Fragrance du jour, recent sniffs, random notes.
A rose by any other name would probably smell better.
When this came out 20 years ago, the chamomile tea opening made it special, something unique for the teenage set, a touch of class. The current version is cut too deep with ginger lemon cough drops, and it’s lost its delicacy.
Now it just smells like every floral musk deodorant marketed to high school girls.
Okay, so maybe I need to listen to Aretha a bit more.
(This one came out in 1998, too.)
Or: Mr. Bojnokopff`s Purple Hat.
This is what nefarious charlatans who make devil’s deals for true magic (that always backfire and involve a twirled mustache) smell like.
Lavender and bittersweet chocolate on a cedarwood stage lit with vetiver gaslight, and lasts longer on silk than on skin.
I always fall head over heels for an elegant villain.
So the story behind this one is of an illusionist in 1897, Russia, the same year of Rachmaninoff’s disastrous debut of his first symphony. It opens with some serious mustache twisting.
Vintage Wisteria, by Borsari 1870.
The middle of a Venn diagram of all the purples–where violet and concord grape and lilac overlap into a unique creamy/fruity/floral, with a hint of clove to spice it up.
A sharp leafy green at the bottom keeps it from going gourmand.
A nice reference–it’s the architecture of Nest’s Wisteria Blue, and the shaded garden of Azzaro 9.
Here’s another sweet Glicine.
I blind bought this one because of the name and the price and it turned out to be a great summer scent, fresh and sweet and playful.
Wet peaches on a warm evening, and grapefruit candy–the jelly kind crusted with sugar crystals–for a few hours, with roses on the bottom. The watery note lingers on clothes til morning.
There’s something unpretentious about it. Not cheap (well, actually, it is–Oriflame is Sweden’s Avon, and bottles can be had for less than ten euros) but uncomplicated and fun.
This uncomplicated and fun Swedish hit also came in 2016.
This is quite well done. They’ve bottled the charred oak distillery spirit, complete with caramel syrup and age-softened musk.
Doesn’t last terribly long, but it’s reasonably priced, so have another shot.
I would find this one sexy on a guy, too–especially the older silver fox with good vintage.
This laid-back Nirvana cover sounds like it’s had a good whiskey on the rocks.
The magazine peelie was raspberry lemonade and tentative patchouli, in an unassuming way.
The bottle in the store was more strawberry ice and jasmine musk and lasted the car ride home close to the skin. She didn’t offer any stimulating conversation on the way.
Definitely from YSL’s conservative good-taste-over-personality line, rather than the avant garde bare-a-boob, Broadway Boogie-Woogie and Studio 54 editorial Opium and Kouros.
Yves Saint Laurent released Mon Paris with Lee-la Baum’s cover of U2’s Love Is Blindness. (Jack White’s is also incredible.)
Light Blue Lumberjack, by Chainsaw & Gabbana.
Opens with a splash of lemony cassis tea, then peaches. Twenty minutes in the cedar develops, spectacular sweet woody pines–summer forest floor with wild berries, rather than winter yule tree–that lasts an inch above the skin all day.
The amber and vetiver on the bottom are very sheer, and surprisingly faint on clothing.
It’s actually quite nice.
Love this tune by Vetiver (with guests.)
Indeed.
Rich hot coffee and roasted cardamom pods at arms length for an hour, slowly fading to sweet oud and herbal rose a few inches above the skin for several more.
Gorgeously unisex, but also sensual and inviting–flickering lights on a cold night, hands held in mittens, warm drinks with spice.
The solid is nice, but I want a bottle to douse myself with on the holidays– and it would work really well as a bed linen spray, too.
This song is comforting and inviting and unisex, too.
Strange peaches, and weird retro purple flowers–violet and iris à la Lolita Lempicka–with woody cherry stones on the bottom.
It’s very chic and memorable, yet a bit poisonous, too.
Not one for a younger woman, this one needs experience and half a lifetime of secrets to pull off.
Elegant elbow length sillage, and lasts until the bath the morning after.
Zoa came out in 1992, when Vanessa Paradis came out with her third album and this hit.
I love this one–sunshine and sky and water.
SG79 STHLM’s No 3 has a lot in common with D&G’s Light Blue, but sweeter, stripped of the chemical musk, and ginger replacing the artificial roses.
Lemon zest opening with green apples to the core, and the prettiest cedar at the base.
Lasts two hours a few inches above the skin, and the afternoon on clothes.
My favorite folk duo, also from Stockholm.
kira a. gold 