tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-280375862024-03-07T05:05:33.587-05:00IndieperfumesConnecting to nature and beauty with the sense of smell and perfumeindieperfumeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16933060392329498890noreply@blogger.comBlogger424125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28037586.post-70395029549350814052023-04-10T11:46:00.062-04:002023-04-10T12:19:13.879-04:00Penhaligon’s Elizabethan Rose EdP - 2018 and other Rose-isms<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEP_IWZ7aFjpKVvguLK8e5DZS0iQrJrlkfrp_G0v7K4QPnZSIGrHH0DN063outmLtCjhHOQjpICoGp9rws6BLtJ43gLmCmu95-8VuZwFvkxPWQ0Jc1dXNIgnkgR56j095TvD8Q6wfbZ9H-1rZ24PAMQAvnJK1KOMAwcvxXdxP2vfsPKepM6W4/s4032/IMG-2826.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEP_IWZ7aFjpKVvguLK8e5DZS0iQrJrlkfrp_G0v7K4QPnZSIGrHH0DN063outmLtCjhHOQjpICoGp9rws6BLtJ43gLmCmu95-8VuZwFvkxPWQ0Jc1dXNIgnkgR56j095TvD8Q6wfbZ9H-1rZ24PAMQAvnJK1KOMAwcvxXdxP2vfsPKepM6W4/s320/IMG-2826.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><p>Having not been able to revisit since a few years before the pandemic, I look back on my trip to London and Edinburg as a way to imagine going to a place still out of reach. So much has changed it's fully out of my personal reach. The next time I go it's bound to be like visiting a different dimension and phase of London and Edinburg. I'm looking forward to visiting again, as soon as possible.</p><p>Scents weave threads of the past into our present. They trigger personal and historical re-enactment experiences.</p>
<p>Old iconic things from ancient times until now, grand to humble, that we still love, have become beloved not because for what they used to mean but for what we find in them now.</p>
<p>A perfume can expand the range of connection between the past and ourselves, while moving into a state of timelessness. For example: roses, specifically English Tudor roses. Penhaligon's Elisabethan Rose (2018) is as symbolic as can be. It's time travel for me, in perfume form.</p><p>The notes listed are rose, hazelnut leaf, and vetiver. It's fresh, strong yet delicate, lots of air, movement, and very reminiscent of the rosewater made by hand in Tudor times, to refresh and preserve in all seasons, but especially the heat of the sunnier months. </p>
<p>We love roses now for their beauty and scent in all their tones of spice and green. People loved them in the past attaching some heavier reasons, expressing loyalties and rivalrous conflicts. Centuries of gardening have created roses that are individuals that repeat themselves, expanding, throwing out lines in all directions. They literally have grown bigger and grander as time goes on. Their scent enraptured Shakespeare’s mythic figures, young lovers in the past and ourselves. All one in that enchanted moment of scent carrying all its associations as well as our own.</p>
<p>The anonymous passionate lovers of yore are long gone. Still, they are our ancestors. Their emotional and physical presence runs through our veins and bodies. The gardeners whose skills pass down even if their gardens have not survived them. The luxury of a warm sheltered wall, turned to the sun, that stakes a climbing rose bush. These days, it's hard to find a natural fragrant rose nearby, without access to a personal garden. But we have so many rose perfumes instead. Flower perfumes connect us to their history and bring our own personal history with them into the ancestral legend and culture passed down through generations.</p>
<p>This came to mind when I ran across Penhaligon's Elisabethan Rose, in of all places, the Heathrow Terminal 5 duty free, wandering and waiting to get home from a London visit. That little frill around the neck attracted me, as I've long admired that particular old face-framing historical piece of fashion. It was a fresh breath of rose-tinted air in the midst of the airport atmosphere, but I left it then. Could not forget it and ended up ordering it from home in Brooklyn, my English souvenir, among others. </p><p>English rose culture of ancestral legend, I think of it every time I see or smell one. In Brooklyn my nearby Brooklyn Botanical Garden has the recently restored vast Cranford Rose Garden, hopefully to withstand the climate changes affecting us all. Intend to walk through for the old-fashioned highly fragrant flowers as often as possible. </p><p>Not long ago, I ran into the surprise of Elizabeth 2's Coronation Rose, in full bloom, during the week of her funeral ceremonies. It is scentless, but throws a freshness out from the long stems and leaves. What I would call an example of the Extreme Rose, fashionable in the mid century years, and still beloved of florists, with very sharp thorns and the deepest red ever. Rather inspiring, in its own way.</p><p><br /></p>
indieperfumeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16933060392329498890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28037586.post-69230914221256425832018-06-07T21:19:00.003-04:002018-06-07T21:44:57.088-04:00Perfume and Scent Routines<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHZ061KeJWlsgYojujtffRennjP1T1yQvEZkYnshmLP2P9cnxWqbci2HSDhsMKijU8Z0Oi4f0xos9Ga3-EDUmmTfGrbsNPqbpIfR0oscyMfRadCO9Ei1f_nyFNa-bRVulewyAuNQ/s1600/tumblr_p94hfufvWy1ux1u51o1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="498" data-original-width="500" height="397" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHZ061KeJWlsgYojujtffRennjP1T1yQvEZkYnshmLP2P9cnxWqbci2HSDhsMKijU8Z0Oi4f0xos9Ga3-EDUmmTfGrbsNPqbpIfR0oscyMfRadCO9Ei1f_nyFNa-bRVulewyAuNQ/s400/tumblr_p94hfufvWy1ux1u51o1_500.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #555353; font-family: "1785 GLC Baskerville", serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: justify;">Details, part I; Claude Paradin: Devises Héroïques, 1551.</i></td></tr>
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Since perfume became important to me, I've become far more aware of all the smells around me, from pleasing to gorgeous to not so much. People themselves, in their own clean skin, each have an infinitely interesting scent, some far stronger than others, some much more to my liking than others. I have become much more conscious of the scents of the seasonal changes, even within urban Brooklyn.<br />
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We have the explosion of linden blossoms in the street trees every year, pouring forth their sweetness in the humid air at night in spring. We have the leaves crumbling dryly underfoot in the streets and in the parks, over the mulched and sandy areas where the grass has been trampled down to nubs in the powdered dirt.<br />
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The earth and the pavement release a beautiful pale grey metallic steam when wet by rain, and the snow has its own slightly metallic odor when it first lands. We have the scents of age from all the old brownstones and other buildings from the nineteenth century, the storms that pass through, coolly refreshing the air (ozone is a scent color). The fragrance of the daily weather conditions affect the intimate scents on coming indoors. The vibration of the light in over-lit spaces, how dark and light affect the perception of scents. Wool, cotton and leather clothing emanating their mild material scents have become more noticeable, or I have become more attentive, to notice them.<br />
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Many stories and books, films and music and periods of history, I now associate with certain scents.<br />
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I read Clairmonde by Theophile Gautier in the linden season so now I think of that scent as a background to his descriptions of the double life of the country priest by day as the handsome and sensual courtier by night with his indescribably beautiful lady enlivened by his own essence.</div>
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Recalling Jane Campion’s biopic of John Keats in love (Bright Star) I note the bluebells in the spring sun, the walks in the woods. I think of the old English apothecary shops (as Keats studied to be an apothecary himself) and the lavender scents cleaning and preserving their woolen cloaks and hats. The colognes based on herbs and soliflores, the damp earth scent from the frequent rain that so many modern natural perfumers have referenced in beautiful ways. The gardens of old roses and peonies and hyacinths.<br />
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My favorite part of the morning which has so many personal routines is the coffee or tea scent, the cinnamon in oatmeal, cut fruit, at one time the scent of clean dog, the slippery coppery hot water heating up a high ceilinged bathroom, the cotton towel absorbing the scent of water. The choices of soaps and lotions, each scented, some intentionally strong, some subtle. The mint washing through a mouth, the fresh air in the closet, the serious leather scent lying in the shoe boxes, the wool or cotton. Some of the scarves or outerwear holding traces of perfume at the wrists and neck. The scent of lipstick, the scent of the particular perfume as chosen to be worn that morning. </div>
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The light brighter outside than any lamp refreshing the air into an ozone/aldehyde, the sharp sooty smell of the car exhaust pointing out the brightness of fresh air. Paper, book or tissue or bits of trash, blowing around in the streets, the movement of air around the rushing crowds, then standing still on the corners, waiting for the next chance to cross, you get that olfactory sense of expectation as to well, what next? Getting the sense of those standing near you, what they are wearing, the scents coming toward you one after the other. Here is where I say once again, there is no such thing as scentless, everything has a smell. (That which is labeled unscented has been treated with a chemical to block your ability to smell it.)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> Claude Paradin: Devises heroïques Tolle voluptatum stimulos</td></tr>
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The weekends might permit a wider range of smells, and more time to fool around with scented lotions and hair and trying different scents on through the day. That is if you are like me, and look for that chance to incorporate more fragrance experiences into the day. It becomes such an enhancement and an excitement; it’s like eating chocolate or smoking cigarettes but without the calories or the exhaustion. An addictive quest even, for more special and different forms of olfactory beauty.<br />
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There is the occasional thought through choice to be made of a perfume to fall asleep in. Sometimes reaching for an extension of the day's experience, sometimes looking for a mood change.</div>
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Now that I've amassed something of a perfume library, based entirely on personal preferences, I have more scope to indulge my olfactory cravings and moods. Some days and weeks going through a phase of craving for roses, for musk, for powders, for incense, and phases for where I look for perfumes that are strong and others where I want quiet and subtle ones only. Times I take a break from perfume and then come back to it, recalibrating my nose and awareness. </div>
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Engagement in the pleasure of perfume has enhanced my scent awareness beyond what I ever could have anticipated. For example, it often increases the dimensional experience of the daily walks I take, what I encounter in the streets, or passing under the trees in the open air, or how the texture of the air scents change indoors. The experiences of daily life reference back and forth to what I find within perfumes and what perfumes then throw back to daily life. </div>
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Indie and niche perfumes especially those that reach beyond the traditional forms let me access a personal aura that marks and enhances the present moment. Creates associations into a sense- memory that references everything it matches going foward and backward across time and life.<br />
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Perfume was a choice I made and now it's starting to reveal how much it's changed me.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">La Guirlande de Julie - c.1601-1700 - via <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fgallica.bnf.fr%2Fark%3A%2F12148%2Fbtv1b8451620k%2Ff15.item&t=YWU3NWFlYjZlMGIxODgxNDM4ODQ1YTNhMDM5ZmI4NmYyMmQxMmUwZSxwRVo1SFZmUg%3D%3D&b=t%3AeEfXHWZTTl_pi6OW4Cay1w&p=http%3A%2F%2Fheaveninawildflower.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F172591104503%2Fclawmarks-la-guirlande-de-julie-c1601-1700" style="background-color: #efeedf; color: #b23a3b; display: inline; font-family: "Copperlate Light"; font-size: 15px; text-align: start;">Gallica</a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Copyright 2018, Lucy Raubertas, All Rights Reserved. </span><br />
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<style type="text/css"> p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.1px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Georgia; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.1px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Georgia; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 14.0px} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} </style>indieperfumeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16933060392329498890noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28037586.post-4278197148533568962018-05-30T13:42:00.000-04:002018-05-30T14:53:24.523-04:00Iris 3 - Niral EdP by Neela Vermeire Creations <div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="aak4f" data-offset-key="8df6j-0-0" style="background-color: #fafafa; border: 0px; color: #111111; font-family: "Libre Baskerville", serif; font-size: 17px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.2px; margin: 0px; orphans: 2; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rain/Iris at BBG this May 2018 photo by Lucy Raubertas</td></tr>
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This is the third of the Iris perfumes that have found their way to me at this change of the season. It's not a coincidence.<br />
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The soothing qualities of the Iris in Niral are perfect for this currently chaotic and harsh period.<br />
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The perfume calms and acts to sync a personal balance of the physical, emotional and mental. Interesting how the nose has that ability, to unite an individual's body emotions and mind. <br />
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As a beautiful experience, it's not an intoxication, as some perfumes are. As much as I love that kind of perfume experience, I know it's one that makes you forget yourself and reality. This one is so thoughtful and delicate and detailed and subtle it raises awareness. Taking pleasure in its beauty refines the soul. <br />
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The mood is meditative, requiring attention and focus. There is also the important element of sophistication. It helps me understand more about the elements of elegance and composure. <br />
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This scent aura brings your own attention away from the loudest voices in the room, with soft power.<br />
This is one of the softest perfumes I know. </div>
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It is like wearing a fine fabric tinged with the scent of iris, powdered wood, and musk while moving through a pure atmosphere refreshed by florals. The trick of it is it requires attention. It seems to hold close to the skin but then it reaches out when I focus on it, mentally. Then it envelops me to become the most important presence. It disappears when I'm distracted. I often am these days, as are many, understandably so. But I have to experience it on its terms, and it rewards with peace and beauty. </div>
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Reminds me of wearing something bias cut, in a close-cropped, soft silk-velvet or suede texture. You might forget you are wearing it as you might forget your clothing, but then you feel it and become one with it. It enhances body heat and clean skin and melds with you in a refreshing and enjoyable way. It quietly brings you back to yourself. This may be the sandalwood effect, famously meditative, which grows.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wardle Silk embroidery at the Silk Museum
by William Morris <a href="https://bit.ly/2IWYFcP" target="_blank">'Indian Poppy' design</a>. </td></tr>
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The inspiration is once again, with this perfume house, an interaction between cultures, anchored by India. In this case, India and England. Additionally as always, a classical French presence within its sense of perfume style. Each one is very much itself here. Makes me realize how they've affected and changed each other so much it's doubtful that they could ever pull completely apart now. <br />
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The perfumes name Niral's meaning in English is -- unique, calm, serene.<br />
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The inspiration came from how a colonial period British industrial specialist in silk (Sir Thomas Wardle) worked with the Indian wild silk trade. He developed new dye processes that expanded the market for Indian silk in Europe. The results inspired Western artists of the period and popularized Indian aesthetics as combined with Western tastes. <br />
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<span data-offset-key="6pu99-0-0" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><i>NIRAL, through its blend of rich raw materials is an ode to this quietly forceful silk ambassador. The perfume opens with iris, tea and liqueur notes weaving an intricate pattern with floral notes and spices akin to the textural delight of a piece of tussar silk, and symbolizing a unique relationship between two countries linked by a common heritage.</i></span></blockquote>
<span data-offset-key="6pu99-0-0" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Notes are listed as Angelica, Champagne Accord, Iris, Tea, Rose, Magnolia, Cedar, Sandalwood, Leather.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo from <a aria-describedby="js_f8" aria-owns="" class="profileLink" data-hovercard-prefer-more-content-show="1" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/page.php?id=175523111885&extragetparams=%7B%22fref%22%3A%22mentions%22%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/Extrait.it/?fref=mentions" id="js_f9" style="background-color: white; color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: start; text-decoration-line: none;">Extrait - il Magazine del Profumo</a></td></tr>
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<span data-offset-key="6pu99-0-0" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br />The materials are, as always with NVC, of the highest quality. The collaboration between perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour and creative director Neela Vermeire enhance each other's special areas of expertise. NVC's demonstrated range between bold, rich, and subtle is wide to express specific inspirations anchored in Indian and European cultures and their interactions. </span><br />
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<span data-offset-key="6pu99-0-0" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">This is presented in a heavy bottomed fluted flacon, resting in a pale gold silk lined violet box. </span><br />
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<span data-offset-key="6pu99-0-0" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Disclosure: I received a sample personally from Neela Vermeire and discussed this perfume and perfume in general with her. </span><br />
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<span data-offset-key="6pu99-0-0" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">This post is non-commercial. </span><br />
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<span data-offset-key="6pu99-0-0" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Photos above: please see credits, and follow the links for more information. Please see my</span><br />
<span data-offset-key="6pu99-0-0" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://indieperfumes.blogspot.com/search?q=nvc" target="_blank">prior posts on NVC perfumes</a>.</span><br />
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<span data-offset-key="6pu99-0-0" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Please go to the <a href="https://bit.ly/2LIV7Zf" target="_blank">Neela Vermeire Creations site</a> for more information and details on this perfume.</span><br />
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<span data-offset-key="6pu99-0-0" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Copyright 2018, Lucy Raubertas, All Rights Reserved.</span><br />
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indieperfumeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16933060392329498890noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28037586.post-84800185539073145712018-04-08T22:47:00.005-04:002018-04-15T14:00:33.306-04:00Iris 2: Woodland Iris by Juan Perez, Exotic Island Perfumer<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;">
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<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo of Woodland Iris by Lucy Raubertas</td>
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Partial list of notes:<br />
Top notes: Bergamot, Citron, French Lavender Absolute, Hay<br />
Heart Notes: Iris Accord, Orris root extractions, Tonka Absolute, Vanilla Bean, Cubeb Pepper<br />
Base notes: Labdanum, Treemoss, Sandalwood, Cedar, Pinewood, Musks.<br />
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Juan Perez is a horticulturist and has a deep understanding of botany and the fragrance materials he combines to express his emotional connection to their beauty through perfume.<br />
Woodland Iris crosses the graceful inner spirit of the iris with the green shade and moist earth of the woodlands, balancing the two as equals.<br />
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A rural tone is felt throughout, radiating a calm beauty. It arises from the ancient natural and spontaneous harmonious affinities between flower, roots, earth, shade, and sun. Human emotional associations to these qualities are primal and understood as pure and beautiful within the intimacy of cultivation.<br />
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I've read that iris rhizomes have a sedative quality, and were once used to soothe infants who could chew on them directly. (Don't try this at home, like mushrooms it's tricky. Only the exactly right kind, as the wrong kind are unkind to the digestive system).<br />
There is a faceted atmospheric musk that eventually surrounds you, once the initial refined freshness of the open dies down. Tightly blended, the whole is influenced by woods and iris bound together as one.<br />
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The fresh start includes one of my favorite scent sensations, that inner release when stepping outdoors into green leaf-tinted air, full of life, here enhanced with facets of woodland fern and forest floor tones. Hay and fern are subtly present. Contemplative sandalwood hums beside all.<br />
The background touch of tonka and vanilla* bean gracefully enhance the near-gourmand rich heart of iris butter. Resolves into what on me becomes an elegant musk that contains notes like facets in a cut gem that form a whole. Something of a gleaming quality to this perfume, soft as kindness.<br />
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This is one of those perfumes that enhance your presence and atmosphere within personal space, and reads to others as a lift in the air around you. They won't know what it is exactly that charges the air around you with peaceful harmony.<br />
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<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail from the Portinari Altarpiece by Hugo van der Goes.<br />
Iris was a favorite flower of HvdG. as well as spiritually symbolic and heraldic.</td></tr>
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One of the iris themed perfumes this Spring that can smoothly carry thoughts and mood into a good place.<br />
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Juan Perez lives in Puerto Rico and I know he has been through much in the wake of the upheaval caused by Hurricane Maria. I've been in touch with him and been impressed by his calm and unshakeable devotion to the island. It's a peace rooted in a complete openness to the island's natural beauty. He's recreated as much order as possible and welcomed the return of blooming water plants and vanilla orchids. He used a prior harvest of vanilla beans in this perfume and hopes for more this year to be used in this and other projects.<br />
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<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">*Vanilla pods harvested and photo by Juan Perez</td>
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I associate this perfume with the forces that move toward the beauty of growth and reclamation by greens and roots and flowers responding to the sun. This natural restoration and rebirth after a forceful scouring prove how life takes its chances wherever and whenever it can.<br />
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<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8om7RdExvAUndg9pTJavMCUMV7v8H1D-kDt2AV-mfkvhdcs_BZyqLAQDSdyOy9rNard3yALGaEv5ZoH9vk6dwR5piXUhsqDUx-mGgKyDTozvwh2GuGiUEAr807hblsK1FYCv9CA/s1600/20180411_221445.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1238" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8om7RdExvAUndg9pTJavMCUMV7v8H1D-kDt2AV-mfkvhdcs_BZyqLAQDSdyOy9rNard3yALGaEv5ZoH9vk6dwR5piXUhsqDUx-mGgKyDTozvwh2GuGiUEAr807hblsK1FYCv9CA/s320/20180411_221445.jpg" width="248" /></a></td>
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<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Water Lilies Return photo by Juan Perez</td>
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For me, this is a scent of blue-green mildness expressive of wet-land iris breathing in and out. Together the plants and water dissolve the richness of the earth itself, a process that in turn feeds and creates the shade of trees and their fresh woodland air.<br />
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This strength within the continuation of life with softness and gentleness in the aftermath of wild and overwhelming forces is expressed here with a subtlety that notes all the soft yet pervasive charms of nature's continual activity.<br />
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The perfume will soon be released in the mainland U.S.A., at first through Shelley Waddington's <a href="https://www.envoyageperfumes.com/" target="_blank">Envoyage</a> site. Their collaboration to create an exquisite pair of wedding perfumes, <a href="https://www.envoyageperfumes.com/products/nectars-des-iles" target="_blank">Nectars des Îlles</a> and <a href="https://www.envoyageperfumes.com/collections/perfumes-only/products/vents-ardents" target="_blank">Vents Ardents</a>, continues to be one of my favorites.<br />
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See also <a href="http://indieperfumes.blogspot.com/2017/08/zoologist-dragonfly-civet-nightingale.html" target="_blank">Dragonfly by Juan Perez for Zoologist</a><br />
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More information as to release date and further links will be listed here, so please watch this space.<br />
Disclosure: The perfume was sent to me directly by the perfumer at my request.<br />
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Above photos credited as in captions, the photos by Juan Perez are used by his permission under his copyright.<br />
Copyright 2018, Lucy Raubertas. All Rights Reserved.indieperfumeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16933060392329498890noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28037586.post-37144706873741368992018-03-13T21:56:00.000-04:002018-03-13T21:56:32.977-04:00Iris 1 - Iris Underground by Soivohle<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br /><b><a href="https://www.soivohle.net/huile-et-eau/iris" target="_blank">Iris Underground</a></b>, an oil perfume by Soivohle (Liz Zorn) --<br /><br />There's a perfume season coming on that concentrates on Irises. Three perfumes based on Iris are on the path to Spring for me and hopefully for you too.<br /><br />I'll post on them one at a time, and will do the next two upon their release and time to experience. (Juan Perez' Woodland Iris and Neela Vermeire Creations' Niral)<br /><br />Soivohle by Liz Zorn has a new line of oil based perfumes. That's good news, especially for me. I adore oil-based perfumes, and my skin loves to encounter them. My sample of <a href="https://www.soivohle.net/huile-et-eau/iris">Iris Underground </a>struck me immediately as the exactly the type of beauty I need more of. I went for the full size right away and my fondness grows every time I wear it.<br /><br />The notes listed on the site are: Apple Natural Accord, Galbanum, Champaca Leaf, Iris Accord, Natural Ionones, Natural Irones, Violet, Amyris, Sandalwood, Opopanax, Violet Leaves, Tolu Balsam, Vintage Musk Accord.<br /><br />What happens in this oil form is that it slows and tempers the rich and full character of the other influences. They are details acting on the central Iris theme that end up showing an uncanny realism. This perfume exhales the sense of a rich ripe Iris root/bulb/rhizome. This is Iris as cloaked in its full experience of life. The clinging vestiges of damp earth and green leaves and freshness of the air make a full portrait of an Iris. <br /><br />I suspect the green nature of Galbanum has a lot to do with it. <div>
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I see 'Vintage Musk Accord' and I think the body and liveliness are sustained with it. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Liz Zorn: TERRAIN SERIES: <br />OIL, GRAPHITE ON CRADLED BIRCH 12X12</td></tr>
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I love the full sense of the fragrant root and its buttery richness. A light sweetness evolves after you get used to the rest. The many varied notes and accords are exactly calibrated to enhance the Iris story. The nature of Iris is revealed and celebrated. This one is an impressive display of skill on the perfumer's part. It also reveals her appreciation of Iris in its element. <br /><br />It wears like oils do, long and close to the skin. It's intimate. It reaches up to your own in-breath enough to feel it permeate your time in its company. Without becoming overwhelming or triggering scent blindness from too much of a muchness. Balanced, full, round and grounding.<br /><br />It's not a big or emotional perfume, it's elemental and specifically the soul of a plant. In all its delicate glory with its fragrant roots in the mire and its head in the sun. That might make you emotional if you are moved by that kind of thing. That is, this is a reminder that the Iris holds its secret fragrant nature within its underground source. </div>
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It's a wonder how humans first gained that understanding, to find out Iris's secret, to then bring it to each other as a gift of beauty. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Liz Zorn: TERRAIN SERIES: <br />OIL, GRAPHITE ON CRADLED BIRCH 12X12</td></tr>
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<br />Liz Zorn is one of those indieperfumers who does everything herself, from start to finish. This is similar to how a painter works, and she is indeed also a serious abstract painter. I've noticed many of my favorite indieperfumers are also deeply engaged painters. (For example, Dawn Spencer Hurwitz, John Biebel, Bruno Fazzolari, etc., to name some just off the top of my head).</div>
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For this perfume, samples, and more information and other perfumes please visit the <a href="https://www.soivohle.net/" target="_blank"><b>Soivohle site</b></a>. </div>
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Please find more of posts on Liz Zorn's perfumes through the search bar to the right.</div>
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<i>"Soivohle: What does that mean. Soivohle is an acronym it stands for..<br style="word-wrap: break-word;" /><strong style="word-wrap: break-word;">Sending Out Inspired Vibrations of Healthy Loving Energy</strong><br style="word-wrap: break-word;" />How do you pronounce Soivohle: see-vo ~ see-voh"</i></div>
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<br />Images above from the <a href="https://www.soivohle.net/" target="_blank"><b>Soivohle</b></a> site and the <a href="http://www.lizzornfineart.com/" target="_blank"><b>Liz Zorn Fine Art</b></a> site for the paintings. </div>
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Copyright 2018, Lucy Raubertas, All Rights Reserved.</div>
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indieperfumeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16933060392329498890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28037586.post-27618080474553583872018-02-12T10:08:00.000-05:002018-02-12T10:08:38.524-05:00Anatole Lebreton - Bois Lumiere EdP<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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This is one of those love it or not perfumes. I do love it to the exceptional degree that I got myself a full size while sampling. I have Miel de Bois by Serge Lutens already, but while they are both honey themed they are distinctively different enough that they exist in a different mood and atmosphere.<br />
You must try a sample on yourself to see if you are one of the lucky ones it suits so well. Because if you are, as I am, it's a true love that answers in depth to satisfy scent cravings you may not consciously be aware of. It's as rich and dimensional as a fully natural perfume, yet has the tenacity and reach of a French classic.<br />
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With a tone that is reminiscent of certain vintage perfumes, there is yet a modernist lightness that is pervasive. It bonds with the skin closely and thereby transforms in an individualist way. For me, it is soft, fluffy comfort fragrance, that generates its own candlelit heat and light. It's as if honey has dripped over an aromatic wood, penetrated and dried there, and then was sawn, so that the sawdust releases a fragrant aromatic powder of celestial beauty. The wood is true and stays present throughout wear, while carried by a dry honey. Honey might make you believe this is a sweet perfume, but this is not the taste but rather the scent of a rich natural thick honey still mixed with its beewax and a bit of pollen, capturing the warmth of the summer sun.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Lj-oxK-ux7I/WoGqBGVz06I/AAAAAAAAV_g/zFyvM-v749Yg6uBq6DgCeNY7zu0hFoQ2ACLcBGAs/s1600/Flacons%2B010%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1430" data-original-width="1600" height="356" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Lj-oxK-ux7I/WoGqBGVz06I/AAAAAAAAV_g/zFyvM-v749Yg6uBq6DgCeNY7zu0hFoQ2ACLcBGAs/s400/Flacons%2B010%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo from the Anatole Lebreton website</td></tr>
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<br />It's a highly versatile perfume. I have tried it across a range of occasions. Wearing what I call rough and ready clothes to go for a long walk after it's been raining hard for two days, in clogs and a fuzzy sweater under the coat, its warmth and grace are an ornament. It's perfect to read or listen to music to, on the sofa or in bed, something like a warm pet sitting beside you, cat or dog, a calm if lively breath that follows your own. It's good for going out to dinner, as it holds close and its dry honey combines well with almost every kind of food.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Dpi_pKaNl1k/WoGqV-7DUtI/AAAAAAAAV_o/YnKo247EYW4i7ysZYtkK6i3zCrvIuQMzACLcBGAs/s1600/475467613.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="448" data-original-width="673" height="133" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Dpi_pKaNl1k/WoGqV-7DUtI/AAAAAAAAV_o/YnKo247EYW4i7ysZYtkK6i3zCrvIuQMzACLcBGAs/s200/475467613.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From the <a href="https://www.livestrong.com/article/324328-what-is-raw-unfiltered-honey/" target="_blank">Livestrong</a> site on Raw Honey</td></tr>
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The dry wood set beside the thick honey equally releasing into the air from skin is an exquisite perfume experience. Full on immediately upon application, it calms over hours into a sense of vitality and balance that can influence the mood if you are at all susceptible to such accurate references to natural materials. Honey and wood are likely to be among those many have directly experienced throughout life. This perfume is one of those that reminds you that so much in life is so good, regardless of whatever chaos or difficulty may be on the front burner.<br />
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For those who love perfume for this particular enchanting quality, it's full bottle worthy once you have determined by sampling that your skin is compatible and can work with it. I found it a great pleasure and a graceful ornament to my days.<br />
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Notes, per <a href="https://www.luckyscent.com/product/70802/bois-lumiere-by-anatole-lebreton" target="_blank">Luckyscent</a> in Los Angeles, where you can get samples or full size anywhere in the USA via online mail order:<br />
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Corsican juniper, clary sage, mandarin, fir balsam, honey, rose, carnation, immortelle, beeswax, atlas cedar, benzoin. <div>
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The range of these notes moderate and hold aspects of the dominant theme to render it elegant and smooth.<br /><div>
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Available in several European capital cities at fine perfume shops, and also the <a href="https://www.anatolelebreton.com/?lang=en" target="_blank">Lebreton website</a>, which lists all the stockists.<br /><br />
Photos above credited within their captions.<br />
Copyright 2018, Lucy Raubertas, All Rights Reserved.<br />
Non commercial posts, samples and full size purchased directly from Luckyscent. </div>
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indieperfumeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16933060392329498890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28037586.post-452588328677838072018-01-19T22:24:00.007-05:002018-01-24T21:12:39.383-05:00Layering Perfumes in Winter<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KoNofzSPj4U/Wmkn_kr584I/AAAAAAAAV9w/tOat8nM13Hk3hFD-63ZnGk02GZNjjZ7iwCLcBGAs/s1600/99e21ea1c213458d5445befefd00102f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="870" data-original-width="564" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KoNofzSPj4U/Wmkn_kr584I/AAAAAAAAV9w/tOat8nM13Hk3hFD-63ZnGk02GZNjjZ7iwCLcBGAs/s400/99e21ea1c213458d5445befefd00102f.jpg" width="258" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">via Michael Moon's Bookshop on Tumblr</td></tr>
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Back to experimenting with perfume combinations. Delving further into what I have, and as I have it already it reflects what I love.<br />
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Diving into the pleasures of perfume as a source of comfort. It ornaments dark winter monochrome clothing and softens frosted edges. Takes the edge off the surprise of icy slipperiness. The shocking shortness of the daytime hours.<br />
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We've had long spells of winds straight from the Arctic. Layered over political anxieties. One small way to use what I have is to throw the ephemeral weight of olfactory private beauty against the balance of public cold fronts. Extreme versus extremes. <br />
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Perfume beauty is so delicate. Layering is play with favorite elements, to magnify the tones that have a personal draw. The extra firepower gets through to my frozen brain and heart. Yes, just skirting the risk of overdoing it. <br />
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I use two at a time. Often one as dominant theme, and the other as a punctuation mark that holds the mood and magnifies or tones that certain craved fragrance effect.<br />
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These perfumes are all stand-alone beauties. The variation made from using two at a time creates a heightened individual experience that answers to stronger tastes. <br />
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That said, there are months I can do nothing but rest in the most subtle perfumes. Times like these, I go for more extreme perfume effects. Layering with two at a time creates a fragrance blanket. A comfort that satisfies a wish for opulence and abundance. Claiming the forefront of attention to a degree that drives away other distractions, invisible armor.<br />
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Often trying two perfumes on a single theme, with some relation to each other. Often much more of one than the other, one arm each, or neck and wrists. They rise and mix in the air, and still often show themselves individually, off and on. Stepping out into ice water winter air I still get vivid perfume sensations that waft up to me repeatedly, and that continue in the stillness indoors.<br />
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There are the classics combinations. Floral and patchouli or oud, musk and florals, citrus and fruit, gourmand and fruit, floral mixes. Some lines such as Jo Malone have created entire libraries around layering. More layers can begin under hot water, in the bath, with gels, lotions and oils.<br />
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A few examples -<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ruQ8KTGaIpA/WmkwWEs_SII/AAAAAAAAV-g/AdjoxH63YfwTZZRHwXEdLTiTUtGIkd13ACLcBGAs/s1600/f8578d9f3f0301c0e863963df29eb08b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="668" data-original-width="564" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ruQ8KTGaIpA/WmkwWEs_SII/AAAAAAAAV-g/AdjoxH63YfwTZZRHwXEdLTiTUtGIkd13ACLcBGAs/s200/f8578d9f3f0301c0e863963df29eb08b.jpg" width="169" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/413768284506810446/" target="_blank">via Caitlyn Casey Pinterest</a></td></tr>
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Exhibit A: Hermes Jour d'Hermes Absolue and <a href="http://indieperfumes.blogspot.com/2013/12/artemisia-natural-perfume-saveur-de.html" target="_blank">Artemisia Saveur de l'Abricot edp</a><br />
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For brightness sake, a clear and sunny perfume by Hermes, Jour d'Hermes Absolue, as the dominant. Matched with a natural perfume by Artemisia, Saveur de l'abricot edp, in a more discrete amount. This combination is so intense and mutually flattering I hardly know what to do with myself when it's in its first throes of dry-down.<br />
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Jour d'Hermes has a big opening of intense citrus lofted up by smooth white florals, and that's exactly where it continues to float. This is that rare citrus themed perfume that can withstand winter winds. I found that out after testing it on a recent windy arctic cold day. I kept getting wafts of summer beauty with each step. It was not swept away by the wind and cold. The apricot undertones call to those in Saveur de l'abricot, which is the perfume that made me crave and look for more perfumes in apricot. Also sunny and bright, it has a nectar heart, a thicker base, rich warmth.<br />
Exuberance.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-U5MDp7bmm1g/Wmkz6MckfII/AAAAAAAAV-s/TsI6kBSyaVMcHHPozOw2IzeROU9-sfgqwCLcBGAs/s1600/d5fc98b5150c282dc577cc33e80df98d.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="984" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-U5MDp7bmm1g/Wmkz6MckfII/AAAAAAAAV-s/TsI6kBSyaVMcHHPozOw2IzeROU9-sfgqwCLcBGAs/s200/d5fc98b5150c282dc577cc33e80df98d.jpg" width="192" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://prismsilks.com/products/silk-velvet-fabric-iridescent-deep-amber-by-the-yard-45" target="_blank">Silk velvet - Prism Silks</a></td></tr>
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B. <a href="https://www.artisanparfumeur.com/perfumes/l-eau-d-ambre-extr-me-eau-de-1243126.html">L'Artisan L'eau D'Ambre Extreme edp</a> and Narciso Musc oil<br />
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This is a warm hug, a soft cloak, a cashmere blanket, velvet intimacy and softness, sweet dreams, contentment. Together they are a meditative, peaceful center.<br />
Musc oil holds close to the skin, sinks in and breathes out floral accords, amberlyn and patchouli softly and quietly. A gentle accompaniment to Ambre Extreme's powdered vanilla-tinged floral-moderated spices. There is an effortless floating smooth dreaminess at the heart of both, but Ambre is a cascade that reaches out to surround while Musc hugs you in, embraces. Pure relaxation and comfort in both modes. Warms the natural skin scent and holds fast. Each extends the other's time frame, even for me, whose skin always eats perfume up so fast.<br />
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Loved this combination so much, was compelled to get backups of each, something I never do. They magnify each other. Remain in the forefront of personal awareness for an extended period of time, without fatigue or retreat. The soothing creaminess in combination is liquid tranquility.<br />
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Cozy.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ka7cPhXOJxY/Wmk5IpDzJNI/AAAAAAAAV-8/eONNoQQ-cocLcP12h1XkhQVYCwAFl59jwCLcBGAs/s1600/2f698a02df604e2565771579db973c45b5fc00e5.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ka7cPhXOJxY/Wmk5IpDzJNI/AAAAAAAAV-8/eONNoQQ-cocLcP12h1XkhQVYCwAFl59jwCLcBGAs/s320/2f698a02df604e2565771579db973c45b5fc00e5.png" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://flip.it/1Fns7h" target="_blank">Nourparis</a> </td></tr>
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C. Serge Lutens Un Bois Vanille edp and <a href="https://www.soivohle.net/signature-perfumes/raspberries-black-pepper-x9ryl">Soivohle Raspberries and Black Pepper</a> Parfum<br />
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Sprayed Raspberries just above the Vanille on both arms.<br />
Keeping them fairly separate allows their nuances to unfold. Their own dry down journey remains intact within the aerial mix. After a night's wear, they both lingered into the morning to enhance each other's facets, even subdued by the passage of time. <br />
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The softness of Vanille and dry sweetness of Raspberries together create a spacious ambiance spiked by the black pepper note. Brings to mind the scent of an old library interior I once worked in. Staying inside more when it's too cold out is enhanced by this combination. It's an upright, aware style of relaxation. With a soft skin close aura it lends itself to focus, for work or taking in information. Raspberries and Pepper keep the warm energy of the Vanille alert. It's a long simmer of quiet pleasure in the luck of finding this particular chamber music combination of perfume layering.<br />
Meditative <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8JNbNtXZvv7nPD3lgNk4-pu5g4Ecc2ikwVtGzrbH2QRaFrmq5j6KvMDMzZjEcoRjq7FD3Jq2aGAxNqvNihVNW_KR2gmw6mJ9FEZ9eEBtw24MKfq9ecgzypZNe01HazWNNk6bMTQ/s1600/623130a7e648ff5d1718323a198e580b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="648" data-original-width="564" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8JNbNtXZvv7nPD3lgNk4-pu5g4Ecc2ikwVtGzrbH2QRaFrmq5j6KvMDMzZjEcoRjq7FD3Jq2aGAxNqvNihVNW_KR2gmw6mJ9FEZ9eEBtw24MKfq9ecgzypZNe01HazWNNk6bMTQ/s320/623130a7e648ff5d1718323a198e580b.jpg" width="279" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dovima and Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face</td></tr>
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D. Guerlain Insolence Parfum and Villoresi Teint de Neige EdT<br />
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These two elegancies are a well-matched pair. The floral tinted powder clouds thrown up by Teint de Neige, illuminated by the violet heart of Insolence. Or perceived another way, it is the scent of an idealized, expensive European makeup case from the 50s, maybe Dovima's. Lipstick infused with cool violet, on smooth skin caressed by swans' down fragrance. The cloud lights up from within as an edge of musk reveals itself. <br />
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Glamorous, understated, versatile, and also a comforting blanket of softness. Both perfumes remain steady and consistent and definitely there. Yet never wearing you, even in this doubling of complete in themselves fragrances of strength and character. Teint de Neige is more expansive, Insolence more interior, working close together, like a well-matched extrovert/introvert couple. <br />
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Could wear to a fancy wedding or to float away into a deep dream into full repose. Creates a border, a margin, a moat of elegance between the rough world and the skin's surface. <br />
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Went heavier on the Teint de Neige, it makes a powdered snow base to complement violet Insolence. Absorbing that ultra cool sweetness and transmuting it into disciplined ballerina style. The prettiness and charm of the powdered feathers are lifted and sustained by a core of cool strength. Violet as pure refreshment. Musk emerges from both in the dry down, with a unifying, soothing depth.</div>
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Elegant as a bird.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.wikiart.org/en/caspar-david-friedrich/fir-trees-in-the-snow-1828" target="_blank">Fir Trees in the Snow, Casper David Friedrich</a></td></tr>
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E. <a href="http://indieperfumes.blogspot.com/search?q=von+eusersdorff" target="_blank">Von Eusersdorff Classic Patchouli Edp</a> and <a href="http://www.enfleurage.com/" target="_blank">Enfleurage</a> Balsam Fir Essential Oil</div>
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Both have a related aromatic core, and lift a steady quiet flame through the winter cold outside. Indoor heat softens and relaxes the effect. I noticed a higher profile outdoors in contrast to the cold air and ambient street noise of every kind. The Balsam Fir Essential Oil is wild crafted in Canada and has a true spacious green sap heart that is heady. Patchouli's own headiness is tempered by Fir's uplift. (I believe this would work also with White Spruce or Scots Pine Enfleurage essential oils, if Fir is not in stock. Enfleurage's offerings shift every season and are of the highest small batch quality).</div>
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Wore them together, that is Fir directly on skin of both arms and sprays of Patchouli over it. Also kept a space for each to be pure, using Patchouli at the neck and Fir on its own on the arms. Fir imbues Patchouli with wakeful energy as Patchouli soothes Fir's tempestuous wildness. Something like a brighter, more translucent Slumberhouse <a href="http://indieperfumes.blogspot.com/2013/09/dark-perfumes-slumberhouse-norne-cdg.html" target="_blank">Norne</a>. I've often used Fir in a perfume burner to scent my place. This way it holds to the skin and expands the range of Patchouli into an old growth forest. These two combine into a whiff of the sacred for a nature worshipper. </div>
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This combination brings out a sense of physical and mental contentment and balance, as well as providing a little solace to the possibly neglected feral side of the brain. My version of a work scent, as an excellent mood setter for writing and/or design. </div>
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A down to earth enchantment.</div>
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Please follow the links above to individual posts. </div>
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Copyright 2018, Lucy Raubertas. All Rights Reserved. </div>
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Borrowed images, credits captioned.</div>
indieperfumeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16933060392329498890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28037586.post-84309760014120242372017-12-04T22:24:00.003-05:002017-12-05T11:26:52.274-05:00Flowers in Winter - Libertine Fragrance<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zfWBoDq7o0k/WiYNjBCfMJI/AAAAAAAAV3s/B1gF4ZdPPKcJMpD5bh7awznsgMBcXJ69ACLcBGAs/s1600/b35972bce217dbeda22153422aad456f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="826" data-original-width="564" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zfWBoDq7o0k/WiYNjBCfMJI/AAAAAAAAV3s/B1gF4ZdPPKcJMpD5bh7awznsgMBcXJ69ACLcBGAs/s640/b35972bce217dbeda22153422aad456f.jpg" width="435" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Frozen flower photo from the Pinterest Board of Tom Holle</td></tr>
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<b><br /></b> <b><a href="https://www.libertine-fragrance.com/" target="_blank">Libertine Fragrance</a></b> is a small perfume house in Canada. These handmade perfumes by a <a href="https://www.libertine-fragrance.com/pages/about-us" target="_blank">forester turned designer</a> display a keen and deep instinct for scent materials.<br />
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The name itself, Libertine Fragrance, links a desiring nature and the sense of smell. The line hones in on all the most pleasurable aspects of perfume. It's not an experiment with the odd or difficult. It's a deep dive into the spectrum of beauties and enhancements available. It's about the most pleasant and appealing of aromatics. Made for pure sensualists, they will silently call to the true sensualist in yourself and in your immediate company.<br />
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Once the sample set arrived, I found my favorites (among other loves) were <b><i>Sex & Jasmine</i>, </b><i><b>Smoked</b> <b>Bloom,</b></i> and <i><b>Violetta Body Oil</b></i>. They face the increasing damp seasonal chill here with much ornamental warmth and grace. They work well in the chill outside and in the hot dry indoors. The fragrance of lush florals may support me in this winter of discontent. Their beauty is an aid across icy puddles and a balance to cross the treacherous patches. I imagine they will expand into the wet heat of summer to come. All were body conscious as much as inspired by the beauty of the notes.<br />
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My first samples were all in EdP form, and then I ordered the Jasmine and Smoked Bloom as fragrance oils. The EdPs were much bigger in effect of course, while the oils, as always, held close to the skin. I recommend trying/having both versions of both fragrances. They are good to layer together and fit close/adjacent moods and purposes.<br />
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The difference between the EdP and oil form shows most in the Jasmine EdP's green freshness. In oil form, it emanates a sweeter warmth to join with body temperature and mood.<br />
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There's an affinity that jasmine has to wool and other forms of warming airy fabrics. It clings to scarves, hats, sweaters, coats, and blankets. This perfume will let you explore that too, without going so far as to turn yourself into a scent bombshell.<br />
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A good way to wear it is to spray the EdP on the wrists, and use the oil at the neck. You can also outline the face at the temples to the jaw so it can be close as possible to your breathing in its influence. I've read that jasmine has a natural if a subtle beneficial effect on the skin and nerves, and I believe it. It is worth the experimentation because jasmine is one of the most beautiful scent experiences to be had on this earth.<br />
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The notes are listed as Jasmine Sambac Absolute* (India), Sandalwood Absolute* (Hawaii), Geranium* (Egypt), Neroli Absolute* (Egypt), Vanilla Bourbon Extract* (India), Aged Patchouli Essence* (India), Ambergris<br />
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Vanilla, Sandalwood and an ultralight touch of Patchouli increase the warmth and soulfulness of the star, Jasmine. These warm notes mitigate and corral the usual Jasmine cloy that could overpower. That strength and energy is then used for the purposes of lively heat and attraction. The animalic aspect morphs into refined and even playful happiness in its own beauty. A definite yet tiny touch of Ambergris hums in the background, grounding it all and making it last. It's pure and direct while holding awareness on an inviting parallel inner life. It connects to the sensual dreams that play out in the unconscious mind as you go about your life.<br />
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<i>Smoked Bloom</i> displays the olfactory effects of fire near the edges of a match made in heaven between apricot and osmanthus. It's a clean white smoke. The EDP holds the smoke further out to the distance, the oil keeps it closer up front.<br />
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I have been for more than a year now in a constant craving for the velvet fragrance of apricots. So this one drew me in, with its seared floral drizzled with the juice of the ripe fruit. It opens onto an atmosphere of liveliness, the fragrant vibrations diluted and expanded into clouds of oxygen. The apricot effect is here an aspect of amber and its connotations of ancient tree-sap. This connects imagination to the immense life forces of the deep past.<br />
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The notes are listed as Bergamot* (Italy), Bay Leaf* (West Indies) Osmanthus Absolute* (China), Vetiver Absolute* (Indonesia), Sandalwood * (Hawaii), White Musk.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rFJxl-nfR78/WibBBhcoR2I/AAAAAAAAV4M/_RAktuFWAUEdm2_hltTK3QNiY7hmOXSoACLcBGAs/s1600/SmokedBloom9mlStilllife-Grande_6b58416d-7e1d-40f2-87f8-37339fa4904b_grande.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rFJxl-nfR78/WibBBhcoR2I/AAAAAAAAV4M/_RAktuFWAUEdm2_hltTK3QNiY7hmOXSoACLcBGAs/s200/SmokedBloom9mlStilllife-Grande_6b58416d-7e1d-40f2-87f8-37339fa4904b_grande.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Smoked Bloom Fragrance Oil from Libertine Fragrance site</td></tr>
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I wonder if the open atmosphere that carries so many influences was created by the brightness of Bergamot. That sharp enveloping lemony tone holds volume and space within itself. It's tapped here to carry the complicated accords with all their associations.<br />
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This is a complex floral musk for me, in the EdP form, while the oil form holds the white smoke a shade more.<br />
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It's all a gathering of influences, in both forms, oil and EDP. This is not a perfume dominated by one theme like the Jasmine. This form of beauty lies in its combination of several notes that smooth out in a dilution. They move up into the air toward an open ethereal space of distinctive personality. It's a chorus of note whispers that form a whole character.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gaFp5q5hUIQ/WibGAn3sVXI/AAAAAAAAV4Q/FirvqcQ6Hjk5vYKOVdxQOPgJdaiEC0xyQCLcBGAs/s1600/3554dda44962a2b93cb7b5ad54a310c8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="468" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gaFp5q5hUIQ/WibGAn3sVXI/AAAAAAAAV4Q/FirvqcQ6Hjk5vYKOVdxQOPgJdaiEC0xyQCLcBGAs/s200/3554dda44962a2b93cb7b5ad54a310c8.jpg" width="170" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo via Clara's Handmade Pinterest<br /></td></tr>
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For me, it's like a new experience of another climate. Reminds me of going from one coast to the other the first time. Blue-grey skies, with shots of bright light from the cloud partings.<br />
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It's flattering to the skin. The whole body senses designed coolness that yet shows its contact with fire by a seared edge. The sear releases the complexity and soft sweetness of the floral amber and hay.<br />
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<i><b>Violeta Body Oil </b></i>is a comfort and a quiet ornament to the body. Composed of pure natural oils with a touch of fragrance, using Violet Leaf, Sandalwood, and Orris Butter. Can easily be worn with other perfumes, as it will not interfere. You can only discern its graceful light tone putting your nose right up to the skin. It creates a private aura that I find uplifting and soothing.<br />
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I'm also trying the <i><a href="https://www.libertine-fragrance.com/products/cedrus-hair-oil" target="_blank"><b>Cedrus Hair Oil</b></a></i>, made with light and rich natural oils and fragranced with tones of dry Cedarwoods, Mint and Grapefruit. It's made to pair well with the Violeta Body oil. Our winters create a lot of static electricity in my hair and this works to imbue a certain weight that holds a subtle scent influence within the gleam it imparts.<br />
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I very much enjoyed the simple and direct story of the perfumer, and feel an affinity with his attitude. From the site:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #151414; font-family: Raleway, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 20px;">
My name is Josh, a forester turned designer. I turned to design because of an intense need to work creatively. I left the secure, established career ahead of me in Forestry to explore a creative path and spend as much time actively creating beautiful, useful things.<br />
<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">I had truthfully never loved perfume. I never really connected with the billboard messages of chic luxury and I found the scents all smelled the same. Midway through my design degree I started investigating the idea of scent as art however and I was hooked. I have always loved absorbing a place through its aroma, every landscape, every city block has an scent all its own. I began to wonder if perfume could be more authentic an experience, more artful and less about fancy ass yachts and gendered scents. </span><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400;">I decided I would create Libertine as my response to the overly commercial world of big name perfume. It would be a creative expression, a refuge for beauty and curiosity. There would be no celebrity endorsement, no gender stereotyping; just the highest quality aromatic materials, beautiful design and amazing fragrances.</span></strong></blockquote>
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*asterisks in the note lists above signify natural fragrances.<br />
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visit the site for more information as to prices, sample sets, and to explore:<br />
<a href="https://www.libertine-fragrance.com/pages/about-us" target="_blank">Libertine Fragrances</a><br />
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Copyright 2017, Lucy Raubertas, All Rights Reserved.<br />
Photos above as credited.<br />
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This is a non-commercial review, samples and perfumes purchased by me.<br />
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indieperfumeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16933060392329498890noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28037586.post-65431239482522727442017-11-07T11:16:00.002-05:002017-11-07T11:16:33.841-05:00Juan M. Perez of Exotic Island AromaticsOne of my favorite perfumers, Juan Manuel Perez, has been hit hard by the last intensely devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico.<br />
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His perfume friends hope to assist him so that he can reconstruct his perfume making and continue with his artistry. For many weeks his life has been taken up entirely with survival. Daily life is still very difficult there. Power, and other basic utilities and necessities of life including food, water and gas, are a daily quest. Communications are difficult and mostly more off than on. Even with help from FEMA, the devastation has been so great that it is expected it will take a year before life can resume some semblance of normality.<br />
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I hope and look forward to having his range of beautiful perfumes available again soon. Shelley Waddington of EnVoyage is poised to assist him with the production and distribution of a new perfume, as soon as resources and logistics permit.<br />
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Please see my posts on his perfumes for more information and to remind you of the beauties he produces, listed below. Please contribute to GoFundMe on his behalf, to help him rebuild the ability to continue his work as a talented perfumer. Let me know if you have any questions.<br />
Thank you for contributing and sharing!<br />
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This is <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/exotic-island-aromatics" target="_blank">the link to the fundraising appeal on GoFundMe</a><br />
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This is <a href="https://indieperfumes.blogspot.com/search?q=Juan" target="_blank">a link to my full posts on his perfume</a>s. <br />
(Some are part of a grouping of perfumes, so his perfumes are described within)<br />
There have been many other posts on his perfumes throughout the perfume blogs and vlogs.<br />
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To remind you of these beauties, some excerpts --<br />
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On <b>Flor Azteca, Oudh Nawab, Nectar des Îles:</b><br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vM8GphKaK78/WgHYzbLh1HI/AAAAAAAAV14/2mfwoUTnVsE5fCtSCWMLwOe7MWIJLR21QCLcBGAs/s1600/598847_10150854102262522_1057732864_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="400" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vM8GphKaK78/WgHYzbLh1HI/AAAAAAAAV14/2mfwoUTnVsE5fCtSCWMLwOe7MWIJLR21QCLcBGAs/s400/598847_10150854102262522_1057732864_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">Juan Manuel Perez of Exotic Island Aromatics lives on that island far yet near to those of us in the U.S., known as Puerto Rico, where he gardens and studies (and teaches) botany.</span></span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">His is a rare talent as a perfumer, because he knows how to bring out the most feral fragrance aspects of his plants and materials and make compositions that are transparent and fresh and that also hold the tropical balmy air within them. </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444;" /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">His use of naturals is so skillful that no matter where you are, once these touch your skin you are treated to the sensation of densely oxygenated air warmed by golden light, saturated with fragrance. In other words, you are instantly transported to a lushly fragrant tropical island. </span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">Flor Azteca</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;"> is predominantly a Tuberose that reveals its heart’s nectar, softened. </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444;" /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">The Tuberose is a native of Central America, beloved of the native Indian civilizations, and part of their traditional self-adornment.</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">The perfumer has a deep interest in the ancient American ceremonies and rituals using the native aromatic materials, especially for their mysterious spiritual and intellectual uses. </span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">Tuberose can be as heady as jasmine or gardenia, maybe more, because it has a fresh green within it that entices you to inhale it deeply. In this incarnation it joins the creamy white floral family of nectar-laden aromatic intoxicants as a strong individualistic force to be reckoned with. </span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">Notes are listed for top as Mexican Tuberose, Massoia bark, Chocolate, heart notes as Tuberose Absolute, Magnolia, Datura, Fresh Ginger, Pepper, base notes of Mexican Vanilla, Benzoin, Tonka Bean, Copal Negro, Smoky Woods, Mineral Notes. </span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">Mexican Tuberose buoyed up on a bed of Tuberose Absolute should give you some idea as to how much tuberose you will be in the midst of here. The vanilla, chocolate and magnolia (all native American aromatic notes too) are a softening influence, holding the edge off the tuberose headiness in a warm embracing air. </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444;" /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">The sparkle of the ginger, pepper and mineral notes run steadily throughout the life of the perfume, which is of good length. I can’t give a more specific time since my skin drinks perfume like it’s thirsty for it. </span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">This is a perfume for an energetic morning. It will make you wide-awake and hyper-aware. Even with the sense of intoxication arising from its dense white floral atmosphere, or even especially because of all that, this perfume sharpens the senses.</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;"><b>I understand that JMP considers the white floral accord to be his speciality.</b> He created </span><a href="https://www.envoyageperfumes.com/products/nectars-des-iles" target="_blank"><i style="background-color: white; color: #4d469c; text-decoration-line: none;">Nectar des Illes</i><span style="color: #4d469c;"><span style="background-color: white;"> which is full of plumerias and other white florals (carried at Shelly Waddington's En Voyage Perfume site</span></span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.envoyageperfumes.com/products/nectars-des-iles" target="_blank">)</a>.</span><span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text" style="background-color: white; color: #444444;"> He also has an intriguing Gardenia and a Magnolia.</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">Oudh Nawab</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;"> Eau de Parfum came to me together with </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">Flor Azetca</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">, and so for me acted as a companion piece, as a voice from the other side of the olfactory sphere. I will immediately list the notes because they are a poetic description in and of themselves: </span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">Top Notes, Tumeric, Bergamot, Black Pepper, Heart Notes, Oudh from Borneo, Golden Myrrh from Somalia, Allspice, Cardamom, Cinnamon, Saffron, Persian Figs, Dates, Base Notes – Benzoin, Patchouli, Tonka Bean, Frankincense from Oman, Labdanum, Vetiver, Ambergris, Musks. </span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444;" /></span><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dBMy2pcUd7U/UDqj0yXEzrI/AAAAAAAAB8M/Fu9BMCkoolE/s1600/tumblr_lusdp4wVRE1qbsp7xo1_500.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; color: #4d469c; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dBMy2pcUd7U/UDqj0yXEzrI/AAAAAAAAB8M/Fu9BMCkoolE/s200/tumblr_lusdp4wVRE1qbsp7xo1_500.png" style="background: transparent; border-radius: 0px; border: 1px solid transparent; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="163" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">This one is a paean to the Middle Eastern perfume tradition. Like opening the door at night to step into a field of freshly turned earth, with the scent of spices and deep dried hay wafting through. It is a spacious darkness. The complexity seems somehow to create more air so that the individual notes stand out. The tumeric and pepper are as clear as opening bells at the start, with the citrus of bergamot brightening all. </span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">These fairy tale magical materials with their old names from far away places stand up to their own legends. Myrrh and oudh are both fragrances exactly what they sound like, causing purrs and murmurs of satisfaction within the mind as soon as they touch the skin. The fig and dates set beside Tonka Bean, the musks and the other base notes blend together intimately, like a melting buttery moisturizer on the skin. Soothing and calming, this is a profoundly meditative perfume to rest in, to calm yourself with, or to fall asleep in. </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444;" /></span></blockquote>
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<b>On Waters of Aswan, aka Blue Lotus:</b><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYSAabjs_klCbHLrLpcsHTFweae5pjDt1nJXqceT5iqV00x9RgQ_-ApTL1MGxhaa0Qdh0bstGT2iy_5tRDwwOJIPzN5dF8gHc3jjrX9_pvx42WK-nGXdMXrFnvVyfXusU0wTuOdg/s1600/563943_10150895338272522_2074260684_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; color: #4d469c; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYSAabjs_klCbHLrLpcsHTFweae5pjDt1nJXqceT5iqV00x9RgQ_-ApTL1MGxhaa0Qdh0bstGT2iy_5tRDwwOJIPzN5dF8gHc3jjrX9_pvx42WK-nGXdMXrFnvVyfXusU0wTuOdg/s200/563943_10150895338272522_2074260684_n.jpg" style="background: transparent; border-radius: 0px; border: 1px solid transparent; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">I have come to know several skillful and poetic perfumes made by this indie perfumer. This one has an aquatic feel illuminated by the luminous blue lotus, a favored perfume and relaxing intoxicant of the ancient Egyptians. It contains a high proportion of rare blue lotus absolute and flower essence, with other soothing/dreamy floral substances like ginger lily, held fast to the skin by dry vetiver, ebony, papyrus root and other complexities. It breathes out the freshness of water softened by the lyricism of dominant if subtle florals. </span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">There is an innately soothing quality to the scent of blue lotus. It is a beautiful opposing influence to the anxious nervousness that might be aroused by crowds in a hot summer city. The Egyptians used to dip the petals into wine which released intoxicant qualities, and I imagine them relaxing as they deliberately surrounded themselves with perfume, even to the point of ingesting it so it was released through the skin, floating on reed party boats in their fresh water river, abundant with plants, fish and wildlife. Times are different but we still need to relax into this kind of contemplative beauty...</span></span></blockquote>
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on <b>Dragonfly,</b> available from the Zoologist line:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; font-family: times;">
<i>Dragonfly </i>Eau de Parfum by perfumer Juan Perez displays transparency and strength akin to its namesake. Iridescent reflection and lift reference an existence led between the aquatic and ozonic spheres. Water and air are tinted with summer greens, florals and dissolving and evaporating elements.</blockquote>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="background-color: white; color: black; float: left; font-family: times; margin-right: 1em; padding: 4px; position: relative;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OhexAWLPwSY/WX_kkiZFe8I/AAAAAAAASNI/epKvpYqnv8AStb1PnRI2jxmSokd2ZincwCLcBGAs/s1600/papyrus.jpg" style="clear: left; color: #4d469c; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OhexAWLPwSY/WX_kkiZFe8I/AAAAAAAASNI/epKvpYqnv8AStb1PnRI2jxmSokd2ZincwCLcBGAs/s200/papyrus.jpg" style="background: transparent; border-radius: 0px; border: 1px solid transparent; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">Papyrus</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
A calm soft core, limpid and milky, links top and base. The notes are listed as follows: Top -- aldehydes, heliotrope, lemon, peony, rainwater. Soft water calls to the perfume's center softness. Heart Notes -- cherry blossom, clover, iris, lotus, rice. The lotus and rice tone the limpid, romantic core. Base Notes -- amber, moss, musk, papyrus, sandalwood. These join all the rest together, and papyrus and sandalwood hold hands with lotus and rice at the heart.<span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></blockquote>
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The aldehydes impart the multi-directional energy of a darting, flashing dragonfly.<span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></blockquote>
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Softness held within this strong aromatic energy is our direct opposite. Our own bone structure is held within a soft skin. The dragonfly's body works the other way around.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; font-family: times;">
<i>Dragonfly's </i>cool green aldehydes, detailed with iridescent blue green highlights, support a warm center. The dry down exposes more aromatic details; multi-faceted floral notes.<br />This perfume contains you within its aromatic, humid aura.<br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: times;">Easy to wear, it's a soothing release into air and water. Takes off on the lift of subtle iridescent facets, and flies on an air current created by the forces of warm and cool.</span> </blockquote>
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Please see the links above for full posts and to donate.<br />
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Wearing <i>Waters of Aswan </i>today, which is one of the most focused perfumes on Blue Lotus I have found. This soothing beauty is both a sensual pleasure and a calming influence.<br />
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Again, please donate to the <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/exotic-island-aromatics" target="_blank">GoFundMe</a> to help restore Juan's ability to continue making perfumes such as these exceptional ones, and so that we can all continue to enjoy his talents and artistry into the future. Every little bit will help towards this goal. I have been able to have some communication, and I know he so appreciates the kind support and encouragement from his perfume friends.<br />
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Thank you!<br />
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Copyright 2017, Lucy Raubertas, All Rights Reserved.<br />
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<br />indieperfumeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16933060392329498890noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28037586.post-23776449729143680622017-10-19T17:32:00.000-04:002017-10-20T05:44:49.778-04:00Autumn with DSH Une Robe de Zibeline and Tsukimi<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii_YCtX491aG3OhRFvqa2wB5BZhQgbEUpY-q7dQXjlShV12ZKUJhOjKPcFo7HWMH9ThI0_MnvqGMXYpZE0c7NzT2757xmAkmK7p8590OIIFT1QVURqqdAMesYHgXqtrwiJ0Ciqng/s1600/466bd59e3c2b897e8b6c21ca1bf8a837.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="567" data-original-width="564" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii_YCtX491aG3OhRFvqa2wB5BZhQgbEUpY-q7dQXjlShV12ZKUJhOjKPcFo7HWMH9ThI0_MnvqGMXYpZE0c7NzT2757xmAkmK7p8590OIIFT1QVURqqdAMesYHgXqtrwiJ0Ciqng/s400/466bd59e3c2b897e8b6c21ca1bf8a837.jpg" width="397" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Drawing by Kris Kuksi</td></tr>
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There is a strong and deep flavor of classic European vintage perfume inspiration in <a href="https://www.dshperfumes.com/shop/un-robe-de-zibeline-sable-coat/" target="_blank">Une Robe de Zibeline </a>(Sable Coat) as it carries this style of romantic beauty into today. Mysterious shades dappled against lightness and comforting warmth.<br />
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This perfume reveals a refined animalic bone structure enveloped by contemporary subtlety, softness, intimacy. </div>
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We (especially Americans) don't like big intrusive scent trail perfumes for the most part, anymore, or the idea of animal sacrifice for the sake of adornment. Fur effects attained by other means can be experienced in this perfume. This scent aura is a close halo that is more for the wearer and their closest intimates than a self-presentation that plays to an audience.<br />
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The amber is a golden transparency, the slight tang of peppery spice lifts, and the ylang-ylang, rose, carnation and beeswax breathe out as the dominant notes, for me. They lean next to the fantasy accords and beside the warmth-inducing edge of patchouli ambergris and benzoin. </div>
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The Dawn Spencer Hurwitz (DSH) style can be either meditative or a force field of beauty that extends a few inches around the skin, both or either, depending on what the mood and attitude require. It is flexible, while retaining a strong character. As with all the DSH perfumes, there is a lyrical delicacy within the references and sophistication. </div>
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Listed as a spicy Oriental, the note list from the <a href="https://www.dshperfumes.com/about/contact-us/" target="_blank">DSH site</a> shows coumarin, brown oakmoss, ambergris, castoreum and civet (as non-animal synthetic accords) East Indian patchouli, labdanum, leather (cade oils) Siam benzoin, blond tobacco absolute, Tolu balsam, Bulgarian rose absolute, carnation, French beeswax, Grandiflorum Jasmine, orris, spice notes (allspice, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, and/or cardamom) ylang-ylang, aldehydes, bergamot, black pepper, lemon, rosewood, Essense Studio (accords created over time as signatures by DSH) and vanilla.</div>
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Dreamy, relaxing, warm, the notes so tightly bound together are an impression of alive-ness that lies calmly as a sleeping beast. The applied perfume is like wearing your own invisible fluffy fur collar and cuffs. Pinned on is a fantasy corsage of vanilla orchids with buds of various other deeply scented florals, held just far enough away to blend together seamlessly. </div>
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Blue birds from the bluest fable,<br />
Bear and hare in coats of sable,<br />
Peacock moth on picnic table.</blockquote>
(Fragment of a poem by Nabokov, <a href="http://www.eudaemonist.com/14iv2006/" target="_blank">"Lines Written in Oregon"</a> )<br />
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These sprightly/serious lines from Nabokov's legendary travels across Fifties America occupy a sensory realm exactly referenced by these two perfumes.<br />
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These two show two sides of the DSH coin. They make allusions, throw references and prism-y shards of olfactory sense memories in both directions. Heavy/dark beside light/delicate.<br />
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These were my two immediate favorites of the last set of samples from DSH, though the rest offer plenty to delve into deeply at another time. DSH's prolific creativity is almost overwhelming.<br />
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<a href="https://www.dshperfumes.com/shop/tsukimi-moon-gazing/" target="_blank">Tsukimi</a> (Moon Gazing) pronounced 'ski-me' is inspired by the Japanese festival of Autumn moon gazing. I find it subtle, delicate, uplifting, exquisitely beautiful and transporting. It is meant to be softly warming and meditatively glowing, sheltering itself within a cool night air atmosphere. The scent recalls autumn leaves, a cedar tea infused with aromatic wood tones, lightly balsamic powder and peach skin. There's what I call the "Sandalwood Effect". I consider this a quality of aromatic softness that reaches right into the mind to effect calm. Quiet beauty is lifted by a clear light bright airborne effect. It plays with the warm and cool aspects of the notes.<br />
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Listed as an Autumn Gourmand, the notes are amyris, peach skin accord, Australian sandalwood, Brazilian vetiver, frankincense Co2 absolute, Hiba cedarwood, hinoki, oppopanax, ambergris musk,<br />
vanilla absolute, ambrette seed, rosewater, Siam benzoin, spice notes, cardamom seed Co2, fig, fig leaf, nutmeg, Essense Studio accords.<br />
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Both come in a wide range of strengths. I sampled and fell for these in Voile de Parfum which the DSH site describes as 10-20% oil concentrate, with a slow evaporation rate. These are handmade perfumes by an American artist who has studied and practiced the classical traditions for a long time and translated them into a modern beauty that can be worn by any gender at any occasion. Autumn is the theme but cool air at any time of year would carry their lyrical warmth to best effect.<br />
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Please follow the links above to the DSH website for more information.<br />
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Disclosure: samples were given to me by the perfumer but I also purchased larger amounts to have more wear time before writing about these two perfumes.<br />
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Copyright 2017, Lucy Raubertas, All Rights Reserved.<br />
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indieperfumeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16933060392329498890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28037586.post-45874941583893166672017-09-02T18:27:00.003-04:002017-09-02T18:27:57.370-04:00Late and Last of Summer Perfumes 2017<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Theodoor van Hoytema calendar 1905<br />
the days of the week and numbers line up this year</td></tr>
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The year is moving on, the season of greatest heat passed here. We move into the full-time magic hour kind of days. Slanting rays of light, rustling leaves, sudden rainstorms (praying it stays at just that). Feeling time pass as it works its ways.<br />
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Following my personal tastes and intuition lead me in several different directions, perfume-wise, lately. I've feasted on several samples accumulated in the past few months. Now certain ones come to the fore to vie for my fond attention. The beauties of this world remain to be found and appreciated, no matter what else.<br />
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These following are precipitating into a strong list for possible full-size possession consideration.<br />
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<i><b>Tubereuse Couture 17 by Perfumerie Generale</b></i><br />
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Immediately bowled over by Perfumerie Generale's <i>Tubereuse Couture</i>. It satisfies a white flower fanatic's cravings. A full rush of creamy rich tuberose is mixed into a green so green it almost veers into cool mint. The slow dry down turns itself into an air of sophisticated elegant refinement. That more ethereal late form of the perfume's evolution displays as ethereal freshness. This is an air of great luxury and does indeed affiliate with the fashioned world of Couture. The skillful workmanship is divine. A standout, that requires confidence, and ultra feminine. Others in the room with you will know it is there, in its glory.<br />
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Notes listed as: kalamanzi oil, green jasmine shoots, ylang-ylang, sugar cane, Indian tuberose, Sumatra benzoin, papyrus.<br />
Eau de Parfum, $125 50ml.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/piero-del-pollaiuolo-apollo-and-daphne" target="_blank">Apolo e Dafne. Piero Pollaiolo</a></td></tr>
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<b><i>Dryad by Papillon Artisan Perfumes</i></b><br />
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<i>Dryad</i> by Papillon Artisan Perfumes turns itself into a tree, nymph like. You may then identify with that fragrant life. The effect envelops the skin. It brings you within the bark and sap infused fibers and the waving dark green leaves taking in sun. Dry and full bodied, the essence of a life force that is quiet and powerful, smooth and wise with time. Seasoned. A warm cloak of a perfume, like sun on skin. To be worn by anyone, anytime, anywhere. This could be a signature scent, for repeat wear. A sophisticated basic for the fragrant wardrobe, it holds a big personality at the same time. Chic and personal, indie/niche, yet easy to wear and a true enhancement. For me it grew more distinctive with wear, rather than fading out of my own perception as perfumes can often do. Not shy but not overtly intrusive, either.<br />
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Notes listed as: cedrat, bigaradier orange, bergamot, narcissus, oakmoss, jonquil, clary sage, orange blossom, lavender, orris, vetiver, thyme, galbanum, costus, tarragon, apricot, benzoin, peru balsam, styrax.<br />
Eau de Parfum, $160 50ml.</div>
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<i><b>Tobacco Rose by Papillon Artisan Perfumes</b></i><br />
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Another by Papillon is <i>Tobacco Rose</i>, embodying the end of summer moment for me, this year. I think of it as a heartbreaker rose. The warmth of the strong rose character is so like the moment before hot tears flow. The tobacco is its earthy warmth, in dry blond harvested leaves. A subtle narcotic tone. A release of tension as this perfumes is absorbed. Evolves into a soft air that lingers like a long sunset in a walled garden. A medieval embroidery, a ceremonial beauty in fragrance form. In time, it burns down to the heart of the rose, an infusion that colors personal space like a musk. Livable, a meditation of a perfume, as a reminder of the solid core of beauty in the outside world.<br />
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Notes listed as: Bulgarian rose, rose de mai, oakmoss, ambergris, beeswax and Peru balsam<br />
Eau de Parfum, $160 50 ml. </div>
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<b><i>Sortilège by Le Galion</i></b></div>
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A strong, emotionally affecting recreation of a vintage perfume. Direct, full of body, the warmth of a candle flame. Luminous, complex, a presence. For me, verging on serious, and sonorous, and a bit of a mind altering experience. That's because it brings me back to a facet of the aesthetic character of my earliest days. Reminds me of grown women wearing tailored clothing and even hats and long gloves on occasion. The aldehyde forefront is wearing a warm and warming fur coat. An ultra sensitive interpretation of a classical form of perfume. An idealized slice of the past, but right for today. Cleansed of cruel or brutal strength (no animal harmed, no overwhelming scent trail). Silky and voluminous, inspiring in its evocative harking to satin glamor. While wearable today, no matter what you've got on. This vintage style is not intimidating or over luxurious, but inviting and intimate; friendly.<br />
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Notes listed as: lily of the valley, lilac, ylang-ylang, aldehydes, jasmine, mimosa, narcissus, rose, iris, sandalwood, vetiver, labdanum, musk, amber.</div>
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Eau de Parfum, $180 100ml.</div>
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Disclosures: Tubereuse Couture and Dryad samples purchased by me, Tobacco Rose and Sortilège samples provided by Twisted Lily in Brooklyn, NY.<br />
Images above as caption credited, photo of Tobacco Rose from the LuckyScent site, photo of Sortilège from the Le Galion website.<br />
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Copyright 2017, Lucy Raubertas, All Rights Reserved.</div>
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indieperfumeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16933060392329498890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28037586.post-72292940058449003332017-08-01T16:14:00.002-04:002017-08-01T16:14:45.549-04:00Zoologist Dragonfly, Civet, Nightingale<div style="line-height: 28.8px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; margin-top: 2px;">
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"For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with the extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings: they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth.”<br />
― <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/182465.Henry_Beston">Henry Beston</a>, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/308220">The Outermost House: A Year of Life On The Great Beach of Cape Cod</a></blockquote>
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Victor Wong's Zoologist series produces perfumes based on the personas of specific wildlife personalities. He is building a library of fragrance tributes to our fellow beings. Each one includes beauty, lightness, and humor as well as an emphasis on a unique niche of the natural world.</div>
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Each of the indie-perfumers involved shows a personal affinity for the creatures they portray. Using the means of fragrance, they match their human admiration with expressive notes. These fragrance interpretations connect with nature in a way that invites us in too. All our sensitive noses bring us closer together.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">René Lalique - Bodice Ornament. Dragonfly Woman 1897-98.</td></tr>
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<i><br /></i><i>Dragonfly </i>Eau de Parfum by perfumer Juan Perez displays transparency and strength akin to its namesake. Iridescent reflection and lift reference an existence led between the aquatic and ozonic spheres. Water and air are tinted with summer greens, florals and dissolving and evaporating elements.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">Papyrus</td></tr>
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A calm soft core, limpid and milky, links top and base. The notes are listed as follows: Top -- aldehydes, heliotrope, lemon, peony, rainwater. Soft water calls to the perfume's center softness. Heart Notes -- cherry blossom, clover, iris, lotus, rice. The lotus and rice tone the limpid, romantic core. Base Notes -- amber, moss, musk, papyrus, sandalwood. These join all the rest together, and papyrus and sandalwood hold hands with lotus and rice at the heart.</div>
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The aldehydes impart the multi-directional energy of a darting, flashing dragonfly.</div>
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Softness held within this strong aromatic energy is our direct opposite. Our own bone structure is held within a soft skin. The dragonfly's body works the other way around.</div>
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<i>Dragonfly's </i>cool green aldehydes, detailed with iridescent blue green highlights, support a warm center. The dry down exposes more aromatic details; multi-faceted floral notes.</div>
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This perfume contains you within its aromatic, humid aura.</div>
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Easy to wear, it's a soothing release into air and water. Takes off on the lift of subtle iridescent facets, and flies on an air current created by the forces of warm and cool.</div>
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<i>Civet </i>and <i>Nightingale</i>, in Extrait de Parfum, answer to other scent and style affinities. </div>
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The Zoologist array of wild spirit inspirations provides for a wide range of moods. Covers seasons and weather, different aspects of personalities, and differing skin responses. </div>
The line is growing, there are now nine (with <i>Elephant</i>, the tenth, will release in October). <br /><div style="line-height: 28.8px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; margin-top: 1.1em;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Night Civet from the Zoologist website</td></tr>
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<i>Civet</i> is an instantaneous scent bomb, a big charismatic personality, sensual and intoxicating. Sometimes you want big, sometimes you want subtle. This is for when you want to be borne away on rolling aromatic waves of scent intoxication. A powerful perfume, with a warm heart. The note list is long, and lengthy wear displays several, depending on where your mind rests on the perfume at any given time. I have dwelt on the coffee, carnation, tuberose, balsams, musks, and woods. These are pierced through with hyacinth, linden, and heliotrope, among other florals, glittering in the depths.</div>
Shelley Waddington, one of my favorite indie-perfumers, has pulled off this magic before. She uses materials other than the ones you'd think, for an effect that brings you to the heart of the target. * <br /></div>
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The line never uses animal products. Civet itself is one of the old school legendary ingredients in vintage perfumes. Precious and useful, enhancing and gorgeous, but cruel. Outlawed, but unfortunately, there is still some modern trade in the animal sourced substance. Even more heartbreaking now, when we know better. <br />There is no worry or cruelty mixed in with this perfume. It's a tribute rather than a stolen substance. Made with facets of plant essences, and clever and sensitive modern synthetic portraits of scent elements. <br /></div>
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This is no photo-realist portrait, as civet itself smells awfully unpleasant. In tiny amounts, it has the power to enhance the primal beauty of florals and other perfume notes. What this perfume does is create the effect of that magnification. The civilized veneer rests on top of feral energy, the wildness in a jungle of abundant life and beauty. A modern floral chypre, it calls back to a traditional perfume form. Scent seduction modified by current humane sensibility, on several levels. Genderless, it would be dynamic on a masculine persona and powerful as a feminine one. Melts slowly over the skin, a creamy floral infused, long story you never tire of.<br /><div style="line-height: 28.8px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; margin-top: 1.1em;">
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<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: merriweather, georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;"><br /></span><i>Nightingale</i> is itself a glowing pink liquid. Reminds me of the<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: merriweather, georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;"> </span><a data-cke-saved-href="https://youtu.be/X2WL3Jsuofc" href="https://youtu.be/X2WL3Jsuofc" style="background-image: linear-gradient(transparent 50%, rgba(31, 111, 153, 0.498) 50%); background-position: 0px 1em; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 4px; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: merriweather, georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;" target="_blank"><span style="background-image: linear-gradient(transparent 50%, rgba(31, 111, 153, 0.498) 50%); background-position: 0px 1em; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 4px; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;">School of the Flower's </span><em style="background-image: linear-gradient(transparent 50%, rgba(31, 111, 153, 0.498) 50%); background-position: 0px 1em; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 4px; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;">Procession of Cherry Blossom Spirits</em></a><span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: merriweather, georgia, times new roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;">;</span></span><span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: merriweather, georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;"> </span>music of rhythmic lyrical refinement. Repetition and similarities gather like blossoms into a bouquet of variations on a theme. Blossoms crowded along a branch, supporting the night song of a bird looking for a mate. As an Extrait de Parfum, its strength is a silky enveloping scent garment. Serious base notes support the powdered prettiness of Japanese plum blossom, rose, and violets. The mood is hopeful and balanced, open and charming. <br />It's a perfume gift of flowers packed into moss, and several woods themed notes. The opening releases a quick brightness. This settles over floral tinged ambergris, sandalwood, and deeper notes. These influences set off the pure petals against a shadowed sky.</div>
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The indie-perfumer Toomo Inaba has a background as a prolific perfume blogger in Japanese. More than 5000 posts create a reference for Japanese collectors over a wide range of types. He has traveled world wide for many years as a perfume materials sourcer. His background led to this combination of Western and Eastern aesthetics in perfume form. Calm Japanese elegant simplicity crosses with European chypre complexity. Synthesizes into a romantic appreciation of traditional, sacred nature experiences, observing Spring blossoms. Nightingale is a reminder of traditional human love for nature's recurring rituals. <br /><br />
Please visit the lovely <a href="https://www.zoologistperfumes.com/" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: merriweather, georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;" target="_blank">Zoologist site</a><span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: merriweather, georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;"> </span>for more detailed note information, interviews, pricing, samples, travel and full sizes, and stockists. <br />
You can search for more of my posts on other perfumes by Shelley Waddington and Juan M. Perez in the search bar.<br />This is a non-commercial post, samples purchased by me.<br /><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: small; letter-spacing: normal;">*</span><a href="http://bit.ly/2f5Qix9" style="font-family: times; font-size: medium; letter-spacing: normal;">Delightfully detailed interview with Shelley Waddington on her process and craft for Civet</a></div>
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<a href="http://bit.ly/1JsG4ja">Prior post on Zoologist Bat and Hummingbird</a></div>
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Images above as credited, the Papyrus image was found on Pinterest. </div>
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If you have a credit for this image, let me know</div>
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Copyright 2017, Lucy Raubertas, All Rights Reserved</div>
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indieperfumeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16933060392329498890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28037586.post-80809781263017449922017-07-01T13:46:00.000-04:002017-07-01T14:05:16.833-04:00Imaginary Authors: Violet Disguise, Every Storm a Serenade, Saint Julep<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Evocative biographical notes, labels of collaged imagery, Imaginary Authors builds stories fulfilled in perfume. They are casual yet glamorous, and each one a detailed slice of life.<br />
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These three remind me of early Sixties American film. A few focused sentences, colors, fragrance notes, make this vivid impression. I get the distinct feeling these people have actually lived. These perfumes are like a record of their adventures, time capsules, souvenirs. I can picture their hands on the steering wheel, as they travel from one phase of life into the next. I can imagine them alone at their writing, lost in memory and imagination. It's rare for me that the perfume stories amplify the effect of the fragrances themselves as these do.<br />
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These three are mood perfumes, aura-like airs, spatial and open. There is a spacious atmosphere in these IA perfumes. The style is one of openness, establishing a calming distance. Like entering a room with a high ceiling and graceful proportions. Never heavy, close, or immediate. More to establish a sense of possibility, making room to move. Soothing, open, gentle, these perfumes create an easy atmosphere. I find they soften the extremes in intense summer months.<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ndfgSx1gcUo/WVfallAFRFI/AAAAAAAARpA/a0P5eoXTsGc9dASYip7Gla5ZLHzHHaK9ACEwYBhgL/s1600/nd.16548.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ndfgSx1gcUo/WVfallAFRFI/AAAAAAAARpA/a0P5eoXTsGc9dASYip7Gla5ZLHzHHaK9ACEwYBhgL/s320/nd.16548.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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<i><a href="https://www.imaginaryauthors.com/product/violet-disguise/" target="_blank">Violet Disguise</a></i><br />
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Includes the Evening Air, the Month of May, Plum, Violet, Dried Fruits, Balsam and Amber. This blend uses the soft power of a mild amber to tie together greens that edge a violet hiding under grassy shade. Set beside the quiet sap flowing through a cool evergreen. It opens up the air, as Magic Hour begins to pick out the details, an enhancement. <br />
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Captures the beautiful evening air in a mild climate and surrounds you with it. <br />
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As expressed by Imaginary Author Leonora Blumberg: “Invigorated by the reckless blooms of spring she took to the street like a blossom on the breeze.” She keeps her lipstick on. There is a cosmetic enhancement aspect to one's persona in wearing this perfume.<br />
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Reaching out to arm's length, this is no sillage monster, but rather a refreshment that holds on. Plum and other dried fruits round out the effect to a full curve that keeps going. <br />
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Notes in this line often reveal certain distilled aspects of themselves. In this case it's an aspect of plum, rather than its full complicated tangy sweetness, not the full-length photo-realistic portrait. It's the plum's smooth balmy lushness only, kept in a zone of balance, neither warm nor cool. Staying in this medium zone of steady balance is exactly what I am looking for right now. Especially now when surrounded by extremes of weather or news or some other urgency. A relaxing perfume, in the best possible way.<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jYqsXbCsWyw/WVfbfxyVjyI/AAAAAAAARpI/DBXDYLAA2BIq_q4pD4QlIQWf1JYwnQ_SgCEwYBhgL/s1600/41GhmvJLsWL._SY550_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="367" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jYqsXbCsWyw/WVfbfxyVjyI/AAAAAAAARpI/DBXDYLAA2BIq_q4pD4QlIQWf1JYwnQ_SgCEwYBhgL/s320/41GhmvJLsWL._SY550_.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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<i><a href="https://www.imaginaryauthors.com/product/every-storm-a-serenade/" target="_blank">Every Storm a Serenade</a></i><br />
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Notes listed as Danish Spruce, Eucalyptus, Vetiver, Calone, Ambergris & Baltic Sea Mist. The impending storm with a metallic salty tang to the air. Blue-grey skies, fresh wind, oxygen freshness released by ice melting in sea water. This atmosphere is bigger than you are. Surrounds you with the refreshment of condensation, rainfall, air moved by tides. An antidote to any form of seething. </div>
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Opposite to a heavy atmosphere of humidity, this captures moisture at the moment it turns into rain.<br />
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Marine air, again not a close portrait, but a mood. It's a step outside, to refresh yourself. Opens with strength, that sense your blood is cleansed by this freshness. Spruce needles buoyant on waves of cool sea water. It quiets down quickly, then becomes an aura perfume, one to experience as a cool smooth cloak, your personal cloud of refreshment. An affair with a Danish seafarer, as <a href="https://www.imaginaryauthors.com/product/every-storm-a-serenade/" target="_blank">the copy </a>says. You carry your own free air with you wherever you go with this.</div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G1Vy28HX43M/WVfcb2mAjXI/AAAAAAAARpU/Fui0d4iBOlwkLRs00vaiyXVFu-9zkjNoQCLcBGAs/s1600/nd.45706.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="342" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G1Vy28HX43M/WVfcb2mAjXI/AAAAAAAARpU/Fui0d4iBOlwkLRs00vaiyXVFu-9zkjNoQCLcBGAs/s320/nd.45706.jpg" width="280" /></a></div>
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<i><a href="https://www.imaginaryauthors.com/product/saint-julep/" target="_blank">Saint Julep</a></i></div>
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To set summer heat at a distance, take this minted iced refreshment, calm the harsh sun. Notes: Sweet Mint, Tangerine, Southern Magnolia, Bourbon, Grisalva, Sugarcube, Crushed Ice.<br />
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This is a cloud that blends all these notes so well that it's a trip to a slow dance hall at night after work all day. The top is down, the soft night air rushing past is this fragrance. Contains a little intoxication with everything, dials the burn down from your hot skin.<br />
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I admire the spaciousness of this fragrance as it holds the most subtle edges of the notes together. It increases the volume of liquid soft air. A cool drink that relaxes your shoulders. It may change your perspective. It may ease uncomfortable tension, increase courtesy with charm. It's clean and open and full and round. It's about taking your time to enjoy just being here. Like a comfortable simple cotton shirt on the skin, as refreshment in itself. Mint in water, that coolness magnifies the cool water it rests on. Contains a Southern story of transference, one that moves from one kind of blessing into another. Finding relief as a sacred space, an atmosphere that restores you. </div>
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Please see the linked perfume titles to to go directly to the Imaginary Author's site, with more details and information on samples and perfumes. <i>Violet Disguise </i>and <i>Every Storm a Serenade</i> are in my own perfume collection. <i>Saint Julep</i> sample provided by the perfumer. Thanks to the perfumer <a href="http://artandolfaction.com/josh-meyer-advisor/" target="_blank">Josh Meyer </a>for his samples over time, this unique American indie perfume line is one of the most creative evocative and endearing.<br />
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Images above from the perfumer's website.<br />
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Copyright 2017, Lucy Raubertas, All Rights Reserved.<br />
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indieperfumeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16933060392329498890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28037586.post-56311783573132718782017-06-19T16:41:00.000-04:002017-06-19T16:41:11.394-04:00Summer 2017 Parfums Quartana - Poppy Soma, Digitalis, Venetian Belladonna<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-j7nbRomo0L8/WUgwVlfA9pI/AAAAAAAARKo/foqvfR1-MlID0ruYVU8jWGpgV9aHlFJBACLcBGAs/s1600/c7e0d31dcf83a30680b422df5e7a908b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="236" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-j7nbRomo0L8/WUgwVlfA9pI/AAAAAAAARKo/foqvfR1-MlID0ruYVU8jWGpgV9aHlFJBACLcBGAs/s1600/c7e0d31dcf83a30680b422df5e7a908b.jpg" /></a></div>
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After a long cool Spring here, we are plunged into the upper limits of humidity and languor. Early mornings of gentleness, long afternoons of searing sun, blue evenings of balmy air blowing in long sessions of driving rains.<br />
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Perfumes are helpful in reaching needful moments of serenity at any time. Fortifying an inner balance to face the long mid-afternoon heat, and the compelling news cycle that renews and magnifies itself every day. Like taking a vitamin for the soul. They could be aids to help gather strength to meet the basic requirement for focus on efforts to move forward in the midst of whatever may come.<br />
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Certain perfume styles and kinds lend themselves to a balance against weather and news concerns and anxieties. We know that above a certain temperature and humidity, humans tend to get irritable, frustrated, and some go over the edge. Outside the personal, there are the public events that are our shared lives taking twists and turns, intensifying over time, especially now.<br />
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A relaxing dreamy personal perfume aura can make small yet clear calls to attention. Silent invitations to moments of peace and relaxation and memory triggers of free wild beauty. Connections to seasonal cycles, day dreams of time-expanding childhood summers.<br />
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Times like this I hold the strong dramatic big perfume clouds in reserve, and reach for the soft, building, atmospheric, persistent ones.<br />
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<b><a href="https://six-scents.com/pages/about-us" target="_blank">Parfums Quartana</a></b><br />
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Have made a series of perfumes inspired by plants that have a dangerous as well as a beneficial healing side. These three are my favorites from the series. They are all steeped in the feeling of the plant and flower, rather than presenting an exact olfactory likeness. They are an emotional portrait of the plant's meanings and associations, built over ages. We've known and used these elements of nature since earliest recorded time. They all still grow wild along the edges of woods, water, or wherever the soil is left alone, in a wide range of continents, as climate permits. Not gender specific, I would wear them as staples of a daily wardrobe, alone or among a crowd.<br />
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I must emphasize, that for me at this moment, looking for soothing aspects in perfume, these three were especially atmospheric, and these descriptions are primarily about the perfume aura they create. That is, I was more attracted to the essence of silken mildness in the perfume aura around me rather than the detailed high intensity drama they reveal closer on the skin. All three share that dimensionality, so it's another facet to enjoy in these perfumes. They were inspired by the legends of danger bound to potentially lethal botanicals. These dangerous plants also have well known healing aspects on the central nervous system. In careful doses, they have been relied on for centuries to ease a wide spectrum of mental and bodily problems. Turns out these perfumes' arm's length auras also impart that sense of ease and relaxation.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_gPCHyCV7YA/WUgxoNWvy0I/AAAAAAAARK4/33p1E1zmGV01xZUDVJk6tRqZwKxjXhIngCLcBGAs/s1600/Oldpoppies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="892" data-original-width="1024" height="347" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_gPCHyCV7YA/WUgxoNWvy0I/AAAAAAAARK4/33p1E1zmGV01xZUDVJk6tRqZwKxjXhIngCLcBGAs/s400/Oldpoppies.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">Field poppies, by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Mikhailovich_Prokudin-Gorskii">Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii</a>, c. 1912 via Wikipedia</td></tr>
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<b><i><a href="https://six-scents.com/products/dark-poppy" target="_blank"><br />Poppy Soma</a></i></b><br />
<br />Sichuan Pepper, Curry Leaf, Red Pepper, Black Gardenia, Jasmine Sambac, Red Rose, Old Church Incense, Labdanum, Tuberose, Styrax, Musk Tonquin<br />20% Parfum concentration<div>
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This is a dreamy fog of a perfume, a gentle enveloping softness. Applied to the neck and arms, it reaches out from the skin to move with you for a perfume aura of pure relaxation. Up close, you get the more intense and specific peppers and curry, the gently indolic florals, surrounded by the white smoke of incense as softened by a cloudy musk. As it rises out from the skin, it mixes into a soothing atmosphere that ornaments your presence and unfolds with a satisfying peaceful slowness. It seems to say 'take your time'. Similar to the feeling you get after coming out of a warm ocean, that sense of calm, replete. At this 20% high concentration, it holds and remains true and satisfying. It opens the door to a serene center within, exerting its invisible influence over a more extended time than usual for me. A creamy lightness, a presence of subtle soft sweetness, a light silken cloak. Season-less, but especially right for this high humidity.</div>
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The poppy is well known as the source of opium, which has its legendary and dangerous effects, as well as its uses and even overuse in treatment of pain of all kinds. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Digitalis from <a href="http://www.first-nature.com/flowers/digitalis-purpurea.php" target="_blank">the site First Nature</a>, with much info on this wild growing botanical</td></tr>
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<b><i><a href="https://six-scents.com/products/digitalis" target="_blank">Digitalis</a></i></b></div>
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Galbanum, Silver Iris, Cucumber, Basil, Pepper, Ozone, Coriander, Florozone, Drenched Violet, Neroli, Rose, Jasmine, Gentiane, Incense, Fern, Wet Moss, Violet Leaf<div>
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Has a wild, feral heart, close to the earth, with the energy of a weed, confident and calm in its strength. This one is a combination of soft-edged contrasts. Fresh coolness, greenery, crossed with the scent of deep well water. Green set like a gem within water filtered by air, streaming through sun in a brimming Roman fountain. The calm central pool is the structure that supports the green freshness. An inhalation of the green air surrounding carpets of ferns, violets, mosses, in the aura space. Sliced cucumber green coolness blends with the cool liquid tone. An beautifully atmospheric perfume, again the details show up most intensely right up against the skin. The perfume's more distant aura blends all together seamlessly. The shades of green elements' tang reach out over a brimming pool of fresh water. This is the scent equivalent of shade on a hot humid day. The uplifting clear energy goes liquid. </div>
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Have read that within narrow limits, digitalis calms and strengthens an arrhythmic heart, bearing in mind a fine dangerous line that must be carefully observed, because it may slow the beat down much too much. A quick pulse can mean high blood pressure and heat, stress and possibly difficult emotion. This scent emanation of chilled green fresh living water calls up an automatic relaxation response in mind and body. Fresh water and green are primal connections to the healthy vigor of life that goes on with us or without us. This perfume reminds me of the refreshment of those primal forces.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CEvKWdPEKLw/WUgyeBzCJHI/AAAAAAAARLA/Fl_eYSbqHAEy778WrY87w8Xb58CentP4gCLcBGAs/s1600/3998079711_a0f7cb8d52_z.jpg.CROP.promo-mediumlarge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="421" data-original-width="590" height="283" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CEvKWdPEKLw/WUgyeBzCJHI/AAAAAAAARLA/Fl_eYSbqHAEy778WrY87w8Xb58CentP4gCLcBGAs/s400/3998079711_a0f7cb8d52_z.jpg.CROP.promo-mediumlarge.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from Slate's <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/wild_things/2014/08/18/poisonous_plants_belladonna_nightshade_is_the_celebrity_of_deadly_flora.html" target="_blank">article</a> on the Deadly Night Shade, Wild Things series, Photo by Flickr user Peganum</td></tr>
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<a href="https://six-scents.com/products/venetian-belladonna" target="_blank"><b><i>Venetian Belladonna</i></b> </a></div>
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Cassis, Violet Water, Plum, Sultanene, Cognac, Styrax Pyrogene, Ambrette Seed, Sampaquia, Honey, Purple Iris, Tuberose, Patchouli, Labdanum, Suede, Saffron, Beeswax, Sandalwood, Vetiver<br />@15% Eau de Parfum<br /><div>
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Hypnotic, seductively restful, this perfume starts out waving its wand over you with vigor and then as it winds you and itself down, retreats into your core, where it maintains warmth. Like an invisible cashmere sweater, it makes a magical insulation barrier on a hot day as well as a light layer of relaxing charm if unexpectedly caught in a chill. The second phase of steady warm aromatic gentleness is like a smile that lightens your state of mind. A smooth silk pillow that cools and rests the skin and eyes. It hovers with a steady gentle furry warmth just strong enough to relax the facial muscles. I can see how its honied sueded waxed florals are piqued around the edges with the sweet coolness of violet and iris, and the dryness of vetiver. It has an ornate, indeed Venetian quality around those edges. It makes a frame around you, highlights dusted with soft gold. Up close to the skin there is an intoxicating quality, like a glass or two of wine. </div>
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Infamously poisonous, the plant is also known as Deadly Nightshade, but it has useful relaxant and pain numbing, anesthetic qualities when used skillfully. Venetians of old had a penchant for its use as a sweet poison, hence the double side of its names, both beautiful woman and deadly nightshade. </div>
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Love them all, but I will put the 20% parfum strength <i>Poppy Soma</i> at the top of my list of Most Wanteds. The unusually steady hold on my particular perfume eating skin with its deeply relaxant properties would be the one I'd reach for most often.</div>
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Thank you to <a href="http://twistedlily.com/product-category/brands/parfums-quartana/" target="_blank">Twisted Lily in Brooklyn</a>, who provided samples. They have more details and gorgeous descriptions of the full line <a href="http://twistedlily.com/product-category/brands/parfums-quartana/" target="_blank">here</a>. They have a sample set available, so you can find out which one gets to you the most. The perfumes are on their shelves so you can visit there to try right away in person, too.</div>
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You can hit the links at each perfume title above to get the <a href="https://six-scents.com/" target="_blank">Sixth Sense Quartana website</a>, with more on the legends of each botanical and links to each perfumer with much more about this project, and links to other reviews. You can also see the gorgeously colorful and wild packaging/presentation of these perfumes.</div>
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For more on dangerous botanicals and their uses and abuses, <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/wild_things/2014/08/18/poisonous_plants_belladonna_nightshade_is_the_celebrity_of_deadly_flora.html" target="_blank">try this article</a> from Slate about Belladonna as the Deadly Nightshade, which also gives links to an interesting new book about dangerous botanicals. The captions to the photos above credit and link to fascinating articles with much more on these plants.</div>
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Copyright 2017, Lucy Raubertas, All Rights Reserved</div>
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indieperfumeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16933060392329498890noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28037586.post-26964763718649037612017-05-24T21:24:00.000-04:002017-05-24T21:24:21.351-04:00Rahele Eau de Parfum by Neela Vermeire Creations<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i><a href="https://www.neelavermeire.com/phone/neela-vermeire-creations--rahele.html" target="_blank">Rahele</a></i> is a perfume that works as both a comfort and a veil. The restraint is that of sophistication and an elegant erect posture, a backbone. It is quiet yet full of detail, tradition, refinement and radiance.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Portrait of a Woman, Mughal, c1640<br />about the time Tavernier visited India.<br />She is wearing the legendary amounts of<br />jewelry the court was known for.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;">On first encounter, it is an experience of ultra radiant osmanthus. Several floral elements harmonize their wildness into an opulent Indian ornamentation. At the same time, there is a fine point of bright lively green (green mandarin) through the the initial floral phase.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOVBI-B4HqPBG0YyU4fP_y4Dw5-mfzEjI-5R0BMfNROi36tMwt9CLoQovzk8KZS-oZ_NVsuxB_fIhLyh1ITXNEQZ2uuoqMbFrN87XATnWVlGUcOi6Wm0-CrhNT-C8njF9IU4yayQ/s1600/gardens-of-Versailles-1-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOVBI-B4HqPBG0YyU4fP_y4Dw5-mfzEjI-5R0BMfNROi36tMwt9CLoQovzk8KZS-oZ_NVsuxB_fIhLyh1ITXNEQZ2uuoqMbFrN87XATnWVlGUcOi6Wm0-CrhNT-C8njF9IU4yayQ/s320/gardens-of-Versailles-1-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gardens of Versailles<br />Gardening as a reflection of an orderly mind</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;">The radiance is bound within a cultivated French aesthetic. The brightness of nature</span><span style="font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;"> </span><span style="font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;">adjusted with disciplined rigor. The notes build a memory palace or map to a distant, unfamiliar mythic place, India. Mughal Indian opulence translated into the French language. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;">As it dries down, the space within opens up, reaching out from an intimate space to high vaulted spaciousness. Hints of spices emerge, cardamon, cinnamon, the coolness of iris, violet and cedar, a soft fine glove leather. Smooth intermediaries of magnolia, rose and sandalwood, and touches of patchouli and oakmoss. The mood shifts to a calmer, more mindful awareness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;">This is the kind of perfume you enter into, you must open its door with attention. It is meditative. To focus on it brings you back from distraction, into a richness of detail with an edge of precision. The glow is contained by disciplined formality.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;">The delicacy is based on a solid foundation that makes it last. It holds close to the skin, and melds into your own persona. You can wear it anywhere at any time. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;">It is similar to one of those perfumes that people used to choose for their one signature scent. It can carry every mood. You could go to the opera or you could stay at home and read a book beside one lit lamp. Perfect for both a ballgown and a nightgown. It would follow you all day long and reach into the classic sense of fragrance beauty to keep you company along the way.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3tPXxDFK0QQ/WSYFunvwnMI/AAAAAAAAPtE/qQoJVJLQk2wMJ98bSrj5naQxJUJKJEfUwCLcB/s1600/356823d7ca3ca16432b314170dd3040f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3tPXxDFK0QQ/WSYFunvwnMI/AAAAAAAAPtE/qQoJVJLQk2wMJ98bSrj5naQxJUJKJEfUwCLcB/s320/356823d7ca3ca16432b314170dd3040f.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O16761/shah-jahan-painting-unknown/" target="_blank">Shah Jahan</a> 1616<br />holding a turban ornament gem<br />Builder of the Taj Mahal<br />Powerful Aesthete</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dQkC0V6ZgEY/WSYPDzpL9XI/AAAAAAAAPtY/gR4AhLw4S9gH5UpqVvMOIXlMhbgK3UTWQCLcB/s1600/d0e7a56dba75fb9361dc8d72df27c81f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dQkC0V6ZgEY/WSYPDzpL9XI/AAAAAAAAPtY/gR4AhLw4S9gH5UpqVvMOIXlMhbgK3UTWQCLcB/s320/d0e7a56dba75fb9361dc8d72df27c81f.jpg" width="190" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.chateauversailles-spectacles.fr/spectacles/2015/le-ballet-royal-de-la-nuit" target="_blank">Louis XIV</a> 1653 as Apollo.<br />Builder of Versailles, performer<br />of French majesty<br />Powerful Aesthete<br /></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;">The perfume story references a legendary gem. Early French travel to India</span><span style="font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;"> </span><span style="font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;">brought an immense glowing blue diamond back to France. Acquired by Louis XIV, later stolen, recovered, cut and re-cut,</span><span style="font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;"> </span><span style="font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;">a part of it remains to us as the Hope Diamond. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;">The brilliance of such extraordinary gems represent pure beauty, concentrated wealth and focus. It is possible to get lost within the radiance, faceted to bring out the pure cold fire. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rrjqOJ_K8uo/WSYPtKx64SI/AAAAAAAAPtg/xzv4jszHe6ASoFvdMNmM0oiMWpY0aF2TwCLcB/s1600/1280px-HopeDiamondwithLighting2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rrjqOJ_K8uo/WSYPtKx64SI/AAAAAAAAPtg/xzv4jszHe6ASoFvdMNmM0oiMWpY0aF2TwCLcB/s320/1280px-HopeDiamondwithLighting2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/hope-diamond-was-once-symbol-louis-xiv-sun-king-180949482/" target="_blank">Hope Diamond at the Smithsonian</a> with red glow<br />When Louis XIV wore it, it was much larger and cut so <br />there was sun like glow from the center.</td></tr>
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The perfume's pure spirit, while it holds so many classical references, keeps it modern. There is no heaviness. The quality of the materials makes for a jewel-like aura. One of those perfumes that invites you to live up to it. </div>
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Rather exalted, and a good counter-balance and contrast to whatever the current chaotic state of affairs may bring. Breathing in such high standards are a way to enhance the beauty of personal life. </div>
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<span style="font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;">Notes are listed as green mandarin, cardamom, cinnamon, violet leaf, osmanthus, rose, magnolia, jasmi</span><span style="font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;">n, iris, violet, cedar, sandalwood, oakmoss, patchouli, leather.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;">This is the latest work by Neela Vermeire and Bertrand Duchaufour, together creating a series of perfumes that express facets of each other's aesthetic refinement. They incorporate through these fragrances a nuanced understanding and expression of each other's cultural history. They have connected us to this interplay of the cultures of India and France, through scent.</span></div>
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Disclosure: I received my initial sample of this perfume from Neela Vermeire, and have discussed the perfume with her.</div>
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Images above as credited in the captions. The links in the captions under Shah Jahan and Louis XIV go to information about their aesthetics and their strong influence on the arts of their culture and time. </div>
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Please visit the <a href="https://www.neelavermeire.com/phone/neela-vermeire-creations--rahele.html" target="_blank">NVC website</a> for more information as to samples, prices and stockists.</div>
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<a href="https://www.neelavermeire.com/phone/neela-vermeire-creations--rahele.html" target="_blank">Neela Vermeire Créations</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;">Copyright 2017, Lucy Raubertas, All Rights Reserved.</span></div>
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indieperfumeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16933060392329498890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28037586.post-5309130890917553252017-04-11T20:02:00.000-04:002017-04-11T20:02:38.839-04:00Amora by Hendley Perfumes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">The sound and sense of the name, </span><i style="font-size: x-large;">Amora</i><span style="font-size: large;">, gives you an idea of its soothing and transporting nature. A perfume that reminds me of the everyday things that make life sweet. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />That first bite into a ripe plum. Velvety rose petals. Fragrant sap within trees. The vital warmth of skin to skin, and hints of our </span><span style="font-size: large;">deep relationship with the sea. <br /><br />Note list: stone fruit, mixed berries, rose absolute, blonde tobacco, sweet resins, musk complex, ambergris. <br /><br />Grateful that it appeared like a stroke of luck when I needed exactly that. The unexpected sample arrived at the lingering tail end of a hard winter. Bad/sad news coming from all directions. It unfolded as a counterweight, with calm poetic beauty and smooth gentleness. <br /><br />The central characteristic is warmth and openness. immediately breathing out a pervasive velvet deliciousness. The intimate warm aura emanates from the base notes that remain mixed with florals and fruit. These lie with intensity on the skin's surface. Staining the air, relaxation emanates outwards. <br /><br />The opening is so engaging I find myself reapplying several times just to go through it again.<br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The name, and then note list drew me in. This could be the atmosphere of romantic infatuation recreated with elements of nature. This could also be a flame in the dark, warming and scenting a space that includes everyone in its throw.<br /><br />The style is a refined contemporary one that focuses on harmonies rather than drama.<br /><br />Genderless, flattering, for anyone, age included. I do get that it comes from a masculine point of view on what luxury is. Put together from the rich, yet more direct and streamlined natural sensations. Their affinities creating warmth. A floral that holds the fruit within it, layered with woods and musks. Wrapped up in fresh, moist, light tobacco leaves. That facet of fresh blonde tobacco might well be the source of the pervasive warmth, as well as the musk and ambergris. Stops well back from becoming a portrait of tobacco, but uses its character for that warmth. <br /><br />I suggest a few extra sprays into the hair. There's an affinity to all shades of dark hair, all the reds and the darker blondes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">This perfume comes in varied sizes, making it accessible. I for one love to bring perfume along with me. So glad that the travel size is an appealing tall, slender, yet heavy cylinder. <br /><br />Hans Hendley is one of the most thoughtful and pleasing indieperfumers out there. Hand made, small batch, lovely materials, simple and elegant presentation. <br /><br />I suggest you check him out on Instagram, too. I saw his beautiful images and short poetic descriptions as evidence of how he operates.<br /><br />He's a fellow Brooklyn resident, and though we've not met, I know him on Facebook, and recall that one day he had started a great thread asking his friends to name their favorite love songs. That kept growing, and brought up a lot of the most pleasant memories. He seems dedicated to bringing out that aspect in varied ways.<br /><br />Samples and all sizes are available on his <a href="http://www.hendleyperfumes.com/" target="_blank">website</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Images above from the Hendley Perfumes website.</span><br />
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indieperfumeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16933060392329498890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28037586.post-28034162026153365572017-03-27T19:52:00.001-04:002019-03-16T10:27:39.173-04:00 Smolderose Eiderantler Selperniku by John Biebel January Scent<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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John Biebel, with <a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.januaryscent.com/" href="http://www.januaryscent.com/" style="background-image: linear-gradient(transparent 50%, rgba(31, 111, 153, 0.498039) 50%); background-position: 0px 1em; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 4px; text-decoration: none;">January Scent,</a> has refined his scent obsessions down into concentrated elegant form. </div>
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<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://kalden.home.xs4all.nl/verm/verm/Bosch-exhibitionENG.html" target="_blank">Garden of Earthly Delights detail, Bosch</a></td>
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He has said he finds the paintings of Bosch to be an inspiring trigger for scent experiments. Details full of vivid color, gestures and actions that are the essence of contrast. Combining opposites together, as mysterious messages that speak to us immediately.</div>
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These three perfumes are gentle, beautiful messages. They harmonize opposites. I find contrasts within a perfume highlight the effect of each accord. Smolderose remembers its thorns, with sweetness misted in white smoke. Whispers of airy feathers and hooves stand under dark green shade with Eiderantler. Delicate apricot tinted milk, rice, yeast, bread and earthiness in Selperniku.</div>
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<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.wikiart.org/en/hieronymus-bosch/the-garden-of-earthly-delights-1515-7" target="_blank">Detail of Garden of Earthly Delights, Bosch</a></td>
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It’s been awhile since I’ve been so excited and surprised by a set of three new perfumes. I spoke to John about them, as we know each other and share mutual friends. I was lucky to get samples which threw me into one of those perfume lemming states of yore. Dreamy shades of fragrance that work together like songs on a good playlist that covers a good mood.</div>
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He made up the titles himself with references to the fragrance inspirations and elements. Making sure that out loud, the sounds work.</div>
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I got full agreement to sometimes wear them in a combination of two or three. I like to use Smolderose as the dominant base on the neck and a bit of Selperniku and or Eiderantler on the arms. The unifying nature of rose welcomes the other scent stories into its own. They each have an intimate chamber music quality, that concentrates the moods within each. I think of Eric Satie's piano pieces with their silences and simplicities, speaking volumes. </div>
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<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/manufacturing/text/norse_art.htm" target="_blank">Icelandic Silver buckle 10-11th Century</a></td>
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I know he kept the thought of the North as imparted by Icelandic sagas in mind too. Fairy tales, Bosch, the magic effects of chemistry, incessant reading and experimentation, careful notes. Part of it all is his exposure to a wide range of perfumes over time, both modern and classic. As part of Fragrantica, he is immersed in modern scent culture.</div>
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Smolderose notes are listed as damask rose, bergamot, saffron, roasted seashells, frankincense, elder flower, patchouli, cade, agarwood, and labdanum.</div>
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Within tenacious sillage, it's the roasted seashells, elderflower and saffron that singe the delicate edges of roses into smoldering. Up close, a true and even surprising freshness lies right on the skin's surface. Yet give it a little distance and you find the full if gentle volume of the rose theme, deepened by the base notes. </div>
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Warming rose, as it wears down there are the grace notes that rise up from behind the sheer curtain to reach out at you. </div>
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Eiderantler is listed as an Ivy Fougère: Contains notes of lavender, green leaves, moss, pink pepper, lavandin, champa leaf, ivy, elemi, fir cone, hay, oak wood, cashmere, vetiver, and musk.</div>
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A fougère that forswears traditional brightness, this is a soft focused, earth musk. The warm air caught in swan's down, and the hard animal horn, alive in deep green shade. Cashmere softness infused with dry clean grass scents, maybe a nap on the ground wrapped in a soft cloak. Relaxing, intimate, evokes a sense of connection. Insulation for weather of any kind. Could wear this every day, anywhere. Layers well with the other two, with a dimensional weight like fog, warm meets cool. Gentle yet tenacious, it does not shout but ornaments the skin, to smell like an enhanced, pure you.</div>
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Selperniku themes of salt, milk, and fruit: notes of apricot, immortelle, butter, cardamom, petitgrain, chamomile, milk, cypress, juniper, tobacco, and sandalwood.</div>
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Sheer, creamy whipped butter tinted with milk, apricot, woods and leaves, makes strong first impression. This calms in moments to a gentle gourmand. Warm rice infused with tinctures of wood essences. Subtle, intimate, round, full, a cloud/aura, an atmosphere, a faint shade of apricot. Sandalwood style meditativeness. Another perfect companion to the others, also as a stand alone infusion of comfort in scent form. Sophisticated simplicity without overly minimalist austerity, a generous air surrounds the skin. </div>
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The packaging is beautiful, incorporating magnified brush stroke gestures by John. The labels are fine wine bottle worthy, size is 100 ml generous, and the smaller 30 ml size will be available soon. Samples sets available, too. He knows how to make it easy to dive in.</div>
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Glad of his driving inspiration and energy to show us his own heart and mind through the medium of fragrance.</div>
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Beginning to think there is a school/style of fragrance arising here. Original scent ballads, gentle auras with layers of meaning within, floating elegant simplicity. Thinking of Hans Hendley, Bruno Fazzolari, Josh Meyer and now John Biebel.</div>
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Photos of flacons above from the <a href="http://www.januaryscent.com/" target="_blank">January site</a>. </div>
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Art photos linked in captions</div>
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<span style="font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;">To order samples and </span><span style="font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;">for more information: </span><a href="http://www.januaryscent.com/" style="font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;" target="_blank">January Scent</a><span style="font-size: 19.2px; letter-spacing: -0.7px;"> </span></div>
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For more on John Biebel's other artful endeavors: <a href="http://www.johnbiebel.com/january/" target="_blank">John Biebel.com </a></div>
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More insights from Ida Meister on Fragrantica: <a href="http://bit.ly/2nZHNGX" target="_blank">Smolderose </a></div>
indieperfumeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16933060392329498890noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28037586.post-25306023441854326612016-07-21T21:00:00.002-04:002016-11-16T09:56:14.266-05:00Perfumes of Summer 2016 Part 2The heat waves and humidity started early this year and are set to continue around here and most of the country. This state of affairs lends itself perfectly to floral perfumes. Flowers have genetically engineered themselves to be the crowning glories of the warm weather months. They know how to handle it and are specialists in turning the sun's burning energy into beauty like no other.<br />
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They are the showcase for Nature's vigor, of how growth and energy poured into the lures of attraction will inevitably result in an abundance of continuing life.<br />
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I've never met a person who doesn't love the fragrance of real flowers, though perhaps with strong likes and dislikes among them. This can't be said of other materials that have been translated into perfume.<br />
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Flowers are the essence of universal appeal, and while their symbolism might be different among cultures, they all lay tracks in our scent memories and trigger emotions and vivid recollections of moments beautified by their presence.<br />
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Continuing the fragrance highlights of my summer:<br />
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<i><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dreaming-eternal-alexis-karl" target="_blank">Dreaming Eternal</a></i> by <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=28037586#editor/target=post;postID=1502893213601556937;onPublishedMenu=overview;onClosedMenu=overview;postNum=7;src=postname" target="_blank">Alexis Karl</a>, is part of her <a href="http://bodymadeluminous.tumblr.com/UTOPIAN%20BODY%20SERIES" target="_blank">Body Made Luminous </a>series. A potent and almost narcotic floral perfume, made with an enormous dose of violet and muguet, anchored by black agar and fossilized amber, mediated by jasmine sambac, and lightly touched with white smoke.<br />
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In my estimation, it's best to be worn at night. As a night floral perfume, it is meant to represent the contented dreams of lovers finally sleeping and entering the shared dream of a physical and emotional Aurora Borealis. It's about physical release, their excitement resolving into contentment. The ethereal aspects of violet and the air around the soprano aromatic waves of lily of the valley are folded within the warmth of amber and black agar. <br />
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This is a perfume to apply with one or two sprays, as more could even be overpowering. It's a strong perfume. I've never experienced violet and muguet to this exponential power. I understand the perfume is at a strength of a full 33%. It's a rich brandy color.<br />
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This floral intensity is eventually much softened by the base notes. Those are rich enough to have a touch of the gourmand about them, with a subtly edible quality. Personally I find all this comes out with the most clarity the more lightly applied, but I think there are times you can go for more. It clings to the skin tenaciously and survives washing, truly staining the skin. It perfectly expresses the personality of the perfumer, which is expansive and enthusiastic, while obsessively drawn to the depths and ends of life's experience. <br />
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If you can imagine Vero Kern's <i><a href="http://indieperfumes.blogspot.com/2012/01/vero-profumo-onda-and-rubj-edp-dark-and.html" target="_blank">Onda</a></i>, crossed with an amped version of Guerlain's <i>Insolence (Parfum) </i>suspended over a deep Arabian amber, mediated by the use a sparing hand in application, you get the idea (ironically I found out about <i>Insolence</i> through an online recommendation as a perfume soothing enough to fall asleep to).<br />
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This perfume's florals are heady indeed, but soften over time with air and skin and enter a night time experience that includes a flash of lightening against a dark sky full of racing clouds. It's about another world, the night world, and I think using it as a night perfume will expand its other worldly quality of a dark night with the moon shining intermittently through massing clouds.<br />
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On the other hand, <i><a href="http://twistedlily.com/shop/eau-de-parfum/romanza/" target="_blank">Romanza, Victorian Narcissu</a>s</i> by Masque Milano's Cristiano Canali, is the essence of brightness and the rising sun. Its immediate effect is as enlivening and strong as leaving a dim interior to enter sunny brightness outdoors. There's a lot of pure air mixed into the headiness of this narcissus-as-life-force. The florals seem to quickly rise up far above the ground and pull you up along with them.</div>
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The note list of absinth, orange blossom, angelica, violet leaf, narcissus, jasmine, vetiver, cedar, patchouli, amber and civet skew, for me, to heavy on the orange blossom and narcissus, and the vetiver and cedar and absinth and angelica are a contrasting piquant support to the lush opulence.<br />
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This is a perfume that could dress up anything, including a worn house coat or a slapdash ensemble of jeans and a t-shirt. The Italian elegance is so strong as to permeate and transform all around, like a magical godmother could make Cinderella's rags into a couture ballgown. Actually couture is the right word. Ultra refined and skillful, this initial big entrance lasts for some time until you might forget yourself, and then cools off into the shade of the drier, more subtle supporting players. There is indeed Romance within this perfume, and a Victorian abundantly lush, singleminded focus on the sensation of a pure pleasure taken in beauty as a force sufficient onto itself.<br />
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This floral is round, bright, graceful and utterly itself, not to be influenced by anything, hence the ability to hold its own under whatever circumstances. Anyone could wear this perfume, from a girl child to an old man, a society lady to a casual student and it would shine an aromatic power over all that includes all who sense it within its generosity. That said, this is another perfume for those with a taste for the intense.<br />
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<i><a href="http://twistedlily.com/shop/floral-oriental/rose-flash/" target="_blank">Rose Flash</a></i> by Andy Tauer's Tauerville is a wake up call in terms of coming to one's senses, as a rose that gathers your wits about you in the best of ways. </div>
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Roses are so versatile they can do almost anything as perfume. Rose may soothe, excite, overpower, mediate the notes that surround it, calm, or lead toward hedonist or spiritual ecstasies. Rose as a classic icon is part of a long perfume tradition, that with all the attendant associations and status, may throw a highlight up against spare modernity. Rose has some baggage that comes from being strongly associated with the past, but its undeniable beauty will get through to anyone who allows themselves even the slightest susceptibility.</div>
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This time it is a tonic for the mind and heart. Exquisitely beautiful, delicate, the core of a very precious grade of rose essential oil reveals all its facets simultaneously, like a clear cut gem, showing itself off on skin to your and its own best advantage. </div>
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This is the kind of modern rose of refined simplicity and elegance that hints at the light in the eyes, a sparkle of engaged intelligence. Easy to wear, the nature of the rose is the main event, without cliche or sentimental associations, fully itself on its own terms. This one is bright, even jammy, to start, energetic and a comfort at once.</div>
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This is a perfume that could be worn every day, anywhere, wholly relatable yet refreshingly and sensitively pared down enough in the right way. It could be a signal to yourself and others that brings your to your senses, an intimate engagement with the beauties of nature. It shows you are willing to dive into the infinite references of historical culture, as roses are so full of symbolic significance, and then capably links you as wearer with this rose's sophistication, to carry it all off with ease and expansive good nature. </div>
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Some ultra subtle mysterious deeper notes, possibly woods and resins, support the rose, an underpinning to the structure that strengthens and preserves the velvety rose petal sensations. It's an extended wear experience. A modern rose for all sexes.</div>
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All three above are cross gender perfumes, all can be worn by everyone who has a wish to enter into their floral spirit.<br />
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Disclosure: sample of <i>Dreaming Eternal </i>provided by the perfumer Alexis Karl, who I have written about several times before, and been following her work with great interest.<br />
Samples of <i>Romanza</i> and <i>Rose Flash</i> provided by <a href="http://twistedlily.com/" target="_blank">Twisted Lily.</a><br />
The above post is my independent opinion, not sponsored in any way.<br />
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<i>Dreaming Eternal</i> may be sampled through Morbid Anatomy in Brooklyn by appointment, where Alexis Karl has taken up the title of resident perfumer. She continues to lecture there on topics related to beauty and fragrance. There is also a <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/SCENTBYALEXIS?ref=l2-shopheader-name" target="_blank">Scent by Alexis site</a> for the Utopian Body series.<br />
<i>Romanza</i> and <i>Rose Flash</i> are available from <a href="http://twistedlily.com/" target="_blank">Twisted Lily</a> in Brooklyn. Please check the above links for more information as to prices, samples, and additional stores.<br />
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I'm taking a break from posting here until the end of this year from perfume writing, though not perfume wearing, and probably some remarks about perfumes on other social media like Facebook and Twitter. There are projects and skills for my site <a href="https://luccia.patternbyetsy.com/?from_dashboard=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.etsy.com%2Fyour%2Fshops%2Fme%2Fpattern%2Fhome%3Fref%3Dseller_platform_hdr" target="_blank">Luccia</a> that I must focus on with a single mind, until they gain more strength and momentum. See you here later, around the New Year. In the meantime, please enjoy the prior posts if you haven't seen them already, and if you are so inclined, try the<a href="https://clarimondeproject.wordpress.com/2014/06/05/perfume-aura-2/" target="_blank"> Clarimonde posts</a> which I will add to from time to time over the next months. <br />
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<br />indieperfumeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16933060392329498890noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28037586.post-83621376204985226892016-07-12T21:29:00.003-04:002016-11-19T08:58:46.500-05:00Perfumes of Summer 2016 Part 1The atmosphere of summer heat and humidity magnifies perfumes. This is the weather that brings out the nuances, the complexity, the details.<br />
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Perfumes that are more subtle, gentle, refreshing and relaxing are an olfactory lifeline to sensuality and beauty on those summer days and nights when you can't get away and must deal with the season's extremes.<br />
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This summer saw the release of many new beautiful perfumes by indieperfumers who provide individualized slices of aromatic heaven. If you allow yourself to enter into their worlds, I am certain they will help you create new and beautiful sense memories to make this season one you won't forget.<br />
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Some of the aromatic highlights of my summer:<br />
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<i>Nettuno</i> by Mendittorosa Odori d' Anima, gives you a dive into yourself by reflection, as in a mirror. A metallic plunge beneath the surface. Silvery, smooth, calm, gentle, holding the energy of water as a reviving and refreshing element. A mystical aura is thrown over your skin, so you may be and remain centered, with top notes of cyclamen, pink pepper, ginger and nutmeg; rose at the center, and base notes of leather, Haitian vetiver, carrot seeds, iris, benzoin, rum and white musk.<br />
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The notes are joined together in a song of refined musk, one that emphasizes the cooler aspects of all the notes, especially the iris, pepper, and ginger. A perfume that holds together. You will not analyze it in order to recognize the individual notes. Instead you will be enveloped in an atmosphere of fresh cool air toned with the fragrance of a pure vitality and the cleansed atmosphere that rises from the surface of a pool of still reflective deep water. In extrait strength, the velvety soft strength lingers and gives a sense of well being, similar to the one you get when stepping out of the water after a refreshing dip in the summer heat.<br />
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The flacons are works of artisanal beauty in and of themselves. This line has that Italian sense of pleasure in materials and symbolic meanings.<br />
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Aroma M <a href="http://www.aromam.com/perfume_oils.html" target="_blank"><i>Geisha Vanilla Hinoki</i> </a>references the Japanese bath, and gives the impression of cleansing, the immersion experience of an open air Hinoki wood bathtub filled with steaming hot water in the cool fresh air of the evergreen forest, with a faint trace of white smoke from the low fire heating the water. The evergreen tones beside subtle vanilla sink into the skin joining these two forms of warmth. Both elements are full and rich, yet so soft that their expansiveness carries itself with a disciplined elegance that has a relaxing, restorative effect. This is an olfactory interpretation of the Japanese way of joining the bracing discipline of simplicity to a sensual appreciation of pleasure and beauty.<br />
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The note list of bergamot, hinoki, lavender, leather, patchouli, amyris and cedar wood gives a hint of how the bright and clear beside the balmy and warm work together in an elegant symbiosis. It comes as an EdP and also an oil based roll on, which is my favorite, and which I find to last until you wash it off. I like that it holds closer to the body, with a slightly stronger, richer tone.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><small style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Temperate rainforest in Oregon, photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wasav/3409620720/" style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; color: #b6541e; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">vis-a-v.</a> via flickr</span></small></em></td></tr>
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<i><a href="http://www.envoyageperfumes.com/collections/frontpage/products/rainmaker" target="_blank">Rainmaker</a></i> by En Voyage is inspired by the perfumer's recent change of scene. After a lifetime near the shores of southern California she has transplanted to the shaded, rainy and darkly forested Pacific Northwest, so the new atmosphere made a great impression that expresses itself as a perfume. A woody amber modern chypre, this is a soft fresh air combining mossy forest floor, rainy weather and the fragrant earth they create together. A deep, subtle and refreshing tone holds tiny touches of the spicy heart of the feral wild. </div>
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Notes of rose leaf, silver pine tips, wild citrus, incense, patchouli, iris, rhododendron, cedar, fir, Redwood needles, petrichor, oak moss and amber. Pure extraits, natural and propriety blends developed over a lifetime of experience, the perfumer's classical training often crosses with a distinctive experimental development in natural fragrance materials. </div>
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This is a perfume of restful ease within a wild, romantic landscape. The perfumer combines the sense of clouds heavy with fresh moisture, evaporated from the treetops of primal forest. A calming sense of release, a soft cloud of all these materials bound together to give a sense of immanent rain. It holds close to the body but surrounds you with the subtle, detailed grounded calm of a beautiful atmosphere. </div>
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I notice that all three perfumes hold a sense of cleansing and release. These are all calm beauties that bring you into a subtle delicate atmosphere. Strong enough to hold around you like a cloak of beauty, or a protective force field, or suit of silvery armor that strengthens and contains vitality.<br />
They are all meant for all sexes. <br />
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I know all of these perfumers personally and have followed their work avidly over time, so please read more about them on this site and others. Their beguiling perfumes are inventive and creative in ways that surprise, delight and shore up your energy.<br />
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Disclosure: samples were received directly from the perfumers.<br />
My posts are independent opinion and not sponsored.<br />
Please see the links above to get to the perfumer's websites for more information as to<br />
stockists, prices and samples.<br />
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Images taken from the perfumer's websites, and, as credited per Creative Commons, from Flickr.<br />
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Copyright 2016, Lucy Raubertas, All Rights Reserved.<br />
<br />indieperfumeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16933060392329498890noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28037586.post-32337161730805314162016-06-01T16:44:00.000-04:002016-11-19T08:58:46.498-05:00Memoire Liquide and Antonia's Flowers - Lasting IndiesAmong the first of the American indieperfumers are two that are still around from the early-mid 1980s. No marketing, ads, nor even much courting of the online fragrance community or bloggers. They've worked primarily through word of mouth and client loyalty, and have inspired others to follow in their footsteps.<br />
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They are small independent operations that continue to thrive even in the midst of growing competition.<br />
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These are two gentle and pleasant lines, easy to wear, skillfully made, of high quality and good longevity. I associate them both with a relaxed, vacation, luxury-casual sensibility. They set a mood of lightness and ease, a kind of olfactory resort experience. They make me think of weekend American resorts like the Hamptons, Cape Cod, Key West or Santa Barbara. The beauty of a pair of jeans, a classic white shirt, fragrances you wear to watch the sun go down at the beach.<br />
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The first time I ever heard of what have come to be known as "indieperfumes" was an article I read in the NYT on <a href="http://www.antoniasflowers.com/about_af.asp" target="_blank">Antonia's Flowers</a> perfume, created in 1984. The notion that someone had the agency to make this happen sank into my skin through reading those words about it, as a soothing, pleasurable sensation. I didn't know it then, but <a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_616598694"></span>this was a foreshadowing<span id="goog_616598695"></span></a>. The shape of things to come.<br />
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I was excited to know that someone decided to make a perfume so personal and intimate, about the interior of their flower shop, as dominated by freesias.<br />
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Located in East Hampton, when it was still a relatively relaxed New York weekend resort town, I imagined it filled with clear sunlight, sea air and bright flowers, set within 18th century main street architecture. (all this, alas, no more, overtaken by amped real estate values and more money than quiet relaxation). <br />
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Reading of <i>Antonia's Flowers</i> reminded me of the times I had brought home a few freesias from the greengrocers. They fill the space around them with an heady bright freshness and grow more intoxicating the closer you come.<br />
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Antonia Bellanca worked with the perfumer Bernard Chant to perform the difficult feat of creating a freesia themed perfume with fantasy accords, aided by 'living flower technology', aka head-space gas chronometry, that captures the scent molecules from the flower itself. Freesia is one of many flowers whose scent is impossible to capture by extraction or distillation, but can be copied by building accords with other scent materials. <br />
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As for me, after much wandering through the natural, handmade, indie and niche perfumes worlds, American and European, I recalled my first encounter with the concept of indieperfumes through reading about <i>Antonia's Flowers</i> and finally took the step to order samples this past summer.<br />
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I found that <i>Antonia's Flowers</i> in both EdT and EdP open with more depth than I expected, and then it moves into a pure freesia rush, after which the dry down pulls up the supporting jasmine and magnolia. <i>Absolue</i> is as expected, a far more intensified version. These are never heady or indolic, but they all share the same yellow freesia charisma that the fresh flowers have. Definitely for the true lover of florals, as it's purely focused within that genre.<br />
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<i>Floret</i>, next in the line, is a bright floral with marked green sweetness. These are the old fashioned flowers in American country gardens, like Sweet Pea, held together with a soft apricot tone. As I love and pursue the scent of apricots wherever I get the chance, I was delighted with that aspect. The early summer months distilled into perfume form.<br />
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Antonia Bellanca is a pioneer of American indieperfumes, and her success struck a spark that lit the way. <i>Antonia's Flowers </i>and <i>Floret </i>remain cult favorites and in the top ten perfumes for Barney's and Bergdorfs. Her ability to pull this off in unique style was a message to all who were ready to hear it that modern American indie and niche perfume could be successfully produced by individuals from outside the traditional perfume world.<br />
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They were kind enough to send me a second set of samples with my order, which I will share as a give-way to one of the readers.<br />
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Meanwhile, on the Left Coast:<br />
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<a href="https://memoireliquide.com/index.php?route=information/information&information_id=7" target="_blank">Memoire Liquide</a> began in Southern California, by two sisters, Robin Coe Hutshing and Jennifer Coe Bakewell, as a small custom fragrance oil bar in 1984 with 150 fine fragrance oils. This developed into a created library of 6,000 blends. These are bespoke perfumes kept on file for clients.<br />
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In 2007-9 they created a ready to wear Reserve Edition of five in an edp spray. These use the iconic themes of perfume, vanilla as <i>Amour</i>, incense as <i>Encens</i>, citrus for <i>Soliel</i>, summer flowers for <i>Fleur</i>, and marine ozonic as <i>Vacances</i>. They are refined by several notes to support the mood of each, and balanced so that they can all be worn with each other in a layered way.<br />
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My first experience with Memoire Liquide came quite awhile ago at a trade show in NYC. They made a small amount of fragrance for me on the spot. We reviewed some examples of my favorite notes and effects. They put together something harmonious and balanced, easy to wear yet personal. A mix of bright flowers over a dark base, which I still enjoy wearing. They provide a simple and straightforward access to custom personal fragrance. I appreciate this is done at a fair rather than shocking price and without excessive hype, using materials of quality. <br />
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I am fascinated with the <a href="https://memoireliquide.com/index.php?route=information/bespoke" target="_blank">Bespoke</a> aspect and would love to have two or three more fragrances put together this way. You can of course get several different ones made for different moods, and or create your own with layering the elements of the Reserve Edition.<br />
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The vanilla of <i>Amour Liquide</i> is concentrated, linear, pure and focused. A high quality true Madagascar vanilla with a whisper of incense and tonka, that holds onto you with great longevity. Beautiful for layering or worn alone, for true vanilla lovers. Especially great after a warm bath or shower.<br />
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The were kind enough to send me a boxed full size <i>Amour Liquide</i>, and an extra set of samples, which I will give away to one of the readers.<br />
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There will be three separate giveaways -<br />
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*A set of 8 samples of the f<a href="http://www.antoniasflowers.com/product_line.asp" target="_blank">ull line from Antonia's Flowers</a>, including all three versions of Antonia's Flowers, EdT, EdP, and Absolue, <i>Floret</i> in EdT and EdP, <i>Sogni del Mare</i>, <i>Tiempe Passate,</i> and the men's fragrance, <i>Rokka</i>.<br />
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*A set of 5 samples from <a href="https://memoireliquide.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=60" target="_blank">Memoire Liquide's Reserve Collection</a>, with a Body Creme of <i>Amour Liquide. </i><br />
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*and a full size of <i>Amour Liquide</i> by Memoire Liquide, in a beautiful presentation box.<br />
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Please comment below by July 4th of this year, as a celebration of these pioneers of American indie perfumery. (Readers who reside in the continuous U.S. only, please) with a preference for one of the three, and a little info on your involvement in indieperfumes, and I will randomly pick the winners and let you know in this space.<br />
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As noted above, samples for give away were provided by the perfumers. I am not compensated for this post in any way.<br />
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Please follow the above links directly to the perfumer's websites for detailed info as to price and stockists or to order directly.<br />
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Photos above taken from the perfumer's websites.<br />
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Copyright 2016, Lucy Raubertas, All Rights Reserved.<br />
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<br />indieperfumeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16933060392329498890noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28037586.post-79671699851912948472016-04-25T20:57:00.001-04:002016-04-25T20:57:52.521-04:00Eris Parfums: Ma Bête, Belle de Jour, Night Flower<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMSwErmn20bvrQGpe1JgX5sxQBrqRsFhjytMb_Cmz3kopIM3csiLNLPXvao-6yuv9ZZMZg7ghocxkbC6wIBVDvGOctDh0bgNQXVSy__jBv7Og4BnmJn-Bf7dZwSJGjRrKUZVBhTA/s1600/72902.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMSwErmn20bvrQGpe1JgX5sxQBrqRsFhjytMb_Cmz3kopIM3csiLNLPXvao-6yuv9ZZMZg7ghocxkbC6wIBVDvGOctDh0bgNQXVSy__jBv7Og4BnmJn-Bf7dZwSJGjRrKUZVBhTA/s320/72902.jpg" width="222" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">All three perfumes are warmth generators. They are ultra-refined body heat enhancers. As examples of three different moods, they magnify the beautiful animal within human nature. Spirited while respecting the restraints of elegance. <br /><br />We all remain the animals we are beneath our exalted humanity, even if we don't often think of ourselves as such. Consciously or not, we use elegance, beauty and intellect to enhance our animal charisma. That kind of enhanced animal intensity is alluring. It's the essence of vitality and the fuel and foundation for everything else we've got going on.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.luckyscent.com/product/72901/night-flower-by-eris-parfums" target="_blank"><i>Ma Bête</i></a> edp is a big if refined warmth machine as generated by body heat, filtered through a halo of fur. Possibly mink, or possibly the pelt of our inner animal. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BaIoI6YKi7I/Vx62Hj1nboI/AAAAAAAAKzc/eUWMeuQfYwcAjtLMUZbT4FXUFMoyVtqdQCLcB/s1600/1c4eb59d2a93c1b0b4bf3d4eac341958.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BaIoI6YKi7I/Vx62Hj1nboI/AAAAAAAAKzc/eUWMeuQfYwcAjtLMUZbT4FXUFMoyVtqdQCLcB/s320/1c4eb59d2a93c1b0b4bf3d4eac341958.jpg" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">One of the influences on this perfume was Jean Marais' performance as the Beast in Cocteau's film <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty_and_the_Beast_(1946_film)" target="_blank">La Belle et la Bête</a></i>. It's the classic fairy story of a spellbound beast in love with a vulnerable beauty. It's a stylized classic, and so French. Mythic, ultra romantic, and so satisfying within the restraint of sophisticated French elegance. This beast was passionate but expressed it with refined manners, elegant attire and loyalty. It's a delightful olfactory reference for those who love the film.<br /><br />The warmth of <i>Ma Bête</i> is almost but not amber, almost but not vanilla. The warm animalic accord holds tight to florals and cool wood to resemble a baroque musk. Soon the sparkle of abstract aldehydes reveals itself. Their appearance balances the composition. They also refer to the iconic French perfumes worn by the sophisticates of another generation.<br /><br />There is a mysterious soft edge within the resinous natural-ness. As if it could have been generated by one's own body heat and energy, it sinks into the skin and becomes one with you. <br /><br />Notes are listed as neroli, aldehydes, nutmeg, cypriol, styrax, Jasmin sambac, cedarwood, patchouli, animalic accord.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i><a href="http://www.luckyscent.com/product/72900/belle-de-jour-by-eris-parfums" target="_blank"></a></i></span>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Tjqt0LIylUk/Vx62za7l-EI/AAAAAAAAKzo/O-3XjmhmYHARXGlKsMFGNiPxDd4u30i1QCLcB/s1600/13012823_10154243610446614_7938237209411807260_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Tjqt0LIylUk/Vx62za7l-EI/AAAAAAAAKzo/O-3XjmhmYHARXGlKsMFGNiPxDd4u30i1QCLcB/s320/13012823_10154243610446614_7938237209411807260_n.jpg" /></a></i></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><a href="http://www.luckyscent.com/product/72900/belle-de-jour-by-eris-parfums" target="_blank">Belle de Jour</a></i> references a performance by that most French of actresses, Catherine Deneuve. This perfume will support your own inner Deneuve. <br /><br />It's like wearing tailored clothing. It creates an aura of perfection and poise. A refinement that hints at a soft hold over an animal nature. <br /><br />The atmosphere: expensive sheets that have not been changed for awhile, the thick ironed linens crumpled by use. Lipstick, a silk scarf, a little hairspray, an open, well polished leather Hermes handbag, smooth skin, the best cosmetics money can buy, the remains of grooming on an ethereal angel who has worked it out vigorously. <br /><br />Glamorous musk, one created by the most well kept and elegant of French ladies leading a secret life. A grown up perfume. The animalic tone flows through these sweat tinged refinements, which I suspect comes from the salty seaweed absolute set beside the delicate florals. It's perfume as an abstract trigger. With all the references to expensive sophisticated glamor, it's a confidence booster. <br /><br />Notes are listed as coriander, pink peppercorn, orange flower, ciste, jasmin, pimento berries, cedarwood, musk, seaweed absolute.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Night Flower</i> is a more an American kind of glamor, that of an achingly beautiful aspiring starlet who might start out as a coat check girl at a nightclub. She sits surrounded by the fur coats, breathing in the perfumes that cling, and wants it all for herself. <i>Night Flower</i> holds that perfumed soft haze. Candle lit tuberose, balanced and much softened by the soft haze of luxurious fur and the scent of a beautiful young woman's skin.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Night blooming florals project a sense of longing, as does <i>Night Flower</i>. The attractions of floral nectar, rising into night air from a base of soft skin are shown here as equally magnetic forces closely bound together. Night blooming flowers throw exciting and hopeful scent rays out, as do beautiful young women, and that's no accident. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The kind of wake caused by wearing a floral perfume that stains a silk dress, walking through dark night air. Calling out to the wild side, while perfectly made up and in heels. I think the pace is slow and deliberate. It could be the influence of New Orleans, American with a French influence. A softer warmer musk, composed of makeup, silks and the perfection of young skin. Aspiration that moves at its own confident pace. The dry down is a little more angelic than carnal. It's a welcome surprise that one develops straight out of the other.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Notes are listed as bergamot, birch tar, cardamom, suede accord, tuberose, cinnamon, patchouli, tonka bean, musk.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I think Barbara Herman and Antoine Lie succeeded in fulfilling their desire to capture the sumptuous mood of vintage perfumes in a modern way. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">To explain, I will quote myself, from my post about Barbara Herman's book on vintage perfumes, <i><a href="http://indieperfumes.blogspot.com/2013/11/scent-and-subversion-barbara-herman.html" target="_blank">Scent and Subversion</a></i>: </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "merriweather"; font-size: 17.6px; line-height: 24.64px;">Couples who courted spent hours at the end of the day, cocktails, dinner, dancing, the theater, wearing their best and most flattering clothing, which by the end of the night was imbued from the lingerie up to the fur coat with their "signature scent" whose dry down eventually emanated from body heat, whose magic and elusive but addictive "chemistry" would foreshadow the next intimate steps. Imagine drawing off the long gloves, either silk or leather, with the perfume beneath revealing itself more fully as the music plays and the drinks take effect.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Please see <a href="http://www.erisparfums.com/" target="_blank">Eris Parfums</a></span><span style="font-size: large;"> and </span><a href="http://www.luckyscent.com/search?gsearch=eris" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Luckyscent</span></a><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">for more information and for samples. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Disclosure: I know Barbara Herman who worked on these perfumes with Antoine Lie, and was privy to many stages of their creation. It was fun and interesting to get that close to the making of fine perfumes and watch them unfold. If you haven't already, please see her wonderful book <a href="http://indieperfumes.blogspot.com/2013/11/scent-and-subversion-barbara-herman.html" target="_blank"><i>Scent and Subversion</i></a> as a precursor to this trio. It's a moving and detailed tribute to vintage perfumes. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Copyright 2016, Lucy Raubertas, All Rights Reserved.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Photos above: Eris Parfums, La Belle et La Bête vintage movie poster, Catherine Deneuve in a Belle du Jour publicity still, Gene Tierney publicity still.</span></div>
indieperfumeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16933060392329498890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28037586.post-73507852709681381802016-04-04T16:12:00.000-04:002016-04-04T16:12:04.093-04:00House of Matriarch - Trillium<div style="text-align: left;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Great_White_Trillium.JPG" target="_blank">Great White Trillium in the rain - via Wikipedia</a><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.matriarch.biz/" target="_blank">The House of Matriarch</a> has made a perfume experience I have wished for. A natural perfume inspired by a native North American wildflower. The trillium was once common in the North American woods before they were almost all cut down. They are a wild form of lily, and protected in some states. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It must be a sign of ecological health when you find a trillium in bloom. That spot has been restored to something close to its original condition. It's a good sign when there are enough people who care to preserve the conditions that can make this happen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The perfumer Christi Meshell has created a fantasy floral, as this plant has no perfume of its own. <i>Trillium</i> is the cool green forest air holding a dreamy and soft warm nectar sweetness that hovers over damp black earth. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This would be the air you breathe near and around a trillium in the wild. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The notes listed are - Top: green tea, aglaia, mimosa, chamomile, Middle: black tea, coffee flower, Base: jasmine tea, amber, tolu balsam, cashmere musk.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The perfume rises in a cloud of vitality, with a refreshing energy that is bright and gentle. It's almost an ozonic experience imbued with earth and a mysterious white floral. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This is not a massive attack perfume experience, there is no darkness, but the soft dirt beneath, moist and fecund. This perfume brought back late Spring/early Summer woodsy walks. This is a beauty that brightens the persona that wears it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">There was no quick olfactory fatigue, expanding my personal enjoyment far longer than usual. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Over time as the base steps forward, the brightness keeps on as a strong tint from beginning to end. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Natural perfumes are ephemeral so I was surprised at how long this one stays true. It's a stubborn aromatic stain on the skin. It's a wonder that the uplift continues at length and never really departs. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It's for anytime and anywhere, but for me it's perfect first thing in the morning. Not a gender specific fragrance, I can imagine it worn well if differently by all kinds of people of all ages, and truly modern in that regard. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0H5USAJ0fH4TibpgYgNQD1IxKdqzChkbxPLZnQMDNZQUUPfxi4iUWugTjJcxw6w1RG2aQUUscsdsa3F_KCL7qNm8HqybQMGhMa1YxYbd4Rpx6UiM7YjpXLzriV_z1blqvlXU8IQ/s1600/_11688781.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0H5USAJ0fH4TibpgYgNQD1IxKdqzChkbxPLZnQMDNZQUUPfxi4iUWugTjJcxw6w1RG2aQUUscsdsa3F_KCL7qNm8HqybQMGhMa1YxYbd4Rpx6UiM7YjpXLzriV_z1blqvlXU8IQ/s200/_11688781.jpg" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Exclusive to Nordstrom, you can find it <a href="http://shop.nordstrom.com/s/house-of-matriarch-trillium-fragrance-nordstrom-exclusive/4197846?origin=category-personalizedsort" target="_blank">online</a> if it's not available nearby, in two sizes from $39 to $330. The packaging is serious and beautiful. Dark blue glass preserves natural materials from light exposure. Antiqued copper/bronze detail and a Moroccan aesthetic flavor. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Photos above from <a href="http://shop.nordstrom.com/s/house-of-matriarch-trillium-fragrance-nordstrom-exclusive/4197846?origin=category-personalizedsort" target="_blank">Nordstrom's site</a>, please follow the link for more information and to order. The trillium photo comes from Wikipedia, please follow that link for more info and a bigger view.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.matriarch.biz/" target="_blank">House of Matriarch</a> has many other perfumes to explore, please see the site and <a href="http://indieperfumes.blogspot.com/2014/10/natural-perfumes-for-fall-house-of.html" target="_blank">my prior post</a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Copyright 2016, Lucy Raubertas, All Rights Reserved.</span></div>
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indieperfumeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16933060392329498890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28037586.post-27289230513347024582016-03-04T20:00:00.000-05:002016-03-05T13:53:34.506-05:00Roxana Illuminated Perfume: Fleurish and Mellifera<div style="margin-bottom: 1.1em; margin-top: 2px;">
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Y0IM8Ua3IxY/VtosLDDF0xI/AAAAAAAAKL8/T_SvPlD3D1Y/s1600/Melifera_t_ee0d7178-0210-4dcc-9a75-2abe8b8d698d_1024x1024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="317" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Y0IM8Ua3IxY/VtosLDDF0xI/AAAAAAAAKL8/T_SvPlD3D1Y/s400/Melifera_t_ee0d7178-0210-4dcc-9a75-2abe8b8d698d_1024x1024.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://illuminatedperfume.com/pages/roxana-illuminated-perfume">Roxana Illuminated Perfume</a> has been making small batch, hand-made natural perfumes for a long time now, as the always growing refinement of her skills show. This line is a must to explore for those with an affinity for natural perfumes. Using organic essences and tinctures, some of the materials are produced by the perfumer herself from local plants growing near her home in Southern California. This immediacy gives her perfumes a subtle fresh vitality. <br /><br />Her style is centered on purity and elegance. Those two words are the ones that come most often to mind. They are for the sensitive perfume lover who will most enjoy their subtle gradations and connection to nature. The presentation shares a thoughtful aesthetic, that reflects a way of life. <br /><br />They generally come in two versions, as liquid and solid perfumes.<br /><br />I have met Roxana a couple of times and have written about her perfumes several times over the years. I admire her disciplined pursuit of beauty, workmanship and quality. There can be that presence in fine hand-made artisan perfume, that reveals the personality of the perfumer. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E7osvNQAKdo/VtosjLvTrrI/AAAAAAAAKME/4BjTh2xgsk8/s1600/JasMC_9248t_1024x1024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E7osvNQAKdo/VtosjLvTrrI/AAAAAAAAKME/4BjTh2xgsk8/s400/JasMC_9248t_1024x1024.jpg" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><a href="http://illuminatedperfume.com/collections/liquid-perfumes/products/fleurish-eau-de-parfum-4-grams"><i>Fleurish</i></a> edp is a refined jasmine and wood. There are three forms of jasmine and a tincture of jasmine sambac flowers, with other white flowers and woods. The eau de parfum is in a base of organic grape alcohol, the solid version is in a base of local beeswax and jojoba oil. <br /><br />The effect of both versions are similar. The often unruly indolic white jasmine has been captured within the spirit of wood. This gentle close union is a refreshing calming experience. It is simple in the best sense of the word, yet dimensional because jasmine itself is so complex and radiant. Its cloying aspect is held back within the wood, itself ultra softened and uplifted by this close association. I find there is a more a citrus freshness within the liquid version. As ever with natural perfumes, they hold close to the skin. <br /><br />Materials and notes for the edp are listed as:<br /><br />190 Proof Organic grape; vital plant essences including three different jasmine flowers, other white florals and precious wood; artisanal tincture of jasmine sambac flowers.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mellifera<br /></td></tr>
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<a href="http://illuminatedperfume.com/collections/liquid-perfumes/products/mellifera-perfume-4-grams-in-classic-bottle" style="font-size: x-large;"><i>Mellifera</i></a><span style="font-size: large;"> edp is a broad open sunny California field full of green grasses and plants, some bleached to hay and mixed with their own soft seed heads and a few wildflowers. It exudes a vital presence, and an essential core of natural gentle sweetness. This references the nectar that feeds the bees, and the bodies of bees themselves. Bees are a recurrent theme for Roxana, who is highly engaged in apiculture.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /> There is a sharp borderline feral wildness here that sinks into the skin. The solid version is a little sweeter and smoother.<br /><br />EdP materials and notes are listed as:<br /><br />190 Proof Organic grape; vital plant essences including spice, herbs, flowers, resins, precious woods and helichrysum from Croatia and Ojai California.<br /><br />Notes: Herbs, honey and resin<br /><br />I like wearing both versions of these perfumes at the same time. They are like skin stains that hold a world of olfactory impressions. They feel like precious and rare substances, filtered through the mind and hands of an idiosyncratic and inventive perfectionist. They must be held close to get the full spectrum and effect but they make it worth your while. They take me away on a vacation to a forgiving climate.<br /><br />I also like that Roxana delves deeply into the visual arts, and film culture, as an additional source of inspiration. Picking up those influences adds an ethereal layer to enjoy alongside the material substance of the perfumes. <br /><br /><br />In other news, I recently learned that through a series of unexpected circumstances, Roxana herself may be glimpsed in an upcoming Tom Ford film, in a gallery scene as an art patron (based on the persona of the legendary Carmen dell'Orefice. They do share the high cheekbones). <br /><br />The <a href="http://illuminatedperfume.com/pages/the-perfumery">website</a> is a world unto itself, with a journal, beautiful personal photos and illustrations, information on classes and the location and calendar for her workshop, scent bar and teaching space. There are samples sets available to order, as well as a variety of sizes of both liquid and solid perfumes, which are also poured into lockets and compacts. <br /><br />Copyright 2016, Lucy Raubertas, All Rights Reserved.<br />Photos from the Roxana Illuminiated Perfume site.<br />I received samples from the perfumer.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">For an example of a prior post on Roxana Illuminated Perfumes:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://indieperfumes.blogspot.com/2013/08/roxana-illuminated-perfumes-fig-1-noir.html" target="_blank">Noir/Blossom</a> - the search bar will find many others.</span></div>
indieperfumeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16933060392329498890noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28037586.post-34980168626440895512016-02-18T22:03:00.000-05:002016-02-18T22:16:02.922-05:00Mendittorosa Odori d'Anima - Le Mat & Sogno Reale <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4eBDYh-AbaioCGvNNsn8sBWJMhRpdFEhIyNdj6FYhC5cRJZN-uH7VrkZ7fD4lL9XSEUoZIPkU4zuYi7NwSqoBg7F_TE7SV1_8AipyARU_s8KbMQlk9RDlSzidNZSrLmUDxb0WXw/s1600/nd.25138.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4eBDYh-AbaioCGvNNsn8sBWJMhRpdFEhIyNdj6FYhC5cRJZN-uH7VrkZ7fD4lL9XSEUoZIPkU4zuYi7NwSqoBg7F_TE7SV1_8AipyARU_s8KbMQlk9RDlSzidNZSrLmUDxb0WXw/s400/nd.25138.jpg" width="360" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.mendittorosa.com/the-scents/" target="_blank">Mendittorosa Odori D' Anima</a> creates perfumes as aromatic symbols that speak to and from the soul. The tarot symbol <i>Le Mat </i>(the Fool)<i> </i>and <i>Sogno Reale </i>(the dream is real). Others in the line, such as <i>Id, Alfa, Omega, North, South. </i>Mythic beauty.<br />
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The ocean, roses, dreamy well being, signs from the unconscious mind coming through as dreams. Fragrance released by opening a drawer holding important mementos. Directions, beginnings and endings, the primal heart and mind.<br />
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Each one is a world in itself, but these several work together as a highly cohesive collection. The creative director Stefania Squeglia and the perfumers Amelie Bourgeois and Anne-Sophie Behaghel<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span>produced olfactory harmonies that resonate with each other. </div>
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The extraordinary flacons are totemic and covetable in and of themselves. Sculptural, symbolic, sensual.<br />
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The mood is ultra luxurious and ultra European, expressive in the grand manner. Could almost be intimidating if it wasn't so intimate. Perfumes that hold close, they call you closer.<br />
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<i>Le Mat</i> reveals the deepest interior of rose, mixed with the air of a warm beach breeze. There is a little salt in this air while the melting texture of the floral heart is like biting into a chocolate. That pure salty air warmed by sun moves over roses at the precise moment their fragrance peak. <br />
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Without sweetness, and not a story, but more an experience, one that you know, even if you've never yet been to the Italian coast. A dense and velvety floral wrapped in a salty air that relaxes the whole body as soon as it enters with the intake of breath. A constant presence that makes itself known. I have never acclimated or tired of this rose, it renews itself.<br />
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In Extrait de Parfum, notes are listed as Nutmeg, Black Pepper, Cloves, Egyptian Geranium, Rose from Grasse, Indonesian Patchouli, Cashmere Wood, Spanish Everlasting Flower.<br />
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<i>Sogno Reale</i> is an aromatic musk infused with citrus and touched with marine air, born of the same beach atmosphere as <i>Le Mat</i>. For me they are brother and sister fragrances. Quiet and complex, it moves in several directions at once. It rises like cool air, while sinking into musky skin tasting of salt. Balsamic, alive and serene. <br />
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Inspired by a dream about the ruler of the oceans, it pushes and pulls like the tide. It is as quiet and smooth as moving sea water. Intimating depth and weight beneath the surface. Its strong hold and longevity does not shout or display its power with drama. Its marine nature calls to the salt in your own blood.<br />
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In Extrait de Parfum, notes are listed as lemon, bergamot, sea notes, tuberose, patchouli, olibanum, hyrax, rum, sandalwood, styrax and amber, Tuberose, Patchouli, Volcanic olibanum, Hyraceum, Rhum, Sandalwood, Styrax, Amber woods.</div>
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Others in the line, <i>Id, Alfa, Omega, North</i> and <i>South</i> share the serene spirit. (I saw online recently that another one is on the way). Their layered aromatic beauty unfolds like the mysteries of your sweet dreams. More later.</div>
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Many thanks to Mendittorosa for the sample set, and to Ida Meister for introducing me to these two beauties <i>Le Mat</i> and <i>Sogno Reale</i>.</div>
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Photos from the Mendittorosa Odori d'Anima site.</div>
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Copyright 2016, Lucy Raubertas, All Rights Reserved.</div>
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indieperfumeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16933060392329498890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28037586.post-52591010410325111812016-02-03T18:55:00.002-05:002016-02-04T10:55:09.247-05:00Dame Perfumery - Osmanthus and Gardenia<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI8GhuyW5HPm8-ajHb_OmCuGHUm9INQ5udUXscSmmt9aiolqhjoA2945WrzcvfQCe1Lb0l8Dx9r2AaPBqtBJ40P9hgCtmxYWKQz78kSq9yBhGgy_l8VRycWI83jF05Vo-FZ90O2g/s1600/osmanthus_800.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI8GhuyW5HPm8-ajHb_OmCuGHUm9INQ5udUXscSmmt9aiolqhjoA2945WrzcvfQCe1Lb0l8Dx9r2AaPBqtBJ40P9hgCtmxYWKQz78kSq9yBhGgy_l8VRycWI83jF05Vo-FZ90O2g/s400/osmanthus_800.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #fffef5; color: #212f3f; font-family: "verdana" , "aldine" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.6667px; line-height: 16px;">Osmanthus is one of the 10 famous flowers in China and Taiwan and the flower of the month of August. A traditional symbol of Love and Romance. Dish underglaze blue and white decoration, Kangxi period 1662-1722, ca 1690-1700.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fffef5; color: #212f3f; font-family: "verdana" , "aldine" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.6667px; line-height: 16px;">Photo: Henri René CADERIUS VAN VEEN, via Gotheborg <a href="http://gotheborg.com/glossary/osmanthus.shtml" target="_blank">China Porcelain Glossary</a>.</span></td></tr>
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Dame Perfumery's style is that of easy to love perfumes. If their aim is to create immediate olfactory pleasure, then they achieve that aim well and fully. There's no having to get used to it, or acquiring a taste. Or perhaps they suit me especially on a personal level, because they speak to me in that direct way favorites immediately do.<br />
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There are several soliflores in the line. The two I have tried so far, <i>Osmanthus</i> and <i>Gardenia,</i> are both so rich bright and dimensional they almost belie the title of soliflore because they are so big and full, engaging, and as dimensional as many other perfumes based on and titled after these floral themes. <br />
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<a href="http://dameperfumery.com/collections/dame-perfumery-soliflore-osmanthus" target="_blank"><i>Osmanthus</i> Perfume Oil </a>comes in a 10ml rollerball oil base that opens out with real power. It's as big and full as an alcohol based perfume. It reminds me of certain Estee Lauder perfumes, in the way it opens with so much intensity, for example the opening of the original version of <i>Beautiful. </i>It's not a surprise to find out that Jeffrey Dame worked at the Lauder organization for a serious amount of time.<br />
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Intensely apricot and green, I consider it therapeutic grade for those who need a change of mood while in the depths of winter or for those long separated from naturally highly fragranced flowers. <br />
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I am not personally acquainted with the Osmanthus flower in nature, only as a perfume element, so can't speak to how realistic this is. That said, this version provides an intoxicating spell of immersion into a white floral spirit, while remaining fresh and energetic. It's a festive aesthetic, while casual and down to earth at heart.<br />
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It can be used as a layering element with the other soliflores in the line, opening the whole experience up to personal experimentation. These perfumes are well priced enough that this is a reasonably attainable idea.<br />
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The Eau de Toilette version is even brighter and openly embracing right from the start, as the alcohol evaporates and releases the perfume elements into the air as quickly as physically possible. I find it has a little more astringency and a more youthful energy, with the apricot bonded to the green more tightly, as a more a unified team than the oil version. Both versions are decorative and ornamental in the extreme. <br />
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They both calm down to publicly acceptable levels of intensity fairly quickly but I don't mind reapplication or having that first big hit be for me alone at home before venturing forth to a restaurant or elsewhere. Both versions continue after the first big open in true form but with a closer boundary for sillage, and that's just as well in this day and age.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-j1e7WT2TsmY/VrKLRY7MapI/AAAAAAAAJ60/TCJ0f9itqt0/s1600/3440a457923194ce885d5a9bc11405a1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-j1e7WT2TsmY/VrKLRY7MapI/AAAAAAAAJ60/TCJ0f9itqt0/s400/3440a457923194ce885d5a9bc11405a1.jpg" width="277" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gardenia tattoo by <a href="http://www.amandawachob.com/cv/" target="_blank">Amanda Wachob</a></td></tr>
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The <a href="http://dameperfumery.com/collections/soliflore-gardenia" target="_blank"><i>Gardenia</i> </a>oil is hyper-real and green, with a just a shade cast by a soft cloud, a light shadow behind it as a base, throwing its pure brightness into higher relief. The green within is lively and tropical, exuberant and fresh. I find that sometimes a heavy gardenia perfume can hit you hard enough to make you sleepy, that an overload creates a narcotic effect as part of the experience, but this is more the rocket fuel part of the flower's aroma. It reaches out towards the world to announce itself as here and very much alive, calling to all butterflies, birds and bees to come right over. I find a softly musky base, very skin friendly, as an integral element. As with <i>Osmanthus</i>, this first powerful opening calms down quickly, and pulls in its sillage to a more intimate space. Wearing this in winter and allowing it to capture your undivided attention will bring memories of perfect summer days. That makes for a soothing refreshing experience.<br />
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Again the Eau de Toilette emphasizes the brightest and most uplifting aspects, a slightly lighter and slightly more sheer effect, with the green more predominant. <br />
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It's nice to use both <i>Osmanthus </i>and <i>Gardenia</i> in the oil roll on and the eau de Toilette at the same time. After a few minutes the initial intensity will calm itself enough to make you able to mingle in public, but the big hit of a pure floral experience is available on reapplication whenever you like.<br />
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There are other engaging perfumes in the line; more on those on another post.<br />
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Visit <a href="http://dameperfumery.com/" target="_blank">the Dame Perfumery website</a> for more information and to order directly.<br />
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Please find an interesting in depth interview with Jeffrey Dame on his background in the fragrance industry on the blog <a href="http://frompyrgos.blogspot.com/2013/09/jeffrey-dame-chats-with-from-pyrgos.html" target="_blank">From Pygos</a><br />
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Many thanks to Ida Meister for going out of her way to introduce me to these perfumes. Please see her in depth piece on the <a href="http://www.fragrantica.com/news/Scented-Snippets-New-Fragrances-Review-Dame-Perfumery-SOLIFLORES-When-Linear-Grows-Lovelier-7388.html" target="_blank">Dame Perfumery Soliflores on Fragrantica</a>, if you haven't already seen it.<br />
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Copyright 2016, Lucy Raubertas, All Rights Reserved.<br />
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Above photos taken from the web and credited as shown in the captions.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amandawachob.com/" target="_blank">Amanda Wachob</a> has a long waiting list that is now closed for her tattoos, due to the avid following she has inspired. The Gotheborg Chinese Porcelain site illustrating Osmanthus is live linked in the caption, with much further info on the influence of Osmanthus in Asian cultures.<br />
<br />indieperfumeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16933060392329498890noreply@blogger.com0