To Dream or not To Dream: Sleep Scents

November 30, 2012

 

Under normal circumstances (bar sickness and problems of cosmic proportions, such as a broken umbrella) I’m a sound sleeper. Even loudly meowing cat cannot disturb my peace in the morning. But to fall asleep I need 15-20 minutes of full darkness and silence. I’ve never dozed off while watching TV or reading a book. I have to cease all activities, turn off everything – and only then I can sleep. The smallest noise or light bothers me: ticking clocks on the wall, humming cleaning machines at the supermarket down the block or flickering lights of a wireless router kept me sleepless for hours.

Scents do not bother me. I wouldn’t probably spray myself lavishly with Shalimar before going to bed (ok, strike everything after the perfume name) but I always enjoy remains of the perfume I wore earlier coming from my skin or hair as I’m drifting off to sleep.

The second type of perfumes I enjoy wearing to bed: perfumes that I actually designate as sleep scents. Usually those are perfumes that I like as scents but do not often wear as perfumes. I’m not sure what exactly sets them apart from perfumes I wear in my everyday life but I do have that category in my perfume collection.

Sonoma Scent Studio To Dream

The first fragrance that I defined for myself as a sleep scent was To Dream by Sonoma Scent Studio – created in 2011 by Laurie Erickson, notes include violet, rose, heliotrope, cedar, amber, frankincense, oakwood absolute, vetiver, tonka, orris, vanilla, musk, sandalwood, oakmoss absolute, subtle suede, cocoa and aldehydes. I do not know if the name lead me into it or if it happened on its own but To Dream became one of my favorite sleep scents.

Like many others Sonoma Scent Studio’s perfumes, To Dream is too concentrated for me to use from the spray bottle so I usually decant it into a dab vial and apply a little before going to bed. If you follow the link above you’ll find many links to other bloggers’ reviews so I won’t even try to describe the scent. I just want to say that if you haven’t tried it yet you should. I really like the travel spray option: yes, it’s more expensive per ml but it’s a very chic atomizer and with 20-24% concentration those 5 ml will last you forever.

SSS Fig Tree Shea Cream

Recently Birgit (Olfactoria’s Travels) introduced the “new idea” from Parfums d’Orsay – alcohol-free hydrating perfume. It reminded me of another amazing product from Sonoma Scent Studio – shea body creams. For the last year I’ve been using Fig Tree shea cream from time to time as my night hand lotion/sleep scent (though I love wearing Fig Tree perfume as my daytime perfume as well – see my In the Search for the Perfect Fig). Shea creams will be available soon on the site (they are seasonal items). Don’t miss them because they will be gone until the next holiday season.

 

Do you wear perfumes to bed?

 

 

Images: my own

44 Comments | Favorite Perfumes, Not a Review, Sleep Scent | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Undina

Laughs, Lemmings, Loves – Episode 27

November 26, 2012

 

It was a great week: warm and sunny weather (though for my vSO it’s a negative thing since he’s concerned about the drought), a lot of great food and wonderful time spent with my family and friends (including a perfumista friend – which was an extra treat).

I tried to catch up reading the blogs on my Reading List but I still have some posts to go through. I laughed a lot in the real life but didn’t find (or remember) anything for my Laughs section. Lemmings are still in a turkey coma so just a couple of lackadaisical ones are leisurely looking towards Spring 2013.

Lemmings after Thanksiving

Lemmings

Since I’m a fan, I can’t help but get excited about this new Jo Malone Sugar & Spice collection though I’m annoyed that, again, it’ll be a limited edition and there will be 5 (five!) new scents. In a smaller bottles (30 ml) – which is good. A set of 9 ml bottles of the complete collection would have been even better.

 

Loves

Parfumista (Parfumistans blog) reviews wonderful Chypre Palatin by Parfums MDCI (and rates it 5): Chypre Palatin is a pleasant, versatile, elegant and very wearable fragrance that could be worn in daytime for office or formal events year around except during warm summer days. My precious decant came from Suzanne (Eiderdown Press). Every time I wear it I think of her with a gratitude. If you missed it, read her take on this perfume.

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Lanier (scents memory): Named for Christian Dior’s muse and friend Mitzah Bricard it is heady and hypnotic but never overwhelming. It is what I would call deep and
multi layered in its design, a real stunner for me that never shouts but rather insinuates and seduces the one who wears it. I love this perfume and it’ll join my collection once my decant is gone.

 

One holiday is done, more to go. And I’m looking forward to all of them.

15 Comments | Weekly Roundups | Permalink
Posted by Undina

A Postcard from Undina: Happy Thanksgiving!

November 22, 2012

 

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I haven’t grew up with it but for the last 15 years it was one of the most enjoyable days of the year. I’m grateful to all the people who contributed to that on all levels of my life and wish everybody who celebrates this day to enjoy it to the fullest ;)

Thanksgiving Food

Undina

 

Image: my own

20 Comments | A Postcard from Undina | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by Undina

My Wish List for the Perfume Industry

November 13, 2012

 

The holiday season is upon us, we start at least thinking about all the lists – to sum up the past or plan the future. So I decided to get to it early and prepared my personal Wish List for the perfume industry.

I’m not going to come up with anything new: we all are saying all these things now and again while discussing brands, perfumes and new releases. But with my tendency to collect things I did it for a while for that topic. I do not think that brands/companies have to follow these requests (some of them might not be the best economic strategies from companies’ stand point) but I wish they would.

Samples and Sample-to-buy programs: many brands aren’t easily accessible for testing in B&M stores. So, first of all, there should be samples available for purchase and preferably with the same delivery mechanism as the actual perfume (spraying or dabbing). Also since most brands spend money on marketing anyway they could arrange programs where customers pay for samples (that will ensure that people aren’t just hoarding samples for selling on eBay or using instead of buying perfumes) but if customers decide to buy a bottle they’d get a discount for the amount paid for the sample set.

Sizes for bottles: 5-10-15-30 ml. For big lines – mix/match sets of smaller “travel” bottles. Regular customers do not need more than a couple of perfumes at a time and “collectors” do not need most of the perfumes even in 30 ml size. For many brands I would have paid more for the official small bottle than for the same size decant.

"Shalimar" Bottles and Rusty

Warnings about any reformulation: it’s unfair for consumers to buy a perfume they thought they knew and liked without realizing the formula has changed. I don’t think even Rusty is capable of smelling anything from a sealed bottle (and a domestic cat’s sense of smell is known to be about fourteen times as strong as a human’s). There should be at least some change in packaging to indicate that it’s not the same perfume.

Production Date (Year): since perfumes are perishable and they cannot be tested before the purchase, I think it is only fair to require brands to put at least a year of production on the packaging. It would be fun to discuss perfumes’ vintages: “Oh, I remember, 1985 was a good year for Miss Dior” or “Miss Dior Cherie 2006 was still drinkable wearable.”

Warnings about the upcoming changes/discontinuation: companies might be able to sell more perfumes for the original price before they are moved to various discount stores if those who love perfumes being put on the chopping block know they need to buy a back-up bottle (or a box of bottles?).

Discontinued perfumes re-issuing: companies could do even something like a Perfume Club (similar to wine clubs) or pre-orders where first they gather requests (even with a deposit) and then produce a perfume once the necessary minimum number of orders is received. Maybe even in more generic packaging – for those who know the perfume and want it for the perfume itself.

Limited new launches: three-four perfumes simultaneously is a good number for a new brand launch but well established brands shouldn’t bombard customers with all those endless multiple new releases.

Packaging: do not waste beautiful bottles on mediocre perfumes and do not undermine a beautiful perfume by an ugly vessel for it.

Perfume notes: please no more oud (agarwood) perfumes! There are so many wonderful ingredients; customers won’t think less of the brand if it doesn’t jump on every note du jour wagon.

Naming: most people are really bad with numbers. Just saying…

 

Have I missed anything?

 

Image: my own

52 Comments | "Four legs good", Random Stuff | Permalink
Posted by Undina

Entertaining Statistics: October, 2012

November 8, 2012

 

Before I talk about this month statistics I want to try one more time and if it doesn’t work I’ll drop it: please vote for me. You do not need to register, log in or do anything of that kind. All you need to do is to click on the link, wait for five seconds (flash loading) and then click on I ♥ TOO. That’s it. People! I cannot even dream of wining a trip to Paris looking at the modest number of votes I managed to get by pleading with my readers, FB friends, Twitter followers and even abusing my position at work. Now back to regular programming.

It was a wonderful October this year – mostly warm and sunny. I’ve got some cooler weather on my trip to New York but it was still nice. I’m extremely glad that I’ve got to visit that one of the best cities in the world before the Cruel Sandy did.

During that trip, while visiting different stores and talking to people about perfumes, I realized that there were so many names in different languages meaning different things. I got curious and once I got home I’ve added more information to my perfumes database and for this month’s statistics post I calculated the number of perfume names in different languages that I wore and tested during October.

Stats October 2012

Abstract (not real words) – 11, English – 19, French – 33, Italian – 3 and NA (names, streets, etc.) – 7.

 

Quick October stats:

Numbers in parenthesis are comparison to the previous month’s numbers.

* Different perfumes worn1: 25 (0) from 18 (0) brands on 30 (+1) occasions;

* Different perfumes tested2: 53 (+1) from 29 (+4) brands on 60 (0) occasions;

* Perfumes I tried for the first time: 27 (+5);

* Perfume house I wore most often: Guerlain (again! Who would have thought a year ago);

* Perfume house I tested the most: Serge Lutens;

* Most popular notes (only from perfumes I chose to wear): top – (not counting bergamot) galbanum, peach and rose; middle – (not counting rose) ylang ylang that has surpassed jasmine and iris root; base – vanilla, sandalwood andmusk;

 

What is the most “exotic” language for a perfume in your collection?

 

1 For the testing I apply a perfume to one area on my arms easily available for the repetitive sniffing. But, most likely, I’m the only one who can smell it. I can test two, sometimes even more perfumes at the same time.

2 When I wear a perfume I apply it to at least three-four points and usually I plan to spend at least 4-8 hours with the same scent so I’m prepared to re-apply if the original application wears off.

 

Image: my own (well, I compiled it)

43 Comments | My Stats | Permalink
Posted by Undina

Laughs, Lemmings, Loves – Episode 26

November 5, 2012

 

It was a very sunny and warm week. It was almost wrong to feel that good about the weather when Nature was that cruel on the other side of the country. I really hope that lives of my family, friends and everybody else get back to normal as soon as possible.

Somehow not a single lemming showed up as I was reading this week’s posts. Probably they got scared by weather and Halloween. But there was a chuckle or two and a lot of love (I kept singing “All you need is love, love, love…” as I was collecting posts for this round-up).

LLL26Halloween

Laughs

Sigrun (Riktig Parfym) offers an unexpected take on 1740 Marquis de Sade by Histoires de Parfums. I do not want to spoil a joke so I won’t quote anything here but I strongly recommend to go and read it.

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Blacknall Allen (aperfumeblog by Blacknall Allen): Well, same thing here. I do not want a brainy perfume. I want a beautiful one that is charming, and can make me smile.  So I wear the sole de Nicolai that does that, and ignore the rest.  They can go to my book club meeting for me. No doubt they’ve already read and discussed the book.

 

Loves

Portia (AustralianPerfumeJunkies) reviews one of my absolute loves – Chanel No 19: It is green, crisp and powdery to open and though it has a lovely bouquet of flowers that used in most fragrances would be flirty, lively and bold here they are pretty and fresh but they are restrained because of choice.

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Steve (The Scented Hound), while reviewing one of my favorite perfumes Ambre Fetiche by Annick Goutal, has created a new mythical creature - a bearlamb: It’s amber wrapped up in air that was let out of an old tire.  It’s strong and very heavy and plastic and more plastic on top of a spiced and smoked amber.  I can’t say the opening is pleasurable because a little goes a long way.  Just a couple of spritzes managed to clog my throat as it coated and choked me a bit.  It’s not until the drydown takes place that this really becomes special. In the end you’re left with a warm blanket of amber tinged with what to me is almost like hints of brown sugar topped with a light vanilla incense.

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Liam (Personal Odour) describes my favorite Vetiver Tonka by Hermes really close to how I feel about this perfume: What sets Vetiver Tonka apart from Ellena’s other creations is its almost sickly nature. Where the vetiver comes through as typically green (it’s not a smokey take on the Indian grass roots), it’s counterbalanced by the edible lusciousness of tonka, those seeds that are intensely sweet like vanilla, cinnamon and sugar.

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Suzanna (Bois de Jasmin) reviews Mohur by Neela Vermeire Creations: From the notes, Mohur sounded monumental, a veritable Taj Majal of showpiece ingredients, so its lived-in texture and subtle nuances surprised me.  I have tried attars that were unreachable in their fungal qualities, so strange to my Western nose but so common in the Arabian market. It has taken me a few years to appreciate oud and how wonderfully well the note can be used to anchor a composition. I linked to my own story about all three perfumes from the line so many times that I think everybody has read it (but if no, it isn’t hard to find – so no link).

 

Leftovers

Thierry Mugler celebrates the 20th anniversary of Angel: I shared my Angel memory (Angel of Jealousy) to win a trip (not that it ever happens but I have at least to buy a lottery ticket, right?) Vote for me!

23 Comments | Weekly Roundups | Permalink
Posted by Undina

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