Scent of the Day 6.2.10 - Hermes Hiris

Another favorite scent to wear when the weather is hot and moist is Hermes Hiris. Originally, I was not a big fan of iris-based scents. To my nose, they were too "rooty" and smelled far too much of soil. If I want to smell like I've just worked in the garden, I'll go work in the garden, thankyouverymuch. But there's something about Hiris that enchanted me completely and has turned me into a fan of the fragrant rhizome.

Hiris has tons of iris in it, some of it quite rooty, but it lacks the metallic buzz of soil and is instead quite refined and elegant with a nice touch of warm vanilla and honey. The musky qualities of ambrette (one of my favorite notes) shine through in the drydown, making this scent a cousin to another favorite of mine, Chanel No. 18.

I wish I hadn't fallen in love with Hiris so completely at Bergdorf's, because when I got home, I found I could purchase it at a much lower price at one of the many online fragrance discounters. Live and learn.

Notes: iris, neroli, carrots, coriander, hay, rose, ambrette seeds, almond wood, cedar, honey, and vanilla

Fragrance Wish List

Hermessence Ambre Narguile
by Hermes

"Amber, the Western expression of Eastern fragrances, has a warm, enveloping, almost carnal smell. I wanted to imbue this idea of amber with the memory of the East I love where tobacco - blended with the smells of fruit, honey and spices - is smoked in narguilés, or water pipes, and where swirls of smoke diffuse a sweet sense of intoxication."

-Jean-Claude Ellena

That pretty much sums it up. This fragrance is warm and cozy, with lots of honeyed fruits and an ambery tobacco. It was love at first sniff. Unfortunately, my wallet can't afford the $235 for 3.3oz.

10 Corso Como
by 10 Corso Como

While I can better afford this gorgeous sandalwood and oud scent, my darling husband does not like it. I believe he compared it unfavorably to a male relative of his. It's probably not a good thing for a wife to smell like a dead male relative, huh?


Tilda Swinton Like This
by Etat Libre d’Orange

One would think that a scent named after an iconoclast such as actress Tilda Swinton would be somewhat unusual. Maybe even weird. But Like This, with its combination of pumpkin, immortelle (smells like maple) and musk, smells warm and delicious and actually quite conventional.

Cadjmere
by Parfumerie Generale

A delicious combination of snuggly vanilla and soft woods, this scent is as cozy and warm as a cashmere sweater. But not quite as expensive, nor is it as susceptible to moth damage.

If a generous benefactor would like to purchase one or more of these fragrances for me for Christmas, the last three are available at Luckyscent.com. The first can be procured at Hermes boutiques worldwide.

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Thinking About Fragrance - Changing Tastes

One of the problems with collecting perfumes, at least for me, is that the newest additions to my vast collection are the ones I tend to wear most often. Each successive purchase usurps the position of the one before and eventually I stop wearing some fragrances altogether. Sometimes it's because I'm completely bored with it, but mostly it's because my tastes have evolved and that old scent that was once perfect is now not so much.

For instance, I'm loving my Maison Francis Kurkdjian Cologne Pour le Matin, with its lovely citrus and lavender notes (I also smell candied violet, even if it's not listed), and Chanel Cristalle Eau Verte, an amazing fresh green scent - both purchased in the late Spring. But the Ava Luxe Gardenia Musk, Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue, and Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Herba Fresca that I adored in recent Summers have been largely ignored. This is partly because I have new loves, but also partly because I'm finding these scents too sweet to be refreshing enough in this hot weather. Another old favorite - Hermes Eau de Merveilles - is wonderfully salty and not at all perfume-y or sweet, so it finds its way into the rotation once every other week or so. But still not as often as in the past.

This week I'm trying to revive my interest in the old favorites by wearing a different one every day. On Monday I broke out the Light Blue; Tuesday was Gardenia Musk. Today is Chanel Beige. Unfortunately, I'm not thrilled by any of them.

Readers who are fragrance aficionados - do you find yourself falling into the same pattern as me, or are you pretty egalitarian in using your perfume collection?

Photo Credit: Corbis

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Because of recent content theft, I am forced to add this new statement to the end of my posts: If you're reading this post anywhere besides the Opalescent blog, OpalescentMinx.com (also http://minxbeads.blogspot.com) then this content has been stolen. Please do not support this thief!

A Mini Sniffing Tour of Bergdorf Goodman

If you are a bit of a fragrance aficionado but have never experienced the beauty floor at Bergdorf Goodman in New York, make sure you get yourself there next time you are in the Big Apple. BG is always one of my favorite places to visit, not only because of the great selection of beauty and fragrance brands, but also because the people who work there are so darn nice. If you're lucky enough to meet Tom Crutchfield at the Annick Goutal booth, get him to take you around the department and show you what's new.  Not only does he have a breadth of knowledge on the subject of fragrance, but he is also a fan who gets as swoony over his favorite scents as you and I.

On a recent trip to NY, I made my usual pilgrimage to Bergie's and after a quick trip to the Paul & Joe counter to pick up a tube of my favorite under-eye cream (which was discontinued and replaced by a day gel/night cream duo - grrr), I wandered into the small room near the up escalator to do some serious sniffing. There I met Tom who graciously gave me a tour of the new fragrances that had come out since my last trip to NY in April of 2010.

Out of the several scents I tested, some of my favorites included the Rose Oud and Incense Oud by Kilian - gorgeous, deep, and long-lasting scents sold at the ridiculously high price of $395 per 50ml. Honestly, a good $100 of that is paying for the fancy lacquered box, and who needs yet another dust collector on his or her dresser? I never have (and probably never will) buy a Kilian scent because of this unnecessary extravagance.

Anyhoo...other fragrances of note were the lovely new Serge Lutens Jeux de Peau, a fun toast-and-apricot-jam scent that is on the top of my "must buy" list at the moment. I had already tested Maison Francis Kurkdjian Cologne Pour Le Matin via Luckyscent.com sample, and I wanted to compare the Cologne to the Absolue version. They are similar yet different, and after trying both at BG, I think I do prefer the Cologne. Another striking cologne is the new Atelier Cologne Vanille Insensee, a very light, yet still very vanilla scent. I initially thought it was a bit too fleeting on my skin, but I noticed that it was the only sample that I could still detect on my skin after several hours of walking around during an unseasonably warm day of putting my jacket on and taking it off several times.

After a quick make-up application by the very talented David Aikman and a chat with the lovely Donna Muzio at the Estee Lauder counter (and of course a purchase of the new Bronze Goddess Soleil fragrance, plus some foundation), I headed over to the Jo Malone counter to re-sniff their new tea scents before heading back out onto Fifth Avenue. (My favorite is the Assam Grapefruit, followed closely by Sweet Milk, both also on the "must buy" list.)

A visit to Bergdorf's is dangerous to my wallet, but for someone like me, who thrills at inhaling fine fragrances, it's a couple of hours well-spent.

Because of recent content theft, I am forced to add this new statement to the end of my posts: If you're reading this post anywhere besides the Opalescent blog, OpalescentMinx.com (also http://minxbeads.blogspot.com) then this content has been stolen. Please do not support this thief!

Scent of the Day 6.1.10 Eau des Merveilles

Today is going to be another scorcher with temps expected to be somewhere in the 90s and of course in Baltimore that means high humidity as well. When it gets stinky hot, my fragrance preferences tend to go towards something more salty and savory than flowery. For Memorial Day, I wore a salty iris fragrance, Santa Maria Novella's Citta di Kyoto. Today, it's Hermes Eau des Merveilles.

I first tried Eau des Merveilles on a trip to NY with my Dad. He wanted to nose around through Saks' men's department, and I decided to wait for him in fragrances. I let a sales associate spray me with a wee bit of EdM and spent most of the afternoon trying to figure out if I liked it or not. It had an intriguing salty quality, one not related to the nasty "marine" notes created by the aromachemical calone (which smells like rotting seaweed) but to a more natural element - ambergris. Ambergris mixed with pepper and woods and vetiver.

I decided I didn't like it enough to go back and purchase it. On a later occasion, I sniffed some Elixir des Merveilles, which has a chocolate-orange thing going on and which does not, in my opinion, work at all. The gourmand sweetness added to the saltwater-on-skin quality of the original created something quite unpleasant, a scrubber. And this olfactory experience tainted the original.

A few years later, I decided to give EdM another try. Once again I was intrigued, and this time I took the plunge. Now I find that it is a perfect scent to wear on hot days. It's refreshing somehow, and cooling, and not at all cloying (as I often find some floral or sweet fragrances in the heat). I'm loving it (even if I'm hating the heat).

Notes: elemi, bitter orange, Italian lemon, Indonesian pepper, pink pepper, ambergris accord, oak, cedar, vetiver, balsam of Peru, tears of Siam

Voyage d'Hermes

Voyage d'Hermes is the latest scent by Jean-Claude Ellena. It seems to me that he's been working a theme and has finally gotten it right. It takes the bright citrus aspect of Un Jardin Sur le Nil, the cedar of Terre d'Hermes, and the leather of Kelly Caleche, and combines them in a way that I like very much.

The citrus, with juniper berry and possibly cardamom, is initially akin to a mildly skanky grapefruit note. Underneath, one can sense the woods and a note that reminds me very much of a soft leather. I didn't like Kelly Caleche as much as my review of it would suggest. The more often I wore it, the less I liked it and eventually felt the leather + flowers just didn't work for me. But leather + citrus + cedar = perfect. And the drydown, although it retains some of the sharpness of the opening, has a nice soft musky quality that I love.

Reading other bloggers thoughts of Voyage makes me wonder if we've been smelling the same fragrance. No worries - plenty of room in this world for multiple opinions. But am I the only one who gets that Ellena has started doing a variation of the same fragrance over and over again? Not that it's a bad thing, and he does occasionally mix it up with something like Apres la Mousson, but I wonder when this particular obsession will subside.

Sample obtained at Sniffapalooza.