Bob Dylan - Duquesne Whistle

I thought I'd end the month with a music video by none other than Bob Dylan. I didn't know he did music videos, geez, but this one is quite good, Duquesne Whistle, off his last album, Tempest.

Perfume developments in Tunbridge Wells

It may not seem exciting to those of you who live in big cities with access to plenty of large perfume departments, boutique perfume stores and so forth, but I am always pleased when new perfume lines come to the two department stores in Tunbridge Wells, where I live. Admittedly I only live an hour's train journey away from London, but even so, I only go up to London a few times a year.

Fenwick has really upped the ante over the past few months and appears to be taking a firm step away from lowest common denominator perfumes that one can find in any store in the land, including England's most well known chemist. Not that Fenwick had a poor selection of perfumes before, far from it. However, recently a Jo Malone counter opened up, carrying the full range, as far as I can make out, and within the last month Tom Ford's Private Blends have entered the fray too, which I find exciting. I will be writing more about both these lines over the next few weeks, hopefully. I also understand that there are some other exciting brands in the pipeline over the next few months. In addition to these lines, Fenwick also carries Penhaligon, Serge Lutens, Hermes, Annick Goutal, L'Artisan, Floris and Miller Harris.

Hoopers, the other department store, had a makeover fairly recently, modernising its old interior considerably, with a lovely perfume space. There has been less happening there of late, but they also stock a good selection of perfumes, including Commes des Garcons' main line (if only they could get in the rest!), Amouage, Terry de Gunzburg and, remarkably, Ineke. 

As a closing question to those of you who live in smaller centres - do you have decent perfume selections in your town, or do you have to travel far and wide to track down the good stuff?

Back in Blighty

Hello and hope all is well with you, if you're reading this, or not for that matter. I've been back in England for almost a week already, but have hardly managed to get near a computer, yet alone get too involved with the perfume world. 

We had an excellent trip to Brittany, in France and to be honest, most of our time was spent outside enjoying the French sun, the gorgeous beaches and scenery, and eating and drinking. I drank more cider in a week than I have in my whole life, as Brittany's drink of choice stems from the humble apple. If you like seafood, Brittany is the place for you. With a long coastline, one can find unbelievably good, fresh mussels, clams, crab, lobster, langoustine and fish. Let's not got onto the butter. The Bretons aren't shy of a little butter shall we say - every dish, pudding and pastry contains oodles of the stuff. 

Now that I am back I shall try to blog a little bit more and hopefully get into the swing of things again. Until later, have a great weekend.

Au Revoir, for now...

We are off to Brittany for a week, so there won't be any posting from me for the next ten days. Not that I was writing a lot on the blog anyway.

I'm really looking forward to this trip. I haven't been to Brittany before, but as my friend Cymbaline pointed out to me the other day, two very good perfume houses are based in this part of France, Divine and Lostmarc'h. I doubt I will get the chance to track them down, but a part of me feels pleased I am traveling to a place where I can make an association that provides me with a sense of place relative to these two perfume houses.

Until a few days time, au revoir!

Guerlain L'Instant Pour Homme

Another day, another perfume. Again, I wore a perfume from a bottle I actually own. Again, I received a compliment from the same lady at work. Is it a coincidence?

It's been a while since I wore perfumes I own. I wonder why I don't do it more often; I'm sure many perfumistas feel the same way.

I love L'Instant. It is a wonderful perfume that makes me feel comfortable in my own skin. It just smells good. Period.

Terre de Hermes

Some of you may be aware that I own a bottle of Terre de Hermes. In fact it was one of the first bottles of perfume I was given during the first year in which I fell seriously in love with perfume.

Perfumes come and go, as we all know, but Terre de Hermes has become, in my view, a modern classic. It's smell is instantly recognisable, perhaps not as much so as say Le Male, but once you've smelt it, I hazard a guess that you will never forget it. Not that it is a polarising fragrance, mind you. In some ways it is a fairly straightforward perfume - orange, woods and a mineral accord, with vetiver. But as is so often the case with the truly great perfumes, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and what Jean Claude Elena did here is nothing short of genius.

It's not often I say this of a mainstream fragrance, but Terre de Hermes is in my opinion one of the best perfumes released in the last decade, mainstream or niche.

Incidentally, I don't often receive compliments on my perfumes, but a lady at my work complimented me on Terre de Hermes and it isn't the first time this has happened when wearing this one!