Part 3- Fully fledged perfumistas- share your fragrances

[shoeprincess2]

Part 2 is nearly full!

I popped into a branch of Lush today to have a sniff of some of the Gorilla perfumes. Honestly, that shop is so heavily fragrant my poor nose waved a white flag after about 30 seconds, and I had to retire to Costa with some samples sprayed onto cards to make my choice.

I ended up buying a small bottle of The Sun (new, I think), which is lovely zesty orange (for you citrus lovers out there). A hint of sandalwood too. It will be a nice everyday summer one, I think.

I also sampled Breath of God, but found it harsh and unpleasant; a chemical cacophony. Vanillary had too much jasmine going on (one of my dislikes).

Does anyone know where I can get decent sized ( maybe 10 ml) of Premier Figiuer Extreme? I would like a fb but don't think I can extend to it financially.

Every now and then I check in on mainstream (=our local Sephora), hoping to find something worth sampling. Usually this doesn't work.
But when it does, the surprise is very pleasant.
I held seven different strips in my hand, trying to find something interesting enough to try on skin.
Suddenly I smelled a delicious green rose.
Could it be that the insipid Calvin Kleins had a hidden heartnote?

It was Un Jardin sur le Toit by Hermes. Something that I had sniffed in passing and written off as the weak link in the series (it is not easy to get excited about pear and apple notes).
But forget pear and forget apple. Forget coy and shy.
This is a jewel-like rose perfume partially hidden among sharp green notes.
Like good old Aromatic Elixir after a facelift, total body tuck and possibly some more work
Speaking with the ringing voice of a boy soprano.
Perfect for a mellow spring day.

ProFumo- you have a lovely way with words, quite lyrical!

I'm wearing Cuir Mauresque today and although I don't think I'll buy a full bottle, I love how it keeps changing. Just when I think I've got it labelled, it turns into something else. I like that in a perfume.

I'm utterly intrigued by it.

Going, going.... Narziss has lasted all day but is fading fast. After the rose came - and went - there was sweet wood and a cool fuzziness, perhaps smoke, or iris? Now there's just a pleasant but rather general perfumey smell.

ProFumo - It may be just me, but I have smelt nothing narcissus-like in Narziss so far. Perhaps the name refers to the myth?? I don't know....

Slag - I do agree that it's fascinating how sents change.

Aha!

It seems that two of the Dorissima perfumes, Narziss and Goldmund, are named after Herman Hesse's novel of the same title.

see: www.nstperfume.com/2005/12/08/fragrance-review-dorissima-narziss-goldmund/

I have not read it, so can't say any more...

Yep, gotcha Flora! I actually read that novel as a teen (it was a rite of passage - we thought it was so deep ).

Narcisse absolute has nothing to do with those banal, slightly acrid-smelling Easter flowers in my mother's garden and gas stations everywhere. To quote Osmoz, it's simultaneously green, fatty, floral and animalic - my favorite smells bundled together
It's a distant relative of tuberose - but to me, cooler, leaner, meaner and much harder to source. A great article about narcisse here. I'm still looking for a great narcissus soliflore.

Oh and MmeSlag, your taste in perfume is truly bipolar! Do not take this as an insult: you like some of the most classic and elegant perfumes ever made - clean and clear classic colognes, the proto-unisexes - and then a whiplash of leather and spice - Cuir Mauresque! A stunning perfume, but not one of those crowd-pleasing pink juices for little girls One of the brawniest perfumes I know - whoa, hats off! (Talk to Haber. Knize 10 may or may not be your thing. And you definitely also need to explore some worm-eaten buried-in-the-cellar-and-mummified patchoulis and ouds. Leather Oud and Patchouli Imperial by Dior for example. The darkest Le Labos too.)

Why thank you ProFumo.

Cuir Mauresque is taking me for a ride today. It started as joss sticks, then it went a bit Tabac Blond, then it went inexplicably floral for a bit (dried up rose petals of all things) and then calmed down to a powdery soft patchouli.

I love it when a perfume has "moods".

Cointreau that is exactly the problem I have with Gorilla perfumes- not so long ago I went into Lush to sample a few, but there is too much nasal stimuli going on in there to smell properly. Such a shame as many of their perfumes get a good write up and I love the variety of sizes.

So loving the Teint de Neige today, any ideas where I can get a decant? Failing that, a FB will be on my birthday list (only 7 months to go!)

I am curious as to whether any Perfumistas have a 'guilty pleasure'- the fragrance equivalent of listening to an old Steps or S Club CD. Mine is Lacoste Dream of Pink- have had a bottle for a few years now and down to the last quarter. Great for when I need to be innocuous and inoffensive, last worn to DS1's preschool nativity play. I admit though that in my post DC non perfume wearing years, I often used it as a bathroom air freshener

C'mon folks, fess up!

My guilty pleasure is Hilary Duff With Love. It's all mango and pipe smoke and a bit manly. Not at all what I was expecting.

Fuzzy, I have several Lacoste bottles in my collection, as DH works for the company (Procter & Gamble). I don't mind the odd "Touch of Pink" myself.

Guilty pleasure= Love's Babysoft! Bought a bottle a few years ago and just spraying it takes me back to a sunny day in 1979 listening to Supertramp and flicking my hair. I often wear it in weekends. Really!!

Deseo by J Lo.

Lush really isn't my thing. Yes, I like loud, but not that loud

You may find some TdN here.

Olivia Giacobetti theme continues with L'ete en douce.
Love the honeyed linden top note, but there is something off-kilter about this perfume.

Guilty pleasure used to be Anais Anais which a lot of people sneer at, until I discovered that it is quite highly rated by a lot of perfumistas. I've always adored it. My cheapie favourite at the moment is a thing called Grass from Gap. V cheap, v cheerful, does what it says on the tin and is basically olfactorily equivalent to emptying the lawnmower.

Honeyed linden sounds lovely, ProFumo, and I like OG so will look that one up.

Thanks ProFumo! Fascinating stuff...

I like the smell of those papery white narcissus flowers when they very first burst into bloom, but not coarse yellow daffodils. And they all, white or yellow, so quickly develop that rotten 'dirty-plant-water' undertone that Perfumistas have described recently.

At the moment our sitting room is reeking of white hyacinths - in pots. I think they look absolutely amazing, which is why I grow them. It's quite springlike to catch just a faint waft of the scent on the air as I walk past, but sit too close and it becomes overpowering.

Not exactly a guilty pleasure but when younger I used to like Diorissimo. I smelled it again the other day; now seems far too shrill and screechy. And I still have a soft spot for 'Joy'. That's hardly subtle, either.

I hope child with digestive upset will soon be better.

Loving all these guilty pleasures, will have to see if I can sniff some of them out over the weekend!

Haber until recently I thought of Cacharel as a cheap and cheerful brand but they seem quite highly rated by perfume lovers. I love Anais Anais too and have a soft spot for Loulou and Eden.

Cointreau I used to love 'Inspiration'...this is making me realise just how many bottles of perfume I went through in my twenties, scary!

Thank you Profumo for the link

No luck finding decants of Premier Figuier Extreme on Crystal Flacon.
Crystal Flacon is good for unisex and masculine fragrances and some classics, but they have few female sellers. Some 3ml glass pearls available on eBay (need to be resealed with sellotape or transferred to another container). Perhaps worth setting up a saved search there. There is also a Facebook Fragrance Friends group where it might be worthwhile to ask.

SOTD: Habit Rouge. This is the masculine counterpart of Shalimar, and to me, infinitely easier to wear. Light lemon-vanilla goodness with just a hint of leather and depth. The advantage of wearing the masculine "spouses" of classics is that the formulation is different enough that all stale mink stole associations are removed (I grew up surrounded by elderly ladies who doused themselves in Shalimar; they wore it and a full-length mink coat to shop at the fishmonger's ).

Morning ladies! No scent on yet, but I think it is going to be TdN, after all the talk of it this week. So, I have placed an order of samples from ebay, as they were offering free delivery, so meant I could buy 5 for the same price of 4 from Les Senteurs. Anyway, I have on order:-
-Tuscan Leather (finally)
-Tobacco Vanille (another one finally)
-Musc Ravageur
-Chergui
-Ambre Nuit

Lots of wintery scents here, but I still have a list as long as my arm for sampling. I have added Cuir Mauresque to it YouOldSlag, as I love the idea of a multiple personality scent. Borneo 1834 is also on the list, as well as Bandit, Un Bois Vanille and Fleur Nocturne.

So, you have been talking about guilty pleasures. Mine is J Lo Glow and The Body Shop Love Etc, which has superb longevity and is lovely for a day in the office.

AHH the weekend at last!

Not wearing any perfume today yet, had a craving this morning for something sharp and green (maybe it was the winter sunshine) and as it's something I don't usually go for I didn't have anything in my perfume wardrobe that fitted the bill. The greenest thing I had was Cristalle eau Vert, and that felt just too summery for today, and Carnal Flower, which seemed too heady. Might have to invest in something like No19 for days like today, I'm not really familiar with green scents, can anyone suggest any others which I could try, something green and punchy, not summery though.

Here are a few easy-to-find perfumes with a green feel: Ô de Lancôme, Ninfeo Mio (AG), Eau de Campagne (Sisley), Un Jardin sur le Toit (Hermes), Un Jardin sur le Nil (Hermes), L'Ombre dans l'Eau and Virgilio (Diptyque), AA Herba Fresca by Guerlain, Truth by Calvin Klein, Chanel N°19, particularly the EDT strength. Bel Respiro by Chanel is a mild light green cologne. This blog post is worth reading too.

I often look for fragrances with a green edge/ opening rather than a full-on grassy feel. The green heightens contrasts and is a mouthwatering opening to whatever follows. I even have a chocolatey gourmand with a strong green opening (Defile New York by HdP). Sound bizarre, like a pregnancy craving, but it works

Enjoying the heavenly drydown of Habit Rouge.

I've not heard of quite a few of these Profumo. Going out in a bit to the shops so have decided to have a spray of Estee Lauder Pleasures and perhaps go into M&S to try their Fleur d'orange which I think I read about on this thread.

But what I'd really love is an Annick Goutal. Even the bottle is lovely. So I think I'll hold on for a while and get one of those eventually. But it seems not many places stock it outside London. I was thinking about ordering some samples from Surrender to Chance. Is it still worth it with the postage charges and duty. They do quite a lot of the Annick Goutal.

Thanks profumo, heading out to shops now, so might have a sniff of some of those.

Viviennemary - some branches of John Lewis and House of Fraser stock Annick Goutal; you don't have to be in London.

Thanks Cointreau. I didn't realise John Lewis stocked it. I'm not there very often but will certainly look next time I'm there. Tried Estee Lauder Pleasures. It was pleasant but a bit too 'nothing out of the ordinary', M & S didn't seem to have the Fleurs d'orange and there was nobody to ask. So not a great perfume searching day today!