note of roasted bread. Have never smelled anything like this in a fragrance actually. The roasted bread note hangs in there for a while, but become quite soft. Soon an equaly soft and pleasant note of apricot is showing, I think of it as apricots in milk or even cream. Not so sweet, but very comforting. This part of Jeux de peau smells incredible good, but I also discovers similarities with Etat Libre d'Orange´s Like This. If you like Like This, you´ll probably like Jeux de peau as well. But, I don´t think you´ll need them both. Both of them are soft, sensual and skin close scents, and about half an hour in Jeux de peau I even think I prefer it before Like This...

But, after some time the sandalwood note joins, it´s both nice and creamy, but also with a certain sharp and brisk element that some sandalwood gets on me. In this fragrance the sandalwood don´t become too brisk and sharp, but still it´s the reason that I in this phase prefer Like This over Jeux de peau. Like This continues on the soft side, but with that discrete chili note that I like so much. Jeux de peau feels like a layer of softer than soft (apricot+milk+bread) mixed over a sharp layer. I think it´s matter of taste what you prefer.

If it wasn´t for that sharpness in the base, i would say that Jeux de peau is spot on fabulous comfort scent, but in the base it become more like a sandalwood scent with some soft musk, the bread and apricot isn´t there in the end.

Until I tried Jeux de peau I was sure to buy a BB of Like This soon, but now I feel a little less sure. Maybe I like Jeux de peau a little tiny bit better? Or the other way around? I´m not sure, I guess I have to do a little more side by side testing.

Jeux de peau have good longvity and soft, skin close sillage. It´s a rather feminine scent, but I think it would be really interesting on man too... Anyway, this is a must try if you like Like This or if you´re looking ofr different and not so sweet gourmand fragrances.

Pic: flickr.com

Buy 15 and get 14 for free.

Usually I don´t buy 15 bottles of perfume (or fragrances) at the same time. But some times I stumble upon offers that seem to be to good to be true. I promise I had to pinch my arm yesterday...

First of all I bought a lot of ten different fragrances at Tradera (Swedish Ebay) and since the seller lived in the same town as me, we agreed that I could get collect them at his place. What I bought was ten bottles of un-specified fragrance, but thanks to the pic I could at least identify a bottle of vintage Shalimar and a bottle of vintage Femme by Rochas, some of the other offerings wasn´t that interesting, for example several bottles of deo spray... I think it´s so thrilling to buy this kind of things, it can be a true finding, but also it can show that the precious perfume haven´t manage to well and gone stale and sour... Oh well, for about 15 € it´s a risk I´m willing to take.

When I come to collet the bottles the seller told me that he have a lot of other perfume as well, a whole box that I could check if I was interested. Oh yes! It was at least 30-40 bottles, even though a mayority was cheap Avon-Yves Rocher kind of scents I did find a bottle of vintage Chanel No 5 almost full, a bottle of vintage Miss Dior, and Dior´s Dune, and Paris by YSL and Eau Torride by Givenchy. I explain that I am most interested in perfumes from well known brands, since they´ve probably hold a better quality and will stay good for a longer time. For another 15 € I get those bottles as well.

My knees was all shaky! Wow what a finding!

The pic above show most of the bottles, but not the deo sprays etc. I have briefly tested the known fragrances and they seem to be in good shape, except of Shalimar that smells so MUCH better then my newer version. It´s much more full bodied and glowing and... wow, and yet it´s only and eau de cologne.

Some of the bottles are nothing but curiosities, like the one in the left corner, Parfum de Escapade by AB Perplex, made only for "Hemmets Journal" a swedish ladies magasine, seem to be about 50 years old and I guess it´s really, really rare, but not so much sought after though. :)

The bottle with the greenish label is from Mallorca, Aromes de la Granja, it have a flower of some kind floating in the juice.

If someone have any information about the After Dark or Great lakes bottles, please let me know.

I tend to some strange buyings from time to time. This far I have been dissapointed once, and that was when the seller (or someone else) had blended the remainings of the frags with water!

Do you prefer to play it safe when it comes to perfumes? Maybe you plan exactly what to buy? A bargain can easily end up to be a bunch of dust collecting bottles... But, in this case I know I love Shalimar, and that I probably will use Chanel No 5 from time to time, and Dune is also smelling quite good and Miss Dior, well I guess I make a nice bargain after all. :)

What is your best bargain?

A little internet hate...

When I´m on to not liking things I can as well continue with it, right?

Imagine you work at an ordinary company or health care or school or whatever. As long as your cleaner staff does their job good you might not even notice them. He/she maybe not even works the times you work. But, if you´re ordinary cleaner quits and the new one don´t clean that well, forget to fill up the toilet paper, no dusting underneath the photo copier and so on. Then you notice the cleaner, don´t you? At least you notice that it isn´t clean. That the new cleaner have two less hours than the old to make the same job, well no one remember to inform the staff about it... So everyone ends up wanting to strangle the poor cleaner.

This is kind of how I feel about our mailman now. I KNOW that the swedish post had have major cut downs lately, like there isn´t any post offices left anymore. You have to go to your local grocery store and do your postal buisness. And I hate posting letters there, since the staff don´t even know where USA or Great Britain is situated (inside or outside Europe!!!). So nowadays I buy my own stamps and weigh my own letters.

Still, I can´t deliver my own post! Even though that is a question 'bout time, probably sooner or later ordinary people have to go to the post terminal and get their own post, every day monday-friday, between 12-14, except on thursday when they have a staff meeting. Well, what is going on is that post on it´s way to me have started to dissapear. :(

Since beginning of november at least five different parcels on their way to me have not maked it. At first i blamed the post in Italy, France and Great Britain, but then I talked with out neighbor.

She told me that our post have been put in their mailbox the whole week. Of course the neighbors put it in our mailbox, but that isn´t exactly their job.

Now I´m really paranoid that all my interesting perfume samples have been delivered to someone else (not our closest neighbors, I think they´re really reliable), but people some other place that don´t know me (us) at all... Of course my bubble mailers looks a little more interesting then envelopes from some dull authority.

The thing is that I belive I have a copple of perfume friends in Sweden that also have noticed that the mail isn´t as smoth as it used to be. Small parcels that should have been delivred the next day don´t arrive until after about four or five days. And you don´t chose sign for delivery (in Sweden this is quite expensive) if the value is about 3 euro.

What is your experiences with the post companies? Have you noticed any change lately? Or do you think the post was better where you lived before? Have you waited in vain for something that never arrived? Or have something you´ve send don´t reach the right destination? Feel free to wine, it´s totally Ok to "hate" the post delivery today on my blog. And in our modern society where common people don´t send post any more, we perfumistas is an exception...

pic: fashionbysara.blogspot.com