aquatic

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Marine Sel

Glass pot of solid perfume with a gold lid (I dropped and cracked the pretty crested lid, sadly) and box illustrated with 1920’s drawing of swimming gentlemen.

TokyoMilk #54

Margot Elena lists notes of mineral salts, fresh water, turned earth, and white woods–which adds up somehow to sweet seaweed.

Opens with an aquatic fruity green note that stays wet for an hour before sinking into the skin with a faint wave of salty driftwood.
The solid is sheer, without much projection, but this is one I wouldn’t want to douse myself with–I think it could easily turn brackish and swampy.

Simple, amiable and unisex.
Good for reminiscing about seaside vacations, but collectors’ prices seem high for those memories.

*

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Cool Water

Teal blue mini bottle of Cool Water in the icicles of my arborvitae.

Alpha evergreen rosemary and rain on top, Ray-Ban Wayfarers and herbal musk on the bottom.

Clean, mild at a distance and brash up close, Cool Water rejoices in its chemicals–the polymer sheen of a new laserdisc, NutraSweet powder, the antiseptic wetness of lubed condoms–with the late eighties zeal for cheap innovation and mass appeal.

I swiped a bottle from a pretty college boy thirty years ago (he took my Sandman comics, so I don’t feel guilty about it) and still wear it with pegged jeans and a skinny tie on soft butch days.

*

I wore this cassette tape out in my Walkman–another sweet and synth number from 1988.

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Midnight Pearl

Discovery set sample with ad of a vampy-eyed model clutching a string of beads in a pool.

The description is “sultry and floral” with their signature essence of South Sea pearls. (I’m still confused by this. Do they use oyster juice, like that nasty clam stuff in a Bloody Caesar?)

Opens with an oceanic inky floral that is a bit Squid-ish, though not as weirdly wonderful. (Margot Elena’s 20,000 Flowers was a bit like this too, only with ylang-ylang instead of frangipani.)

Wades in a foot off the skin with sweet florals for a couple hours, but eventually dries down to some light woody spice–that I would really enjoy on a guy, maybe the bitcoin beach bum type who throws great parties.

*

Emoni Bali is so fun.

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Mystic Pearl

Sample spray and ad of a blonde gazing into the distance with parted lips and a string of beads wrapped around her middle finger.

A “fresh luminous floral inspired by Bali… using the scent of real pearls.”
(Do they grind them up, or somehow distill them? I feel like the liquid should have a paillette effect, or some shimmery nacre going on in the bottle.)

Mystic Pearl opens with a fresh vodka note that turns oceanic, then some jasmine and coconut. Sadly, I get none of the spices listed, which might have given this more backbone and lasting power. Disappears into the skin in under an hour, though lasts half the day on cotton.

(My pearls first belonged to my grandmother–they still smell like Charles of the Ritz.)

*

This funky number is also inspired by Bali–with a lot more spice.

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Dylan Blue Pour Homme

dylan blue pour homme edgy
Ad peelie of a rectangular blue bottle with gold medallion. This one is still on the Test At The Store list because I really wanted to like it.

Lemon poppy-seed salad dressing.
Sweet and moist with a few random peppercorns.

Might be nice on lettuce, but I wouldn’t want to sit next to it on a trans-Atlantic flight.

More Dylan blues–an extra sweet cover by Magnet & Gemma Hayes.

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Be Delicious

Be Delicious
Mini DKNY apple with chrome cap and apple-green eau, casting nice shadows.

This one is pure kindergarten teacher.

Thirsty green apple juice boxes, cucumber slices and flowers on the desk–lily-of-the-valley and roses–with a base of amber and gnawed-on pencils.

Good sillage, lasts through noon recess, and never makes you stand in the corner.
I’d give it a B+.

My favorite cute schoolyard tune.

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Vaara

VaaraStrangely sweaty in a four seasons way.

First sniff is wilting tulips and grubby spring earth, then humid summer roses bloom for a bit before fall spice takes over with sweet curry funk. Finishes with a cool murky aquatic on the surface of the skin.

The notes list quince, carrot seeds, coriander and peony; benzoin and cedar and a bunch of other stuff that I can’t suss out, but would have liked to experience.

This bit of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is much more exciting.

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20,000 Flowers Under the Sea

20,000 Flowers under the sea
A gold capped bottle with an ocean flora and a marvelous blue octopus label–on a giant scallop shell.

TokyoMilk #31

Another well named scent from Margot Elena.

A crashing wave of flowers and seashells, but somehow sadly watery–
Then the coral blooms with terrific ylang-ylang flowers, for hours, and slowly settles on the bottom with sweet salt.

Good for mer-folk types and surfer sweethearts.

This one has a snorkeling kind of ambiance-

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Skin

skinThis is what you wind up smelling like when you’ve been attacked in Bath & BodyWorks by the associate wielding Warm Vanilla Sugar, and you try to wash it off in their dinky sink with something that promises to be perfume-free but isn’t.

Here’s another “Skin.” Much sweeter, and twice as sultry.