SOTD: Le Labo Patchouli 24

Himself hates patchouli. Yes, he disapproves of perfume, but he hates patchouli. And notes that you hate are always easier to detect than notes that you love. So while everyone else smells birch tar in Patchouli 24, and I smell tea leaves, Himself smells patchouli.

I like patchouli, but not enough to regularly make Himself flee. So I won't be buying a bottle of this one. Or of Parfumerie Generale Intrigant Patchouli. Or Bond No. 9 New Haarlem. Or Comme des Garcons Luxe Patchouli. Note hatred is good for the perfume budget.

Of course, that leaves more room for, say, gardenia...

Review Roundup: Is here.

Image: By Mathias Degan. Wikimedia Commons.

SOTD: Le Labo Jasmin 17

After all my enthusing over A La Nuit, I thought I'd give one of my previous favorite jasmine fragrances a try. So, today I used up the last sprays of my sample of Le Labo Jasmin 17.

Both fragrances are undebatably jasmine-focused, but they're very different. A La Nuit is a deep pool of silk and honey; Jasmin 17 is powder and lace. Jasmin 17 is brighter and fresher and more frilly-flowery than A La Nuit, and in my days of lower jasmine tolerance, I preferred that.

But now I think I prefer drowning to frills. This scent is lovely for a few minutes, but I grow tired of it. Too much lace, too much powder, and I think too much neroli - I've never liked neroli for more than a few minutes.

Which leads me to the notes - according to Legerdenez, they're Jasmine, litsea cubeba, neroli, palma rose, bigarade, amber, musk, sandalwood, and vanilla.  A lovely sounding collection, and I once enjoyed the result very much, but now it's been bumped out of my list of favorites. For a full-strength dose of jasmine, I prefer A La Nuit; for a casual jeans-and-sneakers summery-day jasmine, I'll take Jo Malone White Jasmine & Mint.

Review Roundup: Perfume-Smellin' Things and Perfume-Smellin' Things again and Aromascope and Legerdenez and Fragrantica and Basenotes.

Image: By Sie Bot. Wikimedia Commons. 

SOTD: Le Labo Patchouli 24

While I love "tea" fragrances, they never actually smell like tea to me. They smell like the idea of tea, of something refreshing and liquid and slightly bitter, but they don't actually smell like tea. I never get the feeling that leaves were involved.

Patchouli 24 makes me feel like leaves were involved. It smells like tea - to me. I get a vision of an old-fashioned square metal tea tin. I'm just opening it and getting a faceful of dusty, smoky, tea-soaked air that's been caught in there for months.

Oddly, the consensus of reviews seem to be, no, that's not leaves, that's not even patchouli, that's birch tar.  Hmph. To me, it's tea.

Which separates this fragrance, for me, from the whole patchouli vibe. This isn't what a sixties flower child smells like, it's something that would be in Miss Marple's pantry. It's crumpets, not flowers. Linen napkins, not protest signs. Tea chests in ships' holds, not backpacks at Grateful Dead concerts. If I want the other vibe, I'm going to have to find a different patchouli.

I might do that sometime, but meanwhile I'm very happy with my quiet, smoky, just barely exotic "tea" fragrance.

Review Roundup: PereDePierre and Perfume-Smellin' Things and Now Smell This and I Smell Therefore I Am and Grain de Musc and Eiderdown Press and Confessions Of A Perfume Nerd and Nathan Branch and Perfume Patter and Basenotes and MakeupAlley and Perfume-Smellin' Things again and Fragrantica and Perfume Shrine (very brief mention) and Notes from Josephine.

Edited to add to the Review Roundup.

Photo: Laurel F., Wikimedia Commons. Click for details.

SOTD: Not Quite Everything

So, we went to Barneys in San Francisco. To put it another way, I went to the toy store! (Picture excited bouncing.) We went to several other places in San Francisco, which I may well be posting about, but this ramble is about the Barneys trip.

Barneys has perfume. Barneys has all sorts of perfume. If a perfume house has an exclusive, it seems that odds are it's with Barneys.

Though, sadly, they do not have Parfumerie Generale. I wish they'd get on that. Not as an exclusive, of course; I wish everybody would stock Parfumerie Generale. The CVS pharmacy down the street would be a nice start. Or the Safeway. Or, for that matter, the local Chinese takeout. I want all the opportunities to sniff Parfumerie Generale that I can get, and for now I'm limited to samples and longing thoughts of The Perfume Shoppe in Vancouver. And LuckyScent in Los Angeles, but it's hard to work up a realistic longing for LuckyScent because I've never seen the place. Though there are pictures. Here. Look at that place! (Scroll down to see bottles and bottles and bottles.)

Anyway, returning to Barneys - they're nice. OK, admittedly, I've never entered Barneys in grubbies, which is an essential part of the "niceness" test. Neiman Marcus in Palo Alto, for example, has passed that test. But I nevertheless remain an un-made-up, not particularly fashionable, not particularly young, woman, and they've always made me feel that they're delighted that I came in.

And they leave you alone when it's clear that you want to be left alone.  And if you can't find something, they swoop, they find it, and then they once again read the left-alone signal and they run away.

It's becoming clear that I enjoy Barneys, right?

So. Went to Barneys. Sniffing ensued.