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....

Perfume

Cymbaline 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 my eye on:

• L'Artisan minis of Timbuktu, Coeur De Vetiver Sacre and Fou D'Absinthe. Currently marked down to about £45 at Fenwicks, but I'm hoping they'll drop further after Christmas, if any are still in stock. The ladies set includes Nuit De Tuberose and part of me wishes I could include that too.
• Thinking of ordering some Neil Morris samples - I've wanted to try his stuff for some time
• Candles - I'm suddenly obsessed with candles, but they cost a bomb. Wouldn't mind treating myself to a Carriere Freres or a Cire Trudon

Books

It's bizarre, but I'm reading the first in the Twilight series and am strangely enjoying it. I was told this is chick lit, and maybe it is, but still, I like it, so wah.

Just finished reading Donna Tartt's The Secret History for the second time. It's ten years since I last read it and it is as compelling today as it was previously. A magnificent work of fiction.

Got my eye on:

• a number of perfume-related books, including Roja Dove, Michael Edwards and Chandler Burr
• No Direction Home Life and Music of Bob Dylan by Robert Shelton
• Nigella - any of her books (call me a sucker for sexy Jewish women with er, large bossoms! say no more....)

Music

I could list loads here. Over the last 12 months I have got massively back into music.

Recently I've listened a lot to Laura Marling, Bob Dylan, Fleet Foxes, The Band, The Black Keys, Mavis Staples, Nina Simone, Devendra Banhart, Calexico, Florence & The Machine, Jonathan Wilson, Bon Iver, Joni Mitchell, Josh T Pearson, The Kinks, Ron Sexsmith and The Stone Roses, to name a few

I've got my eye on everything. The only downside with having an Ipod that can store almost a lifetime of music is that it is so much more difficult to listen to whole albums with the passion and intensity that I used to back when I was a teenager.

TV, DVDS, etc

A bit late, I know, but recently I've got into Mad Men in a big way. I don't watch a lot of TV, but I recently loved the latest series of Masterchef The Professionals. It's the one TV reality show that I actually enjoy. X Factor sucks in a big way these days.

I've got my eye on The Wire. I've only read good things about this series.

For Christmas I've ordered myself The Beatles Anthology DVDs. I can see myself wasting a good few hours of my life watching this!

So that's it for now. I could list a lot more stuff, I'm sure.

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 fragrance, but having said that, it didn't really smell that peppery or incense-like to me. It did smell quite synthetic, in a style that I could see Comme des Garcons doing. I was going to try describe what no 5 smells like, but honestly, I don't know if I really can.

When searching for reviews, I came across a particularly scathing review of this by PereDePierre, here, if you're interested in reading another take on it. For me, I thought it was different enough to write about, but am not sure if it is something I would wear regularly. I prefer the pineapple!

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 note, but frankly it takes a lot of imagination to actually detect it. Perhaps in the very late dry down I detect an accord that sort of hints at that found in, say, M7, but only just. 

The thing that has me most baffled about Signature for Men is that I don't dislike it. Strangely, it smells quite good. It is a very synthetic creation, but not generically synthetic. So there you have it. I wouldn't buy a bottle, but sampling it is certainly no burden.

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 here in England. However, we want them to be truly happy and I hope this move home will be good for them.

On Sunday we all met up with some other friends of ours, formerly from London but now living in Bonn, Germany. They had a little baby girl a few months ago and it was great to see them all. We visited a German Christmas market on the South Bank and generally had a good time, despite the dreary grey weather.

I didn't wear a lot of perfume this weekend, but somehow it felt appropriate not to. When I don't feel especially happy I also don't feel like wearing perfume...

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 legacy and passion directly, although I do hope her perfumes continue to be enjoyed and appreciated and here's wishing her spirit lives on in her wonderful perfumes.

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 cold, blustery day, as autumn slips away to winter, M wears smooth, sophisticated and beguilingly. It's a brilliant perfume.

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 indicative of the dire state of the UK and EU economies and for all I know it might be just as bad in the US and other parts of the world. I find it quite depressing really. While I know these retailers are simply trying to move merchandise and kick start their stalling financial results, I'm not convinced it does anything other than paper over the all-to-obvious cracks in our economy.

Well, this has absolutely nothing to do with perfume really. Interestingly, a lady I work with emailed us all with vouchers from The Body Shop offering 50% off all their stock before lunchtime, or something to that affect. It boggles the mind, while for the last two weeks Amazon has been going crazy over Black Friday, Cyber Monday and God knows what other days that deserve some faintly disturbing-yet-catchy name.

I'm waiting for some samples to arrive from a generous friend, but while I wait, I'm wearing perfumes I've worn before. Today I tried an interesting layering combination of Ambre Precieux and Leather Oud. I thought the animalic take by Dior might work interestingly with MPG's softer, powdery amber. Sadly Leather Oud (and I only lightly touched it to my wrist) overpowered everything and it didn't quite work. Generally I'm still not convinced by Ambre Precieux. I find it a little too sweet and powdery for my tastes, although I know it has its ardent fans, which is great.

Well, I'm off to watch Celebrity Masterchef now, sad being that I am!