into the wild

the word 'wild' has a lot of interesting definitions. the word without context can mean savage, untamed, intense, enraged, outrageous, overgrown, lush and much more. if i describe myself as wild, with no additional description, i doubt it would elicit the same interpretation in each of my friends.

so i want a perfume that is wild, in all its negative and positive connotations. what is the first definition you think of when you think of the word 'wild?'

Strange Chemistry - Antonia's Flowers Tiempe Passate

I suppose it's fair enough to say that I am a peculiar soul. I certainly don't know many people similar to me. It would then stand to reason that I have a peculiar body as well. Before the jokes start, it's not the shape but the oddity of function to which I'm referring, and how that oddness manifests itself in applications of perfume. One particular manifestation is that almost anything bergamot applied to my skin makes a smell like something nasty is burning. I've gotten burning skunk, burning wormwood, burning chlorine, burning sewage, even burning metal - bergamot is talented on me. I will still try some of the bergamot-noted perfumes because once in a VERY great while it works out beautifully. Plus Que Jamais was a perfect example of this.

Yesterday I decided to take on sampling another fragrance with prominent bergamot - Tiempe Passate, by Antonia's Flowers. This one was a suprise because while I could smell burning, the intensity of the cedar note made it smell like a bonfire of cedar logs...plus pepper. Yes, a strong and enduring note of black pepper... And is that jasmine? Burning JASMINE? ...why yes, it is. How... disconcerting. Then I found, much to my fascination, that this fragrance never changed from that scent combination in the drydown.

The formulation of this scent is lovely if you like this sort of thing. I'm impressed that it wasn't more unpleasant on my skin - it was easy enough to endure for the 5-6 hours it lasted, which cannot be said for the vast majority of other bergamots. (Note to self: remember to write about the horrorshow that was Frederic Malle's Musc Ravageur.) But this is not a fragrance I would choose to wear myself. More the pity, considering what I've heard about the sexiness of this fragrance on others.

I do wish that this had happened with Plus Que Jamais... *sad sigh*

the story of how i met PQJ, and the adventures of the bee bottle.

i have an addiction problem.
i am addicted to perfumes.

this is a pretty problem, since i don't usually fall in love with the cheaper kinds - or even the mid-range Sephora perfumes, even though a lot of them are very nice. no, i have to fall desperately in love with high end, scour-your-wallet-and-empty-the-lint kinds of fragrances instead, rendering my financial planning a bit irrelevant.

today i tried to pick up an investment perfume (Apres L'Ondee) from the Guerlain counter at Bergdorf Goodman; i spent the money to get this well-regarded discontinued fragrance at quantity, knowing that i could make quite a bit on it on eBay. however, i made the cardinal mistake. i let the sales assistant talk to me about the new perfume. her face registered intense pleasure when she talked about it, and at first i thought it was a gimmick to get me to buy. silly me; i let her spray the potion on me anyway.

...oh my.
a woodsy warmth, a slightly powdery comforting smell, wafts of blue flowers, a mystical spicy afterscent that lingers in the back of the nose, like cinnamon and nutmeg in chocolate. this perfume was a hug from an adored relative when you were 7, or a caress on the cheek from a beloved partner. i fell hard for this fragrance.

Guerlain's Plus Que Jamais. evil, evil, EVIL sales assistant.

* * *

i do have a fun sequel to this story.
i thought i'd gotten my bottle of above-mentioned investment fragrance and that was the end of the story, but more was to come. this discontinued fragrance only came in a large version of Guerlain's bee bottle, which came with engraving of one to three initials. i wanted to get this fragrance in a smaller container, but this was the only way they were releasing it in this country. i could have gone to Europe for it, but... well, i'm insane, but not that insane.

when i picked it up, it was in a white textured-paper box, with Guerlain's logo in tasteful gold print. the box was wrapped in plastic, and for a while i was trying to wait until i got home before admiring it. however, i couldn't resist it, so i unwrapped the box while at work. the sheer size of the bottle took my breath away, and i pulled it out to reveal --

the wrong initials engraved on the bottle.

i'd chosen a single script R, and this had SH engraved on it. i looked at it blankly for a while, then put it back in the box and called the Guerlain counter immediately. Hina (the evil/wonderful/evil SA) and i worked out that i would drop it off that night and she would figure it out with her boss.

a few hours later, i went back and delivered the precious box. that was when Hina informed me that she'd done some research since i had called her, and the person who had gotten the other incorrect bottle was none other than the Crown Princess of Jordan. my eyes almost bugged out of my head when she described how, in order to satisfy both of us (i know it's actually to satisfy her, not me), they were hiring a courier at their own expense to deliver this box to her, and return my box to me.

what a shock! i've been here, waiting patiently for my precious Apres L'Ondee since late April, and it's off cavorting with Royalty! not only royalty, mind you, but a woman who has won a 'Women of Peace' award! i've half a notion to give it a piece of my mind when it comes home. i waited up for it, worried half out of my wits... *sob*

;) i'm highly amused by this whole thing. i admit to being really disappointed when i discovered i had the wrong bottle, but now this will make a fun story for later.

white whale leather

originally posted in lachendwolf on Thursday, December 22, 2005.

i am relieved to be wearing my new favorite Guerlain. i was so upset about puppy stuff and work stuff today i decided to wear Cuir Beluga. my application began at 9:45 am; at 5:24 pm it's still going strong. as a matter of fact, it's almost stronger. i'm not exactly sure why Guerlain named this Cuir Beluga; 'white whale leather' really doesn't sound appealing. however, i can certainly imagine someone searching for the best leather scent in the world as though it was Moby Dick. this smell is really delicious, as though a soft leather shirt (not a jacket - the leather isn't that strong) was left packed in a box of vanilla beans, then dusted with a smidgin of talc and then polished to a buttery finish with a tiny bit of violin bow resin. i only get the faintest hint of mandarin in the top notes, enough to give the leather an edge, and no everlasting flower. the heliotrope does a bit of hide and seek in the middle of the drydown, but otherwise this scent is wonderfully consistent and i don't find myself even remotely disappointed in the lack of variation there. the endurance of this fragrance makes me very happy.

Ambra di Venezia

this smell makes me so happy i can't even speak in full sentences about it. it's a wonderful 4-toned chord of mango, jasmine, orange blossom and lime which smooths over my skin. it smells of late summer sunlight on a quiet island beach. delectable fruit ripening under a tropical arbor. it is what those pictures of caribbean paradises actually smell like. i absolutely love this scent. i wear it to bed a lot. on me there is no drydown; the fragrance stays true from start to finish and i love the smell so much that i appreciate it quite a bit.

does ginger really turn? - Zenzero review

"Good In The Bottle, Bad On The Skin" perfume award today goes to Zenzero. it smells lovely and creamy in the bottle, but the moment it gets to my skin i've suddenly walked back into the days of experimenting with the babysitter's dusty Charlie bottle, left in the sun a bit too long. what in the world is it about their white ginger note? the base of the perfume, their Vaniglia del Madagascar, is unassuming and nice on me. nothing extraordinary, but absolutely nothing offensive about it. add the ginger and suddenly WHOMP i'm in bad 70s drugstoreland. it's a pity, since i love the smell of ginger and use the herb raw in my cooking quite a bit. this is now the third time i've tried it - each time i want to send it away from me i feel guilty, because the notes make it sound like such a terrific perfume. but my skin is picky, in more ways than one, and it is emphatically refusing this scent.

Vinci and Rakos 'Earth'

Vinci & Rakos Earth is not quite the sensual musk on me that they claim it is - it is light and soapy, clean-bodied and sporty. i can understand why others think it's powdery, but i found it much less so than SL's Clair de Musc and the note turns into straight Ivory on me, in a good way. there is no real drydown in the fragrance. it remains as it is during the hours i wear it, which is appealing in its own sort of way. the life of the fragrance is about 5 hours and has no sour notes. it seems a reliable sort of fragrance, one you don't rave and gush about but one you reach for when you're looking for something completely non-offensive, totally subtle, yet nice and wonderful to smell. i like it. i like having it. it's nothing extraordinary, but it's still a nice stable scent.

an incense by any other name - Bond No. 9 Chinatown

today i'll talk about Chinatown. initially i was a touch afraid of this scent, since some folks mention a bergamot note in there and i am so nervous about The Burning. i try bergamot-laden scents with the attitude of a squeamish older lady dipping a toe into frigid water... and that attitude has certainly served me well in the past!

however, this perfume didn't deserve such treatment. what a lovely creation this is! Chinatown is, at its essence, a well-done incense. it starts off with an initial note of warm peaches, but within 10 minutes that loveliness is settled back and a gorgeous floral incense takes over. the tuberose and peony lend themselves particularly well to this composition, rendering a set of wood notes into a lush and complex work. the wood-and-white-floral phase is long-lasting and steady - the cardamom doesn't come into play until a half hour into the drydown. while in some perfumes cardamom makes a perfume into a gourmand scent, in Chinatown the cardamom adds depth and an eastern-tinged spirituality to the scent. it is a May church wedding sort of scent. without question there's a meditative overlay to this, balanced by the weight of the florals, with an innate joyous quality that is impossible to ignore. definitely a scent worth trying. the beauty of the packaging helps as well. ;)

for the Iris lovers - Acqua di Parma Iris Nobile

i admit, when i first heard about this fragrance i was a mite turned off by it being an Acqua di Parma, since Colonia and Colonia Assoluta turn odd on me. however, i was lucky enough to get a sample - because i am iris-obsessed; scent and color and flower and greek god alike - and loved it. it is floral without sacrificing freshness, citrus without being either sticky-smelling or bitter, and powdery without having the slightest bit of dustiness. best of all, the burning scent that develops in many bergamots gives it some added smoky depth on me, which makes it charming instead of distasteful ;) i've had several family members fall in love with it on me and ask for samples, which is a pretty good metric by any standard.

Tiptoeing Through the Chambers of the Moon

this came during a year that brough many tuberose scents to me, which is surprising when i remember how badly certain other tuberoses turned on me in 2004. i'm happy that it worked out this way, though, because otherwise i never would have appreciated this fragrance. it is a rich candied incense, a smoky Mae West of a flower. the canned marketing description that comes with this perfume is corny but that doesn't belie the fact that this is a fragrance for the occultist, someone who is not afraid of smelling like a sexy gypsy with a past. it is intoxicating and ultrasensual while also having a distinct cerebral side. since the perfumers only provide two notes i have to come up with the rest myself ;) the sweet tuberose swelters in a humid and lush amber, studded with a touch of cinnamon and star anise to keep the two scents anchored. as the drydown continues the smells of whiskey-oak and frankincense come through, while the tuberose remains steadily present. definitely a love-it-or-hate-it kind of scent, and i do love it.

more than ever - Guerlain's Plus Que Jamais

why oh why oh why do i do this to myself?? i should know by now that i should never ever sniff perfumes over a certain price, because it seems i am fated (more like doomed) to adore them. Plus Que Jamais is no exception. at the price, you'd think a perfume would also do the dishes and bring you breakfast in bed. at the very least, you'd hope that this fragrance was a guaranteed romancer. however, Plus Que Jamais is not about seduction or showing oneself off. what it does with elegance is render the most perfect kind of nostalgia. since first wearing it, i have compared this fragrance to a long hug from a most cherished relative, and it does pull that feeling out with ease. while it can be worn with elegant finery and carry it off with aplomb, it's really a scent to wear with your snuggliest sweater in late autumn when you're chasing leaves with your loved ones.

each time i put it on i cannot stop sniffing my arm for a good 5 hours afterwards. most people who know and love Guerlains know that there's a definite powdery drydown in a good number of them. Roja Dove once referred to it as the 'mink coat' accord, and Plus Que Jamais has a tiny hint of it. however, to me this is more of a snuggly cashmere, worn by a loved relative giving the younger you a heartfelt hug. there is something so cozy and loving about this fragrance, while retaining both some nostalgia and some playfulness. the notes on the Guerlain 'cheatsheet' state that Calabrese/Calabrian bergamot, ylang-ylang, and neroli should combine over iris, jasmine, and vanilla. you can tell there's much more in this formula, and the normally chatty/clangy top notes seem more - to shamelessly steal Luca Turin's comment - symphonic in this composition. something about the iris and vanilla combination make the drydown ever-so-slightly incensey, which makes this a perfect fall/winter scent.

Winter Rose by Yosh

if i thought about it logically, i would conclude that this perfume is too expensive. however, ages ago the perfumer Yosh Han, the nose behind Yosh Olfactory Sense, brought samples with her to Barney's for a special two-weekend Sniffapalooza. now i admit i'm not a Yosh fan - her scents are heartbreakingly lovely in the bottle but they sour on me quickly. so when i first smelled the sample it was on someone else's skin. (*winks at Nina*) i wouldn't have even tried the scent if it wasn't for that first introduction, and it smelled so delicious i had to check. Winter Rose is simply a combination of three pure rose oils plus cardamom, and the combination is wholly yummy and bewitching. i swear she put saffron in there too! at the time i was dying with hope that she would release this scent, and attempted, twice, to concoct the thing myself with oils i bought at various retailers. sadly, rose is a very difficult scent on me, and the vast majority of oils that have rose as a major component of the composition turn... well, fecal on me. after spending a considerable amount of money only to have my efforts wasted (until i gave them as gifts, at which point i felt better), i decided to give up on the idea of ever having this scent.

two years later she caved and put it out at a higher price. a rather much higher price. what did i do? i bought one right away. i couldn't even wait for the bottle she had saved me; i bought it at Barney's. it is such a blessing of comfort and calm on my skin, and the roses smell spicier than normal roses. it lifts me up into Junetime, my favorite month, and nestles me like Thumbelina in her rosepetal bed. i wear it sparingly, but with the utmost love.

edgy edgy

to talk about a fragrance with a wholly different spirit: let's review Jo Malone's Nutmeg and Ginger. this is a dance of a scent - i'm still amazed that it was Jo Malone's first. it's a shimmy of spices, a glissade of gingery vibrance. it does not smell like the food-spice combination that i love, but of bright energy and impishness. on my skin it could be called clean, but if i used the term i would not be quite honest - there's a distinct edge to it, a pungency that is pleasant against the warmth of the body. it dries down to a soft spiciness that is incredibly gentle... so i bought it.

this scent isn't as evocative as Idole, but it is solid and lovely and will be a great layering component.

Annick Goutal Eau du Ciel

this is a strangely lovely little scent. usually Annick Goutal scents morph badly on my skin, but for this one the common "rose lotion"y scent that i get out of the bottle morphs into something much nicer on the skin. Eau du Ciel is a very strong, green lime-and-iris blend on me, and while i still smell something akin to lanolin in the base, it's not unpleasant at all. it's a springtime scent - a thick floral sweetness underlined with the true muddy-wet smell of burgeoning plant matter coming up through loam. it's kids picking flowers for their mother on mother's day, then coming home covered in mud, smiling in delight as they hand over their wild bouquet. i really enjoy it.

Montale's Black Aoud

if i didn't know better, i'd swear a group of obsessive women dreamed this fragrance into existence. i can find no mention of it on any retail site - it's as though Makeup Alley perfumistas invented it out of sheer force of will. i also cannot find where i put the sample... i know where it was, and where i left it, but not where it is. i had to go look at my notes from Sara to make sure i wasn't lapsing into some alternate dimension of perfumes that didn't exist in reality. that said, this was an odd scent. it smelled like a garage on me. damp concrete and metal, with an oily undertone, and the leather seats of a very well-kept motorcycle. i could almost smell the Armor-All. it wasn't a bad scent - i rather liked it. it was just not something i wanted to wear on my skin. i did feel very butch wearing it, though. or maybe a little like Jo in Facts of Life. and if they added the smell of gasoline to it, i would have hoarded that vial like a madwoman. ;)

soliflora joy - elizabeth W's Hyacinth

i decided to break habit and wear elizabeth W Hyacinth today. i've reviewed it before, but only in the context of a larger list. my impressions are much more complex than what i've allowed for here.

keep in mind that i'm a bit pokey when it comes to soliflores. if something truly smells like the flower to me, i have a hard time discerning notes. but this perfume is so amazing, it's as though you have the true breakdown of a hyacinth's blooming. the first spray opens with a strong green cut-stem scent with the distinctive lush notes that mark many spring flowers. after a few seconds, it's the whole hyacinth flower - from slightly dry bulb to thick, lush, sharply green stem to the luxurious bluenote floral that makes up a spike of these pretty flowers. the green note lasts the longest, much like the flower itself, and it's about a 5-hour strong cycle and another 2-hour faint cycle. that in itself is impressive, but the fact that the soliflore stays very true through the majority of the scent's life is equally notable.

this all said, i don't think i'll ever smell anything as clearly hyacinth as this. it's a beautiful, beautiful fragrance, and i'm ever-grateful i took the risk and bought it unsniffed.

the dance of notes

i am such a clutz. cleaning for the folks' arrival, i knocked into my dresser and down came the top shelf of my perfume collection... including the pretty stopper bottle of Eve's Revenge. oil everywhere, a little glittery collection of broken glass from the bottle lip hitting some glass beads, and a Guerlain atomizer bulb ruined. *sigh* the smell has died down some, much to my relief, as well as the pup's. the combination of that and Fire Island wasn't bad, particularly since Eve's Revenge toned down Fire Island's shrill skintones.

the sillage of Fire Island is utterly fantastic - cardamom and neroli dance beautifully together, all Fred and Ginger at their best, and there's a hint of musk to woo them onto the soft sand in their bare feet. it's lovely to smell something that is obviously luxurious but not necessarily formal or excessively dressed-up. however, up close on my skin, the neroli seems to whack up with the tuberose and ozone notes. that junkie-esque weirdness turns it into all synthetic high-octane smells, comparable to Philip Glass compositions buzzing on helium and crack. that high note has sustained for the past 10 hours, even now that the sillage is gone... which is really a disappointment. it might be something i can live with once in a while - after all, with sillage that good it's hard to resist - but it wouldn't be a commonly-worn perfume for me.

quasi-gothic - Scent By Alexis

i can't believe it. i'm still slightly ill, but i still went out for cocktails tonight with friends. well worth it, in my mind - it's quarter past 1 and i'm supposed to be up in 5 hours... but i wanted to talk about Scent by Alexis first.

at Bendel's we were treated to the trunk show, and Alexis Karl was there to show off her stuff. the hand-gilded bottles are quite gorgeous, but the perfume oils are what capture you. the scents are fairly linear but there's no negative to that because they start off really rich and simply settle into the skin. i tried four of them but she has two really extraordinary ones: Venus in Furs and Eve's Revenge.

Venus in Furs is a combination of amber, vanilla, freesia and other florals. i could swear there's some patchouli in there as well because it's so earthy-wonderful on some people's skin, but on mine it rendered dust and ice cream underneath the amber. still, smelling it on two other women proved intoxicating, and i was really entranced at how sensual the scent grew on them over time. i found myself comparing Venus in Furs to Laura Tonnato's Amir, with Venus winning. i certainly regretted that it didn't smell so amazing on me! on them the fragrance isn't so much reminiscent of a true dominatrix in leather and fur; it's more like a person who most definitely knows what she wants, and smells that way too.

luckily, the disappointment at my skin chemistry's response to Venus in Furs was short-lived. when i first heard the name "Eve's Revenge" i was intrigued, and Alexis described the notes as being mainly pomegranate and fig. on her arm they smelled fruity and almost candy-like, but from the bottle i could smell something else and so i asked for it on my skin. on me there's a winey-incense note that cradles the two fruits and rocks them gently, and that incense note gets deeper as the oil dries down on my skin. the sillage was amazing too; on the subway 2 hours later i could still smell it and was still in love with it. i was a bit too tipsy on two glasses of sauvignon blanc delivered by a lovely angelic-faced blond man with a nice butt... who had a penchant for winking... so the only descriptor that came to my all-too-addled mind was "i smell like a haunted fruit salad, but in a good way."

haunted fruit salad, indeed - not that goofy, i hope! with a more sober mind i'd say i smelled like what i dream a seraglio would smell like. rich fruits being consumed by languid half-naked women smoking aromatic hookahs and burning copah resins in the rose-scented heat of Turkey. i know my dream is nothing like reality, but this smell is so reminiscent of a dream-scent that i'm smitten. it only helps matters that the name of it is vaguely threatening. i find that appealing.

in comparison, White Sable is a typical yummy gourmand, very nice but not a standout by any means, and Queen Bitch is a bit too close to other intesne white florals, even though the chocolate in Queen Bitch grounds it a bit more. i did smell Goddess on someone else, and it was a really charming spicy floral on her, but i didn't smell it in the bottle nor on my own skin.

even though the perfume i bought was really amazing and i wouldn't have bought without that love for the fragrance, i felt that what i was paying for was the bottle. Alexis allows you to choose the bottle you want when you're there, and that works out well. the gilding is truly lovely and because they're handmade, each bottle is unique. she said more than once that the bottle and the oil combined makes the work of art, and i can see her point. in a normal bottle, the oil would be a slightly different experience, the same way a Serge Lutens is a different experience from the bell jar.

to sum up - i'm not an oil fan and i fell in love with one almost on contact; i was also immediately impressed with how two other oils smelled on other women in the company. all in all, i think her scents are well worth trying.

Mona di Orio Nuit Noire

this is one of those perfumes. you know the ones. you're minding your own business one day, la di da, "hey look jeans on sale." but out of nowhere, a smell grabs you by the ears and forces you to breathe its essence in - and suddenly you're drowning in a sensation that you know, somewhere in the depths of you, you've been seeking for years.

Nuit Noire is one of those. the fragrance is, without question, more than the sum of its notes. orange blossom, cardamom, ginger and cinnamon, tuberose, sandalwood and leather, clove, musk... honestly, it smells like none of them and all. it's airy and deep at the same time; thick with carnality and longing yet easy to wear. it's more a mood, or a classy event you've attended that makes you smile silkily when you think of it. imagine yourself dressed in one of those outfits that slays all comers and leaves you with gasping admirers begging for the merest touch of your pumps. this is the perfume you would wear with that outfit, and as you wear it you know it would have been killer enough just to have this scent floating like shimmering dark organza over your skin.

this scent announces my sensuality well ahead of any words by me. in it i feel more incandescent than Marilyn Monroe at her best. i'm saving this. hoarding it. making sure it does not leave my sight any time soon.

ignore the poetry of the Mona di Orio site... this fragrance stands - or rather, slinks - on its own.

i adore Olivia Giacobetti.

originally posted in lachendwolf on Sunday, January 08, 2006.

originally i thought i should wait before i declare my undying love for Idole de Lubin, but at the time i felt so strongly about it i couldn't help but share. other perfumistas had reviewed this fragrance, and the person who started me on the path to this scent was Victoria on the perfume blog Bois de Jasmin. however, even with the voluptuous language used by these artists of scent reviews i was wholly unprepared for how incredible this fragrance is. i already knew Giacobetti's rendition of saffron smelled magical on my skin, but the addition of smoky rum, pepper, and clove adds a layer of sensual power to the lyrical voice of the saffron and the orange. it brings to mind a distinct image: Colette reclining on a leather settee in a music hall, wearing her black velvet collar, saying with a voice just starting to go rusty from smoking: "The lovesick, the betrayed, and the jealous all smell alike."

unlike the above quote, Idole is the fragrance of a quiet, enduring strength - sweetness laced with fire. i adored it then - i still adore it now. the notes as listed on the dreadful, horrible site: top - rum absolute, saffron, bitter orange peel, black cumin / middle - doum palm, smoked ebony, sugar cane / bottom - leather, red sandalwood.

a spell on my heart

i've been wearing Safran Troublant for the past two days. when it was released in 2002, i didn't think anything could be better. between saffron, sandalwood, vanilla, and rose i was just in heaven. the rose never separates itself out like the others do - yet the creamy spiced custard smell never gets cloying or gooey like many other gourmands. some people complain that it doesn't have staying power, but i discovered otherwise. it becomes so intimate with you that even while you can't smell it, others can. i wish i could come up with something lovely and poetic about this fragrance, because it certainly deserves it, but sadly all i can do is smile in serenity as i let this scent sink into my skin.

strange memories

wow, starting with a perfume review! fancy that!

this review has some minor personal revelation included (i.e. it's a personal topic but i have no emotional baggage about it - it's a major positive) so be prepared.

i've been trying this scent on and off for a long time, trying to figure out what it reminded me of in the drydown, and why it made me feel so weird. for the longest time i couldn't figure it out. i had to wear it again today just to see if i could nail it down.

before i talk more about that, let me say that even from the beginning Attrape-Coeur is a very odd scent for me, at best. while the traditional Guerlain notes of iris, rose and violet are part of the composition, when i apply i don't get the usual Guerlain powdery starting blast which those notes would seem to suggest. as a matter of fact, the perfume almost hides on my skin, as though i've caught this fragrance partway through the drydown and it's embarrassed to be caught in such a state of deshabille. it hovers about the wrists in a lingerie state, with the iris never becoming powdery or rooty and the rose never becoming rose-y, but the vanilla and sandalwood come out quickly and form a... well, let's just say i imagine them like two large cats curled up on either side of poor half-dressed miss spring-floral, ensuring that no harm comes to their mistress. on skin that has fewer veins close to the surface, such as the top of the shoulder, there's a stronger rose to be smelled and it's a lush smell, not like the pink tea roses but like the more deep-red indolic smell of rose absolutes. it's as though heat makes miss spring-floral a bit less shy about hanging out in her underwear, but when it's not so warm she pulls up her petals a bit and shows off the outfits.


the drydown is something else entirely. after less than an hour, i get it. miss spring-floral has crashed out on the couch and her cats have gone off to hunt, leaving the amber smell of the bedsheets to come out and play. it is that smell that evokes peculiar memories. the smell that i know i've smelled before.

i figured it out today. i'm not feeling well and i think that's what did it. the smell of the drydown is vanilla-ish, not really woody, something that is attempting to be a good amber, but what is really...

the drydown of Betadine.
in particular, the Betadine surgical scrub i got from the children's ward after i had breast reduction surgery at 17.
the stuff i had to wash with each morning until i had healed further, and how it smelled under my arms when i started to sweat - i wasn't allowed to wear deodorant or anitperspirant for a week, which is a major hardship for a teen.

it's not an unpleasant memory, really - the surgery was a huge (pun intended) success and i was gleeful at the release from my burden for months afterwards. what it is, is strange. the hospital and the week after, to which that smell is associated, was a midway point in which my perception of self was hanging, awaiting the time when i could get out and reveal myself and see how it felt to be someone different according to the outside world. also, the smell of Betadine on me isn't bad, though it is for some others, and while it's not a negative association it's not one i particularly want to revisit all the time. finally, it's terribly distracting to be thinking "iodine scrub? why do these notes smell like that to me?" when i'm wearing something that's called Heart-Catcher.

in a certain way, i find it amusing. after all, the surgery was close to my heart, both literally and emotionally, and it wasn't until after that surgery that i started having any real confidence in myself. ;) it's also vaguely ironic because one of my girlfriends from college felt the same way about her own breast reduction surgery at 17 ;) - part of our initial bonding was over that, and that's a caught heart in its own way.

now, ~4 hours from when it started, the Betadine smell is fading away leaving only a trace of vanilla bean. i wish i could say that this fragrance, with its fantastic name and huge following, was a fave of mine as well. sadly, now that i've pinpointed the memory it's evoking, i won't be wearing this one again.