Deep Green: Bella Basura by Haught Perfumes

There is something deliciously modern and vintage about the perfumes created at Haught Perfumes by Jarekhye Covarrubias. They almost always start very fun and modern and yet frequently morph into the lovely tasteful classical. I don't usually encounter this combo in perfumes so it was nice to see someone playing with these ideas.

I am not the sort of person who usually wears green floral fragrances, I most definitely admire the ideas they convey, but frequently when I try to wear them I run into a few issues. Bella Basura joins the very small cadre of green florals I can wear (the others I can wear are Le Temps d'une Fete by Nicolai, Phenomene Verte II by Lalun Naturals, and Climat by Lancome).

Bella Basura starts with a big bitter blend of lime and bergamot beneath it I get hints of basil and spices enough that for a moment there is a hint of mossy freshness that reminds me of good clean soap scent.

Yet, before anything mundane can happen smoky creamy jasmine incense note enters. This is my favorite stage. I didn't realize I could like a green florals until I realized that they could have green creamy incense notes, Bella Basura is one of those few scents that does that, yet before you go running to the hills thinking that this scent is going to get vanillic it never does. No, Bella Basura reverberates a constant bitter green, it's like a good amaro in the summer.

Bella Basura reminds me of the things I have always wanted to appreciate but never quite could, Jarekhye has tempered the green notes that frequently cause me so many problems, and made a green scent that is wearable for me. I am in fact reminded a bit of the classic Vent Vert by Balmain but made more wearable. The dry down is a consistent bitter green with the citrus and jasmine weaving back and forth there is a smoky blend of olibanum and vetiver that reverberates through out it.

Try Bella Basura if you like Vent Vert by Balmain, A Scent by Issey Miyake, or Jasmine White Moss Private Collection by Estee Lauder. 


Disclaimer: I received the sample from Haught Perfumes.

First image from Haught Perfumes
Second image 'Tropic (Tortuguero)' by Ben Blatt 
Third image 'Dahlia" by Inside A Black Apple

Heir to Guerlain's Vetiver: L'Artisan's Timbuktu

The first vetiver I ever enjoyed was Guerlain's Vetiver, I know, not really shocking, it's a classic masterpiece for vetiver fragrances for a reason. Fast forward a decade now and vetiver noted fragrances are everywhere, yet few catch me very much, and why would they when I have Guerlain Vetiver.

Well now enters L'Artisan's Timbuktu, honestly I bought this lovely little fragrance with a coupon and gift card from Sephora having never sniffed it, but it is really hard to pass up the 30 ml size bottle*. So I got it and I am happy that I did. It is an airy vetiver patchouli laden incense that makes me feel cool, collected, and natural. It's the feel of Timbuktu that makes me call it the heir to Guerlain's Vetiver, it is a classy serenity that I rarely encounter in fragrances, it is my scent for frantic work days. The use of vetiver in Timbuktu is prominent but it is also supported by a patchouli incense not and has a tang from green mangoes going through it, it attains the airy quality from the karo karounde note. Guerlain's Vetiver for me is vetiver supported by bergamot and tobacco, creating a rather earth floor quality I love.

Try if you like: Guerlain Vetiver, Montale White Aoud, Montale Musk to Musk, Atelier Cologne Trefle Pur.

*Seriously L'Artisan why can you not offer this size for everyone of your fragrances? Love it.
Image by Laetitia Devernay: The Conductor (Chronicle Books, 2011)

SOTD: Light Blue

It's apple season, with all my complaining of the heat in the last couple of weeks, all the sudden on Friday I could smell and feel Autumn in the air, and that wonderful feeling has not stopped. My grandmother for years has been volunteering at the Gerrin Heirloom Apple Orchard, I went up their years ago as a child, and today I am visiting again to go apple harvesting. I can't wait; in honor of this occasion I am going with Dolce & Gabbana's Light Blue, although consistently referenced as a summer fragrance, I find that I prefer this as an autumn fragrance. The gentle creamy apple note with hints of bergamot and amber, blooms so much better in autumn weather.
image provided by artmagick.com
image: A Devonshire Orchard by Hon John Collier

SOTD: Coco Madamoiselle pure parfum

When you smell the other variation of Coco Madamoiselle the flowers are never what you really smell, rather your attention is on the bergamot laced patchouli, but the pure parfum is another story. The bergamot does not last as long instead you are plunged into a creamy heart of jasmine only slowly does the patchouli vetiver drydown come along. It is beautiful and modern with its rather straight lines, it is a fine tailored suit with a few modern edges. It strangely always reminds me of the color orange.
image provided by artnet.com
image: Jasmine by Natasha Law 2008

SOTD: Coco Madamoiselle pure parfum

Going with the one of modern marvels of fragrances today: Chanel's Coco Madamoiselle. This scent in pure parfum remindes me of orange trees; ironically the notes listed do not feature orange, but the blending of bergamot, vetiver, and patchouli achieves the instant image of orange trees to me.

Quote of the day: This is one of those views which are so absolutely absurd that only very learned men could possibly adopt them. -- Bertrand Russell

SOTD: Stella Rose Absolute

I remember when I first smelled Lancome's Mille et Une Roses I was reminded immediately of Stella Rose Absolute. Yet as time has progressed I can see their differences very easily. Mille et Une Roses is a softer gentler scent meant to envelope one in serenity and dusk, where as Stella Rose Absolute is a wilder harsher scent, the bergamot adds a noticiable tang that remains through out the scent and amber used is darker, this scent never sweetens like Mille et Une Roses. Stella Rose Absolute is the woodsier and fey sister to Mille et Une Roses delicate dusky angelic quality.

Image provided by artnet.com

Self Portrait as not Dead Yet by Julie Heffernan 2007

In a luminous grey haze..scent of the day

I'm wearing Sarah Jessica Parker's Lovely today, it is hard to rhaps poetic about a celebrity perfume without delving into sounding fangirlish or sounding like you bought it only because they put their name on it, and too often the scent is mediocre or worse. But with Lovely it is another story this is a scent that immediately evokes a color to me and a texture, it is misty grey silk with just a hint of velvet at the edges. It starts often with a clean medicinal note that immediately awakens the nose with quality a winter breeze has on a sunny day, yet as the fragrance begins to change it takes on the character of grey haze that you often see before sunset in fall around the mountains. It is a clean hazy scent that is both enveloping crisp.
The notes are: patchouli, paper whites, orchid, cedar, musk, woods, manderin, bergamot, rosewood, lavender, apple martini