Matt and I had a romantic weekend get away in early December - beautiful hotel on the Ile St Louis in Paris, foul weather, and lots of, well, nothing. We ate well, slept well (except for the first night when a rutting couple howled like the eponymous monkeys, intermittently from midnight until 6, due no [...]
Paris and the plummeting pound
December 18th, 2008 — , Perfume Review from Lee @ Perfume Posse
Caldey Island Lavender
December 1st, 2008 — , Perfume Review from Lee @ Perfume Posse
I’m not the most settled of sleepers, so lavender is amongst many of my friends in trying to find a better shut-eye rhythm at night. Hops, valerian - you’ve had your turn too. So that, along with the five star rating from Turinia (thanks, Jonathan Meade), had me pop very few pennies for a bottle [...]
Manly Trio
November 20th, 2008 — , Perfume Review, ormonde jayne from Lee @ Perfume Posse
I’m going to try to write about perfume, but I’m fuming at the moment. The kitchen looks like it’s been set up for a toddler group’s first experience of paddling - puddles everywhere. There’s a leak under the sink I can’t seem to fix cuz the u-bend join keeps fu messing up and no amount [...]
Dithering and Deferral
November 6th, 2008 — , Eau d'Italie, Frederic Malle, L'Artisan Parfumeur, Perfume Review, Serge Lutens from Lee @ Perfume Posse
Do you put off buying things for no good reason other than you can? Or do you just buy on impulse? I used to be the total buy on impulse type, but slowly I’ve been a-changing and now, well, now, I procrastinate.
Let me tell you what I’m procrastinating over at the moment. I have a [...]
Top Ten of Fall
October 30th, 2008 — , Perfume Review from Lee @ Perfume Posse
Yep, it’s that time again — Fall’s Top 10. As usual we’re going to cheat it. Here are some of the ways to welcome fall–
Skanky - you knew we’d start here, didn’t you? If you’ve been holding back because of the warmer weather, now’s the time to break out your favorite cumin-rich, musk-ridden, armpit-redolent scents. [...]
Poivre 23 winners
October 17th, 2008 — , Perfume Review from Lee @ Perfume Posse
The blog was down when I was around yesterday, so no real post today. Plus, I have a cold that has now managed to block up my sinuses and destroy my sense of smell - the words of wisdom (ha) about Dzongkha, Baume du Doge and other Duchaufour marvels will have to wait. As will [...]
Le Labo Poivre 23
October 2nd, 2008 — , Le Labo, Perfume Review from Lee @ Perfume Posse
I’m a country bumpkin. It’s official. I’m used to beautiful landscapes, but I’m struck dumb nowadays, whenever I head into London, by the beautiful people who surround me. It is a such contrast to where I live, I’m sure (except for Matt, of course!). I really feel it. I had to wait for 15 minutes [...]
A disappointment, a delight, a rediscovery
September 18th, 2008 — , Parfum d'Empire, Perfume Review, Serge Lutens from Lee @ Perfume Posse
I really like Parfums d’Empire. Cuir Ottoman was lovely, Fougere Bengale interesting, and Ambre Russe the largest amber I know (and unwearable for me, but ymmv). I haven’t sniffed Yuzu Fou, their other latest release, but I’ve now tried Aziyade. The richness of Ottoman Turkey turns out to be this - supermarket brand cola spilled [...]
Continue reading → A disappointment, a delight, a rediscovery
Ménage à trois: The Party in Manhattan
September 4th, 2008 — , Perfume, Perfume Review, Review, The Party In Manhattan, manhattan, party from Lee @ Perfume Posse
No, this will not be an account, Woody Allen style, of confused and neurotic love bumblings in the Big Apple. Nor will it be a warts and all exposé of sexual shenanigans in your favourite scent store. Instead it’s a one-off three way perfume review from Patty, March and I. Hope you’re not too disappointed.
A [...]
Growing stuff, by Lee
August 21st, 2008 — , Perfume Bloggers, dogs from Lee @ Perfume Posse
I like it. Growing stuff, that is. Today I had a general tidy of the allotment, which meant:
Squishing caterpillars. I used to relocate them from my cabbages in some right-on, hippyish vein, but I realised I had to relocate thousands, and got bored of being beardy. I now squeeze them between my gloved and [...]
What I did in the summer - by Lee, aged 39 and 11 months (almost)
August 7th, 2008 — , dogs from Lee @ Perfume Posse
My summer isn’t yet over (all of August off work), so it’s fair to say I’m being a little previous (as my ma would say) with my title. Still, I’m reminded of those turgid and asinine assignments teachers would set in primary school to fill some time while they got their act together. In my [...]
Continue reading → What I did in the summer - by Lee, aged 39 and 11 months (almost)
Ten thoughts about perfume and its people
April 8th, 2008 — , Perfume Review from Lee @ Perfume Posse
1) Scentaholics are a curious breed. Seemingly feeling things more strongly than the mainstream, their faces show reactions to smells that for most would be hyperbole. For us, the curious few, those faces are normality.
2) Alongside this tendency to feel things strongly, many scent fans also express things in intense …
Continue reading → Ten thoughts about perfume and its people
Woof
April 1st, 2008 — , dogs from Lee @ Perfume Posse
My excitement over perfume has gone away for a while. At the moment its plants - including vegetables and fruiting ones, of course - and dogs. Again. Forgive this digression.
Dogs. In particular, Hungarian wirehaired vizslas (or vizslak, if you want to be grammatically correct). Gawd, I love ‘em. Temperament, energy, …
Trumpet tootling
March 25th, 2008 — , Perfume Bloggers from Lee @ Perfume Posse
I’m having a busy week. We have very close friends staying with us, it’s seed planting time, and there’s work. So today I’m recycling on the blog. Climate change and all that.
In January, a journalist contacted perfumeposse wanting some copy for an article to be published in the Spring / …
Online StoresNiche Nasties
March 18th, 2008 — , Lorenzo Villoresi, Maître Parfumeur et Gantier, Montale, Perfume Review, Perfumes by House from Lee @ Perfume Posse
Okay, I’m dashing in today. Training teachers, writing curriculum material, implementing improvement plans - I have no room left for work folks! I’m all about the smells and the plants, people. Wish my bank would understand. So work it is, and hence the brief(ish) post today.
I’m a positive person. Us …
Scented milestones
March 11th, 2008 — , Perfume Review from Lee @ Perfume Posse
In As You Like It (one of my favourites, just for the pure gender play frolics of Rosalind as Ganymede), Jacques famously talks of the seven ages of man, in his standard less-than-chirpy terms, the great big sulky drawers. 400 years ago, people’s lives were a lot shorter, and Jacques …
Online StoresWhat time is it?
March 4th, 2008 — , Perfume Review, Serge Lutens from Lee @ Perfume Posse
Summer time?
All the time?
Even more all the time?
Part-time?
Closing time?
Are you sure it isn’t closing time?
Trippy time?
Hammer time?
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme?
Just Rosemary and Thyme?
No, silly! It’s none of those. It’s time to announce the winners, that’s what time it is…
The most competitive draw was for Bois Farine - Sue …
Online StoresMaking room
February 26th, 2008 — Perfume Review from Lee @ Perfume Posse
Three days until March - which in my book is officially spring. Yahooeeey! Now I know some of you poor folk are shrouded in snow and permafrost yet, but here daffodils are all opened up, leafbuds are swelling ready to burst, the sap is rising so fast it’s almost …
Comfort time
February 19th, 2008 — Perfume Review from Lee @ Perfume Posse
It’s the fag end of winter, though the weather here is doing its usual end-of-season last gasp - sharp morning frost, freezing fog, but then glorious sunshine from midmorning onwards. I thought winter had bypassed us once more, but Jack Frost has been nipping at the windows and burning incipient …
Online StoresMona di Orio’s Amyitis
February 12th, 2008 — Perfume Review from Lee @ Perfume Posse
I fell in love with Mona di Orio’s scents quite some time ago when a lovely internet friend in the Netherlands sent me some samples, including a large decant of Oiro, her richly brocaded jasmine and sunlight glitterball. I now own three - Lux, Carnation, Nuit Noire. Two I bought …
Mainstream and Morris
February 5th, 2008 — Perfume Review from Lee @ Perfume Posse
Apologies to all non-American and non-UK residents here, as this post assumes, stupidly, that you live in either place. I do actually know lots of you don’t. But I’m writing about American ‘fumes today.
I know we’re two nations divided by a common language, but sometimes I just don’t get why …
Online StoresAnniversary cravings
January 29th, 2008 — Perfume Review from Lee @ Perfume Posse
29 January 1992. Another dreary winter day struggled to dawn; he did too, for an early tutorial about his research project. By mid-afternoon, he was sitting in the English common room, pretending to read. Interests and concerns at this point in time: 1) Literary theory, particularly fancypants poststructuralist stuff with …
Off topic ramble
January 22nd, 2008 — Perfume Review from Lee @ Perfume Posse
I tried to write about perfume, honest, but other things got in the way.
On Saturday, we went out to have a meal with a couple of friends, chew the cud, the usual stuff. I’d been perky all day but found myself getting quieter and quieter as evening progressed. I seemed …
Perfume Posse Scent Club - Incense
January 15th, 2008 — Perfume Review from Lee @ Perfume Posse
I don’t frequent perfume forums (fora?) as much as I used to, but I know that, alongside the ‘What (never Which…) colognes do chicks really dig?’ style questions, another frequent one, sometimes in poll form, is ‘Who do you wear scents for?’
The question puzzles me, for its starting point seems …
Online StoresReview: Comme Des Garcons Luxe Patchouli and 888
January 8th, 2008 — 888, Comme des Garcons, Perfume, Perfume Review, Review, luxe patchouli, review from Lee @ Perfume Posse
I’m not feeling brilliant but I need to write a review - I’ve been dithering with other stuff here for way too long. But, given my febrile state, there’ll be no preamble (other than this, erm, meta-preamble), no discussion of CDG’s quirks and funny spots, no anecdotal asides. Well, that’s …
Online StoresContinue reading → Review: Comme Des Garcons Luxe Patchouli and 888
Happy New Year
January 1st, 2008 — Perfume Review from Lee @ Perfume Posse
My new year’s resolution? To sort out my damascones from my ethyls from my ionones. That’s right folks - better living through chemistry. And I’m intent on studying, at the molecular level.
What’s yours?
I’m still busy with the last of the holiday whirlwind, but I’ve just enough time to say hop …
Online StoresOnce at Patty’s Perfume Posse
December 25th, 2007 — Perfume Review from Lee @ Perfume Posse
(Sung to the tune of ‘Once in Royal David’s City’)
Once at Patty’s Perfume Posse
arrived a silly chap named Lee,
where two women, wise and gifted
wrote on perfume, all for free:
Patty was the first of these,
March joined in, composed with ease.
He admired their words and writings,
grew to love their tastes and …
Decisions, decisions
December 18th, 2007 — Perfume Review from Lee @ Perfume Posse
First off, I forgot to tell you who the Menardo winner was from two weeks back. It was you, Joan. Expect an email asking for your address sometime soon. I’ll also throw a sample of Jubilation XXV in there too.
I want to write about Jubilation XXV, but I’m holding off …
Online StoresHoliday Scent Club: Winter Delice and Theorema
December 11th, 2007 — Perfume Review from Lee @ Perfume Posse
She watched the snow fall, large gobbets of flakes clinging together in clumps, settling on the window ledge, only inches from her face. Her sighing breath formed a neat round oh on the glass, slowly shrunk and disappeared, only to be replaced by its successor. She sighed more heavily and …
Online Stores- Sleds Snow Tubes Winter Sports
- Snow Blowers Outdoor Power Equipment Yard, Garden Outdoor Living
- Snow White Figurines Contemporary 1968-Now Disneyana Collectibles
Continue reading → Holiday Scent Club: Winter Delice and Theorema
I *heart* Menardo
December 4th, 2007 — Perfume Review from Lee @ Perfume Posse
My title says it all, and it’s no secret cos I mentioned it a month ago. But I have love affairs with many perfumers, and most don’t last four weeks, or sustain that love over more than two perfumes. As a preamble, I’ll list one or two of them who …
Online StoresHere Come the Girls
November 27th, 2007 — Perfume Review from Lee @ Perfume Posse
Two things this week. First though, my internet connection is glitchy which means I’ve lost two versions of this post somewhere in the ether. Oh well, third time lucky.
1
Although I often have difficulty being a proud Brit (all sorts of reasons why, but neither time or space right now my …
Patience
November 20th, 2007 — Perfume Review from Lee @ Perfume Posse
… is the name of the new fragrance by little known Portuguese house Para errar e humano, and I was lucky enough to score a sample by first pimping my body to the highest bidder, then abseiling from the Houses of Parliament, and finally parading naked from John O’Groats to …
Online StoresNovember mists
November 13th, 2007 — Perfume Review from Lee @ Perfume Posse
Sometimes the real heat of summer is best summed up by visuals that are almost abstract. When it swelters, cars can lift off the ground, people’s heads separate from their bodies, their shoulders widening, then wobbling, before returning to true. Trees quiver as though root-rocked by a terrible storm and …
Online StoresNew sniffs on the block
November 7th, 2007 — Perfume Review from Lee @ Perfume Posse
Hey, thanks for checking in. You’ve probably noticed there’s not much here right now. That’s because I’ll be typing this whilst most of you are still asleep in bed. Please check back later. Love you.
What I’m loving
November 5th, 2007 — Perfume Review from Lee @ Perfume Posse
A brief post, with a brief overview, of things I’m briefly, or lengthily, loving.
Matt bought me some filing boxes - lovely little faux suede beauties - for my decants and samples. It’s a delight to have things organised alphabetically by house. Next, I’ll be wanting all those little bitty vials …
Un Brin de Reglisse
October 30th, 2007 — Perfume Review from Lee @ Perfume Posse
Lavender and licorice. Whilst these two alliterative notes may not exactly plunge all and sundry into scented horror, they’re unlikely to top the list of favourites for any but a handful of weirdos (and I mean that as a compliment, I guess). I know quite a few scentaholics who dislike …
Online StoresPut em up! It’s the men’s scents knock out roustabout!
October 23rd, 2007 — Perfume Review from Lee @ Perfume Posse
LAYdeez and GENulMEN! Roll up! Roll up! It’s take down time! Who’s gonna be the winnaah of the department store dust up? Which scent’s got the cojones to KO the other fumes with a quick one-two of the ole atomiser? Which of these here puppies’ll be loving you long time, …
Online StoresContinue reading → Put em up! It’s the men’s scents knock out roustabout!
Unisex Man: born to notshop
October 16th, 2007 — Perfume Review from Lee @ Perfume Posse
I don’t make a secret of it: I’m a crap shopper. Unless I’m with a fellow fragnatic and can talk and explore, I don’t much get the idea of wandering from store to store, perusing product. Shopping’s only good with company, and then only for smells. If I’m in a …
Online StoresThe boy goes weekly
October 9th, 2007 — Perfume Review from Lee @ Perfume Posse
We fourplayed for quite some time, didn’t we? To be honest, it wasn’t always a fourway thing - once in a while, one of us would be away, but in general we managed to keep it going. Much to Patty’s generosity I might add - those samples didn’t often …
Online StoresBest of British
October 2nd, 2007 — What Smells from Lee @ Perfume Posse
There I was, waxing lyrical somewhere or the other about how much I love the autumn, and here I am now, nursing a cold, watching the teeming rain through the sash window as it makes the giant oat grass bow down under its weight. Hello, weather gods! I meant autumn …
Empirical Investigation
September 19th, 2007 — What Smells from Lee @ Perfume Posse
One of my aims in life is to keep Patty happy with smell pleasures, and my samples up for review today will be winging their way across the Atlantic as you read this - if I can dare to part with them, that is. Because, for these past five days, …
Online StoresUndercover perfumisto
September 4th, 2007 — What Smells from Lee @ Perfume Posse
I’ve gendered that silly word above, but feel somehow it’s still not right. Oh well.
I started a new job last week. For thirteen years, I’ve been at the chalkface / whiteboard / interactive digital medium, facing pupils / students / a learning focused (ha!) client base. Now, instead, I’m working …
Generous with the Samples
August 22nd, 2007 — What Smells from Lee @ Perfume Posse
Before I get onto today’s topic, please tell me why I am so suddenly craving a sniff of the new Parfum d’Empire scents? - especially the horsey one and the Bengal Fougere… Oh yeah, baby! They’re not out yet (September sometime I think), yet I GODDAM NEED ‘EM TO BE, …
Sniffing with Louise, and a U-turn
August 7th, 2007 — What Smells from Lee @ Perfume Posse
Louise is a regular blog-commenter here (and if you think this blog is all about the posts, and not the comments, you’ve gone wrong somewhere. No offence, team, but them there posters add a little spice to my life and I’d be lost without ‘em), and she happened to be …
Allotting time
July 25th, 2007 — What Smells from Lee @ Perfume Posse
Dear friends
I’m a little late in posting today. I’ll tell you why…
When I woke this morning, the sun was shining. Now, in our dismal northern European summer, this year that’s been a rare event. I drew back the curtains and did a little boogie at the day. It must be …
Online StoresMarchless Fourplay
July 18th, 2007 — What Smells from Lee @ Perfume Posse
This time round, we’re hitting you with a Bertrand Duchaufour double whammy, care of l’Artisan Parfumeur: two arguably masculine numbers - the hazelnut, liquorice, cedar and honey blend of Mechant Loup; the papyrus, pink pepper and vetiver blend of Timbuktu.
What do we all think?
First up, Mechant Loup:
Patty: Mechant Loup is …
Online StoresDeferment, with an aside on neckties.
July 11th, 2007 — What Smells from Lee @ Perfume Posse
If forced to pigeonhole ourselves according to the Couples’ Lifestyles, Lifechoices and Lifehabits Categorisation System ™, Matt would probably class me as the risk-taking impulsive partner and himself as the more Steady Eddie type. He always knows what’s in his bank account; I rarely look. He makes checklists to give …
Online StoresCue the Fireworks
July 3rd, 2007 — What Smells from Lee @ Perfume Posse
Dear Friends
May I take this opportunity to send you my commiserations. You threw the tea in the harbour (please note the CORRECT spelling) and ended up with Lipton’s; you fought for freedom on your streets and pavements, and ended up with sidewalks; you pronounce ‘vase’ and ‘herb’ ridiculously. Still, you …