Posted by Erin
on
17 February 2011
If you are sick of being sick this winter, you are not alone. Flu season started early in the more populous parts of the United States, Canada and the U.K., with several urban centers reporting up to six times the normal number of confirmed influenza cases by late December 2010. Doctors and heath practitioners in North America are also seeing more viral gastroenteritis and strep throat cases this year. Vaccine numbers are down, hospital admissions for children and the elderly in many areas are up, and with all the storms and frigid temperatures some of us have experienced, we’re trapped inside our homes, schools and workplaces with miserable, germy companions. My extended family spent the holidays passing around a virulent Norovirus. The infection casualties totaled 21 people. Since then my household has seen one bout of hacking cough, two solid weeks of influenza (four consecutive cases, with the result that I also came down with cabin fever), an infant ear infection, two cases of eczema and one four-year-old who apparently needs more liquids and fiber in her diet. The heat rash and insect bites of summer can’t come soon enough.
Being a perfumista doubles the despondency of a stuffed nose. Two or three days last month, I was unable to smell anything properly and I was bereft. During a voluntary fragrance break, you still have access to other scented comforts: food, fresh air, scotch whisky. The last few bad colds I’ve had have served to remind me how much I’ve come to rely on my sense of smell to give color and focus to each day. Every time the congestion has passed, even if I’m still suffering from other symptoms, I’ve returned to my life and my perfume cabinet with glee and relief. The world is in HD again.
There are a number of different approaches to perfuming your convalescence…
Read the rest of this article »
Posted by Robin
on
12 November 2009
Remember that lovely “rice steam” note from Kenzo Amour? Poopoo Pidoo, one of the debut fragrances from French niche line Ego Facto, takes that idea and brings it into sharper focus.1 Poopoo Pidoo is a powdery floral by perfumer Dominique Ropion, and I take it it’s supposed to be sexy — the tag line is “declare that you’re not just the girl they think you are” and the brand description notes that “…just like the person wearing it, it is not that well-behaved”. I haven’t made up my mind about the sexy part, but I love Poopoo Pidoo.
It starts with a sharp, citrus-y orange blossom, and very quickly moves into the gauzy, rice powder/heliotrope heart, which smells like a dusty blend of marshmallow cream, basmati rice and crushed toasted almonds…
Read the rest of this article »
Posted by Robin
on
17 December 2008
My “to review” list is now so alarmingly long that I try not to look at it at all for more than a few seconds at a time. Yesterday, in despair, I decided to cross out all of the niche fragrances I wasn't even interested in smelling again and could barely remember from the first try (scents that “fill my head with a deep, profound, Zen-like nothingness”, to quote March at Perfume Posse). All of those samples were thrown into the purgatory basket, where they may end up living out the rest of their days unless either a) I get more productive or b) the fragrance industry gets less productive.
Felanilla — and let's not even talk about the name, 'kay? — is one of the latest fragrances from Parfumerie Generale, and it did make an immediate impression. My testing notes from the first trial say simply “Shalimar“, not because it's a dupe, mind you, but because it struck me as something like a modern niche meditation on the Shalimar theme…
Read the rest of this article »
Posted by Robin
on
11 November 2008
Amour Le Parfum is Kenzo's new limited edition Parfum (extrait) version of 2006's Kenzo Amour. It was inspired by the “gold of the Orient”, if that helps you in any way, and was developed by perfumer Daphne Bugey, who along with Olivier Cresp created the original Amour fragrance.
Amour Le Parfum does for Amour what Kenzo Flower Oriental did for the original Flower: it sticks with the main theme but tempers the sweetness with a darker, woodier base. Amour's pale opening of cherry blossom and rice steam (other notes in the original: white tea, frangipani, heliotrope, thanaka wood, incense, vanilla and musk) is amped up and winterized with warmer notes (amber, incense, benzoin and patchouli). It is very dusty-resinous in the early stages, later, it's flatter and more ambery-woody…
Read the rest of this article »
Posted by Robin
on
17 March 2008
21 is the latest fragrance from Costume National. It is said to have 21 notes — bergamot, milk, orange blossoms, saffron, cumin, pepper, cashmere wood, royal jelly, moss, clary sage, patchouli, olibanum, amber, sandalwood, oudh wood, cedar, vetiver, labdanum, tonka bean, vanilla and musk — and is meant to honor the brand's 21st anniversary.
In some ways, 21 Costume National makes a perfect follow-up to Friday's post about fragrance notes; the “21 notes” is a nice conceit, no? Perhaps someone can make out all 21, and no more, but I'm not that someone…
Read the rest of this article »
