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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

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A Fairy Tale Ending, Perfumista-style

When was the last time you cried because of perfume? I did two days ago. It wasn’t exactly because of perfume but closely related to it.

In the post Memories, Dreams, Reflections…  I told a story about one of my earliest perfume memories and how I never got to smell that perfume even though I remembered it for all these years.

Daisy (coolcookstyle) promptly found this item on eBay and sent me a link. I checked it out but being my usual spontaneous self (not!) I decided to think about it (“Who else would buy it until the end of the work day?” I thought). And by the time I went to look at it again it was gone. I was a little angry at myself: this perfume (well, its box) had such a meaning for me – why didn’t I snatch it when I could?! But I told myself that sooner or later another one will appear on eBay.

When I got a box from Daisy I was surprised: I couldn’t remember us discussing recently any swaps and I was positive it couldn’t have been her award-winning Mango-Lime-Tequila Sorbet  – even though I expressed the desire to be a Guinea pig if she ever needed one. The box contained another box and a card that read:

Surprise!
Much love + hugs
from
Daisy & Hajusuuri

The smaller box had a carefully packed and sent all the way from Ukraine a bottle of Zolushka in a double-walled box that mesmerized me when I was 5. I couldn’t help crying – so touched I was with that act of kindness and friendship from Daisy and Hajusuuri.

Rusty and Zolushka

Rusty tries out as Cinderella (Zolushka) in the picture

The box looks exactly how I remembered it – just smaller, which is understandable: I was little when I saw it last. Many things in childhood seemed larger than I see them now. If you look inside the mirror you can see the skirt of the dress but there are no legs so for all I know there still might be a mermaid tail somewhere in there. As to the scent – it smells like an old perfume from my childhood (not this specific one since I’d never tried it but a recognizable scent from that epoch). I won’t be wearing it but the box will join my collection on the shelf where I can see it every time I go for any other bottle.

I want to say “Thank you!” to Daisy and Hajusuuri, as well as to Vanessa, Natalie, Lucas, Kafka, Portia and my RL friends who supported me when I needed it. Thank you.

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In the Search for the Perfect Black Currant: P.S.

Do you read beauty blogs? I follow a couple of “mixed media” blogs (perfume + make-up) but compared to the amount of perfume-related sites I frequent you might say I don’t read them at all. Though maybe I should? Sometimes they prove to be very useful. But I’m running ahead of myself.

Last year while perfume shopping sniffing at Barney’s with Natalie (Another Perfume Blog), we stopped at a Lipstick Queen counter: I wanted to show her the Hello Sailor lipstick I featured in the In the Search for the Perfect Blackberry: P.S. post. I also secretly hoped to find Black Tie Optional gloss. Instead my attention was captured by their Chinatown glossy lip pencil in the shade Mystery.

Lipstick Queen Chinatown Mistery

My wallet was on its way out of the purse when Natalie stopped me and explained that for the money ($18 at the time) all I was getting was what you can see on the picture above. We spent some time trying to figure out if it had some hidden turning mechanism or something like that. Nope. It was a solid plastic tube with a relatively large but still not-enough-for-the-price gloss tip.

It was a reasonable thing to do so we left Barneys empty-handed though on the perfume side it was totally their fault: if I remember it correctly, they were out of either a size or a perfume Natalie wanted.

Months later, by mere chance, at Tinsel Creation I stumbled upon a review of another shade of that Chinatown lip pencil in which Jessica not only praised the quality of the gloss, but explained how good was the sharpener that came with the pencil.

The next time I happened to be at Barneys I re-confirmed with an SA that I could actually sharpen the pencil – and it went home with me.

Lipstick Queen Mistery, Hello Salor and Laura Mercier Black Orchid Swatches

With all other lipsticks I have in similar shades did I really need that lip gloss? You know the answer. Does it look like black currant? The tip of the pencil reminds a slightly unripe berry. On lips it’s a shimmering berry tint. But I enjoy how smoothly it glides, how easy it is to apply and how nice it looks on my lips. So I’m glad I read that post on a beauty blog.

Can you recommend any beauty blog that you follow and like?

Images: my own

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In the Search for the Perfect Berry: Black Currant

As a child I spent summers at my grandparents’ house. When I wasn’t playing with my summer friends* or hiding from the heat in the house, I would be reading in the garden’s summerhouse.

As many children do, every year I would re-read some of my favorite books. One of such books was a collection of Polish fairy tales. Fern Flower (Kwiat paproci) by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski was the first story in the book so I probably read it every time before I would get bored and start skipping stories.

Book Tam Gde Visla Reka

It’s a grim story about a young guy who got obsessed with finding a fern flower that, according to Slavic mythology, blooms once a year deep in the forest on the Kupala Night (around Summer solstice) and promises great wealth and granting any wishes to whoever finds it. He attempts it three times. Every year he goes into the forest next to the village where he lives. And every year he doesn’t recognize the forest that he knows well – it is darker and scarier than usually and plays tricks on him: trees are taller, bushes are thicker; he hears strange noises and sees things. Twice he almost gets the illusive flower but it disappeared at the first light of dawn. The third time he succeeds but here comes the fine print: he cannot share his luck with anybody. He abandons his family and leads a life of luxury but it doesn’t bring him joy. He’s torn between keeping his wealth and helping his family but by the time he decides to come back it’s too late: his parents and siblings are dead from the poverty, he wishes to die as well and disappears from the face of the Earth with the flower that all these years was rooted in his heart. Curtains down.

Mysterious forest with pine trees around which you go forever just to see that they are not that huge once you pass them and unexpected deep marshes that disappear once you get through – is what I always imagine when I think of enchanted forest. Nowhere in that mental picture can I find black currant: probably because that berry doesn’t grow in the forest – enchanted or otherwise. Wild strawberry, raspberry – yes, I can easily imagine those but not black currant.

And still Enchanted Forest by Vagabond Prince makes total sense to me: there were three black currant shrubs next to that summerhouse in which I read and re-read Fern Flower year after year. So the smell of black currant leaves (I always liked it) and berries (I wasn’t a big fan of those as a child) somehow weaves in my mind with that fairytale image of an enchanted forest, Kupala Night and magic.

Redwood

Enchanted Forest created by Bertrand Duchaufour for Vagabond Prince in 2012 includes notes of pink pepper, aldehydes, sweet orange (traces), flower cassis, blackcurrant leaf, hawthorn, effects of rum and wine, rosemary, davana, blackcurrant buds absolute (by LMR from Grasse), CO2 blackcurrant (by Floral Concept from Grasse), Russian coriander seed, honeysuckle, rose, carnation, vetiver, opoponax resinoid, Siam benzoin, amber, oakmoss, fir balsam absolute, Patchouli Purecoeur®, castoreum absolute, cedar notes, vanilla and musk. If you haven’t smelled it yet and want a real review, here Kafka does a great job describing the scent – even though she doesn’t really enjoy it on her skin. Me? I love this perfume! The tartness and juiciness of the black currant and fir opening, the warmth and smokiness of the amber and incense resinous development – I enjoy them immensely. The drydown reminds me of one of my winter rituals – drinking Peet‘s Black Currant black tea with honey. Add to this picture a Christmas tree or pour the tea into a thermos and go to a close-by redwood forest – and you’ll get a perfect gustatory illustration of Enchanted Forest.

Black Currant tea and Honey

I urge you to try both – the perfume and the tea+honey combination: I think they both are very interesting, unusual and, if it’s your cup of tea (take it figuratively or literally, as you wish), very enjoyable. But even though I like both, I can’t drink that tea all the time and I can’t imagine wearing Enchanted Forest daily.

I used up a couple of free samples I got. I swapped for another sample that I’m using now and I paid for a small decant. I would buy a 30 ml or maybe even a 50 ml bottle of Enchanted Forest in a heartbeat – I like it that much and the bottle itself is quite appealing. But there is no way I’ll buy 100 ml of this perfume. And I still can’t believe that founders of Fragrantica (out of all people!) thought it was a good idea to launch this perfume in a single size – 100 ml.

 

* I’ve never seen them during the school year since my grandparents lived 8-hours bus ride away from us.

 

Previous posts in the series In the Search for the Perfect Berry: Strawberries and Blackberry. Also see other posts in the Single Note Exploration category.

 

Images: book – found somewhere; the rest – my own.

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Entertaining Statistics: July 2014

The longer you are involved with perfumes as a hobby, the more perfumes you get to test and own, the harder it gets to be excited by a random positive review for a perfume – either a new release or the one you just haven’t tried before.

When it’s a review from a person I know (or “know”) I might get a lemming, especially when I know from the past experience that our tastes have enough intersections. But even if our tastes differ, I would have a hard time ignoring let’s say a 5-bone rating from Steve (The Scented Hound) or Birgit’s (Olfactoria’s Travels) “acute perfume fidelity syndrome“.

If the same person – regardless of the tastes mapping between us – tells a story of a sudden love and a bottle joining their collection, those perfumes attract even stronger attention: if a fellow-perfumista splurges on a full bottle of some perfume, it must be good – right?

But the highest recommendation and the strongest interest, at least for me, comes from those “Top X” lists. Think about it: somebody who has tried as many perfumes as you have, considers some perfumes best of the best – how can I not to be curious about those perfumes?

With these thoughts I ran some numbers based on one of Olfactoria’s Travels’ Monday Question posts – Your Top Five Part V: Perfumes.

Birgit asked: “What are your Top Five Favorite Perfumes?” Forty people replied to the question naming 141 perfumes from 59 brands. No real surprises from the top 10 brands: most of them usually make it to these types of lists:

10 Most Popular Brands OT May 2014

The most popular perfume was also an easily predictable choice – Guerlain Shalimar. 6 people named it among their top 5 perfumes. What did surprise me was that Chanel No 5 wasn’t mentioned even once. Ormonde Jayne Woman got the second place with 4 votes. The next ten perfumes were named three times each: Amouage Lyric, Chanel 31 Rue Cambon, Frederic Malle Carnal Flower and Portrait of a Lady, Guerlain Vol de Nuit, L’Artisan Parfumeur Traversee du Bosphore, Mona di Orio Vanille, Neela Vermeire Creations Mohur, Parfum MDCI Chypre Palatin and Vero Profumo Mito.

One more number that was unexpected for me: I’ve never tried 30 (thirty!) of the perfumes that others named as their top 5 favorites:

Brand Name
Badgley Mischka Badgley Mischka
Bal a Versailles Bal a Versailles
Dana Tabu
Dior Cuir Cannage
Dior Eau Sauvage
EldO Fils de Dieu
Gianfranco Ferre Ferre
Guerlain Habit Rouge
Guerlain Quand vient la pluie
Guerlain Vetiver
Guerlain Vetiver pour elle
Heeley Iris de Nuit
Jean-Louis Scherrer Scherrer 2
Kenzo Oriental Flower
Laboratorio Olfattivo Nirmal
L’Artisan Al Oudh
Maria Candida Gentile Cinabre
Nabucco Amytis
Parfum MDCI Rivage des Syrtes
Patricia de Nicolai Musc Intense
Profumi del Forte Roma Imperiale
Ramon Monegal Very Private
Roberto Cavalli Oro
Roja Dove Amber Aoud
Roja Dove Danger
Roja Dove Unspoken
Stéphane Humbert Lucas 777 Khôl de Bahreïn
The Party The Party in Manhattan
Vero Profumo Mito Voile d’Extrait
Vero Profumo Onda Voiles d’Extrait

 

I know that tastes are very different, so I expect others to like many perfumes for which I do not care. But the fact that I haven’t even tried so many perfumes others love amazes me. How many of these are you familiar with? If you were to recommend me to try just one out of these 30, which perfume would it be?

 

Image: my own

by

Everything Is Relative

He didn’t feel comfortable. Not comfortable at all. He had never bought anything from that type of stores before. But it was her birthday. So he sighed deeply end entered.

“Hello Mr. Stone! Or do you prefer Tom?” a bright-eyed, professionally exuberant shopping assistant smiled at him.

Some of his friends though it was spiffy when kids addressed them by their first names so he went along with that but he could never understand the idea of complete strangers’ familiarity, “Mr. Stone is fine.”

“Mr. Stone, I’m Cindy; I will be your Scent Guide today. Are you looking for something new for yourself?”

“I need to buy a gift… A perfume…” he paused trying to collect the thoughts: everything he saw looked a little strange and not the way he remembered or expected.

“Would you like to try the newest flavor from PepsiCo?” she made a slight move towards the stand on her left.

“No-no, I don’t need the newest…” A couple of times when he brought her something a sales assistant persuaded him “everybody is crazy about”, she thanked him with a polite smile but later, as if without connection to anything, she would go on and on: “I don’t understand why they try to re-invent the wheel: my favorite perfume was just perfect – why did they have to discontinue it?!”

“Oh, I see, Mr. Stone,” the girl smiled understandingly. “Here, Blanc Noir is one of the best sellers for the last couple of years. It’s a truly unisex composition and it’s very popular with our customers.”

“Sorry, Cindy, I didn’t explain it right… I’m looking for the special perfume. I need…” he chuckled apologetically. “Of course, now I can’t remember the name… Wait… I have it somewhere… somewhere… Right! Here it is.”

She looked at the name blankly and paused looking at the surface in front of her; then a flicker of recognition appeared in her eyes but was quickly replaced with almost disdain, “Oh, it’s an “old lady” perfume…” she burst out, then stopped herself and tried to recover, “I mean, nobody uses this one any more…”

“My mom is 70, so I think she would qualify,” he smiled for the first time.

“Of course, Mr. Stone. I’m sorry. Just a second, I’ll start your order,” she re-applied the cheerful smile to her lips. “What application form does your mother prefer? Do you want it as a drink, pill, food supplement or a patch?

“I need a perfume…” he felt as if they were speaking different languages.

“You mean, you want it in its historical form, in a bottle?” she tried very hard not to sound surprised.

“Yes, please!” he made an effort not to get annoyed telling himself that it was just a usual arrogance of youth.

“Here’s your order summary. Please check the price and your payment credentials. We scanned your biometric information at the beginning of the session but you know how those systems are sometimes…”

“Everything looks correct.”

“Great! We’re almost done,” her smile was shining exactly the way it was in the beginning of his visit. “Please make sure your 4-D printer is on. When ready, just say “Deliver!” or use OK gesture. I’ll stay online until your order is delivered.”

“Thank you, Cindy. You’ve been helpful.”

“Thank you for shopping with us, Mr. Stone! I hope to see you again soon.”

…

He fiddled with the bottle for a while: it looked very similar to those he saw on his mother’s dresser when he grew up. He didn’t remember the scent but hoped she would like it as much as the perfume the memory of which she loved.

V&R Bonbon

This fantasy came from my thinking on the topic after reading “old lady perfume” musings of one of the young(er) bloggers (yes, believe it or not, there are some people who consider themselves perfumistas and still use that term!) And though I’m still some years away from qualifying, for some reason it bothered me enough to create that story. It must be age-related.