tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4157954197130918562026-04-05T14:54:57.678-04:00I Smell Therefore I AmAbigailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08164551758520564300noreply@blogger.comBlogger753125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415795419713091856.post-31028091917961384482015-04-10T14:59:00.004-04:002015-04-10T16:15:56.420-04:00Narciso Eau de Parfum
The word beige is often used derogatorily as an adjective for all things boring, pale, and dreary, and it wasn't until I met a certain someone who embraces the color and everything it can be made to stand for that I was ever given cause to think about it in any other way.
Beige is so much, really. "So good," as this certain someone would say. It's skin, for one thing; nude, pale, and Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14293853110472146382noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415795419713091856.post-72557794222735767082014-10-17T11:01:00.000-04:002014-10-17T11:01:55.328-04:00I Wore This: Le Labo Laurier 62 Home Fragrance
My feeling is that if it's good enough to spray in the air I breathe, and if I'm going to be smelling it anyway, then it's good enough to wear. There's also that whole body is a temple thing, and a temple is a room, so I go with that.
I was curious about Laurier because it was said to contain eucalyptus, rosemary, laurel, thyme, cumin, clove, amber, patchouli, and sandalwood, among other Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14293853110472146382noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415795419713091856.post-90455869021905655112014-09-30T11:17:00.003-04:002014-09-30T11:17:45.676-04:00I Wore This: Simply Right Hand Sanitizer
I work in an office with four other people. My nearest co-worker wears vanilla-centric florals: Burberry, Chanel Allure edp. She leaves to smoke and returns smelling of cigarettes and sheer vanilla. One other co-worker, who doesn't work near me in the building, tends to cough dramatically from the other room whenever I spray anything on. Out of annoyance if not courtesy, some time ago I stoppedBrianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14293853110472146382noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415795419713091856.post-31957760073195646912014-09-24T10:38:00.000-04:002014-09-24T10:41:37.171-04:00I Wore This: Chanel Egoiste
You can tell a lot about a gay guy's ex boyfriends by the colognes he wears. They get passed along, or stolen. A guy smells something on his boyfriend, is reminded of him, wants to be like him, lifts the scent as a way to project the same ineffable qualities. To get closer or to swallow the object of affection whole. Isn't that what we essentially seek to do with those whose appeal we want to Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14293853110472146382noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415795419713091856.post-13603680362819972412014-09-15T17:14:00.004-04:002014-09-17T09:43:01.160-04:00I Wore This: Amouage Interlude Man
I was wearing this last night while reading another Inspector Maigret novel by Georges Simenon.
I'm wearing it again today, doing a side by side comparison to Chantecaille's Kalimantan. Both were done by Pierre Negrin, and they're very much alike, I realized: I don't remember how. People just love Kalimantan but I've never warmed to it - not as passionately as others seem to; whereas, I knew Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14293853110472146382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415795419713091856.post-77469659365354636762014-09-11T10:16:00.001-04:002014-09-11T10:23:02.308-04:00Scene from Paper Moon: Evening in Paris
When Addie's mother dies, Moses Pray, a former suitor slash john shows up at the funeral. The funeral is decidedly middle of nowhere, prairie in all directions, and other than Pray, and discounting the droning preacher, only maybe two people have attended: two elderly women who've made Addie their charge. Moses happens to be passing through and stops to pay his respects ("I know your backside Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14293853110472146382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415795419713091856.post-78137998783164875102014-08-27T10:27:00.001-04:002014-08-27T10:33:29.982-04:00I Wore This: Dior Addict (Original)
(Or: Why I Seem to Have Stopped Writing "Reviews")
For a long time now (let's throw a number out and say five months) I've spent more time on customer review sites than on perfume blogs proper. Until recently, I didn't really ask myself why. I must have just concluded, in some hazy region of my hamster wheel mind, buried chin deep in everyday routine, that I'd lost interest in perfume. Why Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14293853110472146382noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415795419713091856.post-49571076344721673642014-08-22T10:38:00.002-04:002014-08-22T12:50:17.281-04:00I Wore This: Chanel Cristalle EDP and Vero Profumo Mito
Cristalle is nice, and I prefer the edp to the edt, which is nice too, for the all of five minutes it lasts on me. Cristalle in that big brick bottle Chanel makes. My Cristalle edp comes in this brick but hits you like a feather. I keep trying to like feathers but I prefer bricks. So the Cristalle feels like a beautiful tease, and puts me in an irritable mood.
Mito Voile d'Extrait is a brick Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14293853110472146382noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415795419713091856.post-23614354545615160962014-08-07T11:16:00.002-04:002014-08-07T11:16:58.642-04:00I Wore This: La Nuit de Paco Rabanne
There are some key differences between eau de toilette and eau de parfum, the primary difference being skank. Honeyed skank, really. The eau de toilette is honeyed chypre, lasts forever, relates itself to true moss leather chypres like Trussardi Femme and Rochas Mystere. It kisses you like you kiss a baby.
I once found two or three bottles of the eau de parfum for something like 30 bucks Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14293853110472146382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415795419713091856.post-20704809903391337502014-07-31T11:09:00.000-04:002014-07-31T11:09:05.220-04:00I Wore This: Dior Poison
A little one ounce bottle of Poison, because apparently I can never have enough.
Let me tally. At this point, I own I think five - now six, bottles, various formulations. I try to keep track by the packaging but mostly I know by the smell.
This one from the drugstore, probably dating to the early 2000s. It isn't as insistently bright and austere as the latest version. It isn't glorified Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14293853110472146382noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415795419713091856.post-50575587124462061612014-07-25T12:01:00.001-04:002014-07-25T12:01:15.809-04:00I Wore This: Jean Patou Sublime Eau de Parfum
Amber, Vetiver, Orange Blossom. Like Teo Cabanel's Alahine, Sublime is a strange, diffusive toasted amber.
I was telling someone last night my sense of smell isn't particularly robust. I like strong, forceful things that keep reminding me they're with me. Sublime isn't strong or forceful but it's that rare fragrance that stage whispers.
People complain about a hairspray note. I often Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14293853110472146382noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415795419713091856.post-27435914496820139842014-07-23T15:09:00.001-04:002014-07-23T15:09:12.053-04:00I Wore This: Chanel No.5 Eau De Cologne
I was in Berlin recently with Barbara Herman and Miguel Matos, and at some point, trading the smells we'd all brought, Miguel pulled out an atomizer of Chanel No. 5 eau de cologne.
I've never been a big No.5 fan, so the cologne concentration surprised me. It's sweet and ambery and a little leathery, less sharp than its better known siblings, more mellow. It doesn't last long but at least, Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14293853110472146382noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415795419713091856.post-81881178129704267182014-06-27T14:55:00.002-04:002014-06-27T14:55:21.983-04:00Selections from Bourbon French Parfums, New Orleans, Lousiana
Originally called Doussan French Perfumery, the perfume house now known as Bourbon French Parfums dates back to 1843, the year perfumer and founder August Doussan arrived in New Orleans from France.
The establishment has since passed through several hands and noses, all of which and whom you can read about on the company's website or hear about, I imagine, if you visit the store in the Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14293853110472146382noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415795419713091856.post-75409356842830250972014-06-11T14:40:00.002-04:002014-06-11T14:40:55.907-04:00Barbara Herman in Nashville
Last week, Barbara Herman (author of the blog Yesterday's Perfume and the book Scent and Subversion: Decoding a Century of provocative Perfume) was in town on her way to a reading in Nashville. When she asked if I might like to head that way with her I said yes, and even though I ended up attending a funeral the morning we were leaving and we plowed carefully and slowly through buckets of Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14293853110472146382noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415795419713091856.post-81367387084015412292014-04-07T11:57:00.000-04:002014-04-07T11:57:19.916-04:00Diptyque L'Eau de L'Eau
At some point in the last year or two, during their repackaging thrust, Diptyque changed the concentration of their Les Eaux series. Previously colognes, these now became eau de toilette, with better lasting power and slightly different behaviors on the skin. I must have smelled the cologne versions when they first started releasing them; however, until recently, I think the last one I'd paid Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14293853110472146382noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415795419713091856.post-38285396254503765192013-12-27T13:22:00.001-05:002013-12-27T17:36:05.616-05:00Best of 2013: Perfume and Otherwise2013 was eventful for me - a little more eventful than I tend to like - and it had less to do with perfume than I'd prefer. Still, there were highlights. Precious few, but they peppered the disappointments enough to keep me engaged, if barely.
- In November, Andy Tauer and I released the third fragrance in our ongoing collaboration between the characters and stories of the Woman's Picture Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14293853110472146382noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415795419713091856.post-76491582751371615572013-12-18T15:01:00.002-05:002013-12-18T15:01:45.396-05:00Bond No.9: The Good, The Bad, and the Fugly (or, Just What Is It That Makes Today's Bond No.9 So Hit and Miss?)
Is there a more derided niche house than Bond No. 9? I'm tempted to say no. The brand's infamously aggressive tactics - with consumers, with retailers, with critics - have earned it a special place in the hearts and minds of people who write about, talk about, and sniff perfume: first there was criticism, then, more recently, silence. The increasingly outrageous pricing hasn't helped, nor haveBrianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14293853110472146382noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415795419713091856.post-18213532164281427432013-10-09T13:50:00.001-04:002013-10-10T13:55:56.294-04:00Fall Playlist
Summer is a real dry spell for me. I can't seem to smell anything, and my skin can't seem to absorb anything fast enough, so I end up wearing a few old reliables, things that will stand their ground against the heat and humidity. Every time Fall rolls around, it's like I'm discovering scent all over again. Everything smells so much...more than it seems to have up until then. Having restricted Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14293853110472146382noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415795419713091856.post-40553769009364397192013-08-01T12:12:00.000-04:002013-08-01T12:12:02.461-04:00Packing the Perfect Hunch: Perfume to Go
Almost every day I pack a bag the way a parent might prepare a lunch pail for a student. Theirs are full of baloney. Mine is full of perfume. Sometimes, a perfume from this rotating mobile cabinet carries over into the next day. Occasionally, it carries over into three.
I have a sturdy plastic bag - ironically, about the size and shape of a classic square lunchbox - and in this plastic bag I Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14293853110472146382noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415795419713091856.post-13565837742245546772013-07-10T21:47:00.002-04:002013-07-10T21:47:07.872-04:00Tom Ford Sahara Noir: Just Desert
Leave it to Tom Ford to bring frankincense back to basics.
It isn't just the name of his latest fragrance, which retraces ancient trade routes, pointing farther east than the Catholic church, where westerners seem to have consigned frankincense.
It isn't just the "Noir" part, which turns the lights down on all that far east mystique, reminding us that when we think of other cultures we Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14293853110472146382noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415795419713091856.post-59838582992989888842013-07-02T12:06:00.000-04:002013-07-03T11:21:45.754-04:00Le Labo Ylang 49
There's a unifying thread in the some of the work perfumer Frank Voelkl has done for Le Labo, but you'd have to consult another blogger to tell you in any kind of useful way what that is. All I can say is that I smell something in Iris 39 and Santal 33 that seems very much present in Ylang 49, which isn't much help. For lack of a better way to put it, I'll call it a certain kind of damp rootyBrianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14293853110472146382noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415795419713091856.post-6372083609282636172013-06-27T18:33:00.001-04:002013-06-27T18:33:04.982-04:00Luxe Patchouli EDT: Comme des Garcons
Several years ago, traveling back from a film festival in Greece, a good third of a full bottle of Luxe Patchouli leaked out into my carry-on, much to the displeasure of the man whose seat adjoined mine. He liked me even less when some of it - or a lot of it, if we go by him - got on my hands. I'd loved Luxe Patchouli from moment one, and finally splurged on a bottle. It was my first Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14293853110472146382noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415795419713091856.post-29785079011892421812013-06-13T10:30:00.004-04:002013-06-13T10:30:45.815-04:00Dressing the Part: What a Dandy Wears
When I first heard about my friend's twin brothers and their obsession with dressing themselves like something out of a Bond film, I asked her whether they wear cologne. I couldn't imagine spending that much thought and time crafting a public persona without scent being a crucial component of your wardrobe.
She said she wasn't sure, so before I headed over to film them, I packed up some of Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14293853110472146382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415795419713091856.post-30617757054525484482013-05-22T19:20:00.003-04:002013-05-29T09:42:38.516-04:00Hedonist by Viktoria Minya: What's in a Word
It's been interesting, as early reviews of Hedonist have come in, to see what people make of the word. I had no idea it had quite the reputation it does - you'd think, from some of these reactions, it were a synonym for harlot, trollop, or worse - and I wonder what Viktoria Minya, the perfumer behind the scent, thinks about all this, because to my nose the fragrance is more in keeping with theBrianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14293853110472146382noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415795419713091856.post-87681039725389076532013-05-11T16:48:00.001-04:002013-05-11T17:00:58.790-04:00Buying Perfume on Ebay: Things to Keep in Mind
Over the last several years, I've purchased something like 50 bottles of perfume on Ebay.
For the most part, my transactions with sellers have been good experiences: the product I receive is essentially the product I believed was on its way. I'm not an extravagant buyer on Ebay, whatever the number 50 might lead you to believe. I have a policy with myself. I generally have a limit, which Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14293853110472146382noreply@blogger.com11