Humidity and What Scents I am Using to Survive It

Bay Area summers are dry and arid, except suddenly it has not been, it has remained warm but suddenly we have humidity. Real humidity, the sort that people from back east say reminds them of home. We have yet to get to the extremes of humidity, thankfully, but this different heat has definitely required approaching different fragrances. Currently surviving the humidity has required these fragrances.

-Hermes Osmanthe Yunnan, osmanthus has always bloomed in the heat, but give it a little humidity and you hit the jackpot of this scent blooming. The balminess of the petals come out. I actually used up my decant of Osmanthe Yunnan this week. Also excellent is Parfum d'Empire's Osmanthus Interdite.
-Atelier Cologne's Grand Neroli, a great cologne in the mugginess, the neroli scent fresh and dry, and beautifully accentuated by cedar and oakmoss with just a drop of vanilla to smooth it out. I suspect I will also be finishing up my bottle due to this humidity.
-Annick Goutal Les Nuits d'Hadrien, I admit I enjoy spritzing this most at night, the cooling notes of basil and cypress making sleep a little bit easier. A great spritzer on my sheets right before bed.
-Diptyque Eau Moheli, a supremely pretty ylang ylang cologne accented by a refreshing ginger. Great after a shower.
-Marc Jacobs Blush, a clean effusive peachy spiced jasmine. Every time I spritz it I think of a peach oolong gin and tonic.
-The original Ivoire de Balmain, a dry citrus chypre floral that will not take guff from the humidity. Makes me like I am wearing light crisp linen.
-Miller Harris's Figue Amere, the perfect bitter fig amaro. Salty and herbal and just right for surviving summer but especially great on balmy summer days.

Image by Alexandra Valenti

SOTD: Osmanthus Interdite

I'm right now having an osmanthus craving to be more truthful actually a floral craving. The idea of wearing my orientals just seems like too much work and as happens arounds this time of year for many of us, our noses just get tired of heavy orientals. I will also say this partially brought on by the news that Serge Luten's is doing an osmanthus scent, Nuit de Celllophane, I have dreamed about this for awhile, but at the same time I am scared. I am scared because he finally did an almond scent, Louve, and I did not like it.

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image: Beauty and the Beast by Erte

SOTD: Sensual Amber body cream with a spritz of Osmanthus Interdite

I admit the for the last week I have been loving BBW's Sensual Amber body cream with its juicy chewy apricot opening and lovely use of smooth amber, the weather has warmed up so I have once again been reaching for lighter fragrances yesterday I wore Le Chasse aux Papillons and today I am reaching for my beloved osmanthus love Osmanthus Interdite. A strange tidbit fact although I consider osmanthus to be a summer scent it is fact an autumn blooming flower and in China they hold a festival centered around this autumnal flower. Of late I have found myself reaching back for 1990's female singer/song writers, its sad looking at the music scene right now and not seeing anyone really following in their steps well not entirely true I have found myself in love with beautifully dusky voiced young women coming out of Britain: Adele, Corinne Bailey Ray, Amy Winehouse (although the girl needs some serious help), and Duffy. Still I am sad with the American scene of music. So in continued celebration of 90's songstresses the ever beautifully voiced Sarah McLachlan:
Possession the one that put her on the map


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image by Sharon Core
video uploaded by mattonbass

SOTD: Osmanthus Interdite

It is supposed to get hot today and I absolutely adore scents that bloom in the heat so I am going with Osmanthus Interdite. I know when will I get over this scent, hopefully not for awhile considering how much the baby cost. I just love the way the leather in this comes out on me.

image provided by http://f-art.diary.ru/?tag=20645&from=40

image: Psyche by Susan Seddon Boulet

SOTD: Osmanthus Interdite

So I want something sweet and incensey but with the heat of the last couple of days that is just really not going to happen, so I am instead opting for something that blooms in the heat so spectacularly that well it will be immediately being go back to the cupboard once Autumn and Winter approach (it just isn't going to be right in the cold weather.).

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Most Worn In June: Osmanthus Interdite

Osmanthus is keeping her reign.

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Image: Cotton wool and butterfly by Taeko Maezawa 2008

SOTD: Osmanthus Interdite

Quote of the Day: You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance.-- Ray Bradbury, advice to writers
The weather is once again in the 70's just where I like it. This summer I have gone on a binge to appreciate art, so it is my delight to share a website that has to do with one of my all time favorite moments in art, The Golden Age of Illustration, the site is http://www.nocloo.com/home/ , the best part was and I kid you not, finding out that one of my favorite illustrators, George Barbier actually illustrated a book called The Romance of Perfume, and well I had share the beauty of this on one of my favorite subjects: http://www.nocloo.com/gallery2/v/george-barbier-romance-perfume/
I am especially taken with one featuring a woman with a white doe.

image provided by www.june-leeloo.com
image: Hatsuharu by June Leeloo 2008

SOTD: Osmanthus Interdite

Working on a sunday is never fun, but I have too, and next sunday. So rather going with my usual relaxing scents (really sundays should be spent relaxing around the kitchen table), I have instead opted for the more up-beat Osmanthus Interdite. I imagine this leathery tart floral would go wonderfully with Japanese Kitsune aka the fox woman; a mythological figure I have always been fascinated by.

Quote of the Day: The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.-- George F. Will


And now for a magical video, A&E by Goldfrapp:


Image provided by http://www.treadwaygallery.com/ONLINECATALOGS/March2004/0051-0100.html

Image: The Fox Woman by Bertha Lum

video uploaded by MuteChannel

Most Worn in May: Infusion d'Iris and Osmanthus Interdite

Osmanthus Interdite is so utterly lovely it is scary and Infusion d'Iris continues its reign in fragrances I have worn.

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image: Deliberate Landscape III by Jennifer Scott McLaughlin 2006

SOTD: Osmanthus Interdite

Another hot day today, but luckly not as hot as yesterday. Osmanthus is one of those scents that just blooms in the heat which is especially true of Osmanthus Interdite, what can I say I must continue the osmanthus loving. I have also switched out my spring scents for my summer scents.

Song: Bachelorette by Bjork

Quote of the Day: It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument. -- William G. McAdoo

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image: Flourish Wind by Jiha Moon 2007

Scent of the Day: Osmanthus Interdite

Will I ever get over the scent of osmanthus? Nope, I hope not. I truly believe it one of those scents that will forever be on my favorites list. As any fragrance lover knows there are notes you are just drawn to, that seem to fit your aesthetic down to the bone. You want to surround yourself it's beauty, you day dream about what your favorite noses or houses could do with it, you come up with fantasy fragrances that always include a note of it. You go looking for all things that include that include the note.
Quote of the Day: The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other animal.-- H. L. Mencken
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Rose Gentleman by Peng Si 2006

SOTD: Parfum d'Empire's Osmanthus Interdite, a leathery osmanthus

Continuing the Osmanthus theme is Parfum d'Empire's Osmanthus Interdite aka Forbidden Osmanthus, if Keiko Mecheri's Fleurs d'Osmanthus is the tropical gentle variation of osmanthus, then Osmanthus Interdite is the more forward and strangely tom boyish cousin. Osmanthus Interdite works with the pronounced tang and leather of osmanthus, it juxtaposes a citrusy zingy apricot note with a strangely lactic leather note. There is a masculine edge to it, but at the same time it evokes the perfect presence of a summer dress with the note of citrus and apricot, it is a leather and fruit scent that does not go into chypre territory, but rather straddles the fruity and leather families. I would almost say this is a naughty scent, but because it is so forward there is nothing naughty about it, for it is obvious. It is a the perfect peachy cream colored summer dress belted with with black leather and paired with black stilettos. For those looking for an animalic fruity leather scent that does not go into hiney territory this is for you, strangely kinky and charming.

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Eternal Spring by Adam Booth 2006