Posted by Kevin
on
31 March 2007
When I was growing up in Virginia, every summer my grandmother and her sister Delia would take me huckleberry picking. Huckleberry bushes grew along ditches at the edge of woods, so one had to contend with ticks, chiggers, mosquitoes, gnats, horseflies, and the occasional snake as one picked the fruit. To foil this onslaught of biting varmints, my grandmother would wear a striking outfit that made her look like a character from a Charles-Dickens-Meets-Flannery-O’Connor tale: a long-sleeved, ground-dragging dress, a tall straw-and-linen bonnet, a gauze scarf that fell to her hips, and, most strangely, kerosene-moistened cotton rags tied in bows around her ankles and wrists.
My grandmother felt sure this get-up would protect her from all manner of animal attack. It certainly attracted attention from passersby — they would slow down their cars and stare at the two elderly women (looking ghostly in their old fashioned white and pale blue outfits) hovering in the shade of the woodland. Me? Between short stints of labor-intensive berry picking, I was usually hidden in the woods, rummaging through the cooler for things to eat and drink…
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Posted by Robin
on
31 March 2007
New at aedes: Serge Lutens Rousse.
New at luilei: Tauer Perfumes Reverie au jardin now available for pre-order, and all orders will be entered into a drawing for a $50 gift card; see the details here.
New at nordstrom: Armani Attitude, Stella Sheer 2007.
New at senteursdailleurs (Brussels): Etro Dianthus.
Posted by Robin
on
31 March 2007
Tommy Bahama has launched the Set Sail St Barts duo of fragrances…
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Posted by Robin
on
30 March 2007
Passage d’Enfer was the first L’Artisan fragrance I fell in love with and purchased, and as the line eventually came to be a great favorite of mine, it would hold a special place in my affections even if only for that. As things go, quite a few of the fragrances I purchased in the early days of my perfume obsession now sit lonely and ignored in the back of my cabinet, but Passage d’Enfer, along with a few other old favorites (Diptyque Philosykos, Carthusia Mediterraneo) can count on regular wearings.
Passage d’Enfer was launched in 1999; the perfumer was Olivia Giacobetti and the notes include white lily, aloe wood, frankincense, benzoin and white musk. The name is variously translated as “rite of passage”, “the gates of hell” or “passage through hell”; it is evocative no matter which you choose, and it loses only a little of its romance when you learn that it was named for the street in Paris where the L’Artisan offices were located. But if you are looking for the sort of deep, gloomy-churchy incense that might inspire such a name, you won’t find it here…
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Posted by Robin
on
30 March 2007
Deal at jomalone: get free shipping and a deluxe sample of Orange Blossom Cologne with coupon code COMBINE307, good through 4/1.
New at luckyscent: Tauer Perfumes Reverie au jardin now available for pre-order, Parfumerie Generale Jardin de Kerylos.
