Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone. I sincerely hope that each and everyone of you has a great 2012. I look forward to many happy hours of perfume patter in the year to come.Best wishesMich...

My 2011

I'm not quite sure about these 'best of' posts. Everyone has got in on the act this year, collaborations flying left, right and centre. So, in the spirit of the blogosphere, I'm jumping on the bandwagon too, with a slight difference. As I looked back at my posts this year and also at others', I quickly came to the realisation that I hadn't tried that many of the new releases of 2011, niche or otherwise. I was slightly surprised at first, but...

Christmas day perfume

For what it is worth, I forgot to mention that I did wear some perfume on Christmas day. It took me a while to work out what I felt like wearing. In the end I went for Amouage's Tribute Attar. To my mind it suited the day and mood perfectly. It is smoky, incense-y and rosy, with a slightly animalic edge just beneath the surface. What astounding intensity it has too. One or two smears with a wand lasts a good eight hou...

Christmas reflections

There were two things I disliked about this Christmas. The commercial lead-up to the day and the commercial aftermath the day after. Yes, I know this is the real world, and commerce is the big daddy, blah blah blah, but I am sick to death of pre-Christmas sales, post Christmas sales, sales, sales and more sales. I'm not thick. There might be bargains to be had, but how about a few days where we stay at home and actual enjoy the things we do happen...

Happy Christmas

Here's wishing all my fellow blogger friends and perfume lovers a wonderful Christmas. Whatever you do, I hope its time spent with the people you love and care about, and if it includes some good-quality perfume as well, then all the better!Best wishes,Mich...

Oh the joy - Christmas Party part 2

In the interest of mundaneness, I thought I would let you know how my Christmas party went. As far as these events go, it was a moderate success. I only got moderately inebriated and managed to leave with my dignity intact. I often find office parties surreal. Perhaps it is because I work with these people day-in-day-out that it is strange to see them let their hair down and become sort of normal people, as normal as people can be at an event as...

Oh the joy - Christmas party

Those of you who have read my blog for more than a year may recall my aversion to office parties. I've been to a few in my time and while some have been good, I've found that the larger the party, the less enjoyable it is. Now, this might be down to my character - I'm the sort of person who prefers more intimate dinners and get togthers.Anyway, today is our Christmas party and it remains to be seen how it turns out. To help soften the blow, I am...

Mitsouko

To write about Mitsouko with any degree of authority is pointless. So I'll cut to the chase and state that while I have tried the EDT (presumably the most recent formulation) on numerous occasions, I haven't tried any others. I like the EDT and have always found it very unisex actually.Recently Cymbaline sent me a sample of a vintage formulation. I'm not sure which, but wearing it for the first time today I am struck by how strikingly different it...

Perfume curiosities, part 3

My third perfume curiosity is an oddity I only smelled today for the first time. It shot to the top of the oddity charts, at least in my book, because it smells like soap. The most realistic soapy note I've smelled in perfume.I'm talking about Stephen Jones by Comme des Garcons. The soap is Dove. Yes. I can't do this perfume justice by writing about it in detail after one wearing, but when I first sprayed it on I was flabbergasted. Ostensibly this...

A bit of this, a bit of that

I've seen others do it, so today I decided I would do it too. Yes, a list of what I am currently enjoying....PerfumeCymbaline recently very kindly sent me some lovely perfume samples. I haven't tried most of them yet, but two that have given me cause to celebrate are Ormonde Jayne's Ormonde Woman and 1000 Flowers Reglisse Noir. Ormonde Woman is a stunner and as unisex as they come. Reglisse Noir is fascinating. I've never smelled anything like it.Got...

Perfume curiosities, part 2

I got round to sampling no 5 in Six Scents Series 1. Labelled 'Illicit Sex', in all honestly it doesn't remind me of sex at all, illicit or otherwise, but even so, it is one of those perfumes I would call 'odd'. A few months ago I wrote about the first in series 1, no 1, here. It smelled like candied pineapple to me! No 5 is perhaps not quite as strange, but I also found it less interesting too. Boiling it down to basics, it is a peppery incense...

Perfume curiosities, part 1

Ok, so one person's meat is another's poison. I guess the title of this post is just setting myself up to fail, perhaps.Today I wore Bond No 9's Signature for Men. I've worn it before, but for the life of me couldn't remember what it smelled like. Wearing it today, I'm struck by how odd it is. I haven't tried many in the Bond line, to be fair, but Signature just smells... strange. Reading a few reviews, it seems like it is meant to contain an oud...

A weekend visit to London

This weekend we stayed over with our closest friends at their flat in Limehouse, which is adjacent to Canary Wharf in London. It was with great sadness that they told us they are leaving the UK in April next year, after spending ten years here. After much thought, they feel that they aren't happy here any longer and are returning to Melbourne in Australia. For us it is a blow, of course, as we are very close and have spent a lot of happy times together...

In memory of Mona Di Oria

I've had a soft spot for Mona Di Orio's perfumes for a long time. I wouldn't say they are easy to appreciate at first. Challenging and slightly offbeat are words that come to mind, but irrespective of taste, I don't think I could ever argue that they aren't interesting and ultimately, they reward the perfume lover who looks beyond the easy hook. Which possibly reflects the character behind the perfumes. Sadly, Mona won't be around to continue that...

Random December musings, continued

I know this is getting boring, but today wherever I walked in town I saw further evidence of a mad desperation to sell merchandise at a discount in the run up to Christmas. Without wishing to come across as a scaremonger, I really do feel that we are living in desperate times. I truly have not felt this sensation quite so vividly before.Onto happier themes, my perfume today was M, by Puredistance. I'm not going to elaborate, save to say that on a...

Random December musings

I can't help but notice how each year the sales start earlier than before. Traditionally, we used to get the New Year sales, then they started on Boxing Day and then last year I noticed sales in the fortnight leading up to Christmas.This year lots of retailers, particularly online ones, started all sorts of sales in November and to be honest, thinking about it now there have been sales on during almost every month I can think of. This is clearly...

Bluewater and Kiehl's Musk

I mentioned yesterday that we were going shopping for Christmas presents. So we set off at sparrow fart for Bluewater, which is a very large shopping centre/mall in North Kent. For those of you not familiar with the UK, and Kent for that matter, Bluewater is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, stranded between major motorways such as the M2, with a 'tantalising' view of the Queen Elizabeth bridge,...

Friday scent of the day

I know its December when I get my first cold of the winter. I woke up this morning with a tight chest and a slightly sore throat. I hope it doesn't develop into something more serious. I hate to talk about health, but since I had pleurisy last year my chest has never been quite the same and I tend to get chest infections a lot easier than I used to. This coming from someone who for about ten years between 1996 and 2006 could count the number of colds...

Scent of the day - Parfumerie Generale Bois Blond

So, it's the first of December already. I can't believe how quickly this year has flown by. Sometimes I wish I could hit that pause button on the remote control of life and just slow things down!Today I wore Bois Blond by Parfumerie Generale. Luckyscent lists notes of cereals, grass, galbanum, cedar, hay, blond tobacco, musk and amber. Bois Blond is instantly recognisable as a PG creation. For example, if you have tried Coze or Aomassai, you will...