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Know-How: Making Perfumes Last Longer

Most of us own enough perfumes to last us if not for the rest of our lives but at least for a decade or so. We have supplies to make ourselves any number of decants and purses to carry those decants for perfume touch-ups during the day. But still again and again a question of how to prolong life of those fleeting substances is raised in blogs, perfume forums and magazines. Every time I hear about making anything last longer, I think of this Garfield cartoon:

Garfield June 30 1998

On a more serious note, one of the constantly repeated advices is the same one that is usually given for a general well-being and skin care, namely hydration/moisturizing.

Before you apply your perfume, make sure that your skin is super moisturized.

Fragrance lasts much longer on moisturized skin.

Applying fragrance-free moisturizer to your body is an excellent preparation for applying fragrance

If you have dry skin, moisturize it before applying your perfume (use a fragrance free moisturizer); it will help your scent last a lot longer.

Do these sound familiar? For many years for me it was a given, I never questioned the wisdom. Besides, I routinely apply body moisturizer after each shower so I never actually had a chance to check the supposition.

A couple of months ago in a post on Andrew Smells I read a passage that surprised me:

By applying moisturiser after applying your fragrance spray you significantly increase the longevity of the fragrance, in other words you smell good for longer.

I questioned the author if he just misspoke while describing an application order, but Andy replied: “No, that’s the order we were taught.” (and even gave me a link to an article with the same advice; you can look it up in his comment if you follow the link). “Maybe it doesn’t make much difference? Have you tried both orders?” he asked.

It got me curious and I conducted a series of experiments. Petite Cherie by Annick Goutal was a perfect candidate: I like it a lot but it doesn’t last on my skin for too long.

Annick Goutal Petite Cherie

I tried several different combinations (all after shower): 1) just perfume on bare skin; 2) an unscented body lotion and then perfume on top of it; 3) perfume directly on skin and then a layer of an unscented body lotion; 4) a matching body lotion and then perfume on top of it; 5) perfume directly on skin and then a layer of a matching body lotion. Out of these five runs I got just two distinct results:

Perfume placed (#1) directly on bare washed skin, (#2) on top of an unscented body lotion or (#3) under an unscented body lotion stayed on my skin its usual 2 hours and then became a pleasant skin veil noticeable only if to press my nose into my wrist.

Perfume applied either (#4) on top of or (#5) under a matching body lotion, even though loosing projection within the same 2 hours (maybe 2.5), stayed as a well-recognizable skin scent probably twice longer than from perfume not layered with a matching lotion.

But the most important result was that I didn’t notice any improvement in longevity due to added moisturizer – be it on top of or under perfume. Of course, mine is just anecdotal evidence. That’s why I’m asking you:

Have you personally experienced a prolonged perfume life on your skin after applying a moisturizer?

 

Images: Garfield from the official site; perfume – my own.

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A Postcard from Undina: Dawes at Gundlach Bundschu Winery

Dawes at Gundlach Bundschu Winery

And now it seems like the unraveling has started too soon,
Now I’m sleeping in hallways and I’m drinking perfume
And I’m speaking to mirrors and I’m howling at moons
While the worse and the worse that it gets.

The only reason I’ve chosen that song and this quote, as it shouldn’t be hard to guess, was it mentioning perfume. Neither I share this song’s sentiment in my day-to-day life, nor it felt like that in the warmth of the October night on the winery courtyard while we were dancing to the music of Dawes and drinking… no, not perfume but a very nice Gundlach Bundschu Pinot Noir. We even got a couple of rain drops, which I tried to pitch to my vSO as a promise of an upcoming less dry winter – just to make him feel [even] better. I don’t think he bought it. But we both enjoyed the show and it was he who brought that perfume line to my attention (live rock performance isn’t the best way to listen to a song for the first time).

I like this acoustic performance of the song When My Time Comes much more – it’s more comprehensible.

Perfume for the night – Jo Malone Saffron. For an outdoor concert I could easily get away with a bolder choice but I had to be mindful of a friend who thinks she has issues with perfumes. So I dabbed just a little of it on my wrist. It was pleasant and didn’t clash with anything (or anybody). But I would definitely prefer it sprayed. With abandon.

Image: my own

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Perfumes of my Maui Vacation

In the Maui Vacation: Perfumes, Flora & Fauna, Food and Perfumes post (if you were wondering that double “perfume” in there wasn’t an oversight) I asked you to guess how many perfumes accompanied me on my vacation.

“… I don’t think you’d bring 13.” (Asali)

“… you were there for a week and wanted to have at least 2 choices per day” (Suzanne)

Had I been thinking about numbers I could have chosen 13 since I like the number. Or 14 – a reasonable idea of a couple of fragrances per day. But, believe it or not, I (!) wasn’t counting.

“I can’t imagine having more perfumes than 5 that would go well with a tropical vacation.” (Nemo)

I actually had to leave behind several perfumes that I thought might also be nice in tropical climate because, even without counting, it felt like I was going slightly overboard. But I didn’t fully realize that until I was trying to take a picture of everything I brought with me: I could hardly place them all in one shot. My final clue was the fact that not a single person’s guess surpassed the reality.

But the winner of the game Sigrun, who guessed 18, was very close (Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! All those fours and sevens were unnerving): for the eight-day trip I packed 21 (twenty one) perfumes. Twenty if not to count one that was my vSO’s. I don’t mean that it was the only one that he wore but Hermes Rocabar is just his, I never wear it myself; several others were shared perfumes so I cannot use it as an excuse.

If you’re curious, here’s the list: Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess; Atelier Cologne Cedrat Enivrant, Oolang Infini and Orange Sanguine; By Kilian Bamboo Harmony, Forbidden Games, Imperial Tea, In the City of Sin, Playing with the Devil, Sacred Wood and Water Calligraphy; Byredo Pulp; Diptyque Volutes; Hermes Rocabar and Voyage d’Hermes; L’Artisan Parfumeur Traversee du Bosphore; Neela Vermeire Creations Bombay Bling!; Ormonde Jayne Frangipani and Tiare; Parfums DelRae Bois de Paradis and Yosh Ginger Ciao.

Maui 2014 Parfumes

Even with two swims and two showers per day I didn’t get to wear all of these but I’m glad I had a choice because I couldn’t have predicted which ones would feel right. Names in blue above are perfumes I ended up wearing. I won’t write about all of them but will share several impressions.

Bronze Goddess from the fridge was the best perfume application experience ever!

Ginger Ciao worked great even in the heat of the day (if you are not familiar with this perfume please read Birgit’s (Olfactoria’s Travels) review: even though I discovered it first I wouldn’t have thought about it in the context of a tropical vacation if it wasn’t for her).

Tiare – a perfume that earned its place in my suitcase for all upcoming tropical vacations – was just beautiful at night. What else smelled wonderful in the warmth of Maui night was Eau Duelle by Diptyque on my friend. It was my birthday gift to her last year and I was pleased that she liked it. If I ever go to Hawaii without her I’ll bring this perfume with me.

Bombay Bling! was great but I confirmed my last year’s observation that in hot weather it’s too short-lived on my skin. Oh well, I’ll “have” to wear it at home.

I don’t think I can tolerate Pulp‘s rotten fruits anywhere but in Hawaii where it felt just right – so it was a good decision to buy just a decant after I enjoyed wearing it from a sample during the previous trip. And after this trip I contemplate adding one more perfume to my collection – Bois de Paradis. I used a small dab sample (thank you, Renee!) during the flight to and from Maui: I thought both the name and the scent were very fitting. Roth DelRae mentioned recently on Twitter that she was thinking about travel size bottle for her perfumes. Hopefully they’ll have them by my next vacation.

Speaking of the flights and new perfumes. I’ve received the perfume oil that I liked on a flight attendant on the way to Maui. I’ll test it for a while and decide if I want to tell you more about it. Meanwhile the second bottle of it will travel to a winner of the guessing game Sigrun in Sweden and a sample from my bottle will find its way to Vanessa in the U.K. (because she named the magical number that corresponded to the number of perfumes I actually wore).

And just to come full circle on the topic of perfumes for that vacation, I want to mention that a flight attendant on the way back smelled “meh” (she wore a very sweet and artificial vanilla scent that reminded me of Pink Sugar).

 

Image: my own

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Entertaining Statistics: September 2014

September was warm and pleasant. We even had several light rains, a couple of which I missed while I was in Maui (if you haven’t done it yet, you still have time to play a guessing game I started in that post). Rains didn’t make a dent in our drought situation but still it was nice to sleep with the rain drumming on the roof.

For this month’s statistics in Make Way for hajusuuri – Perfume Shopping in Boston post I asked a question:

Which city in the World is your mecca for perfume shopping: not sniffing, testing or getting to know brands and their offerings but actually buying perfumes – based on your previous experience?

Twenty four (24) people answered the question (thank you, everybody!) and named 13 cities. I grouped all participants in three regions – U.S., Europe and Other. 67% of people (16) didn’t have to take a long pilgrimage to their perfume mecca: they named a city from the region where they live.

Stats September 2014

I don’t think it’ll surprise anybody that Paris got the most votes (7). New York got silver (4 votes), which was also expected. What I didn’t expect was San Francisco taking the third spot (3 votes) leaving behind Los Angeles (1.5 votes), London, Las Vegas, Cancun, Chicago, Dubai, Hamburg, Houston and Warsaw, each of which got just one vote and Bruchsal with a half vote.

Stats September 2014

I checked Perfume Shopping around the World page and discovered that less than half of the cities that made the list of the best perfume shopping for the respondents have a blog story written by a perfumista. Of course Your Perfume Guide online catalog referenced from that page has lists of stores and boutiques in most of those cities but it misses a personal touch of somebody who loves perfumes. So I urge you to write a shopping guide for your mecca, post it on your blog (or you’re welcome to do a guest post on mine if you do not have a blog) and send me a link to it.

And finally, we have a winner for the draw of the 3 ml decant of My Inner Island Vaniglia Sopraffina e Rhum AND 3 other vanilla-based perfumes from hajusuuri’s collection:

Shopping in Boston Draw Results

Nancysg, send your shipping address to hajusuuri at gmail. If a prize isn’t claimed until 11:59 PM on October 10, 2014, hajussuri reserves the right to randomly select another winner.

Images: kind of my own (I used as elements free pictures from http://www.clker.com and http://yoursourceisopen.com)

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Maui Vacation: Perfumes, Flora & Fauna, Food and Perfumes

“What perfume are you wearing? It smells great!” – I asked a flight attendant on my way to Maui. He seemed pleased by the question and told me that it was a custom blend made for him “by this great lady from Oakland.” He also told me that it was a very potent and tenacious perfume oil (“because it’s all-natural, you know“) that required only a tiny drop of it (he wore it on the neck below the collar line) to last for many hours – to that I can attest: I kept smelling it every time he would walk by. Later he brought me a note with the perfumer’s name and phone number. The scent was beautiful amber – completely wrong for Hawaii but perfect for the chilly flight.

We landed and the summery tropical atmosphere took my mind off ambers and fall on the calendar. As we were driving to the resort where we rented a condo, my vSO drew my attention to the words on a dashboard of our car and asked if I thought it was a sign.

Seek Cat

We followed the instructions but this time (unlike the previous Hawaiian vacation) our residence didn’t come with a ginger cat and the only feline we encountered during our vacation was scrawny black cat hunting a lizard.

 

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Choosing the right time to go to Hawaii is always a balancing game for me: I love swimming in warm ocean so if we go too late it might start cooling off (back to the temperature that most other people consider good for swimming) but if we go while water is still perfect by my standards, the weather is too hot for anything else but swimming in mornings and evenings. Last year I didn’t get to swim as much as I wanted to so this year we decided to err on the side of caution. We succeeded so to speak: we went a week earlier than we usually do; water was great but hot humidity kept us inside most of the time that we didn’t spend swimming or snorkeling. I still can’t complain: we’ve got to read, watch some shows from Netflix and just relax. And a view from our condo was very picturesque.

Maui 2014 Kaanapali Alii

Maui is my favorite island: its flora is more tropical than volcanic Big Island’s but at the same time it’s more developed than Kauai. The downside of the larger tourist population is a much poorer selection of tropical fruit at the local markets. But don’t worry: we didn’t go hungry. Or thirsty.

 

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Even though we didn’t move around the island much we got enough of the true Hawaiian flavor – tropical plants and fish, ocean sunsets, tropical penguins… Yeah, I also had to do a double take when I saw them first at Hyatt’s lobby pond. But they didn’t look psychotic so after some deliberation we decided not to look further for zebra, lion and hippo.

 

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Usually when I travel I do not take any perfume bottles bigger than 10 ml. But I make an exception for my vacations in Hawaii: I always bring my 50 ml bottle of Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess. It has previously traveled with me to Big Island and Kauai and this year it came to Maui. I think I gave a hotel maid a good story about “those crazy tourists” by putting the bottle in the fridge (I noticed that the box was rotated after her visit so she was clearly surprised to see it there). It felt extremely pleasant and refreshing to spray it all over my body after taking a shower.

 

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I hope you didn’t think that I brought just one perfume for the whole week on Maui. It was a single full bottle. But in addition to that I packed some travel bottles, decants and samples. As I usually do for vacations, I didn’t bring any new scents for testing – just those that I previously wore or at least tested and thought they would be nice on a tropical island.

Do you want to know how many perfumes I had with me on Maui this year? Take a guess in your comment (without reading responses from others). As a prize for the closest guess without going over I offer a small bottle of the custom blended oil perfume, with the story of discovering which I started this post. After coming back from the trip I contacted the perfumer who makes it and we’re trying to work out the ordering process (it is a very small company). I don’t have it yet so I have no idea if I like it on my skin but I thought that the story itself and the joy of smelling it during the flight were worth ordering two bottles – one for me and one as a prize for this guessing game. If there is more than one right answer I’ll let Rusty to pick a winner. The game is on until I publish the revealing post.

Maui 2014: Perfumes

 

Images: my own; new header is created from a gift picture I got from Asali (The Sounds of Scent) right after my first swim in the ocean. If you haven’t done it yet, check out her blog for wonderful illustrations to her evocative perfume reviews.

 

A reminder: you still have until 11:59PM PST on September 29, 2014 to enter into the draw and/or participate in the poll for this month’s statistics in hajusuuri’s guest post Make Way for hajusuuri – Perfume Shopping in Boston

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Make Way for hajusuuri – Perfume Shopping in Boston

The title for this post was inspired by the Make Way for Ducklings bronze sculpture at the Boston Public Garden. The sculpture by Nancy Schön was installed in 1987 to honor Robert McCloskey and his most popular book, “Make Way for Ducklings”. In the book, Mr. & Mrs. Mallard were looking for a place to start a family, flying over Boston and landing in a few places that did not meet their approval until they reached an island in the Charles River. After the ducklings hatched and had time to learn to be ducks, the family decided to take a field trip to the Boston Public Garden and along the way, policemen had to stop traffic to allow the family to cross safely. Make way for hajusuuri as I take you perfume shop hopping in Boston’s Back Bay and North End neighborhoods. By sheer coincidence, an “Island” met my approval. Read on!

Make Way For Ducklings

I went to Boston several days before embarking on a cruise1. Although I had visited Boston previously on vacation and on business trips, they were before I became a perfumista. This time around, I paid more attention to places that sold perfumes. I was particularly motivated to seek out samples to participate in the Now Smell This Scent of the Day Friday Community Project. The highlight of my Boston visit was a meet-up with fellow perfumista Patricia, a contributing writer at Bois de Jasmin and with whom I had often swapped perfumes.

I stayed at the Westin at Copley Square, right at the heart of Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood and within a short walking distance from the Back Bay Station. I took the train into Boston from New Jersey and I have to say that despite it taking 5 hours end-to-end, it was more pleasant than flying and all its security preambles and cramped seats. The hotel is connected via sky bridge to Copley Place (100 Huntington Ave.), an upscale mall featuring Neiman Marcus and Barneys. At Neiman Marcus, I only stopped by the men’s perfume section where Francis Kurkdjian, Tom Ford and Acqua Di Parma perfumes were prominently displayed. The Barneys perfume section was tiny as compared with the store in New York; however, it does have those Frederic Malle smelling tubes where you can experience how the perfume projects around you. On a rainy day, Copley Place is an ideal place to browse around.

Newbury Street, near the Boston Public Garden, is one of the best-known retail shopping destinations in Boston. When my sister and I visited many years ago, we stumbled upon Essence Studio, a perfumery that sold custom-blended perfumes and essential oils, but which had since closed and moved to Colorado. These days, although there are still many art galleries and designer boutiques, the national chains have crept in and the shops I visited also have locations in other cities:

Chanel (8 Newbury St.)– Color me surprised when I saw testers for Les Exclusifs Parfum Extrait Chanel 1932 and Jersey! The SA was attentive and willingly gave out samples of the Les Exclusifs. Per the SA, Chanel allowed 6 boutiques in the U.S. to make 2 extraits available for testing although she did not know which other locations had the testers. I’m so impressed with this Chanel boutique that if ever I have a “need” to purchase any Chanel item, I will order through this Boston location.

Cartier (40 Newbury St.) – This Cartier location looked more posh than the one in New York. Unlike the New York boutique where the perfumes were tucked away in a corner, this location has the perfumes prominently displayed near the entrance, facing the cashier; however, only two of the 13 Les Heures collection were available for testing.

Bluemercury (160 Newbury St.) – Bluemercury is a luxury beauty products and spa retail chain. The chain is frequently compared to Ulta and Space NK with their breadth of choices of higher-end branded beauty products. The SA generously gifted me with La Mer, ReVive and Jo Malone samples. I should note that I was initially reluctant to walk in because my experience at a Bluemercury in New Jersey was quite opposite – despite having bought perfume, the SA refused to give me any samples; I’m glad I went in to this Bluemercury and my view of Bluemercury improved.

Other Shops in the Back Bay neighborhood near the Boston Public Garden:

Hermes (320 Boylston St.) –Boylston St. borders the Boston Public Garden. As with other Hermes boutiques in the U.S. and in other countries, the service at this Hermes boutique was top-notch. I happily left with a handful of samples.

Blackstone’s of Beacon Hill (46 Charles St.) – This store beckoned to me with its display of collectibles, ornaments, bags, stationery and other gift items. It carries the Soap Paper Factory products including solid perfumes, candles, hand creams and bar soaps.

Officina189

Boston’s North End neighborhood is best known for its Italian-American flavor. I met Bois de Jasmin contributing writer, Patricia, for lunch at Gennaro’s (5 North Square), a quaint restaurant serving Italian soul food. After a sumptuous lunch, we walked to Officina 189 (189 North St.). From the outside, it looked like a second hand boutique, but upon walking in, we were met with an eclectic mix of jewelry, watches, leather bags, bicycles (bicycles? yes, bicycles, with brightly-colored frames), candles, body products and perfumes. The SA welcomed us warmly and helped us smell through the range of perfumes. Officina 189 carries only Italian-made products; the perfume brands available include: Acqua dell’Elbe, La Collina Toscana, My Inner Island and Nobile 1942. We left without purchasing anything – Patricia liked several perfumes but since she is in the area often, opted to take her time deciding; I, on the other hand, was itching to get one of the perfumes but was concerned I could not fit it into my luggage. We then walked off our meal with a stroll by the water and parted ways with a promise to continue enabling each other and other perfumistas.

Before walking back to Back Bay, I stopped in Mike’s Pastry Shop for people watching, Boston Cream Puff and coffee. When I got back to the hotel, my mind was still on one of the perfumes I smelled at Officina 189, so I weighed my luggage and determined that I do have room. I went back the next day and bought an Island that I approved – My Inner Island Vaniglia Sopraffina e Rhum.

Officina189

And now – a giveaway!

To continue her enabling ways, hajusuuri offers a 3 ml decant of My Inner Island Vaniglia Sopraffina e Rhum AND 3 other vanilla-based perfumes in her collection. This giveaway is open to everyone worldwide. To be entered answer the question below AND tell in what country you live. The giveaway is open until 11:59PM PST on September 29, 2014. The winner will be chosen via random.org and announced in a future post. Please note that neither Undina nor hajusuuri is responsible for replacing the decants if they were to get lost or damaged.

If you do not want to participate in the draw, there’s no need mentioning the country where you live but please answer the question below for Undina’s statistics post.

Which city in the World is your mecca for perfume shopping: not sniffing, testing or getting to know brands and their offerings but actually buying perfumes – based on your previous experience?

Images: hajusuuri

1 Holland America New England Cruise from Boston to Montreal, with stops in Bar Harbor (Maine), Nova Scotia (Halifax, Sydney and Prince Edward Island) and Quebec City.

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How many perfumistas does it take to …

… persuade me to go for a perfume? At least four.

I remember reading somewhere the announcement of the upcoming release of Rajasthan by Etro and either the author or somebody in comments was extremely excited about the bottle and was almost prepared to go for a blind buy. I shrugged: not only I didn’t know the brand (I’m not into fashion much) but I couldn’t see the bottle attraction either. One.

Then I read a rather negative review from Kevin (Now Smell This) and promptly forgot about Rajasthan: since I didn’t expect anything from it in the first place I wasn’t even disappointed. Two.

Last year Natalie (Another Perfume Blog) and I went to Barneys where I saw Rajasthan bottle for the first time. Something in the bottle spoke to me, I thought it was beautiful. I tried the perfume on skin and liked it. Natalie politely agreed that it was nice. I asked for a sample and got about a ml – everything that was left in the tester. I even tried to get them to sell me an empty bottle. I knew it wouldn’t happen: from what I’d heard, all perfume departments have strict policies about empty bottles. But it was a fun conversation with an offer to meet with the SA at dumpsters after hours. Three.

The sample lasted me for a couple of tests that confirmed that I liked Rujasthan. But it wasn’t enough to make a decision – so I waited.

Several months ago during Suzanne’s (Eiderdown Press) visit I tried Rujasthan at Barneys again. I still liked it. Suzanne politely agreed that it was nice. By that time I already loved the bottle but not enough to pay full price for the perfume. Four.

Three weeks later a perfect test bottle of Rajasthan was mine for half the price (eBay is very useful sometimes). Usually I do not buy testers: if I get a bottle, I want it to come with a box to store it in. But in this case it didn’t matter since the bottle isn’t transparent.

Etro Rajasthan

Etro has created a very pleasant day-wear perfume that represents neither scents of India nor even westerners’ stereotypes for them. Notes (via Fragrantica) include: lemon, pink pepper, portulaca, mimosa, rose, black currant leaves, black locust, amber, labdanum and white musk.

I’m not too good with dissecting perfumes so there are many notes, not detecting which wouldn’t surprise me much. But lemon is such a ubiquitous scent – how can it be that I don’t recognize it when I smell this perfume? Etro’s site in a poetic description of Rajasthan qualifies this note further – “winter lemon.” As I tried to find any explanation of what was that mysterious variety of lemon and how it was different from a regular lemon (I failed), I came across earlier announcements of the upcoming Rajasthan release and they all, as well as some reviews from that time, mentioned “winter lemon flower” note. I assume it was either a part of the official press release or something found in translation. It would explain the absence of the recognizable citrus smell – but then why did Etro remove it? And if lemon is not there, how could others detect it in the composition? My nose must be off.

What I can smell is a sweet (but not too much – for my nose) and powdery light amber scent with enough spices to keep it from being perfectly polite. I cannot smell rose – or any other flower – though I can imagine that the sweetness I smell is coming from mimosa (or its rendition). Rajasthan loses projection within three hours mark but stays as a skin scent for over 10 hours (white musk, I assume). I do not love it but I enjoy wearing it from time to time. And did I mention how much I like the bottle? But only after it joined my collection I realized that I’ve liked that color scheme long before I saw Rajasthan bottle: look at the picture of one of my favorite necklaces I wore for the last five years.

Chico Necklace

Image: my own.

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In the Search for the Perfect Fig, Take 2

Three years ago I published the first Single Note Exploration post about fig note in perfumes and learned from comments that it wasn’t actually fig fruit that had a scent reproduced in perfumery but fig twigs and leaves. Since then I assaulted a couple of fig trees and can confirm: those twigs are very fragrant. Did you know the source of the scent?

Fig

Recently I learned another fascinating fact about figs. It started as a chat with a co-worker about fruits. I mentioned that I liked to eat figs. She looked at me with disbelief and asked with a faint trace of repulsion:

– You do know that those crunchy things inside are wasp eggs?
– ???
– You know, those seeds inside figs are not just seeds – they are eggs that wasps lay inside figs.

I’d never heard anything about that before so I didn’t believe her and went to consult a trusted source – Internet. What I found enthralled me. If you are familiar with the subject skip a couple of paragraphs – there will be a perfume-related bit in the end. For those who – same as I – somehow missed that and doesn’t want to do a full investigation, here’s a short* version.

A mature female wasp crawls through the opening into a fig where she deposits both her eggs and pollen she picked up from her original host fig. Since on her way in, having to force her way through a very tight opening, she loses her wings and antennae, after completing the mission the wasp dies. Eggs hatch, develop into larvae and then mature. Mature male wasp, which doesn’t have wings, mates with a female wasp and then digs a tunnel out of the fig through which the females escape. Once outside a fig a male wasp dies and a female flies to another tree, where she’ll pollinate another fig on her way in. The cycle repeats.

Fig

Now, when I know all that, will I stop eating figs? Nope. The only thing that bothers me in all that is that I’ve never heard about it before. Of course, figs weren’t widely available where I grew up but neither was salmon – and still we learned at school about them moving upstream to spawn and die. And we all heard about sexual cannibalism of mantises. But nothing about fig wasps.

Even though from the set of perfumes I tested for the first post I already had two favorite fig perfumes – Fig Tree by Sonoma Scent Studio and Wild Fig & Cassis by Jo Malone, since I like the note, I kept testing fig-centric perfumes and found several worth mentioning.

There are two nice budget choices for those who would like to wear a fig scent a couple of times in summer but doesn’t want to invest much into it: Mediterranean Fig by Pacifica (read Victoria’s (Bois de Jasmin) review here) and Fig Leaf & Sage by Kiehl’s (Ayala (Smelly Blog) reviews it in the post on sage note).

I’m on the fence about Premier Figuier Extrême by L’Artisan Parfumeur. It is a very nice, and said to be the very first, fig-centric perfume. But, like many other perfumes from the brand, it’s not tenacious enough to justify a full price purchase. Luckily, it’s not that hard to find a better deal for it (~$115/100 ml) online. And it’s one of those perfumes 100 ml of which might not be too much: even though it’s marked as eau de parfum concentration it wears as eau de toilette. Since I have a soft spot for interesting bottles, I couldn’t resist a fig-shaped Special Edition bottle. For reviews read: Victoria’s (Bois de Jasmin) post and Portia’s (Australian Perfume Junkies) guest post on Perfume Posse.

L'Artisan Premier Figuier

Finally, I did get to test a perfume, lemmings for which were created by a very persuasive review from Gaia (The Non-Blonde) – Figuier Eden by Armani Privé. I like-like-like it! But I’m not paying the price: not because Figuer Eden isn’t good enough but I don’t think there can be any fig perfume that can justify that price.

– Did you know that wasps lay eggs in figs – I asked my vSO when I got home the day of the conversation with my co-worker.
– ???

He didn’t believe me…

Images: my own

* The detailed picture is even more complex and covers fig trees/flowers’ gender, not pollinating wasps and much more. You can start from this Wiki page and then follow links.

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Entertaining Statistics: August 2014

Seeing off the last summer month, I want to say that I enjoyed the weather: it was slightly warmer than our last couple of cold summers but still not scorching hot – which was just perfect for our ongoing drought. What was unusual for this summer was an unexpected high humidity. It was a long-forgotten feeling of the sticky warm air right before the storm. With the only difference that storm had never come: we don’t get rains in summer. Though I’ve heard there was drizzle in some areas.

Despite (or maybe because of?) mild temperatures AC in the office was adamant to keep us cold and I was blaming the persistent cough I had for almost a month on that – until I re-read my statistics post from two years ago, in which I mentioned having persistent cough that August. Now I need to investigate what allergens might be responsible for that in our area. I don’t know how entertaining these posts are for you but they proved to be very useful for me.

For this month’s statistics post I asked my readers here and random participants on Facebook Fragrance Friends group a theoretical question – To Wear or Not to Wear?  The rules of engagement were: provided you could take on a three-month trip and use just one perfume from your collection that you once liked but do not wear any more, would you do that or rather not wear any perfume at all during that period?

The results were interesting: first of all, I got almost the same number of responses to the poll here (20, including my vote) and on FB post (21 votes – out of 5K members in that group). The next curious observation: votes split very differently in these two groups. While commenters in my blog divided almost evenly – 55% (11 votes) chose “Not to Wear” vs 45% (9 votes) voted “To Wear”; respondents in the FB group were more uncompromising – more than 90% (19 votes) chose not to wear anything rather than going for an old flame. I wonder what the roots of such discrepancy are.

August 2014 Stats

How did I vote? Every time when I have to create a list or answer one of these questions, I take it very seriously – as if somebody will hold me to the answer. So I went through my perfume database “trying on” each of the perfumes (I looked only at bottles). If not to take into account those that turned and stay in my collection for the bottle or sentimental reasons, there is not a single perfume that I dislike. Some of them wouldn’t be my first choice but still I would gladly wear any of them before I skip perfume altogether since it’s a vital part of my day-to-day life. Though, I must admit, as Sabina said in her comment, it would be difficult for me to wear just one perfume for three months even if I loved it. So I hope not to find myself in this type of situation. Ever.

 

Image: my own

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To Wear or Not to Wear?

It all started with me thinking on Joshua’s (The Smelly Vagabond) question: What perfumes would you bring along with you if you had to live abroad for a year? He limited himself with decants of 10 perfumes and articulated well his criteria for making that type of selection. Then in one of the perfume-related Facebook’s groups I read another question: Is there a fragrance that you couldn’t live without, in your younger day but will never wear today? These questions together shaped the direction of my thinking.

Rusty and Vials

This summer was emotionally difficult for me and for a while I didn’t pay too much attention to my perfumes choices: I would go with my usual ritual of looking through the cabinet to decide which perfume I haven’t worn in a while, think of how appropriate it would be for the occasion, weather and sometimes my outfit – and then put it on. But since I’m recording each of the applications in my perfume database, over time I realized that I seemed to enjoy my choices less than I used to in the past. For a while this realization kept me from using my most favorite perfumes out of fear to be disappointed. But life went on and I stopped limiting my choices by the “expendable” perfumes only.

What I noticed looking at the records later, I had no change of heart about perfumes that I loved but I changed my mind mostly about perfumes with which I had more intellectual relationships. I didn’t dislike any of them but I didn’t enjoy them the way I did before.

Choosing perfumes for a remote location I would have to follow my heart because any well-balanced and smartly put together list might go right out of the window with the first challenge – and then I would end up spending time with perfumes I respect but do not love. Would I still want to wear them? Would you?

Think of a perfume in your collection that you bought because you persuaded yourself that you should have it or the one that you used to like but somehow never come around wearing any more. Now imagine that you’re packing for a three-month trip where you will not have access to any perfumes. You have a choice: to go completely scent-free for the duration of the trip or to take that perfume you do not love any more but then you’ll have to use it following your regular pattern.

Wilted Rose

Would you go commando perfume-wise rather than wearing perfume you do not like any longer for three months straight?

 

Image: my own