scent

Happy Birthday Olivia Giacobetti!

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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

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Little has changed in the pharmacy over the years. Compare this photograph to the next, taken several decades ago.

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.

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Ineke A-H: Hothouse Flower

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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

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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

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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.

Ineke A-H: Evening Edged in Gold

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I learned the piano for this song when I was younger. Still in my head!

The Hush Sound’s Lighthouse by Michael Williams (Piano only)

Evening Edged in Gold

Wet: wine, plum, mahogany
Dry: plum, apricot, dusty flowers, sandalwood, leather

Mm, no soap in this one, and perhaps it’s because I was doing my homework while sipping a merlot, but this was a lovely pairing; both slightly sweet, the perfume sweeter, but both plummy, with a little bit of a bite. At first the image in my head was a tragically spilled glass of wine ruining some gloves on an expensive desk. It changed after a while into a woman eating fragrant pit fruits with her gloves still on over the same expensive desk, which is not really the appropriate table to be eating dripping fruit on. Which I guess it the point; it’s just a little inappropriate. And I like it. I may be biased since I’m a brunette, but this is a brunette lover’s scent through and through. Brunette, dark gem colors, hooded eyelids.

Ineke A-H: Chemical Bonding

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This one’s a little sharper, exciting, jumpy, quite fun!

Anton Rubenstein’s Staccato Etude Opus 23, No. 2, by Jouni Somero

Chemical Bonding

Wet: grapefruit, lemon, soap, tomato, floral notes
Dry: lime, grapefruit, lemon, vinegar, peony

It’s that musk again interfering with my enjoyment of this scent. It would otherwise be a rather nice cheerful, bright scent, but the musk makes it smell like a combination of Pledge and roasted tomatoes after two hours. Very strange. I don’t understand it very well, but it’s kind of tasty in that weird “maybe I’ll just take one bite” kind of way. It eventually gets softer and the peony takes over, and it becomes much less “odd tomato tart” and more “flower salad dressed with lemon vinaigrette” with pepper notes, and would probably smell fantastic on someone who uses a lot of cocoa butter on the daily.

Ineke A-H: Balmy Days & Sundays

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I’ve never seen Paperman, and I really want to now. This is some gorgeous music.

Christophe Beck’s Paperman, by Camden Tilley

Balmy Days & Sundays

Wet: Lime, honeysuckle, rose, musk
Dry: lime, honeysuckle, angel slippers, rose, musk, oakmoss

I don’t know what type of musk Ineke uses, but the scents are all so soapy on me. This one’s a little less so, and the oakmoss I think really helps to counter the weird, soapy musk. The notes online don’t indicate any sort of citrus, but the lime for me is front and center, though I don’t know what freesia smells like. It reminds me of times on the slip and slide, the squashed grass and mud mixing with the smell of detergent or bubble soap or whatever was mixed into the water to give it a slick quality, but it’s definitely cleaner and prettier, as if we were engaging in the activity in a field of wildflowers.

Ineke A-H: After My Own Heart

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I usually put poems here, but I think I’ll do music this time.

Robert Starer’s Pink, by Dr. Jason Sifford

After My Own Heart

Wet: lilac, Dove soap, magnolia
Dry: lilac, jasmine, musk, flower stalk

This reminds me of a gift soap shaped in the form of a bouquet of purple flowers of all shapes that my family was once given. I loved that soap because it was purple (and not pink) and it smelled like flowers, which I had a vested interest in from a young age. I used to format huge guides of flowers, their pictures, and their meanings and print them out on our home printer. This is a nice memory of those times, but the musk makes this stay rather soapy on me, and I unfortunately can’t see myself wearing it. For those who don’t mind the soap however, it’s a really fresh lilac fragrance, a little creamy, not too sweet, and because of the soap, really quite clean.

Avon’s Haiku

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This was probably my second blind buy ever, and it was because someone mentioned how gorgeous the bottle was and that it was a strong white floral. Since I agreed that the bottle was pretty enough just to decorate my desk if I didn’t end up liking the scent, I’m a sucker for white florals, and the bottle with shipping cost me like $11, I took the tiny jump and got it.

“I must have flowers, always, and always.” – Claude Monet

Avon’s Haiku

Wet: lily, yuzu, water, musk
Dry: lily, jasmine, pineapple, musk, water, yuzu

Haiku is a very girly, fruity iced drink, all cold floral notes and a slightly tart sweetness, kind of like a frozen margarita if the recipe included yuzu, pineapple, and some essential oils stripped from flowers. It’s a strong floral with a fruity bite to it, and I think it’s very approachable without being boring. It gets to be like a lotion smell when it warms up a little, which should prove very pleasant to some people. I just wish there was something dirty or salty about it. That, I think, would make this a really wonderful fragrance. I’ll take it to the beach with me this summer and find out.

Happy Lunar New Year, guys!

Baaaa.