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Entertaining Statistics: 2013 Year Round-up

 

There were no major developments in my life in 2013 and though there were some minor disappointments it was a good year for me overall. I got to smell linden in Kharkov, Vienna and Paris. I met Birgit (Olfactoria’s Travels), Sandra (guest writer at Olfactoria’s Travels), Vanessa (Bonkers About Perfume) and Natalie (Another Perfume Blog). I tried several new fruits during our Hawaiian vacation. And I had great winter holidays. So I’m thankful to 2013 but I’m ready for the new, hopefully rainier 2014.

Perfume-wise 2013 also wasn’t a bad year (numbers in parentheses are from 2012, for comparison).

 

Perfume Testing

Even though I haven’t tried many of the big new releases and out of those that I have tried I didn’t like many that made others’ “top 2013” lists but I did a lot of testing. I tested1 321 (356) perfumes from 107 (114) brands on 461 (572) occasions. Many of these perfumes weren’t new and of some I own a bottle or a decant but I might have done a parallel testing with some new perfume or for my Single Note Exploration posts. But there were 185 (245) perfumes that I’ve tried for the first time in 2013. The number of new perfumes2 I test declines every year but I think it happens not because of my diminished interest in testing new things but just because of time and skin RE limitations since I often re-visit those that I’ve previously tested.

New Perfumes Tested 2011 - 2013

 

Perfume Wearing

Once my collection (bottles and decants) got to the certain size I decided that I shouldn’t sacrifice my favorite perfumes for testing new ones – especially since I test mostly not for reviews. I wore3 perfumes from my collection almost every day: 142 (138) perfumes from 54 (50) brands on 355 (348) occasions.

Stats 2013 Brands Tested

Nine out of twelve brands I wore the most this year are the same as the last year. Guerlain got to the first place which is a little strange since I still don’t consider myself that brand’s fan.

I wear a different perfume every day and try to give all of my favorites at least some skin time so I do not use each perfume too often. In 2013 my top five (actually, seven since the last three got the equal attention) were: Keiko Mecheri Johana, Giorgio Armani  La Femme Bleue, Neela Vermeire Creations Bombay Bling!, Guerlain Encens Mythique d’Orient, Ormonde Jayne Ta’if, Diptyque Volutes and Yves Rocher Nature.

 

Perfume Statistics

During 2013 I did statistics posts on the perfumes bought by the launch year, dependency of my enjoyment of perfumes and a type of the bottle it came in, quarter to quarter perfume usage comparison, frequency of the same perfumes usage, perfumes by country of origin, reaction to perfumes dependent on weather conditions, perfume application spots, favorite fruits in perfumes, giving perfumes as gifts and spontaneity in perfumes acquisition. Many of this posts were based on answers from my readers – thank you!

 

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Will I find more angles of perfumes counting to keep up my Entertaining Statistics posts in 2014? I hope with your help I will.

 

Images: my own

 

1 For the testing I apply a perfume to one area on my arms easily available for the repetitive sniffing. But, most likely, I’m the only one who can smell it. I can test two, sometimes even more perfumes at the same time.

2 “New perfumes” refers to perfumes that I haven’t tried before, not the current year’s releases.

3 When I wear a perfume I apply it to at least three-four points and usually I plan to spend at least 4-8 hours with the same scent so I’m prepared to re-apply if the original application wears off.

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Orange Cats in My Life – Part IV: Those that have just broken the flower vase…

 

… all animals are divided into one of 14 categories:
– Those that belong to the emperor
– Embalmed ones
– Those that are trained
– Suckling pigs
– Mermaids (or Sirens)
– Fabulous ones
– Stray dogs
-Those that are included in this classification
– Those that tremble as if they were mad
– Innumerable ones
– Those drawn with a very fine camel hair brush
– Et cetera
– Those that have just broken the flower vase
– Those that, at a distance, resemble flies
J. L. Borges, Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge

I do not like kittens. It’s not that I have a dislike for them but I don’t get that well-studied feeling of cuteness overload when I see kittens in real life or on pictures. I love mature cats. So when a new management of the complex where we lived changed the rules allowing small pets, on our trip to the shelter we intended to offer our home to a 1-2 year old cat. The only other requirement I had at the time was that it had to be a male cat.

All cats we saw that day were either much older or females. But I think we looked like people who were seriously going to get a cat so shelter workers kept showing us all the cats they had there not paying attention to my insistent “young but adult male cat.” And then we saw Him.

Four months old, playful and not in the least shy kitten had no objections to us picking him up and petting. And he was white and orange and resembled a little our first cat (see Part I: Found and Lost). And even his name on the cage’s label – Rusty – was reminiscent of that first cat’s name Rizhik (not surprisingly since words used in both languages were intended to describe the exterior). We just couldn’t leave without him.

Rusty at 5 months

When we got home, I told Rusty another requirement I had in mind: I would not have a cat who doesn’t like to be petted or sit on my lap. I even threatened to take him back to the shelter if he decides to be too independent. Either he took the warning very seriously or we both just lucked out but whenever I sit down Rusty almost always comes to me.

“Medium hair orange tabby” it says in his official documents. Judging by his look and behavior there was a Maine Coon climbing Rusty’s family tree at some point. And nine out of every twelve months in the year I really want to invite the kind person who thought of that “medium hair” joke. Rusty’s hair is everywhere!

Medium hair orange tabby

Even though from the beginning we were feeding him cat food, he doesn’t discriminate: cat food, human food – food is food – and it never stays in his bowl for longer than 2-3 minutes. And he never stops foraging around hoping to find anything edible we left unattended. Rusty is so strongly food-motivated that he would do tricks for treats: “Sit“, “(another) Paw!“, “Down“, “Up“, “Jump“. Also we suspect that eating for him is a social interaction as well: both my vSO and I love fruits and Rusty also developed taste for some of them. He loves (as in actually tries to pry them from my hands) oranges, peaches and apricots.

Rusty and Orange

Before we got Rusty, my vSO and I had two favorite Dunoon mugs (different shapes but both with cats on them). For years, unless we had guests over, we would drink everything only from those mugs. While I managed to train Rusty in many areas (for example, not to wake us up in the morning) there are rules that he refuses to follow. Rusty knows that he’s not allowed to be on counters and tables but every time he hopes to find there something to eat or wants to annoy us because he thinks we’re withholding food beyond the allowed schedule, he keeps jumping to where he’s not  supposed to be and then plays “dead weight” when we try to remove him. My favorite mug has become a casualty in one of those battles. Since I couldn’t replace it (retired pattern) my vSO out of solidarity (and not to lose it as well, I guess) retired his mug into a cupboard.

Rusty and the Broken Mug

Same as my other favorite cat Garfield (see Part II: Grin without a Cat), Rusty doesn’t like spiders. He hunts them and eats them – if he can get to them and if they are not too yucky. Otherwise he attracts our attention to them meowing loudly and gets a treat for each spider. Rusty also gets a treat for each “Awww…” (see Part III: Love from the First ‘Awww…’) or other expression of admiration from my readers for his appearances in my perfume pictures.

Since the age they told us when we adopted Rusty was approximate, we made a decision that he would be our “Christmas cat” and we celebrate his birthday on Christmas Eve. This year he turned five. As a birthday gift he got a new cat bed. I was afraid he wouldn’t like it and had an elaborate plan of pretending it was something I brought for myself to sit on… I didn’t get a chance to play it out: Rusty loved it immediately and he slept in it through almost the whole day.

Rusty in His New Bed

My vSO found a back-up for his mug under the Christmas tree so his favorite mug came back from the retirement. And this concludes the Orange Cats in My Life series. In January I will go back to my kind of perfume-related posts with Year 2013 Entertaining Statistics.

Happy New Year to all my friends and readers!

Happy New Year 2014

 

Images: my own

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The Scent of Music: Carol of the Bells

 

For the first time I heard this carol many years ago in the Victoria’s Secret‘s TV commercial for one of their perfumes – Dream Angels Heavenly. Since then they’ve used Carol of the Bells in several ads with nauseating texts on top so I’m avoiding those now. But that first one that featured only instrumental was magical. Back then I didn’t know what it was but I liked it immediately.

 


Music isn’t a part of my day-to-day life. A couple of headsets you’d find in my household are those that I use for Skype meetings and a noise cancellation travel headset, a birthday gift for my vSO from me. From time to time we listen to music – on long car trips or during parties – but I may go for weeks without playing a single song.

But for a month every year I become a music fan: on my work commute instead of talk shows or news I listen to the Bay Area Official Christmas Music Station. I love Christmas music and do not mind listening to numerous versions of The Little Drummer Boy again and again.

…

You know literary technique “his version of the story – her version of the story”? One of those in our family involves me remembering that my vSO stumbled across a Pink Martini CD while suffering through my shopping at Nordstrom. He insists that it was a more manly neutral location – at a Starbucks. Wherever it was, Pink Martini became one of our favorite groups. I bought all of their CDs. We went to five of their live shows. Some of their songs are original but I like them mostly for finding and performing songs from different parts of the world, in different languages and music genres.

Even though I’ve known for a while that Carol of the Bells was created by a Ukrainian composer based on a folk chant “Shchedryk” I haven’t heard the Ukrainian version of it until three years ago when I bought Joy to the World – a Christmas Music CD recorded by Pink Martini.

 


Are you still waiting for the scent part? Alright… While many perfumes bring out various memories and associations, the reverse approach rarely works for me: I always have a hard time scenting movie characters, colors or moods. Selecting the song was easy: I think Carol of the Bells is one of the most beautiful Christmas songs, it moves me every time I hear it. But when I tried to match that intense, slightly disquieting and unsettling music piece to any perfume in my collection I failed. And then I thought of a different type of fragrant product that I had in my collection probably from the time I heard Carol of the Bells in that commercial: a Shimmer Body Powder scented with another Victoria’s Secret’s perfume from the same Dream Angels collection – Halo.

 

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While giving a perfect long-lasting shimmer to skin, Halo powder has a very light scent of that perfume, which doesn’t interfere with wearing any perfume of my choice. And since there are not that many occasions for which sparkles on my skin are suitable (mostly I use it for winter holiday parties) my wand will last for many more years. And now every time I wear it, no matter which perfume I choose to complete my outfit, I will think of a beautiful Christmas carol that came from the same place as me and found here its new home and a new holiday to celebrate – as did I.


Merry Christmas and Happy Winter Holidays!

 

Read other song-scent pairings in The Scent of Music joint blogging event:

Jingle Bells

Lulajze Jezuniu

Winter Wonderland

O Come All Ye Faithful

In the Bleak Midwinter

Christmas Means Love

Christmas Time is Here

O Little Town

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In the Search for the Perfect Grapefruit

 

I think I was about ten years old when grapefruits first appeared in our grocery stores. Nobody knew exactly what they were but the rumor had it they were a hybrid of orange and lemon. Since beside those two the only other citrus known to the population was mandarin, the information didn’t seem all that absurd.

Masses hadn’t appreciated the novelty: even though it was bigger than an average orange it was too bitter. The idea to peel each wedge didn’t occur to people at first and once it did seemed like too much work.

Fruits were scarce and expensive and there were hardly any I didn’t like. So I liked grapefruits as well.

Rusty and Pomelos

Since then I’ve tried many more different varieties of citrus including grapefruit’s real parent pomelo but grapefruit is still one of my favorite fruits and I enjoy it in many forms.

 

Perfumes

This is a perfume blog so I’ll start with the perfume-related part (though for whatever reason – holidays? – my thoughts are all over the place). Grapefruit is a popular note in both supporting and leading roles so I am not trying to cover even all grapefruit perfumes that I’ve ever tested and still have samples of but will mention only several in-you-face grapefruit fragrances that I liked the most.

Aqua Allegoria Pamplelune by Guerlain is probably one of the best-known grapefruit perfumes. If you want a real review, I suggest reading Suzanna’s (Bois de Jasmine) five-star rated review. If you’re familiar with the perfume, I recommend reading Vanessa’s (Bonkers about Perfume) post Bonkers “In Edinburgh”: The Guerlain Pamplelune Sniff-Off And A Bid To Rescue Birgit’s Grapefruit Scent Squeeze – just for laughs. I like Pamplelune and two mini bottles will satisfy my grapefruit cravings for a while. Once they are gone I suspect I’ll want more.

Guerlain Pamplelune

Not surprisingly, Grapefruit by Jo Malone is the second perfume that comes into the conversation every time somebody raises the topic of perfumes with the homonymous note. Gaia (The non-Blonde) in her review was even more generous towards this perfume than I would have been: I think it’s nice but not interesting enough to tolerate the usual Jo Malone perfumes’ vanishing act and too expensive to use it in, again, usual for the brand’s DIY layering games. But I love Jo Malone’s Grapefruit Body & Hand Wash Gel. My travel-sized bottle is gone so now I’m thinking about buying the real bottle. I do not like the price but I enjoyed taking showers with that gel so much that I might just take the plunge.

JM Grapefruit‘s half-sibling, Pomelo by Jo Loves… (same perfumer but different brand and relations become even murkier if to consider fruits themselves), starts like a juicy grapefruit (well, technically pomelo but those two are close enough) but the drydown on my skin is very similar to the older brother’s one. And with an even higher sticker price this one isn’t making it into my collection. For real review of Jo Loves… Pomelo read Lucas’ (Chemist in the Bottle) post.

Another half-sibling, Assam & Grapefruit by Jo Malone (same brand but different perfumer), much more subtle with grapefruit, was a limited edition a couple of years ago (it’s still available online) so even though I have a bottle of it and wear it in summer from time to time, I don’t think it’s special enough to recommend hunting for it.

Eau de Pamplemousse Rose by Hermès in its opening is an unmistakably grapefruit perfume. Every time I try it, for the first couple of minutes I have to hold myself from leaking my wrist – so believable Eau de Pamplemousse Rose smells of sweet and juicy grapefruit! But then it dries down to a floral skin scent. It’s pleasant but the only reason I might go for a small bottle is because I like those colored bottles from the line. Birgit (Olfactoria’s Travels) thinks that Eau de Pamplemousse Rose can be trusted to revive the spirits, even if the rain keeps falling.

Rusty and Guerlain Pmplelune 

Drinks

I’m not a tea connoisseur (so if you are please disregard this part of my post) but I like tea and throughout the years I found different teas that I enjoy drinking. One of such teas is Lupicia Grapefruit Green tea. It’s very fragrant and has a very believable grapefruit smell. I bought this tea more than once which I do only with teas that I really liked – otherwise I just move on.

 

Food

Several years ago at Out The Door restaurant in San Francisco I ate Jicama and Grapefruit Salad with Red Cabbage, Candied Pecans and Sweet Soy Dressing salad. It was created by a known master chef Charles Phan (Slanted Door). I liked it and started making a variation of it at home. You can simplify the preparation by buying candied pecans instead of making your own. I found a blog with detailed instructions and pictures for this salad, so I won’t reproduce it here but rather give you a link.

 

Do you like grapefruits?

 

 

Images: my own

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Entertaining Statistics: November, 2013

 

November this year was uncharacteristically warm (average high was 65F/18C) and still very dry (we’ve got only two rainy days). Work-wise it was the craziest month this year so the testing rate fell below one perfume per day. On a couple of occasions I even skipped wearing a perfume, which is very unusual for me. And I didn’t test almost anything new, which upsets me a little.

I’m trying to switch to the “winter mode” and start wearing ambers that I enjoyed so much before but because of the temperature outside most of them still feel wrong and I regret putting them on a minute after the application. But maybe in December it’ll start feeling right?

Quick November stats:

* Different perfumes worn1: 23 from 16 brands on 28 occasions;

* Different perfumes tested2: 28 from 22 brands on 28 occasions;

* Perfumes I tried for the first time: 5 (!!!);

* Perfume houses I both wore and tested the most: Diptyque (I tested Volutes before making the final decision to get a bottle and then wore it a couple of times while writing a post about it);

So since not much was happening in my life perfume-wise, in the above-mentioned post I turned to my readers for the data on their perfume acquiring habits. The question was:

Have you ever bought a full bottle of perfume on the spot, the same day you smelled it for the first time?

As I found out, I was almost the only one who has never done that so far. “Almost” – because I abused my power as a pollster and declared Lucas’ answer as No though it was a close call. The other seventeen (17) respondents said Yes (“and more than once” was a general sentiment). So instead of charting that impressive 2/17 ratio, I’ll leave you with that picture from the times when we were still having rains and my hope that there will be rain soon and that one day I’ll leave a very nice shop in a very romantic place with a very special bottle of perfume.

Rusty and umbrella

1 When I wear a perfume I apply it to at least three-four points and usually I plan to spend at least 4-8 hours with the same scent so I’m prepared to re-apply if the original application wears off.

2 For the testing I apply a perfume to one area on my arms easily available for the repetitive sniffing. But, most likely, I’m the only one who can smell it. I can test two, sometimes even more perfumes at the same time.

 

Image: my own

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Spontaneous me: Diptyque Volutes

 

When it comes to perfumes there are different degrees of impulsiveness. And while I do not approve of blind buys of any amount of perfumes larger than 5 ml (unless the bottle itself is the goal), I find spontaneous perfume purchases at a store romantic to a certain degree.

I have that dream of going into a perfume shop while on a vacation or at a fragrance event and finding perfume, without which I wouldn’t want to leave that store. It hasn’t happen to me yet but every time I read this kind of a love story by one of my friends in the Perfumeland, I make myself a mental note about the perfume.

Lanier’s tale of the premier party at Diptyque San Francisco was one of those stories. It got me very curious about Volutes – the perfume to a bottle of which Lanier had committed just after a brief first encounter.

Diptyque Volutes

The only place around where I live that carried Diptyque’s perfumes at the time was that San Francisco boutique to which I usually can get once or twice a year but I wanted to try it so much that I just had to go… to Madison Avenue Diptyque boutique in New York where I smelled Volutes for the first time.

Both my vSO and I liked Volutes but since he is even less spontaneous that I am, what could have become a great memory of that wonderful New York trip ended up being just a sample.

That Volutes sample came back with me to California and then accompanied us to our vacation in Ukraine earlier this year. I brought it with me not to use it myself but as one of the perfumes for my vSO to test-wear for me.

As I complained in that month’s statistics post, most of the perfumes I hoped I would enjoy wearing during my vacation didn’t work at all in the hot and humid weather. One day I noticed that Volutes smelled really great on my vSO hours after the application and despite the weather. I tried wearing it and ended up loving it on me as well.

Last week I went to the local Nordstrom, which now carries Diptyque line, and bought a bottle of Volutes EdT. So it took me just slightly over a year to get from the first lemming to a full bottle in my collection.

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For the November statistics post, please tell me:
Have you ever bought a full bottle of perfume on the spot, the same day you smelled it for the first time?

 

Image: my own

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A Postcard from Undina: From under a Pile of Work with Love

Thad Markham Tangelohm

I’m extremely busy at work recently and I’m not sure when it is going to change. I do not always work after hours (though from time to time that happens as well) but I get so tired that I have absolutely no strength left not only to write anything but often to read as well.

I know that not posting on my blog is fine: with the number of blogs on everybody’s reading list not posting might be considered a public service. But since the number of unopened blog subscription e-mails reached 600 I’m writing this card to say to all of my blogo-friends: I’m sorry for abandoning you. I’ll try to stay afloat or at least rise to the surface from time to time.

 

Miss you all.

Undina

 

Image: my own (picture of one of Thad Markham’s figurines)

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In the Search for the Perfect Carnation

 

Through my childhood carnation was considered an official flower. Probably because of their resilience and color (red – the color of the 1917 Revolution, the anniversary of which was just a couple of days ago) carnation bouquets were traditionally brought to monuments of political leaders, used in decorating official gatherings and as funeral flowers. People were buying them for personal use as well but they always had a little stigma about them being too official and not personal enough. I remember one patriotic song’s refrain:

Red carnation is a troubled times companion;
Red carnation is our flower!

I didn’t dislike carnations but wasn’t too fond of them either. Those still were flowers, which meant better than no flowers at all, but not the first… let’s say five choices.

Soviet October Revolution Postcard

I have to mention also that the art of making real bouquets – as the opposite to just putting several stems in a bunch – didn’t come to the country where I grew up until I was well into my adulthood. Just so that you could feel the depth of it: I got married holding a cellophane cone with a bunch of (extremely expensive!) long-stemmed roses. And that was how it was done back then; it wasn’t some eccentricity on my part.

My perception of carnation had changed on my wedding day. In lieu of flower decorations it was customary for guests to bring flowers as a gift to the bride. There were many bundles of flowers, mostly roses. Some relatives brought me a huge bouquet of white carnations with greenery. It wasn’t done for me. They did it because they were very wealthy and wanted to stand out in the crowd (can you tell how I feel about them?). But regardless of their intentions they impressed me: it was one of the most beautiful bouquets I’d seen by then. And because of the mentioned above natural resilience of carnation that white-green composition well outlived all the roses we hauled home after the celebration. The bouquet below is just an illustration, “my” was three times bigger and even more beautiful.

Carnations Bouquet

Carnation isn’t the most popular note in perfumes. There are not that many soliflores or carnation-centered perfumes. I wasn’t really looking for the perfect carnation scent but I tested those that came my way.

Vitriol d’oeillet by Serge Lutens – created in 2011 by Christopher Shedrake, notes include clove, pepper, carnation, Gillyflower, woody notes, powdery notes and sweet notes. I won a decant of Vitriol d’oeillet in a giveaway on Ines’ blog (All I am – a redhead). Carnation – check! Woody notes – check! Sweet notes (whatever it means) – check. Altogether… it’s a nice and calm (despite the name) carnation perfume that I wish had a better longevity. I like it and wear sometimes but I do not see myself going beyond a bigger decant that I bought recently.

Terracotta Voile d’Ete by Guerlain – created in 1999 by Jean-Paul Guerlain and Mathilde Laurent, notes include bergamot, jasmine, mint, carnation, heliotrope, lily, pear, rose, iris root, vanilla and ylang-ylang. Lovely Tara (Olfactoria’s Travels) sent me a generous sample of this perfume. Terracotta Voile d’Ete is a warm and spicy perfume with a prominent carnation note. It’s not as transparent as Vitriol d’oeillet and has a much better tenacity. I like it as a scent but I’m not sure if I want to wear this perfume.

Eau Eternelle by Poncet – created in 2011, notes include grapefruit, jasmine, lemon, mandarin, petit grain, carnation, lavender, pink lotus, rosemary, water lily, clove, guaiac wood, moss, patchouli and sandalwood. Eau Eternelle is one of those perfumes with which I feel puzzled comparing the notes list to what I smell. The first second after the application I smell an interesting floral burst but really for just a second. Then – a relatively boring scent. Some lily, some carnation… It’s never unpleasant, just completely unremarkable and not memorable. Did it really require all those ingredients to create this?!

Oeillets Rouge by DSH Perfumes – created by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz, notes include bergamot, green peppercorn, nutmeg, beeswax, carnation, amber, ambergris, myrrh and vanilla. My sample came from Joanne (Redolent of Spices). Oeillets Rouge is a very believable carnation scent. I liked it when I tested it first but now it smells to me as a prototype, a pencil draw for the perfume I describe next.

Euphorisme d’Opium by DSH Perfumes  – created in 2012 by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz as a part of the Tribute to YSL collection, notes include aldehydes, bay leaf, bitter orange, mandarin, peach, pimento, pink pepper, Bulgarian rose, carnation, cinnamon, clove, amber, Atlas cedarwood, benzoin (styrax), civet, incense, Indian patchouli, musk, myrrh and vanilla. Don’t let that plethora of notes confuse you: this is a carnation-centered perfume. Too bad that “pissed-off carnation” name had been already taken: in my opinion, it would have suited this fragrance much better than Serge Lutens’ one. I sample it from a dab vial sent to me by the perfumer and thought it was a very powerful perfume. I’m not sure I could stand it sprayed – this is how intense it is. I’m still testing Euphorisme d’Opium trying to figure out if I should go for a bottle of it – while it’s still available.

I tried Bellodgia by Caron but either my sample is too… vintage or my nose isn’t trained enough but I’m not getting a carnation from it.

Carnations

Do you like carnations?

 

Images: not a single one is mine, I found them all through a search engine but I can’t find proper attribution.