Month: March 2019

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In the Search for the Perfect Daphne

Many years ago I told the story of me chasing Daphne Odora – both in perfumes and in real life. The plant that I got then didn’t survive. But a couple of years ago I got another one. And I kept dreaming about the perfect recreation of that magnificent aroma in perfumery.

 

Rusty and Daphne Odora

 

Soon after I published the post referenced above, Parfums DelRae released Wit, in which Daphne was listed as one of the notes. While I liked Wit, bought a decant (well, chronologically, I first bought the decant in friendly split, and then liked what I smelled) and enjoy wearing it in spring, it was a huge disappointment in my search for Daphne in perfumes: it didn’t smell even remotely like that wonderful plant, which surprised me since it was a local brand, so I expected them to be familiar with the plant and its scent.

At some point I concluded that it wasn’t probably meant to be, so I wasn’t actively looking for that note any longer when it found me: hajusuuri, a rare guest writer of my blog, shared with me one of the samples she got from a Sniffa event – a strange creation from the brand I had never even considered before, Antica Farmacista, “fragrance for the home and body” (sic) Daphne Flower.

I did read about it before and even attempted looking for it at the local Nordstrom. But since that particular scent wasn’t offered there, most likely I would have missed it completely if it weren’t for hajusuuri’s generosity.

Daphne Flower was probably the first perfume from that package that I tried without even thinking of running a paper strip test. I sprayed it on my wrist, inhaled and literally laughed with joy: it smelled exactly as I remembered Daphne Odora smelled! The next day a bottle was on its way to me.

 

Antica Farmacista Daphne Flower Perfume

 

I read a lot about Daphne Odora, so I knew that it was impossible to get any natural ingredient from it. But Antica Farmacista managed to recreate that scent perfectly. Official notes: Meyer lemon, dewy green accord, Daphne flower, sparkling orange blossom, honeysuckle, jasmine, Baltic amber, rosewood and clean white musk.

I do not see that “home and body” product on their site any more, instead now they have Daphne Flower Perfume, which, as they claim, “is created with a higher percentage of essential oils than most commercially made fragrances providing a longer lasting scent on the body (up to eight hours).” I’m not sure if it’s the same one as what I have (I asked through the form on the site and awaiting their reply), but mine does lasts for a very long time. And I love it.

… The replacement bush that I planted in my backyard is struggling despite all my efforts: it’s still alive but this year the only flower I could see there was my new Daphne Flower bottle. But Rusty and I keep an eye on it hoping for bloom next year (or maybe he hopes it’ll transform into a laurel tree that he could climb?)

 

Rusty and Daphne Odora

 

Images: my own

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Small Things that Brighten Life: The Beautiful Duck(ling) 2

Almost four years ago I wrote about the unusual inhabitant of the nearby pond: a domestic white duck.

Since then I kept watching him (for whatever reason I decided it was a drake) almost daily, feeling happy when I saw him in the company of other birds or sad when he was alone. Unlike other birds, this domestic duck seemed to be more “stationary”: most of the days he would be somewhere around the pond. Some days he wouldn’t be there, and I’d be worried that something had happened to him. But the next day he would be back, and the order of things would be restored.

One day, while walking in the neighborhood about a mile from our place, we came across another group of ducks with one white domestic duck. Was it our duck that got that far away from his regular spot? Could it be another white duck that also joined a wild life (after escaping from the same farm from the legend we came up with for the previous one)? We weren’t sure. I took a picture of that other group. As we came back that evening, our duck was back where it usually was, in the company of wild mallards, very similar to the one that we saw thirty minutes earlier. I took another picture and spent some time comparing the two birds. “Our” seemed bigger but then the distances from which I took those pictures were also different, so I couldn’t be really sure one way or the other.

In the following seven months we kept meeting a white duck here and there on our evening walks. We even found a “feeding spot” where two women from the apartment complex said they were feeding that white duck almost every evening. And we knew that there was a woman who fed all the birds next to our pond in the morning. And since after that one time it was back to seeing the white duck just once a day, I finally decided that probably it was the same one bird just migrating between several places that provided morning or evening meals.

A couple of weeks ago, driving by, we suddenly saw TWO white ducks in the same group of birds. I thought my eyes were playing a trick since there are other while birds around here – egrets or seagulls – whom from the distance I confuse with our duck from time to time. So we had to stop, I got out from the car, disappoint all the birds that rushed towards me expecting treats – but now I have a proof that at least two domestic white ducks live around here among wild birds. So, the title of this sequel post should have rather been: The Two Beautiful Duck(ling)s but that would have given the plot away.

White ducks and other birds

Image: my own

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Perfume Roulette

In the post for my blog’s 8th anniversary I asked my readers to name a date from the last 8 years that had some significance for them with the idea of checking my records for perfumes I wore on those dates and wearing those perfumes during February as a personal project.

It was interesting to see which events my readers chose to offer as a significant date in their lives. Birthdays are probably the easiest when it comes to selecting dates (so, just a reminder: do not use them as your passwords or pin numbers!), and it was the most popular reason for selecting a date (6): 3 personal, one mom’s, one son’s and one friend’s birthday (I liked that reason because February is my and my mother’s birthday month). Romantic occasion was the second most popular reason (5): a first date, meeting a boyfriend, two weddings and one wedding anniversary, which also was very fitting for February (Valentine’s Day). Three readers considered meeting with perfumista friend(s) special enough to offer those dates for my list. Two commenters didn’t specify the occasion for their date choice (though, I’m sure those were some special events). And one date was related to the move to a new country (or, maybe, it was returning to that country – it wasn’t clear from the comment).

In total, I got 17 comments with dates, some even with several, so I had a good set to choose from (thank you!).

It was just the fifth time in my life when I planned perfumes to wear for a month ahead. But previously I did it for a specific note: twice I wore amber perfumes for a month of November (Perfume Diary: NovAmber and I did it again: NovAmber 2018 ), once I participated in Lucas’s (Chemist in the Bottle) project of wearing rose perfumes (A Month of Roses) and once for my own project (A Month of Irises). This time I had no rhyme just reason for selecting these perfumes, so it felt a little strange. But I decided to go ahead with the project.

Did I learn anything new from it? I did!

First, even though I do not officially rotate my perfumes and haven’t got (yet?) to adding a seasonal attribute to perfumes in my database, my perfume wearing is seasonal intuitively. So being “forced” to wear in a colder season (and our winter this year is uncharacteristically cold for the area) some of the perfumes that I normally choose to wear in spring or summer, I enjoyed them less. The lesson: I should probably stick to wearing perfumes that feel right for the moment even when choosing them for some project.

Then, I realized that I didn’t like saffron in a leading role. For a while I wasn’t sure and tried to persuade myself that I liked it but the most recent experience with Jo Malone Saffron Cologne Intense confirmed what I suspected for a while: I get tired of saffron soon after I stop being amused that I recognized the note (as I mentioned before, it doesn’t happen too often with me, so when it does I tend to transfer my feeling good about that occurrence into false positive impressions about perfume itself). So, after coming to that realization, I’m happy that I have just a decant of this perfume and not a bottle.

And finally, I really really like Vol de Nuit in extrait concentration, so I should probably just bite the bullet and buy it. Rusty clearly votes “Yes!”

Rusty and a Test Strip

Images: all but Chanel No 19 (hajusuuri) are my own