Y’know how when you pop a bottle of Zinfandel and get a big grape-y whiff that’s sort of sweet and exciting, but when you actually taste the wine, it’s drier with less fruity notes than you expected, so you’re kind of disappointed, even though it’s a reasonably nice wine for the price?
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This song by Kat Dahlia has no vines but is not disappointing at all.
I had so hoped that I wouldn’t fall in love with this little ’80’s vintage eau de toilette, but Folavril is the spiked herbal brew the Faerie Queen serves at summer parties.
A sunny day-drunk cocktail made with one part Chartreuse, one part Fleur Defendue, topped off with mango hard seltzer and garnished with tomato leaf.
Lasts through the afternoon, sliding back and forth between fruit nectar and a sharp, fizzy–almost soap-suds–green.
Stays close, leafier on clothes and sweeter on skin.
Sadly, other collectors love it too. Bottles are scarce, and pricey.
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Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty came out with this beauty in 1981, too.
Sugary orange gummy candy on top, cheeky and loud, that projects for 2 hours at arms length before slowly drifting down to floral oak-y tea leaves, left to stew in the bottom of the pot. The finish is quite nice, smoky and mysterious, and long lasting on fabric.
Also, this one matures well in the bottle.
I’ve an older rollerball as well–five years at least, the juice has turned dark and thick–that opens with a whiff of boozy plum wine before hitting the Brach’s Orange Slices, and has a slightly richer dry-down. I like both equally.
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Love this sweet and mysterious song from one of my favorite duos.
Opens with burnt peaches, vague flowers and a haunting hangover with sour lemon breath.
The vanilla alka-seltzer in the middle helps, but the headache doesn’t go away until the dry down–a woody musk that sticks to the clothes like party confetti and bad aftershave–fades too.
Recommended to bottle collectors. (Leave it closed.)
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This ghostly song is sweeter and much less ghoulish.
The scent we tend to think of as Orchid is usually a synthetic fantasy accord inspired by the Cattleya varieties, a delicate sweet vanilla floral, with hints of spice. (My sister-in-law grows very pretty varieties, but I get no smell from them at all.)
Borsari 1870’s interpretation from their library set opens green with wet white lily flowers on top, and sweet cardamom notes in the middle that slowly fade to a nice, effervescent cream soda on the skin.
I compared it with Tom Ford’s Orchids–Black, and Velvet (like Orchidea, they have a touch of sandalwood on the bottom) and Soleil–but other than a sense of fancy florals, this one doesn’t seem to match up with those three anywhere.
So perhaps an orchid’s beauty is in the nose of the designer?
This one doesn’t do much for me, but TF’s don’t either, much.
(Also, I have no idea what the art on that label is supposed to be. An abstract veiled face? A contorting cow?)
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I’m really enjoying lullaby rock lately.
Described as a “floriental expressing the fulfillment of being together on a Roman terrace.”
Does partying out on an Italian balcony smell like apricot hard candy?
I like it.
Delicious fruity sour-balls out of the wrapper, clear and sweet, with a hint of summery yellow florals on top; a creamy center and a bit of spice that lasts an hour; and a sugary woodsy resin finish on the skin.
The benzoin at the base is absolutely luscious but I wish it lasted longer.
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A groovy laid back cover.
I keep hoping for someone to put out a real raw silk scent, with the strange animalics that rise from a new bolt of rough tussah or heavy dupioni. (Camel has a hint of it.)
There’s none of that here–Rose Silk is a sheer chiffon perfume, refined and delicate.
Opens with a bright squeeze of mandarin citrus that soon tempers down to a calm rose a few inches off the skin, that lasts most of the day.
Not particularly inspiring, but well made. A good blind-buy for a gift.
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Coco Lee and Yo-Yo Ma’s ending credits song to one of my favorite movies of all time.
The End of the World definitely starts with a bang.
Opens noisy, an explosion of salt and pepper popcorn that leaves one thirsty, then the minerals seep in, metal smoke and charred woods, and concrete rubble. The fallout stays dominant on clothing, but after an hour or two flowers grow on the skin, powdery with a bit of ash, soft and strange.
Weirdly violent, in a post-apocalyptic movie way, and hopefully not prophetic.
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This is easily the best song on Achtung Baby.
Incanto Charms is a party store French maid costume.
Opens with spring floral dishwasher pods, then cleans out fruit peelings left overnight in a Dispose-All, and finishes with vacuum cleaner dust musk.
Complete the look with fishnets and rubber cleaning gloves.
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Maid-core is a real cosplay thing, and some of those outfits are absolutely amazing.
(This song by Samantha Rochford is delightful.)
There’s a very surreal vegetarian tea-party thing going on with Liliana.
Opens with pretty peaches and juicy florals, then turns to watermelon curry. After an hour or so, settles to woods and canned spinach liquid in personal space, and leaves a smudge lemon curd on the skin the next morning.
The vibe actually works, in a foodie in Fluevog witch boots kind of way.
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Pop-goth strings crack me up–here’s one for a garden party, Bridgerton style.
kira a. gold 