Author: Undina

by

Entertaining Statistics: February, 2012

 

February was good: nice weather (though if you ask my vSO, he’ll say there wasn’t enough rain), a very enjoyable trip to Las Vegas, wonderful care packages from my blogo-friends (thank you all once again) and some great additions to my perfume collection.

Since I do not record perfumes that I do not have in my collection and test at a store and I was doing a lot of that type of testing in Las Vegas, the numbers are slightly skewed. But I still wore my favorite perfumes more than twice a week.

Ines raised an interesting question about hoarding samples and decants and I was curious to see what my usage habits were. Inconclusive (see the chart).

In addition to my new Guerlain love (which doesn’t count towards NY resolutions since it was a birthday gift) two more bottles joined my collection this month. At this rate I’ll run out of bottles allowance early in the year.

February 2012

Quick February stats:

* Different perfumes worn: 19 from 12 brands on 22 occasions;

* Favorite perfumes worn: 14 (-6) on 17 (-6) occasions;

* Different perfumes tested: 42 from 25 brands on 44 occasions;

* Perfumes I tried for the first time: 24;

* Perfume house I wore most often: Hermès;

* Perfume house I tested the most: Guerlain (and it’s not counting those perfumes I tested in the boutique);

* Most popular notes (only from perfumes I chose to wear): top – (not counting bergamot) mandarin, lemon and orange; middle – (not counting rose and jasmine) ylang ylang and orange blossom; base – vanilla, musk and iris root;

* Total number of different notes in all perfumes I wore/tested this month:  205 (-9);

 

Image: my own

by

Know-How: Perfume Shopping in Las Vegas

Las Vegas isn’t the most obvious destination for the perfume shopping but if you happen to be there for any more suitable activity (let’s say, a trade show or a tech conference ;-)), here’s several destinations you might want to check out.

Las Vegas

Sephora (1 on the map below – click to enlarge) next to The Venitian carries the range of usual mainstream brands.

Barneys (2) at The Venetian has a nice selection of niche brands: Acqua Di Pharma, Antonia’s Flowers, Arquiste, Bois 1920, Byredo, Carthusia, Cereus, Comme de Garcons, Costume National, Escentric Molecules, Frederic Malle, Heeley, L’Artisan Perfumer, Le Labo, Les Parfums de Rosine, Nasomatto, Odin NY, Parfums Del Rae, Serge Lutens, The Different Company and Yosh.

Las Vegas Strip Map

The Palazzo Hotel (3) hosts several boutiques: Guerlain carries the range of perfumes available in the US (I wrote more about it in one of my previous posts); Dior with all perfumes from this line including La Collection Privée (a sales associate Michael was very helpful and friendly, absolutely no pushing – I can highly recommend him); Van Cleef & Arpels has just a couple of perfumes from their Collection Extraordinaire (and very beautiful jewelry). There is also Fresh store in The Palazzo.

Las Vegas Dior Boutique

Wynn Hotel (4) has Chanel, Dior and Hermès boutiques but I haven’t checked if they carry cosmetics/perfumes. (UPD: Chanel boutique offers the Exclusifs collection)

Right across the street from Wynn there is an enormous shopping center – Fashion Show Mall (5). I won’t list all the brands since between Dillard’s, Macy’s, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus there are not that many mainstream, high-end mainstream or niche brands missing (those that are available in the US, I mean). In Saks I came across an item unique for that location – Saks Fifth Ave. Las Vegas by Bond No. 9. It’s a super-limited edition in a bottle decorated with Swarowski crystals. There are still a couple of bottles of this perfume, launched in 2010, left in the store but once they’re gone – it’s gone (just in case there are hardcore Bond No.9 fans reading this).

Las Vegas Bond No 9 NY

Caesars Palace Forum Shops (6) while being not the best place for a perfume shopping (it’s too big for the number of perfume-related shopping destinations) but if you go there anyway, there is a handful of shops that carry perfumes: Sephora, Anthropologie (with a very limited choice of perfumes), Fresh, Agent Provocateur boutique (with their complete perfume line), Emporio Armani (with a couple (literally!) of perfumes from Armani Prive line and several mainstream perfumes) and Chanel boutique (I think I saw the Exclusifs line there). That’s it. So unless you’re really into Agent Provocateur perfumes I’d recommend skipping this part.

Las Vegas Strip Map

With a big disappointment I should advise omitting Paris Hotel (7) from your perfume shopping trip. There is a perfume shop on premises but let me put it this way: it makes any of the nearby Sephora stores look like Les Salons du Palais Royale.

Planet Hollywood (8) has a shopping mall inside – you can ignore it, there isn’t much going there perfume-wise.

Skins 6|2 at The Cosmopolitan (9) has an assortment of niche brands: Maison Francis Kurkdjian, Serge Lutens (limited selection), Diptyque, By Killian, Juliette Has A Gun, Tokyo Milk, Creed (limited selection).

Crystals at City Center (10) – a new and, in my opinion, strange shopping center with sparse boutiques dispersed over an enormous building. For perfumes check out Hermès (Hermessence), Tom Ford, Van Cleef & Arpels (Collection Extraordinaire) and Prada (Exclusive collection).

It doesn’t matter in how great physical shape you are you will walk yourself to half-death if you do not plan your route carefully. Hotels and shopping malls in Las Vegas are huge, each hotel tries hard to take you from point A to point B through the point C (casino) which is understandable, that’s how they’re making money. So do not just wander around hoping to come across a store eventually, check maps/directories and choose the shortest path.

Las Vegas

Images: my own.

by

What Happens in Vegas… Part II: Confession of a Sillage Monster

What do I think about Las Vegas? It’s a quintessence of kitsch. It’s busy, crowded, artificial, vain and idle. I like Las Vegas exactly for all these traits. Having grown up in the downtown of a multi-million-population city and living now in a suburbia (highly urbanized but still and all), I miss crowds. I miss well-dressed work crowds and dressed-up holiday crowds. All that is within a 30-minutes drive from where I live but I do not take that drive too often in my day-to-day life.

Las Vegas is my fix. Once every 2-3 years for several days I live in a very busy downtown. Every time we’d stay at one of the newest hotels, walk the Strip, do some [window] shopping, watch a show and occasionally pay for resting at a video poker machine.

Many years ago my vSO and I went to Las Vegas to celebrate my birthday. The plan was to have a dinner and go for a walk but then my vSO decided to take me to see Riverdance show which I wanted to see but was hesitant to spend money on (for budgetary reasons). It was a very thoughtful gift on its own but while we were getting ready to go out my vSO handed me a nicely wrapped gift. I suspected (and hoped) it would be a perfume but wasn’t sure which one since at the time there were several perfumes that I liked and hinted to my VSO I wouldn’t mind having in months preceding my birthday.

Riverdance

It was Vera Wang’s first perfume Vera Wang.

Vera Wang – created in 2002 by Jean Claude Delville and Harry Fremont, notes include Bulgarian rose, calla lily, mandarin blossom, gardenia, musk and white woods. In 2003 it won two Fifi awards – for the Women’s Packaging of the Year and Women’s Nouveau Niche.

I liked Vera Wang perfume very much and was so excited that I got it that as soon as I tore off the wrapping paper and opened the box I sprayed myself all over with this wonderful perfume. I mean all over. I don’t remember how many sprays it was but I wasn’t trying to be frugal: after all, it was a new 100 ml bottle of eau de parfum.

Riverdance performed in a small venue with somewhat unconventional seating arrangements: there were sets of a table with four chairs next to it. Tickets stated only a table number. When we arrived there a couple who shared the table with us was already there. They had occupied two seats adjacent to the table leaving us two seats a table and two chairs apart. I felt bad about it: it was my birthday, we paid a lot of money (for us at the time) to go there and we were forced to sit apart. My vSO is a nonconfrontational person and I… they were just much older and I didn’t find the right words.

Vera Wang EdP

So we sat apart. And despite everything I was enjoying the show. Until I realized that a woman sitting next to me started coughing and sneezing and I suspected it was caused by my perfume. Because even two hours after the initial application I was still in a fragrant cloud. I felt hostile towards her for grabbing those seats but at the same time I felt guilty for aggravating her allergies. I even contemplated apologizing to her after the show. But then I thought she could have changed places with her companion (or with my vSO to be even further from me) but she hadn’t. So I kept silent. I don’t know for a fact that she did react to my perfumed indiscretion but since then I’ve never applied too much perfume when going to any performance.

Since then for many years Vera Wang was my dress-up perfume. I used it for occasions where I wasn’t afraid to over-apply it. On the onset of my perfume hobby my tastes and my collection changed and for a while I forgot about my old favorite. And then I took Vera Wang to my most recent trip to Las Vegas and wore it (very discreetly) to a show (Penn & Teller – we loved it). I still enjoy this perfume. I have no idea if it’s good or if it just holds a sentimental value but I love it. It’s loud, very feminine and very flowery. And, I think, it’s mostly (all?) synthetic. But I still would wear it from time to time and remember myself being once a Sillage Monster.

Vera Wang perfume and my cat Rusty

 

See Vanessa’s take on this perfume: The Art of Wearing Perfume Ironically: Vera Wang EDP

Images: Riverdance from broadwaysd.com; perfume (and the cat) – my own.

by

What Happens in Vegas… Part I: Guerlain – Mission Accomplished

While helping Birgit with charts for her Monday Question: Guerlain or Chanel? I was fascinated by the list of perfumes from Guerlain that respondents named as their favorites without which they couldn’t imagine their Perfume World. That was when I realized that I’d tried merely one third of all perfumes that others loved.

There is a Guerlain boutique at San Francisco Saks. It’s not too far from where I live but even a 30 minutes drive combined with the cost of downtown parking makes it an unlikely place I’d go casually to try one perfume after another.

That’s why when I realized that during my birthday trip to Las Vegas I would be staying at the hotel that hosted the only stand-alone Guerlain boutique in the city… wait… or was it that I booked my stay at the hotel because of that?.. Anyway, I thought it would be a chance to try all those perfumed wonders and asked for an advice.

As you might have noticed already, I like numbers. So here are some relevant to the topic:

  –  28 perfumes were suggested for testing and 14 of them were mentioned more than once;

  –  The most popular suggestion (7 voices) was Chamade;

  –  On this trip I smelled 14 perfumes from the list and tried some on the skin;

  –  3 days are not enough to do justice to what a great perfume house has to offer (duh!).

Las Vegas Guerlain Boutique in Palazzo

Once checked in, I immediately embarked on my mission. I went to the Guerlain boutique and explained my intentions to the SA who greeted me. He was professional and helpful but somehow we didn’t “click”. I might be wrong but I guess he didn’t think I would end up buying anything. Nevertheless we went through a number of bottles, I chose two to try on my skin and went on with my vacation. I came back the same day and then the next one, and the next – and everything repeated.

I didn’t try Chamade this time because I tried it before and liked, so it was my back-up plan (together with Vol de Nuit) – I decided I would try these two and choose one of them if I wouldn’t find any other perfume that I’d like more. I still plan to seek samples of Chamade and Vol de Nuit to figure out if I can go with the EdT, EdP or need an extrait. But all those who suggested this perfume were right: I like Chamade.

Suzanne, your bet on Samsara extrait would be safe: you were right more than you could imagine (but it’ll be a separate post next month – “How’s that for mysterious?” ©Natalie).

Out of those perfumes that I tried on the skin two were a definite No: Nahema (“old lady perfume” on my skin – sorry to everybody who loves it) and Sous le Vent (I might try it again one day but this time it wasn’t close to what I was looking for). I need to test more Angelique Noire, Cuir Beluga and Bois d’Armenie: I liked them all but it wasn’t love. At least not yet.

Las Vegas Guerlains

And then I took a blotter, inhaled and thought: This is the one! Probably you know that feeling when you smell a perfume and immediately like it. You do not need to work on it, learn to appreciate or let it grow on you. You just like it. That was what happened to me with Cruel Gardénia. It is extremely beautiful and the moment I smelled it I wanted to have it in my collection.

I wore it twice and even though I had one more day to decide (or try more perfumes) I felt it would be right to get my birthday bottle of perfume on the actual day of my birthday. When my vSO and I went to the boutique the guy who was helping me previously (you see, I don’t even know his name since he’d never introduced himself!) wasn’t there. I felt a little bad since I usually try to be fair and buy from those SAs who helped me. But in this case it was for the best: Jorganne, who was there and helped me with my order, was just a right person for me. It was a very pleasant shopping experience including a hand-written card from Jorganne that came in my package (I had to have it delivered since we had only carry-on bags). Guess where I’ll be buying my next bottle of Guerlain. And I have no doubts there will be more.

Guerlain Cruel Gardenia

And finally, please meet Elena from Perfume Shrine – a Godmother of the first Guerlain perfume bottle in my collection. She was the first to suggest Cruel Gardenia and she wrote a beautiful review for this perfume. An honorable mentioning: Asali who seconded that advice.

Images: my own

by

WANTED: Guerlain Perfume Godmother

I have a confession to make: I do not own a single full bottle of perfume from Guerlain. While I’m at it, I don’t think I have more than 2-3 ml of any Guerlain scent in my collection. Here, I said that.

Many years ago I was gifted with a bottle of Champs Elysees (EdT? EdP?). I didn’t dislike it but I wasn’t too impressed either. There was something unsettling about that scent. I kept the bottle but didn’t use it much. Until one day I read something very nice about this perfume somewhere. I do not remember exactly where or what (it was more than 10 years ago), I remember only that it was described as bold and sexy… Yeah, I know, nowadays which perfume isn’t described along those lines one way or the other. But back then that suggestive description made me change my mind about Champs Elysees. And I wore it happily feeling sexy, and daring, and vivacious. Until… One day a co-worker who was also “in perfumes” came over for a quick lunchtime sniffing session, picked up my bottle, sniffed it from a nozzle and pronounced: “It smells like a bug spray!” And that was it. I didn’t suddenly realize Champs Elysees smelled the way she described. She wasn’t even my close friend! But nevertheless I couldn’t bring myself to wearing it again. That’s how impressionable I am. Luckily my second bottle of that perfume was almost empty so I didn’t waste much. But that was the only and the last bottle of Guerlain perfume in my collection.

It was a preamble. A tale comes next.

As I’ve mentioned already I am impressionable. Not only my Champs Elysees story above but a list of my last year’s perfume godmothers attests to that.

Guerlain Perfume Godmother WantedAs an aspiring perfumista I made a New Year resolution to find at least one Guerlain perfume to love (and to hold in my collection). For my upcoming birthday I’m going to the ball traveling and staying in a very close proximity to a Guerlain boutique for several days. What I need now is an inspiration, a perfume godmother to share her (his?) passion for a perfume from this perfume house.

If you had to name just one Guerlain perfume (currently available, modern formulation) for me to try what would it be? If you’ve previously reviewed it on your blog give me a link, I’d love to read it. Or just tell me why you love it.

To make it harder, I’ll list those perfumes I’ve tried already.

Vol de Nuit is the closest to become a bottle in my collection.  I was tempted (surprise!) by Natalie’s review of Vol de Nuit and since then I kept trying Vol de Nuit in both concentrations – EdT and parfum. I have a strange love-hate relationship with it: every time I apply it I think: “Hmm… not bad. Why didn’t I like it last time?” Five minutes later: “It is unpleasant on my skin. It’s definitely not for me.” Thirty minutes into wearing and for as long as it stays on my skin I like it very much and keep sniffing my wrist. And the next time it all repeats.

Usual suspects – Shalimar (EdP), L’Heure Bleue (EdT and parfum) and Mitsouko (EdP and EdT): I tried them again and again (and again…) and no, I do not want to wear them. I can appreciate them, even like them on paper and kind of like some stages of their development on my skin but I do not think I would choose any of them to wear as my perfume if I had other choices.

I do not mind Shalimar Parfum Initial, it’s never unpleasant on my skin (unlike its classical siblings mentioned above) but it’s too boring.

I like how Rose Barbare develops on my skin but in the beginning it’s too sweet. I have a large sample to keep testing and make up my mind but I do not see it as the bottle now.

What say you? Is there a hope for me?

 

Image: my own (with the help of glassgiant.com poster generator)

by

Entertaining Statistics: January, 2012

January finally has brought some rain. There is a threat of drought in our state so I was glad it was raining. There were five really cold days (coastal California cold, I mean) but no snow storms or freezing rains.

Let’s see how my first month went resolution-wise.

I haven’t bought a single full bottle or any samples and a damage on decants front is 15 ml.

Even though it was a last year’s resolution, I’m still keeping an eye on my perfume habits: this month I wore my favorite perfumes 5-6 times a week. Somehow it felt right to wear perfumes from my bottles and decants instead of chasing new scents. Also I tried to revisit some perfumes which I tested before but about which I hadn’t made up my mind yet. As a result, my testing of new perfumes went down significantly.

I’ve implemented adding categories to my perfume collection. I found out that mostly I wore/tested perfumes from the high-end niche category and didn’t wear any mall scents at all (see the chart).

January 2012: Perfumes by category

Quick January stats:

* Different perfumes worn/tested: 57 from 25 brands on 69 occasions;

* Favorite perfumes worn: 20 on 23 occasions;

* Perfumes I tried for the first time: 14;

* Perfume house I wore/tested most often: Tom Ford and Neela Vermeire Creations (if you haven’t tried yet read and see if you could solve Three Pieces of Neela Vermeire’s India Puzzle);

* Most popular notes (only from perfumes I chose to wear, not those that I tested for the first time): top – (not counting bergamot) orange and pepper; middle – (not counting rose and jasmine) iris and ylang ylang; base – sandalwood, musk and vanilla;

* Total number of different notes in all perfumes I wore/tested this month:  214;

Do you think in January you tested more new perfumes (compared to the previous month) or less?

 

Image: my own

by

Sorting Hat: Perfume Categories

One of my New Year resolutions was to add a new option for classifying my perfumes. I got the idea a long ago after reading annemariec’s article on beauty on the outside blog.

There is no real purpose to that classification; I’m doing it just for amusement, so I’m not trying to be too precise.

Perfume CategoriesI think I can do it with the following categories:

Mall scents – this category will include drugstore, catalog and specialty shop perfumes (e.g. Yves Rocher, Body Shop, Pacifica, Crabtree & Evelyn, Demeter);

Mainstream – this category will include mass-market, designer and celebrity perfumes (e.g. Estee Lauder, Lancome, Prada, YSL, Thierry Mugler, Bvlgari);

High-end mainstream – e.g. Chanel, Guerlain, Hermes, Jo Malone;

Boutique – this category will include perfumes sold in brands’ boutiques and exclusive lines (e.g. Chanel, Guerlain, Dior, Tom Ford, Hermes);

Niche – e.g. L’Artisan, Annick Goutal , Atelier Cologne, Histoires de Parfums, Ineke;

High-end niche – e.g. Amouage, Serge Lutens,  Frederic Malle, By Kilian, Puredistance;

Indie – e.g. DSH Perfumes,  Sonoma Scent Studio, Tauer Perfumes, Aftelier Perfumes;

One of a kind – this category will include vintage, bespoke and other odds-and-ends perfumes that I cannot put in any other basket.

.

Can you think of any perfumes, lines or brands that won’t fit into these categories?

.

Image: my own

by

My Blog’s First Anniversary

Most of you are probably familiar with, I’m positive a well-studied and explained, phenomenon of the time going faster as you get older. I wasn’t curious enough to look for those explanations so at some point I came up with the one that seemed logical and left it at that.

In our earlier years time is very discrete and structured: we always know which grade we are in, what semester (or quarter as it was in the country where I went to school) it is and when we’ll have the next break. Our years are distinctive in terms of classes, class-mates and teachers. And each year constitutes a significant part of our self-aware life.

As we get older, finish our education and start working full-time, our lives become more unified,  “continuous” and provide much less range poles for memory to measure against. Also a year becomes smaller and smaller relative to life lived. Small kids might improve that situation for their parents for a while but it’s still not the same and it goes away as they grow up.

First BlogoversaryI didn’t know that at the time, but starting my blog a year ago served as an antidote to that acceleration tendency (probably just a temporary one but still). My life became much more structured. I’m constantly aware of not only a month (“Is it time for a monthly stats post?”) but also dates and days of the week (“I haven’t posted since the last Tuesday” or “I’m reading a six-days-old post – Is it still Ok to comment?”).

This first year was veeery looong and really good for me. I published many more posts than I planned I would. I found many more blogo-friends than I hoped I would. And I discovered many more great perfumes than I thought I would.

I’m thankful to all my friends, supporters and enablers influencers.

Suzanne, lyu, Vanessa, Michael, Ines, Victoria, Ari, Diana, Joanne, Tara, Olga, Elisa, Thomas, Lavanya, Carol, Laurie, Meg, Krista, Asali and Christos – thank you. For reading, commenting, writing inspiring reviews and sharing perfumes. I appreciate every token of your support and value your friendship.

And now a special spotlight on my perfume godmothers:

Five Bottles

Natalie of Another Perfume Blog: as far as I know she was the first one to report on upcoming Chanel No 19 Poudre release. She kept publishing updates and impressions the topic and it resulted in My First Unsniffed Purchase. (UPD: APB is closed now)

Dee of beauty on the outside: after I won a drawing for a decant of Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess perfume on her blog, I liked it so much that I bought the last bottle at the store and then brought it with me on the trip to Hawaii – how often do you haul a FB to a vacation? (if you haven’t seen it yet, take a look at the Bronze Goddess’ picture from that trip, I think she looked great).

Birgit of Olfactoria’s Travels: she described Annick Goutal Ambre Fetiche in such a way that I just had to try it! (well, Birgit does it a lot). I got a sample (thanks to Carrie), tried it and fell in love. So now finally I have a colored Annick Goutal’s bottle in my collection.

Tarleisio of The Alembicated Genie: her beautiful writing resulted in not one but two new bottles in my collection: Serge Lutens Ambre Sultan and DSH Vert pour Madame. If you haven’t read The Incomparable Khadine and Vertesimilituda yet I dare you to do so and see if you can resist the urge to try these perfumes if you haven’t tried them yet or re-try if you have.

Mals86 of The Muse in Wooden Shoes: here I told the story about my bottle of Puredistance Antonia and what role Mals played in it.

.

What else did this year of blogging give me? A complete realization of how great the climate where I live is.

.

Images: my own

by

Three Pieces of Neela Vermeire’s India Puzzle

I love puzzles, quizzes, riddles and tests. I’m not seeking them out actively but when I come across one I might put off everything else and spend unreasonable time solving it.

I learned about Neela Vermeire Creations from several inspiring reviews. Usually when I read reviews for perfumes that I haven’t tested yet I glance over more technical details – notes, creator, etc. – and concentrate on the impressions, associations and a general mood from the perfumes. So all I remembered about that new line was a general favorable feeling.

Being not too active on the Facebook I miss a lot of friends’ updates. Unlike my blogroll, I’m not even trying to catch up. But I just happened to read my News feed When Neela posted a quiz.

The photo below – where is this from? North, south, east, west or central India? It is tough but some of you may know.Puzzle Part I

I had no idea, the picture was too generic and I wasn’t intrigued enough. Then there was a second picture and the next question:

Another hint for the quiz below. Name the place.Puzzle Part II

This time I got hooked, I wanted to solve that quiz. It took some time but I figured it out. I found the answer: it is a ceiling of the ‘Poomukkam’ room in Padmanabhapuram Palace. An interesting fact about this ceiling: there are ninety flowers carved on it, and each of them is unique.

My correct answer earned me a prize. I expected to get a set of samples for the line. Instead Neela Vermeire sent me a discovery set – three 10 ml bottles: Mohur, Trayee and Bombay Bling!

First I felt a little worried: what if I wouldn’t like those? In that case I would have felt much more comfortable if I had been sent just small sample vials… Now after I tried all three perfumes I’m so glad I got those bottles!

For a proper review I want to refer you to A Festival of Colour – Neela Vermeire Trayee, Mohur and Bombay Bling! Perfume Reviews by The Candy Perfume Boy: I can’t do better so I won’t even try. I want to share just a couple of personal impressions for each perfume.

Neela Vermiere Creations Trio

Trayee – is the most complex and sophisticated perfume out of three in the line. And the most tenacious. I enjoy wearing it and will definitely go through the bottle I have. And after that I might go for at least a decant. For even more impressions read enticing review for Trayee by Persolaise.

Mohur – is the most low-key perfume in the line. Though two out of four times I wore Mohur, it surprised me with an unexpected surge of agarwood in the opening. When it calms down it becomes a well-blended flower bouquet on my skin. It is never unpleasant and I suspect it might behave better on somebody else but in my collection it’ll stay, most likely, just for the reference.

Bombay Bling! – is my absolute favorite in the line. It’s so juicy, bright and happy! But despite its playfulness Bombay Bling! feels like a real perfume with an extremely interesting composition and graceful development. It is a full-bottle worth perfume for me.

I also want to mention that even before trying Neela Vermiere Creations perfumes I was very pleased that a new line has been launched with just three perfumes and there are both sample and discovery sets available. I wish more new and established companies Mrs. Vermiere’s lead.

I hope in years to come Neela Vermiere will present us with more pieces to her scented puzzle of India.

As always, feel free to link to your blog’s post if you’ve reviewed these perfumes.

Images: two of Padmanabhapuram Palace – Neela Vermiere, the last one – my own.

by

MUFЯAP! MUFЯAP!

A couple of days before the New Year we went on our last in 2011 trip to Sonoma. Unlike our November trip, this time everything was as expected: naked or covered with brittle brown leaves vines, ripen persimmons on bare branches and grey sky. And “sparrows are flying again.” Well, I’m not sure what kind of birds those were (dark smudges on the picture below aren’t image artifact or dirty lens – those are flocks of birds flying together) but it was a mesmerizing spectacle. Usually we see those synchronized swooping and turning of birds en masse from a moving car window but this time we were on solid ground and were able to take a lot of pictures.

Birds in Sonoma

Since this time there were three families in our party, instead of a hotel we rented a private house. A welcome letter sent to us several days before our arrival explained how to get there and contained some instructions including:

The key is located in the home on the small table to the left of the door as you enter. Yes, we do keep the doors unlocked sometimes up here.

“On the small table…” Yes, that was where we found it once we arrived. We went through the house to figure out what was where and all of us got a strange feeling: it looked inhabited, as if owners had just stepped away to get something to eat and could be back any minute. No, there was no warm kettle on a stove or smoking cigarette in an ashtray, but there were bottles with wine on the kitchen counter, cheese in the fridge and a motorcycle in the garage. I even went outside to check again the house number.

MufrapWe were in the right house – a nice one, I should add, with spectacular views from windows, two fireplaces (one of them in a bedroom that I’d won in a coin toss) and a well stocked kitchen. A nice but a little strange house. And when my vSO noticed a white child’s dress in a plastic cover hanging in the empty closet we agreed it felt like we were in one of Stephen King’s novels.

The feeling has even increased when I discovered a tray with perfumes on a dresser in my bedroom and a display stand with perfume miniatures in one of the bathrooms. I thought that the house was tempting me.

Perfumes on a DresserNothing sinister had happened during our stay (if not to count that I got spooked in the morning when I opened blinds in our bedroom and saw an owl sitting on a balcony railing – a wooden one as I realized a second later). It was a very pleasant trip. We visited many great wineries (new find for us – deLorimier Winery), tried and bought some good wines (they’ve passed paw inspection by Rusty on our return) and I wore wonderful perfumes (Serge Lutens’ Jeux de Peau that I deemed wine-testing-friendly and brought with me for that purpose and Dior’s Dioressence from a vintage mini bottle in the bathroom of that strange house – it was still good, I enjoyed it in the evenings).

Rusty paw inspects wine bottles

I considered contacting owners with the offer to buy that mini bottle but decided against that: who knows how much spirits that live in that house feel attached to that PARFUM…

Images: my own