Author: Undina

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In the Search for the Perfect Berry: Blackberry

 

I was in my late 20s when I tried blackberries for the first time. Before than I knew of them but where I lived they weren’t grown commercially so I wasn’t even sure how blackberry looked or smelled.

Blackberries

I still do not know how blackberries smell. I checked just yesterday: at least those that I buy have almost no detectable scent. Are there any other varieties that actually have a smell?

So it’s fair to say that I wasn’t really looking for a perfect blackberry scent. What I was (and actually still am) looking for was a limited edition bottle of L’Artisan Mure et Musc Extreme that looked like a blackberry.

I wanted this bottle. I found a special bottle of Premier Figuier Extreme but for the last year I’ve been stalking eBay for that blueberry bottle without much success. But to be ready to jump on a bidding game if a bottle is offered for sale I wanted to try the perfume: at least to know what to expect.

Mure et Musc Extreme by L’Artisan Parfumeur, created by Karine Dubreuil in 1993, includes notes of … all sources agree on blackberries and musk, and some type of citrus. But then I saw “red berries”, “black currant”, “hint of raspberries”, etc. I don’t smell any of those. I can smell some citrus in the opening; I can smell something that I classify as musk. If you want, I can say it has a blackberry note – but only to the extent of it’s not smelling of anything distinctive, same as those blackberries I buy to eat. Mure et Musc Extreme isn’t unpleasant but I do not see any reason to buy and wear it. Not unless I find that cute bottle.

Mure Et Musc

I still wasn’t looking for a blackberry perfume when an SA at Nordstrom almost forced a Trish McEvoy No 9 Blackberry & Vanilla Musk sample on me. Created in 2000, Blackberry & Vanilla Musk includes notes of blackberry, vanilla, rose, musk and Cashmeran. I can’t believe how much I disliked that perfume! Of course, I rarely test mainstream offerings nowadays so I lost my immunity towards that type of perfumes so I should have expected that could happen. But I didn’t. And I wanted to test different perfumes for this post. Blackberry & Vanilla Musk is sickly sweet on my skin. Once I applied it I did not want to smell any nuances or trace changing notes. All I wanted was for it to go away. Right… You know how persistent those synthetic musks are. Never again.

Still not looking for a blackberry-centric perfume I unexpectedly got one. It was a gift from a friend who got persuaded by an SA at Heathrow airport that this perfume wasn’t available in the U.S. It wasn’t true: by that time I’ve already tested and liked Blackberry & Bay by Jo Malone. But I don’t complain: it was a great gift.

Jo Malone Blueberry & Bay

Blackberry & Bay by Jo Malone, created by Fabrice Pellegrin in 2012, includes notes of blackberry, grapefruit, bay leaf, floral accord, vetiver and cedar wood. Fruity perfumes are not widely represented in my collection but Blackberry & Bay is one of a few that I truly enjoy. I like the sweet and tart mixture of this perfume on my skin. It’s fruity, bright and dark, deep and playful at the same time.

 

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Images: my own (all but L’Artisan blueberry bottle)

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Entertaining Statistics: August 2013

 

August was just perfect: there were several warm days to get some summer feeling but it was never really hot to be unpleasant.

You, my readers, helped me with this month’s statistics. I asked you about your perfume application habits and here’s the quick compilation of the answers to two questions I posed:

1) Do you apply perfume symmetrically (e.g. both wrists or décolletage – it’s still symmetrical even though it’s just one spot) or asymmetrically (e.g. just one wrist, one side of the neck or one ankle)? A single asymmetrical point makes the entire application asymmetrical.

Out of 23 people who took part in the survey 19 (83%) applied perfumes symmetrically and only 4 (17%) admitted to using perfumes asymmetrically (but all for a good reason!).

Stats August 20132) What is the spot that usually gets the first spray?

No matter how carefully I try to pose the question I can never get a straight answer from the respondents. So after all the efforts I had to combine answers for left/right sides since I couldn’t get several people to confirm their choices.

Stats August 2013The most popular first spot is a wrist – 11 people (50%) start applying perfumes there (7 to the left wrist, 1 to the right and 3 undecided). 5 people (23%) apply perfumes to the side of their neck first – 2 to the right, 2 to the left and 1 undefined. 4 (18%) start with chest/décolletage. One person (5%) starts with the back of her neck and one (5%) steps into the sprayed mist making her hair the spot #1. It makes it up to 22 people and one, Lanier of the Scents Memory left it at “I always apply perfume where I want to be kissed.” I’ve decided better not to guess.

 

Image: my own

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“Oh, TOES!! (for some people)” or Where to Apply Perfumes

 

A question where (and how much) to apply perfume is regularly raised on blogs and discussion boards. More than once recently while answering this question I thought that I saw myself as Monica (Friends TV show) explaining to Chandler how to satisfy a woman using an improvised chart of a woman’s erogenous zones:

 

 

To illustrate what I mean here’s an example of my algorithm (see the chart below: 1 – neck, 2 – décolletage, 3 – wrist, 4 – back of the neck under hair, 5 – hair, 6 – back of a knee, 7 – ankle; R/L – left/right side):

For the office (dependent on the strength of the perfume): 1R–3L or 1R–1L–3L or 1R–1L–2–3L.

For a meeting in a small conference room: 3L–2 or 3L–4, preferably in parfum concentration.

For a weekend day (running errands): 1R–1L–3L–3R, sometimes I add 2 or 4.

For a plane ride or to a concert hall: 3R

For a big party: the full scale from 1 to 7 and back.

Where To Apply Perfumes

What I realized putting that diagram together was that I do not always apply perfume symmetrically: notice that in all combinations for the office it’s always the left wrist – not to transfer perfume to the mouse pad’s hand rest; for the airplane it would be just a right wrist – to smell it myself when I drink something or just bring it to my nose.

I welcome any comments but for this month’s statistics post I’d appreciate your answers to two questions (both about the time when you wear a perfume, not just test it and both are about “more often” and not necessarily “always”):

1) Do you apply perfume symmetrically (e.g. both wrists or décolletage – it’s still symmetrical even though it’s just one spot) or asymmetrically (e.g. just one wrist, one side of the neck or one ankle)? A single asymmetrical point makes the entire application asymmetrical.

2) What is the spot that usually gets the first spray?

Since most of my days I spend at work I apply perfumes asymmetrically and the first spray usually goes to the neck.

 

Image: my own

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Winner of Two Le Labo for Anthropologie Decants

 

I didn’t even realize how much easier it would be just to use numbers instead of going through the post and creating a list of names. Thank you everybody for the participation!

2 Le Labo decants Winner

The winner of the draw poodle. Please contact me over e-mail.

And for everybody else a glimpse into how Rusty spends his day while I work hard choosing winners:

Rusty And Window

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Imaginary Signature Scent: A Conclusion

 

Last week when I suggested a virtual experiment with a signature scent to my readers, I decided to go further and actually wear Nature by Yves Rocher – the perfume I selected as my Imaginary Signature Scent for a week.

Yves Rocher Nature

When I’m at home, I usually do not have a problem choosing what I want to wear. But whenever I travel and have to take perfumes with me I noticed I would be having some type of anxiety attack: I might have 10+ decants with me and still feel like “I have absolutely nothing to wear!”

Since I was still at home I didn’t feel the pressure: there was nobody else to keep me to my perfume choice and I could end the experiment at any point.

I wore Nature as my main perfume for four days. It was still pleasant and not overbearing but I realized that Nature was too simple to satisfy my current tastes, I would want something more complex and multidimensional if I had to wear it for a while. Day five was my work from home day when I usually do not wear any perfumes but test several instead. So I interrupted the experiment. When I resumed it on the sixth day I enjoyed Nature more than for a couple of days before then. I’m not sure why: either because I felt slightly guilty for interrupting the experiment or just because I gave my senses some rest but it smelled much better. Day seven didn’t bring any more discoveries and I was glad that the experiment came to the end. I haven’t changed my opinion of Nature and will be revisiting it once in a while (not the least to handle that beautiful bottle) but I do not think I’m ready to settle down with any perfume.

What about you? Did you play the game?

 

Image: my own

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An Oriental Powder for a Beauty of the Evening or When Le Labo went to Anthropologie

 

Anthropologie isn’t my style. Over years I bought a couple of items there but mostly things they sell leave me cold. What I do like about that chain is what they’re trying to do regarding perfumes.

I’m not a huge Le Labo fan: while I like and enjoy wearing several perfumes in the line, most of their creations (and those from the city exclusive line in particular) are not worth their price for me. Nevertheless, I went and tried all five perfumes “By The Creators Of Le Labo” once those were released as their collaboration with Anthropologie in 2010.

I didn’t dislike them but none of them made me reach for my wallet. They were nice, they were much more reasonably priced ($62 for 2 oz bottle), they were available … and as a result much less desirable. Once in a while I’d stop by the store, smell them all again, try Belle Du Soir that I liked the most and think that I should get it eventually.

Two years later when I finally decided to add Belle Du Soir to my collection it was too late: it was gone from both the website and the closest store. Judith (unseen censer) who was more decisive (or just more spontaneous?) sent me a decant of Belle Du Soir from the bottle she’d got.

Le Labo Belle Du SoirAnthropologie site describes Belle Du Soir as “musky and rich, neroli, water lily and gardenia float above notes of cedar, sandalwood and patchouli (SPICE).” It’s not a phenomenal creation; perfumistas do not rave about it. But I noticed that since I got that decant I wore Belle Du Soir more often than some of my most favorite perfumes. Once or twice I thought that Belle Du Soir smelled more masculine than I cared for but all in all I like it and especially in the drydown.

In the opening statement I stressed “trying” part because there are aspects of the Anthropologie’s perfume business with which I disagree.

First of all, not only the assortment of perfumes varies from store to store but in different locations perfumes are usually scattered all over the place so it’s not easy to figure out if the store actually carries a brand you’re looking for. Asking SAs proved to be fruitless since they were barely aware of the fact that there were any perfumes in the store.

In addition to that, most stores where I tried to test perfumes had no test strips anywhere in sight. I understand that the younger demographic they cater to has no problems spraying a random perfume they’ve just smelled from the nozzle all over themselves but I have to be creative every time finding a napkin in my purse or just spraying it into the air and smelling it this way.

And finally, Anthropologie tends to phase out perfumes after a while. It’s not a big problem in case of the established brands that just move their offerings to different venues. But in case with such special editions they just go away – and they’re gone.

Good part about it is that before disappearing those perfumes go on sale and then you can get some of them almost free (and I’m not talking in $100-new-free perfumista terms).

During one such sale in addition to Belle Du Soir I also got Poudre D’Orient – my second favorite from the line. Poudre D’Orient is described as “exotic aromas of violet leaves, patchouli, vanilla and suede musk (FRESH).”

Le Labo Poudre D'OrientHave you tried any of the perfumes from the line? Do you think they “smell like Le Labo”? Do you like bottles design?

I want to share two 5 ml decants (one of each perfume) with one reader. The conditions are simple: I’ll mail it anywhere in the world if you’ve previously commented on my blog; for new followers I want to limit participation by the U.S. Just let me know in your comment that you want to be entered into the draw. You have until 23:59 PDT, August 27, 2013 to enter.

I liked these two reviews by Brian (I Smell Therefor I Am) and by Shera Pop (Il Mondo di Odore). If you haven’t tried these perfumes read the reviews to see if it’s something you might like.

 

Images: Anthropologie website

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Imaginary Signature Scent

 

Most perfumistas aren’t a “one perfume person.” We get defensive every time we (voluntarily!) participate in creating all sorts of lists – Top N Favorite/Desert Island/Apocalypse/etc. Perfumes – and try to sneak in an extra bottle or three.

But what if you were told that starting tomorrow for a week you’ll have to wear just one perfume from your current collection (FB or a decant big enough to last for a week). It’s not for the rest of your life; before and after the experiment you could wear absolutely anything; you wouldn’t have to get rid of the rest of your perfumes so you do not need to choose the most valuable or your one and true love – just the one that you think you could wear for seven consecutive days in this season.

My choice – Nature by Yves Rocher. Why?

Yves Rocher Nature

For many years I didn’t wear the same perfume for two days in a row let alone for a week so I’m not sure how I would feel about wearing most of my new favorites for that long. Nature and I, on the other hand, have a long history together so I hope that I could still tolerate its company for longer than with most other perfumes. And since Nature has a sentimental value for me, even if after such an experiment I get so tired of it that I don’t want to wear it again for a while, I think our relationship will survive.

What perfume would you choose as your Imaginary Signature Scent for a week and why?

Now the hard part: starting tomorrow… no, I’m not that cruel to suggest you to actually wear the same perfume for the whole week. But every time you apply any other perfumes during the next seven days just think about your ISS: was your choice the right one? Would you still want to wear it that day? Come back in a week and let me know – I’ll start a new post to share the results of my experiment with Nature.

 

Image: my own

 

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In the Search for the Perfect Berry: Strawberries

 

Where I come from, in 1970s and ’80s students from schools and universities as well as clerks, engineers and even scientists from cities would be taken to work at kolkhoz (a form of collective farms) for days or even weeks during the summer and fall months – as a part of the yearly Battle of Harvest. It was a mandatory activity that most people hated but in which they had to participate.

One summer after the seventh grade I spent two weeks at such kolkhoz. Since we were children, we got the more pleasant work than digging up potatoes or weeding: we were picking strawberries.

Strawberry

We lived in large barracks with outhouse and outdoor washing sinks; food was awful and the only entertaining we had were a couple of movies we watched in the local club house. But we were young, our friends and class-mates were there and a long-awaited summer vacation was coming right after that so it was rather a pleasant adventure. In spare time we played badminton, cards and guitars. Life was good.

Being city kids, most of us could never get as much fruit as we would like to: those were scarce and relatively expensive. So for the first couple of days in kolkhoz strawberries that we were picking went into our bellies/baskets roughly in 50/50 proportion.

Since the whole day (well, it was probably just 4-5 hours but it felt like more) we were moving through the rows of strawberry plants looking for ripe berries, when we went to bed at night all we could think of was picking strawberries. I remember discussing it with several friends and we all had the same experience: as soon as we would close our eyes but before completely falling asleep we had visions of parting leaves with our hands to reveal an abundance of very large red strawberries.

By the end of our time in kolkhoz none of us could look at another strawberry.

Strawberry

Strawberry note in perfumes isn’t one of my favorite. Probably because it’s so ubiquitous not only in cheap mainstream perfumes but also in many other functional products. But as with any other note strawberry can be done well.

Miss Dior Chérie Originale (pun intended!) by Dior, created by Christine Nagel in 2005, from what I get reading multiple reviews, was a perfect example of the “good strawberry perfume”. It was never “my perfume”, I never wanted to wear it but I remember it smelling nice on one of my friends. Unfortunately it has been reformulated and renamed so many times that by now nobody can be sure what version they smell. If you didn’t live through all the transformations of this perfume you might want to take a look at a very useful comparison article from Perfume Shrine.

Miss Charming by Juliette Has A Gun, created by Francis Kurkdjian in 2006, is my absolutely favorite strawberry perfume. I do not like JHAG’s bottles. I do not like the brand’s name. So I tried their perfumes very reluctantly. Had I known who was the nose behind this perfume, there was a good chance I would have never tried it at all (since MFK doesn’t like perfumistas, I do not like him). But I didn’t know. And from the first test I loved how Miss Charming developed on my skin. It’s soft, bright, not too sweet or too fruity and… very charming. Many roses get very soapy on my skin, which I do not like. Miss Charming stays tender and beautiful until the drydown. If it weren’t for the above-mentioned reason I would have bought a bottle by now.

Are there any perfumes with a prominent strawberry note that you like?

 

Images: my own

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The Perfume of Mystery: Black. Puredistance Black.

 

Puredistance, a niche brand from the Netherlands, has just announced the upcoming release of their fifth perfume – Puredistance BLACK.

From the press release:

Puredistance Black is an understated elegant and mysteriously charming perfume inspired by the concept of BLACK; a concept that for centuries has been associated with secrets, mystery and style.
[…]
The essence of the concept was to create a perfume that is close to the wearer and releases sensual and elegant scent layers in a whispering way – without shouting. A mysterious fragrance that stays in the shadow, giving away – only every now and then – part of its nature.
[…]
a sophisticated perfume full of charm with the same elegant personality as the timeless classic Puredistance I, but then more masculine and oriental.

Puredistance BLACK is created by Antoine Lie “[a]nd as a consequence of the concept of BLACK (that treasures the beauty of the unknown) we will not reveal the ingredients of Puredistance BLACK…. Envision, Smell, Feel. Don’t analyse”.

Puredistance Black

I am conflicted here. My first reaction to the announcement of this December release was: A new release from Puredistance? Great! I want to try it now! By the way, what’s in it?..

I have an utmost respect for the Puredistance brand but, from the market point of view, Chanel they are not. Their perfumes are available at very limited POSs. So even with the black bottle (hi to the last year’s fever for Chanel’s Coco Noir) it’s not like they can intrigue a huge segment of potential customers enough to go and sniff it at the closest department store. And with the brand’s price point I doubt there will be significant number of blind purchases. Then why all the mystery?

As soon as first bloggers get to test this new perfume they will start to speculate about which notes went into the composition. Well, ok, not everybody will – I, for one, won’t trust my nose enough unless it’s something very-very prominent (but then, again, we all know we can’t completely trust what we smell) – but just give it to Kafka, Lucas or Mr. Hound and they’ll immediately come up with a list.

Puredistance is one of the brands that have my loyalty and brand recognition to the point where I’d test anything from them regardless of the notes choice. But it’s for me. As Robin at NST said: “What if all 1500 fragrances a year did this?”

I’m really curious what went into that advertising model. Do you have any thoughts as to how Puredistance Black benefits from that approach?

 

Image: from the Puredistance press information kit

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Entertaining Statistics: July 2013

 

– Why is it so cold?
– Because it’s summer…
A typical exchange between me and my vSO

While many places in the world were suffering from a heat wave here, in San Francisco Bay Area, we had just a perfect July: a couple of hot days – right in time for the 4th of July – and then a very pleasant warm breathy weather for the rest of the month.

For this month’s statistics I decided to look into my readers’ answers to the question from the recent post “My” brand and “not my” brand. I didn’t want to warn anybody beforehand about my intentions but I naïvely thought that after I explain with examples how I define terms “my” brand and “not my” brand I would be able to get two examples from each commenter. Right… Well, it’ll teach me to be more forthcoming about my plans the next time I decide to do anything like that. For now I’ll go with all the votes I’ve got.

33 participants in this poll named 46 unique brands (total 152 votes). The first interesting discovery was that people were more generous naming favorites than bringing up nemeses: 91 positive vs. 61 negative nominations. 21 brands were mentioned just once and 5 got two nominations. For my chart below I used top 20 brands by the total number of votes regardless of the sign (+/-).

My Stats July 2013

How to read the chart: each bar represents 100% of votes for each brand (so all bars are of the same size regardless of whether the brand got 15 or 3 total votes); each bar is placed vertically against horizontal (X) axis in the way that corresponds to the ratio of positive/negative votes for that brand with the number (N%) representing the percentage of the positive nominations; pink asterisk marks the total number of votes for each brand using the vertical (Y) axis as a scale.

For example, Serge Lutens was mentioned the most – 15 times (see the asterisk) but only 10 votes (67%) were positive and 5 votes (33%) were negative – that’s why Lutens’ bar is placed lower than the bar for the next most popular Guerlein that got 11 total votes (see the asterisk) but 9 (82%) of them were positive. The most “controversial” (50/50 split) were Chanel and Hermes (5/5 and 2/2 yay/nay votes correspondently). Several brands got 100% positive responses (that’s why they are placed above the X axis) albeit with just 3 or 4 votes. The only brand that got all negative responses (all 3 of them) was Bond No 9. There would have been 4 negative votes had I considered them a brand worth my attention. But since I’m boycotting them as an opposite of “not getting” but appreciating other “not my” brands I didn’t cast my nay vote for them.

After putting together the chart and an explanation to it I realized that it was probably a little (?) too much to be entertaining so I promise to do something lighter the next month.

 

Image: my own