The airport

Tomorrow I am going to the airport to fetch my mother in law, who is flying into England to visit us for a month. Now before you even think, or ask the question, yes I do get on ok with my wife's mother. She does all the talking, I do all the listening, and everyone is happy! Jokes aside, she is a good person and we're looking forward to having her.

A rather silly (or perhaps not) question for a rainy Thursday evening (or if you happen to live in any country in the world other than England, a sunny Thursday evening, I am sure) - what perfume would you wear to an airport, or what perfume do you think I should wear to an airport? Bear in mind I am not flying anywhere myself, merely visiting a soulless and glorified bus station.

Two obvious perfumes come to mind, albeit that I won't get off the ground myself, namely Guerlain's Vol de Nuit and Caron's En Avion.

Bottega Veneta - Man vs Woman

Bottega Veneta is one of my favourite mainstream releases of the last year. It isn't flashy - it has a fairly quiet and restrained elegance that speaks of class and good bearing to me. Perhaps that's a slightly snobby perception, but I can't help it.

While I really love the smell of Bottega Veneta, I have to admit that my skin chemistry doesn't bring out the best in the perfume. It smells quite muted on me.

I recently gave my wife a sample and tonight she wore it for the first time. She doesn't wear a lot of perfume, but tonight she is going out for dinner with friends and sprayed some on before leaving the house. Well, what can I say - Bottega Veneta smells absolutely amazing on her. The sillage she left behind as she departed was just stunning, putting this lovely perfume in a whole new light for me.

It goes to show that in this 'battle of the sexes', perfume wise, Woman came out on top!

Christian Dior Eau Noire

Wearing Eau Noire today reminded me of all that can be good about the Christian Dior line. I like a lot of Dior perfumes, including many of the mainstream ones, but one that sent me into a right old tailspin was Leather Oud, which is gorgeously sensuous and sexy. Eau Noire doesn't quite reach the giddy heights of Leather Oud, at least not for me, but nevertheless it is a lovely perfume. 

What can be said about Eau Noire that hasn't been written before? Probably not much, to be honest. What you get here is essentially an Immortelle-focused perfume, with vanilla and woods, lavender and a hint of leather perhaps. Immortelle tends to be a divider of opinion - some like its maple syrup and curry-ish accord, while others despise it. I certainly like it in Eau Noire, when it is evident, but not like a whack over the head. I found the same sort of thing in Chanel's Coromandel for example, where the patchouli was presented in such a way that you were left in no doubt as to the primary ingredient, but it didn't overwhelm. 

Eau Noire has decent lasting power and smells very good. I suspect it would perform better in cooler weather, when I could sense it being more of a comfort scent, but I will need to test it in a few months time and report back. 

Norma Kamali Incense

Thanks to Cymbaline, I finally got to try a sample of Norma Kamali Incense, a perfume I've heard about a lot, but never came across until now. Regular followers of my blog will probably have guessed by now that incense is one of my favourite accords in perfumery and I have tried a lot of incense-focused perfumes. 

It is hard to find any detailed notes for Norma Kamali Incense. The two notes that appear most often are Frankincense and Myrrh, while labdanum gets mentioned too. The opening of Incense was a little baffling, in that it smelled quite muted and even 'oily' in a way. I'm guessing this might have been the phase when Myrrh is at its most dominant. Gradually however, the Frankincense seeps into the composition, gaining strength and poise, until at its zenith, it shines radiant and pure, undiminished by anything else. I say that, but in reality, there is something quite woody about Incense too, which compliments the perfume wonderfully, without detracting from the incense. It is quite difficult to describe Incense. In a way, it is quite linear and simple, yet it is curiously and fabulously complex in its simplicity, if that can make any sense at all. 

I wondered if I would be moved and impressed by Norma Kamali Incense and I can say yes, truly I was. One would be hard-pressed to find such a glorious interpretation of Frankincense. The Myrrh is lost from the heart onward, at least to my nose and labdanum may be there, but is not especially present for me. 

I think I've found my new incense holy grail.

Weekend roundup

It has been an interesting week here in the UK. What with Wimbledon in its second week, torrential rain in Devon and the school summer holidays just round the corner, it is go, go, go.

As the school year winds down, we are personally reflecting on our daughter Hannah's first year in formal education, and even our younger, Daisy, is finishing her first year of pre school! I never realised just how busy it could get. I mean, Hannah is only 5, but it is already difficult keeping on top of everything that happens. Friday was sports day and I was really impressed with Hannah's sporting skills. It is very un-politically correct to be competitive at that age, and it isn't really, but still, I was proud to see that Hannah had some zip and determination and got into the spirit of things. Today was the school's summer festival, but it was somewhat spoilt by outbursts of capricious English downpours.

I was very excited to receive a parcel of perfume samples from my kind friend Cymbaline earlier in the week. There are some wonderful goodies in there and I am slowly working my way through them. I am sure I will write about some of them in the weeks to come.

In addition to trying some of these new samples, I revisited Gaultier's Fleur de Male, a very underrated orange blossom perfume in my opinion. If you are familiar with Le Male (and let's face it, who isn't?) then Fleur de Male will rekindle some of the memories and associations, but I find it to be wonderfully warm and sensuous perfume. In fact, I really like Le Male too, except that every other man and his dog was wearing it for most of the late nineties and early noughties, meaning that you couldn't escape the smell of it!

Tomorrow we are off to London to meet some friends of ours who now live in Germany. I don't think I will manage to get near to any perfume stores, but rest assured that if I do, I will take advantage of the opportunity!

And the winner is.....

Tony Goh!

Tony, please email me your details and I will get the samples off to you as soon as I can.

Thanks to all the people who commented - your suggestions and ideas were all very useful!

Happy Independence Day

To all my friends in America, wishing you all a very enjoyable and restful Independence Day. 

The 4th of July has some significance in my life, not because of any specific connection with the USA, but because my mother and father married on 4 July 1964. Had my mother still been alive today, they would have been celebrating their 48th wedding anniversary! Sadly, my mother is no longer with us, but it is still a day for celebration.