Today is the second episode of the collaboration of six bloggers: Portia (A Bottled Rose), Elena (The Plum Girl), Sheila (Alembicated Genie), Daisy (Cool Cook Style blog and IG), Old Herbaceous (Serenity Now Scents and Sensibilities) and Undina (Undina’s Looking Glass).
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This month’s word is: ANGELIC
The second I read that word I couldn’t move on from Mugler’s Angel. I tried. Not that much because I didn’t want to be too literal (Why not? It’s a game), but mostly because I’ve previously told my Angel love story: it was one of the stories that I had in mind even before I started this blog, and it was quite personal.
But since the idea of this series doesn’t call for any particular form of the post, I decided to go with an angelic expression on Rusty’s face when I woke him up while trying to take a picture of him and the perfume bottle and Angel’s close relative – Angel Taste of Fragrance.
Angel Taste of Fragrance is such a successful flanker! Of course, you should like the original Angel to appreciate Angel Taste of Fragrance. But if you do like Angel and need a new bottle, it makes perfect sense to find that flanker instead: it is still available on eBay (and costs not more than the current version Angel), but since it was created 10 years ago and hasn’t been reissued ince, it hasn’t been reformulated, as it happened to most of the other 10+ years old perfumes, including Angel itself.
Angel Taste of Fragrance has a heavenly dark chocolate note in the first 20 minutes of its life, after which it’s just a good ol’ Angel. I stopped wearing Angel in public a long time ago, but since I still work from home, it’s my perfect chance to indulge in the guilty pleasure of spending time with my perfume ex. My only complaint is that the bottle is absolutely not photogenic. But then you have that angelic furry face to look at.
Undina's Looking Glass 
I love that angelic fur face. Hmmm…angelic fragrances? Soft musk comes to mind like Parfumes de Coeur Fresh White Musk and Maja…these two cheapies but goodies I enjoy at night.
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I haven’t tried these, but I would expect soft musks to have that angelic quality.
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Wonderful story! And yes, Rusty does look particularly angelic in this photo. I’m not a follower of Mugler’s Angel so was unaware of this flanker, although I do own Angel Muse and the leathered version of Angel. I love the notion of a perfume “ex”!
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Thank you, OH.
I’m a Mugler fan, but I don’t wear any of their perfumes (even though I have several mini bottles). I probably should give them another spin while I’m still working from home.
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Hey Undina,
I second OHs love for perfume EX. Such an excellent new term.
Rusty is the MOST angelic cat in all his photos. How did you get such a beauty that also sits still and has so much personality? Please give him a treat from us.
When these Taste Of flankers came out I grabbed the Alien one. YUMMY!
Portia xx
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Those angelic pictures of Rusty are fruit of my angelic patience, devilish creativity and iPhone’s “live picture” mode ;)
Rusty got a couple of extra treats in your name :)
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YAY!
HA! I bet it’s not as easy as it looks in the shots.
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Rusty is definitely angelic. :-) I wore Angel years ago but can’t any more, taste or formulation change. My Angel-adjacent substitute is Chopard Wish.
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I’ve been waring Wish a LOT since my buddy Scotty gave me his unwanted bottle. It’s so good. I’m surprised how addictive it has become.
Portia xx
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Angel did change a lot. Oh, how much I’d love to smell the very first version again now…
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Rusty is wearing his personal angel wings in his ears. Those loving eyes too ❤️
This Angel flanker is the only chocolate fragrance I’ve ever come close to enjoying. I think it’s because the cocoa isn’t too dusty & musty.
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Rusty can be such an angel when he wants to :)
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Angel was more of a city fling for me sometime in the “noughties” because I was handed a sample. It never ceases to amaze me how many flankers they can keep coming out with, but I like the idea of being able to explore enhancements of different facets of a perfume.
4160Tuesdays once did a special where you could request the addition of any note to any one of their perfumes, basically creating your own custom flanker – brilliant.
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In my opinion, Mugler’s flankers are among the best out there, and they make sense in term of enhancing different facets of the original perfume while staying recognizable, unlike many others that just use the name.
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Yay for any excise to show Rusty’s angelic furry face.
Working from home is the perfect time for reuniting with perfume exes and non-office appropriate room rockers.
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I’m sure that Rusty improves any of my posts! (Since, I suspect, I’ve scared away those who didn’t think so long time ago :) ).
Completely agree! I need to revisit some of my favorites that I could never wear to the office.
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That is an extremely angelic expression. Rusty looks like he knows you are about to discover some grave misdeed. Whoever said cats don’t have expressions?? I have never tried that flanker, but like the sound of the heavenly chocolate note.
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And now I want chocolate… :)
I understand that we project our thoughts and feelings on our pets, but I would swear that there are situations when Rusty has unmistakable expressions on his face!
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Rusty is of course a little fur angel. I think of light ethereal perfumes when I think of angelic, like Malle’s L’Eau d’Hiver and Malle’s En Passant. Also Trussardi’s My Name, with its light, soft feathery, wing like, heliotrope notes.
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I agree with you on En Passant. It’s a very angelic scent (even though I cannot wear it because of the cucumber note.
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Rusty is an absolute angel. Those big angelic eyes!
I dislike the Mugler – gives me a screeching headache. And I don’t know that I associate any of my fragrances with “angelic” or that I would buy one that had such associations.
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I’m not surprised that many people don’t like Mugler’s perfumes: they are very present and unapologetically artificial.
Maybe if you think about this word not as it relates to the religious views but rather as an adjective (as in “angelic voice,” “angelic face,” etc.), maybe it would make it easier for you? Not that you necessarily need that type of perfume in your collection.
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I have this Angel flanker too! My favorite iteration though, besides the original formula, is the Étoile des rêves because smells closest to my memory of what Angel was when it was first launched.I went back to your original post about Angel from 2011 (thank you for linking). A masterful piece of writing, Undina. It’s hard not to feel possessive about the fragrances that we are the most passionate about.
PS. Alway love a Rusty photo! He looks soft as a cloud!
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D., you can’t imagine how happy it makes me that you read that older post! It is one of the few that are the most dear to me. Sometimes I almost regret telling some of the stories earlier in my blog’s life when I didn’t have any readers or had just a couple.
I don’t think I tried that flanker. Interesting. Maybe I should look for it…
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The older posts are still wonderful posts, Undina! You really had me going for a while until the gender reveal at the end. So well done! You know, this past Thanksgiving was the first time in a long time that I made a Thanksgiving-y Thanksgiving dinner. I know this might seem off-topic, but I promise it’s going somewhere! To pull it off, I had to look up a bunch of early recipes from my food blog and thought, “These recipes are still good! But the photography is atrocious and the text could use some shine.” Which got me thinking: why not republish some of those early posts? This happens with books all the time. New cover, new forward to the new edition, same core text. Not a bad idea, right? Like a “From the vault” series!
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Thank you.
It’s a good idea. I will think about what I want to do on my blog. And whenever I get a notification from your blog, I always check out what you published – so, I’ll see if you decide to do something along the line of your idea.
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Daisy!
I love the idea of a From The Vault series of recipes. Such a good idea.
You also Undina. A lovely way to add content but revisiting.
Portia xx
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