Cheap Smells (or how to smell good without breaking the bank ...)

By Laurin

I recently overheard someone dismiss a wonderful early 90’s commercial blockbuster fragrance with a wave of the hand and a dismissive, “It’s a bit…high street for me.” House rules prevent me swearing on this blog, so I am unable to repeat my exact thoughts. However, I would like to offer the following observation: “Your MUM’S a bit high street.”

Nobody wants to be basic, but in the rush to prove their connoisseur credentials with incessant name-dropping of the obscure, expensive and hard-to-find, perfume enthusiasts often wilfully ignore the fact that not everything that smells good is exclusive or requires a second mortgage. There is no shortage of mediocre scents bearing outrageous price tags to fool you into thinking they’re something special, and by the same token, it’s possible to find some great fragrances for very little money at all. 

All the perfumes below can be had for under £30.

Bvlgari Black - £24 for 40ml at www.amazon.co.uk

I would consider this a bargain at four times the price. The fact that you can buy two bottles and still have change from a fifty pound note is surely proof that there is a God, and She wants us to smell good. It contains notes of rubber tires screeching on hot asphalt, smoky black tea, vanilla, cedar and bergamot, but to attempt to pin this fragrance down to a mere collection on notes is to ignore its ever-changing complexity and almost human presence in a room. It walks softly, but carries a big stick. Or, as my friend Amy once put it, “This is a fragrance you wear when you need to rescue a vegan from a swamp.”

Chopard Casmir - £12.95 for 30ml at www.amazon.co.uk

This was the first grown-up fragrance I bought with my own money. I have a hazy, possibly false memory of billowing red scarves and gold turrets at the Dillard’s department store launch in Mobile, Alabama. The idea of smelling like an Arabian Nights fantasy princess while my peers were showering in squeaky clean CK One absolutely appealed to pretentious 16-year-old me. If I smelled this on a teenage girl today, I wouldn’t know whether to high-five her or order her into the bathroom to scrub that off NOW, young lady. Casmir is a daring overdose of vanilla, musk, benzoin and tonka, just made wearable with baskets of peach, mandarin, blackcurrant and overripe tropical fruit. It’s no surprise to me that it was created by Michel Almairac, the nose behind the outrageously brilliant Gucci Rush. Wear it while wrapped in cashmere and dreaming of ancient souks. Or give it to a teenage girl with a wink and a copy of Delta of Venus.

Elizabeth Arden Sunflowers - £10.00 for 30ml at www.superdrug.com

I own a small handful of what I like to call “Sunday Evening Perfumes”. They are for spraying medicinally, by the gallon, to dispel anxiety and unease. With its sunny notes of citrus, juicy honeydew, mouth-watering peach and breezy orange blossom, Sunflowers is the closest you can get to a bosomy bear-hug from a long-lost friend without getting on a plane. It’s simple, happy and completely without pretension. Spray with joyful abandon, or when joyful abandon is in short supply.

Karl Lagerfeld Sun Moon Stars - £12.00 for 30ml at www.amazon.co.uk

Official notes: Pineapple, jasmine, freesia, bergamot, vanilla and musk. Off the record: Like being strangled with a candy necklace by Karl Lagerfeld’s ponytail. Sweet shops and Brylcreem. Only buy this if you’re a collector of perfumes by Sophia Grojsman, or a fondness of mid-nineties “Celestial” themed décor. And if either of those descriptions do apply to you, drop me a line. I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

Frederic Malle Portrait of a Lady - £30 for 10ml (well, sort of) at www.lessenteurs.com

If, on the other hand, I haven’t convinced you of the delights to be found in purchasing a fragrance in the same shop that’s running a special on Tampax, take heart. There is always the option of pooling your resources with your similarly high-minded friends and splashing out on a travel set of Frederic Malle’s Portrait of a Lady. At £90 for three 10ml travel sprays, this is stretching the concept of a “budget” option, but I find it helps to think of it as investing in your share of a masterpiece of modern perfumery. Dominique Ropion’s instantly recognisable accord of rose, patchouli, incense, cassis and raspberry is the only perfume I’ve ever worn that has caused strangers to chase me down the street, just to find out the name. Would that ever happen with a Jo Malone? I rest my case. BARGAIN.

This post: Cheap Smells (or how to smell good without breaking the bank ...) originated at: Get Lippie All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post at Get Lippie, then this content has been stolen by a scraper

The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier

 By Get Lippie

To say I don't really "do" fashion would be a mild understatement.  I simply don't "get" fashion.  Part of this is because I'm what is euphemistically known as "plus size", of course, but mostly it's down to the fact that high fashion isn't really useful to those of us who either don't earn millions of pounds or, aren't six feet tall, or have, like, proper jobs and that.  Also, I'm an accountant.  Cutting edge accountancy fashion is making sure you've put the right buttons into the correct holes on your cardigan, frankly.  

All of this is a roundabout way of saying that I'm not really the target market for the current JPG exhibition at the Barbican, I basically only know Jean Paul Gaultier because of Eurotrash. Oh, and his perfume, of course!

But ... this exhibition is absolutely bloody astonishing.  Luke and myself were lucky enough to be invited to the press preview of the show the day before it opened to the public, and I found myself enthralled by the sheer size and scope of the exhibition, and the really amazing detail on the clothes themselves.

Basically, every era of JPG's career is represented, from his iconic work with Madonna's stage oufits, his film costumes, his catwalk haute couture, and, of course, his :ahem: pioneering work on Eurotrash, and there is even his Spitting Image puppet:

Frankly, terrifying.

 There are holographic mannequins, who gurn, giggle, and even sing to themselves, which genuinely have to be seen to be believed as the technology, even close up, is amazing (and much, much better than these next couple of quite frankly shonky photographs make it look):

We only had an hour for our view, and it wasn't, in my opinion, nearly a long enough amount of time, there was a lot of stuff that we simply didn't have time to see properly, and I missed the significance of some of the exhibits, as we were racing around before the main event of the day.

There was also a fragrance symposium after the exhibition, where it was revealed that there will be a new "intense" version of the JPG Classique fragrance released in the UK in July, which is great news for lovers of the original.  We were treated to a tiny sniff of the new formula at the symposium, and it's ... fruity.  Apparently, Francis Kurkdjan has been dying to make a fruity floral for a long time now (my heart sank at those words, I must admit), and he was delighted to be able to bring that to fruition.  I've no idea how the formula will translate on the skin, but I'll keep you posted once I've smelled it properly.

If you get a chance to pop along to the Barbican before the exhibition ends in August, then I recommend that you run to see it.  I'll definitely be going back - did I mention that it's amazing?

Because you can't talk about JPG without mention of THAT corset ...

 

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Muji Aroma Diffuser

 By Get Lippie

I genuinely don't know what happens to me when I get into a branch of Muji. I'll get an inkling earlier in the day, a little voice in the back of my head saying something like "You need to tidy up, freak", and I know that at some point later on in the day I'm going to end up wandering around Muji, slackjawed and glassy-eyed, wondering just what the hell all ... this ... is actually for.  Then I'll casually hand over approximately the GDP of a small African nation for a couple of what are essentially a couple of cardboard boxes made of polythene, and some gel pens, and leave the store.  And furthermore, I'll be happy.  Not just any old kind of happy, either.  ORGANISED happy.  Verging on ecstatic, even. This happiness tends to last till I get the boxes home and filled with crap, then the cycle begins again ...

Anyway, I used to think that Muji were pumping out crack into the atmosphere in their stores to create this happy and contented state of mind, and I wasn't actually that far wrong as it happens.  Last time I was in Muji, I was a bit discontented, and, after buying my bodyweight in polythene boxes as per usual,  I finally broke down and bought one of those "smelly fog machines" they always have on the go at the front of the store.  It was £45, but I'd seen a couple of people talking about putting their favourite perfumes in them to scent their homes, and from that point on, I'd wanted one.  No, actually, needed one.  So I bought one.

And I love it.  It's actually called an Ultrasonic Aroma Diffuser, and I have literally no idea how it works.  The top is removable, you fill it with water and a couple of drops of essential oil, you pop the lid back on and off it goes.  There's also a light with two settings on it, and a timer.  The diffuser gently bubbles away, and produces a light (dry) scented mist, which smells of whatever you've put in the machine. Simple, and, in its way, rather amazing.  It scents my entire living room, which is quite a big one, with 9ft ceilings, but there's a bigger unit too which can probably scent an entire home for £65, but the smaller unit works well in our flat.

You can buy a selection of essential oils from Muji to go into the diffuser (you literally only need about 3-4 drops of oil per 100ml of water) and these are okay, we liked the relaxing fragrance, but we weren't so fond of the uplifiting blend for some reason, then I put a bit of L'Artisan Perfumer Safran Troublant in the machine, and we've been ignoring the aromatherapy blends ever since.  It's glorious to be able to scent your home with fine fragrance, without needing candles or wasting a lot of perfume just spraying it around.  You'll get a subtle, but distinctive fragrance in your home, and it will last for hours and hours - the diffuser works for up to three hours at a time.  The more fragrance you put in, the stronger the effect will be.  I generally use around five sprays of fragrance per "diffusion".  Today we're diffusing Acqua di Parma Colonia Assoluta, and it is absolutely gorgeous!  I've also liked Joan Collins I Am Woman in there too, but more about that another time ....

The instructions state not to use anything other than essential oils as "chemicals" in synthetic fragrances will break the machine.  Somehow though, I doubt the machine can actually tell what is a synthetic and what is a natural fragrance - it is ALL chemicals at the end of the day ... 

So, an impulse buy, but one I've enjoyed hugely.  And if you think £45 is expensive for what is, essentially, a glorified air freshener then let me tell you about the £80 one I have from Fornasseti ...

You can find the Muji Aroma Diffuser here:
 
 The Fine Print: I bought this.  I was in a bad mood with MrLippie though, and I used his money, so it's all good.

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Aveda Pure-formance Aroma Spray For Men

 By Luke

 

I am a bit of a massive fragrance freak, which until recently I referred to as a fumehead until someone mistook that for meaning crack smoker. 

The blogosphere is full of them to varying degrees of expertise. You have your serious perfume heads, with their in depth and rather lofty descriptions, right down to the ‘I liked this, it’s nice’ clan. All valid, all justified, and all perfectly acceptable appreciators of perfume. Me, I think I am sandwiched in between these two camps. Not particularly ‘educated’ in scent, but know enough about the industry and fragrances to speak with some conviction.

I love fragrance, I really do, in the same way I love chocolate bars. I cannot bear to think of me without any, or to be honest with just one to choose from.

As such, I smell a lot. Like chocolate, it’s all open to interpretation, and personal taste. I would never say this is disgusting, or don’t wear this. One man’s treasure and all that. However, I did come across this scent which to say the least, challenged me. 

I have a real issue with the gender binary. And not just where fragrance is concerned. Men’s fragrances, traditionally, are quite often characterised by that ‘woody’ smell that is supposed to make us all feel a little bit manly having been out chopping wood, and wrestling bears on a forest floor or whatever it is the gender binary would have us be doing. Compared to women who, traditionally, are outside picking flowers, and rolling around in candy floss (it has A LOT to answer for). I find it all a bit limiting, certainly from a more mainstream perspective. Fragrance should be transcendent of this, but hey.

For a brand that is predominantly about hair with a dash of lifestyle thrown in, it was quite brave really to release a fragrance.  Anyway, in 2008 they did. Aveda’s chief perfumer Ko-ichi Shiozawa created the Pure Formance Aroma Spray to be reminiscent of ‘Northern air, and deep rich forests’. Back to that gender binary.So what is it like? 

Well, when I first sprayed it I really baulked at the smell that lingered in the air and was NOT keen to put this on my skin AT ALL! It reminded me of bleach weirdly enough. In the interests of my own curiosity, (and this feature), I did wear it.

Peculiar, interesting, odd, different, are all words that if there was a sum of them all would be able to describe how this is to me. But none of this is bad. I didn’t dislike it because it smelled so familiar.

Spearmint is one of the pure oils used here, and that comes through very strongly. And remains. It also has perceptible vetiver and lavender (barely perceptible) and citrus.

First spray is a little minty, then after a while it dries down to the distinct smell of nature. A warm pine forest, heavily fragranced with mint. Did I mention the mint? There’s mint here. The final dry down leaves a very ‘green’ smell. That’ll be the forest, or at least the vetiver. This is what remains. A green woody smell of nature.

 Challenged as I was by this, I haven’t been able to stop wearing it. Curiosity alone has me doing this. Not one element of this is remotely like a ‘traditional’ men’s fragrance, or even a fragrance at all.

Does it make me feel more manly? No!

But isn’t that great?

And now, for some chocolate...

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Spring is Sprung!

By Luke

Spring Week 2

We are sticking with the blue green theme this week, but turning the heat up ever so slightly, so really amazing colours, and products to brighten even the very dullest of days. Boredom, is not an option with any of these.

Terry De Gunzberg, Bleu Paradis and Fruit Défendu

You know what? The woman is a bit of a genius. Terry launched the Haute Parfumerie nigh on two years ago in true elegance and style, and is continuing in that vain for the latest releases of these two rather fabulous, vibrant fragrances.

The juice in the bottles is as easy on the eye as they are on the nose, being as they are in a bright blue and a vibrant green.  The boxes are embossed with a stylised rose motif that refers to the rose notes that carry throughout these.

The greener, in every sense of the word, Fruit Défendu is a sweet, herby dream of a scent. With mango and bergamot at the top , and soft delicate rosewood, and the refresher like scent of pink peppercorn at the base.  It does smell very similar to one of her previous efforts, al beit very much lighter, but I’m unable to put my finger on which one it is.

The blue addition, Bleu Paradis has a blue rose scent we are told (I wouldn’t know that from a red one to be honest, but it’s very nice) Mauritian lychee giving a light fruity glow and then coming down to a very soft and very warm smelling cedar.Smells fresher and altogether more ‘beachlike’ than the green.

Both have their merits, and complement each other beautifully, it’s a challenge to choose a favourite.

Available exclusively from Selfridges from March 13th, then nationwide from 27th, 100ml EDP £105.  

Leighton Denny Glamazone from The International Collection.

A bit of inspiration from the Spring/Summer 2014 catwalks apparently, the whole collection is an explosion of colour, andGlamazone is a gorgeous rich turquoise with a bit of a shimmer through it.

£11 Available www.LeightonDennyExpertNails.com, M&S, John Lewis and Fenwick’s.  

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Pencil in Freak.

Relaunched in time for Spring, these really are the shizz.

A longwearing pencil that isn’t so soft it smooshes in the lid, or when you try to sharpen in it Hate that. They really do stay put as well. A MAHOOSIVE selection of 40 colours, I have chosen Freak. A really gorgeous shimmery bright green.  As well as liners, draw a really thick line, and use your finger to smudge it up over your eyelid to get a really great long lasting eye colour.  They also act a great base, and give a really good grip for an eye shadow over the top of it, should you so wish. I. Want. Them. All.

£14 available in Debenhams, and House of Fraser.

NARS Eye Paint in Solomon Island.

Another extremely versatile eye product, Comes in a tiny little pot PACKED to the lid with product.  These are an indelible cream colour.  To be used as an eyeliner (with a brush), or all over the eye as a colour they don’t budge and go on smooth so no mistake worries getting too much colour in one place. I have chosen Solomon Island which a fantastic azure blue shade to put us all in mind of a sandy beach. Comes out EXACTLY as you see it in the pot too.

NARS Eye Paints, £18 available nationwide.

Alien Eau Extraordinaire: If It Ain't Broke …

By Laurin

Oh, hey guys! It's the second weekend in March, and the temperature in London has finally risen over 15 degrees.  As the bearer of a British passport, I'm required by law to completely overreact to any glimpse of sunlight by baring eye-popping amounts of flesh and loudly announcing "SUMMER IS HERE!" to anyone who will listen on social media. Summer most emphatically ISN'T here, and won't be for another three months, but this island isn't known for letting like, GEOGRAPHY get in the way of good weather-relatedhistrionics. I'm only doing my patriotic duty.

The high street foliage has undergone a dramatic change in the past month, with the sludgy greys and rich purples of winter suddenly giving way to hues of icy blue and soft peach that seem designed specifically to showcases splashes of balsamic vinegar from my lunchtime salad. But don't think about that! Look, over here! A floaty silk chiffon dress! For your inner delicate flower! FOR GOD'S SAKE, WILL YOU PUT DOWN THAT HOT CROSS BUN AND - oh, you've had three? Might as well finish the pack then.

The Usual Suspects in the fragrance hall are also poised and ready to take advantage of your buoyant good mood and all that money you're so tired of lugging around. Yes, it's summer flanker time, so limber up, bitches and get ready to get fresh!A flanker, if you've not come across the term is essentially a sequel to an already established perfume. If you're in a generous mood, you could say that brands issue flankers in order to build on an established fragrance without starting from scratch, or to attract a younger customer who may associate earlier releases with something their mother or even grandmother wore. Some flankers, such as Coco Mademoiselle or Hypnotic Poison become successful enough to be deemed fragrances in their own right. On the other hand, the disenchanted among us might say that flankers are cheap, cynical attempts from major brands to bamboozle unsuspecting consumers with evocative language and pretty bottles (CK One Shock Street Edition for Him, anyone?). I say: If you can't say anything nice, come sit next to me.

For my money, the house of Thierry Mugler showcases some of the bravest and most interesting fragrances on the high street. Everyone I know seems to have a story about someone they knew (and usually hated) who wore Angel in the 90's, and I still find the salty caviar and fig riff of Womanity an astonishing act of faith for a mainstream brand to release in 2010, when the buzzwords in department stores seem to be "dull" and "inoffensive". Mugler makes a habit of not treating its customers like simpletons, and judging by the space they occupy in my local John Lewis, it seems to pay off.

But even a brand with a killer offering needs to offer newness, and Mugler certainly delivers, producing  flankers of its four pillar fragrances (Angel, A*men, Alien and Womanity) once or twice a year. For autumn, we're treated to the darker sides of these scents with cuirs, liquors and absolues, and in the spring we get the eaus and the aquas. This year's first summer offering is Alien Eau Extraordinaire, a luminous take on the 2005 original.

Composed by Dominique Ropion, the genius who gave us such masterpieces as Portrait of a Lady, Carnal Flower andAmarige (as well as the first Alien), the beige juice is housed in a transparent bottle similar to the original, but shorn of its sharp angles and edgy, sorcerer-fabulous charm. Instead of the Intergalactic Time Traveller come to shoot the funkless with her bop gun, we have the tastefully-accessorised Manhattan socialite come to top up the glasses of the champagne-less. Which is fine if you like that sort of generic prettiness, but isn't that why Jo Malone exists?

The fragrance opens strongly with a sparkling hit of bergamot and neroli and the refreshing bitterness of white grapefruit. This citrus sun shines brightly for about an hour or so, illuminating the tangle of jasmine and tiare flowers on the forest floor. But the initial euphoria quickly wears off, and you're left with a wan jasmine and some lukewarm cashmeran that apologises for itself, then makes a hasty exit - in short, a shadow of the bold original Alien that feels like a waste of an idea and talent. It's a bit like finding out that David Bowie has gone to work as a cashier in the Guildford branch of NatWest. You know the Goblin King is under there somewhere, but it's hard to make him out under the cheap grey Burton suit. If you're after something fresh for warmer weather, pick up a bottle of Mugler's very excellent Cologne instead.

As for me, my feelings about flankers remain unchanged: 90% of the time, you should just buy the original. Unless we're talking about M&M flankers, in which case, you must ALWAYS buy the pretzel M&Ms. As well as the original M&Ms. And the peanut M&Ms. They may not make you smell great, but at least you won't be disappointed.

Alien Eau Extraordinaire is available in any good department store and starts at £50 for 60ml.

Maison Francis Kurkdjian - Oud Silk Mood

Of all the perfumers I've met over the last few years, right up there in my favourites would be Francis Kurkdjian.  Never afraid to say something controversial, yet always friendly, and with passion for his art oozing from him in droves, he's a real thrill to spend any time with.  Recently I met up with him for the launch of his latest fragrance, Aquae Vitae, where, in referring to his sales figures, he announced that if the bloggers "love" a fragrance, then it's the kiss of death for the sales of it!  Oddly, I kind of know where he's coming from.

Perfume blogging is an odd thing.  I started doing it because I was bored with all the sugary-pink shit available in the shops, a state of affairs where everything, and everyone, smells exactly the same (like an ADD teenager wrapped in candyfloss, having drenched themselves in fruit-scented body spray first), and nothing had any "sex appeal" any more.

Then you discover niche fragrances, and frankly, the more off-the-wall, the better. They're a revelation! Burning rubber?  I'm in!  Cough drops and cat-poo?  Also in!  Fur and leather?  Oh yes ... and somehow, along the way, you can lose your taste - or even develop a distaste - for the simple, the commercial, or the popular.  It's not always a bad thing (though there are some fragrance shops and departments I simply can't set foot in these days, alas), but for some perfume bloggers, it seems that if a scent is designed to "sell" as well as "smell", then it's automatically inferior, no matter who the "nose" behind the scent is.  

It's a fine line for a perfumer to tread.  Do they design purely for the masses, wanting those sales, and risk the wrath of the bloggers?  Or, do they design their fragrances purely to appeal to that strange creature, the "professional" perfume critic?  Guerlain, in particular, I think suffers from this.  They're actually a brand available on most high streets, but, because of their place in perfume history, they're held in an especially schizophrenic position for most perfume bloggers, adored for their heritage, yet, most of their modern output (one or two future classics aside) gets a somewhat "sniffy" reception ... Guerlain is not niche these days, it's not even ultra-luxe any more, but if their more recent, more commercial releases allow them to still keep their historical (and wonderful) fragrances on our high street shelves - and prove that there is easily-accessible life beyond the candyfloss, to jaded consumers to boot - well, more power to Thierry Wasser's elbow, frankly.

Most people aren't perfume critics, however, and burning rubber is always going to appeal only to the select few, and I think it is far, far, far too easy for people (especially those who have educated themselves to a certain degree in fragrance) to write off a perfumer's more commercial output. But, there are a number of perfumers doing the mainstream very well.  Francis Kurkdjian is, I think, one of the best representatives of how to appeal to both the masses and the niche-lovers.  His Aqua Universalis and Absolue Pour Le Soir illustrate this tightrope very well indeed.  AU is a clean, fresh, laundry-scent, immediately appealling, easy to wear, simple and uncomplicated, it's the scent of the relationship between yourself and your clothes.  APLS, however, is a thick, sticky, sweet and dirty (how dirty?  It's actually pure, distilled filth.  Bottled.  It smells of sweat, sex and honey.  Oh, and a bit of cat poo), hard to love, and utterly impossible to "get" at first sniff, it's adored by perfume bloggers - including this one, who ran out and bought a bottle after reading a single review - the world over.  But it sells fewer bottles than Aqua Universalis, by a factor you can measure in the thousands.  Yet, you never see a blogger rave about AU.  Funny that ...

Anyhoo.  All of that was basically my extremely longwinded way of getting into the mindset to review Oud Silk Mood by Maison Francis Kurkdjian.  In PerfumeBlogVille, Oud is, essentially, over.  Something the professional critics are bored with, and are waiting for the next big ingredient to pop up and replace it.  Over in CommercialLand, however, to very many consumers, Oud is still something new and exotic, still a smell that takes some getting used to.

Oud is a funny smell, it's essentially a rotted, infected tree-sap.  It smells dark, and oddly medicinal, it's thick, and difficult, and, although it's been widely used in fragrances in the Middle East for a long time, it's still relatively "new" in fragrances in the west.  In 2012, Kurkdjian brought out an entirely new kind of oud fragrance; Oud, which was light, transparent, and decidedly shimmering, and whilst still hugely "odd" (and medicinal) to most tastes, is probably the easiest to wear Oud fragrance I've come across.

In 2013, Kurkdijan added three new fragrances to his Oud line, in a selection of "moods": Velvet, Cashmere and Silk.  Compared to the original Oud, Silk Mood is decidedly heavier, opening with a giant bouquet of the richest, darkest, reddest roses you can imagine, with just a tiny hint of fruitiness contained within, like the tiniest smear of raspberry jam in a rose-petal sandwich.  As it dries down, the oud and the chamomile add a hint of dustiness and depth, and a hint of mystery to the jammy fruitiness above.  There's meant to be papyrus in there too, but I have no idea what that smells like, so I can't pick it out.

It's hugely well-balanced, meaning it's hard to pick out individual ingredients above all the others, but this is, without doubt a gorgeous scent, it blooms in the heat - and has been the only fragrance I've wanted to wear in this recent hot spell - unusual for me, who normally cries out for minty, herbal, FRESH scents in this weather.  It's also pretty appealing to the opposite sex, if the reaction of MrLippie is anything to go by, he normally dismisses things as "yes, flowers" or "oranges", but he seems to really like this one.  

I've read reviews of Oud Silk Mood dismissing it as "nothing original", and maybe it isn't (it's the smoother, sexier sister to Guerlain's Rose Barbare, which has a spiky, rather austere beauty, if you ask me, dried roses, and no jam.  Ironically, both were created by Kurkdjian). In Middle Eastern perfumery, oud and rose is the definitive combination for oud fragrances, but in this not-quite-a-"proper"-perfume-blogger's opinion, there aren't very many oud/rose combos that are as appealing as this one anywhere.

Now for the bit that'll make you cry.  It's £275 a bottle.  I only figured that out after I'd been spraying my sample with wild and gay abandon!  A small price for beauty though, perhaps?

The Fine Print: The fragrance was a PR Sample. Waffle, all mine very own.

This post: Maison Francis Kurkdjian - Oud Silk Mood originated at: Get Lippie All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post at Get Lippie, then this content has been stolen by a scraper

Kodo Incense Ceremony With Odette Toilette

To my intense dismay, having enjoyed many a scented adventure through Odette's work, I was unable to attend the Kodo Incense Ceremony arranged by Odette Toilette last week. Luckily, however, the lovely Callum Bolt was able to take my place at the ceremony, and here he gives us a fabulous round-up of his experience:

 

Last week, what was supposed to be another dull day at the library ended with one of the most memorable evenings I have had in quite some time. Odette Toilette and Fornasetti Profumi were hosting an evening of Kodo (an ancient Japanese incense ceremony) with junior master Souhitsu Isshiken Hachiya in Conran’s gorgeous shop in South Kensington Unfortunately Ms Lippie was unable to make it so I leapt (almost literally) at the chance and soon I was packing my books away and heading for what promised to be a quite incredible evening. 

 

After draining my glass of champagne and discussing with some others what we expected from the ceremony (none of us were quite sure), we sat cross legged on the floor and Odette opened the evening by briefly talking of how she had come to learn of Kodo by chance in a book she had read some years ago. We were then introduced to Souhitsu, junior master of Shino-ryu; a school of Kodo that has been continuously passed down the generations for over 500 years (Souhitsu’s father is the 20th master, and he will eventually become the 21st).

 

Souhitsu began by performing the Kodo ceremony himself in silence. The delicacy with which he handled the tools, and the absolute precision of each gesture, were utterly hypnotic. On a wooden tray there was a small pot, decorated with Chinese paintings, and filled with ash that hid a burning piece of charcoal. Also on the tray were a selection of utensils and a small paper packet containing the incense bark. The ash was pressed into a cone shape with something resembling a fish knife, then with a little white feather any loose ash was dusted away. Souhitsu then made 50 lines on the slopes of the cone which represented the 5 elements of Chinese philosophy: wood, earth, water, fire and metal. This done, a tiny square of glass was placed on top of the ash, upon which Souhitsu put the incense that would be gently warmed. Then he took the pot in his left hand, while holding his right over the ash in order to check the temperature, and leant forward and inhaled the scent.

 

Once the ceremony was been completed, and we were all captivated, Souhitsu began to speak. (I must mention the incredible lady who was able translate for Souhitsu so effortlessly that I almost forgot that he was speaking Japanese.) He instantly proved to be a charming fellow - warm, funny and very knowledgable. We heard of how, in Kodo, they do not ‘smell’ the incense but rather ‘listen to’ it using all of the 5 senses in order to appreciate absolutely the subtleties of the scent and the effect it has. He went on to tell us of the importance of our sense of smell: though we have become a culture obsessed with sound and vision, our noses hold the key to our more primal instincts. He used the example of a cavemen needing to be able to sniff out prey and predator in order to survive.

Next, we are given a brief lesson on the importance of incense in ancient Japanese aristocratic seduction. Around 1000 years ago, Souhitsu tells us, men and women would not look at each other’s faces and because of this men had to get creative. They would write haikus, scent the paper with their finest incense and post them to the lady (or ladies) that they desired. This made the process of courting a rather drawn out affair - especially as, if the lady didn’t like your poem, or thought that your incense smelled horrid, then she would simply not reply. Even when the the the lady did reply, there had to be a long exchange of letter before the pair could finally meet, which they had to do in the lady’s home. In the dark. In fact, so strict were the rules about not being able to see each other that the gentleman had to leave before the sun rose in the morning, because of this the incense used to scent the clothes became hugely important. They were judged almost entirely on their scent, and therefore it had to be good.

 

Souhitsu then spoke a little on the art of Kodo itself. Kodo, literally meaning ‘the Way of Incense’, is not something that can ever be learnt but is a lifelong process of learning. Souhitsu spent a year living in a temple with a priest in the mountains in order to begin to master the art of Zen (becoming ‘nothing’ through meditation), but said that it takes decades to truly be able to experience it properly. The state of Zen is integral to Kodo as you must be experiencing nothing but the incense, allowing it to conjure images, memories and emotions freely. (Souhitsu, apparently, is often reminded of the rice fields near his grandparents when he used to visit as a child.) Kodo began during the Muromachi period when an aristocrat asked for all of his incense to be classified and evaluated, during the course of this process the ceremony took shape. It soon became very popular throughout Japan, being used by almost everyone from the Samurai who performed the ceremony before battle to the aristocracy for whom it was a fun game. The incense is most often described in terms of taste: sweet, salty, spicy, sour and bitter

Finally, it was time for us perform the ceremony. Once again Souhitsu prepared the incense by placing it on the hot ash, and then passed it around the room for each of us to smell. There were two different barks which he told us were both “completely different”. When the first incense made it’s way to me I was surprised - this was not the church-like smell that I had been expecting, but something altogether more subtle, softer. Firstly, there was the familiar scent of hot charcoal and ash but once I had disregarded them I discovered a beautiful fragrance that made me think of blonde woods, and reminded me slightly of being in a sauna (so perhaps I wasn’t able to disregard the charcoal as successfully as I had hoped.) The second did indeed feel different. This bark was brighter and had a brilliant saltiness to it. One lady said that it made her think of the sea, while someone else was reminded of the woods and animals such as deer. Souhitsu was careful to be incredibly diplomatic telling us that all of our responses were correct, and that his impression of the first bark was that of a beautiful sunny day with blue skies and not a single cloud in sight.

 

And with that, it was all over. I could have happily spent several more hours listening to Souhitsu talk of his art - his knowledge of the history of Kodo was fascinating and as a speaker he was brilliantly entertaining. Odette was back to thank Souhitsu and make not-so-subtle hints that he should come back to the UK soon (which I sincerely hope he does.) Then it was time to head home, with a rather-handsome incense box courtesy of Fornasetti Profumi and Nippon Kodo.

 

You can find out more about the amazing events put together by Odette Toilette here.

The Fine Print: Get Lippie and Callum Bolt bought and paid for the tickets involved for this event.

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Shay & Blue: Atropa Belladonna Review

I do get a bit excited when I hear about a new perfume brand, and I get super-excited when I realise that it's an affordable brand, albeit one with aspirations.  Niche perfumes are (in the main) lovely and amazing and wonderful, but I am aware that if I wasn't a beauty blogger, very many of them would be beyond  my reach from a financial point of view.  

Describing themselves as a "boutique perfumery", the creators of Shay & Blue; Dom De Vetta and Julie Masse, boast a wealth of perfume experience between them. Indeed, Dom has worked for Chanel and Jo Malone, and Julie has trained as a perfumer with (amongst others) Christine Nagel.  Shay & Blue are trying to handcraft fragrances, and bring a new experience to perfume-buying that can't be replicated by the mass-marketers of fragrances.

With a new collection of six fragrances, (Atropa Belladonna, Blood Oranges, Amber Rose, Sicilian Limes, Suffolk Lavender, plus Almond Cucumber) I had a hard time selecting what I wanted to try, my heart was torn between Almond Cucumber, Blood Oranges and Atropa Belladonna, but I eventually settled on Atropa Belladonna, as I was drawn in by the description of:

"... Atropa Belladonna, inspired by deadly nightshade, with the richly decadent scent of dark cassis berries blended with the heady white flower blooms of narcissus and jasmine, on a base of rich bourbon vanilla. Daringly different, chic, mesmerising ... "

Further reading about the notes yields:

Top: Mesmerizing berries and cassis liqueur.

Heart: Blooms of white narcissus and Grasse jasmine.

Base:  Patchouli, sandalwood, rich bourbon vanilla.

The top notes are a very intriguing flash of blackberries and blackcurrants, with an oddly savoury undertone.  Whilst fruity, the fragrance isn't sweet at all, which is something I very much appreciate.  In fact, the opening reminds me, very much, of the recent Jo Malone release of Blackberry and Bay, which has a similar blast of non-sweet fruit, and both of these openings are very much to my taste.

On further wearing, I don't really get much in the way of jasmine, but there is a lingering hint of soapiness, which I attribute to the fact that very many berry leaves do smell a little soapy, it's a bit waxy, and feels fat with the promise of sandalwood to come. Sandalwood always smells a little "fatty" to me, for some reason, I don't really understand why. The dry down is a little sweeter once the vanilla shows up, but it's not a custard-y kind of vanilla, it's a bit dark and rather creamy, with hints of wood.  It's a very nice scent!

I think for the price-point (£30 for 30mls, £55 for 100mls, and £35 for candles), Shay & Blue offer an intriguing collection of fragrances - I've heard great things about their Almond & Cucumber, which I'm dying to try - and I think this is great, tightly edited collection of items, there are no body products, no makeup, no home furnishings etc to dilute the ranges with. They offer beautiful packaging - reminscent of Jo Malone, but in a rather fetching blue, and as such Shay & Blue is definitely a brand to keep an eye on.

Available at Harvey Nichols; www.harveynichols.com and Shay & Blue on 0845 548 0113.

  
The Fine Print: PR Sample.

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