Affordable

Midnight Birch by Dr Squatch
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Midnight Birch by Dr Squatch

Hi there Crew, I was trawling Surrender To Chance recently and a name caught my attention. Midnight Birch by Dr Squatch. Come ON! What a name and what a house title. Obviously I read the name slightly wrong and it was MUCH naughtier but being fair the name still holds when PGd. So, of course, a 3ml decant jumped into my cart and made it all the way to checkout.

As the Northern Hemisphere heads towards Autumn I thought you might like something that works for the days heat and the cool of the evenings. This should fit the bill perfectly. Before you read further though. This is an affordable fragrance that sits around the US$60 mark. I don’t want you expecting it to smell like a Le Galion, Hermès or an Amouage. It’s not playing in that ballpark. What I will say though is that expensive doesn’t always equal good and affordable can smell very good. When looking at the scoreboard smelling good is the important bit, right?

Midnight Birch by Dr Squatch

Midnight Birch by Dr Squatch

Dr Squelch gives these featured accords:
Vanilla, Lavender, Cedarwood, Crisp Air, Fresh Cut Birch, Warm Musk, Amber

Alright, first spritz is a very lightly salted fresh breeze off the sea and into the forest. This is not a new genre of fragrance and it’s full of that generic scratchy amber woods. It smells like a mens gym locker room in the 1990s. I remember this scent so vividly. It’s kind of soapy and dark woodsy with a really clean water vibe. In South Korea the bathhouses still have a version of this scent.

The woods smell really pine like to me and then I started thinking about the Norsca deodorant a few of us used to wear. There are definitely some references in Midnight Birch.

Midnight Birch by Dr Squatch

Seriously old fashioned masculine. A real barbershop scent. I’d love to smell it on a woman. It would be SO subversive. Like a regular suited gent wearing Fracas or La Vie set Belle. In fact I’m going to give it to my goddaughter and see if she will rock it.

No, it doesn’t smell expensive, or luxurious. It smells clean, fresh and well cared for. Midnight Birch smells like someone wants to smell good in a traditional way, without fanfare or ceremony. The question is, would I choose it over the rest of my scents to wear? Probably not. I’m not a snob but this isn’t the way I want to smell. It would feel like I’m an imposter and that is not how I live.

Could it be for you?
Portia xx

 

Stash Unspoken by Sarah Jessica Parker
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Stash Unspoken by Sarah Jessica Parker

Hey there ULGers, I have this perfume in my collection, Stash Unspoken. It’s not niche leaning, pushes zero boundaries and does not make me swoon with rapture every time I spritz it. So you’d think I would ignore it and wear other more interesting things, right? Nope. It gets the spritz way more often than many of my super amazing, eye rollingly gorgeous, weird and wonderful bottles. I have a theory, probably we have talked about this before. Sorry if it’s old news. While the boundary pushing elixirs are fabulous, fun to write about, share with perfumista buddies and swoon over; what I really want in my day to day life is to smell good. Simple, easy to waft, pretty and friendly fragrances that don’t overtake my mind with rapture in the midst of doing my daily whatever. I also love that it was relatively inexpensive. So if I get really busy or distracted and totally ignore it then so what?

Stash Unspoken by Sarah Jessica Parker 2017

Stash Unspoken

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Top: Quince, Pink pepper
Heart: Honeysuckle, Peony, Wisteria
Base: Musk, Sandalwood, Tonka bean, Frankincense

Quince? I dunno. Maybe if you squint your nose, from a distance, backwards with a following breeze. It’s kind of fruity, a cross between fig and citrus so it could be quince and the zingy pink pepper berry gives it a lift.

None of the amorphous bouquet heart really seem to match the notes list at all, maybe some fruity rose. Maybe honeysuckle.

The base is a pretty, nondescript waft of sweet-ish woodsy nothings that don’t really have definition as notes.

Sounds like crap? It’s not. Well, not for me anyway. Stash Unspoken is so easy going and stress free. It got a really bad rap when released because the original Stash was so damn good. After that high bar everyone was expecting more fabulosity and what we got was something tame and friendly.

Well, stuff the haters, I really love Stash Unspoken and while wearing it last week noticed how empty my bottle is. So I jumped on FragranceNet (not affiliated) and bought a new one. 50ml for under US$20.

Are you a lover, hater or meh-er on Stash Unspoken?
Portia xx

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Musette made me Jean Nate

Hey Crew, Do you ever read a blog post and suddenly your are pressing PayPal on your favourite online perfume store or discounter? Right, well not long ago over at Perfume Posse Musette waxed lyrical about Jean Nate. It’s always been her go to summer spritz after bathing but it had never been talked about so fulfillingly. Suddenly I had to know. So I bought a cheap 8oz after bath splash mist bottle off FragranceNet, seriously it cost about the price of a McDonalds burger. More recently Tom had a swoon over it too.

Jean Nate (now by Revlon) 1935

Musette made me Jean Nate

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Lemon Bergamot Lavender
Heart: Geranium Spicy Notes Rose Jasmine Lily-of-the-Valley
Base: Musk Sandalwood Tonka Bean Virginia Cedar

So, after all this lead up, what does Jean Nate smell like?

A softly refreshing cologne. The spices and lavender give citrus a frosting of elegance. It’s nothing amazing or extraordinary but it is a pleasant, very short lived scent. I’m lucky to be able to smell it an hour later.

I’m not sure what note or accord it is but I get a definite smell of base humanity as an undercurrent. As if after showering you need to get those lived in, slightly feral aspects back onto your body ASAP.

As the northern hemisphere warms up it might be a good additive if your perfume wardrobe is without a bright, sparkling cologne. Much less zingy than 4711. Jean Nate is more sophisticated and deeper.

Have you tried Jean Nate or do you have memories of a wearer?
Portia xx