Pop Culture Fun: Kalinda Sharma

The Good Wife is one of my favorite shows to my shock. I admit 6 years ago when I heard the premise I rolled my eyes and thought that won't last and will probably be really really tawdry. Yet, it turned out to be incredibly smart, well written, and has 3 very well written female characters. Thankfully it is not your usual procedural and I think explores modern technology issues in a very smart way. Plus I love that casting is willing to use actors that are not usually seen as dramatic actors specifically Nathan Lane and really lets them try it out.

I really adore Kalinda Sharma of The Good Wife, although we shall act like the 4th season did not happen. Ugh. So much bad character development and writing for Kalinda but it appears the producers and writers have learned. What I adore is that she is played with subtly, they have allowed her character to retain her mystery, and yet we are given wonderful acting by Archie Panjabi that lets us see emotional conflicts that give us some idea of her previous life (we shall ignore season 4). I also really really adore that they casted this British actress to be such an utter bad-ass, because honestly I have to say I can't remember the last time I saw an actress of Indian heritage have the role of such a bad-ass on television.  My case in point is one of my all time favorite Kalinda scenes:

 Also props to The Good Wife for having a genuine bisexual woman on television.

So the question then becomes how do you scent Kalinda Sharma the ever mysterious sexy investigator? I actually came up with scent I think she would wear pretty easily: Back to Black By Killian. I was actually inspired by this choice bizarrely from a scene in season 1 that featured Alicia and her at a bar and Kalinda is drinking a Russian imperial stout (In my head it is Goose Island Bourbon County Stout) and while Back to Black and GIBCS have nothing in common scent wise, the idea of dark entrancing scent that had the qualities of liquor made me think of Kalinda. Back to Black is dark and entrancing with a raspberry liquor note used so perfectly to support the scent of honey and tobacco over a bed of ambregris. The scent is seduction but it is not girlish there this a subtly in the way it sits on the skin that doesn't make it immediately obvious.

Let me fall into orange blossom cream dream: Neroli Blanc Eau de Parfum Intense by Au Pays de la Fleur d'Oranger

I remember earlier this year reading about about Au Pays de la Fleur d'Oranger's Neroli Blanc eau de parfum intense on Now Smell This and very much wanting to try it. It is rare when something new and delightful happens in orange blossom scent land and rarely does it come with non-lunatic price tag. Yet, time passed and then I got a wonderful email from Virginie Roux of Au Pays de La Fleur d'Oranger asking if I would like to try their scents and  I replied of course I would like to try their scents. So yes the sample was provided by the company but this is my own honest opinion of this scent.

Neroli Blanc eau de parfum intense is quite frankly the best gourmand orange blossom I have smelled in the many orange blossom scents I have smelled. It is utterly soft and inviting but has this perfect chewy dried apricot note that keeps it from being overly sweet, balancing the orange blossom is a sweet delicate musky rose note that rounds out the orange blossom keeping it from going into cologne territory or vamp territory. Finally it rests on what I want to call creme brulee vanilla, well actually take away the burnt top of creme brulee and just leave the delicious custard part, and that is what you have. Through out the fragrance in all stages it retains that gorgeous orange blossom scent.

It is fact for me the perfect combo of two things I wanted to like more but did not. I recently got a sample of Elie Saab Le Parfum eau de parfum intense and loved the beginning of it where it had this delicious chew honey fruit note combined with the Francis Kurkdjian orange blossom accord unfortunately as time passed it became my rather well loved regular old Elie Saab Le Parfum. Then there is By Killian's Love aka what he himself describes as an orange blossom marshmallow, which I found to be too sweet, the orange blossom becoming cloying as time passed. Well Neroli Blanc eau de parfum intense trumps those two, it is able to combine what that chewy fruit note that I love and keep the sweetened gourmand aspects in check.

Overall the longevity is excellent as is the strength, you will get lovely wafts through out the day but it is not overpowering. The effect is soft and alluring, this most definitely romantic but it is not a bombastic romance the appeal somewhere along the lines of cozy kindness and the perfect summer dress.

Try if you like: Elie Saab le parfum, By Killian Love, Lorenzo Villoresi Dilmun, LUSH Orange Blossom.

image provided by http://www.uncarnetsanspages.fr/2012/03/concours-les-lumieres-de-la-pluie/