Kimberly New York

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Diaspora

Clear ice-cube shaped bottle with tall gold cap, and black and white and red packaging.

Kimberly New York’s site lists Asian pear and Fiji apple, Jamaican rose apple, and champagne.

I’m not discerning enough to sniff out which apple is which, but they’re lovely and crisp, with that marvelous boozy-floral note that fresh red peel has. There’s a powdery wax accord, almost like taffy with a hint of violets–recognizable if you’ve ever gone to a pick-your-own orchard–the dusty rime an apple produces naturally, that I just love.

Artsy–Kimberly Walker’s flagship fragrance–has the same candied apples at its heart. In Diaspora they’re the full body and soul, not just a note but the whole song.
I get gourmet wine gums at the bottom, a little younger vibe than bubbly, but equally as fun.

Like Indigo Love, my skin gobbles this up, so I have to reapply often (no hardship at all, because it feels delicious) but it lasts much longer in my hair, and forever on cotton.

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How amazing is this video from Nitty Scott?!

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Art Color Love

art color love edgy
Sample vial with bottle cut-out test paper strip.

Lighthearted and young.
This girl wears bright sundresses and statement shoes and laughs at everything.

A joyful projection of watermelon taffy with a toasted coconut accord close to the skin.

There’s a champagne feel, too–a sparkle in the gourmand sweetness–that’s quite charming, like an innocent twist on Mugler’s Eau de Star.

This song always makes me happy. This  fun cover is by Haddy N’Jie.

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Indigo Love

Kimberly New York’s frosted square bottle with silver cap, without the cute dandelion label (Bluegrass humidity makes goo of adhesive) and clementines.

Remember when you were little and would pinch the end of a honeysuckle bloom to taste that drop of ambrosia?
This stuff opens with a LOVELY squeeze of the sweetest orange, then pure flower nectar blooms a few inches off the wrist.
Doesn’t last long–I’d go fast through a bottle reapplying, especially since it feels so silky on the skin.

11/5/20
I did get a bottle, (happy birthday to me!) and I am definitely going through it quickly–this is my favorite self-care potion at the moment.
The bright citrus at the opening is as refreshing as any Atelier Cologne, but the sweet floral dry down is lotion soft, and so pretty and addictive.

Highly recommended.
Check out the Kimberly New York website here. I got great customer service.

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Auka Dixon’s group Quartette Indigo is awesome.

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Echelon

echelon edges
Paper test cut-out of graphic black/red/green label on a frosted bottle, decant vial, and notes including, “Grace Jones could wear this.” and “Grace Jones could wear whatever the *redacted* she pleases.” (She once answered what perfume she was wearing with, “Body odor,” so maybe the Strangé scene in Boomerang isn’t too far off?) (Echelon does NOT smell like B.O. at all, unless you sweat black jelly beans.)

This one opens strong and sweet, the hot edge of licorice biting with teeth.
Musk takes over.
Musk takes over the whole house.
Then it turns to hardwood–glittery resin and deep heavy mahogany.

I like sweetness of it, but the second I invite him over he’s gonna swallow my furniture in one big gulp and write his name over mine on the lease.

Kimberly New York is a new brand with a marvelous collection using organic ingredients–one to keep an eye on.
(Jay-Z has his own scent brand, but I’ve always loved this song.)

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Poetry

poetry edges
Grainy photo of sample vial on test paper printed with green labeled bottle.

Bright tropical sweet fruity candy out of the vial–the whole roll of Island Fruits LifeSavers at once.
The guava-papaya-coconut morphs slowly, a few feet off the skin, with a sweet woodsy note of apple stems and apricot pits, then a brief turn of sharp green banana, before settling into warm peaches on the pulse points for a couple hours.

This would make a great first date perfume–fun and friendly, but offering only a cheek to kiss at the end of the evening.

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My favorite poem ever is The Song of the Wandering Aengus by W. B. Yeats. Richie Haven’s version is the sweetest.

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Artsy

artsy edgy
Sample vial on test paper, printed with Artsy bottle with red label and Kimberly New York’s signature avi face with pinned up hair.

Marshmallow fluff–that powdered huff of air when you open a fresh bag of Jet-Puffed minis–and candied violets, the kind on wedding cakes.
Then a whiff of apples, waxy red delicious skin, that first sniff just before you bite.

Miraculously, it doesn’t do the expected caramel-amber-musk dry-down thing, it stays fresh and sugary and bright.
Ridiculously feminine, lip-gloss blown kisses last for over two hours, hovering a few inches off the wrist, then mature into woodsy sweetness on the shirt cuffs.

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Miles Davis was a painter, too, influenced by Joni Mitchell and Jean-Michel Basquiat. (Check out this article featuring some of his works.)
This song was in the soundtrack to the Basquiat movie, starring Jeffrey Wright and David Bowie.