When did Tide start making rose-flavored pods?
Detergent floral that strips the nuance of the original. I put it in the medicine chest, but it might do better in the laundry room to lift stains.
*
This song (and the video) is jarring, but also has incredible tension and nuance.
A Shirley temple cocktail nastied up with añejo tequila.
Grenadine and white flowers, orange peel and wooden casks.
It could almost be an Angel flanker–sweet and sour with a dirty bottom.
Not a big blast radius, but the fallout lingers a while.
Another sassy bomb–a cheerfully horrific Clash tune that hits with even more impact when sung by the Mexican punk band Tijuana No!.
Watery peach tea and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in the spring.
Great for a high school girl with a big allowance. When she goes to college, she’ll graduate to Lancome Tresor.
*
I love everything Tones and I does with their voice–this stripped down cover is haunting.
Another apple for the teacher–this one is passionate about Victorian literature and floral print dresses.
Honeycrisp by the bushel and Crabtree & Evelyn rose talc, with modest sillage until tea time. Woodsy amber at the bottom lasts longer on clothes.
I kind of feel like this is what an American designer thinks London should be–cliche and prissy and pretty history–without acknowledging the grime and colonialism and punk rock.
*
The “DKNY Hearts the World” line came out in 2012, when this song hit it big in the US. (And Florence is actually from London, unlike this perfume.)
Lemon and a really nice peppery marigold an inch above the skin–the vetiver and bergamot project off my shirt cuffs better than my wrist–for an hour.
The literature says this one is supposed to evoke the spirit of the Haitian people. Not really getting that from the blonde in the wintery ad, but okay.
I’d enjoy it more as a candle.
*
Here’s a Haitian take on “the land of ice and snow” by the amazing Moonlight Benjamin.
Alcoholic juicy figs out of the bottle that turn creamy with jasmine right away, then has fancy tea and cake for thirty minutes.
I like the clary sage that keeps this clean and not too sweet, but it’s definitely on the feminine end of unisex.
The pine bottom notes settle under the skin for another hour.
Nice, but not a whole lot of personality.
*
Feeling Cher’s cover of this one today.
Nivea skin cream.
It’s nice, but the flashback to all my mid-eighties high school angst hit me like a slap, and I swear my face broke out in sympathetic second puberty.
Peony and pear on top, orris root and Duran Duran on the bottom.
High school in the mid-eighties was horrible, but the music was fantastic.
Sweet yet somehow dusty–pleasant for dry autumn days, and Jane Austen novels.
A wake-up splash of sweet whiskey mash with some soft fruit, then calms down to an easy earthy floral a few inches above the skin for half an hour.
Slowly fades to sheer musk with a hint of ripening grain.
Comparing it to the source (I cook with barley in the winter, so I had some on hand) was fun–I could definitely find the powdery sweetness of the kernels.
Love this instrumental on an old classic–
Fruity, but hard and cold like all the Omnias–mashed berries on ice that melt in an hour into a pretty floral garnish. The cedar musk lasts longest, sweet and dry on the skin overnight.
I wish the pomegranate and hibiscus were noticeable beyond the initial juicy tartness. I just get an upscale red Kool-aid, and it’s refreshing, but I like a stronger summertime drink.
Apropos. (Wasn’t that one of the Three Musketeers?)
Safe citrus and berry splash with flowers–nice dry woodsy peony, in a clean and non-alluring way–but it’s loud. Big invasive sillage that takes over the clothes, like when you switch fabric softeners and can’t get used to the new smell, but even longer lasting.
This one feels like an afterthought, as if it were put out for bottle collectors.
Neon Hitch is also loud and kind of invasive, but is absolutely alluring and by no means an afterthought.
kira a. gold 