I couldn’t resist it – have opened a Christmas present early as I felt sure it was a fragrance. It is! It’s Dior’s Dune! Never even smelt it. Anybody know what it smells like?
My perfume voyage started about six months ago when I was briefly in hospital. The delightful people who came to visit me all seemed to bring me something smelly. Some particularly good friend brought me some Jo Malone Sweet Lime and Cedar cologne. And it smelled incredibly dry. “Ooh, that’s dry”, I thought, “What an incredibly dry fragrance.” And, “How can something smell so dry…??” And I was hooked on fragrance.
A Knize Ten sample landed on my doormat this morning. I’ve just sprayed it, and “Oooh its dry!” The dryness seems to come from the cedar. Although why an evergreen tree’s aroma would remind you of dryness I don’t know – but that’s how it seems.
Next, there’s a tang of Cusson’s Imperial Leather soapiness, which must be the leather element. I can’t stand Imperial Leather. It was my family’s soap of choice when I was growing up in the 70s. In my opinion there’s nothing good about Imperial Leather soap. There was a sticky label in the middle of the soap bar. Do they even still make it? Who cares?
Now that I’ve identified the Imperial Leather link I think I have to go and scrub it off…. Euugh
My children have a plastic dog poo that they leave lying around the house. They put it in funny places and even have a special name for it – ‘baguette end’. It’s a joke, it’s occasionally quite funny. But my children are quite young and they didn’t pay £44 for their pretend poo.
Bois de Jasmin writes, “Whether you love or hate Sécrétions Magnifiques, one thing is true—it cannot leave you indifferent.”
After the initial shock of smelling something quite so awful the picture in my mind became a bit clearer. Being at the seaside and accidentally breathing in a great big mouthful of salty water. Your body takes over and you gag. Oh wait… mouthful of something salty. Now I get it.
From the humour of the willy picture on the front to the name of the fragrance, this seems to be to be something that people would buy one another for a laugh. It’s a perfume from a joke store. Like the plastic dog poo that my children love to leave around the house. Is anybody actually wearing it??
For Her is a lovely, lovely floral fragrance. One of my friends who wears this regularly says it reminds her of the smell of fresh washing. I can understand the comment. For Her is clean and fresh and completely lacking in pretension.
People say that For Her is very similar to Sarah Jessica Parker’s Lovely. Or rather, Lovely is following in the wake of a popular trend, established by the huge success of For Her. I haven’t done a direct comparison of the two fragrances. They are both pretty florals without any ambition to be anything else.
For Her makes me feel youthful. You wouldn’t wear this to convey your sexuality or sophistication. Funnily enough, this fragrance reminds me generically of Estée Lauder’s fragrance advertising. Estée Lauder adverts always seem to feature a girl on her own running barefoot through a field, or playing with puppies. You get the idea.
I’m putting For Her on my Christmas wish list. This is a great wearable fragrance.
After a disastrous Friday, I’ve had an enormously productive fragrance weekend.
Firstly, my oh so tolerant husband and four children spent a few hours at the prestige perfume counters in Liberty and Fenwick’s. Secondly, a selection of samples from Les Senteurs is winging its way to me sometime soon. Thirdly, I found a set of nine EdT samples for good value at Penhaligon’s.
Unfortunately, I failed to find the Virgilio room fragrance from Diptyque. Luca Turin gives Virgilio a noteworthy description in “Perfumes: The A-Z Guide”. He comments that, ‘The saline note in perfumery is elusive’. He goes on to note that he’s found it in Fleurs de Sel by Miller Harris as well as Virgilio. I’m keen to try both as the idea of a salty fragrance is intriguing.
My final success this weekend was tracking down, Diptyque’s delightful Figuier candle (read a review at Now Smell This), which is wafting around our sitting room right now.
In Liberty I was absolutely spoilt for choice. I wanted to try something that I hadn’t smelt before. A lady next to me was trying Annick Goutal’s honeysuckle fragrance Le Chèvrefeuille. After I commented how nice it was she recommended that I try the perfume that she normally wears – Eau du Sud.
Eau du Sud is floral and fresh and zesty. It smells like a perfect summer’s day in the garden. It’s not a fragrance that I could wear day after day – but it’s something lovely to put a spring in your step once in a while. I’ve heard people talk about ‘sunshine’ fragrances. Eau du Sud epitomises a sunshine fragrance for me.
My other reaction to Eau du Sud is that it smells, to me, exactly the same as Clarin’s Eau Dynamisante. Eau Dynamisante was my duty free treat of choice for several years. Eau du Sud was so evocative of my memory of Eau Dynamisante that I went to the Clarins’ counter to compare the two. To my completely untrained nose, they are one and the same fragrance. Clarins sell Eau Dynamisante for £25 per 100ml. Whereas Eau du Sud EdT costs £50 for 50ml at Les Senteurs.
Choose whichever you will. Both Eau du Sud and Eau Dynaminsante are fabulous fragrances to bring the sunshine back into your life on a cold December day.
Today I made the pilgrimage to Les Senteurs in Belgravia. Having read about this fabulous fragrance store, I was really excited to go and sample some new perfumes. Looking online at their list of fragrances, there are plenty that I’ve been reading about, but haven’t been able to buy anywhere else.
When I arrived, I could have cried. There are two massive great steps at the entrance and quite a narrow door. Even if I managed to haul my twins’ buggy up the steps, I probably wouldn’t have made it through the doorway. I momentarily toyed with the idea of leaving the babies outside. But it’s December and it’s freezing. So I sadly pressed my nose against the window for a bit and then plodded off.
Les Senteurs looks like a lavish perfume emporium. I will definitely be heading back there, either on a day when I don’t have the twins, or when I have my husband in tow. In the meantime, I will probably make the most of their online sample service.
Onwards and upwards.
Today I did manage to try Creed’s Himalaya. The bottle is quite naff. Silver plastic – hmm, you kind of wonder what they’re aiming at. However, getting past the packaging, it’s a great masculine fragrance with intense woody notes. Smelling this reminds me of walking through an evergreen forest – all pine needles and resonant woods. It’s subtle and mature. A great fragrance for almost any man, particularly if they don’t want to make a statement, but just have a general whiff of smelling good.
If you love perfume then here are some fabulous websites you should follow:
Buying some perfume from one of the big fashion houses makes you feel that you possess a fragment of the glamour of the name. Idole is a suitably glamorous fragrance. It smells floral and fresh and complex. Wearing it makes you feel sophisticated. There’s a faint note of sweetness in Idole, but, unusually, it works within the perfume as a whole without becoming cloying.
According to Now Smell This, the notes within the perfume are: “clementine, pear, ginger, davana, saffron, jasmine, loukoum rose, patchouli and vetiver” so it is slightly spicy.
This is a beautiful fragrance, and definitely one to try if you feel like wearing and air of sophistication.
When I first smelt ‘Woman’ I wasn’t feeling particularly charitable. Citrus fragrances are not that popular and need some getting used to. My initial response was that it smells like the freshening wipe that used to come free with KFC.
However, now that I’ve worn it a few times, Woman does have a lot of depth. It reminds me of forest greens and in particular, the ivy leaf. The background green notes are over-arched by a strong, but not sharp citrus combination.
There’s an urban myth that factories are more productive when citrus smells are released into the atmosphere. This may or may not be true. What is true is that a citrus fragrance makes you feel awake, fresh and lively. Quite literally it gives you a zest for life.
Great for giving you a boost on a cold, winter morning.
Perfume is a great gift for Christmas, and it’s good to buy sure fire winners. According to the Daily Mail, these are the top ten selling perfumes in the UK today.
1. Chanel No. 5
2. Calvin Klein Eternity
3. Prada Eau de Toilette
4. Davidoff Cool Water
5. Gucci Rush
6. Ralph Lauren Romance
7. Lovely by Sarah Jessica Parker
8. Issey Miyake L’eau d’Issey
9. Estee Lauder Beautiful
10. Tom Ford Black Orchid
