It’s just crazy! (just like Musette)
March 12, 2012
I’m having the hardest time accepting that it’s 4degrees warmer (WARMER) in Central IL than in Santa Barbara CA. Let’s ignore the fact that we’re 2 hours ahead – the sun set awhile ago (not that we had much in the way of a sunset; we’re expecting thunderboomers a little later)….we’ll just give that a bye. It’s Central Illinois, people. In early March! That’s just not right. Even weirder? Two days ago it was arctic. And yesterday I was in a tshirt and yoga pants, battling a lice-infested apartment. Okay, to be fair the lice were probably gone (the tenants moved out a week ago and there’s no carpeting – can lice survive in carpeting? ) But…..ewww…. lice are just gross.
and none of this has anything to do with a perfume review. I’m just crabbing because I lost several hours sleep this morning, which I was craving after the 9-hr Epic Cleanfest and Lice Battle. Our boys have been prepping for DST for the past two weeks; like trees, dogs don’t go by clocks – they go by light. So they’ve been shaking their collars and dancing at the bedroom door earlier and earlier. Sigh. I could’ve really used that extra Sunday Sleep, though studies show (at least for now) that ‘catching up’ on sleep isn’t that great a thing. So….
okay, that STILL doesn’t have anything to do with a perfume review. And unless I rein in the crabbing we’ll be here all day. So….let’s talk about Swapmania, shall we? Well, just a little bit. What I want to discuss is all the new/cool/unexpected stuff I got from my few swaps. As happened in the last swap, it’s the extra goodies from generous swappers that proved to be the most intriguing. Masha and I swapped for some Majmua, the one so many of you wax eloquent about – and I can’t smell it. 
But she also threw in this rollerball vial of golden liquid….and that’s the topic of today’s ramble.
Crazy.
So…you all know my perfume cabinet is chockablock with some of the most expensive perfumes and attars on the planet – and El O couldn’t care less. Tribute? huh. Carnal Flower? “wow. you have on a LOT of perfume”. Mitsouko? ‘ah-choo!’. So imagine my surprise when I tried this little rollerball of golden liquid. Really lovely, it smelled like an unidentifiable blossom dipped in wild honey. I had no idea what it was. I was prepared to just like this little rollerball a whole lot until I wore it to bed on Friday night. El O (yeah, El O!!) walked into the bedroom, stopped dead in his lumbering tracks and said “you smell GOOD!”. What the heck? Okay. Now I’m worried. Crap. Is this going to be another cash-fest like Jubilation 25 or Epic? Wore it to the Cleanfest/Lice Battle and the next door neighbor complimented me as well (pre-cleaning, obviously)! Crap. With heart in mouth, I emailed Masha…..Masha replied that it is a perfume oil from Swiss Arabian, called Noora. And it has orange blossom as a dominant note. MORE Crazy! I am not a fan of orange blossom, finding the usual greeny-soapiness to be a bit grating. Somehow, though, Noora avoided all that, and wove this silken, honeyed tendril of golden elixir…it’s not quite ‘exotic’ and I think that’s what works here – it’s generic ‘pretty’ with just a smidge of a hint of unusual. Amouage has nothing to worry about – they’re worlds apart – but this is one of those scents you could wear every day, as wallpaper and people would think you smell GOOD without really thinking about perfume.
Here are the notes for Noora, from the website:
Noora, meaning ‘divine light’ is a concentrated Mukhalat. This oriental composition starts with soft fruity notes of orange and honey which turns into floral notes of lily, rose and saffron. It has musk, sandalwood and vanilla notes in the end.
So, what’s the ‘crazy’ part? This lovely little gem is, apparently, the Avon of Arabia. Masha says Swiss Arabian is a basic brand for ordinary folks in the Arab world and all I have to say is, ordinary folks sure smell good. But that’s not the crazy – the crazy is, this 20ml bottle is $12! Yes. Twelve Dollars. Good thing I was sitting down. My battered cod dinner from Culver’s was $11 (hey, we’re in the boonies and it was late. and you know what? That was some GOOD cod. Best way to eat it is to peel off 80% of the batter, leaving just enough here and there for a bit of ‘crunch’. wait. how did we get on cod? Lord.) Some of Swiss A’s other offerings are more expensive (though, again, quality scents for $39? huh?). Btw, I have looked high and low for a definition of Mukhalat. Best I can divine is it (may) mean ‘mixture’ or ‘essence’. Or both. If anyone knows more about the word, I would love some clarification. Whatever it means, it’s yummy stuff.
A lot of the line is offered on Amazon. Be prepared for some interesting copy – notes don’t seem to tell you much. Fun packaging. I think I am going to have fun investigating this line further!!
Have any of you tried any of these? Suggestions would be welcome !! And here’s the Question of the Day: what are the worst high/low comments you’ve ever received? I think mine is Epic. I adore it and find it breathtakingly beautiful. El O…’smells like a funeral parlor’.
And no, my brain is NOT a pinball in my head machine. I’m just a bit distracted these days. Sorry! I’ll try to stay better on…….SQUIRREL!
image: swissarabian.com – some great adverts, which I mistook for the boxes at first (and was nearly giddy with delight) – this is my favorite.
betcha not one of these guys has ever had to clean a lice-infested apartment. Heck, they probably have somebody to brush their hair!!
Musette
(4) Comments • Filed in Blame March,Perfume Review
As I’ve written before, I am rather resistant to By Kilian. Kilian Hennessy is young, thin, broodingly handsome, talented and very wealthy. This makes some of us who are rotund, poor and into the AARP years terribly jealous. I’m sure that he’s most likely even a very nice person, which makes me even more wretched. So, please forgive me G-d and Tonstant Weader that in my black little heart I want to hate Amber Oud.
I just can’t.
It’s bad enough that he took two of my favorite notes and mixed them so well. But he had to add a dash of vanilla..
Amber is more the star here, hence the billing. It’s a refined, rather dry amber with only a touch of the glottal heat that makes Lutens Ambre Sultan not only the reference amber scent for me but also one that’s difficult for me to wear when the temps are much above 50. The oud in here is also of a refined sort. It doesn’t jump out at you waving tentacles like some of the Montales that I have tried (and loved; I’m all about the big gesture) and isn’t as raspy as Le Labo. But then we go into the kitchen and add in the vanilla: almost as plush as Guerlain Spiriteuse and with a bit of that boozy punch to it, but not as over-the-top. I love my bottle of the Guerlain, but it’s another one that’s best when it’s cold out. Really cold. I would think on a hot summer day it would be like being smothered by a giant marshmallow. I ran around doing errands involving walking and a poorly air-conditioned BH shuttle bus and I never felt I was importuning in anything other than perhaps the way too casual attire I’d chosen for a last-minute decision to sit in on a city planning commission meeting. I was dressed down, but as my scent twin points out, this “smells like a million dollars” and so did I. It’s a Perfect Manhattan Cocktail of a scent, a wonderful, intoxicating concoction blending sweet, smoky and dry. I feel more elegant, more Fred Astaire holding one. I feel more elegant and Fred Astaire wearing this.
Even if I look more Fred Flintstone..
By Kilian Amber Oud is $395 for 50ml EDP (sigh) and is available at Luckyscent, Aedes, Bergdorf Goodman and Saks 5th Avenue. I received the sample by registering on the company’s Facebook page. Go see if you still can too.
Image: Wikipedia Commons
Tom
I’ve so looked forward to revisiting the Malles,and we start with one old favorite and one newer to the line – Angelique Sous la Pluie and Portrait of a Lady.
Angelique was released when the line launched in 2000, and it’s been one of my favorites both from Malle and Jean-Claude Ellena – the go-to scent on days when everything else just seems like too much. Notes of angelica leaves, juniper berries, coriander, musk, and sweet cedar keep this scent dry and peppery woodsy. Turning more musky takes this scent in a whole different direction without losing all that peppery woods on the open. This is a lovely and easy to wear unisex scent that seems deceptively simple on the surface but has such a great journey. This will always be an easy to reach for scent for me, and it surprises me every time I wear it with just how much I love it and wonder why I don’t seek out its company more often.
Portrait of a Lady was released in late 2010, created by Dominque Ropion. I dithered on this one for a long time because it’s rose. I don’t dislike rose, but it’s just not what I usually want to wear, so few rose perfumes appeal to me on a “want to wear it” level. Raspberry, cassis, rose, cinnamon, clove, benzoin, sandalwood, patchouli, frankincense, ambroxan and white musk. Amped up incensed spiced rose. It’s beautifully made, but I was just never sure I liked it. It stops short of a hyper-rose scent, but I can’t figure out why I would say that because it is hyper-rose, but it’s just note heavy, even though it should be. The patchouli is prominent, and it feels a little scratchy, almost thorny, and a little bit trampy, which is something that’s pretty important in my roses, except the super-innocent ones. This rose has thorns. It mellows as it’s on, which is great because that open is a little intense. And it’s that mellowing that gives it the lightness. If I had to pick between Une Rose, Lipstick Rose and Portrait of a Lady, this one would be the rose that I’d wear happily, and it could go sit beside JAR Bed of Roses, Hermessence Rose Ikebana, MDCI Rose di Siwa, Lutens Rose de Nuit and a handful of Rosines (Kashmirie, that gourmand one whose name is escaping me and the citrus one) that are my go-to rose scents when I really, really really just want to smell roses.
But just with these two scents, one from the early start of the Malle line to one that is one of the most recent, the quality of everything that is done comes through. Whether you wind up making a favorite of any of the scents, you can’t help but admire them.
Now I want a great big fat jasmine or gardenia perfume from Malle. I know he said he can’t or won’t do the room scent Gardenia that I love, but just anything like that would be amazing.
Rose scents? Love them or hate them? If you hate them, why? I’m curious because I’m always trying to put my finger on why I’m not a huge fan of rose scents when I love roses and their smell in the garden so much.
Patty
By March
March came in like a lamb. Warm and sunny, then a day of intense rain, pushed out by a front. I was expecting a cold front, but it was lovely, warm and sunny again. I walked the dog, smiled at the snowdrops blooming, the daffodils, the crocuses Hecate loves to pick and bring to me from other people’s yards; so ephemeral. How can I scold her?
So tonight I sat on the porch, supremely happy, watching the sunset paint itself across the sky in red, orange, indigo. And I thought: what is beauty? This sunset is beautiful. But if I were blind, I could still tell you about the sounds. The birdsong, the cardinal looking for a mate, the geese returning, my own children laughing in the street as they race up and down on their scooters. And if I were blind and deaf, I could still savor the loamy smell of the warming earth, harbinger of spring.
Three senses – sight, sound, touch – seem most important (at least in the first world) for survival. Those senses will keep you from being mowed down by a Metrobus or an ambulance, will keep you from being scalded by your bath water. But I cannot imagine a world without smell.
Some of my memories, my strongest memories, from childhood revolve around smell — hot asphalt melting in the summer, nail polish, rain on red dirt, Nehi grape soda, chlorine pools, fireworks, Georgia peaches ripening in the musty cool of our next-door-neighbor’s garage. Mothballs in the cedar closet. The motes of dust in the air. My mother (Lipton tea, Carltons), damp silk from the sofa. Leaf-piles, pine boughs, the blue-wet smell of snow and the candle-wax we used for the runners on our Flexible-Flyer sleds. Rubbery wet galoshes, radiator heat. The smell-not-smell of the apple tree I climbed each spring in the cemetery next to our house, hiding myself in the petticoat-pink-confetti blooms. Life begins again, and I am reborn.
Every now and again I run across a weird-science article about some poor soul with a disorder that renders all smells into rotting meat, or no smell at all. I have my own experiences with allergy-related anosmia. No sense of smell? I can’t imagine how I would live.
* * *
I am behind on my perfumage, to put it mildly. Over the past several months I’ve been steering my ship through perilous waters and mighty rough seas, and for awhile there I did wonder whether we’d capsize. To all of you who held me in your hearts — you sent perfumes and chocolates and mash notes, you made funny comments, maybe you just waited patiently for me to chart a new course — I thank you all.
But what to review? I now have dozens and dozens of unsniffed samples staring me in the face, although maybe they’re just waiting patiently, too. Where to start? It seemed so overwhelming. I decided to sniff the first thing I ran across on my desk, which brings us to Tommi Sooni.
I loved Tarantella – a smooth, elegant chypre — when it came out a few years ago, also from this Australian perfumer, and apparently I was still on his mailing list. There’s another unsniffed sample in there – Jinx – but I have had enough jinxes, thanks very much, so I went with Eau de Tommi Sooni I and II, which are also (along with Tarantella and Jinx) available at LuckyScent.
Here are the notes for both, cribbed from Fragrantica:
TS I – lime, lemon leaves, bergamot, bay laurel, jonquil, metallic rose, Cuban cigar accord, pine, sandalwood, benzoin, oakmoss. “A rich, deep Oriental enhanced with oakmoss for an urbane, warm, sensual presence. Created by Tommi Sooni perfumer Brett Schlitter.”
Man, I couldn’t have picked a better place to dive back in. TS I is an unapologetic, big-boned, old-school affair lost somewhere in time between Katherine Hepburn and Paloma Picasso. It’s got a head of that bitter/powder accord that makes me think of the long-lost Parfums of Paris mini-bottle collection from my childhood, mysterious elixirs of adult womanhood I doubted I’d ever achieve. Like Tarantella, TS I doesn’t give the impression of chasing after the current trends. The bay, jonquil and woods give it a sharp greenness, the benzoin gives it warmth, and I don’t know how he did it, but it’s mossy as hell. Two thumbs up.
TS II — Rhubarb, bergamot, lemon, daphne, jasmine, ylang ylang, honey, vanilla, amber, sandalwood. “Gently drift along the fragrant canals of South East Asia. Close your eyes and fall under the spell of the lilting boat, its scented oars of sacred sandalwood. Receive the offerings of sweet spices mixed with honey.”
Look at that list of notes. That thing is made for me, right? Right? And for about fifteen minutes it is perfect. It’s a heavy, spicy, gourmand oriental that reminds me quite a bit of the raspy-oud/spices of one of those killer Laura Mercier LEs (Minuit Enchantee?) It’s powerful stuff, more suited for cold weather, heavy on the jasmine and vanilla. Unfortunately on my skin all the interesting bits blow off in fairly short order, leaving me with an ambernilla that is a hair too sweet for my tastes. But I keep putting it back on, enjoying the opening.
The best part of these? As I was tucking my sleepy boy into bed, having just reapplied them, he mumbled with faint surprise in his voice, mom, you smell like … you. By which he means, like one or several perfumes he’s never smelled before in his life. I hope he’ll always remember me that way.
image: witch-hazel. I love that smell, there’s a tree hidden somewhere near my new office. It’s an ethereal combination of honeysuckle and sweaty feet.
March
(42) Comments • Filed in Perfume Review,Perfumes by House,Saints and Sinners,Tommi Sooni