When it was the Second Night, said Dunyazad to her sister Shahrazad, “O my sister, finish for us that story of the Merchant and the Jinni;” and she answered “With joy and goodly gree, if the King permit me.” Then quoth the King, “Tell thy tale;” and Shahrazad began in these words: It hath reached me, O auspicious King…”
The Thousand and One Nights
Less than a month ago I saw a tweet from Puredistance with an invitation to participate in the Scented Stories competition. I followed the link to their Facebook page and read:
Tell us your own Puredistance story! We invite you to participate in our Scented Stories competition.
Write us about your stories and special moments while wearing Puredistance. Illustrate your feelings, thoughts and sensations blended with your favorite Puredistance scent. If you express better with a image, send us a photo-mood of you wearing Puredistance. […]
The author of the most beautiful story or photo will have the opportunity to choose its favorite Puredistance fragrance! 17.5ml of either Puredistance I, ANTONIA or M.
We will announce the lucky winner on Wednesday, the 2nd of November.
I submitted my story about Puredistance Antonia perfume. And I won. Yesterday I got my prize and decided to share my story.
I’ve changed only formatting for publishing it here and inserted links but other than that I haven’t changed a word because it is a true story; I didn’t create it specifically for the draw.
A story of my first perfume review
I am a perfume blogger. When I thought about starting my blog I realized I wasn’t ready to do actual reviews: first of all, I didn’t have enough perfume knowledge (and I still don’t) and also because I live in an English-speaking country, most of my perfume-related communications with my Perfumeland’s friends are in English but English isn’t my native language. And I loved perfumes too much to try fitting them into the Procrustean bed of my language limitations. So my solution was to write not actual reviews but stories, memories, associations related to perfumes. The tagline for my blog reads “Perfumed Reflections of Life”.
I was writing my stories – several per month, just whenever I would remember something worth telling. I didn’t plan still to do any reviews. But then an owner of a friendly blog offered several of her samples for the draw to those readers who would promise to write at least a three sentence review of the sample they would win. I entered the draw and won Puredistance Antonia.
I struggled with my review (it’s one thing to right to your baby-blog visited then, half a year ago, by a smallest group of fellow-bloggers and it’s much scarier to do something you’re not good at for a much wider audience, including the blog owner who happens to be a writer!). But I promised to write it so I did the best I could: luckily I liked the perfume (though sometimes it’s easier to write a snarky comment when you dislike something – but then I wouldn’t be able to submit the story for this draw).
Here’s my short review for Puredistance Antonia perfume:
When I smelled Puredistance Antonia on my wrist for the first time the adjective that flashed in my mind was “bewitching”. The scent was so unusual, so unexpected… It doesn’t remind me of any other scent I wore up till now. Now I got used to it, I anticipate our next encounter so I’m not shocked but still a little amazed. Every time.
It is very potent: several touches of the vial’s applicator give enough sillage and a staying power is just amazing. Not sure I could stand it sprayed: it might be too much. But from a dab vial it is just enough. A couple of times I felt almost tired of it but it never crossed this line. What is interesting about Antonia, on my skin for the first two hours it smells exactly the same, without changing or developing: sharp green scent with a hint of … rubber? Then it mellows down a little, becomes creamier and sweeter – and stays like that for hours. I tried Antonia four times on my wrist and once even wore it (meaning, I applied it as I would any other perfume if I was using it, not just testing). I couldn’t stop sniffing my wrist on all five occasions. I enjoy wearing this perfume and I will be wearing it again. A full bottle worth? I don’t know yet. It might be.
All of the stories on my blog are true stories – First Love: Perfume, My First Scrubber, My First Decant, etc. Probably one day this one will become a part of the story My First Perfume Review.
I’m wearing puredistance Antonia today, sprayed, and it feels great. At 25% concentration Antonia’s tenacity on my skin is just amazing so I don’t think I’ll use a nice handmade leather case that came with the perfume to carry it with me in my purse. But it should be great for traveling. And I think I’ll take it with me on my next trip to…
“And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say…”
Since it was very hard for me to write that first review, back in May I intentionally stayed away from reading any reviews for Antonia. But now nothing keeps me from reading them and, just in case you missed them earlier, read this inspiring review by Birgit at Olfactoria’s Travels or click through Dee’s post on her Antonia’s winning to her wonderful description of this perfume which is used by Luckyscent on its website. Here’s one more link to the extremely interesting post by Vanessa at Bonkers about Perfumes about her visit to the Puredistance offices.
Images: my own
Undina's Looking Glass 
Oh wow, I read about that competition, but hadn’t caught up with the fact that you were the winner – congratulations, and what a brilliant gift! Loved your story, and the cat in the photo matches the scarf beautifully…
I was late coming round to Antonia, but after the rather severely green opening I now love the creamy amber base – and the staying power is excellent, I agree.
Oh and thanks for the mention – Puredistance are a great company with a lovely way of dealing with their customers and the blogging community.
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Thank you, Vanessa. I just wanted to correct you that it was a scarf that matched my cat ;-)
I plan to spend more time now testing Puredistance I since both you and B. praised it a lot.
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Congratulations, Undina. Antonia is stunning. I’m glad to hear that Vanessa has come round to it, too. :)
By the way, I just read a comment you wrote in Ines’s most recent post, and you were so astute in your observations and expressed them so perfectly that I could only think, “I wish I’d written that.” Written better than most people who have English as their first (and only) language.
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Suzanne, you made me blush (a little). Thank you, this compliment means much when it comes from you.
I’m glad that now I’ll get to wear Antonia more – the luxury that comes with owning a full bottle.
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Well, this is an awesome post :) Guess there’s no doubt that your story won…
Loved the way you’ve explained each and every feature of the perfume that leaves an impression on :)
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Thank you. Not sure I did all that – but thank you anyway :)
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Wooohooo! That is wonderful! I’m so happy for you, you really deserved to win.
Puredistance is an amazing company, not only are their perfumes top-notch, but the way they do business appeals to me very much.
I know how you feel about English not being your first language. Writing and thinking ao much in it through blogging, taught me a lot. I even dream in English now, although I’m surrounded by German. ;)
But you need not worry, your first perfume review was perfect.
Hugs!
And thanks for the link!
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Oh, I dream in English too. But reading, talking, understanding another language isn’t the same as writing in it. I’m practicing and I know I’ll get better over time. But it’s still a little scary. Well, at least I do not spend hours any more thinking about commenting ;)
Thank you for your kind words, B!
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I echo Vanessa’s “wow”. Belated congratulations on your win. Your review was so honest and true – very well deserved.
Sometimes you can tell if English is someone’s second language but I had no idea it was the case for you. I hope your confidence in your writing ability has improved as a result.
Birgit was generous enough to sent me a little Antonia and luckily a little is all you need as it’s such high quality, high concentration stuff.
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Thank you, Tara!
I didn’t think I won Antonia for my English ;) but of course it felt good that at least it didn’t scare away whoever read and judged the competition.
I agree that a small vial of this perfume goes a long way.
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Kittyyyyyyy! I am so grateful for that first review and all the ones that came after it!
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I promised you a new cat picture, didn’t I? I delivered!
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Hooray Undina! *virtual high-five followed by a hug*
This is so exciting! You are so modest, I am very glad that you decided to share this news with us. Puredistance is a great company, and they chose the right person for this prize.
I’m also glad that you have courageously continued to share your perfumed experiences in English; I can’t imagine attempting to write a blog in Russian, or German, or French, and I admire the way you’ve persevered. Keep doing what you do! I know I can speak for others in saying, we’re glad you’re here :)
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Thank you, Dee!
A year ago, while I still didn’t dare to even comment on other people’s blogs, I couldn’t imagine writing this blog in English. But then I decided to try anyway. Yours and Birgit’s blogs were an inspiration for me.
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Congratulations! I agree with the others about your review, which is so well expressed and thoughtful. You are too modest about your abilities. :) I’m glad you posted the original review and the story you sent to Puredistance, as I hadn’t seen this and wouldn’t otherwise have had the chance to read your thoughts on Antonia.
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Thank you, Natalie!
I’m not being modest, I’m being cautious: it’s not that I think that my writing is bad – I do not know if it is. With English not being my native language I’m lacking not only proper words or grammar structures (I’m working on that – and please remember that we had a deal about you not looking at my posts through your editing glasses!), but also I don’t feel texts I write. Stylistically, I mean. Hopefully, 10-15 more years and it’ll come, right? ;)
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Well, I think you do very well. AND, I think sometimes not having a feel for the typical structure of an English native speaker gives your prose (and others who are not native speakers) more freshness and immediacy. I would feel the same as you (I am cautious about my own abilities too, and I am a native speaker!), though, so I understand. :)
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Thank you.
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I second that about the fresh use of language coming from a non-native speaker. I don’t include myself here, because I rarely step outside my comfort zone of business German and French, but I really admire all the bloggers writing in what is not their first language.
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Thank you, Vanessa.
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Undina I was given a sample of Puredistance M to try and blog about. Recently they have asked me if they can feature my review in a web article they are publishing.
They are very blog-media savvy, which is refreshing actually, as I think they are one of the minority perfume companies who really know how to utilise and capitalise on this very good resource.
I haven’t tried Antonia, but M is a fantastic perfume too.
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Yes, I heard from many people that Puredistance is a very nice company to deal with.
They sent me samples of their other two perfumes so I’ll be testing them soon. I read many good opinions about both perfumes.
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Congratulations! A lovely review, and I’m proud that Puredistance knows a lovely review when it sees one. I’m sure you’ll treasure that bottle.
I’m so, so glad that little sample of Antonia found a worthy home – what an excellent outcome!
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Mals, you’re a fairy godmother of this bottle! Thank you once again.
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