sweet

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I Love Love

Cute frosted turquoise mini of I Love Love on a sugared orange slice.

Orange VitaminWater with baby aspirin.
It actually works, in a marvelously flippant summery way.
(In the winter it can stick in the throat a bit.)
Sugary woods on the skin at the bottom. Doesn’t last long, so get the big bottle.

I Love Love is the most popular in Moschino’s Cheap & Chic line.
I love love the marketing–plastic fashion, quirky and affordable, color and creativity taking the place of money. A bit of a middle finger flick to the haute couture and niche houses that set the often inaccessible standards for quality.

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Some more Italian love-

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Fracas

Pink gumballs and a mini bottle of Fracas.

Big bang bubblegum, for adults only.
Drunk peach and vampy tuberose that bursts loud and proud and marvelous.
A twist of orange for zing, carnation for spice, roses to flirt, and a woody base for backbone.

This girl does what and whom she pleases, tuberoses untethered, with a wink and a pop and a smile.

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First released in 1948, Fracas was a favorite of Rita Hayworth and Brigitte Bardot. Released again in 1998, it became a signature scent of Madonna. Ray of Light came out that year, too.

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Cabotine

Mini Cabotine with frosted green clover-leaf lid, sitting in water floated with more green leaves.

In the summer Cabotine is an overwhelming mess of spicy flowers; in cold weather it becomes cassis tea with honey.

Heavy carnation, gingery white florals and huge green hyacinth are eye-watering in the heat, with a whopping dose of black currant on the top and bottom giving a bite of acidic fruit in the beginning and an angry cat scratch at the end.

But in the winter, everything blends into sweetness, berries and nectar and soft musk, cheerful and petal soft–and worn under clothes, the sillage relaxes to an enjoyable comforting layer.
Lasts til morning on skin, and til spring on fabric.

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Cabotine came out in 1990. So did Sinéad O’Connor’s iconic cover of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U.”

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Gentleman

Clear mini flask with plain black label.

The peelie advertises pear, iris, leather and patchouli, but all I get is baked vinyl car seats, hot tires and a melting popsicle.

Perhaps the “New Gentle Man” needs to park his convertible in the shade?

Edit – 5/12/21
Fresh from the bottle he pear comes through, but with more plastic fruit than juicy crispness. The iris and patchouli make a nice powder somewhere between baby talc and sawdust, but I’m still not convinced.

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I want to hang out in a Gorillaz video.

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Sì

siI got this at Åhlens in Stockholm, a blind buy based on the (unusually talkative for a Swede) saleswoman’s advice–and I love this stuff.

It’s like VS Strawberries & Champagne finally old enough to drink, Chevaux d’Or without the gold plating, or Sadanne after moving to Milan.

Black currant wine cork pop at the beginning, then jammy roses that bloom on the clothes for hours. Woody vanilla, with enough patchouli to give it a smirk, stays close to the skin all day.

Fruity sweet, a little powdery, but with a bite and effortlessly stylish.
Chatty Swedish sales lady nailed it.

This hit came out of Italy in 2013 as well, also stylish and interesting.

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Poppy & Barley

Poppy & BarleySweet yet somehow dusty–pleasant for dry autumn days, and Jane Austen novels.

A wake-up splash of sweet whiskey mash with some soft fruit, then calms down to an easy earthy floral a few inches above the skin for half an hour.
Slowly fades to sheer musk with a hint of ripening grain.

Comparing it to the source (I cook with barley in the winter, so I had some on hand) was fun–I could definitely find the powdery sweetness of the kernels.

Love this instrumental on an old classic–

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Ciao

Mini Vince Camuto with filigree cap, on box with pink flower with gold medallion in the center.

Ciao is a girly coming of age party with birthday cake and strawberry champagne and a bouquet of roses, but finishes with cheers and a beer at a pub.

Fun and sweet, but earthy at the end.

A good celebration song–

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Hummingbird

Zoologist sample spray and card, with a chunk of honeycomb.

Honeysuckle nectar and lilac and more honey, then a mouthful of cherry and lily-of-the-valley cream, but always the pervasive tropical green note that is the Zoologist trademark.

Sits a few inches above the skin for several hours, but it’s too sweet for me.

This cover of Leon Russell’s Hummingbird (made famous by BB King) is also sweet but much less flighty–