The end of summer (and more Amouage)

Depending on how you view it, today could have been the last day of summer. Some people think of summer being the three months of June, July and August; others' view is that summer officially ends at the autumn equinox, which I think is somewhere around the 21st of September.

Irrespective, here in the UK summer may as well be over. In fact, I can't honestly say that it ever started. Such is the capriciousness of British weather.

Yesterday I encountered Amouage's Honour Man and Women. Typically, Amouage have released another duo of fragrances. This isn't a proper review, as I've only tried these once, but my initial impression is that I like Honour Man, but Honour Women is a stinker. Not literally, but it is a white fruity floral, and I can only handle so many of those in a ubiquitious world of feminine fruity florals. Admittedly, I am hardly in the best position to comment on this style, but the lady who showed Honour Woman summed it up most aptly when she said that it would make the perfect bridal scent. And to be be fair, I am sure Honour Woman is good, but it is so not my style.

So what about Honour Man? I liked its strong peppery opening, as well as the smooth incense and woods dry down. I prefer it initially to recent Amouage releases, such as Opus IV and Memoir, although there is still something in Honour that bears some resemblance to the aforementioned, something faintly fruity-sweet, which I didn't like. Still, it's a decent fragrance, but in a slightly cynical way, I can't help feeling that Amouage has shot it's bolt somehow. I just don't think that the recent releases are reaching the heights of some of their classics, for example Lyric, Jubilation, Dia and Gold. Then again, it was a hard act to follow.

Hooray its the weekend (and Eau d'Italie)

So, another weekend rolls by and here in England we are having a long weekend, or the summer bank holiday weekend (or August bank holiday weekend, take your pick) as it is known. Theoretically this should be a celebration of summer - long days and sultry evenings, lazy barbecues, etc, but in reality it usually means sheltering from a persistent, drizzly rain and cursing the fact that the English summer was too short, as usual, and has come to an abrupt end.

Me cynical you ask? No way! Ha ha....

So this weekend is all mapped out for us. Our best friends are coming down for the day from London and we are planning to have a nice pub lunch at a country pub followed possibly by a visit to Marle Place, which is a lovely privately-owned house and garden lost in the back lanes of the Kent Weald. For those of you not familiar with Kent or England for that matter, the Weald is a bucolic landscape of old woods, valleys and farmland that remain surprisingly unspoilt, considering how densely populated the south east of England is. Here in Kent they have old Saxon names for various landscape features and villages. For example many villages names end in 'hurst' which means a wooded hill, or 'holt' which means wood, 'leigh/ly/ley' which means a clearing in a wood, 'wald' (corrupted to weald) means forest and 'den' means pasture. Ok, enough petty history for now...

I mentioned a while ago that the Eau d'Italie line was now stocked in one of my local department stores. Well I was in there just the other day and one of the sales ladies kindly gave me samples of the entire line, which was very nice indeed. Having said that, although I quite like what I have tried so far, I don't know if they do enough for me to mean I am entirely sold on the line.

Have a good weekend everyone.

L'Artisan comes to town

Ok, I know that might not be the most exciting news, but L'Artisan is now stocked at one of my local department stores. It's not the full range of course, but rather the more common ones encountered, like Myrrh & Musc, Timbuktu, Ambre and Premier Figuier. There are two others that I haven't tried before, Nuit de Tubereuse and Fou d'Absinthe.

I have to say, my first impression of Fou d'Absinthe is WTF! It starts with a wonderful hit of anise/absinth, cool and deadly, but then turns to something dank and manky on my skin for about two hours. Honestly, every time I smelled my wrist I had the impression I had dried my skin with a towel that hadn't been aired properly. You must know that smell. It isn't quite revolting, but not pleasant either. Then later on, the fragrance turns back into a slightly resinous, piney, even lightly incense-y dry down. Weird, and possibly weirdly compelling.

A lot was written about Nuit de Tubereuse when it came out last year. I only ever sprayed it on paper once and promptly forgot about it. Wearing it today, I'm struck by how this must be the most un-floral tuberose perfume I have every encountered. Much later in the dry down some of the more usual facets of tuberose come into play but again, it is a rather intriguing shape-shifter of a scent that I can't quite pin down. I think I really like it.

V&A Midnight in Paris and Delrae Panache revisited

After my rather strange reviews of Van Cleef and Arpels Midnight in Paris and Delrae Panache a few days ago, I thought I would revisit both to see if my perceptions had changed.

Well, in short, they haven't. If anything, Midnight in Paris strikes me as even more vanilla-cloying than before. Perhaps it is the fact I wore it again on quite a warm day. I don't know, but it choked me half to death with that note. Yuck. Sorry...

Panache is still by far the better of the two in my opinion. There's something about the style of Delrae that reminds me a bit of Di Nicolai. Certainly in the case of Panache the combination of rich citrus, perhaps lavender and vanilla that reminds me of Di Nicolai's New York. The difference is New York usually gives me the dry heaves for some weird reason, but luckily Panache doesn't. Still, it is a curious fragrance and I don't know whether I love it, or think I could do with a bit more perseverance!

Scentless Sunday

After a few unseasonably cool days in my part of England, this weekend the weather returned to something resembling late summer. We took advantage of this by taking our daughters to the pool for a swim, followed by a picnic in a park and then a play in an adventure playground. It was a great way to spend quality time with my kids, but I am exhausted now! 

Of course, spending time in a chlorinated swimming pool is hardly the best way to appreciate a fine fragrance, so it was a scentless Sunday for me. I hate it when I don't wear perfume. It may seem silly, but in a way I don't feel complete without it.

By the way, this afternoon we also watched Toy Story 3 on Blu Ray. I've loved all the Toy Story movies - they're brilliant. I don't know if I should be revealing such details on my blog, but I must admit that I shed a couple of tears at the end when Andy leaves Woody, Buzz and the gang with a younger girl as he goes off to college. There's something painful about leaving childhood behind. Now if only I hadn't treated my toys so badly.... !

Delrae Panache

Okay, this is perhaps taking a perfume review to a streamlined extreme, almost a stream-of-consciousness thing. Perhaps this won't be fair to Delrae Panache, but here goes - my 1 minute summary of the fragrance...

Delrae Panache starts with a bit of citrus and lavender. It strikes me as very aldehydic and actually high pitched. A bit of a nod to a bygone age. Smells perfume-y, for want of a better word. It stays citrusy for a long time. The term high pitched comes to mind again because it isn't a warm, fluffy fragrance. It gets a bit greener as it progresses, with a dusting of spice, perhaps a touch of patchouli and a bit herbal. It smells classy and interesting.

Hmm, I can't say that is the most enlightening review I've done on this blog, but that's my first stab.

Note to self - wear Delrae Panache again and give it a bit more thought...

Old favourites revisited part 2

Following on from my recent desire to wear some older, more tried-and-tested fragrances, today I wore Montale's Blue Amber and Costamor's Tabacca. 

Actually, Tabacca is a sample that I only acquired a few months ago, but I very quickly grew to love it. It smells comforting, warmly spicy, fragrantly tobacco-y, with a deft dose of what smells to me like rum or cognac. It's great; nicely relaxed, but there's a lot going on.

Blue Amber is also a lovely fragrance, although still doesn't top my amber gold standard, Uncle Serge's Ambre Sultan. Nevertheless, it is also warm, comforting and relaxed, with a slightly salty tang that manages to cut the sweet amber and prevent it from becoming too powdery.

Like yesterday, I'm feeling the love. Viva.