We’re slowly getting towards real autumn: it’s cooler though still warm; I get home when it’s dark already and there are dozens of birds in the pond I see from my office window.

I haven’t finished reading all articles on my reading list since I’m extremely busy at work now but since there were many articles that created perfumed lemmings, made me laugh or reviewed perfumes that I love I decided to post the episode.

Lemmings

Victoria (Bois de Jasmin): Epice Marine is in equal part a tribute to Brittany and to Roellinger’s spices. It’s a bright, juicy citrus wrapped around a piece of driftwood, an interplay between sparkling, fresh notes and smoky, toasty ones.

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Tara (Olfactoria’s Travels) makes all three perfumes in her post sound interesting but I’m attracted the most by one of them: The opening of Iris Prima is a pleasant coupling of raspy iris and happy-go-lucky bergamot, followed by a dusting of powder and clean jasmine.

Laughs

Ari (Scents of Self): Apparently the Greek goddess Aphrodite wanted to destroy everything that might possibly compete with her beauty, so she razed every flower on Cyprus. (It only sounds bad until you remember all the weird shit Zeus used to do.)

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Sigrun (Riktig Parfym): Naiviris smells like tearing up an IKEA package, containing wooden furniture, and the thing I’m laughing about is: well, here I am, I’ve got lot loads of perfume decants, bottles and samples of all typos, and what do I actually smell like? An IKEA Malm dresser, complete with factory dust and the cardboard package it came in! (and, in case it’s not clear from the quote, it’s a positive review)

Loves

Suzanne (Eiderdown Press): Prada Infusion d’Iris Absolue, as its name implies, is an iris soliflore—a modern and uncluttered perfume that starts off fresh, with some cologne-like neroli and orange blossom that impart subtle sweetness to the cool, mineral and root-like smell of iris in its early stage of development. I think most of you have read my Infusion d’Iris (original) love story but if you didn’t – here you go: Alien wears Prada Infusion d’Iris

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Portia (Australian Perfume Junkies): Bois des Iles will forever remind me of Paris, Jin and my journey there earlier in 2013, our friends Aaran & Gerard hosted us while we were there and in their home was a beautiful stained glass double door panel by a very famous glass artist, sadly he sold it recently, and the wonderful art deco/industrial piece is what I was most astonished by in his home while wearing Bois des Iles.

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The Perfumed Dandy (The Perfumed Dandy): Cuir de Russie, even in its current, tamed, “dressage” form is an epic among the cuir class of scents.
Smoky, spicy, dirty, animal, burnt, hurt, floral, haunting.

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When was the last time you read a classical fairy tale? I can’t really remember. Susie (Epiphany) has created a great illustration for the genre to go together with her review for Rubj by Vero.Profumo.

Leftovers

Laurie (Perfume in Progress), a nose behind Sonoma Scent Studio brand, has published a great post Learning Perfumery: Classes and Schools. If you’ve ever thought about becoming a perfumer but didn’t know where to start looking for the information on where to start, this is a good article to read or bookmark for future reference.

It was long time since I had Internet connection that bad so it’s a miracle I was able to both read those posts that made me laugh, brought up some lemmings or reviewed perfumes I love and make this post. But I was persistent. By the end of the week I’ll be back to civilization and will tell you more about my time without a high-speed Internet.

Lemmings

Juraj (BL’eauOG) makes a new perfume Monsieur by Huitieme Art Parfums sound like something I might like: It’s a gentle perfume that opens with the dry woody notes and prickling patchouly. It has the “boozy” atmosphere like from some alcohol. Vetiver, cedar and patchouly are most dominant in the beginning but later on, it transforms into the warm and gentle scents of sandalwood, papyrus and oakmoss. After the dry, woody start, it has the feeling of a small river through the wood.

Laughs

I wasn’t sure where to put Natalie’s (Another Perfume Blog) review of my favorite Black Vetiver Café by Jo Malone. If you haven’t read it, spend a minute (it’s a very short one) – it’ll give you a smile if not laugh. (UPD: APB is closed)

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Simone (+ Q Perfume Blog) published a funny and light hearted post on perfumes for dogs: I wonder if Marc Jacobs would also sue Harris if he made his dog version of DOT…it would be cool to see a Dalmatian advertising the doggy version DOT!

Loves

Sigrun (Riktig Parfym) reviews Angélique Noire by Guerlain. It’s not her cup of tea but you might be interested to read her take on it – weather both if you know and like this perfume or have never tried it: After about half an hour most of the initial pear and citrus has morphed into a huge honey note, all thick, sweet and drizzled over a massive custard-y vanilla base. As my father in law is a beekeeper, I’m thinking they really should do a vanilla spiked honey. Just imagining it over yogurt makes me all happy dreamy. My decant, which I enjoy immensely, came from Kafka who, even though acknowledging this perfume’s quality, just couldn’t stand it.

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The Perfumed Dandy (The Perfumed Dandy) reviews Bottega Veneta by Bottega Veneta: An irresistibly, undeniably pretty perfume just on the cusp of being truly beautiful.
One can imagine Audrey Hepburn wearing it between breaking through as “Gigi” on Broadway and Hollywood stardom dressed by Hubert de Givenchy.

Summer is over: yesterday we had our first rain. It was great! Everything got washed and watered. My lemmings started waking up after summer hibernation. So I decided to resume my weekly round-up posts. How are your lemmings doing this Fall?

For new readers: in this series I feature posts that made me smile, conjured some perfume lemmings or reviewed perfumes that I love.

Lemmings

Steven (The Scented Hound) has just created a 4.5 star bones rated lemming: Sideris is a fragrance that I feel like I just can’t give enough justice to… It’s all too beautiful and sometimes words are just too hard to convey.

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Lanier (scents memory) tells the story that makes you want to try Vesper by MIKMOI. I don’t want to quote any part: just start reading it and see if it captures you the same way it captured me.

Laughs

Not a perfume-related but a smile-worth story from Vanessa (Bonkers about Perfume): Milk for tea was an alien concept. Tea itself was an alien concept.  I spent one night on a camp bed in his living room, having declined his invitation to ‘walk a portion of the way’ with him, which I took to be code for a cosier sleeping arrangement.

Loves

Parfumista (Parfumistans blog) compares two versions of the perfume that I like (especially in the extrait concentration): I find the Mohur Extrait deeper and darker than the Mohur Edp. […] The Extrait gives me the image of heavy silk velvet in the color of dark purple with golden stiches and loads of roses in the same color, all surrounded by a smooth almost creamy saffron and other delicate spiced stored in smooth leather pouches.

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Katherine (Mad Perfumista) writes about three first perfumes from Neela Vermeire Creations: If Mohur is a solemn tribute to one of the most powerful women in Indian history, and if Trayee is a homage to the spiritual doors opened by Vedic religion and philosophy, Bombay Bling! is a stiletto-heeled, Kelly-bag toting, Gucci-clad member of India’s new fast-living middle class, living high on the economic boom of contemporary times. Have I mentioned before my take on these three perfumes? I have? Well, maybe for the new readers, one more time: here

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Mario (guest writer at The Perfume Chronicles) reviews one of my favorite Serge Lutens‘ perfumes – Ambre Sultan.

Leftovers

Tauer Perfumes did something we repeat saying perfume companies should do: they released Explorer Set – three 15 ml bottles of your choice, shipping included in the price. Until September 24th they offer 10% off. Nine perfumes from the line are currently offered. I want one or two – and even those I’d hate not taking advantage of the discount I just can’t find the third one. But I love the idea! Go Andy!

Either I was too busy to laugh this week or everybody on my reading list was extremely serious. But I still got some lemmings and several writers did a wonderful job reviewing my favorite perfumes.

Or maybe it’s because of the Memorial Day long weekend? My weekend was productive: I almost finished everything I planned to do; spent some money to support the economy and time with friends – just to have fun. Did you do anything interesting?

Lemmings

It’s not a true lemming for me since I tried this perfume already but since after reading Suzanne’s (Eiderdown Press) story about memories conjured by April Aromatics Bohemian Spice I felt an urge to test it more I thought I’d share this one with you.

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This one is kind of lemming… By Kilian Musk Oud announced on NST. Two perfumes from the Arabian Nights collection that I tried on skin – Rose Oud and Amber Oud – I liked despite my general uneasy relationship with agarwood. So I want to try this new one – and I probably should finally get to try Insense Oud – though I almost hope not to like any of these two: it’s enough I’m thinking about buying Amber Oud, I don’t need another real lemming at that price point.

Loves

I keep repeating everywhere how much I love Neela Vermeire Creations‘ Bombay Bling! I know that most of you have tried it already and read many reviews of it. But you should still read Lanier’s (scents memory) take on it: it’s definitely more than just a review and I think you’ll enjoy the story even if you know the perfume really well.

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Steven (The Scented Hound) gives his highest approval (5 out of 5 possible bones) to a vintage Samsara by Guerlain. I’ve tried only modern version (see my post Déjà vu, Episode 3: powdery fruit vs. peony oriental vs. sandalwood jasmine) but I still like this perfume and wear it from time to time.

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There must be something in the air: two bloggers wrote about one of my favorite Le Labo perfumes – Rose 31. Kafka (Kafkaesque): The kingdom of Pepper was sometimes affectionately called by its old, Norse name: Pepper & Pink. It wasn’t a vast land, but every square inch seemed to be populated by various forms of pepper. From the biting burst of freshly ground Malabar nuggets to the cedar trees which swathed its flanks from North to South and the great lakes of ISO E Super which dotted the landscape. and Jordan (The Fragrant Man): In Iran, Iraq, The Middle East, Pakistan and India rose perfumes are an essential part of a man’s fragrance wardrobe. Rose petals used to be crushed and mixed with oil to obtain a strong perfume which was labour intensive and therefore not easily mass-produced. Harun al-Rashid …

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If you haven’t read it yet, take a look: Kafka wrote a beautiful-beautiful-beautiful review for my all-time favorite perfume Amouage Ubar. Have you ever seen an Arabian horse running? It’s an object of awe and grandeur, from its tiny, delicately chiseled head with those vividly intelligent eyes, to its hugely curved, muscular neck, its perfect, lithe body, and its perpetual grace that puts all prima ballerinas to shame.

The hot weather we had in the beginning of May slightly cooled off, it is now a very pleasant period when very warm days turn into slightly chilly nights.

I’m extremely busy – both at work and in my everyday life but since I came across some posts that fell into one of the categories I try to cover I decided not to skip this week. So here are posts that made me want to try a new for me perfume, made me laugh or reviewed perfumes I love.

Lemmings

If you were to read just one story from my weekly round-up read Christos’s (Memory of Scent) post on the story of the perfume about which I haven’t heard before but towards which I feel warm now after getting to know it through Christos’s words.

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I didn’t think of testing this new L’Artisan‘s perfume because I disapprove mass marketization trend of their advertising (a naked model for the Caligna ad) but Lanier (scents memory) told the story in such a way that it made me want to try the perfume: Caligna to my nose is light and soft on my skin and the notes blended into a pure tingling effervescent pop of spring. Lovely and bright, luminous in fact, Caligna is really the perfect uni-sex perfume for springtime or even in the cold months to recall the joys of May in bloom in the south of France.

Laughs

Do you want to know a secret of immortality and look at a peach from a different prospective? Read Judith’s (the unseen censer) The story of sex and a peach  (but I warn you: a peach might never look the same to you).

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Blacknall (aperfumeblog by Blacknall Allen): Interlude Woman was sleeker and smaller (thank heavens), but still overpowered, still with that insane acceleration rate. Driving it was a revelation in centrifically challenging accelerations, hair pin curves, and how fast the crew could get you back on track (thirty seconds). I came away with a vague memory of iced tea and burning rubber, and that is all that I remember about that test run.

Loves

Kafka (Kafkaesque) reviews one of my favorite Serge Lutens‘ perfumes: De Profundis opens on my skin with a fragile, haunting and delicate bouquet of flowers. There is chrysanthemum with violets, green notes, white lilies and sweet, wet earth. I will tell you my Profundis story soon. I hope.

If you read any interesting posts that, in your opinion, didn’t get enough attention – please share.