AIFF and Un-Earthly Phenomena

Well, I didn't actually see the alien ship arrive or depart, but I know that they've been here, because Himself is...

Tweeting.

Yes, Tweeting.

So until the batteries run out on the mind-control implant, you can read his Tweets at @steveinashland.

And, more traditionally, he's blogging away at bloggingashland.wordpress.com, because we are once again attending the Ashland Independent Film Festival, snatching pastry-based foods in frantic moments between films, and saying, "What the... what was that?!" or "That was great!" More of the second than the first, though I suppose the very best experience is when you express both thoughts at the very same time.

Image: Wikimedia Commons.

SOTD: Serge Lutens Bas de Soie

Serge Lutens Bas de Soie is a vintage black and white photograph of a scent. It's "retro", not in a funny-nostalgia way, but with that unruffled elegance that no one seems to possess any longer. Many of the reviews refer to it as cold, with the two major notes battling for control. I see it as warm and sunlit and soft, with the iris and hyacinth napping together like intertwined cats, so that you can't tell where one ends and the other begins.

I initially made a proper and sensible decision to spend a few days with a sample, and think about a possible, someday, eventual purchase. Then I caught a whiff of it from my arm and scurried back to the shop - where Himself bought it for me. He does a very fine job of keeping me smelling green.

Review Roundup: The Scented Salamander and 1000 Fragrances and Grain de Musc and Bois de Jasmin and Fragrantica and Perfume Posse and Cafleurebon and Perfume Shrine and Perfume-Smellin' Things and MakeupAlley and Now Smell This and The Fragrant Foodie (scroll down) and I Smell Therefore I Am and The Non-Blonde.

Images: Wikimedia Commons.

Link: Himself on Portland

Himself is a far better travel blogger than I am. Below, I present his posts on our Portland trip, in chronological order:

Portland Sucks!
Dinner in the City
Sleeping Around, Getting Around
A Day Filled With Bacon
Portland Day 3: Mass Transit Mania
Lions and Tigers and Hash, Oh, My!

Image: By Cacophony. Wikimedia Commons.

SOTD: The Malignant Dreams of Cthulhu in Love by Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Himself and I used to play the roleplaying game Call of Cthulhu, based on the horror fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. We're very fond of Cthulhu, even if he is an incomprehensibly evil monster bent on the destruction of all life. (And doesn't he make a cute puppet?) So when Himself found a perfume dedicated to him, he got me a bottle.

The picture on the bottle depicts Cthulhu's tentacles offering a heart-shaped box to... well, whoever Cthulhu's in love with. Accordingly, the notes are described as "an amorphous mix of oppressive, piceous ritual incense, macerated kelp, sea salt, sticky dark ocean plants, and… mixed chocolates." (More details are found here.)

That's pretty accurate. It starts out heavy on sticky aquatic goo and chocolates, and ends up more like incense and cocoa, but still with a good dose of eldritch slime. Yum.

Image: By Bastique. Wikimedia Commons.

SOTD: Shiseido White Rose

Remember that vial of Shiseido White Rose that Himself gave me, in spite of his Perfume Disapproval? He went a good deal further this time. See photo. Oh, my goodness.

After opening, and boggling, and photographing, and ever so carefully cutting the little silver cord and extracting the stopper (actually, Himself did those last three things, at my request; I was afraid I'd destroy the bottle somehow), I applied White Rose lavishly, and wandered around in the resulting fog for several hours. And then I applied it all over again.

Oh, my. Traveling rose bliss.

I can't help analyzing. I want a notes list. Are there notes other than the multilayered, fresh, peppery rose? Pink Manhattan smells jasmine; I can't decide. In the base I get a bitterness that makes me think of galbanum; Pink Manhattan mentions a green tea nuance there. Is it the same note?

Whatever it is, the combination of very fine rose and that wonderful green bitterness makes me think of this as a cousin of Chanel No. 19. Don't misunderstand me - they're quite different from one another, but they're both classic, both uncompromising, both uninterested in sweetening the experience with sugar or vanilla. If they were women, both would be dangerous. No. 19's claws are apparent from the top notes on through; White Rose's appear near the end.

Review Roundup: Is here.

Photo of Greta Garbo: Wikimedia Commons.
Photo of bottle: Himself.

SOTD: Shiseido White Rose

Himself doesn't like perfume. Doesn't approve of perfume. Nevertheless, Himself presented me with a vial of Shiseido White Rose from The Perfumed Court, because I'd been rambling on about it. Have I mentioned that I'm very fond of Himself?

From what little I've read about Japanese perfumes, I expected this to be a quiet, retiring perfume, the kind that you have to sniff right at the skin.

I was wrong. I'm wearing one drop on one wrist, and it's wafting a an intense cloud of scent to my nose as I type. Digging for more information, I discover that this is less surprising than I would have thought - the scent was created in 1954, and Chandler Burr refers to it as an "absolutely classic scent".

But if you've been reading all the fuss about this perfume - the one that Chandler Burr also called "astonishingly beautiful", the one that you can only get from Japan, the one with the alarming price - you don't care about all that. You want to know what it smells like, right?

It smells like a rose. That sounds pretty basic, but it's rare that a rose perfume simulates the experience of smelling a living rose, warm in the sun. Real roses are peppery and spicy and green and tart and, most importantly, complicated. They have more notes than I, at least, can get my mind around.

And so does Shiseido White Rose. It's lovely, but I can't get my mind around it, or describe it properly for you. I can tell you that it's one of those scents that's so fine that the sensation of drowning is acceptable - like A La Nuit or like the queen, No. 19 parfum. As it develops, it grows less intense, but not less interesting - all of the complexity of the rose is still there, it's just quieter, as if the sun's gone behind a cloud.

And it is all rose - this is a soliflore, with nothing else in the mix. It might, finally, be my rose. There's plenty left in the vial, so I'll let you know after a few more tries.

Review Roundup: Pink Manhattan and MaterialeClare and surely there must be more discussion? I'll update if I find more.
Edited to add Bois de Jasmin.

Image: Wikimedia Commons.

SOTD: Jo Malone White Jasmine & Mint

I first wore this scent while moving a bazillion boxes on a hot, hot day, with Himself. I had a sample, and I kept re-spraying myself, to keep my morale up. I wore it again a few months later when we were doing a similar task - maybe cleaning out the garage? - on, again, a hot, hot day. As a result, I associate at it with doing things with Himself. (And with heat, boxes, and dust, but I'm ignoring that part.) So I put it on tonight, before we went to a concert by (woohoo!) Bare Naked Ladies.

Now, it's a little odd to own a scent essentially dedicated to a person who doesn't like perfume. But I like perfume, and I like Himself, and therefore I need a perfume to celebrate doing things together, so there it is.

And, by the way, it's a beautiful scent. It's a clean sparkly jasmine, very informal, and the mint adds to both the sparkle and the informality. There are other notes, about two dozen of them, but all I can tease out is the jasmine, the very low-key mint, and that Jo Malone almost-edible-but-not-quite base, grounding the other notes and keeping them from being pure carbonated froth. I've mentioned a strong but pleasant soapy aspect to the bath oil, but I don't get more than the faintest hint of that soap in the perfume.

For me, this is a happy scent, suitable for jeans and sneakers or sundresses and bare feet. But I think that it would stand up just fine to a far more formal situation.

Review Roundup: Now Smell This and Basenotes and Perfume-Smellin' Things and The Scented Salamander and Perfume Posse and Fragrantica and Opalescent and Perfume-Smellin' Things.

Link: Himself Blogging Ashland

You've always wanted to hear from Himself, right? You can! He's at Blogging Ashland, his blog about the fine town of Ashland, Oregon.

Ashland is well known for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the news makes sure that the whole country is kept up to date on Ashland's public nudity laws. But believe it or not, there's more! A lot more, as Blogging Ashland will show you.

Photo of Ashland 4th of July parade: Himself's.