SCENTS

Fragrance du jour, recent sniffs, random notes.

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By the Fireplace

Maison Margiela promo card touting “Burning wood and chestnut” and spray sample with amber l’eau.

Sweet roasted nuts. (TWSS.)
Nice. I’d burn the candle in November.

Edit – 8/30/21

Talking to a cosmetics savvy friend the other day about Replica–By the Fireplace is her favorite of the house.

I still have the same reaction to it, that it’s lovely, but I want the smoke and heat of a candle to cut through the sweetness. The spice is nice, and the cashmeran dries it out, but the chestnuts get swamped by the vanilla, and they’re the most interesting facet of the fragrance to me.

Lasts all day in socially distant space with long trailers.
On the caramel top of unisex.

*

Mushaboom by Feist is sweet and a bit nutty.

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Bat

Paper test cutout of Zoologist bottle with a very Vlad looking bat on the label, a blue rhinestone bat, some black dirt and a decant vial.

Bat is entertaining, but makes me feel like I’m in a nature documentary narrated by David Attenborough.

“The species Chiroptera wakes in his cave, rife with mineral dirt, dust and a trace of smoke, hungry for the tropical fruits of his diet. Bananas and figs sustain him for several hours, but eventually rain hinders his foraging, and he must find refuge in the green forest floor, hiding under his own leathery wings in the woody undergrowth until it passes.”

This weird little song was in the soundtrack for Batman & Robin and might be the best thing about that whole movie.

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Blueberry Musk

blueberry musk edge
Grainy pic of a decant vial on a Shay & Blue advert.

The first breath is a splash of orange, then the blueberries take over, juicy with a hint of mint.

Wet musk supports the fruit, like a glass jar holding the jam.
A puff of cream, a sprinkle of salt, and a breath of orange flower water to keep it from being too sugary.

It’s elegant and posh but slightly unusual–a bride in icy blue silk rather than white, or patent leather Mary Janes in navy instead of black.

Lingers six inches above the skin for a few sweet hours.

*

From the soundtrack to Blueberry Nights.

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Joy by Dior

Ad card featuring photo of pink eau filled bottle, with white spray sample.

Jennifer Lawrence’s bottled tears.

This is department store white musk and Earl Grey tea with cream. She might have a rose in her teeth, but it’s faux silk and plastic.

Joy by Dior has none of J-Law’s fun spirit. The musk is too cheap, the citrus too sharp, the rose too artificial.
I’m sad, too.

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L’Eau Majeure d’Issey

L'eau Majeure d'Issey edgyThis scent is strangely enveloping, just like an Issey Miyake coat, the fabric overwhelming in its comfort.

L’Eau Majeure drowns you after a squeeze of grapefruit to clarify the water, and a sprig of mint to make it even fresher.
At the bottom is a shipwreck–sea eroded pine beams–in the softest sand.
Trendy and fun.

This was the trendiest song of 2017. It’s fun and comfortable, I suppose.

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Girl of Now

girl of now edgyWith emphasis on girl.
One to wear with pigtails and a mini-skirt.

Opens with a juicy slice of pear, and soft citrus, and as it warms, a lovely pistachio.
Orange flower water pushes through, then almond marzipan.
In half an hour it developed to syrupy tonka bean and heavy artificial amber, a foot off the wrist, and made my ears ring and my teeth hurt with how sweet it is.

The guy said it smelled like a very young girl’s perfume and made him feel a bit creepy.

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Ore

ore edgy
Decant vial on printout of Slumberhouse flask. The juice is very amber colored.

Smoke, leather and cocoa powder.
Peppery milk chocolate grows slowly, endlessly, with maple and balsam and kerosene.

This could be worn by a wounded-football-hero-turned-reclusive-lumberjack when he decides to clean up nice.
He has no clue that he’s sexy AF.

It fades after a long day to an herbal kiss on sweaty skin, left with creamy lip balm.

This song has that same sweet roughness. (Seven Nations is an awesome Celtic-American folk-rock band.)

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Mistigri

MistigriThe fashion illustrator René Gruau’s 1953 advertisement for Jacques Griffe’s Mistigri is much more famous than the perfume ever was, but I’ve always been curious about the scent.

I finally managed to score a 70-year-old vintage mini, the little box (made to look like a deck of cards–the mistigri is the Jack of Clubs,  as well as the trickster cat–still intact. The bottle even had the string on the cap, though it fell apart as soon as I opened the stopper.
A dried up drop was left, a flake of amber brown in the corner of the bottle that smelled like every fusty antique store and estate sale.
Disappointing–
–until I rinsed it out, and the warm water brought a green chypre to life, resinous and floral. Some sharp pepper and flirty cloves were mixed in there too.
An hour later the room smells faintly of cedar and the soapy-sweetness of Chanel No. 5, in a trousseau chest with a secret kind-of-way.

So Mistigri was a nice scent, though nothing amazing. But the cat drawing on the box? I want a poster of that on my wall.

My favorite Catwoman, Eartha Kitt released C’est Si Bon in 1953.

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Prada Candy

Yellow bottomed shotglass mini bottle banded with pink collar and black plunger button cap.

A lovely gamine gourmand, but deeper and more complex than she’s given credit for.

Opens with clear honey and caramel syrup from the fancy coffee bar, then dries down to powdery musk in the middle. A nice gooey vanilla clings to the skin for a day.

Sticks to clothes forever, a reminder to never underestimate the lasting effects of a young woman with a sweet smile.

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This also came out in 2011. (Adele is not to be underestimated. Ever.)

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Bleu de Chanel

Bleu de Chanel edgy
Ad peelie of a square blue bottle embossed with Chanel’s iconic font.

This could be this decade’s Drakkar Noir–a new definition of masculinity for these semi-enlightened times. Sophisticated and clever–strength and ego coming with style and smarts rather than brawn–this man might not have the classic pretty face but his shirt is nicely tailored and he plays cards well–he’s interesting.

Opens with icy lemonade, then smoky ginger, and lays two inches above the skin with amber, mint and sandalwood all evening long.

I wish it had more sweetness.

Edit – 6/24/21

I sniffed a bottle in the men’s department–and I got a drop on my nose.
(…sad whine…)
The world did not get any sexier, but I did have a sudden craving for lemon sweets.
When I got home the guy said I smelled like one of his golf buddies–the smart one.

*

Peter Gabriel always seems to carry an air of cerebral masculinity.
(The live version with The Blind Boys of Alabama is even better but there’s an ad break in the middle that’s jarring.)