SOTD: Abricot by L'Aromarine

Today I am taking my first outing with L'Aromarine's Abricot parfum extract, so far very floral and citrusy, and more of a necterine scent to me, personally I would recommend this to fans Jo Malone's Necterine Blossom and Honey and it is a complete steal at $7 a bottle.

Some how in the last month's I have been rather caught up in bird fairytale's, it began with Alice Hoffman's The Third Angel which is woven with the fairytale of The Heron Wife (which I am pretty positive she made up), about a week ago I read Midori Snyder's article on swan wives which can be found here http://www.endicott-studio.com/rdrm/rrSwan.html, and now I have come to be rather entranced by The Decemberist's seriese of songs called The Crane Wife, this is Part 3:

Fun little food for thought: both osmanthus and cranes are associated with longevity.
Last night this was all juxtaposed with a Nova special on a four winged dinosaur.
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image: Japanese Crane by Carol Grigg
video uploaded by GeekyGirl123

SOTD: Osmanthe Yunnan

So I finally got my order decants from Fishbone (by the way she is awesome). I ordered a decant of Hermes Osmanthe Yunnan unsniffed she reduced the price heavily and I could not pass it up (this is also my first Hermes from the special collection). So this is an interesting take on osmanthus, starts off with the smoky tea note that definately has an anamalic musk note going through it. Enter the freesia and orange which when intertwined give this fragrance a hint of pine, and finally the lovely osmanthus in all its leather apricot glory. This is a bit of a smoke and mirrors fragrance with its opening. Interesting I have some Peet's Osmanthus Yunnan tea and well I am going to have to get that out.

Music: Never The Same by Supreme Beings of Leisure (oh how I love pandora)

Quote of the Day: I'm too shy to express my sexual needs except over the phone to people I don't know. -- Garry Shandling

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image: Jeune Fille au Turban Orange by Tamara de Lempicka

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.

image provided by http://www.gallery-ef.com/e07.htm

Eternal Spring by Adam Booth 2006

SOTD: KM Fleurs d'Osmanthus and Osmanthus Green Tea

There are three florals that I am truly attracted too: rose, orange blossom, and osmanthus. Otherwise as many know my fragrance love is more in the category of incense, gourmands, and spices with the occasional fruit. Osmanthus is a floral chameleon in the sense that it is not really a floral scent but a melange of other scents resulting in a scent that is heady, fruity, creamy, tart, and shockingly leatherly. It has been described as the combination of apricot, orange blossom, and leather. It truly holds my attention though at the apricot note. There is one fruit scent I truly love and sadly apricot is a scent few perfumes ever get right (in fact I have yet to find one, the best rendition of apricot being Burt's Bees Apricot Baby Oil). My first meeting with osmanthus came in the form of Keiko Mecheri's Fleurs d'Osmanthus, this scent is a tropical take on osmanthus, upping the creamy part of osmanthus with the addition of tuberose, still as the fragrance dries down the zing of green apricot cream comes forward, it enchants you. It still holds a place in my heart and remains one of the most easy going florals out there. Although, it does bear some resemblance to Serge Luten's Datura Noir, I would say that two migrate in different directions with the dry down, Datura Noir becoming sweeter with a rasp and Fleurs d'Osmanthus taking on a tang and gentleness. Fleurs d'Osmanthus is a lovely gentle enticing scent, that is striking but never overbearing.

Another way to enjoy the the scent of osmanthus and far more traditional way is through tea. This may be the best way of smelling the true scent of osmanthus without having to find an osmanthus bush. Today I am drinking a blend of osmanthus and green tea. The fruity apricot leather note coming out perfectly. I suggest for those of us who are not lovers of jasmine green tea but want to enjoy a scented floral that you seek out an osmanthus scented tea.

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Spring by Irma Kusiani

Local Farmer's Market: Sweet Summer Abundence

I can't help it, going to the Farmer's Market is basically for me in a sense going to church. I did not grow up in a religious family, as you can tell with that sentence. So why is it religious to me? For me it is interacting with my community and those especially who provide one of the most comforting things in the world: Food. Living in California I am all to aware of how those who grow our food are treated, probably a little bit even more, considering my focus in history was California History and my love of food. There is nothing quite like knowing the faces of those who grow your food, going from each stand sampling the unripe fruit, yet even in the unripe state are lusciously sweet that the thought of ripeness is well slightly on the dizzying. Even better knowing the ridicuslously cheap corn you just bought was picked that afternoon (by the way I highly recommend instead of boiling it, fire up the grill, and grill it, brings out the sweetness of the corn against a smoky backdrop, droolingly delicious). Or buying olive oil grown and pressed in your city; love the stuff I just got, has wonderfully spicy bite to it, that I really haven't ever tasted in an olive before.

By the way go smell your nectarines...peaches and apricots have been rhapsodized about and by the naming of this blog you can tell I already belong to the church of apricot, but got take a sniff of your nectarines and enjoy that sweet tangy lush scent.

Should You Find Yourself With Fruit Trees and The Preserving Need

For the last few years I have told myself I would preserve the lush fruit that comes every summer from our bountiful fruit trees. The closest I had come to this was this last winters lemon curd and cranberry curd experiment that went really well. Finally this summer though I have actually made preserves. I made apricot preserves and cinnamon plum preserves. What was shocking was just how easy it was. We still have a ton plums so next I want to try a vanilla plum preserve and well other variations. Hmm, maybe I can find a chutney recipe with plums. The recipe I used was from one of my new favorite blogs Just Hungry at http://www.justhungry.com/2006/06/weekend_project.html. I highly recommend you use the almond pit option. As for me I can't stop marveling at the gorgeous golden orange jars I have waiting to be eaten. My favorite way to enjoy apricot preserves being in an apricot almond butter sandwich on dark whole wheat bread. I need to go get almond butter.

Datura Noir part. 1

I'm going to admit it now, I rarely wear tropical scents, what can I say I rarely think I can pull off the sunny lushness that tropical scents often have going for them, and yet Datura Noir by Serge Lutens is one of the few tropical scents that I can. I suppose if I were to sum this scent up it for its character it would be "a gothic tropical scent, a moodscape of the icy arctic meeting falling petals of creamy luscious tropical flowers." This is the scent of a jungle at night with the coldest white full moon in the sky illuminating everything in its brilliant silver light. And yet this scent is softly narcotic there is no screeching gardenias or tuberoses, the tuberose in this is mellow and edged with a buzzing green note, the osmanthus is the more promenent floral giving off its gentle greeness with its hints of apricots soaked in cream, the coconut is subdued never reminding of sunscreen but rather the scent of freshly cracked coconut, and the hint of bitter almond through out giving it that hint of high pitched sweetness that is cold and wonderfuly sweet. Datura Noir is a soft scent yet has a sharp edge with its unheady narcotic quality.