Month: March 2011

by

My First Scrubber

While reading What Is Your Perfume Nemesis discussion at Olfactoria’s Travels I was reminded of one of my perfume “hates”. My very first scrubber.

Gucci Rush - Do Not EnterIt was a scent strip in one of the fashion magazines that attracted my attention to the new perfume Gucci Rush. I liked the scent and even rubbed it on my wrist. It smelled good. So the next time I happened to be in a store with a perfume counter I went straight to that tester and lavishly sprayed the fragrance all over my wrist: I wasn’t sure in its tenacity and wanted it to last long enough for me to enjoy and decide if I want to buy a bottle. It did last. Much longer than I wanted it too. I could hardly wait to get home, take off any clothes that came in contact with it and shower. It was that bad on my skin.
Dive in to keep reading…

by

A Friend in Need…

I like all kinds of holidays and celebrations. New Year and my birthday are two my favorite occasions and I always try to get the most of them.

For the New Year 2011 my friends and I had a party at our place. It wasn’t too big or loud but it was warm and joyful, with good food, great drinks and a pleasant (at least for me – can’t vouch for everybody else) gifts exchange. It was a wonderful night; I wore one of my favorite perfumes, was very happy and felt great.

Next morni afternoon I woke up really sick with flu. It was the worst sickness I had in many years. I felt awful and had no strength to get out of the bed for a couple of days. In my feverish mind there were two recurring thoughts to which I tried to hold on as if it was really important to keep thinking them. First – I was very glad and thankful to all the forces of the Universe that I hadn’t got sick 24 hours earlier: it would have been a complete disaster for our party and everybody involved. And second – I was happy that by the time I woke up my new perfumed love (Ormonde Jayne’s Ta’if) was already gone: I was dreading to associate the scent I cherished with the misery of that day. So while feeling horrible I felt lucky.

Ormonde Jayne TiareWhen I finally forced myself to get up and start moving, I noticed a wonderful smell coming from my bathrobe’s collar. It wasn’t too strong or persistent, I would catch a whiff of it now and then, but it was so unexpectedly comforting and supporting that I almost cried. With all the testing I had been conducting at the time it took me a while to figure out what perfume it was. Tiare by Ormonde Jayne.

Dive in to keep reading…

by

Perfume Purrfect?

There comes a time in every blogger’s life when you should write about your pet. So here I am.

I share my habitat with a very good-natured, affectionate and companionable medium hair orange tabby cat (though whoever classified him as such should start coming to my place daily in a month Rusty and Climat by Lancomeso we could discuss that definition over their vacuuming my floors and other surfaces covered with that “medium” hair). He’s very food-oriented (he even learned some tricks – sit, paw, down) and omnivorous (among strange things that my cat likes are mangoes, avocados, apricots and pecans). We got him from a shelter two years ago, and he keeps brightening lives of everybody around him as a small furry sun. His name is Rusty.

Dive in to keep reading…

by

Dial M for… Spring or A Perfect Mimosa

A gray chilly day, gray dirty slush on the pavement, gray skies and serious men in gray gabardine overcoats with gray newspaper cones – in their hand, under arm or even sticking out of a handbag. And confined in each of those cones are hundreds of small suns.

MimosaThis is how I remember 8th of March, an International Women’s Day, from my childhood. Of course, there were other early spring flowers – tulips and daffodils (back then we didn’t have “evergreen” roses yet) – but mimosa* was strongly associated with this holiday (a combination of Mother’s Day and St. Valentine’s Day). Mimosa was such a sunny and happy flower that you couldn’t help feeling Spring in the air even though it was still cold and unpleasant outside.

It’s almost never cold where I live now; all seasons’ boundaries are blurred and I gladly swapped not so “international,” as I found out, holiday for a more romantic, in my view, local one. But I still smile and my heart fills with joy whenever I see these bright golden constellations on a filigree of silvery leaves.

  Dive in to keep reading…

by

New Year Resolutions: February

Just recently I complained how fast January passed. Today I can’t believe it’s March already. I know, February is a short month and so forth, but there still were four weeks of it somewhere, right?Perfume Houses I wore in February

I’m getting better with actually using what I already have and love: I wore my favorite perfumes on thirteen different occasions. Frederic Malle’s Iris Poudre got three promenades (I had to be sure before I wrote my déjà vu article) and, while I’m thinking on the size of a bottle I should buy, Diptyque’s Tam Dao was granted two appearances. My other perfume loves, I’m sorry for neglecting you but I promise to spend more time with each of you soon.

Dive in to keep reading…