Random Stuff

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Girls Just Want to Have Fun!

 

This post is a final installment in the “birthday-perfume-blogger-bash” suggested by Asali and supported by Ines. For the last couple of weeks I couldn’t get rid of this song.

Aquarius Undina

I love my birthdays and it has always been this way. Looking back I can’t remember a single year when I wasn’t looking forward to it or hadn’t enjoyed it.

When I was little my mother always managed to leave a present next to my bed while I was asleep so I would wake up to something wonderful. When I got older I remember getting from Grandma something great and hard to find (which at that time in the country was almost anything worth getting,) so from my friends I usually requested to bring just flowers which at winter were expensive enough to be a gift on their own. In my adult life I refuse to request birthday gifts: I can buy for myself everything that can be gifted to me by friends so I’d rather be surprised.

The first gift this year I got from my friend and a talented young designer Valerie who created images for our blogging project (see above). I’m going to use it as my logo.

Perfumes as gifts… My grandmother gifted me with my first bottle of my all-times favorite Lancome Climat. For many years it was the only perfume that I associated with everything fun – birthdays, dates or holidays.

Lancome Climat

Many years later my vSO gave me for my birthday Vera Wang perfume. Despite the first-time-wearing debacle for many years it was my go-to perfume for special occasions.

Rusty and Vera Wang

Three years ago I got another perfumed gift from my vSO – Antonia’s Flowers Tiempe Passate. This one hasn’t become my party scent but I considered it as a special day-wear fragrance.

Rusty and Tiempe Passate

I’m not superstitious. I do not believe much into cosmic connections, predetermination and other such things. I believe in coincidences.

February 12, 1947: A major event was held at 30, avenue Montaigne in Paris, where Christian Dior presented his first fashion show. With his flower women and bright colors, the Designer launched a fresh fashion trend. “It’s a New Look!” exclaimed Carmel Snow, Editor-in-Chief at Harper’s Bazaar, thus christening the Designer’s inimitable style.

From Dior’s website

Dior New Look 1947

Last year on my trip to Las Vegas, without reading that information above, I bought Dior New Look 1947 exactly on February 12, my birthday. It was my gift to myself in addition to my first Guerlain love that I found there – Cruel Gardenia. I absolutely adore Cruel Gardenia and admire New Look 1947. I wear the former when I dress up and feel pretty and the latter when I [want to] feel elegant and sophisticated.

Guerlain Cruel Gardenia

I do not have a preferred way of celebrating my birthdays: I like everything from large loud parties with music, dancing and laughing to quiet evenings with my vSO on our birthday trips. This year I hope to have a little of everything. And definitely I’m gonna have some fun!

Oh, and I treated myself to one more perfume from Guerlain. Care to venture a guess which one?

 

Images: Aquarius mermaid – Valerie Rodriguez, all others – my own.

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Entertaining Statistics: January, 2013

 

Imagine: magazines and newspapers without a single ad; public TV programs and sports events uninterrupted by commercials; downtowns and highways without any billboards in sight; no SALE, Everyday Value or CLEARANCE signs in stores.

All those aren’t scenes from a fiction [unti-]utopian book: that was my life until I was in my early twenties. In the country where I lived there was no advertising, no competing brands and, to think of it, not too many choices for any goods or services.

As a result products’ packaging was minimalistic, not too elaborate or appealing. It was mostly functional. That’s why many products had the same packaging for decades: matches, condensed milk, salt, dairy, etc.

Soviet Products

After moving to the US the biggest shopping challenge for me (after figuring out what “Paper or plastic?” means) wasn’t even choosing the right product from a dozen of similar ones packaged differently by each brand but getting the same product every next time I needed to replenish something. I stopped registering any progress in razor blades after the number reached four. I came to peace with buying a new type of face cream from the same brand every couple of years: I can at least hope they fight my aging process better and better with every new jar (though I’m still angry with several major brands for switching from glass to plastic – at those prices plastic feels too cheap, I still remember how nice old heavy glass jars and bottles felt in hand). But a toothpaste? Sanitary napkins? Paper towels? Do they really improve those every two-three months?

Being annoyed by the necessity to solve a type/size/price riddle every time at a store, I remember complaining that I wasn’t a stupid consumer with short attention span who wouldn’t remember what she bought previously and needed to be constantly razzle-dazzled by “new”, “better” or “improved” qualifiers.

Thinking about perfumes and statistics this moth I started wondering whether perfume brands were really wrong producing 1,000+ new perfumes per year. Are at least we, perfume enthusiasts, immune to the marketing push strategy?

I took a closer look at my full bottles purchases – over the last two years (since I started this blog) and for 2012-YTD. Not to divulge the absolute number of the perfumes that joined my collection I’m operating with %% from the total perfumes bought during those two periods (but actual bottle numbers were big enough to be representative).

January 2013 Stats

As you can see, I’ve bought a lot of recent releases: more than 50% of the perfumes added to my collection during the recent two years appeared on the market in the last five years. It skews even further towards new perfumes for the last year purchases – more than 60% are newer perfumes. And there are at least three perfumes from 2012 on my “to buy” list. Meanwhile some of the bottles from older days stay on that list without even moving up. So it seems that with me the perfume industry is hitting the target. What about you?

I do not expect that normal people keep all that information handy but let’s try something simpler:

What is the release year of your most recent full bottle perfume purchase?

 

 

Image: Soviet products – compilation from multiple sources; stats – my own.

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Undina’s Looking Glass Turns Two

 

This day two years ago I dared to publish my first story on this blog – a story of my first and still lasting perfume love. Actually, it was my first story written in English ever. Those who had a similar experience with giving a public speech or writing in a foreign language know exactly how nerve-wrecking it felt (and those who hadn’t can imagine). Has it got much easier now? Ask me again in two years.

Since the beginning I published 164 posts – more than I thought I would. My most read post is Coco Noir… Light by Chanel (I won’t even link to it!) written just a half-year ago. This is both very symptomatic and sad. Is there a post I wished had more readers? I would probably want those of the readers who are my friends to read some of the more personal posts I wrote, but I do not want to list them today. As to the outside world that comes to my blog from search engines (most popular search was “las vegas strip map” but it fades if you add numbers for all variations of “coco”, “chanel” and “noir” that brough people to my blog), I’d want them to read the post that started Perfume Shopping around the World page (it has been recently updated here and on all participating sites) and to use information from those posts on different blogs.

Perfume Around TheGlobe

 

Why Undina? Why Looking Glass?

I’ve been asked that question more than once. So here’s how it went.

Are you familiar with FidoNet and BBSs? … Kidding, I’m not that old experienced. But long before forums, blogs and social networks, chat rooms were my online habitat. For the first chat room I frequented I chose a gender-neutral nickname and used to communicate in such a way that it was hard to tell if I was a man or a woman (which wasn’t easy with my native language specifics).

When one of my friends invited me to visit a new role-playing chat room that he found and liked, I got stuck on the registration page: I had no idea who I wanted to be. I was ready for a more feminine character but that was it. Ундина (transliterated into Roman alphabet Undina, in English – Undine) was my spur-of-the-moment choice. I don’t know why I decided to be a water nymph but it seemed a fitting choice for a community inhabited by vagabond knights, friendly ghosts and talking animals. The host of the chat was an incorporeal being Nechto (something/somebody unknown), so the chat room was called У Нечта (At Nechto’s).

UNechta Chatroom Entrance

I stayed in that chat room and became a regular. My character transformed into rather a mermaid than a nymph. If you’ve never belonged to a half-closed moderated chat room it’s hard to explain what people were doing there… We joked; we discussed books and philosophical dilemmas; we even staged improvised theatrical performances. We’d created our own mythology and even furnished the room. Of course everything was imaginary, so it lived in memory of participants and was re-iterated for newcomers gaining more details and becoming a little more real with every next tale.

One of the elements of the room was a magical looking glass on the wall. I (Undina) would swim into the room from it and dive into it to leave. I would conjure necessary things from there – a tea set or a box of chocolates for the imaginary tea party; I would threaten to get a paddle out of there and beat up whoever was misbehaving. It was a useful piece of the interior.

I enjoyed years spent in that community, and I have the fondest memories of that time. So when a decade later I was choosing an online identity for the Perfumeland I decided to go with Undina (though I had to add BA – stands for SF Bay Area where I live – since the exact one had been taken). And I resurrected my looking glass when I started this blog.

 

What’s coming?

For my birthday many years ago a friend gave me my own domain. It currently redirects traffic to this blog but since it’s done not through WordPress it’s done half-way. In a couple of days I plan to switch my blog from https://undinaba.wordpress.com/ to www.undina.com officially. It shouldn’t affect e-mail subscriptions or an RSS feed but if you do not hear from me in a week come back and check.

 

What stays the same?

Everything stated on my About page will stay true for Undina’s Looking Glass. Let’s keep building the better perfume community together.

And of course there still will be pictures of Rusty.

Rusty and perfume vials

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Orange Cats in My Life – Part I: Found and Lost

 

Usually in this blog I write not-a-review life stories about perfumes. This one is a life story that has no perfumes connection whatsoever.

 

Do you know how children usually ask parents to get a dog and parents are reluctant since they know it will be an extra chore for them? When I was a kid in my family roles were switched: my mother used to bring home homeless dogs to live with us (luckily one at a time) and I tried to dissuade her (without any success). So even though I was always more of a cat person it had never even occurred to me to ask for a cat.

The first cat appeared in my life after I got married. One morning my mother in law knocked at our bedroom door (we lived together at the time), peeped inside and asked unsurely: Did you bring home a kitten last night? We woke up completely, looked at each other, back at her and asked: What kitten?

As we deduced later (though we weren’t sure), a little kitten sneaked into the apartment the day before and hid. I’m not sure what would have happened to him had one of us stumbled upon him that night. But he was smart, lucky or just scared and showed up when there was no chance anyone would get spooked by that scrawny white and orange lump of fur. It was late autumn, cold and unpleasant outside and we just couldn’t throw him out there.

I named him Rizhik.

Lactarius deliciosus (Rizhik)

He was a funny kitten. He loved to lie on my lap with his belly up. He cartoonishly followed his reflection in the polished wood to the end of the reflective surface and tried to peek quickly around the corner to see where it went. He used to purr so loudly at night that my vSO would through him out of the bed.

He grew up, became an outdoor cat, stopped chasing his reflection and didn’t purr anymore. We moved out and Rizhik stayed at the parents’ place but whenever we visited he still liked spending time with me.

One winter he disappeared. Not as mysteriously as he came into our lives: he just went outside, as usual, and didn’t come back. We didn’t know what happened to him.  But it was a very bad winter in the country – economically- and weather-wise. It was rumored that homeless were eating stray dogs and cats…

Months later we saw on a street a cat that looked exactly like Rizhik. We followed him as he was running away (as cats usually do); I kept calling his name, he stopped for a second, turned his head as if recognizing my voice and then he was gone. We tried looking for him again – with no luck.

We chose to believe that he just found a place where he was happy and decided to stay there.

 

Image: from the Wikimedia Commons

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My Wish List for the Perfume Industry

 

The holiday season is upon us, we start at least thinking about all the lists – to sum up the past or plan the future. So I decided to get to it early and prepared my personal Wish List for the perfume industry.

I’m not going to come up with anything new: we all are saying all these things now and again while discussing brands, perfumes and new releases. But with my tendency to collect things I did it for a while for that topic. I do not think that brands/companies have to follow these requests (some of them might not be the best economic strategies from companies’ stand point) but I wish they would.

Samples and Sample-to-buy programs: many brands aren’t easily accessible for testing in B&M stores. So, first of all, there should be samples available for purchase and preferably with the same delivery mechanism as the actual perfume (spraying or dabbing). Also since most brands spend money on marketing anyway they could arrange programs where customers pay for samples (that will ensure that people aren’t just hoarding samples for selling on eBay or using instead of buying perfumes) but if customers decide to buy a bottle they’d get a discount for the amount paid for the sample set.

Sizes for bottles: 5-10-15-30 ml. For big lines – mix/match sets of smaller “travel” bottles. Regular customers do not need more than a couple of perfumes at a time and “collectors” do not need most of the perfumes even in 30 ml size. For many brands I would have paid more for the official small bottle than for the same size decant.

"Shalimar" Bottles and Rusty

Warnings about any reformulation: it’s unfair for consumers to buy a perfume they thought they knew and liked without realizing the formula has changed. I don’t think even Rusty is capable of smelling anything from a sealed bottle (and a domestic cat’s sense of smell is known to be about fourteen times as strong as a human’s). There should be at least some change in packaging to indicate that it’s not the same perfume.

Production Date (Year): since perfumes are perishable and they cannot be tested before the purchase, I think it is only fair to require brands to put at least a year of production on the packaging. It would be fun to discuss perfumes’ vintages: “Oh, I remember, 1985 was a good year for Miss Dior” or “Miss Dior Cherie 2006 was still drinkable wearable.”

Warnings about the upcoming changes/discontinuation: companies might be able to sell more perfumes for the original price before they are moved to various discount stores if those who love perfumes being put on the chopping block know they need to buy a back-up bottle (or a box of bottles?).

Discontinued perfumes re-issuing: companies could do even something like a Perfume Club (similar to wine clubs) or pre-orders where first they gather requests (even with a deposit) and then produce a perfume once the necessary minimum number of orders is received. Maybe even in more generic packaging – for those who know the perfume and want it for the perfume itself.

Limited new launches: three-four perfumes simultaneously is a good number for a new brand launch but well established brands shouldn’t bombard customers with all those endless multiple new releases.

Packaging: do not waste beautiful bottles on mediocre perfumes and do not undermine a beautiful perfume by an ugly vessel for it.

Perfume notes: please no more oud (agarwood) perfumes! There are so many wonderful ingredients; customers won’t think less of the brand if it doesn’t jump on every note du jour wagon.

Naming: most people are really bad with numbers. Just saying…

 

Have I missed anything?

 

Image: my own

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“New York, New York, it’s a wonderful town!”

 

As I’ve mentioned before, I love New York. Every time I go there I feel with utter clarity how much I miss living in a big city.

This time the weather wasn’t the best possible: the temperature dropped significantly the next day after we arrived; then there was a showering rain; it was cloudy and cool for several days and it got a little warmer by the end of our stay there with sun teasing us on the day of the departure. But we were mostly prepared for the weather and it didn’t prevent us from enjoying all the planned activities, of which there were plenty but since it’s a, more or less, perfume blog I want to highlight fragrant parts of my vacation.

I’ll start with saying a big thank you to Robin, Birgit and Gaia who created New York perfume shopping guides: it really helps to know where to look for which brand. If you plan a trip read through those posts, make yourself a list of everything you want to visit (with addresses) and try (with names) – you’ll be glad you did.

Slow down...

To Barney’s I went only to test newly available exclusive line of Serge Lutens perfumes (everything else is available at Barneys SF). All SAs I met there were very friendly and not pushy at all. I walked away with samples of two perfumes I liked the most (out of those I haven’t tried before) – Rose de nuit and Fourreau noir. I would have bought a bottle (one of  several that I want to add to my collection eventually) but why on earth has somebody decided to charge almost twice for those bell jars in the US?!! How does the price 130 EUR including VAT translate into $300 PLUS tax?!! Stupid rich Americans who would eat up anything? I refuse to do that. I’d rather give business to Suzan who charges just 10% on top.

At Bloomingdale’s Chanel‘s SA who was very proud of their perfume testing system – an Olfactive Bar (a mirrored table top with porous ceramic rods immersed into vials with different perfumes), in reply to my question if they had a test rod for Bois des Iles in parfum concentration, told me that 1) it smells exactly the same as EdC concentration; 2) because it wouldn’t have been an Exclusifs if it hadn’t smelled the same; 3) it was created by Jacques Polge and … At this point I told him “Thank you” and left.

The Unseen Censer was a great company for a perfume sniffing at MiN NY. Unfortunately for our visit we chose the day when they held a launch of three perfumes for the new brand – Jul et Mad. I say “unfortunately” because my vSO was promised a comfortable couch where he would be able to relax after our almost six hours stroll through the lower Manhattan while we would do our best to sniff through as many new perfumes as perfumista-ly possible… Instead of it my faithful companion had to spend an hour standing next to the wall and reading his smartphone in a crowd of people having great time. I hope strong cocktails served by nice people from MiN helped a little but I felt bad and we left a little earlier than I’d wanted to (and before I realized how much I liked one of the three Jul et Mad’s perfumes Amour de Palazzo and thought of asking for a sample). Also I think I fell in love with one perfume… But it’s too early to talk about it, I need more time.

Bergdorf Goodman NY

I didn’t plan to go to Bergdorf Goodman but it just happened on our way so I decided to check out Ramon Monegal. They had only seven perfumes from the line. When I asked a SA who was eager to help me with the brand if they had the other 7 somewhere else she was surprised by the fact that I knew about the brand and told me that they didn’t have the complete line. But when I expressed my regret that they didn’t have two perfumes that I wanted to try (Impossible Iris and Cuirelle) she answered me, with a smidgen of indignation, that those seven were the best sellers in the world. Oh well, I shouldn’t be upset if my tastes aren’t aligned with the rest of the world, should I? I didn’t feel like testing any of the seven they had on skin.

On the positive note, SA at By Kilian counter was very nice and even made me samples of three new perfumes from In the Garden of Good and Evil collection. The bottles and the box are as beautiful as they are on pictures. Now I need to test perfumes. My first impression: it doesn’t make much sense to test these three on paper; at least on my skin they developed very different from what I smelled on blotters.

At Saks I finally got to try Bois des Iles in both concentrations. What can I say? They don’t smell the same. But I still don’t know which one I should buy first. I got some other interesting samples there but it’ll be another story.

The last stop on my perfume journey was Henri Bendel. You wouldn’t know it by looking at their website but they have a very impressive and unique perfume selection. I didn’t have much time (I’d tested my vSO’s angelic patience more than enough by then) so I concentrated mostly on Huitième Art – the line I kept reading about but had never tested before. It is a very nice line! I didn’t test any of the perfumes on skin but found at least three I want to – Manguier Metisse, Ciel d’Airain and Ambre Ceruleen.

I haven’t bought any perfumes on my trip (traveling with just carry-on luggage helps fighting sudden perfume urges) but I think there will be at least a couple that will join my collection in future and I’ll associate them with this wonderful trip.

Have I mentioned how understanding and accommodating my vSO was? I have? I just want to say it again because I appreciate it very much. BTW, it was him who on our plane trip to NY pointed out that cartoon above from the New Yorker magazine.

NY Lady Gaga perfume ad 

Images: first one from New Yorker; the rest – my own.

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A Postcard from Undina: From New York with love

From NY with love

When I saw these billboards just off Times Square I felt some significance in the fact that these were for two my favorite TV shows at the moment, one of which takes place in California where I live and the second one – in New York where I spent the last week. I love-love-love New York! Once I unpack and spend some quality time with Rusty I’ll write up some of the perfume-related impressions from my wonderful vacation.

How have you been? Do you watch any TV shows? If yes, what are your favorite ones?

 

Undina

 

Image: my own

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Affordable Luxury?

 

Now and then I read complaints about perfumes cost, especially when it comes to the subject of packaging. At some point I was one of those people. I won’t spend time now looking for comments I might have made a year or two ago but I remember having thoughts along the line “those stupid bottles and boxes” and “who needs them”. But since then I considered different aspects of it and I’ve changed my mind.

Agonist Liquid Cristal

Perfume isn’t a necessity: it’s a luxury item. There are many other luxury goods out there – shoes, bags, clothes, jewelry, cars and yachts to name but a few. Most of us cannot afford most of those things and we accept that. So why do we get angry when a luxury perfume brand, which positions itself as such, pours perfumes in handmade glass bottles, makes special tops for them or puts them into nice wooden boxes and then charges accordingly?

MDCI Collectible Stoppers

People are buying designer clothes for their pets – why not to buy a nice display stand or a quality travel case for your favorite expensive perfume? People buy useless figurines and decorative boxes for their dressers – why not to adorn vanity tables with a collectible bottle stopper or a beautiful lacquered perfume box? And as long as there are people who are willing to pay for those special items why not to create them and sell?

Puredistance Leather Case

As much as we, perfumistas, would love to have in our collections every perfume that attracted our attention we know it’s not possible – even if all of them were in the discount stores’ price range. So why do we get cranky if we cannot afford or justify for ourselves buying an expensive bottle of perfume, especially when perfume itself is available in the refill container? Is it because, after all, juice isn’t the only thing that matters and we do want to get a nice(r) bottle but are not ready to pay extra for it?

By Kilian Box

Have you ever heard from any perfumista “I love this perfume, it is my absolute favorite but it’s too expensive and I cannot afford it”? I haven’t. I think it’s because perfume is a luxury item. You do not go into collecting luxury items if you have no discretionary income. And if you have any you can choose on what to spend it. If you find a perfume that you love – absolutely, unconditionally and forever – you’ll be able to buy it eventually with money saved by not buying other bottles, samples and decants. And if you do not love it leave it – in all its nicety and glorious packaging – to those who do or have a bigger budget for “nice to have” items.

Xerjoff Murano Glass Bottle

At the same time I constantly read about cheap looking and poorly made bottles. Many reviewers are wishing for a better correlation between a quality of a scent, its price and presentation. So where is the golden mean?

Armani Prive Golden Bottle

Images: from respective brands websites

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You say ‘Tomato’, I say ‘Leather’

 

When people who had been living in the same country for the most part of their lives and hadn’t traveled much move to a new and unfamiliar place, it’s a common situation that, at least in the beginning, they try not to embrace new environment but to adapt it to their needs and expectations. And they get frustrated when new environment pushes back.

One of my complaints after I moved to the U.S. was a taste of tomatoes. I remembered how great tomatoes that my grandmother grew in her garden were. I could eat them as is or with a little salt just biting from the fruit. Of course, at Grandma’s those were special variety tomatoes grown with love and care. But even those tomatoes that we would pick up at farms to where we were taken from schools and colleges with some strange notion to teach us to work were great.

Tomatos

With the experience of living in the new place comes the understanding that sometimes if you can’t find something that was so popular in another country it’s because there is no demand for it; if you do not like something, there’s a chance that you’re getting that something of not the best quality; and if something isn’t as good as you remember it to be, it might be because you are not in your twenties any more.

So at some point I persuaded myself that I was just buying wrong tomatoes and switched to local heirloom tomatoes during the season. Those tasted better but still not exactly how I remembered ripe tomatoes from a vine. “I’m not twenty anymore; tomatoes are just fine…” – I told myself and stopped thinking about it… until I read this article. I wasn’t that far off after all: American tomatoes suck.

What does it have to do with perfumes? – are probably asking those of you who made it to this point.

For a while cluster tomatoes were my answer to the lost tomato quest. They weren’t much better than any other variety I tried but at least the scent of the vine, on which they came, reminded me of those wonderfully flavorful tomatoes from my childhood. And when I tried this new perfume it reminded me of the scent of a tomato stem.

Cognoscenti Tomato Leather

Scent No.16 Tomato Leather by Cognoscenti – created in 2012 by Dannielle Sergent, notes include tomato leaf, clary sage, linden blossom, leather, black agarwood, benzoin, frankincense, myrrh and tobacco. I don’t know what is that with different companies and the numbers, but, in my opinion, it’s an awful idea to name perfumes with numbers if you’re not Chanel. I’m glad Cognoscenti decided to go with a subtitle for at least two of their perfumes.

Other than tomato leaves (stem), I do not smell any of the notes listed. I’m not saying there are no other notes there, the perfume has some complexity but the notes are blended in such a way that I do not recognize even those that I usually can easily pick out – linden, agarwood and tobacco. I smell something that I attribute to the “leather” part of the name but leather in Tomato Leather doesn’t remind me any other leathers I’m closely familiar with.

Tomato Leather is a truly unisex perfume: there is nothing daring in wearing it either by a man or a woman. I wonder if it has any sweetness to it: I cannot smell it at all but there might be something that my nose doesn’t register.

Cognoscenti launched its line just a couple of months ago during the First Artisan Fragrance Salon in San Francisco; and recently they’ve added an online store where you can buy samples* for all three perfumes from the line. You can buy bottles as well but I assume you’d like to test them first.

Cognoscenti Perfumes

I like almost everything about Cognoscenti – the reasonable number of perfumes in the initial collection, design of their bottles, packaging and samples availability. “Almost” because I wish they had smaller bottles – 30 ml (or even less). I think that Cognoscenti’s perfumes are very interesting and unusual. I’m just not sure that I need 50 ml of any of the two scents that I liked. But I’m tempted because I like them and would love to wear from time to time. I’ll see what to do once my samples are gone.

 

Images: tomatoes – my friend M., perfumes – my own.

* Disclaimer: I got my samples from the brand at the Fragrance Salon not for the review; recently I won the random draw for another sample set at Cafleure Bon where you can read Tama’s review for the line. I haven’t been approached by the brand or compensated in any way.

UPDATE: Now the brand offers 5 ml travel bottles

 

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Surrealism and my Surreal Perfume Perception

 

Recently I visited the exhibition Man Ray | Lee Miller: Partners in Surrealism.

The exhibition covered three distinct periods. The first period – time before 21 years old Lee Miller, an established model and an apprentice photographer, met and became a student and a lover of Man Ray, a well-known at the time avant-garde photographer and painter, seventeen years her senior. The second period – their three years together in photographs, paintings and “rayographs.” And the last one – their works after she left him and they went on with their lives.

While it wasn’t the most interesting exposition, I was very pleased to find several works for which Lee Miller took pictures of Guerlain’s shop front. Two better known – photographs Exploding Hand and Self-portrait, Reflection in the window of Guerlain (see below) and several more from the same roll that I wasn’t able to find online (with an actual Guerlain store front).

Lee Miller Self Portrait - Reflection In Guerlain Window

Disclaimer: I’m not even an amateur in art appreciation; I’m nobody, so the following part is just my layman’s opinion.

I thought Lee Miller’s photographs were very good especially those that she made as a war photographer. I liked some of Ray’s photographs (though that exhibition doesn’t do him justice) and was appalled by most of the “paintings” presented: it’s not art! Those are not good even as decorative pieces. The only excuse for showing them is that whoever curated the exhibition just couldn’t get enough good items and had to use fillers. To the same purpose, I think, there were some works of other contemporary artists from their circle. Picasso’s portrait of Lee Miller attracted my attention and prompted a comment addressed to my vSO: “This is art. He knew how to paint and then chose to do it this way. Ray Miller’s works look like he just couldn’t do it any better.” (I am like that every time I come across something that I refuse to consider art – no matter on whose authority a piece in question got in which museum/exhibition. For some reason I feel very passionate about such issues)

Picasso - Lee Miller Portrait

I tried to find those pictures as postcards in the museum shop. For some reason I wanted to buy those prints with Guerlain sign. My efforts were futile. But as I was fumbling through postcards I smelled a perfume on another customer and liked it. I complimented her on it and asked what it was. “Paloma Picasso” was her answer.

Paloma Picasso by Paloma Picasso, created in 1984 by Francis Bocris under guidance of the eldest daughter of Pablo Picasso, notes vary by the source so I’ll go with NST: yields hyacinth, citrus, coriander, angelica, cloves, rose, mimosa, ylang ylang, jasmine, patchouli, honey, civet, oakmoss, sandalwood and vetiver.

I saw Paloma Picasso thousand times. It was ubiquitous in every online and many B&M discounter stores. I could describe the bottle design if you were to ask me a month or ten years ago. Yet that moment at the museum shop I realized that I’d never even smelled it. Don’t ask me why. Ok, ask me.

Looking back I recollect that, based on the packaging (I know, I know – very deep of me), I thought it was a heavy oriental perfume, something like YSL Opium, so I didn’t think I would like it – and never tried it.

That weekend while writing one of the LLL posts I almost added the Looking For section to ask if anybody could spare a sample of Paloma Picasso – that was how much I liked it on the women in the museum. But suddenly I remembered that in one of the duty-free miniature sets that I got as a gift there was a mini of Paloma Picasso EdP.

Do you remember a “deer scene” from My Cousin Vinny?

Mona Lisa Vito: Whoa. You’re gonna shoot a deer?
Vinny Gambini: I don’t know. I suppose. I mean, I’m a man’s man, I could go deer hunting.
Mona Lisa Vito: A sweet, innocent, harmless, leaf-eating, doe-eyed little deer.
Vinny Gambini: Hey Lisa, I’m not gonna go out there just to wimp out, you know. I mean, the guy will lose respect for me, would you rather have that?
[Lisa gets up, walks over to the bathroom and shuts the door]
Vinny Gambini: What about these pants I got on, you think they’re O.K.?
Mona Lisa Vito: [comes out of the bathroom] Imagine you’re a deer. You’re prancing along, you get thirsty, you spot a little brook, you put your little deer lips down to the cool clear water… BAM! A f** bullet rips off part of your head! Your brains are laying on the ground in little bloody pieces! Now I ask ya. Would you give a f**k what kind of pants the son of a bitch who shot you was wearing?

That “BAM!” (you have to watch that short clip from the link above if you do not have a visual image of Marisa Tomei’s gesture in your head) was how I felt the first time I applied Paloma EdP. It is a very strong and very loud perfume. I love what I smell but I’m not sure I can actually wear it: I feel almost overwhelmed just testing Paloma from a dab mini on my wrist. But I’m so impressed by it and so surprised that I avoided it for so long that I plan to try to wear it (meaning – I’ll carefully apply it in 2-3 spots while having a shower within my reach).

Paloma Picasso perfume

For real reviews go to Bois de Jasmine, The Non-Blonde or Perfume Shrine.

 

Image: Self-portrait from here; Picasso from here; perfume – my own.