Immediate Smile: Tokyo Spring Blossom by 4160 Tuesdays

A genuinely happy scent is rare thing for me, what is usually marketed as happy is usually an amalgam of overly sweet and canned fruit. The moment I smelled 4160 Tuesday's Tokyo Spring Blossom, my immediate thought was "This is a really happy little scent." The last scent that made me think "happy" is Bruno Fazzolari's Jimmy

The fruity herbal opening of Tokyo Spring Blossom is instantly joyous, it immediately evokes a happy spring greenery, sunshine, flowers, and a light delicate breeze.  I think meadows and parks. The use of rose geranium, violet, and raspberry leaf extract creates something happily green but also jubilantly pink. It feels rather like the joy a dog has when they get to roll around in perfectly soft bushes and their tail is wagging like crazy, luckily Tokyo Spring Blossom is the idea of that joy but nothing like the smell of when your furry companion is having the best time ever.

If Tokyo Spring Blossom starts out instant joy, it then becomes convivial happiness. The herbal beginning takes a backseat and the heart is mix of rose, raspberry, and violet all with airy green tea like note supporting it. I immediately see old friends meeting at outdoor cafe with trees blooming, they are drinking tea and gossiping. What is interesting is I smell a sesame like note at this point which I'm not sure where I am getting it but it ends up contributing to the scent having this weird wonderful nuttiness to it that reminds me just a tiny bit of Armani's Onde Extase. 

The dry down of Tokyo Spring Blossom is a melange of raspberry, violet, musk, and very airy strangely fresh balsamic notes. I continue to get the airy green tea quality of the scent, overall it ends up being a happily original dry down. This is my first 4160 Tuesdays scent and I am impressed, this is rather sunshine filled repudiation that fruity scents cannot be interesting or have depth.

Try if you like Bruno Fazzolari's Jimmy, Armani's Onde Extase, or Blocki's For Walks.

First image from basenotes.net
Second image 'Taiwan Cherry Tree' by Su-Li Hung
Third image Danilo Dungo

The Prettiest Girl In The Room: Lolita Lempicka L'Eau En Blanc

Sometimes you forget you like pretty, like the easy pretty, where there is frankly nothing else but pretty going on. As a scent lover this is even easier to forget because most of the time your passions are for the things that are less easy because you are rather sick of the banal. You confuse banal with pretty. This is a sad confusion which I easily blame on the crap that is usually on the mass market perfume counters that is called "pretty." A good deal of the time it is banal, so you frequently pass it by with good reason, but in doing so you end up becoming jaded to the idea of a pretty fragrance. At least I have, maybe others not so much, but I frequently forget I like pretty scents. And then every once in awhile I am wonder struck by one because it makes me remember that pretty can be really good in a scent.

Maybe I should back up for a moment and also mention that pretty is frequently equated with floral perfumes and pure floral perfumes have always been a very small legion I get along with. Other people wear them beautifully but for me screechy can frequently happen, the pretty getting outweighed by whatever off note chose to manifest on my skin, that then causes me discord.

Lolita Lempicka L'Eau En Blanc is pretty, it's not banal, but you know what neither is it going to cause argument. What it is a springtime variation of Lolita Lempicka the original scent. Take the notes down that could be too much in warm weather and instead heighten the violet and iris note, let a little greenery enter the scent. Accent the almond note with more heliotrope then heighten it just a little with the tint of raspberry, the raspberry is used with a perfect hand never overwhelming the fragrance but rather it flutters around the edges of the almond meringue scent in L'Eau En Blanc. The raspberry also tones down the white musk note giving it a fruity edge that allows for the powder of the scent to mingle easily with sweet notes of the perfume. Finally keep that delicious tonka, vanilla, and vetiver mix of the original but let it be lightened up by the musk and iris.

What you end up having is a very pretty scent that is still interesting but allows the wearer to feel a little more at ease in the heat of Spring and Summer, the iris and violet are allowed to show their cooling properties but the gourmand qualities of Lolita Lempicka are still allowed to play.

Try if you Falling In Love by Philosophy, Trussardi Jeans for her, Lieu de Reves by Sonoma Scent Studio, or Apres L'Ondee by Guerlain.

first image from punmiris.com
Second image from metmuseum.org