SOTD: Strange Invisible Perfumes Fire and Cream

Yum.

Want.

Review Roundup: Is here.

Image: By Malene Thyssen. Wikimedia Commons.

SOTD: Strange Invisible Perfumes Fire and Cream

A celebrateish mood, and some very nice dusty oranges.

Review Roundup: Is here.

Image: By Valentina Storti. Wikimedia Commons.

SOTD: Strange Invisible Perfumes Fire and Cream again. And well-behaved perfumes.

So I had an in person business meeting today. (Dismay: I have to change out of my pajamas to work?) Fire and Cream seemed quite appropriate, so I tried it as a back-of-the-neck perfume, and it worked well. There's an extra texture and sparkle to it when it's sniffed from a few more inches away.

This led me to think about the subject of well-behaved perfumes. By "well behaved" I mean perfumes suitable for  business meetings, or job interviews (if you dare wear scent at all), or meeting one's boyfriend's mother - at least, when these situations are expected to be more or less pleasant. When they're not, there's an entirely different category of "don't mess with me" perfumes. But that's not today's subject.

To me, a well behaved perfume needs to avoid being a number of things. Not a bombshell, not a little girl, not too ladylike. Little to no aggression, but without that "don't worry; I'm helpless" vibe. Not stupid, not... well, OK, I don't put an upper limit on how smart it can be.

Some candidates are those with a careful balance of wood and gentle, dry spices. Today's Fire and Cream is a fine example, and so are the saffron-filled drydown of Washington Tremlett Black Tie and the medicinal hit of l'Artisan Fou d'Absinthe.

The unsweet tea fragrances, like Parfumerie Generale L'Eau Rare Matale (tea and charred wood) and Harmatan Noir (tea, mint, sunshine, and dust) also fill this role, though some, like Comme des Garcons Tea, may be just a little too weird. And the syrupy and delicious ones, like l'Artisan's Tea for Two, don't qualify at all. I can't put my finger on why, but smelling edible doesn't seem to qualify for the very highest level of well-behavedness.

Irises seem to be inherently well-behaved - Iris Taizo's calm dry powder, for example, and the cool standoffishness of Iris Silver Mist. I'm not sure about Cuir d'Iris - that delightfully "off" leather note seems to take it out of the running. And Chanel Cuir de Russie definitely has leanings in both the bombshell and "don't mess with me" directions. It has far too much glamor to be well-behaved. But it also couldn't care less, in a way that may transcend the entire category.

Review Roundup: Is here.

Image: Wikimedia Commons.

SOTD: Strange Invisible Perfumes Fire and Cream

The orange quest continues! This time with Strange Invisible Perfumes, a line that, for no reason I can put my finger on, I find rather intimidating. But I couldn't resist the name Fire and Cream, so now I have a sample to play with.

The notes for this one are orange, orange blossom, tuberose, frankincense, white lavender, vetiver, sandalwood and patchouli. It's interesting but subtle - I may find it forgettable, or I may end up with a severe craving.

The beginning has a medicinal mood, with no trace of the sweetness that I would have expected from the orange blossom and tuberose. I'm just as happy to have the orange blossom drowned, but I wouldn't mind a bit more tuberose, and a bit less lavender. There's also something that I translate as celery seed - distinctly odd, and I suspect that I may be misreading something.

The shifts over time were subtle, and I need to try it again, and perhaps with a more generous application, to be able to describe the middle stages. The end is a gentle but resinous orange, more peel than juice, and just a little wood. Pleasant.

So, no conclusion.

Review Roundup: Now Smell This and Fragrantica and Perfume Posse and MakeupAlley and Scent Hive and RagingRouge and Perfume-Smellin' Things and All About The Pretty and CaFleureBon and A Rose Beyond The Thames and EauMG and I Feel Pretty.

Image: Wikimedia Commons.