It's the 90s Yo But In The Future! (Basically Imagine Andy Samberg as Connor4Real saying this): Versus by Versace (2010)

I know it's been too long. Long story short: Wedding planning is an insane hobby that will take over your life and after you are done you have to recuperate. That's right I am married person now and thus I must go to Lowe's all the time and talk about scheduling maintenance (at least that is what t.v. has taught me). Yet, I finally have the time and energy to take care of this little blog.

Between the resurgence of brown lipstick and pants that don't cut off your circulation I think we can all officially say that 90s fashion is back. The funny thing is the iconic perfume styles of the 90s stayed around a lot longer than the fashion, remember this is the era that gave us aquatic, fruity florals, and the gourmand patchouli bombs aka Angel. The grand irony is and never did I think I would think this with a nostalgic gaze but lets face it once you have your nose assaulted by the upteenth "praline" sugar bomb of the current era you sort of end up missing the fresher fruity florals that used to populate the landscape known as the perfume counter. Yeah, I still can't believe I just typed that. So on to the perfume.

Supposedly Versus by Versace (2010) is based on the beloved Versus from 1992, from what I can tell the notes have nothing in common. The joke on this perfume though is if they released it now with the mention of the 90s connection I sort of wonder if the sales would be better. You're getting two different perfumes from the 90s with Versus, the first is the creamy fruity bubblgum musk thing you find in Herve Leger and the opus to that genre Light Blue by Dolce Gabbana what follows is a switcheroo into the Calvin Klein's CK One territory with a dry down of clean peppery unisex slightly mineral cologne.  It is bizarre yet intriguing, you want to keep smelling it just to try and decipher what the hell is going on in this scent.

In the end all I can think is this is what I always imagined the Spice Girls to smelt like. A lot of rambunctious pink and neon lime with cologne thrown in. A bizarrely nostalgic scent that decided to cover all the bases of what the "cool" kids were wearing.

First Image from NST


Second Image Chronicle Live

A Summer Garden: Ninfeo Mio by Annick Goutal

Last year I was bemoaning the lack of fig and then I found a very true to form fig in Lucy B's Apothecary Royal Green Fig and Vanilla . Somehow in my years I had never gotten around to sniffing Annick Goutal's Ninfeo Mio, I regret it, because Goutal released one of the most interesting fig scents I have ever smelled.

Ninfeo Mio is the scent of a summer garden for me. All the ad-copy will suggest watery spring garden in Rome but for me Ninfeo Mio is an early summer garden with the last remnants of spring holding on. Ninfeo Mio starts with a buzzing candied citrus note combined with the friendliest galbanum note you have ever met. I can't help but think of bees buzzing around in a grove of citrus trees with blossoms and ripe fruit at once. There is a sweetness in the scent that suggests the imagery of candied citrus or lemon peel in honey and yet not an ounce of this is cloying because Isabelle Doyen is keeping it all in check with an easygoing galbanum. The green herbacious note of galbanum is the perfect balance note to the buzzing sweetness of the citron and lemon. It also plays the chauffeur to the next stage of the scent.

Fig is frequently paired with galbanum, galbanum playing well with fig's green notes, yet sometimes they can be an overly harsh pairing on me. Not in Ninfeo Mio, the fig of Ninfeo Mio is all creamy goodness, this is the afternoon of the garden. The buzzing of the bees is gone because everyone is taking a nap in the heat, the citrus keeps going combined with the figs and galbanum, the effect is a milky green quality. It reminds me of the color of celadon.

The third stage of Ninfeo Mio is perhaps the one that catches everyone off guard the most. I like to think of it as the early evening stage. Everyone is awaking from their naps there is a tinge of clean sweat, you can smell the evergreen trees giving off the their resinous scent with the coming of a cooling evening. The animalic note of sweat is utterly there but instead of being off-putting Doyen is genius because it is balanced with resinous note of mastic and creamy fig. One thing I noticed about this clean sweat note is that it is far more pronounced if you spray the perfume but if you dab Ninfeo Mio on it is relatively mild.

Finally Ninfeo Mio settles into creamy resinous combination of fig and mastic there are still hints of citrus but the overall effect is milky green. The effect of Ninfeo Mio feels like going through a full day in a garden on the first warm day of summer, the green is still there, in fact it is peaked at its most lush levels but dry summer heat is edging in.

Try Ninfeo Mio if you like Miller Harris's Figue Amere, Coriandre by Jean Couturier, Lo Mejor di Mi by Mario Tomas, or Le Temps d'une Fete by Nicolai.

First Image from Basenotes.net
Second Image from Frances Benjamin Johnston
Third Image from Hellen Van Meene
Fourth Image from Tom Killion

Musk Quest: Musc by Reminiscence

As I've mentioned recently I'm on the mission for a new musk. My absurdly long lived Egyptian Goddess roll-on oil by Auric Blends recently turned and I need a new musk to wear. The frank truth is by the end Egyptian Goddess was no longer really me either. We had grown apart. I still consider it one of the best cheap thrills you can get in the perfume world and definitely recommend it to those that love Egyptian musk scents. Still I want a musk back in my collection that I can wear and feel great in. The pleasure of a good musk scent is that they smell like a natural awesome smelling extension of you.

I was recently going through my collection of samples when I stumbled on Musc by Reminiscence. It stuck out even more considering the recent review I read on Chez Pajama for it. Chez Pajama considers it a favorite of her's and that it has a rather intimate quality going on. Well I had to try it with that ringing endorsement and lets be frank if there is one place where mutations of scent on different skin can be smelled it is in the musk category of perfume.

Musc by Reminiscence smells good. It is one of those downy warm sweet creamy musks on me that some people say remind them of babies although I would say Reminiscence sidesteps that issue by keeping a lovely spicy bitter almond note running through out the musk. Musc is all about warm clean skin on me, whatever animalic edge other's encounter in this scent is sucked up on my skin (I can notoriously de-animalic scents that are considered super animalic and I can animalic scents that are considered safe). For me Musc is all comfort and ease with a little bit of spice running through it. I like that Musc is not a white musk or an Egyptian musk, it is closer to the old school 70s musks but a bit sweeter and more interesting.

It's not quite the musk I am looking for but I am most definitely going to enjoy my sample of it while I have it.

Try Musc by Reminiscence if you like Disco Nap by Smell Bent, Clair de Musc by Serge Lutens, or Dana O'Shee by Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab.

First Image from Fragrantica.com 
Second image by Jozef Wilcon

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: Omnia

Today is a day for comfort scents, the weather once again has become cool and there is hints of overcast in the sky. So I am going with one of my ultimate comfort scents: Bvlgari Omnia, this one doesn't get too much love because I believe it features a musk that many are ansomiac too. This is when it works for a wonderful creamy woody slightly spicy musk that surrounds the wearer in a nice cloud of warmth. To keep the comfort going after work I suspect I will be baking bread. Hope everyone one has a lovely day.

Quote of the Day: Humor is everywhere, in that there's irony in just about anything a human does. -- Bill Nye, Interview with Wired.com, April 2005

image provided by artnet.com

Redwood Vortex, Napa California by Lisa Eisner 2005

Comfort in Spring: Risotto

It's occurred to me that lately I have been cooking a lot of rice comfort foods, last month I made the ever comforting arroz con leche (this recipe a variation of Mexican rice pudding), but this month I have found my self making the savory comforting creamy side of rice: Risotto. Risotto is the perfect comfort food for spring, it is creamy and nourishing, but not heavy unlike winter comfort food, it shows off spring produce perfectly and is enlivened by winter citrus. Last week I made Nigella Lawson's Lemon Risotto; this woman really can do no wrong when it comes to comfort foods, this was gorgeous lovely creamy lemon offset by hints of earthiness with the addition of fresh rosemary. Here's a link to the lovely recipe Nigella Lawson's Lemon Risotto. Last night the risotto love continued with something I had been itching to make forever but had never found a recipe that met my needs: Asparagus Risotto. My first encounter with Asparagus Risotto was with Trader Joe's frozen Asparagus Risotto, which I will say is lovely, but expensive for such a small amount and so the years have gone by with me looking for the perfect Asparagus Risotto recipe, when a few weeks the perfect recipe fell into my lap, provided by the awesome website http://www.simplyrecipes.com/. And here is the recipe that last night the ended my quest for an Asparagus risotto recipe: Asparagus Risotto.

Just a note to those making risotto, always make way more stock than is called for or have hot water on hand, the arborio rice you buy will vary highly in how much stock it takes to cook. In both recipes I used Trader Joe's arborio rice and it required much more liquid than the recipes called for.

Wish to some day get a hold of other Italian rice varieties that are used in risotto.

Also the Asparagus Risotto truly shows off the wonder of risotto in that it can be so creamy with no cream added.

image of arborio rice provided by http://vegeyum.wordpress.com/2007/12/16/basicrisotto/

SOTD: With Love by Hillary Duff

It is Friday, I am still sick, I have work today, the on coming headache that will be setting up a new cellphone plan; so I have decided to go with comfort in both image and fragrance. Today I am wearing Hillary Duff's With Love, a lovely little perfume, that combines cream, amber, spices, vanilla, and a light dash of fruit. Overall it kind've reminds me of a mango lassi and a mocha. One very unique characteristic of the scent is that it becomes stronger and richer as it dries down.

image provided by artnet.com

Cream by Alfred Arthur Brunel de Neuville

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.

image provided by artnet.com

Spring by Irma Kusiani

Scent of the Day: Organza Indecence

Today is a cold and grey day and although there is the temptation to call it ugly, I can't, the beauty of this weather is that it demands you get close to your fellow humans and share in warmth, be it physical or mental. I chose to wear Organza Indecence today because well it has the wonderful evocative quality of reminding of incense and rice pudding all at the sweet time. It is a dry sweet scent with vein of creamy amber running through it. A perfect cocoon scent in cold weather.

And also Happy Birtday Mary and Rita!

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.