Tyrannosaurus Rex by Zoologist Perfumes

Painting by Mark Hallett.

I always anticipate a new release from Zoologist Perfumes for their creativity and sense of inventiveness. I would imagine if you are a perfumer it is energizing to conceptualize a scent via story board inspiration from  Zoologist's Victor Wong and know that originality is not only acceptable but desired. I have enjoyed the dizziness of inhaling nectar scents from the darting viewpoint of a hummingbird, the flight of a bat as it leaves its cave dwelling and soars through the night sky, and the charge of an elephant in search of food. I had read various reviews of Tyrannosaurus Rex painting it as a real beast of a fragrance so I kept delaying the trial of my sample in the heat of an Australian summer. Now back in the Northern Hemisphere we're experiencing some cool rainy days and  I decided it was time to try out the mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Zoologist scents have always taken me on a journey and this one is no exception. The image that popped into my head as this fragrance evolved on my skin was the old Jurrasic Park ride at Universal Studios in Florida. My husband and I took our kids there about fifteen years ago and I remember reading that the ride closed recently so it could be rebuilt bigger and better. I always liked the cave rides, as we called them, at amusement parks. You're hot and tired from tromping through an amusement park filled with hoards of people, you've been standing in line for an hour, then finally you get to sink into your bathtub of a boat. You start to float, cool water mists your face and as you enter the darkness you wait for another world to unfold before your eyes. If you missed this particular experience here's a video below. It all looks rather tame and hokey now, but I loved it.

 Join me on this journey to experience the new Zoologist scent Tyrannasourus Rex!

My frame of mind as I apply the perfume Tyrannosaurus Rex: I'm ready for anything. Initially I smell something other-worldly, as if I've landed on a planet with a strange and different atmosphere to which I am not accustomed. The perfumer Antonio Gardoni used notes of bergamot, black pepper, fir, laurel leaf, neroli, and nutmeg in the opening, all of which sound rather ordinary. I was expecting  one of those creative lists with ingredients of cyanide, dragon's blood, or meteorite shards. Somehow he creates a moment of magic from these mundane ingredients, a pause where I thought, "I haven't smelled anything exactly like this before." Then within a minute the moment is very quickly quenched by the smoke of distant fires. The smoke intensifies and the smell is soon punctuated with the scent of burning tar. Is this a reference to the burning tar pits that supposedly swallowed dinosaurs whole? The Le Brea Tar pits in California came into being 65 million years after the disappearance of the dinosaurs, a fact I seemed to have slept through in science class, but lets not quibble. This is my dinosaur park ride and it is exciting and everything I hoped for.

La Brea Tar Pits as depicted by Charles R. Knight.

The sharp aroma of molten tar intensifies and the smell of out-of-control fires burning and smoking becomes even more pungent. This is the smell of scorched earth. Whether this is a result of flaming volcanoes pouring streams of red hot lava or an asteroid has just crashed and annihilated all life on Earth I do not know, but these fires are fierce. Cade oil is present in Tyrannosaurus Rex and is responsible for much of this smoke and tar. This cloud of thick smoke and bubbling tar is everything I've read in the reviews for the perfume. While the fires smolder, this erases any other smells for me. I get no champaca or jasmine, no geranium or rose, this is epic. Although I love to burn fires in my house's fireplace in winter, the smell always gives me an allergic reaction. That is what seems to be occurring now. The smoke is so freaking realistic that I begin to wonder, do I need to get my bottle of Afrin?

www.TheTimes.com.uk

Leather and patchouli add to the sensation of a large animal crashing about, the thick hide impervious to the flames and the large feet tearing out bits of earth as he pounds the ground, on a chase for his next kill. There is civet in the brew but I do not get a strong feral aspect to the scent; I believe the smoke overcomes that aspect on my skin.

This level of excitement can only carry on for so long. As our imaginary boat goes around the next curve in the river ride the smoke from fires still smolders but begins to fade in ferocity. Curls of ancient incense begin to rise from the smoking ground and it feels like a resurrection of the blistered landscape. Resinous frankincense along with cedar wood bring calm, and now finally  I begin to smell the florals which were MIA before. The florals are background noise and muddled to present an emergent landscape of rebirth and regeneration. I do not distinguish between the individual notes of geranium, champaca, jasmine, osmanthus, rose and ylang ylang. I have read that a rose oxide note was used to simulate the smell of blood as the T-Rex wrecks havoc, but the blood smell is not as pronounced for me as it was in Imaginary Author's Bulls Blood, for example.

We are nearing the end of this ride and things begin to change more quickly. The smoke is faint and fading. Florals are indistinct but present. The resins and incense have transformed this perfume into more of a smooth oriental-style scent and base notes of vanilla and sandalwood accentuate this effect. In truth I don't smell vanilla, I just feel it adds a creamy sweetness to the heavier smokey and wood notes. Once Tyrannosaurus Rex arrives to this point, the scent trail goes on for hours and hours. It has been quite the ride. I feel like we have traveled from the wildness of this:



to the softer side of the dinosaur:

Barney and young Selina Gomez

Maybe that's an exaggeration, Tyrannosaurus Rex still has some bite, but it has morphed into a very easily wearable resinous oriental perfume.

Let's talk about the perfumer that Victor chose for this project, Antonio Gardoni. I would love to know the process by which Victor picks perfumers for specific projects but pairing Gardoni with a rather ferocious scent like Tyrannosaurus Rex seems smart. Gardoni is an architect by trade and more recently channeled his love of plants and nature into an interest in fragrance creation. He first created perfumes for his brand, Bogue, in 2012. Bogue perfumes are known for having a presence and in some cases being a challenging ride. I have only smelled and reviewed one of the Bogue creations, MEM, and here is what I said: "There is a moment at the beginning when the civet and castoreum, supposedly base notes yet here they are in the first five minutes, take me on a wild ride that I'm not sure I'll safely survive." You can find the complete review here.

With Tyrannosaurus Rex, Gardoni and Victor Wong have given us a dazzling glimpse into a prehistoric world that somehow reinvents itself into a very wearable perfume. I have to admit that in the Zoologist world my preference is to be a warbling Nightingale or a flitting Hummingbird but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate the journey provided by Tyrannosaurus Rex.

You can read my other reviews about Zoologist Perfumes starting here with Bat.

Perfume sample was purchased by me from Luckyscent.

L'Artisan Parfumeur's Bana Banana

If you're like me the thought of smelling like a banana isn't instantly appealing, thus I almost walked by the L'Artisan display in Saks Fifth Avenue without spraying the brand's newest scent, Bana Banana. I'm so glad I changed my mind because I discovered smelling like a banana can be fun, but I especially love amber scents and that is where this fragrance eventually settles. I can honestly say I did not see that coming; it was an unexpected conclusion to the scent journey.

According to the historical information on the L'Artisan Parfumeur website, the scent of a banana was indirectly responsible for the creation of the company. John LaPorte, chemist and plant collector,  was challenged by a friend to create a banana scent as an accompaniment to the banana costume he was wearing to a gala event, the Folies Bergeres. Laporte accepted the challenge and realized that he had a passion for creating scent and thus the L'Artisan story began. Now decades later this origins story of the brand is being recognized with a banana-scented fragrance, created by Parfumer Celine Ellena.

When I first sprayed Bana Banana as I stood at the L'Artisan counter I almost laughed, the banana note is so realistic and dare I say, joyful. It smells a little like banana ice cream...think creamy, not sweet. It is also slightly green, emphasizing a tropical feel. This is not an over-ripe sugary banana. It is as fresh as if just picked. The banana note continues unabated for some time but is joined by floral notes of jasmine and iris and at this point the banana note becomes less prominent. Jasmine and iris are both fairly identifiable notes but here they blend to project a floral loveliness around the banana note; a beautiful melange without strong distinction for the individual florals. This may sound like floral plus fruity perfume but that is not how the smell translates; the scent is more subtle and polished than this. There is a mild spiciness of pepper and nutmeg; the pepper is weak, the nutmeg more forward. These spicy notes add interest, making the scent feel slightly gourmand. The scent continues to waft this soft floral banana note, accented with nutmeg and pepper, for a full two hours. Then comes Act II. Enter musk, tonka, and amber to the stage.

Bana Banana has slowly been transitioning to more of a skin scent with warm and slightly spicy overtones. The tonka and musk make the scent comforting and warm with a slight muted fuzziness. But then I start recognizing the amber in the scent. My skin loves amber and maybe because of that it is one of my favorite notes, but it has such depth and strength that I tend to only wear amber perfumes in cooler weather. Here we have a lighter amber, something I don't replicate in my collection of amber perfumes. As a comparison, I like light beer because it has the taste of the beer without all the heaviness that makes me feel full after four sips of regular beer. It feels the same here. You get all the beauty of the amber scent but it is somehow lighter, loftier. It radiates warmth and comfort as amber does, but doesn't overpower. If I think about it I can still smell the slightest trace of the banana in the scent.

The final stages of the perfume brought this image to mind. Just go with me here; this is a slightly strange analogy. The best baking tip my mother ever gave me was to slightly undercook cookies and sweet breads. If you stick a toothpick in a loaf of banana bread to test for doneness and it comes out totally dry then it's already too late. But if you catch that loaf of banana bread just before it gets cooked throughout and the toothpick comes out gummy there will be a moist almost doughy center. The next day instead of the bread being too dry to eat that moist center has become richer and more redolent of the banana flavor and the spices have intensified. That is how the dry down of Bana Banana feels to me; we've smelled the freshness of the banana but now it has transitioned into a richer state; slightly sweet gourmand, spicy with the zest of nutmeg, a mellow banana, a slice of blissful comfort.

If you are curious how a banana note smells in a perfume give Bana Banana a try. You may be pleasantly surprised like me. And if you like amber perfumes definitely try Bana Banana as this is very different from any other amber perfume you might have in your collection.

Top photo from L'Artisan. Thank you Saks Fifth Avenue Houston for the spray.

Arbor Day and DSH Perfumes The Voice of Trees

Way back when I was in elementary school we used to celebrate Arbor Day each year. This was before there was literally a holiday for every day of the year, before Save the Earth became a movement, and before the world's forests were being mowed down for monetary gain. I can remember my third grade class tromping out to the front of our brand new school, the lawn barren of  sheltering trees. Our principal Mr. Baird (how funny that I can't remember what I did two days ago but remember this name clearly) took a spade and dug into the earth, symbolically creating a hole for the sapling that shivered in the breeze.

Today Arbor Day has gotten lost in the shuffle but the concept remains a good one: plant a tree for future generations to enjoy. There is renewed interest about the healing properties of communing with nature and the Japanese have coined a phrase to describe the experience: Shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing. This is the recognition that immersion in natural environments such as forests provide healing and well being. I have this theory that if we provided every child in America, regardless of means, with camping or nature experiences while young it would cut down drastically in future violence. There is something mystical about walking silently through a forest and hearing the rustling and whispers from the surrounding trees.

Ocean-of-nectar.tumblr.com

Dawn Spencer Hurwitz is in close proximity to many forests from her perch in the high mountains surrounding Boulder, Colorado. On the DSH Perfume website, Dawn writes that the inspiration for The Voice of Trees came from very early childhood memories while camping and hearing the trees "speaking".  "As far back as I can remember I have loved the scent of pine needles, the early days of Autumn with soft rains and fallen Maple leaves, balsams on the poplar trees, and the scent of dry amber stuck to the bark of conifers, warmed by the sun," Dawn says. "For me this fragrance is pure pleasure, the embodiment of "the talking trees".

To wear The Voice of Trees is to have a mini "forest bathing" experience. Recently Dawn has been experimenting with Japanese-centric perfumes, particularly in her Haiku series: Japanese Moonlight, and although this fragrance was launched in 2015 before the inception of this series, it has that contemplative homage that I find in her Japanese-inspired scents. The opening is conifers, that hit of scent as you near a forest trail. It includes the green dampness of a needle-padded carpet beneath the trees, the sharp scent of pine needles and beads of sap, and the bitterness and smokiness of pinon pine. I have always felt a spiritual connection when surrounded by God's gift of nature in all its beauty and majesty,  and resinous and incense notes in The Voice of Trees symbolically infer you are in nature's temple. Woody notes of maple leaf, poplar buds, and sycamore accord add to the forest air. What I find most beautiful are the resinous and amber notes. I can smell the sticky pine sap that has hardened to amber resin, the balsamic aspects of balsam fir, and a faint smokey incense that threads through the life of the scent.

Image from www.ThriftyFun.com

The Voice of Trees isn't at all a vibrant Christmas-type pine scent. Rather it is the solitary walk through the trees, introspective and restorative, bathed in the scent of the trees and open to their message. Wear it for it's natural beauty; enjoy it's meditative qualities.

The Voice of Trees comes in a variety of sizes and is also available as a cream on the DSHPerfumes.com website. It is 98.5% botanical.

Top photo from www.OutdoorFamiliesOnline.com. Perfume sample from my own collection.

Chanel 1957 - When Coco Chanel Came To Dallas

Coco Chanel and Stanley Marcus in Dallas, 1957. Dallas AP photo.

The year was 1957. Stanley Marcus, founder and head of legendary luxury department store Neiman Marcus in Dallas, Texas, came up with a spectacular marketing idea: to bring the gloss of French chic to the Neiman Marcus flagship store in downtown Dallas. He created a concept called Fortnight to celebrate the store's upcoming fiftieth anniversary. He would bring the arts, food, and fashion of a selected country to Dallas and immerse the store in a cultural extravaganza. Naturally France, whose designer fashions were popular with the wealthy Texas clientele, was chosen as the inaugural featured partner. It would be two weeks of spectacular department store theater, and Broadway set designers were charged with making fantastic sets that would turn the Dallas store into a little slice of Paris.

The piece de resistance would precede the Fortnight celebration. Stanley Marcus announced he would award Coco Chanel with the Neiman Marcus Award for Distinguished Service in the Field of Fashion, which was seen as akin to an Oscars award for fashion designers. Coco Chanel knew she owed a good part of her success to her American buyers and clients. After World War II ended Chanel was not popular in Europe because of her rumored affair with a Nazi officer. Her Parisian fashion shows were widely panned and she was struggling to revive her brand. It was the American market who desired her designs and embraced the Chanel suit, and they sustained her business in these lean years. So it was with some eagerness and perhaps gratitude that Chanel flew direct from Paris to Dallas Love Field, where she was greeted by Marcus, and hustled into a waiting white Rolls Royce limousine.

A Texas-style barbecue took place at Marcus's ranch just north of Dallas to welcome the honored guest. The usual Western festivities commenced. Here is Coco Chanel pictured looking a bit uncertain about square dancing.

Marcus was always a bit of a showman and had arranged a fashion show utilizing cattle as models . In a mock wedding ceremony a top-hatted bull accompanied a heifer draped in a white gown with a veil and jauntily sporting a string of the already iconic Chanel pearls.

In the photo above you can see Coco Chanel to the left, and that is Elizabeth Arden, a past recipient of the award, sitting at the center of the table. There is a long-told legend from that night that although Chanel appreciated the Western festivities, she was less fond of the plate piled with barbecued beans and meats. At some moment, one would think maybe when all eyes were on the ungainly parade of cattle fashionistas, Chanel tipped over her plate of food under the table, purportedly on top of Elizabeth Arden's red satin shoes.

Chanel was accompanied on the trip by the iconic 1950's model, Suzy Parker, Chanel's muse, model and friend and also a Texas native.

Coco Chanel and Suzy Parker in 1959, Google image.

It has been two years since Chanel added to Les Exclusifs line of fragrances. The Chanel website describes the line this way: "Each scent evokes a chapter from the story of Gabrielle Chanel, reflecting the life and character of Mademoiselle." (When did they start referring to Coco as Gabrielle? Did I miss something?)

When I first heard that Chanel's newest perfume was called 1957 and that there was a connection to the Dallas Neiman Marcus I was immediately intrigued. Growing up in Fort Worth right next door to the Big D, Fort Worth was dismissively referred to as Cowtown by the Dallasites but it was a label we wore with pride. We personified the true spirit of Texas, unlike our uppity neighbors to the East, or so we imagined. But once a year in August before the start of a new school year all petty grievances were put aside and my mother would load my sister and I into the yellow Cutlass, sporty by 1960s standards but still the size of a small motorboat, and off to Dallas we went. My mother sewed most of our clothes but on this once a year event we were allowed to pick one special outfit. To show just how big of a deal this was, I still have hanging in the back of my closet the dress I picked before entering sixth grade, a little number influenced by the London Carnaby Street era with a  navy mesh stretch top and an attached suede mini skirt. It is probably still the most fashionable thing I own. Leaving our car and walking through the August heat and entering through those door with the distinctive NM logo into the chilled pristine air, a sea of glistening glass show cases and glamorously dressed sales assistants before us, the moment never failed to thrill.

The entry to Neiman Marcus, Dallas downtown. See Chanel to the right.

What influences would Chanel house perfumer Olivier Polge use to make a perfume marking this long ago union between the very French house of Coco Chanel with American pizazz and brashness? What were the similarities between the two? None that I could determine, as a native Texan and lover of everything Parisienne. I had heard that the new perfume was a collection of various musk scents. Did Polge choose musks for their indeterminate nature, their fuzziness, as if to say, "I don't quite know what to make of this marriage of cultures?" I wondered.

With a little research I found out that Polge did have a plan and it was to reference the more clean approach that Americans have taken to fragrance in the last three decades. In an interview with the Irish Times, Polge said, "Always in United States fragrances, there is a link between cleanness and sensuality. In European fragrance we have sensuality with a little more darkness."

Musks have become very popular. Francis Kurkdjian has been doing great things with musk-based fragrances for over a decade and more recently Sylvaine Delacourte, who branched off from Guerlain to form her own line, introduced five musk fragrances which I talked about here. But still, I find musk perfumes hit-or-miss and when I walked through John Harris in Adelaide and sprayed myself with Chanel 1957 I was just "in like". Reading several online reviews it seems others made an immediate judgment like me and walked away unimpressed. I wasn't sure I would write about 1957 as I tend to only review perfumes I like a lot or at least find interesting. I judged the longevity and silage to be weak and forgot about 1957, until the next morning. On rising I did my morning ritual of first coffee, then computer, but I noticed a beautiful smell wafting up from my arms as I clicked at the keys. It was a bit mysterious as I hadn't yet sprayed a perfume, then I realized it was 1957 which had lived tenaciously through the night and was ready to have a cup of coffee with me and greet the new day. I also rubbed a bit on the sleeve of the sweater I was wearing and now even days later, it smells glorious.

Photo www.flickr.com/photos/honeyandjam/

Call me a convert. And if you've already tried 1957 and dismissed it, maybe try it again. The perfume opens with muddled citrus, shafts of sunbeams, and the scent of a distant field of flowers carried on the breeze. There is a shiver of aldehydes which add sparkle and loft. These are not the aldehydes of a Chanel No. 5, which could be considered by some to be a bracing slap of the face. This is just a tickle of puff and fizz, like bubbly mineral water rather than the pop of champagne. I get more impressions than notes from the scent. The fragrance feels airy, as if carried by the wind then disappearing. There are moments when I smell light watercolor florals which fade into that gauzy blanket of musk scent. The scent become creamier and in my notes I mentioned sensing honey and vanilla. These are just impressions. The beauty of the scent is that none of these notes stand out but are blended together in a masterful way. It is a bit like having a chef curated meal where your taste buds sense they are being hit with a lot of flavors but it is the compilation of the whole that makes it savory.

Photo www.elizabethannedesigns.com

The scent seemingly disappears on my skin but then pops up unexpectedly hours later. It is a skin scent and while it references the "clean" fragrance movement in America, 1957's polish and sophistication are decidedly French. What I find the most intriguing is that when I put my wrist to my nose, I sometimes smell honey, other times pale florals, then musk. It is like a kaleidoscope of gentle soft scent. Perfumer Polge made the statement in interviews that "white hides great complexity", and I feel that here we experience this, layer upon layer of ways to sensualize the feeling of "white".  Polge also stated that because 1957 is a skin scent, each person's skin will individualize and interpret the scent. For this reason I feel that even though my skin presents 1957 as a unisex veering toward the feminine, on a man's skin his body chemistry might play up different aspects of the scent to make it lean more toward the masculine.

Chanel lists these notes: musk accords, bergamot, iris, neroli, cedar, honeyed and powder notes.

So next time you walk by a Chanel display, try Chanel 1957. And if you don't like it, try it one more time.

Note: Want more? Follow this link to the Fragrantica page and scroll down for Lanier's review. He always has an interesting insight and says it in the most perfect way.

Black and white photos from Dallas Morning News/Ap photos/Googleimages. Sample courtesty of David Jones, Adelaide. Opinions my own.

Floraiku: The Art Of Perfuming Haiku

I have not seen much about the brand Floraiku which was introduced in 2017. It was started by Clara and John Malloy, the founders of the brand Memo Paris which has perfumes inspired by exotic travel locations and which I wrote about here. The Memo Paris brand is based on  travel destinations around the world but with Floraiku the Malloys have turned the lens on Japan, and specifically on Japanese poetry known as haiku and Japanese ceremonies. Japan still holds some mystery to the Western world and there is special fascination for its cultural traditions and an appreciation for the focus on finding stillness and calm in an increasingly fast paced and loud world. The Malloys were struck by the purity and rituals of Japanese ceremonies and decided to translate this into scent.

The packaging for Floraiku is truly exquisite, and as we all know, this doesn't come cheap. The bottles come in bento boxes which include a travel spray and a clever carrier made from the perfume's lid. Each perfume has an illustration by artist Victoire Cathalan and Clara Malloy has written a "haiku" as the spirit for each scent.

The haikus do not exactly follow the rules; seventeen syllables in lines of five--seven--five, but let's not be sticklers. The little poems embrace the haiku spirit; sparse description, tightly edited and each word carefully chosen to describe the beauty in an everyday moment. This minimalism of words, each chosen for perfect effect, is carried through into the perfumes formulations. Each perfume features three notes and are at least fifty percent natural oils. Thus the perfumes are not complex. They literally unfold in three acts, as similar to three lines of poetry. The notes unite to form a beautiful picture but some users may not appreciate this minimalistic approach to perfumery, particularly at this price point. This is a true luxury item and is not carried at many stores, Harrods in London and Saks Fifth Avenue in New York, as well as a small number of other locations. The original bottle purchase is at $350 but future refills can be had for a much more reasonable price, $200 for 2 oz. As a result of these prices, I found their sample set of eleven sprays at $35, which is how I tested the fragrances, a very reasonable deal.  If you order the samples they come with a book which features the haiku for each scent and the beautiful illustrations. Otherwise you can go on their website an have a look. It is all very stunning.

There are three categories of scents, each of which highlights a Japanese ceremony: Enigmatic Flowers which represents the art of Ikebana, or flower arrangement, Secret Teas and Spices which represents o cha, the ceremony of tea , and Forbidden Incense which alludes to kodo, the burning of the incense. In addition there are two scents called shadows, one to darken and one to brighten the other scents. I will give my quick impressions of the fragrances.

Enigmatic Flowers 

Cricket Song

Walking in the darkness

A cricket song

How torrid the heat is!

It is amazing the things you can learn when writing about perfume. Did you know that cricket's chirping frequency increases with heat, and if you want to play at being a naturalist, count the chirps in fifteen seconds then add 37 and that will be your approximate temperature, in Fahrenheit!

The notes in Cricket Song are bergamot oil, magnolia oil, and vetiver oil. The perfume opens with a light touch of creamy white flowered citrus. The bergamot oil makes the opening bright and airy, scent floating on the breeze. The flower, magnolia, feels very languid and damp. It's scent seems to be unfurling in the hot night air. This little poem is deeper than at first glance. The crickets are chirping because of the heat and the flowers are releasing their scent in the night air. With the elusiveness of scented petals carried away by the wind, the vetiver base gives the luminous magnolia a soft place to land.

I have a jillion crickets living in the little swatch of woods by my house and in summer they can make a deafening racket. I also have a magnolia tree but sadly the flowers spend all their energy on being big and beautiful and put very little effort into scenting the air. Still, I love this haiku and the scent Cricket Song for how it reminds me of a summer's night, the cricket's song hummed by a familiar army of choristers invisible in the nearby trees. This finding of beauty in the everyday mundane small moments that give our life texture and tiny points of pleasure is the definition of haiku poetry. This perfume is my favorite from the entire line by the way.

I See The Clouds Go By

I see the clouds go by

indifferent

to the tea picker's song

The notes are cassis absolute, cherry blossom, and white musk. I See The Clouds Go By opens with a really beautiful berry note which smells fresh picked and succulent. In the opening moments I think I smell tea but then it's gone. I enjoy the tart depth of the fruit in the scent. Here the cassis floats atop notes of cherry blossom but they combine to make a scent that smells like syrupy wine notes. There is a richness but musk keeps the scent soft. This was another favorite.

First Dream of the Year

First dream of the year

first wish

the milky way above

The notes are grapefruit oil, orange blossom oil, and iris concrete absolute. The grapefruit opens slightly tart but I smell the orange blossom right away. The orange blossom is so realistic. I have a lemon tree in my back yard and it reminds me of the beautiful smell of the tiny white blossoms which bloomed a couple of weeks ago, very pure and sweet. There is a dance back and forth between grapefruit and orange blossom with an underlying sweetness. I never really smell the iris concrete note. Over time the scent looses the amazing brightness and becomes more fuzzy and musky.

Here's the thing. There are plenty of orange blossom perfumes and while the scent of orange blossom is gorgeous, there are not a lot of ways to make it unique. The way these fragrances can stand out from one another is how realistically the note is translated to scent. Here you get that natural smell. It smells like expensive oils were used, as they should be, and this orange blossom really smells like nature. If cost were no object, this orange blossom is pretty enough to make me desire to own it, but since that is not the case and I have some very pretty orange blossom perfumes, this is the one in the flower collection that intrigues me the least.

Secret Tea and Spices

The Moon And I

In this world of dreams

the moon and I

contemplating night flowers.

I don't know that I've ever smelled such a realistic tea note in a scent. At first sniff it smells like black tea but slowly it turns more green. The notes are mate absolute, matcha tea, and cedar oil. Just as in some tobacco-note perfumes you can smell the actual leaves and the oil, that is the sensation here. I picture one of those huge straw baskets holding piles of tea leaves beginning to dry, their edges curling as drops of oil secrete. Eventually the tea notes dissipate and the scent becomes more woody on a bed of cedar.

This is just my personal impression but I didn't get a lot of longevity for a perfume that started out so strong. And although the tea representation was well done it was almost too realistic for me without any non-tea notes to soften it.

I Am Coming Home

Shivering lights far away

tonight

I am coming home.

Notes for this are ginger oil, white tea, and cardamom oil. The perfume starts out with a bright realistic scent of ginger. There is a whiff of white tea, but if you've ever had white tea you know the flavor is so faint as to be almost water, and one must appreciate delicacy and nuance to enjoy it. The same goes for the scent here. The cardomom doesn't have the impact I expect. It is a soft crumble of spice, just to give the ginger an edge. If you like ginger-based scents you might enjoy this one. It does have one of my favorite bottles.

One Umbrella For Two

Our eyes raise to the sky

no rain

one umbrella for two

I have already written about this one in a previous article on "purple-smelling perfumes" and this is my favorite scent from the tea collection. Notes are blackcurrant absolute, genmaicha tea, and cedar oil. One Umbrella For Two opens with a nutty note reminiscent of a Japanese rice cake and the grain scent is both strong and unusual. Genmaicha tea is said to have the scent of roasted rice. Eventually the nutty grainy flavor begins to be infiltrated with the scent of blackcurrant. It starts out rather dry and tart but there is a switch, the scent switches from grain to fruit. As this happens the blackcurrant sweetens slightly. In my head I'm picturing fig newtons, but filled with blackcurrant rather than figs, encased in that yummy crust that is a cross between a cookie and bread. This all sounds quite strange, I know! Try it and judge for yourself!

Forbidden Incense

Sound Of A Ricochet

A red dragonfly

under the burning sky

the sound of a ricochet

Vanilla absolute, tonka bean, and sandalwood oil are the listed notes for this perfume. Sound of a Ricochet would be beautiful in the first crisp days of fall or to give a gentle sense of warmth on a cold winter's night. The combination of vanilla and tonka is not new but all too often I find the mix to be heavy and cloying. Here it really does give the sense of a delicate trail of incense rising up from burning sticks, leaving a gentle string of ash from the burned stick that collapses once it gets too long. This is a gentle but lovely scent and I got good longevity.

My Shadow On The Wall

Pale summer moon

o silence

my shadow on the wall

Notes of violet leaf, mimosa, and sandalwood oil make up this scent. It opens with a velvety green violet leaf. The green of the violet leaf is softened with notes of mimosa which add a mere touch of floral sweetness to the otherwise austere violet leaf. This one is as delicate as a slender bud of green bursting from the earth. I found it to me a wonderful meditative scent while it lasted, calming the aftereffects of a frustrating customer service call with Qantas Airlines that had left me riled. I would have been nice to have the scent last a lot longer, though.

My Love Has The Colour Of The Night

My love has the colour of the night

a firefly

in the swimming pool's light

In the beginning this scent gives me the mental picture of opening a wooden box, a special box that holds treasure or precious items. The box is richly carved and is indolent with the smell of fresh wood and oils to give it lustre. There is mystery here, like it hasn't been opened in many years. Patchouli gives a connection to the earth and adds to the mystery and the darkness. Vetiver gives a dry and natural scent.

Light and Dark Shadow

The idea of spraying your perfume with a fixative scent to change it or add something extra is a fairly recent invention. There is a longer history for mixing scents, as with Jo Malone and others. Personally I'm not a fan of this practice.  I will tell you briefly how these scents smell on their own. The red bottles are really striking.

Sleeping On The Roof

Sleeping on the roof

warm wind

shadows blown away

This is the light shadow. Notes are lily of the valley, orange blossom, and amber musk. As with the other flower notes, the lily of the valley is super realistic to nature. There is a dampness as if you've just picked it, and the stem is weeping sap and scent. I am surprised to find I like this as a scent. It is pure lily of the valley on me until the amber eventually makes its way. Encouraged, I think I'll try layering, as is its purpose, so I put it on top of One Umbrella For Two. Nope, just as I expected, sort of a muddled mess. The bright lily of the valley note that I liked so much doesn't exactly disappear but it loses a good bit of power within a couple of hours.

Between Two Trees

The owl is watching 

twilight

between two trees

This is the dark shadow, but it starts out pretty bright. Notes of grapefruit oil, mate absolute, and vetiver oil make up the trio. The grapefruit is quickly overtaken by vetiver which smells dry and woody. The mate adds an herbal earthy feel. There is some depth to this and I find it appealing to wear but it's very subdued on my skin.

I enjoyed trying the Floraiku line of perfumes. I think the aesthetic is beautiful and well thought out. The sampling set is good value and a way to try out the perfumes before buying as they are only available at a very limited amount of store fronts or online. I struggle with the price point although I can see that no expense has been spared in the packaging. If you find one of the scents you really like, it becomes more economical if after making the initial splurge for the bottle you afterward buy the refill which is a much better value. Or I suppose you could just buy the refill but what's the fun in that? 

Lastly, here is a video that clearly shows the bottle, and how the top becomes a protective case for the travel spray.

Japanese prints are Google images. All other photos from www.Floraiku.com. I bought the sample set from which I tested these perfumes.

Jo Malone Wild Flowers and Weeds Collection: Quick Impressions

It's that time of year again when Jo Malone releases a limited edition collection based around some twee hail Brittania themed aspect of life on the big island. I always wonder how they are going to come up with a new idea each year but so far the collections continue to delight. This year's theme is inspired by the weeds and wild flowers that grow wild on the banks of Britian's winding rivers and canals. I thought the painting below is a good representation of this bucolic and languid state.

Two Women Asleep In A Punt Under the Willows, 1887 by John Singer Sargent

As I stated last year when I wrote about The English Fields Collection, I always get excited about the scents but when I eventually try them there is often a let down. They are usually fleeting and faint on my skin. Last year's collection of scents had a couple I really liked but the bottles were just awful. This was unusual because normally Jo Malone can be counted on to have a quirky and creative marketing campaign to introduce the scents and the bottles are normally appealing.

This year Jo Malone has outdone itself with the bottles for the Wild Flowers and Weeds collection. I would love to own each and every one. I like these bottles even in their bare state; they are slim, squared, slightly weighty and fit perfectly in the hand. The botanical drawings on these bottles are off-the-scale cute, and happily for me my two favorites are also my favorite drawings. However, as much as I am over the moon with the presentation, the fragrances do the usual one to two hour fade away on my skin, with one exception.

Lupin & Patchouli

This scent is meant to represent canal banks lined with colorful flowers. The lupin is a bright showy flower that can grow to a meter tall and has a spiky top. It can be an invasive species, thus it could be thought of as both a weed and a wildflower. The perfumers interpreted the lupin into a scent representative of its color and strength. There is also rose in the formula but this note wasn't evident to me. When I first spray Lupin & Patchouli I smell a herbal, slightly minty smell; in my notes I wrote "a mentholated smell." But this disappears really quickly and there is a very pretty floral which I quite like but find difficult to explain, as it is an invented scent. Don't get too attached to it though, because patchouli enters the picture and takes over. It is a green, earthy patchouli, and if like me, you enjoy this note then you're in for a treat. If not, avoid at all costs because this is mostly about the patchouli. Lupin & Patchouli was the only one of these scents that had any tenacity on my skin. I could still faintly smell it the next morning.

Hemlock & Bergamot

This is the other scent that I quite like. When I hear the word hemlock I think of something dark and foreboding. Hemlock was used by the ancient Greeks to carry out death sentences, most famously on Socrates. The flowers, which you can see pictured on the bottle, look bright and innocent and so is the scent in Hemlock & Bergamot. The first spray starts airy and slightly sweet and I sense a touch of powder. It continues to have a creamy, sweet presence and to me the scent is very innocent and spring-like. The use of mimosa and heliotrope add to this powder aspect of the scent. When I'm wearing it I picture an alpine field dotted with flowers. It smells pure and fresh. I like it but I can see how this could be devisive -- a love or hate scent.

Nettle & Wild Achillea

"Crikey, this is green!", was my initial reaction on spraying Nettle & Wild Achillea. Another description that popped into my head was swampy green, which makes some sense in the context of thinking about plants growing alongside a river. There is also a bitter note. Nettle is herbaceous but if you've ever come into contact with it, you know it can have a sting to it, thus why it's sometimes called stinging nettle. Does the bitterness represent the danger of the plant? Wild Achillea is more commonly known as yarrow, and the properties of yarrow are also aromatic and bitter. Yarrow was used in times past to stop bleeding, relieve the pain of a toothache, and gently stimulate the immune system when taken at the first signs of a cold. After the rather harsh green opening, which tiptoes very close to unpleasant, the scent turns into a very nice musky green fragrance, light and easy to wear. I have other scents in my collection with this light green note and while their bottle isn't as pretty, they last a lot longer on my skin, so I won't be getting this one.

I came across this nice Scottish folk song about yarrow, or wild achillea, mood music for the review:

Willow & Amber

Willow trees have been a facet of British nature lore for centuries. The tree's long string-like leaves fall gracefully to the ground and along the river bank they will be caught in the current with a graceful pull. In Othello, Desdemona sings a folk ballad called The Willow on the night she will be murdered by her jealous husband. In Hamlet, the tragic heroine Ophelia falls from a willow tree and drowns in the river below. Jo Malone used headspace technology to capture the scent of willow leaves in flowing water, which is interpreted as a woody note. There is always one scent in these collections which I can literally not smell, and this one would probably be the one in the Wild Flowers and Weeds Collection. There is a very gentle whisper of light green scent and soft cashmere woods. I thought I would always be able to recognize amber but here it is so soft I wouldn't have known it was there. To me this is "a fresh air scent". It is pleasant and I can't imagine anyone disliking it, but I'm not sure anyone would love it either. On me it is a gentle skin scent.

Cade & Cedarwood

This is another very pretty bottle. I wish I could put my Jo Malone London Rain Black Cedarwood and Juniper cologne into it, as the illustrations fit and it is an altogether better scent. I was a little confused by the plants referenced in this cologne. The other weeds and wildflowers go with the riverside theme beautifully. I'm not an expert in the flora alongside British rivers and streams, but are these trees common? I'm being pedantic, I know, but it just didn't fit in quite as well with their theme, in my opinion. But aside from all this, how does it smell? While the other scents are very spring-like this one definitely feels more like autumn. The cade is slightly spicy and this note translated into a sort of chai tea scent on my skin at times. The cedarwood is gently aromatic and at times I catch a drift of smoke. The smokiness probably comes from the base note of ciste labdanum which intensifies the darker aspects of the scent. Case & Cedarwood is a very wearable scent and could be thought of as the baby brother of Black Cedarwood and Juniper. For someone who would like a light woody scent with mild spice and slight smoke, this could be the ticket.

All the colognes in this collection were created by Perfumers Yann Vasnier and Louise Turner.

Perfumes were sampled at David Jones Australia.

Amouage The Secret Garden Collection: Love Tuberose, Blossom Love & Lilac Love

Amouage Perfumes is a brand that has been around for more than thirty years and was originally founded by a royal decree from the Sultan of Oman who wanted to preserve and promote Oman's history of perfume making. It positioned itself as a luxury brand back in the days when that was a rare thing and at the time was known as the most expensive perfume brand in the world. Partially for that reason they were not much on my radar for many years. Then a little over ten years ago Christopher Chong was hired as Creative Director and Amouage went through a rebranding process. I was familiar with the brand's oriental style perfumes but recently The Secret Garden Collection's pretty pastel bottles caught my eye in the store and I decided it was time to give the brand a second look.

Love Tuberose

How can I describe Love Tuberose in a way to differentiate it from all the tuberose perfumes out there? If a tuberose bloom and a macaroon had a love child, it would be Love Tuberose. Or if I filled my bath would milky white cream and tipped a cascade of tuberose buds from a bucket into the liquid, that would be Love Tuberose. 

www.100LayerCake.com

I love the scent of tuberose; its opulence, its velvet richness. It is one of the more robustly scented blooms in the flower kingdom; lusty and mesmerizing for those who love it, possibly nauseating for those who don't. Tuberose is a hard flower to be indifferent to. But really, what is there new to say about it so far as perfumes? Love Tuberose gives it a good shot, finding something new to say with it's opening of gourmet but elegant yumminess. After a slightly sweet opening where I get the hint of meringue with the tiniest, tiniest touch of finely refined sugar, the perfume then evokes the scent of a white, milky cream confection of white flowers.

www.Bite-my-cake.com

Blossom Love

I love pink. How is it that I never picked up this pink bottle to spray and see what was inside, because what's inside is a whole lot of awesome pinkness. Pink blooms, pink fizz, pink bubbles, happiness in pink.

www.Bridestyling.tumblr.com

Blossom Love opens with a sparkling fruity note. When I was trying to guess the note I thought maybe rhubarb or strawberry. In fact the top notes are listed as cherry blossom nectar and rose liquor. If you think this sounds a long way from the Amouage scents in the past, with their references of sacred Omani frankincense and spice being transported across the desert sands via a swaying camel train, you would be right. The opening is bright and effervescent, both tart and sweet and backed by a cascade of pretty cherry blossoms and rose. Meanwhile notes of ylang ylang, amaretto accord, and vanilla give a slight gourmand air. The amaretto accord, or maybe heliotrope, gives occasional puffs of powderiness but it is never overwhelming. This perfume reminds me of my favorite tipple, pink champagne, so delicate, bright, and fun!

Image from www.andeelayne.com

In my sniffing notes I mentioned more than once, "It has that French perfume feel." What I mean by that is that even though this sounds sugary and flowery like pink bubblegum, it actually manages to project a sophistication, with that smell that isn't a chypre but has a fizziness and a bit of formality. Notes of tonka bean, sandalwood, and cashmeran keep this scent creamy and smooth all the way through til the end, long after the bubbly "pink" notes have disappeared. 

Lilac Love

I haven't had a lot of luck with lilac notes so I was curious to see if Lilac Love would change all that. The first time I tried it the answer initially at least seemed to be a definite no. I got an unpleasant plastic smell, like the cheap dime store dolls I used to buy with my allowance when I was a little girl. It didn't last long, but definitely got me and Lilac Love off on the wrong foot. The next few times I wore the perfume I had this reaction only one more time. After a bit of a rough start the perfume careens into a very nice lilac note. After that it goes powdery and that is pretty much the end of the story. Lilacs. Powder. Powdery lilacs. Judging by the list of notes and some other reviews I can only deduce that lilac doesn't like my skin. In addition to the very obvious lilac accord and heliotrope, there is peony, gardenia, orris, cocoa bean!, tonka bean, patchouli, vanilla, and sandalwood.

I'm not getting any of that. Again, for me it's lilac and powder, not that this is a bad thing. Lilac scent is lovely, but I've decided that lilac is a bit like wisteria for me. I  absolutely adore them in nature, but on my skin they grow a bit tiresome. If you are a lilac lover, please disregard all of this because Lilac Love is indeed a lilac that an appreciator of the scent could fall in love with.

Amouage has recently released gift sets with perfumes and lotions in a set, as well as hair mists. These are all lovely spring-time scents and I had only one quibble which I was going to mention in the post.

Although all the scents started out quite strong, I felt like they ran out of steam fairly quickly and I was going to complain that for the elevated price range, I thought this was a bit disappointing. But when I woke up the next morning after the first try, I realized I had a lovely smell of cherry blossom wafting up from my left wrist and beautiful tuberose from the right. The scents were subdued but definitely present enough that I didn't feel the need to reapply perfume, so I will renege on that criticism.

If you're looking for a cheery blossom scent to welcome spring and if you can afford the price point then these three from Amouage are definitely worth a look.

Top photo www.emmablock.wordpress.com. Thank you to David Jones, Australia, for the samples.