SOTD - air freshener

I don't usually like to venture into the realm of the loo, particularly when it comes to loo odours, but is there anything more irritating than the smell of toilet or air freshener? 

Now, I know it is very much a personal thing, but to me the smell of air freshener, especially those cheap ones, has that most peculiar ability to ingrain itself into one's nose, olfactory memory, clothes and anything within a building's radius of the loo. 

Now, perhaps you would prefer to mask the odour of man's finest, but in reality, generally speaking that is all that air freshener does. Now that may be enough for you, but I don't want to walk around all day with air freshener particles clinging to my clothing and leaving a sillage behind me that screams 'guess what, I've just been to the loo, had a ...!' You get my drift.

So what is the solution? Well, in my humble opinion, no air freshener is a far better alternative. What are your thoughts on the matter?

SOTD - Amouage Dia Man

Readers of my blog will be no strangers to the fact that I love Amouage as a line and in particular, Amouage Dia Man. I've written about it a number of times.

Today I wore Dia again, but what made it even more special on this occasion was that I was wearing it sprayed from a bottle that was given to me by a very kind perfume friend. You know who you are and I do appreciate it very much! Thank you.

I don't have much more to say about Dia other than it is a pleasure to wear. It is almost formal, yet very easy going at the same time and smells fabulous. I can think of pretty much any occasion when it would be suitable for wear. If you haven't tried Dia, I would urge you to give it a go.

Image credit - Luckyscent

A domestic detour...

Some of you who follow my blog might be aware that my niece, Kirsty, was over from Australia visiting us last month. My older daughter, Hannah, also celebrated her 5th birthday. Set out below are a few photographs from this happy time, which I thought I would share.

My wife Wendy and the cake she made for Hannah. Note the icing!

Daisy on her way to to pre-school

The 'gang' having breakfast at Woods, a local hotel. In the middle are our friends Carmen and Darren

Wendy with Hannah

Niece Kirsty with her little cousin, Daisy

Kirsty meets her cousins at long last!

Hannah eyes the cakes lovingly made by mum

Hannah with her brand new, pink shiny bicycle, on the way to the park

Friday bits and bobs

Some of you might be aware that Europe is in the grip of a big freeze this week. Parts of Eastern Europe in particular have dropped to well below 20 degrees C, while even the French Riviera has received some of the white stuff, with Marseille looking more soused herring than Bouillabaisse! 

Here in England, we are really only on the fringes of it, but even Blighty has felt temperatures of around freezing, with snow forecast this weekend. It's about time - it has been such a mild winter here and the old sledge needs a bit of a workout, hopefully.

I am now over the worst of my cold/flu/whatever-it-was affliction and for the last couple of days I have even worn some perfume, but haven't really been in a fragrant frame of mind. Today I've been wearing Nobile 1942 Ambra Nobile and 1000 Flowers Reglisse Noir. I'm not sure I am yet in the best frame of mind to appreciate them, but they are really lovely perfumes. Yesterday I returned to some older samples, namely Byredo Baudelaire and Huitieme Art Fareb, both quite masculine concoctions quite appropriate for winter days I think. 

So, perfume lovers, have a great weekend all!

The late January lurgy

The January lurgy has struck again, which means that I am struck down by a cold/flu/chest infection. I'm not sure which. It's probably not flu, although I can hardly walk as all my joints, neck and eyes ache like crazy.

I'm not looking for sympathy, honest, but it is a rotten way to end the month. This year is already flying by. I can't keep up!

Another side affect of this is that I can't smell all that much and feeling rubbish doesn't lend itself to wearing perfume, in my book. So I'm abstaining so far this week. Hopefully I'll be back on track soon.

Do any of you find you can't wear perfume when feeling ill?

Roses part 2

I've finally got around to part 2 of my musings on roses. Last time I generally just rambled on, describing my love for the plant and flower itself and its scent of course, with some very brief thoughts on its use in perfume.

This time I want to touch on specific rose perfumes. I suppose I will be biased and one must realise that this is not even remotely close to a definitive list of rose-centric perfumes. On the contrary, I am still very much on my rose journey of discovery in perfume and I still stumble across perfumes I haven't even heard of, let alone tried, that contain a lovely or compelling rose note.

Nevertheless, let me proceed with my list of rose perfumes, many of which some of you are already familiar with.

Un Rose (Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle) - I start with my favourite rose perfume. Many like to compare or rank this one with Serge Lutens' Rose De Nuit. For me, I prefer Un Rose, but it is a different beast entirely. See my review here. It is a deep, complex 'dark' rose of a scent, continually shifting and developing. A masterpiece in my opinion.

Rose De Nuit (Serge Lutens) - See my review here. I may prefer Un Rose, but this is still a very lovely and complex rose fragrance too. It is slightly lighter, I think, but still has plenty of character.

Rose 31 (Le Labo) - See my review here. This is a perennial favourite among Le Labo lovers and again, it is very good. I almost cried the day I dropped my sample in the loo at work (don't ask) and saw its remaining contents evaporate on the floor. The loo did smell good though!

Rose Poivre (The Different Company) - See my review here. This is very different to the above. It reminds me quite a lot of a very good quality potpourri, and is quite dry and aromatic. Mind you, it starts skanky as all hell.

Voleur De Roses (L'Artisan) - Patchouli and rose. A great combination, and executed very well by L'Artisan. I don't see this one mentioned much anymore but it is a great perfume. Try it if you haven't already.

Paestum Rose (Eau D'Italie) See my review here. My review is very positive and I do think this is a great perfume, but with subsequent wearing it has been a little up and down on my skin. Still,  when it is good, it is great.

Kingdom (Alexander McQueen) - See my review here. I still own a bottle of Kingdom. I wonder how easy it is to find it now? And I wonder since his passing whether the price has gone up significantly. In any event, Kingdom has a very special place in my heart. It is a little trashy in places, and to my nose is a great example of how a rose can smell 'jammy'. I guess this, in combination with the hefty dose of cumin, is possibly why some people think it is too skanky. I personally love it.

Lyric Woman and Lyric Man (Amouage) - I won't post the links to my reviews, but I do love these two dearly. Lyric Man in particular has staggering longevity and it can become a bit too much sometimes, but oh so gorgeous. As for Lyric Woman, some people don't like it but I definitely do.

Dark Rose (Czech & Speake) - See my review here. Onto my first rose and oud combination, Dark Rose is nice, but having tried a lot more in this style since, I find that it holds my attention less these days. Not bad though.

Black Oud (Montale) - same review as above. I could write pages on Black Oud (half the blogosphere and Basenotes has over the years). It is an iconic Western Oud and rose perfume. So strong and long lasting, I do like it, but wish it was toned down just enough so I could see out its development and appreciate its subtleties (if there are any).

Sa Majeste La Rose (Serge Lutens) - this one often gets overlooked in the Lutens stable. Perhaps it is because it seems quite linear and also because it packs a mighty, rosy punch. Still, on a hot summer day, not much beats the smell of this one wafting up from one's body, tinged with a bit of musk.

Agent Provocateur (Agent Provocateur) - See my review here. A good mainstream rose perfume and quite a daring one, I think. 

(Incense Rose) - Andy Tauer. I used to love it, and in fact still think it is a great perfume, but I had to be very cautious when applying. Too much and you're in headache territory. Lovely though.

Portrait of a Lady ( Editions de Parfumes Frederic Malle) - I don't know, I still don't get this one. It seems too strong and loud to me. Plenty of people love it and that's great, but I'll stick with Un Rose any day.

Juliette Has a Gun - Just about any perfume from this line has a strong rose note. They are all quite nice, but with that hefty use of ambroxen, they (or POTL) remind me of the Malle.

So, I've got to the end of my list. I know once I post this I will immediately think of some more rose perfumes. I could go on for ages, but one has to draw the line somewhere. Actually, just writing this, I've thought of another, but I haven't tried it much (I have a sample now, so that will change), Nahema, by Guerlain!

So, please do get back to me with your thoughts on these, and what else you would add to the list....

Weekend roundup

Some of you might have noticed my relative scarcity of posting this month. Some of this is part of my so-called new year resolution, as I have resolved not to write simply for the sake of it. Which, thinking about it, means that this post is in direct contradiction to that, as I don't really have anything that interesting to say, but I felt like posting, and its my blog, so wah!

The other reason for my scarcity is that my work has got incredibly busy again. January is usually one of my quietest working months, but for various reasons this is not proving the case in 2012. I shudder to think what June to September will be like, as that is usually my busiest time of year!

On the perfume front, I have been working my way through some samples sent to me by my generous friend Cym, and that has been a lot of fun. I plan to write about some of those at some point, but for now I shall merely appreciate them on my own skin. 

This week I've worn Ormonde Jayne's Ta'if, Aroma M Geisha Green, Aftelier Shiso and Al Haramain Sheika. They are all very interesting to say the least. This weekend I got a bit retro and loved wearing Caron's Tabac Blond and En Avion. I don't know anyone who wears Tabac Blond, but jeez, I would almost kill to smell this on a woman, it's so stunning. I also tried Puredistance 1 and Antonia's Flowers, two which I was too nervous to wear at work, for fear they would be too feminine. They are feminine, but lovely, and not as strong as I feared they would be. I can't decide which one I preferred; they both had some lovely aspects.

So, this week continues in a crazy-busy fashion, but rest assured, somewhere along the line (actually mostly along the line) perfume will feature!