I keep trying to understand why this one was named No Sleep, when it’s the most cuddly, sleep-inducing scent ever.
Opens with big sweet dream roses and jasmine, then envelops the soul with heady vanilla, creamy and soft, and so relaxing it’s soporific.
Stays a foot off the skin for a two hour nap, then drifts down to a calm patchi woods with a hint of light rain for two more.
I wish it came in smaller bottles–I’d get one for a pillow spray on insomnia nights.
*
My favorite lullaby.
Gourmand roses, to be eaten on toast.
Fruity citrus petal mash, exactly like the jelly I loved from the Turkish import store, perfect for little girls’ tea parties and big girl indulgences.
Loud lemony rose-hips at the start, with the faintest herbal green and sweet spice, and loads of sugar for hours and hours.
Eventually settles to floral caramel on the skin and cuffs, and stays there all day long.
Wear with lots of pink.
*
Ebru Gündeş is a popular singer from Istanbul.
Google says the title of this song means “I Have a Lot of Business with You,” but translations of the lyrics have a much prettier vibe than that.
Opens with spicy saffron roses, big and jammy, in Fort & Manle fashion.
Then lemon leaf geranium jumps in with a big splash–that flowers in the rain thing that Nest does–pleasantly tart and wet.
After an hour or so, a nice smoky tea brews, with patchi honey and Amouage’s woody rose incense.
The best performance of Coreterno’s perfume catalog, with fill-the-room floral sillage and semi-permanence on clothes. Hardly original, but that might be a part of their branding: a pastiche of beloved cliches that blend into a new but still familiar composition.
Not one I’d wear–this one would be more likely to wear me–but I’d love to huff on someone else, especially masculine types in retro neckties.
*
Here’s another pastiche of cliches done perfectly.
Ooh, I like this one–a nice dry rose, the way good sherry and a sharp sense of humor are dry.
Starts with an interesting spicy chocolate, and a bit of skanky-sour rose-hip fruit for a half hour, then gets powdery soft with enchanted rose forest patchouli thorns for the rest of the day.
Nothing sweet about it, and quite loud–this one enters the room before you do, and lingers after you’re gone.
Lovely for fairy-tale princes on a mission, and queens who need no rescuing.
*
A dry, dry song.
“Nice flowers,” she said, batting her lashes. “Juicy, too.”
“Rosy citrus,” came the reply, with a knowing smile.
“A sweet bottom, too,” she teased back. She didn’t bring up the feminine wood–they were already gone.
Flirtatious, but not much more.
Stays at elbow length for an hour, then fades to the skin for another two.
*
More Gia Woods.
A little girl in frills pretending she likes black coffee.
Opens with sweet green, then big blowsy peonies and roses take over with a bit of vodka jam, but soon a weird dark sour note blooms underneath. Maybe the spices hit the musk at odd angles on me, but it’s just sort of awkward.
Lasts three hours too long and leaves faint black currant pee on the clothes.
*
This Doors song has been stuck in my head for a week–here’s a breathy feminine cover that rocks out nicely at the end.
Pink grapefruit juice splash, that ends quickly with woody raindrops on roses.
Synthetic, safe, and unpretentious.
Eau de toilette projection with cologne longevity–good for a spritz after gym-class.
*
How cute is this girly-gay-girl song?!
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?
*
This song by Kat Dahlia has no vines but is not disappointing at all.
Opens with dry salty roses that are polite, but not shy. Sweet water seeps in after a half hour, with a cool wet/dry ambroxan musk, and some dusty pink incense smoke rises six inches from the skin all evening.
Lasts overnight on cotton, and leans to the floral end of unisex.
I like it.
A smart “no-nonsense” professor vibe, and a nice change from the lush, fleshy petal fruit preserves everywhere.
(Sadly, at this price our prof needs tenure at an Ivy League school.)
*
This celebration of Joni is my mood today–
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.
*
Coco Lee and Yo-Yo Ma’s ending credits song to one of my favorite movies of all time.
kira a. gold 