s

SmellyBlog

Lipstick Rose

Nothing tastes more sweet, tender and alluring than trying Savta’s lipstick in front of her dresser. Whether or not I got permission did not matter, my grandmother often offered me her lipstick to try on. In her chic little magical purse she always has everything one needs when on the go – yet you will never guess there is anything in there by the weight or volume. Pure magic. From mints to tissue to anything else, including a lipstick in a basic colour – basic red or shimmering pink or coral - and a little vintage mirror that I will always remember her by: with roses embroidered on the back, and a brass ornamented handle. When looking at it, my tiny young-girl facial features appeared bigger than life and in incredible detail which could be only explained as a type of grandma’s magic.

Retro aldehydic, pink, powdery and lady-like, Lipstick Rose brings back these memories quite effortlessly. This is not supposed to be a rose scent – but the scent of a rose tinted lipstick. However, it does have a significant amount of rose that can justify both interpretations… With notes of violets (both powdery and sweet candied flowers), musky ambrette seeds, soft aldehydes and sweet-powdery heliotrope, powdery iris, and sweet and honeyed raspberry and tagetes notes.

Wearing Lipstick Rose is like digging in my grandmother’s vanity drawers, playing with her little mirror and a sweet smelling lipstick and staring glamorously at my funny facial expressions.

Notes (based on Perfume Addicts Database):
Top notes: Violet, Grapefruit, Ambrette
Heart notes:Coriander, Tagette
Base notes: Aldéhydes, Rose, Iris, Rasberry, Héliotrope

While Passing…


Whale Watch, originally uploaded by Weffie.

Things you may find while passing might be the least expected. I passed through to smell the lilacs of En Passant, and in a short snatch, a-la the chess maneuver by the same name, I found myself searching for whales on a misty day on the Sait Laurent river… Unsuccessfully, needless to say, but enjoying the fjords and the moist mist…
The heady, innocent and slightly powdery spring-like scent of white lilac quickly leads my nose to the subtly fragrant branches and stems bearing blossom-vines. These transform into an olfactory green fig leaf scent, and than in a split of a second you find out that you just jumped, head first, into a chilly ocean – smelling the fresh air of the ocean breeze, with its slight saltiness, and the clean, fine mist meeting your face as you watch for whales on the fast-loating boat…

With notes of white lilac, cucumber and wheat, Olivia Giacobetti has created an abstract lilac perfume that is more of a subjective interpretation of the flower rather than an effort to re-create the scent of the fresh blossom. Its ozone and marine cucumber notes are not my personal favourite and the wheat adds to a certain flour-y powdery yet green nuance that is nevertheless interesting and original on its own. However, the result of the final drydown is surprisingly disappointing in its ozonic-oceanism and its reference to l’Eau d’Issey of all perfumes.

Top notes: White Lilac
Heart notes: Fig, Cucumber
Base notes: Water, Wheat, Violet Leaf

Le Parfum de Thérèse

One of my new discoveries during my trip to Israel was Le Parfum de Thérèse, which I enjoyed on those hot dry spring days when the wind from the desert blows steadily and hydration is a question of sanity, not just simple survival necessity.

Le Parfum de Thérèse is both fluid and stable. Slippery like a cool veil of satin, moist and refreshing like a film of cucumber and aloe vera gel on a sun-warmed skin verging on a burn. Yet it breathes out coolness like a stone-house in the summer, and has the dry sensuality of a marble rock. It is so utterly Mediterranean and is most magical when worn on a hot and dry desert day – than its true beauty glimmers and shines.

With sparkling top notes of basil, lemon, melon and peach, Le Parfum de Therese was revolutionary for its time and preceded the watery trend of the 1990’s by a few impressive decades (and also is far superior in my opinion to any of those). The hedionic jasmine heart is sheer and uplifting, and creates a unique feeling of reviving euphoria. Some of the rose heart notes remain until the very dry down, which is a simple and gorgeous chypre accord of oakmoss and labdanum. Le Parfum de Thérèse shares a lot of its charm with the more widely available Diorella, only is somewhat deeper and more complex in my opinion. Though I barely notice any of the plum and leather notes that it shares with Femme (another great creation of Roudniska), it has a similar sensuality and warmth that is softly captivating and sensual.

Le Parfum de Thérèse reminds me of all that is summer – folding the tart grapevine leaves stuffed with rice and spearmint on a marble-tiled patio and the scent of laundry drying fast in the desert wind, and enjoying the coolness of fragrant melons in the evening.

Musc Ravageur

The obscurity of musk in Musc Ravageur is buried in a cloud of confectionery whiffs of cinnamon-buns. Downright spicy, sticky-sweet cinnamon, vanilla and caramelized sugar. Maurice Roucel has already proved his mastery in creating fluffy, cloudy scents such as Toacde and l’Instant de Guerlain. In Musc Ravageur he goes all the way creating a blunt statement of indulgence. It’s taking musk to it’s extreme warmth, pulsating sweetness by pairing it with vanilla and cinnamon – a LOT of cinnamon and vanilla – to the point that the theme is almost shifted. The opening may come through as a bit crude. It instantly reminded me of Coty’s Vanilla-Musk. It is not until the very dry down that the musk is revealed by bringing forth a velvety skin-scent quality with the sweetness and spicy warmth lingering for an extended silage…

Musc Ravageur is not distinctly a musk scent - not the first one to refer to in order to learn how musk is "suppose" to smell. Nevertheless, it's a great "comfort" scent. If I haven't fallen in love with Tocade for that purpose, Musc Ravageur would be my pyajama-scent.

Coming up next in the "musk series": easy to find & affordable musks.
Back to the top