SOTD: Parfumerie Generale Cadjmere

Cadjmere works very well in the summer.

This is a surprise.

My posts keep getting shorter.

Those are cashmere goats.

That is all.

Review Roundup: Is here.

Image: By Paul Esson. Wikimedia Commons.

SOTD: Parfumerie Generale Cadjmere

That's a cashmere goat over there. Cute, huh? But pretty cranky-looking.

(Yes, this is going to be one of those brain-not-in-gear SOTD posts. What gave you the clue?)

Today I sprayed on Parfumerie Generale Cadjmere, and loved it for the first couple of hours. Then it started to seem just a bit oversweet for the warming weather.

It looks like the seasonal craving shift is happening, whether I like it or not. Problem is, it's not finished yet. I don't want Cadjmere, and I don't want Cristalle. What do I wear while I'm waiting?

Review Roundup: Is here.

Photo by Thomas W. Pluhar. Wikimedia Commons.

SOTD: Parfumerie Generale Cadjmere (And interesting consequences of over application)

Cadjmere is usually a two-spray scent for me. Today, since I'll be alone at home for most of the day, I applied five sprays. Or possibly seven. I lose track.

I expected this to make the scent stronger, of course. But to my surprise, it also seemed to change the proportions. Normally, Cadjmere is sweet powdery coconut milk, with some wood to ground it and just enough sandalwood spice to keep the sweet from going overboard. I don't usually perceive the sandalwood as such, I'm just aware of it adding complexity to the scent.

With the overapplication, the sandalwood is magnified; it seems to be as strong as the coconut milk. The scent is less sweet, less pretty, and even more interesting.

I feel as if I should be able to figure out the reason behind this. As I understand it, the scent of a perfume comes from a mix of aromachemicals that are evaporating, in different proportions, from my skin. I have a faint memory that the reason that a scent can smell different from different distances, is that the heavier chemicals don't travel as far as the lighter ones, so the proportions keep changing with distance. I don't know if that's true, but it makes sense.

But I can't come up with a geeky explanation for changed proportions with heavier application. It has to be something that involves the heavier chemicals - the sandalwood is a basenote and therefore heavier, right? - being available in a higher proportion than they usually are. I think. But no theories are coming to mind.

I'll keep thinking. Meanwhile, I like it a lot. It's unfortunate that I'd have to drown everyone around me to experience it. But I have a new at-home scent now, and I'll be experimenting with over application of other scents.

Review Roundup: Is here.

Photo: By Dino Sassi - Marcel Fayon. Wikimedia Commons.

SOTD: Parfumerie Generale Cadjmere

Mmm. Fuzzy coconut fur.

And...

Um...

What?

I seem to be empty of brain. Extra, unusually, almost unprecedentedly, empty of brain. Normally, I can at least babble about something inconsequential. Today... what?

I blame it on the holidays and an overfilled mental priority list. There's the year to tie up at work. And the house to tidy up at, well, home. And gifts to choose. And wrap. And ship.

And will we have that larger party we've been talking about? And when did I last do laundry?

And are the ornaments in the garage attic? And are there black widows in the garage attic? Do black widows look good on the Christmas tree? What if you dip them in glitter?

You can see, here, that my mind is on hold. But coconut fur is a fine wrapping for a mind on hold. Even if that's probably not an image that the copywriters at LuckyScent ever thought of.

Photo: Kris de Curtis. Wikimedia Commons.

SOTD: Parfumerie Generale Cadjmere as the scent of idleness

Cadjmere again!

Coconut. Furry, fuzzy powder, rather than girly dressed-up lipstick-and-powder. Sleepy and rumpled and don't really much care, because sleepy and rumpled is a very comfortable state. I'm tempted to shop for just the right pair of pajamas to wear with this scent.

I think that it's also going to be one of my holiday scents. Sushi Imperiale is my active holiday scent, for buying and trimming the tree, making cookies, going outside and taking that first gulp of cold air, shopping along main street with the Christmas lights up.

Cadjmere is the scent for collapsing idly on the couch in your pajamas with a cookie plate in arm's reach, watching the tree twinkle. That's not an option today, but it's nice to smell that way.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

SOTD: Parfumerie Generale Cadjmere

Again. Yep, I've posted about this before, and before that. Three wearings in a month doesn't seem like much, but I believe that this is the only repeater in a sample-heavy month. I'm in love with this scent, at least right now.

It's edible, but it's not... filling? You can enjoy eating one thing for only so long, but you can enjoy smelling it cooking, anticipating it, for much longer. This is like that.

Or maybe I don't even react to this one like a gourmand - maybe it's not registering as "edible" in my brain. Catching a whiff of it is rather like putting on a cedar-scented sweater just pulled out of winter storage - it's comforting and familiar, and was that way almost on the first sniff. Maybe it's the powder and vanilla that give it that familiarity, and then the coconut and sandalwood that make it exotic enough for a perfume snob who won't be satisfied with simple comfort.

It's a theory. Maybe I'll have a new thought the next time I put this on, and I'm betting that will be this month.

Photo: Meursalt2004, Wikimedia Commons

SOTD: Parfumerie Generale Cadjmere - and let's talk about powder

Well, yes, I have already discussed this one. Coconut milk, sandalwood, warm friendly cloud, all that. I'm still in love with this, and don't anticipate falling out of love.

Did I mention the powder? I officially dislike powder, but I discovered that in Cadjmere I like it very much. It's a much finer powder than most perfumes - which I realize makes no sense whatsoever, because it's not as if there's any actual powder; it's just a scent.

But for some reason, powder is a note that produces a disconcertingly convincing illusion of physical reality for me. When I smell lemon, I don't expect to see a citrus fruit. When I smell Brosius's Burning Leaves, I don't expect to see smoke. But when I smell a powdery fragrance, I feel as if I should see the puff of powder in the air. After a big sniff, I feel as if I could brush my hand across my face and see white traces on my fingers. And with Cadjmere, those imaginary white traces would be impossibly fine, almost liquid.

It's a mystery.

Picture: Wikimedia Commons

SOTD: Parfumerie Generale Cadjmere

OK, this stuff is gorgeous.

It's a comfort scent - warm and fuzzy, sweet and gently powdery.

It's a craving scent, almost edible, with coconut milk and candied wood. It wraps me in an always perceptible but never aggressive cloud of scent.

The wood, and a little orange, and a little green, stop it short of cloying, while still leaving it utterly satisfying.

Review roundup: Now Smell This and Basenotes.
Edited to add Fragrantica and a mention on Perfume-Smellin' Things and sakecat's scent project and Confessions of a Pefume Nerd and Fragrantica and MakeupAlley and WAFT.

Edited to add to the Review Roundup.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons