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.
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.
Lime and cloves and cardamom, then roses with woody thorns and sweet white flowers in a sandalwood bowl.
It’s nice, and reasonably priced, but I want more personality than just “hipster yoga studio in a gentrified neighborhood.”
This song gives me chills.
White spring flowers and more white flowers and jasmine and some white citrus-y flowers and some white summer flowers and tuberose.
Very high quality ingredients, and pretty, but I was the kid who ate her Crayolas because I wanted to taste the colors, y’know?
Lasts half an inch above the skin for an hour, and on cotton until laundry day.
Here’s another pretty butterfly from the king of K-Pop.
Red Zinger herbal tea–
Sparkly hibiscus and rosy fruit with an earthy finish–a great summer splash for a young woman.
(Or an older one who is nostalgic for 1970’s jello salad, quiche and carrot cake.) (Me.)
A raspy Clash cover of another Jimmy.
(That feeling when you finally get your hands on the one everyone told you about and you’re all “Okay, I get it now.”)
All the treats of all the winter holidays bottled into Aladdin’s lamp, doled out in wishes.
Smoked spiced plums and sweet purple flowers–violets and iris–that get creamy with tuberose after an hour, turning the cinnamon sticks to sandalwood.
Later, vanilla and benzoin incense leave hazy trails like warm season’s greetings for days.
Lou Lou came out in 1987, along with INXS’s Kick. Here’s a sweet cover from Beck and Annie from St. Vincent.
Edit – 9/29/21
The 2021 remake of Dragonfly is a little lighter, I think–the amber and heliotrope is replaced with benzoin and ginger, with the wet notes lasting longer on the bottom.
The mustiness of the rice still comes through, but it’s more powdery now–drying out just after a sun shower, rather than in the rain–and still cloying.
Not my favorite Zoologist.
*
Green pond lilies and sugar dipped flowers steaming in summer rainstorms.
There’s an amber shard edge that keeps it from being cloying, but it’s still too sweet for me.
An acoustic track from a post-grunge group that definitely has an amber edge.
A laundry soap commercial.
Lime rind in a dry powder detergent, then wildflowers in the sun. Finishes chemical clean.
Much too sanitary for me.
I might like it more if it were punked up a bit.
This is a forgotten gem of a scent–
Opens with sharp green herbs and a squeeze of citrus, then immediately blooms with lilac and honey. Projection for miles, yet the flowers change closer and closer to the skin: lily of the valley, then rose, then violet.
Lasts forever, ending with the softest civet-y oakmoss and more honey.
A new favorite.
I’d never heard of it until I blind bid on a auction lot of vintage minis–then fell in love and did the research–it’s been around since 1913.
The tango was taking France by storm then, brought from Argentina. This is a modern one from the Parisian group Gotan Project.
A blast of jasmine and frangipani that melds into an almost edible sweet spice. The tuberose keeps it more floral than gourmand, with a sharp green edge.
On me, the solid perfume settles to the skin with creamy vanilla after an hour.
I’d rather this one in an incense stick, to burn behind a beaded curtain while drinking Indian tea.
Abhibyanjana Rubhi is from Gangtok. She had a song in Priyanka Chopra’s movie Pahuna, filmed in Sikkim. Her first single’s video is a little hard to watch, but the song is marvelous.
kira a. gold 