Annick Goutal’s Eau de Camille and Duel
Annick Goutal Eau de Camille
- Wet: wet grass, dandelion, honeysuckle, chamomile
- Dry: honeysuckle, chamomile, dandelion, grass with roots
Scents
All the smells!
How to wear perfume in summer
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jun/23/how-to-wear-perfume-in-summer
Photo credit to Mr. Chokkattu
It’s been humid and sticky and hot where I live since May, but I haven’t really talked about fragrance since I left school.
The article discusses two ways to go about the shimmering heat of the day: going safe and going big.
Histoires de Parfum
Sylvie Jourdet, professor of olfaction and perfumery accords at the ISIPCA in Versailles, vice president of the French Society of Perfumers, crafter of most of the HdP juices, just made me groan out loud on the train because I am not her and not likely to ever be her. She makes me hate my life a little.
Tom Ford Plum Japonais & Byrdeo Pulp
Let’s talk about beauty
The beauty industry was something that, to a tiny, chubby, poor girl with limited artistic talent, seemed rather unapproachable. There seemed to me a certain limit to beauty, and if you go beyond it, it’s simply not beauty anymore, but becomes humdrum or “fucking weird” and while beauty is subjective, even if you openly deny the traditional ideas of beauty in your particular culture, you still know what they are.
Thankfully, even something seemingly as set and unchanging as the ideas of beauty get a facelift, as over the years we’ve seen ethnic faces in the crowd become the norm of any fashion show, and plus-size models take the runway and the covers of magazines. The acknowledgment of the beauty of the transgendered in huge “traditional” places such as Barneys New York.
Happy Birthday Olivia Giacobetti!
Ms. Giacobetti is 49 years old today. She is my newest woman crush that I should have high-lighted a long, long time ago.
Olivia Giacobetti is an amazing French perfumer who has created fragrances such as Frederic Malle’s En Passant (my favorite Frederic Malle), Diptyque’s Philosykos and Ofresia, a whole host of L’Artisan fragrances including the infamously difficult to get Tea for Two (my favorite L’Artisan!), and fragrances for Hermès, Guerlain, and Penhaligon’s. I love her for her delicate simplicity and the subtle way she crafts her fragrances. I have loved everything she has touched that I have smelled so far, and can’t wait to smell more.
The L’Artisan website claim that she was inspired by the depictions of perfumery in the film le Sauvage which means I need to seek this film out with English subtitles in a hurry (or learn French. I feel I have more of an incentive to learn it than even mandarin.) She trained from the age of 17 at Robertet, a huge French distillery known for developing new ways of obtaining natural raw material from its distillation sources before opening her own firm Iskia, which I unfortunately couldn’t find any information about. And she does all this while staying oh so effervescently lovely.
She is currently working as creative director at one of the oldest perfume houses, Parfum Lubin.
Ancient aromas of Italy’s Santa Maria Novella
When I went on the American Music Abroad tour in Europe, we visited France, Belgium, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland and the beautiful cities I visited still haunt my stagnant legs and beg me to come back. I wouldn’t consider myself a Europhile, as I’m a tad too patriotic for that, but I do love the land and the history and the majesty within the old world and the people who walk on it, and I would like to join those people again one day soon.
Now unfortunately, my group did not get to visit Italy which with its sumptuous intellectual and creative history has had a little pining space inside of me since I started listening and playing Vivaldi and Paganini transposed for the piano. But now with another one of my interests illuminated in the destination (as if music, art, and chocolate weren’t enough), the waiting is going to be maddening.
Ineke A-H: Hothouse Flower
And the end of the Ineke reviews is here! I especially enjoyed the last three letters of her alphabet, but I admire her talent and ability and can’t wait to take a peek into her Floral Curiosities collection. Florals are absolutely my cup of tea, and I’m sure she’s done as lovely a job at creating those as she did her alphabetical collection.
Yuriko Nakamura’s Winter Romance
Hothouse Flower
Wet: violets, bubblegum, fig, banana
Dry: gardenia, violet, fig, bergamot, wood, banana cream
Whoever enjoy this scent probably takes their tea with cream, as the florals in it are backed by a definite creaminess and richness atop a little table of natural wood. This is a light, sweet scent, the lightest I think, of all of the selections in my little box, but bright and lush, with a scent similar to a ripe fruit. I think it’s a ripe banana, personally, but a ripe banana that’s still on its vine in someone’s garden somewhere foreign to me surrounded by other flourishing plants and you can still smell the tree on the fruits after you pick them, not the ultra-sweet piece of fruit someone’s been allowing to languish on a counter somewhere. It’s really very lovely and unobtrusive in a way all of the other scents besides Derring-Do have been. I would love to smell this scent on someone shy, as I think a fragrance like this garners quiet notice and, just like the smell itself grows on me as I wear it, indicates someone worth getting to know. This person may wear glasses, but they definitely wear cardigans and keep their arms close to their body.
Ineke A-H: Gilded Lily
Something light and happy, full orchestra!
Danny Elfman’s Sandra’s Theme from Big Fish
Gilded Lily
Wet: oregano, violet, lily, oakmoss, patchouli
Dry: lily, honey, oregano, citrus, oakmoss, powdery resin
This smells as though someone took an enormous amount of lilies and buried them in a stone garden and was immediately set on fire, and the scent is that moment as everything becomes really hot but nothing is smoking yet. It’s a very, very fleeting moment that is now preserved in my imagination by scent. The lilies are rooted in the stick labdanum and oakmoss and while it gives a nice, warm floral feeling, I really wish there was a little more dirt to round it out and make this the organic scent I was hoping this would turn into. This scent is sweet and fragrant and a little flirty, but I don’t find it sexy. This is more for the girl next door who wears fuzzy pastel sweaters and greets everyone with an enthusiastic “Hi!” Pretty, cute, and light-hearted.
Ineke A-H: Field Notes From Paris
Piano as an accompaniment to string today! I think I first heard this song when I was 16, though I don’t quite remember why. I try not to question discoveries of beauty.
Norihiro Tsuro’s Last Carnival, from the Acoustic Cafe album
Field Notes From Paris
Wet: lavender, coriander, citrus, leather, wood
Dry: coriander, lavender, tobacco flower, patchouli, cedar, tonka bean, lime, maybe a little rosemary
This is my new sexy scent, directly in competition with all of the jasmine I adore. It’s incredibly delightful: deep, dark, and warm, as well as complex. It moves in a swirl like a gust of warm wind, something absolutely welcome in this frigid cold. Strangely, it’s the herbs, the coriander and the bit of rosemary I get that reminds me most of the coffee implied in the description, though the tobacco comes through and keeps the fragrance warm. I love that its sweetness is wholly tempered, and it gives it depth and dimension that I don’t normally come across. It reminds me of bedroom eyes on an attractive person, or simply a person you’re in love with, as love automatically makes them beautiful.
I wear this personally, and I think this is a scent that benefits from a little dancing and sweat, but it’s a beautiful scent and I can see it on a guy who isn’t afraid to wear purple, and is trained in some art or another, which he pursues with passion.
Pomelo girl thoughts 