The end of summer (and more Amouage)

Depending on how you view it, today could have been the last day of summer. Some people think of summer being the three months of June, July and August; others' view is that summer officially ends at the autumn equinox, which I think is somewhere around the 21st of September.Irrespective, here in the UK summer may as well be over. In fact, I can't honestly say that it ever started. Such is the capriciousness of British weather.Yesterday I encountered...

Hooray its the weekend (and Eau d'Italie)

So, another weekend rolls by and here in England we are having a long weekend, or the summer bank holiday weekend (or August bank holiday weekend, take your pick) as it is known. Theoretically this should be a celebration of summer - long days and sultry evenings, lazy barbecues, etc, but in reality it usually means sheltering from a persistent, drizzly rain and cursing the fact that the English summer was too short, as usual, and has come to an...

L'Artisan comes to town

Ok, I know that might not be the most exciting news, but L'Artisan is now stocked at one of my local department stores. It's not the full range of course, but rather the more common ones encountered, like Myrrh & Musc, Timbuktu, Ambre and Premier Figuier. There are two others that I haven't tried before, Nuit de Tubereuse and Fou d'Absinthe.I have to say, my first impression of Fou d'Absinthe is WTF! It starts with a wonderful hit of anise/absinth,...

V&A Midnight in Paris and Delrae Panache revisited

After my rather strange reviews of Van Cleef and Arpels Midnight in Paris and Delrae Panache a few days ago, I thought I would revisit both to see if my perceptions had changed.Well, in short, they haven't. If anything, Midnight in Paris strikes me as even more vanilla-cloying than before. Perhaps it is the fact I wore it again on quite a warm day. I don't know, but it choked me half to death with that note. Yuck. Sorry...Panache is still by far...

Scentless Sunday

After a few unseasonably cool days in my part of England, this weekend the weather returned to something resembling late summer. We took advantage of this by taking our daughters to the pool for a swim, followed by a picnic in a park and then a play in an adventure playground. It was a great way to spend quality time with my kids, but I am exhausted now! Of course, spending time in a chlorinated swimming pool is hardly the best way to appreciate...

Delrae Panache

Okay, this is perhaps taking a perfume review to a streamlined extreme, almost a stream-of-consciousness thing. Perhaps this won't be fair to Delrae Panache, but here goes - my 1 minute summary of the fragrance...Delrae Panache starts with a bit of citrus and lavender. It strikes me as very aldehydic and actually high pitched. A bit of a nod to a bygone age. Smells perfume-y, for want of a better word. It stays citrusy for a long time. The term high...

Old favourites revisited part 2

Following on from my recent desire to wear some older, more tried-and-tested fragrances, today I wore Montale's Blue Amber and Costamor's Tabacca. Actually, Tabacca is a sample that I only acquired a few months ago, but I very quickly grew to love it. It smells comforting, warmly spicy, fragrantly tobacco-y, with a deft dose of what smells to me like rum or cognac. It's great; nicely relaxed, but there's a lot going on.Blue Amber is also a lovely...

Old favourites revisited

Cymbaline commented on one of my recent posts, where I mused over whether I was becoming jaded and cynical in my perception of what is or isn't original. She mentioned that she keeps on returning to old favourites.Well, following that, I've returned to a few old favourites too, and what a pleasant experience it has been. Today I wore Andy Tauer's Incense Extreme and Les Nez Let Me Play The Lion. What struck me most about both of these perfumes is...

Van Cleef and Arpels Midnight in Paris

Van Cleef and Arpel's Midnight in Paris starts with a fizzing sort of citrus top note, quite heavy on bergamot and a touch of leather. It also has a slight powdery smell about it and ever so sweet, with what I think is vanilla. While not exactly generic, it doesn't smell all that original either.The rest of the development is relatively bog standard, at least to me. There is a leathery, perhaps more...

Verbosity or brevity?

I've noticed in the almost year and a half that I've been blogging about perfume that my posts generally have tended to become shorter and more to the point. Part of this is down to necessity and circumstance, as I have been very busy this year and increasingly find less time to post.However, I do find that particularly with posts where I try to review a perfume, I tend to write in less detail. The way I tend to write about a perfume is to wear it...

LT Piver Cuir

I don't know about you, but LT Piver is one of those perfume houses that has evaded my interest, and judging by the scarcity of reviews out there, the interest of most of the blogosphere too. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I can't recall reading any reviews, but I suppose there must be some out there.LT Piver is carried by Les Senteurs in London, the only place I've seen them. When I was last there, I decided to get a sample of Cuir, one of the men's fragrances....

Dawn Spencer Hurwitz Cuir et Champignon

Cuir et Champignon is part of Dawn Spencer Hurwitz's Parfums des Beaux Arts line. As the name suggests, this perfume is mostly about leather and mushrooms, and what an interesting and at times startlingly realistic interpretation it is. I don't know if I have encountered a mushroom accord in perfume before. I've seen truffle used before, for example in Frederic Malle's Un Rose. Cuir et Champignon...

Eau d'Italie comes to town

This may not seem like the most exciting news, but to me, any new line launch (in the sense of new to my town, not a new line in itself) interests me. I've tried a couple from the Eau d'Italie line before, Paestum Rose and Sienne l'Hiver, both of which I found interesting, if not amazing. I've also encountered the line at Liberty in London, but for some reason have never tried the others. Anyway, Fenwick is now stocking the entire line, which is...

The week that was (or wasn't)

Well, another week has gone by and my blogging continues to flounder, drowning as I am in a sticky, muddy bog of work. That's one monkey I can't seem to get off my back, at least for now.I did try the new Serge Lutens, Vitriol d'Oeillet. Honestly, I don't really know what to make of it. I've only tried it once, but I didn't feel moved, be it positively or negatively. I'd be interested to find out if anyone has tried it and if so, what they think.I...