For example, The Pour un Ete. I love tea fragrances, and I always felt that this one occupied a special niche in the tea fragrance crowd. It's bright and feminine and cold and warm and just a little bit stern. It's not weird, but it's still not dull or eager to please. As I re-read reviews, I see that everyone reads it as jasmine tea, and that might be part of the difference--all of my other tea favorites are black tea.
Then there's Din Dan. I was wandering through my "fresh citrus" fragrances--Fresh Lemon Sugar and Mandragore and ... well, see that's the problem. I only have two, and neither of them provides quite enough of a lemon blast. I remember that blast from Din Dan, though my Review Roundup post doesn't quite reflect that memory.
Then, while I'm looking at LostMarch, there's Lann-Ael. It always used to make me sad, but I never stop wishing I had another sample.
Then there's Serge Lutens Chene. I didn't buy Chene when I fell in love with it, did I? And, see how far I've drifted from my perfume collection, when I don't know if I own a bottle? My Basenotes wardrobe says I don't, and it's probably right, it's just that I remember a day and a Barney's counter and a credit card and tremendous temptation. Looks like I resisted that temptation. Good for me?
Regularly, like clockwork, I consider buying Dzing! and Luctor et Emergo. I think that's because both perfumes are seen as being weird, and I love the weird. The problem is that they're not really that weird. Elephant musk and stale popcorn? Play-Doh and cherries? Meh. Far too normal.
Sometime in the past year or so, I did acquire my highest-priority weirds: Aftelier Cepes & Tuberose, Comme des Garcons Garage, and a partial bottle of Tubereuse Criminelle. Mushrooms and buttered tuberose. Gasoline and dirty tires. Gasoline, mothballs, and decaying tuberose. Yum.
Fumerie Turque was similarly weird; as I've said before, it smells like tigers prowling around a campfire where tobacco-smoking campers once were. (Until the campers met the tigers.) I want it. I've wanted it since (lemme see) Decemer of 2009. Why don't I own it? I see it joining the above three, all of them strutting through the collection sneering at the well-behaved ladies like Estee Lauder Jasmine White Moss, and sending Rose Ikebana and Lemon Sugar fleeing in terror.
Of course, No. 19 would unsheath her claws and restore order. She can out-elegant the most ladylike, while simultaneously being beyond weird and approaching surreal. I do wonder, sometimes, why I need any perfume other than No. 19. Maybe she scares me, too.
It's Last Saturday. Din Dan?
Image: Wikimedia Commons.
Well, I guess since it is summer, Din Dan is a better choice than Chene. But Chene is probably my favorite perfume and no one every mentions it, so I always have to stand up for her! I was going to say get it on parfum1 since they are always having a sale and that is where I got mine, but now I see it is out of stock just about everywhere (except Barneys and TPC who has a partial Bell Jar - how tempting!). My favorite lemon at the moment is Brown Sugar, which I strangely found more lemony than Lemon Sugar. Silly Fresh! (And hello - don't think I've commented here before!)
ReplyDeleteHowdy, odonata! And hello and welcome!
ReplyDeleteYes, Chene really is glorious. I don't know why it doesn't get more attention - I think it's better than, for example, Chergui, which gets so much more press. And, oh, dear, is it gone or just no longer an export fragrance?
I think it must be export only now - it's on SL's site as a bell jar under "exclusive bottles" so I guess that is what that means. And the SL site is so annoying- when will flash go away? Luckyscent and Parfum1 (where I got mine last year) don't have any, but Barney's online still does.
ReplyDeleteI liked reading, especially, about your "weirds." You've been missed. Will you be posting more photos of your sewing? I'm curious to see how you're getting on (possibly because I've considered getting seriously into sewing myself, but it feels so daunting).
ReplyDeleteOoh. I've never ordered from Barney's; for some reason the presence of a brick-and-mortar store makes me hesitate to order online. I know this is illogical. Looks like it's time to break the rule.
ReplyDeleteYo, Natalie! Thanks! Yes, I'll be posting more photos. I'm not sure why I stopped; probably because all the sewing bloggers have dressmaker's dummies or are willing to actually be seen, and my clothes never look as good when photographed on a hanger. Or I'm just too lazy to get out the cable that transfers photos from camera to laptop. :)
ReplyDeleteSewing is fun! Though I can't remember if learning it is fun; I'm _re_ learning it, but the original learning was in high school and I can't remember the details of the process.