Rhinestones rather than diamonds, but still fun to wear.
The tropical fruit salad opening has an orange edge that hits the back of the throat and unfortunately keeps the pear from sparkling, but it fades quickly to jasmine and warm musk on the skin for hours.
I’m a bit conflicted about the marketing. I went off a bit about philosophy’s “Nude Rose,” for using the same color scheme.
This song has all the color, cut and clarity.
Weird fruit tart with sprinkles.
Shrill kiwi slices on top a white cupcake iced with white chocolate, decorated with some white flowers.
Lasts long after the party is over, ending with woody vanilla and birthday candle wax (that may be a feature of my solid scent rather than the spray) and musk.
Enormously popular, but the best of Britney’s lot is by far Midnight Fantasy.
This cover of Womanizer is pretty good–
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-
I love the opening, a magician’s big poof of flowers hidden in a sleeve.
They turn green quickly, facefuls of huge leafy citrus blooms with extra greenery, and woodsy patchouli stems by the armload.
Private Collection came out in 1973, but doesn’t bare the civet fangs that were so popular then–the base is cedar and bright spice a few feet from the skin. The dry down on clothes is wildflower sweet for two days.
The top notes are so fun, and the finish is pretty, but the middle feels like I’ve been whumped in the chest by the biggest bridal bouquet ever thrown.
This one first came out then, too.
Peachy honey aldehydes at the beginning, then flowers pile on, heavy on the iris.
Woods file in quickly, with sandalwood and amber on the bottom.
Lasts most of the day, and the next on cotton.
It’s sort of frumpy but mischievous, like the great aunt who slipped you a taste of her cordial when your parents said you still were too young to have any.
Lanvin released this in 1927. A year later, Boléro by Maurice Ravel premiered in Paris. Brilliant versions of the piece exist all over the internet–André Rieu’s is great, Pink Martini’s is worth a listen, even Frank Zappa conducts one, cigarette in hand. My favorite of the moment is this very special arrangement by Angelique Kidjo with Branford Marsalis.
Blue roses are a botanical impossibility, but if they did exist, they’d smell like this.
Nest’s Wisteria Blue opens with pretty wisteria in the rain, then big magical roses in full fantasy bloom–and stays there, just inside personal space, for hours.
A nice wet weather floral–brilliant for moody teens.
I love this gloomy day remake.
Opens with bergamot then rolls around on forest floor with violet leaf and lily-of-the-valley for a few hours.
Finishes with musky rose and wet ambergris on the skin.
Very brooding male pixie.
I love it.
(I may have posed in a compromising photo with a certain lawn ornament, many many years ago…)
This duo from Cleveland is doing fun things with music and video.
Wild flowers and rose, in a gorgeous high fashion editorial.
Sweet powdery mimosa at the opening, roses from top to bottom, and ending with a breath of organic green musk.
Lasts minutes on skin and hours on clothes. I really like it, but it might be too posh for me.
Azzaro Couture was first released in 1974, then re-launched in 2008 for a boutique show.
Here’s another sweet-and-lovely claimed by the next generation.
I was sixteen when I saw the Stravinsky Fountain in Paris, and fell in love with Niki de Saint Phalle’s wonderful sculptures.
She released her perfume in 1982–as a way to fund her life-long Tarot Garden sculpture project–with a variety of illustrated bottles, including a zodiac series called Eau Defendue.
The eau de toilette opens with peaches and wormwood, and mint–that has just enough of a toothpaste-and-orange-juice dissonance to make one wake up and pay attention, not unlike the vibrant color-blocking of her sculptures–weird and bright, yet pretty.
Carnation and patchouli and some green-dyed-leather twists it around for several hours, and woodsy moss covers the skin for the rest of the day.
Jean Tanguely, Niki’s partner, insisted that moss be allowed to grow on the Centre Pompidou sculptures, as Nature’s contribution to the art–so it can’t be a coincidence that the perfume carries the same green notes.
For more about the artist and her Tarot Garden, check out this New Yorker article.
Igor Stravinsky (watch a video of him conducting here) was a huge influence on John Williams, as well as The Beastie Boys, who sampled The Firebird Suite in two of their songs from Hello Nasty.
I like to think Niki de Saint Phalle, whose artistic style included found materials and juxtaposed media in her feminist compositions, might have approved of this cover by Robyn Adele Anderson. (And the guy on the Theremin is awesome!)
This smells like everything else at Macy’s, but with a glass of red wine rather than a caramel frappe or a peach smoothie.
Bergamot and black berries on the top, jasmine and tuberose in the middle, musky patchy vetiver at the bottom.
This song came out in 2017 in Italy, same as.
kira a. gold 