Friday, August 9, 2013

Tilda Swinton smells like curry

I'm slowly trying to smell my way through the Etat Libre d'Orange perfume collection. So far I've tested perfumes in a very ad hoc way. I've reached my hand into the paper bag and worn whatever I picked.

Photo: Glen Luchford for Dazed & Confused Magazine, found on Tumblr
Today the pick fell on Like This. Tilda Swinton's ELdO-perfume. I love Tilda. Oh my gosh; I'd totally pay good money for her bottled up. BUT. The perfume: Not. So. Much.

Source: www.shoppingblog.com
Ough, what a total disaster. It opened so beautifully: Lovely fresh cut ginger, sweet tangy tangerine, round pumpkin and a flutter of heliotrope... Now, after a couple of hours, all I get is pumpkin sweetness and curry. Yes, curry. Damn you Immortelle! You are supposed to be caramelly and sweet. You're supposed to be "one of the most fragrant plants, which contributes to giving the Corsican “maquis” its characteristic perfume. Immortelle produces a fascinating, rich, multi-layered, sexy, desireable, satisfying aroma." But not satisfying as an Indian meal of curry and Naan. I know that you are mentioned to have a kind of curry note, but did that particular note have to be so prominent on my skin? Why not focus the scent projection on the ginger, the  pumpkin and the heliotrope (oh, heliotrope, how I love thee!)?

I thought Tilda and I would be like this *crosses index and long finger*. Not only because she is drop-dead-beautiful, but also because of ther pride-flag-stunt in Russia. And it seemed so promising at the start, but you have proven yourself to be a wolf in a sheep's skin, Tilda. Or some sort of defiant dish thought up in Heston Blumenthal's insane/genious mind.

Source: Twitter/ElioIannacci

But you can totally make it up to me though. You could, say, take me out to dinner or something....As long as it's not Indian.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

A scented return




I’m sorry little lovelies, I just could not bring myself to blog during the last busy weeks of work before vacation, and to be completely honest, blogging did not have a top-spot on my prio-list during vacation either. But now. Now. Now I have time, energy, and things to write about. I think that this fall will focus a lot on my interest in perfumes.

All my interests fluctuate heavily. I had a period of obsession with plants and growing things in the spring (this obsession is still going strong now with my balcony-grown produce ripening and all) and then a period of great interest in sewing in the beginning of summer; so much that I finally took my sewing machine to the store to have it serviced. Alas, it’s been gone all summer now. So, I turned my interests to another obsession of mine: scents. I am by no means a die-hard, fortune-spending, sample-hoarding kind of perfume lover, but I’ve built myself quite a collection and I envision it growing. But, slowly, and mainly in the samples section (buying whole bottles is not only expensive, but it takes up a heck load of space!)

I recently ordered a sampler set of (27!!) perfumes from Etat Libre d’Orange and another sampler set from Lalique (with 10 perfumes) and they arrived yesterday! OH JOY! However, the joy did not go unblackened for long because as I opened ripped open the package from the UK I sensed a scent. A lovely, sweet scent with leathery undertones… At first I was hopeful that it might just be a slightly leaky sample, which is not impossible. I first opened tore up the Lalique package; all the samples were intact, the scent was not coming from there. Then I went on to the brown paper bag with the “Smelling is believing”-text on from ELdO, poured out the little plastic packets with mini-leaflets and 1,5 ml samples for each perfume on my bed and ruffled through them when I found the culprit.TOM of Finland had burst! Oh the sorrow! The disdain for the stupid, incompetent person who packed my package in such a way that ToF could not last all the way from the UK to Sweden! It was a sad, sad event.



However, life goes on I guess. Today I’m wearing Dangerous Complicity (I totally chose it by perfume lottery: reached my hand into the bag and wore whatever I picked. So happy I didn’t happen to pick Secretions Magnifiques…) which has been a sweet woodsy note with something slightly tart/cool/sharp in the background on my skin. Could it be the jasmine? Or the famed Chinese Osmanthus? I am going to experiment with amounts on my skin. I believe I was a little on the stingy side this morning. How do you usually dose your perfume application when you have non-spray sample vials?