Part 5- And the perfumes just keep on coming...

[shoeprincess2]

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/style_and_beauty/1711275-Part-4-All-you-ever-need-to-know-about-fragrance-continues

Shiny new thread for some shiny new perfumes (and classics and niche brands)

Oh, and if you are on FB, do friend By Kilian (or Kilian Hennessy). His PR team occasionally send out samples to his FB fans. It's very sporadic but finding an envelope full of free samples really brightens up an otherwise dreary day.

Flirting with chypres: the supremely poised and ladylike Y last night, today the hissing, slithering, bordering on toxic Knowing by Estee Lauder. It's one of the scariest perfumes I know.

The scariest - Aoud Lime by Montale, a perfume that actually hurts, a bit like getting pepper sprayed. Ouch.

Went to TK Maxx today to check out the perfume. Have sometimes found that if you're prepared to wade through the junk you can occasionally strike gold.

And whaddya know? A bottle of Annick Goutal's Ninfeo Meo for £19.00. Very chuffed I am too. It's a small (but cute) bottle (25mls), but that suits me fine as I know I won't wear it often.

I love Ninfeo Meo - think it smells beautiful. So fresh, like a walk through a green herb garden, dotted with fig trees, on a summers day.

Fantastic bargainous find Fuckit! NM is great, green and figgy and light, one of my summer must-haves.

Today, I've worn Amazone by Hermes (a soapy retro feel) and the yummy, rhubarby and refreshing Aedes de Venustas EdP.

Have just started wearing Tocca Florence and absolutely adore it. Have got so many compliments. Think I may just have found my signature scent!

They also had a bottle of Donna Karan Gold, which I know has been discontinued. I've heard a lot of those old Donna Karan fragrances are good, and were discontinued as they were considered a bit too interesting for the mass market and unlikely to sell well.

I was tempted (Turin and Sanchez gave it a very respectable four stars) but didn't want to blind buy. Has anyone else ever tried it?

Fuckit, I bought a 25ml Ninfeo Mio from TKMaxx at the weekend! Lovely stuff. And had a sample squirt of In Love Again, coincidentally. It was my absolute fave back in the day, before it was discontinued.

I've been a bit rubbish on the fragrance thread recently - we missed you FF !

Inspired by thread I wore Ninfeo Mio at weekend - had mesmeising effect on bloke behind post office counter who rermarked on it at length (despite queue).
Frugal - thanks for link to Australian site. Had only found Scentmap prreviously, which isn't esotrric enoigh...enjoyed your descripitions of Italy too.
On Donna Karan Gold, have tried and would say don't buy blind. On paper this ticked all my usual boxes, but was spoilt for me by a strong opening floral note (perhaps lily, although I often like, or violet leaves?)
Bonfire night and Frugal's woody/incensy preferences made .me remember a fantsstic Lancome special edition from the 90's: Now or Never. Fire and wood and incense with a smkoy darjeeling top note.l Lost my bottle somewhere along the way and still feel the pain now.

Apologies for typos below. ony able to post from tablet at moment and keyboard and display font both tiny.

Busy and work-focused (a 12h+ day!) today, so have worn my trusty armour, Chanel 19 EdP. Have missed you all ladies - but too much work and no play recently When I work/socialize a lot I can't try on new perfumes.

I have huge gaps in my perfume knowledge and the Donna Karans are one of them. But do enjoy the random finds! I don't buy FBs blind, I try to sample or try minis first but then again my life is v dull.

Central life problems : I have lost my 4 ml sample of Cuir Beluga and then heard it has been discontinued. No!

Waves to all old-timers, CV please do stay as your choices are always inspiring! And everyone, please keep the SOTDs coming! And Kitty, please, do tell what you bought from Surrender to Chance!

Zenoushka your new Tocca signature sounds fantastic!

Managed to swipe a full bottle of maison martin margiela lazy sunday on eBay. Hope I like it!!!

SOTD: L'eau d'Hiver. The more I wear this the more I appreciate its beautiful subtlety. Gorgeous pale heliotrope and almonds, it's an intelligent perfume that doesn't need to shout. I prefer it to the more obvious hard hitters in the Malle collection, lovely as they all are. And this surprises me as I usually go for perfumes with a lot of personality.

I'm actually waiting for some samples to come in the post at the moment. Am looking forward to trying:

Le Parfum de Therese (another Malle.) Have always previously been put off by the dreaded 'aquatic' notes (just say no to cucumber and melon) but we'll see.
Knize Ten If it's good enough for Marlene Dietrich it's good enough for me.
Jasmin et Cigarettes (Etat Libre D'Orange)
and Tonkamande (Parfumerie Generale.) I hated Musc Maori but am curious to try this other gourmandy offering.

Oh if only money were no object. I would so love a full bottle of Amouage Lyric. Sigh. One day.

Oooh my samples came today - that was quick!

So a quick run down of first impressions...

Le Parfum de Therese is not for me although it is obviously some quality juice. What I get most is a highly feminine fruity jasmine, although as it dries down I get more and more rose coming through too. It is not aquatic in the same vein as L'eau d'Issey or Escape by CK, but there's a slight wateryness hovering around the margins. The problem for me is that it has no edge. A girly fruity floral of some distinction it may be, but it's still a girly fruity floral. Just not my style.

Jasmin et Cigarettes smells exactly as the name would suggest. It's amazing really. A soft jasmine mixed with freshly rolled tobacco. I like it - will definitely give it a full wear this week.

Tonkamande. Sigh. I'm going to give up on these gourmandy Parfumerie Generale offerings. I just don't like them. Musc Maori was nasty. Tonkamande is also... nasty. Synthetic smelling, sickly sweet, they remind me of the smell of stationary sets I used to have when I was a little girl - when you were still allowed smelly rubbers and scratch n sniff stickers. Bleugh. Coze and Aomassi were better, but still...

My favourite is the Knize Ten. Mmm it's really masculine - all motorbikes and leather and engine oil, with a gorgeous smoky amber underneath. It's really really leathery and I love it. Oh it's wonderful! Why don't men smell like this anymore? Definitely full bottle worthy. I'm nicking this one off the boys.

Gah! Knize Ten was an absolute scrubber on me; I couldn't bear it. I like a bit of leather, but it was tooooo much.

SOTD is Naomi Goodsir Cuir Velours. Warm and fuzzy leather!

Knize Ten is a fabulous classic - but I won't ever try it again because the first and only time I wore it DD1 vomited all over me (a stomach flu, not the 'fume, but still ). But do go for it!

Another busy workday, but I had a glorious 4-hour lunch break enjoying the less-known side streets of Rome with a dear colleague and friend. It's been rainy and cool but today was unseasonably warm and I actually got slightly sunburned... I needed an easy and unobtrusive perfume so went for Cologne du 68 by Guerlain.

Fuckit I don't like Perfumerie Generale either. They are marketed as the ultimate gourmands but they are too screechy and strident on me. CV I like Cuir Velours, great choice.

Morning all. I still have the green/galbanum/chypre habit, but have recently been wearing a relatively safe, polite, nicely-spoken version: Balmain de Balmain. It's woody, floral (perhaps violets? definitely rose), mossy, slightly bitter, slightly peppery, rather smoky and, yes, green. But not overpowering - although I find it lasts a long time, even as EDT. It's sometimes described as a summer scent, but to me the moss and woodsmoke make it ideal for autumn.

Fascinating Flora! I'm wearing a vintage chypre fleuri, Carven's Ma Griffe, right now. It smells of my grandmothers pinky-beige underwear drawer, stale hand lotion and wilted powder puffs. Deeply unsexy to us (she wore garters until she died - they too were beige and deeply utilitarian), but perhaps she perceived it differently. She would have encountered this perfume in her late thirties or forties, perhaps in search of a post-war and post-pregnancy makeover...

Oh, and an old advertisement for Ma Griffe, via Yesterday's Perfume. Let's just say that I cannot picture anyone wearing Ma Griffe to a women's rights demonstration

Not entirely sure what they were going for with that advert

Some of the old musk adverts are hilarious - I'll try and dig out a link.

SOTD: Ambre Precieux. Just two sprays - one to the small of the back and one to the stomach. I had a meeting and didn't want to over power everyone. I kept getting lovely small wafts coming up through the neck of my jumper though. Mmm.

Here: www.thenonblonde.com/2013/01/my-top-12-musk-perfumes.html#.Un5ZD-LlCWY

"Macho musk oil is mucho macho"

Oh Fuckit you cracked me up, unicorns and mucho macho mustaches galore...

Does anyone remember the pseudofeministic Virginia Slims cigarette ads? Apparently, they ended up decreasing sales I saw them in Seventeen magazine when I was about 17 (a selection here - warning, the late 1980s outfits are really dire) and was fascinated with them because they they were so out of step with everything even back then...

That Ma Griffe copy is outrageous!

You have transported me back to my childhood where I remember the perfume choices being:

4711
Charlie
Jovan Musk
Ma Griffe
L'Air du Temps
Rive Gauche
(plus something by Coty)

Think I might just about remember Anais Anais being launched?

Recall the Hai Karate ads most vividly (although everyone's Dad wore Brut?).

Gosh, Frugal, the mention of those Virginia Slims adverts take me back. So patronising!! And the advert for Ma Griffe is simply hilarious. Earlier adverts for Ma Griffe liked to hark back to a 1950s image of femininity - brilliant artwork, stylish full ballerina skirts (or long, tailored, pencil ditto), smart, silly little hats and often fanciful poodle dogs, to signify French chic.
Have never been able to like Ma Griffe; I think it's simply skin chemistry - it does not agree with me. I smell cats. But in the day it was, I think, seen as quite daring, though not exactly liberated.

Thanks to everyone who mentioned that TKMAXX had Anick Goutal for £19.99. There was Nuit Etoile as well but that was a big bottle and I am fickle.

Because I bought some today, and it is fab! Neglected to mention that in my previous post...