Happy new year and reflections

Well, 2010 has certainly been a year to remember. Not always for the right reasons mind you, but then again all years have their ups and downs. For me and my wife, it has been a tough year financially, like it has for a lot of people in recession-hit Britain. Of course, the whole world has been affected to some degree. Financially, my wish is to get out of debt, but generally, I hope everyone who has suffered on this front gets back on their feet...

Post-Christmas catchup

Well, Christmas is now over and recycling bins country-wide in the UK are filled to the brim with torn wrapping paper, cardboard, plastic and booze bottles. And so the slippery slide to New Year begins....On a more positive note, my family and I really enjoyed the last few days, although strangely enough I didn't receive any fragrance-related gifts nor did I wear much perfume. With all the spare time on my hands I didn't blog either. I've been looking...

Happy Christmas!

To all my fellow perfume bloggers, happy Christmas. Irrespective of one's personal beliefs, I wish all of you a peaceful time together with your families, friends and loved ones. I sincerely hope you all find true inner peace.All the best, Mich...

Office Christmas party blues

I don't know about you, but when the office Christmas party comes round again, I become all bah humbug about it. To put it bluntly, I hate it. It's not that I don't get on with my colleagues, but seeing that I spend more time with them than I do at home with my own family, the last thing I want to do is sit with them eating mediocre festive fair and pretending to be jolly. Ho, ho ho! Let's all get...

Histoires de Parfums - Patchouli Noir

Ah, Patchouli. Divider of opinion. You tend either to love it, or hate it, depending usually on your associations with the leaf and whether you lived through the hippie era. But that's a bit cliched. In any event, I wasn't truly a child of the seventies and didn't know any hippies. Nor did I visit any headshops I was aware of. So while I recognise how patchouli can smell a bit of the unwashed and...

Latest perfume samples

 Some of you may recall that a few weeks ago I wrote about my desire to try a few perfumes by Indie perfumers, here. Since then, a very kind and generous lady, Carol, offered to send me some samples she had. I'm sure a lot of you already know of Carol (Waft blog), but in case you don't her perfume blog and fragrance boutique can be found here, and here respectively. I knew the package was...

Perfume and alcohol

As the seasonal festivities really start kicking off now, what with office parties, get-togethers with friends and Christmas and New Year, of course, I wonder what perfume lovers think about wearing perfume and drinking alcohol?Of course, I'm not presuming that all of us love and drink booze, but speaking from personal experience, I find that when I'm having a few drinks my appreciation of perfume...

Weekend roundup and L'Occitane

L'Occitane seems to be one of those perfume and bath & body product shops that has been around forever. Yet I seldom take much notice of the shops or the products. I've tried some of their products and have always liked them, but for some reason have never taken the perfumes too seriously. I don't know why. I also noticed that there appear to be very few reviews of their products.A L'Occitane...

Some days you just feel like an idiot

Do you ever one of those days where no matter how hard you try, you make a fool of yourself? Every day, I hear you say. Nah, only kidding. But seriously, today I ran a meeting at work, which I do periodically. Now, this sort of thing is not my strength, as I am not naturally a good speaker or particularly comfortable holding court. However, I always try my best and usually manage to make a decent...

Parfumerie Generale - Querelle

I've seen Querelle being described as an animalic, daring and in some cases, almost scary perfume. I'm not sure why. On my skin it comes across primarily as a chypre, slightly different true, but hardly groundbreaking. The notes include citrus, Iranian Black caraway, myrrh, cinnamon, Haitian vetiver, incense, oakmoss and Ambergris. Luckyscent describe it thus: 'Inspired by Jean Genet’s brutal...

Winter smells

I don't know about you, but I love all sorts of smells. In fact, as a perfume lover, I am surprised that I never fell in love sooner. Even as a small child I used to smell everything, and used to embarrass my parents in restaurants when I would lift a plate of food to my face and sniff it in front of everyone! I can seldom not stop when out walking and pull a flower to my nose to sniff, or crush a...

Weekend roundup

 I don't usually show personal pictures on my blog, but for some reason I felt like doing so today. On the left is my younger daughter Daisy, 20 months old, tucking into plums on the pick-your-own fruit farm back in August, while further on below is my older daughter, Hannah, almost 4, enjoying playing nurse! No, this has nothing to do with perfume, but they are cute, even if I say so myself,...

Giving perfume at Christmas

It occurred to me recently, that since I became really interested in perfume about three and a half years ago, I have never given anyone a perfume gift. Now to some that might seem a little strange. I used to give my wife perfume fairly regularly, mainly before we were married. However, since she had kids she has struggled with a lot of smells, especially when she suffered from morning sickness, and...

L'Artisan Al Oudh

I've had a sample of Al Oudh since it first came out sometime towards the end of last year. I'm surprised I haven't written about it before. I do enjoy it a lot, although I realise it's one of those fragrances that seems to divide opinion. The dividing line appears to be around one's tolerance for cumin. Now a lot has been written about cumin in perfumery. Some find it smells like body odour, stinky...

Andy Tauer L'air du Desert Marocain

L'air du Desert Marocain (let's call it L'air for the purpose of brevity) seems to be one of Andy Tauer's best-loved and most talked-about perfumes. I love the bottle label, pictured left, and although I don't mind Andy's new bottles and packaging, I have great fondness for his slightly retro and charming old labels.The notes include coriander, petitgrain, lemon, bergamot, jasmine, cistus, bourbon...

Boadicea Complex

Boadicea is a line that I approached with some trepidation, perhaps unfairly. It's strange sometimes, at least to me, how certain perfume houses gain an almost fanatical following, while others are either overlooked completely, or are received with ridicule. Perhaps ridicule is a bit over the top, but Boadicea has certainly met with some disdain in the blogosphere. I have found few, if any, favourable...

Longing to try Indie perfumes

For quite some time now I have been visiting the websites of, and reading about, a number of so-called Indie Perfumers. In particular I've been checking out Neil Morris, Anya's Garden, Roxanna Illuminated Perfume, and DSH Perfumes. I like the idea that many of these people are trying different things and not afraid to express themselves outside of the constraints of the IFRA regulations. Now that...

Perfume, smell and my family

I'm not sure what it is, but recently I have been missing my family, and by family I mean not my wife and daughters (much as I love them, bless them), but my mum, dad and sisters in particular. My mum passed away almost six years ago, and not a day passes without thinking about her in some way. I should admit that my mum was not always the easiest person to get along with; she could be fractious...

First snow of the season

As many of you probably know, England is not really known for its cold and snowy weather. Damp, yes. Grey, yes. Snow, no. Having said that, last year saw our coldest winter in a number of years and this year we've received snow in November, certainly the earliest in my corner of the country, in my memory.Here in Kent, the snow started on the night of the 29th, continued yesterday, and we had a big...