May 11, 2012 by Undina

Entertaining Statistics: April, 2012

I’m so late with April’s statistics that I almost forgot what the month was like. I think it was good though.

I’m still keeping up with my New Year Resolutions but I’m one bottle closer to the self-imposed limit. I just couldn’t resist! I liked Jo Malone’s White Lilac & Rhubarb and didn’t want this limited edition bottle to slip away as those limited editions have a habit of doing. I wish I could have all three bottles from this release in 30 ml bottles but for a reason unknown Jo Malone decided to have only 100 ml bottles for this collection. So if anybody wants a small decant of White Lilac & Rhubarb at cost send me an e-mail.

This month I decided to check if my reaction to perfumes I test depends on the application method. There is nothing scientific about the results since it wasn’t my choice to spray or to dab: I used whatever sample I had. But based on this anecdotal evidence the application method doesn’t affect whether I like the perfume or not (see the chart).

Quick April stats:

Numbers in parenthesis are comparison to the previous month’s numbers.

* Different perfumes worn¹: 26 (-1) from 18 (+2) brands on 30 (+1) occasions;

* Favorite perfumes worn: 21 (0) on 23 (0) occasions;

* Different perfumes tested²: 50 (+2) from 27 (-6) brands on 57 (-1) occasions;

* Perfumes I tried for the first time: 32 (+7);

* Perfume house I wore most often: Dior;

* Perfume house I tested the most: Guerlain (third month in a row: it looks like once started I cannot stop);

* Most popular notes (only from perfumes I chose to wear) are almost the same as in March: top – (not counting bergamot) lemon and pepper; middle – (not counting rose and jasmine) iris root and ylang ylang; base – vanilla, musk and sandalwood;

* Perfumes I tried for the first time and liked a lot (went to my wish list): Indochine by Parfumerie Generale, La Femme Bleue by Giorgio Armani and Dzing! by L’Artisan Parfumeur.

Have you found any new favorites recently?

¹For 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 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.

Image: my own (I wish I could draw!)

May 2, 2012 by Undina

In the Search for the Perfect Lily of the Valley

I grew up with May Day being an International Workers Day. Even though it was a holiday, it was an official holiday and people were required to participate in parades officially held in all major cities and translated by all TV stations. In my city, I remember, all traffic would be blocked for those demonstrations in the downtown area from early morning and until 2-3 p.m. My room’s window was facing one of the major streets and I would be woken up by music, megaphone announcements and other human noises. And then, for hours, non-stopping streams of people with flags, banners, balloons and artificial flowers would flow by my window toward the main city square. As a child I liked that holiday: it was a real beginning of the spring, we would get two days off school, kids weren’t a part of those demonstrations (unless their parents took them to their groups formed by places of work) but it was festive, different from regular weekends and there always was something interesting to do during or after the main event (like shooting balloons with a slingshot, for example).

I haven’t been not only celebrating but even acknowledging this holiday for many-many years and this year with everything going on under the sign of this day I’d be even less inclined to feel any nostalgia towards May Day if it weren’t for my hobby. Starting last year, when I read about it for the first time, I chose to associate this day with a beautiful French tradition of giving bouquets of lily of the valley.

I’m fascinated by this flower. I’ve always been. It looks fragile and lusty at the same time as if those tiny flowers were carved out of a very white ivory and carefully placed against a backdrop of flat wide leaves. And I love a very distinct lily of the valley aroma unmistakable with any other.

For a while I was collecting samples of perfumes built around this beautiful flower and testing them for this post in my Single Note Exploration series. Then I was struggling with a horde of lemmings born after I read an announcement about this year’s limited edition bottle of Muguet by Guerlein. How cool would it have been to make a picture of that gorgeous bottle for the post about lily of the valley note in perfumery?! It wasn’t easy but I won with the moral support from Victoria (Bois de Jasmine) and Natalie (Another Perfume Blog) despite Tara’s subversive actions! Instead I bought the last in the store pot with lily of the valley and took pictures of my very photogenic cat Rusty playing with it.

That was a hell of a preamble. But don’t worry: since I’m not doing real reviews I’ll try to be laconic. I’ll skip usual “created by” and notes lists since most of these are well-known perfumes.

All perfumes I tested can be divided into three categories: Lily of the Valley I didn’t Like, Lily of the Valley I couldn’t Smell and Lily of the Valley I Loved.

Lily of the Valley I didn’t Like

Muguet Blanc by Van Cleef & Arpels – I smell an apple in it even though it’s not mention in notes. An artificial apple. It’s wrong. On paper I remember it being more lily-of-the-valley-y but on my skin it smells rather unpleasant in the first 45 minutes even though I think I recognize the scent of the flower. For my nose Muguet Blanc smells of a cheap synthetic lily of the valley air freshener brought in the room full of not just wilting but decaying in water floral bouquets. Then the freshener wins. In 2 hours it’s a perfectly nice scent on my skin. I’m not sure I’ll ever finish my sample.

Le Muguet by Annick Goutal – in general, it’s nice, slightly more perfume-y than other believable lily of the valley renderings but still very recognizable. Le Muguet has some sweetness but it’s not overly sweet to my nose. Unfortunately, during one of three testing I got some plastic-y note. It might be my skin reaction but understanding that doesn’t make Le Muguet more wearable for me. I will give my sample another try but I do not see this perfume joining my collection in any form after that. You should try Le Muguet since it might behave differently on you (and if it does it smells really nice and natural).

Idylle by Guerlain – for the first couple of times when I tested it (a year ago) I was sure it was a rose scent. And then one day my nose picked out a prominent lily of the valley note. Since then I always think of Idylle as of a lily of the valley perfume. When tried in parallel with the other perfumes that are closer to being a soliflore Idylle feels more complex, more perfume-like and less lily-of-the-valley-centric creation than the rest perfumes I tested. I do not think Idylle is bad, it’s just not special enough for me to go beyond the sample I have (if even that).

Lily of the Valley I couldn’t Smell

When I read about Andy Tauer’s lily of the valley perfume I was very excited. There are just several Andy’s perfumes that work for me but I thought: how bad can it be if a talented perfumer creates a perfume with one of my favorite floral note in the middle of the composition? Well…

Carillon pour un ange by Tauer Perfumes – I smell pollen, a lot of sweetness and, I think, some mimosa. It has a great tenacity and I think it’s a very nice, very masterfully created perfume. But I couldn’t smell lily of the valley in it at all! I was so upset when I tried Carillon pour un ange for the first two times, I felt so cheated that I gave away my sample.

It wasn’t until several months later when, after trying DSH’s Muguet de Mai Perfume and Muguet Cologne, I realized that while I couldn’t smell lily of the valley in there either it seemed to me that both Andy and Dawn smelled (tried to re-create?) the same flower. Muguet de Mai starts very lemon-y plus some earth note. Muguet Cologne starts earthy and then turns into more floral composition… Both without much lily of the valley how I know it. I got another sample of Carillon pour un ange just to confirm my impression. And I can tell that though these three are completely different perfumes I smell more in common between them than between any one of them and lily of the valley. Compared to the real flower (I think I spent hours doing that for all perfumes I tested for this post) I kind of “see” the idea but all three don’t smell as lily of the valley to me. It should be my nose, right? Samples will stay in my scents reference library.

Lily of the Valley I Loved

For the First of May this year I wore Diorissimo by Dior. I own a bottle of the current EdT and a vintage mini that has problems with top notes but then it’s fine. Diorissimo is so nice and spring-like! I do not love it but I like it enough to enjoy wearing from time to time. Even though Diorissimo has a prominent lily of the valley accord I do not think of it as of a soliflore. When I wear it I wear a perfume. But only when I smelled Diorissimo together with the real flower I realized how close they were. I always knew that Diorissimo was an iconic lily of the valley perfume; I wore it knowing it smelled of lily of the valley but I’ve never realized how much it smelled like lily of the valley. Wow.

Muguet by Guerlain – is a fresh and very… clear scent – not in the sense “airy” but rather “without impurities” like a diamond or “not distorted” as in “clear sound”. As I’ve mentioned earlier, I fought off the urge to buy a full bottle of this perfume but I’m amazed at how much I liked it and how true it is to the real lily of the valley. I get everything – sweetness of the flowers, greenness of the leaves, general warmth of the scent. The only component that isn’t there is earthiness but I do not miss it, I’m fine with the pure floral part of the plant. I want a full bottle but will have to settle for a small decant of Muguet if I can find it. It’s so beautiful!

Lily of the Valley by Penhaligon’s – I like it a lot. It’s bright, warm and very realistic. I’m not too familiar with this brand, I’ve tested just a few of their perfumes and I haven’t formed any opinion about the house yet. It was the last perfume I tested for this episode and I think I didn’t expect it to be as good as it proved to be. I suspect that I like Muguet slightly better not even because it’s Guerlain but because I loved the bottle and all that “one day only” marketing BS (sorry, Guerlain, I start liking you more and more but this February Muguet 2011 was still available at the boutique). But I’m not sure if in a blind sniffing I would be able to tell them apart. I plan to add a mini bottle of Penhaligon’s Lily of the Valley to my collection.

I read a rumor some time ago that Frederic Malle had a plan to add a lily-of-the-valley-centric perfume into their line-up. If it happens I will definitely try it. Other than that I do not plan on actively seeking any more perfumes with that note being a dominant one.

How about you? Do you like lily of the valley – as a flower or a perfume note? Do you wear it? And, what I’m mostly interested in, if you tried perfumes from my Lily of the Valley I couldn’t Smell category, did you smell lily of the valley in them?

Images: my own (I hope there was enough of them to compensate for the long story)

January 9, 2012 by Undina

MUFЯAP! MUFЯAP!

A couple of days before the New Year we went on our last in 2011 trip to Sonoma. Unlike our November trip, this time everything was as expected: naked or covered with brittle brown leaves vines, ripen persimmons on bare branches and grey sky. And “sparrows are flying again.” Well, I’m not sure what kind of birds those were (dark smudges on the picture below aren’t image artifact or dirty lens – those are flocks of birds flying together) but it was a mesmerizing spectacle. Usually we see those synchronized swooping and turning of birds en masse from a moving car window but this time we were on solid ground and were able to take a lot of pictures.

Since this time there were three families in our party, instead of a hotel we rented a private house. A welcome letter sent to us several days before our arrival explained how to get there and contained some instructions including:

The key is located in the home on the small table to the left of the door as you enter. Yes, we do keep the doors unlocked sometimes up here.

“On the small table…” Yes, that was where we found it once we arrived. We went through the house to figure out what was where and all of us got a strange feeling: it looked inhabited, as if owners had just stepped away to get something to eat and could be back any minute. No, there was no warm kettle on a stove or smoking cigarette in an ashtray, but there were bottles with wine on the kitchen counter, cheese in the fridge and a motorcycle in the garage. I even went outside to check again the house number.

Mufrap We were in the right house – a nice one, I should add, with spectacular views from windows, two fireplaces (one of them in a bedroom that I’d won in a coin toss) and a well stocked kitchen. A nice but a little strange house. And when my vSO noticed a white child’s dress in a plastic cover hanging in the empty closet we agreed it felt like we were in one of Stephen King’s novels.

The feeling has even increased when I discovered a tray with perfumes on a dresser in my bedroom and a display stand with perfume miniatures in one of the bathrooms. I thought that the house was tempting me.

Nothing sinister had happened during our stay (if not to count that I got spooked in the morning when I opened blinds in our bedroom and saw an owl sitting on a balcony railing – a wooden one as I realized a second later). It was a very pleasant trip. We visited many great wineries (new find for us – deLorimier Winery), tried and bought some good wines (they’ve passed paw inspection by Rusty on our return) and I wore wonderful perfumes (Serge Lutens’ Jeux de Peau that I deemed wine-testing-friendly and brought with me for that purpose and Dior’s Dioressence from a vintage mini bottle in the bathroom of that strange house – it was still good, I enjoyed it in the evenings).

I considered contacting owners with the offer to buy that mini bottle but decided against that: who knows how much spirits that live in that house feel attached to that PARFUM…

Images: my own

January 2, 2012 by Undina

New Year Resolutions, Part I: 2011 Round Up

New Year resolutions… Crowds in gyms and dance classes usually subside by mid-February allowing regulars to go back to their normal routines. Healthier eating habits get buried under stress of a “holiday-less” life and kitchen catch-all drawers stay in their natural state that makes finding any useful thing we put in there at some point an adventure.

In the beginning of 2011 I decided to see at least one of my New Year resolutions through. The resolution was: I will wear one of my favorite perfumes at least two times a week. By that time I’d created already a database to hold information about perfumes in my collection. So all I needed to add was a diary part where I could record my perfumes usage.

I’m proud to report that in all twelve months of 2011 I followed my NY resolution and gave perfumes in my permanent collection the attention they deserve. In addition to that, my numbers collecting provided me with a lot of interesting though probably not that useful data points which I’d shared with my readers in the Quick stats section of my monthly reports.

I was very curious to see the numbers for the whole year. So, here they are.

Quick 2011 stats:

* Different perfumes worn/tested: 376 (303 tested for the first time and 73 previously tested – see the chart by month) from 110 brands;

* Perfumes I wore just once: 191;

* My Top 10 Brands (perfume house I wore/tested most often): see the chart, click on it for a full size;

* My Top 10 Perfumes (those that I wore the most often):

Perfume	Times Worn
*№19 EdT* by Chanel	16
*Heure Exquise* by Annick Goutal	13
*Tiare* by Ormonde Jayne	12
*№19 Poudre* by Chanel	10
*Bronze Goddess* by Estee Lauder	9
*Iris Poudre* by Frederic Malle	9
*Une Rose Vermeille* by Tauer Perfumes	9
*Antonia* by Puredistance	8
*Jeux de Peau* by Serge Lutens	8
*Ta’if* by Ormonde Jayne	8

Coming up in the next couple of days New Year Resolutions, Part II: Perfumed resolutions for 2012.

Images: my own

See also year end posts and Top N lists for 2011 from the friendly blogs:

Another Perfume Blog: Best Perfumes of 2011: A Joint Blogging Event

beauty on the outside: Highlights from 2011

EauMG: Best of 2011 – Perfume Blogging Event

eyeliner on a cat: Best Fragrances of 2011

From Top to Bottom: My 2011

Muse in Wooden Shoes: 2011: The Year’s Fragrance Releases in Review

Olfactoria’s Travels: The Best Of 2011 – My Favorite Perfumes Of The Year

Perfume in Progress: Some thoughts as the year ends

Persolaise – A Perfumer’s Blog: The Best Perfumes Of 2011 & Thoughts On Independence

Pieces of paper, squiggy lines: My Favorite Fragrant discoveries of 2011

Scent of the Day: My Favorites of 2011

Scents of Self: Forgotten Fragrances of 2011

The Alembicated Genie: Best of the Best 2011 – Perfumes and Perfumers and Best of the Best 2011 – Worn and Adored

The Candy Perfume Boy: The Candy Perfume Boy’s Best Picks of 2011

The Non-Blonde: 2011 In Perfume- Delights & Rants

December 9, 2011 by Undina

Body Heat: Perfumes under Extreme Temperatures

There are people who love running, playing tennis or swimming. I heard they can experience a withdrawal if they have to skip several training sessions. It’s not my story. I hate exercising as long as I can remember myself. I do engage in different activities but do it out of the necessity only: if I could get Kathleen Turner’s body and don’t worry about my health without exercising I wouldn’t (I wonder which perfume bottle she’s holding in that scene).

Well, since a lean gene wasn’t one of those passed to me from my parents I do my part in at least keeping myself healthy.

At least as much as physical activity, if not more, I dislike heat. I don’t like cold either. My comfortable zone is somewhere around 24°C (75°F).

All that makes it hard to explain why out of all available types of physical activities I chose Bikram yoga – a system of yoga practiced in a room heated to 40°C (105°F). I’ve been practicing Bikram yoga (with some breaks) for 18 months. I still hate every minute of a 90 minutes class. But I plan to keep doing it.

For me yoga is just an exercise. I do not subscribe to the philosophy. If I follow the breathing instructions I do it only if it helps to maintain the posture. I do not try to clear my mind and concentrate on what I’m doing. I’m not pushing myself too hard. I’m just trying to survive. One of the things that help me through the class is thinking about perfumes – about which I read or plan to write or which I want to try.

For a long time I tried not to wear any perfumes to my classes thinking they wouldn’t perform well in high heat or would bother me or my neighbors. And then one day I didn’t think about the class I had scheduled in the evening. I wore a perfume to the office and even re-applied it mid-day. By the time I started the first breathing exercise I forgot about it. And when my body heated up enough suddenly the perfume started blooming on my skin. It was magical. It was much more interesting than what I experienced earlier that day with the same perfume. It was Serge Lutens’ Boxeuses.

Since then I started experimenting with different perfumes. I apply just a little bit of a perfume in the décolleté area and on my wrists an hour before I go to the class and then during JanuShirasana or Pavanamuktasana I inhale wafts of the hot air mixed with moisture and perfume particles. It makes my classes go by faster and gives them some additional purpose.

Perfumes that performed the best under such strange conditions: another Serge Lutens’ creation – Ambre Sultan, Ubar by Amouage and Alahine by Teo Cabanel.

Tom Ford’s Arabian Wood, Chergui by Serge Lutens and Mitzah by Dior were very nice but didn’t survive Garudasana (approx. 15 minutes into the class). All three were applied from a dab vial so maybe a more generous spray application would produce a better effect – I’ll re-try them when I get those into my collection.

No 19 Poudre by Chanel didn’t work at all. Not possessing a remarkable staying power as is, it disappeared from my skin by the time I unfolded my yoga mat. It was a strange experiment but I thought that maybe it had some hidden powers. It didn’t.

I remember reading on one of the blogs that I always read a topic about a “treadmill scents” (or something to that effect) but now I can’t find that post. If an owner recognizes it from the description or if you covered this topic in your blog, please post a link.

What is your torture of choice and what perfumes (if any) make it more enjoyable?

Image: Kathleen Turner in Body Heat by allposters.com

November 22, 2011 by Undina

Rainbow Autumn in Sonoma

From time to time, facing the obvious, we tell ourselves: Of course! How haven’t I seen/thought about it before?! And it’s not a case of an acute hindsight bias but something you’d have realized before if you had just thought about it. But you haven’t.

I’ve been living in San Francisco Bay Area for more than a decade now. I always knew that a downside of the climate that I loved so much was a lack of some defined seasons. Autumn to name one. It’s not summer all year-long here, it gets cold, rainy and windy – our version of winter. But in between, with all evergreen plants common in our area, it’s hard to say where summer ends and winter begins.

Did I know that grapevine is a deciduous plant? I did. Many times I saw green leaves when we visited Sonoma in summer and then bare vines during our traditional December trips there. I just never thought what happened in between. Golden, purple, yellow, red and all hues in between grape leaves – that’s what happens in between! Views were just amazing! We couldn’t believe how beautiful nature around us was. During this visit to Sonoma we found autumn that we haven’t seen for more than ten years. From now on we’ll be going to Sonoma in November if we can.

Accommodations

Every time I plan our trip to a wine country I struggle with choosing where to stay. It is so close to home that it feels wrong to spend too much on a room for one night. But at the same time I’m so demanding to where I sleep that I have to try to find the best option for the price I’m willing to pay.

This time we stayed at Marriott Courtyard in Santa Rosa. Pros: price ($135 total cost, no resort fee), location (close to the downtown), clean, good mattress, friendly front desk employees. Cons: old and noisy under the window AC/heating unit, uncomfortable pillows and, the worst part, a very loud bathroom exhaust fan that turns on with the light. I remember reading Vanessa’s horror story about the fan that would work for 10 minutes after the fact of using bathroom’s lights. The fan in our room was on a strict on/off regime so we both voted for relying on our senses other than sight for this night’s bathroom visits. Too bad our neighbors weren’t on board with that decision…

Tasting Rooms

As I mentioned in the post about my recent trip to Napa, in my opinion Sonoma is a much more pleasant place to go wine tasting. And this visit just confirmed my thoughts. The main goal of this trip was to pick up shipments from all the clubs we belong to, so we mostly visited places we like. And I want to share those with my readers.

Suncé Winery is a small family owned and operated winery with Croatian roots (suncé is Croatian for sun). Several years ago a friend suggested we went there. It was a cold day mid-December. We came to a small but warm and inviting tasting room. They fed us hot chicken gumbo and let us try a wide selection of their wines… Three years of a membership in their club later we still like and buy many of their wines (in addition to obligatory bottles) and enjoy every trip to Sunce. All people who work there are so friendly and nice that you just want to go there again and again.

Paradise Ridge Winery is another family owned and operated winery. Paradise Ridge is bigger than Sunce and more formal but that feeling of being welcome is carefully maintained by the staff. In addition to making good wines (not only we like them but also they’re getting all kinds of awards), Paradise Ridge has beautiful grounds (check their website for sculpture exhibits they had over the years). Almost every time we visit we see something new. Also, their tasting room and a picnic area have a breathtaking view.

I urge everybody to visit Sunce and Paradise Ridge if you have a chance. I really hope you’ll like them as much as I do and will have great time there.

The third winery a member of a wine club of which we currently are, Jacuzzi Family Vineyards, also has an interesting history, decent wines and nice grounds. What they also have is an excellent marketing department. Unfortunately for us they seem not to be able to handle the results of their marketing success: they are understaffed and just plainly have no time to cater to loyal patrons. We gave them three chances every time hoping it was a fluke. But no, this is how they are now. We’re dropping a membership with them and will choose a winery that cares. But if you do not mind a crowd it’s not a bad place to visit once.

Food

If you like Indian food (which I do) Yeti Restaurant is a good place to have lunch. Ordering chai, make sure to confirm they’d brew a fresh pot. I had to send back a cup of a microwave-heated liquid they tried to pass as chai but after that I got one of the best cups of chai I’ve ever tried. Food was good without any back and forth dances.

One of the wineries we visited featured local truffles made with one of their wines. I bought one, ate and liked it so much that later we went to that local company’s chocolate tasting room and bought more truffles. Wine Country Chocolates. I’m not sure they are worth ordering online but if you are in the area try them. I plan to go there again next time I’m in Sonoma.

Perfumes

Any trip report wouldn’t be complete without that important part. This time I did something I never do: I wore the same perfume two days in a row. I chose vintage Miss Dior parfum. I figured out that with a small parfum bottle I had a better control over the amount of the fragrance and its placement. It didn’t interfere with wine tasting and I felt happy every time I’d catch a whiff of Miss Dior from my sleeve or scarf.

I brought back something new from this trip but I’ll write about it in my next post.

Overall it was a wonderful trip – a trip to rainbow-colored Fall from my memories.

Fall in Sonoma Images: my own

July 24, 2011 by Undina

I’ll miss you, Miss Dior

I do not like anything old: I enjoy looking at antique furniture in museums but wouldn’t want to see it in my living room. I acknowledge the significance of black and white classical movies but the only one that I actually like and wouldn’t mind watching again is Twelve Angry Men. I’m completely unemotional about art deco posters. And, as a rule, I do not like vintage perfumes.

How did it happen that I’ve bought this 7.5 ml half-full bottle of vintage Miss Dior parfum? Why did I decide to buy my first vintage perfume? I didn’t. I didn’t buy a perfume. I bought that bottle. I bought a visual aid to one of my childhood memories.

…

When I was nine my mother had three small bottles of Dior’s parfums – Diorella, Miss Dior and Dior-Dior. Out of these three Diorella in a blue box with white oval was my absolute favorite (see First Love: Love); Dior-Dior in a light beige box didn’t attract me much (it got discontinued, so I never had a chance later to check if my tastes changed); and Miss Dior in an elegant white box was somewhere in between. I don’t remember how any of them smelled, I just remember that imaginary hierarchy.

…

When I was nineteen Miss Dior (I think, it was an eau de toilette version) became the first perfume I ever bought. It wasn’t my favorite perfume, as I was buying it, I didn’t even remember how it smelled (at that time in the country where I lived perfume testers were out of question) but I saw it in a store (which on its own was a small miracle at that time) and remembered that I liked it, more or less, in my childhood. And those were reasons good enough to warrant the purchase. If it sounds like something strange and “from another life” – that’s because it was; you might want to look through my very first post in this blog First Love: Perfume to understand better my strange relationships with perfumes in my younger years. The bottle I bought was inserted into the golden metallic case (I haven’t seen that packaging after that here, it must have been either a limited or Europe-specific edition) and the box was still classy white. I didn’t love the perfume but liked it and used up the bottle.

…

When I was Many-many years later I saw that Miss Dior bottle on eBay I realized that it looked not exactly but very close to the bottle from my childhood, one of those three that my mother used to have. And I wanted that bottle just for the bottle itself; I would have bought it even completely empty. But it still had some parfum left in it. And it smells wonderful on my skin – much better than I remember from my two previous encounters with Miss Dior. It is so smooth and warm that I feel wrapped into that scent every time I wear it. It is so beautiful that it makes me very sad to see how little of it I have left. Should I try to find another vintage bottle? What if it will be of a different formulation (I’m not sure from which decade is my bottle) and I do not like it? Should I try the current version before Dior butchered it again during the renaming and maybe “repatriation” process (read the horror story about the upcoming changes at Grain de Musc)? Which version? If EdT can be found still at Saks, I’ve never seen a tester for the parfum version. Should I buy unsniffed? What if I hate it? Questions, questions… One thing I do know: I will terribly miss Miss Dior if it’s gone.

If you’ve done a review for Miss Dior please post a link to it in your comment.

Image: my own

February 14, 2011 by Undina

First Love: Love

Musketeers, duels, “all for one, one for all,” the Queen, the Duke, intrigues, noblemen and beautiful courtesans.

By the age of ten I’d read The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After and The Vicomte of Bragelonne couple of times and even tried writing my own prequel to one of the last two – that was how much I liked those books and in general that epoch. I couldn’t decide which character I liked more – dauntless d’Artagnan, genteel Athos or sophisticated Aramis (Porthos was a comic relief so I didn’t consider him), each one was attractive in his own way, and I kept having a change of heart after every chapter. Of the book.

In real life I was much more consistent with my feelings: he was my class-mate, he was handsome (an important characteristic for that age), smart and well-read (important characteristic for me, at any age). Despite these qualities he for some reason didn’t excel in formal studying. I did. He sat next to me in math and language classes. I liked him so I would secretly help him during tests. He accepted my help but that was the extent of our relationship.

Musketeers, duchesses, intrigues…

I Love You

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Undina's Looking Glass

Perfumed Reflections of Life

Dior

Entertaining Statistics: April, 2012

In the Search for the Perfect Lily of the Valley

MUFЯAP! MUFЯAP!