Lovely Friendly Perfume Thread: Part 3

[MrsCocoa]

Continuing the discussion of all things perfume related. Tell us about your long standing favourites and tell us about the latest finds you've sniffed out. Everyone is welcome.

No AD but am curious as it keeps turning up in TK Maxx.

What do you make of Aromatics Black Cherry?

There must be something in the water as I've lost the perfume mojo too! I had a bit of a spring time buying frenzy and that seems to have now passed, which I suppose is a good thing for my poor bank account.

VP I can't help pondering what size oven your MIL must have to be able to roast a donkey

I've heard of Di Palomo- I bought a fig scented reed diffuser for my mum from them recently and she loves it, she says it's lasted much longer than her usual Yankee candle ones. No idea if the perfume is any good though (sorry, that's not exactly helpful!)

SOTD is Escada Margaretha Ley, MIL gave me an old bottle a few years ago as she'd gone off it. It's an amazingly strong, heady floriental, very late 80s/ early 90s- I adore it but it's long discontinued and rare as hen's teeth, so I am using it very sparingly!

Ha ha, the menfolk roast it outside on a barbecue type thing- unless it's tipping it down in which case they do it on the open fire inside.

I confess to having a teeny nibble just to see, and if they'd served it me and told me it was beef I'd have eaten the lot. As it was I made do with cardoons. Yum. Not. Unless you like thistle. Which the donkey might have...

Judy I am in love with NRFH edt at the moment. I dragged DH into the department store He likes it...result. FB may be on the cards.

VP are you in Italy, Greece or Spain?

Mrscocoa I haven't actually tried the Aromatics cherry - it's a fairly recent one isn't it, IIRC. I'm actually not a big fan of the Clinique perfumes I have sampled so haven't picked it up yet - wasn't it Clinique Happy that was so ubiquitous in the 90s? I haven't tried Wrappings though which I gather is very good. I should bite the bullet and try the Black Cherry, there seems to be a few samples floating on EBay so I'll take a look, thanks. What do you think of it, if you have tried it?

Well as we are on the subject of Ebay, I may have found an alternative to Perfume Parlour (who I think have dropped off a bit of late, certainly their postage takes a looong time...) I got a dupe of Neroli Portofino and a few others (which were hit and miss) but the NP smelt great as a stand alone and had good longevity - for a cheapy handbag spray they do thin plastic bottles for about a fiver! I can't link as I'm on the app but if you put designer/niche perfumes into eBay they appear, the seller is parfums-world.

I have just mentioned them on another thread and thought I'd ask if any of my fragrant friends here have given them a whirl! I am partial to a cheap and cheerful spray

I'm now unable to buy a full bottle of anything as a result of this thread. I got a set of Hermes miniatures coming through the airport. Currently wearing Un Jardin Sur La Nil. This apparently has carrot and tomato notes in it which is a new one on me. At the moment I'm really only getting citrusy fruit in it. Grapefruit but not a sour grapefruit. I'm intrigued to see if I pick up the veg notes in it.

Still not feeling quite my olfactory self - attested to by an unlikely squirt of Vanderbilt this pm. Pleasantly surprised for a super-cheapie. Powdery and comforting.

Oh dear VP, poor old Dobbin. I imagine it was one of those occasions when you realise just how far from home you are. And it gives a whole new meaning to What I Did On My Holidays - well, it does to me now.

I went back to The Fragrance Shop today equipped with perfume blotters to investigate the other Hashtags and they had had the cheek to sell them all. So I consoled myself by sampling all the Mary Greenwells and coming away with a purse spray of Plum. You are right MrsC, the purse sprays are super - beautifully solid and weighty. Perhaps I shouldn't have left the Lemon one behind...

DD and I then wandered into The Body Shop - I can never get DD past it, and had a good sniff of the various EdTs. Coconut smelt heavenly, just like the Hawaiian Tropic I used to baste myself in when I was young and didn't appreciate the importance of sunscreen (idiot). We also liked Mango, Vanilla (lighter and sweeter than Lush Vanillary) and Pink Grapefruit. All in all, it was a pleasant surprise. It seems a very long time since I liked so many Body Shop scents and £9 for 30mls of EdT seems pretty good value.

Dipdep I think the weirdest veggie note in a perfume I've come across is the onion soup in 4160 Tuesdays Up The Apples and Pears, which is achieved with real onion essential oil. Only I can't smell any onion in it at all!

Dream have you ever tried Agent Provocateur - the knicker-pink hand grenade original? You seem to like slightly tarty roses too (I adore them ) so it might be worth a sniff. I think the longevity is good too - it lasts all day on me.

SOTD is Mary Greenwell Plum which I'm liking so much I rather wish I had splashed out on a FB. But I'm mystified as to why it's classed as a chypre - all I get is an elegant fruity floral/floriental.

Not running out of perfume mojo here, perfume money however...

I'm currently in love with Vera Wang's Lovestruck. A friend was wearing it and I loved it and am now on my second massive 100ml bottle. It's beautiful.

Think I get the onion Green - never sure about the savoury/sweet thing? What about the mushroom notes - in Flora Psychedelia and some of the Crimes of Passion set? Think those add interesting depth and a clean sort of damp murk?

Green isn't that funny, I was just looking at the Mary Greenwells yesterday - the cherry FB is £19 on Amazon for anyone interested. Plum is my favourite after Fire so I'm holding out for that one, I love Plum. The cherry one for some reasons smells like children's sweets on me, like those red laces my DDs like. This is not necessarily a bad thing

Yes, I do love AP! The name makes me think of Tart's Knicker Drawer I have gone off it a bit as for some reason I associate it with Pink/Victoria's Secret which my DDs are obsessed with, both the hideously expensive pyjamas and the very very sweet hideously expensive body sprays...

Hope everyones' perfume mojos are re-appearing, this time of year always feels like a transition from Winter but not quite Summer, it's a tricky perfume time!

I am selecting my SOTD with care as I am watching the London Marathon, I love watching the Marathon and especially seeing the non athlete people finishing. Selfishly it makes me a bit blue as I had planned to run it prior to my 40th, I had a place for a charity connected with my DCs - ahh well, a very cheery SOTD (definitely no sweaty overtones!) is required...I actually think the new hashtag candyfloss one might do the trick

Hope everyone has a good Sunday

I namechanged from imscarlet btw. So I tried the eau merveilleux last night. Omg, I love it, it nearly has a sherbetty quality to the smell, very citrusy and though I went through a citrusy phase years ago with Clinique happy, dkny and light blue, it is in a different league altogether. Jour d'hermes today. Perfectly reasonable floral. I'm interested to see that it has watery notes. I'm not much of a 'watery' scent person.

How are the people who bought them finding the Atelier Cologne samples?
I'm trying Vanille Insensee today and I'm not a fan. I really like vanilla but this has a weird rubbery background smell on me that I can't identify. It's quite musty.
Has anyone found anything they really like? How long-lasting are they? I'm hoping this one wears off pretty quickly.

papersmile I loved Atelier Cologne Bergamote Soleil so much I stalked Ebay for a FB at a price that, while it might have been less eye-watering than usual, was still a good bit higher than I'd usually pay. It is sunshine in a bottle and it lasts all day on me. But I don't generally have that much trouble with longevity apart from certain notable exceptions, ahem, Jo Malone Vanilla Anise. It's been a while since I got my samples and mine is not a complete set but I do remember liking all the citrus types very much.

The Hermes sound lovely Dlpdep - didn't recognise you in the new name!

MrsC I find there's something (no idea exactly what) rather sour in the top notes of Flora Psychedelica which makes it my least favourite of The Four Mysteries set. A pity because I love the other three and the Flora Psychedelica short story was the one I enjoyed the most.

Talking of fleeting I started off yesterday with Guerlain Eau de Fleurs de Cedrat from one of the prettiest miniature bottles I've seen. It was lovely and citrus-fresh, but has no longevity at all. I hadn't realised it's meant to be treated as a refreshing splash-on like 4711. It's certainly a nicer smelling splash-on than 4711 but considerably more expensive - I'll be sticking with the dinky mini bottle. Once it had vanished I tried out a sample of Dream's recommendation of Acqua di Parma Blu Mediterraneo Mandorlo di Sicilia (say that in a hurry) and loved it. I probably don't need to have it as well as Hypnotic Poison but it is such a lovely marzipan scent that it is tempting.

SOTD is 4160s Invisible Ben - citrus, spice and woody .

papersmile, so far I have tested the following Atelier Colognes:

Vanille Insensee - pleasant vanilla. I didn't find it rubbery, but a bit boring. I prefer Eau des Missions (Le Couvent des Minimes) and it's a lot cheaper!

Orange Sanguine - fresh juicy bitter orange top notes. Goes to a skin scent fairly quickly. I can't distinguish the other notes (I'm still developing my Nose!), but they're very nice. I prefer Shay & Blue's Blood Oranges, which is juicy bitter orange mixed with aromatic leather and musk, and lasts all day.

Oud Saphir - I tried this a couple of times. The first time it had a strong smell of a hard leather ashtray full of fag-ends! The next time I avoided the first few minutes and got the addition of a timber yard full of untreated wood. Then it settled down to a sweeter skin scent. It is very masculine to my nose.

Gold Leather - again a very masculine scent. It is heavy on the rum, but not in a good way, and I could smell the eucalyptus, wood and leather. It is sweet with a pleasantish dry down, but this is definitely not one for me.

Trefle Pur - this has juicy bitter orange top notes, like Orange Sanguine, but It is joined by herby notes plus violet leaves (which I love) as well as well blended amounts of patchouli, moss and musk. I really enjoyed this one. Definitely my favourite so far!

Longevity on all of these was about 3 hrs, followed by a skin scent for a further couple of hours.

That's really interesting. I wonder what I'm smelling when I get the rubber smell, is it my body changing something about the perfume or my nose picking something up? or a bit of both? The strange rubber smell of Vanille Insensee is still there for me 8 hours later. I was not unhappy that it dropped on the bathroom floor and shattered. Although now my bathroom smells strangely rubbery. I know I sound a little obsessed but all day I've been catching whiffs of it and can't quite work it out.

Green and Calmina - I'm going to try Trefle Pur and Bergamote Soleil next. They sound lovely.
I tried Cedre Atlas which lasted all day, it was really nice to begin with and then went a bit flat, it didn't really develop so a little boring.
I loved Orange Sanguine but sadly it lasted about half an hour on my skin.
I'm enjoying trying something new each day though.

SoTD was Infusions d'Iris, but it has worn thin so have topped it off with a spray of MMM Lazy Sunday Morning, which shares the iris but adds a bit of musk and patch so it's warmer and cosy for what's turning into a cooler evening. I don't like it as much as the MMM Untitled generally, but it's not galbanum weather.

SsotD: Paris 1948 x Empreinte (nuclear peach meets nuclear oakmoss). Lasts well and strangely suitable as it turns out for a day of bright blue sky and freezing wind.

Off now to consider what the Flora Psychedlica note is? The opening makes me think about Fleurs de Sel. Not sure if there is a common denominator?

I've been wearing The Body Shop's Italian Summer Fig today- it's very similar to L'Artisan's Premier Figuier and waaay cheaper. It is a bit short lived so I may get the body butter or lotion in the future to see if that helps.

SOTD was MMM Untitled. I got it totally wrong, as we had blizzards on and off! So very odd to see snow sweeping over the blossom on the trees.

Green - that's funny - it's my favourite! Smells to me like the reincarnation of Squirrel's floral gums (a childhood passion)! Only seems to share herbal notes with Fleurs de Sel, but they do smell to me like relatives of sorts?

Perhaps it's the absinthe that's the bitter top note. I've never tasted absinthe so not sure what it smells like?

Blizzards Judy! It was just rather cloudy down here.

I do like the dry down on Flora Psychedelica MrsC it is just that odd sourness in the top notes that keeps it off the 9ml wishlist. I thought it might be the absinthe note too, only I haven't any idea what absinthe smells like either.

As further proof that we all smell things differently I dug out my sample of Atelier Cologne Vanille Insensee tonight. I was pretty sure I'd liked it before and yes, I still do, very much indeed! I get citrus in the top notes and a wonderful, powdery antiquarian-bookshop type vanilla scent - not in the least bit gourmand. And no trace of rubber either. Have you ever sniffed Lush Vanillary papersmile? I can definitely smell rubber in that one as well as lots of vanilla.

Vanille Insensee is still going strong four hours later and I think it's going on my stalking list...

It's such a shame the Body Shop fragrance are so fleeting as they are lovely scents - I feel they are more like body sprays than perfume sometimes. I wish for the old perfume droppers and oils to come back - imagine people would be queuing outside if they did!

Green glad you like the very long named marzipan one - I feel very ungrateful that I can't remember who on here initially recommended it to me! I love it so much.

I haven't sampled Flora Psychedelica (although the floral gums reference makes me feel I need to, I bloody loved these and the proper old fashioned cherry lips) but I do know what absinthe smells and tastes like Initially, for me anyway, it's a bit like sucking a mix of Pernod and tequila through a liquorice straw then it tastes like grass but amazingly yummy fresh grass from a meadow (in Switzerland!) and for about a minute you love it and then you fall asleep with your clothes and shoes on and never go near it again

I was going to type it is literally like drinking LSD then I realised that would fit very nicely with the perfume name and now I am going to have to check it out!

PS The nearest I get to absinthe and LSD these days is a cup of tea and some legally prescribed tramadol, please don't rescind my membership of the MN Perfume Society

disappearing