. If you are not currently being aggregated and think you should be send an email to kevin [at] perfumebloggers (dot) com with your blog URL.Silent Night- Nuit de Noel by Caron
from Colombina (Marina) @ Perfume-Smellin' Things Perfume BlogBy Beth
I love Christmas eve. No matter where I am in the world, that one evening remains ever magical to me. I have spent it wandering in the city, drinking hot chocolate and eating roasted chestnuts, snow falling softly all around the glittering lights, my son learning to glide on ice skates. I have spent it in the country, standing alone in the barn with my horses, listening to them eat
Read the rest here: Silent Night- Nuit de Noel by CaronGold, Frankincense, and Myrrh: The Gifts of the Magi in Perfumery
from Colombina (Marina) @ Perfume-Smellin' Things Perfume BlogBy Marla
The gifts of the three wise men have a long and hallowed history in perfumery. Few ingredients are more romantic and mysterious. Myrrh is a notoriously difficult resin to work with- it is bitter and medicinal, a wonderful antiseptic, in fact. Yet used correctly it adds a grounding balance. Peppery, sweet, and pungent, frankincense absolute is easier to work with, but can easily
Read the rest here: Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh: The Gifts of the Magi in PerfumeryPerfume Review: Bond No 9 Andy Warhol Silver Factory
from Colombina (Marina) @ Perfume-Smellin' Things Perfume BlogBy Tom
One of the things I used to do as a teen was subscribe to “Interview” magazine. “Interview” back in the day was started by Andy Warhol as “The Crystal Ball Of Pop”, and when I was getting it in the early 80’s was a large-format magazine printed on non-glossy paper with gorgeous covers that looked like a cross between air-brushing and graffiti; impossibly handsome pictures of the
Read the rest here: Perfume Review: Bond No 9 Andy Warhol Silver FactoryThe Great Outdoors: Sables and Burning Leaves
from Colombina (Marina) @ Perfume-Smellin' Things Perfume BlogBy Linda
People who know me well know that I love the smell of the dry summer hills on the central coast of California, where I live. I know that sounds like a weird thing for everyone to know about me, but I cannot be restrained from standing around sniffing the air and exclaiming about how good it smells around here in summer. More than good: the dry, golden, rolling hills, forever evocative
Read the rest here: The Great Outdoors: Sables and Burning LeavesJust Call Her Scary Spice: Black Widow Perfume
from Colombina (Marina) @ Perfume-Smellin' Things Perfume BlogBy Donna
If I had to choose just one family/type of perfume to wear, it would probably be florals. Until relatively recently I did not own anything that was entirely free of floral essences. I have always associated spice-based perfumes with Oriental blends that are far too sweet, or Old Spice for men, which is enough to put anyone off spicy scents for life. However, after reading a couple of
Read the rest here: Just Call Her Scary Spice: Black Widow PerfumePerfume Review: Andy Tauer Hyacinth and Mechanic
from Colombina (Marina) @ Perfume-Smellin' Things Perfume BlogBy Tom
Andy has sent his latest scent on a “bottle journey”, where it has gone from perfume lover to perfume lover, who have commented upon it, The latest was Gaia, the Non Blonde, who was nice enough to send it to me.
Like Gaia, I find the opening intensely green. Really intensely green. The succulently green hyacinth is paired with lily of the valley and a bare whiff of cold camphor to make
Oriental Dreams
from Colombina (Marina) @ Perfume-Smellin' Things Perfume BlogBy Alyssa
Scent, so famously linked to memory, brings us back to the scenes of our past, but it can do something stranger: it can take us just beyond the edge of our experience to places and people we have never known, yet claim beyond reason as our own. It doesn’t really matter whether our affinities are nostalgic, aspirational, or ancestral. The powerful experience of smelling something for
Read the rest here: Oriental DreamsFrom the Mouths of Husbands - Marina’s Impossible
from Colombina (Marina) @ Perfume-Smellin' Things Perfume Blog“Good morning Mr. Colombina. Your mission … should you choose to accept it … is to sneak into Colombina’s private scented world … to uncover and deliver top secret information that her readers don’t know about her and her perfumes… and might even be surprised to find out. The free (smelling) world depends on you and your team to expose the essence that is … PST.
Colombina … AKA
Read the rest here: From the Mouths of Husbands - Marina’s ImpossiblePerfume Review: Lubin Vetiver and L’eau Nueve
from Colombina (Marina) @ Perfume-Smellin' Things Perfume BlogBy Tom
Two new scents from the house whose previous release was the reissue of the delicious Idole.
Vetiver starts off sweet and rather cold, its vetiver tinged with grapefruit and pepper. As it moves forward, cloves and a slight bitter rootiness come into play. Further on, incense joins in with a whiff of Tabac Blond. While this reads as surprisingly light, it has a sly sillage; I was getting
Three For The Road From The Outlet Mall
from Colombina (Marina) @ Perfume-Smellin' Things Perfume BlogBy Donna
Not too long ago I found myself at an outlet shopping center, surrounded by enticing stores featuring deeply discounted goods. As any good perfumista would do, I ignored all but one of them; I headed into Fragrance Outlet. A Perfumania store used to be there, but I lost interest in that chain since they never seemed to have samples – you had to buy either a mini or a full bottle
Read the rest here: Three For The Road From The Outlet MallDouble Perfume Review: Frapin Caravelle Epicee, Esprit de Fleurs, Passion Boisee and Terre de Sarment
from Colombina (Marina) @ Perfume-Smellin' Things Perfume Blog…or a Double Dose of Grumpiness
Esprit de Fleurs
Tom:
Esprit de Fleurs is written of as “airy and crystalline”. It is airy, a pleasant bergamotty thing, with a bit of grapefruit and a bare hint of pepper. That accord also has the lasting power of a fruit fly; the scent then morphs into a light woodiness that’s very pleasant.
Marina:
Dry, green floral with a bit of a citrusy sparkle,
Read the rest here: Double Perfume Review: Frapin Caravelle Epicee, Esprit de Fleurs, Passion Boisee and Terre de SarmentForbidden Fruit - Frosty Couture
from Colombina (Marina) @ Perfume-Smellin' Things Perfume BlogBy Beth
Have you ever had a lover, one who was so delicious in all the right ways, but that you’d never be seen in public with? I’ve had a few of those affairs , absolutely delightful in their inappropriateness. There’s nothing like a dalliance with absolutely the wrong man to make you giggle a bit! It seem that there are also certain fragrances created with that similar forbidden appeal
Read the rest here: Forbidden Fruit - Frosty CouturePerfume Review: Spiritueuse Double Vanille by Guerlain
from Colombina (Marina) @ Perfume-Smellin' Things Perfume BlogReview by Tom
Thanks to the incredible generosity of Robin, I now have a quite large decant of this fragrance. This is not a fragrance that I should love at all- I pretty much dislike vanilla in scents as a rule, perhaps because they usually smell to me like Vanillin (that god-awful stuff that substitutes for real vanilla in commercial baked goods). Foody snob that I am, I only like the real
Read the rest here: Perfume Review: Spiritueuse Double Vanille by GuerlainLetting my freak flag fly: Dinner by Bobo
from Colombina (Marina) @ Perfume-Smellin' Things Perfume BlogBy Linda
Sometimes we have to admit to loving something that many others don’t. For me, one of those choices is Dinner by Bobo.
It makes me giggle, it’s simultaneously intimate and elegant, and I find it endlessly interesting—I cannot stop sniffing it. It’s not for everyone, but I have a crush on it that won’t quit. It is kind of a significant other of a fragrance; I don’t necessarily want
Read the rest here: Letting my freak flag fly: Dinner by BoboFrom The Diary of a Scent Addict…
from Colombina (Marina) @ Perfume-Smellin' Things Perfume BlogBy Kelley
OK, so how many bottles of perfume would a greedy person own? I am taking a poll (please aim high as I don’t want to think of myself as really greedy!). I am thinking that as long as I own enough to wear within the span of a lifetime, I am not really greedy. I don’t have a signature fragrance because I look at wearing scent like wearing clothes; I don’t want to wear the same shirt
Read the rest here: From The Diary of a Scent Addict…Perfume Review: Cumming, the Fragrance
from Colombina (Marina) @ Perfume-Smellin' Things Perfume BlogReview by Tom
Celebrity fragrances are an odd breed: they can be Old School, Like Elizabeth Taylor’s White Diamonds, or new style like Paris Hilton’s (insert name of whatever here), which frankly are usually pretty ghastly. Or they can be cutting-edge, like Miller Harris l’Air de Rien (which, since it was designed for Jane Birkin I am counting) and gorgeous.
Cumming, the Fragrance is certainly
Read the rest here: Perfume Review: Cumming, the FragranceA World Apart: The Secret Perfumes Revealed
from Colombina (Marina) @ Perfume-Smellin' Things Perfume BlogBy Donna
For many years, since it first opened in fact, I have been a loyal and appreciative customer of The Perfume House in Portland, Oregon. I have bought some of the finest fragrances the world has to offer, and enjoyed countless others over the years when I would try dozens of scents each visit, yet never getting close to the bottom of the dazzling array the shop offers. New temptations
Read the rest here: A World Apart: The Secret Perfumes RevealedPerfume Review: Alexander McQueen Kingdom
from Colombina (Marina) @ Perfume-Smellin' Things Perfume BlogReview by Kelley
Every time I wear Kingdom, I have this image in my head that I just can’t shake. Have you ever had someone say something to you that almost ruined your enjoyment of a fragrance? I remember reading on Basenotes about a guy that was wearing a spicy, clove based scent to the dentist and now he can’t wear it without feeling sick to his stomach. This problem I have is also because
Read the rest here: Perfume Review: Alexander McQueen KingdomPerfume Review: Sarrasins by Serge Lutens
from Colombina (Marina) @ Perfume-Smellin' Things Perfume BlogReview by Tom
In 1984 (when I was 7), a good friend of mine managed to scam the second of many jobs for me, this time at the Olympic Arts Festival an adjunct to the 1984 Olymics in Los Angeles. I was an East Coast boy, having grown up in New England and at that point living in New York. I sounded (and still do when I am tired) a bit like Katharine Hepburn, had milk-white skin, pale grey-green
Read the rest here: Perfume Review: Sarrasins by Serge LutensThe Three Zens
from Colombina (Marina) @ Perfume-Smellin' Things Perfume BlogBy Marla
Shiseido believes in recycling, and while that’s a good thing for bottles and paper, I’m not sure it’s such a good thing for perfume names. Shiseido has 3 scents with the name of Zen now, and they are all completely different from one another. I own the first two, but won’t be buying the third. Here are mini reviews of all 3 Zens.
The first Zen came out in 1964. It’s in a matte black
Read the rest here: The Three ZensWhat a difference a day makes
from Colombina (Marina) @ Perfume-Smellin' Things Perfume BlogBy Tom
Saturday here was overcast and cool for the first time in a week, which is great news for the firefighters here. Today (Sunday) was hotter, but we might actually get rain on Monday.
I stopped into ScentBar on Saturday to visit the Lutens, since they are now carrying most of the line in the store, not online. I also sniffed the two new Commes des Garcons, Luxe Champaca and Luxe
Read the rest here: What a difference a day makesLucy
from Colombina (Marina) @ Perfume-Smellin' Things Perfume BlogBy Beth
As I went out walking this fall afternoon,
I heard a whisper whispering.
I heard a whisper whispering,
Upon this fine fall day…
As I went out walking this fall afternoon,
I heard a laugh a’laughing.
I heard a laugh a’laughing,
Upon this fine fall day…
I heard this whisper and I wondered,
I heard this laugh and then I knew.
The time is getting near my friends,
The time that I hold
Love, Hate & Revulsion: My Perfume Hall Of Shame
from Colombina (Marina) @ Perfume-Smellin' Things Perfume BlogBy Donna
“…Can’t look it in the eyes
Seconal, Spanish fly, absinthe, kerosene
Cherry-flavored neck and collar
I can smell the sorrow on your breath
The sweat, the victory and sorrow
The smell of fear, I got it
I’ll take you over, there
I’ll take you over, there
Aluminum, tastes like fear
Adrenaline, it pulls us near…”
(Excerpt from “E-Bow The Letter” by R.E.M)
I discovered that I was a little
Read the rest here: Love, Hate & Revulsion: My Perfume Hall Of ShameDzing! went the strings of my heart
from Colombina (Marina) @ Perfume-Smellin' Things Perfume BlogBy Tom
Well, I was back in New York last week. Most of the time was visiting the Connecticut shore visiting my oldest and dearest friend at her parents rambling beach house, and wandering around visiting shops. What is surprising (well surprising to us city-snobs) is that there are so many shops that while smaller, rival any in the city. There was a cheese shop in New London that featured a
Read the rest here: Dzing! went the strings of my heartA Bouquet of Mimosa Blossoms
from Colombina (Marina) @ Perfume-Smellin' Things Perfume BlogBy Linda
About a month ago, my partner texted me from the office. “I just found the prettiest smelling flower in the world,” he told me. “It’s a tree that has feathery leaves and these silky, pink blooms –like tufts.”
“A mimosa?” I asked. “Does it look like a Truffula tree from the Lorax? Does it smell like cucumbers?”
“Yes! As if cucumbers were flowers, which also smelled very delicately
Read the rest here: A Bouquet of Mimosa BlossomsPerfume? Really?
from Colombina (Marina) @ Perfume-Smellin' Things Perfume BlogBy Alyssa Harad
Alyssa Harad is a freelance writer living in Austin, TX. She writes about books, food, gender and sexuality, feminism, her unsuspecting family—and now perfume. A longtime foodie, she is grateful for her new, non-caloric obsession with scent. You can contact Alyssa at ahperfume at gmail dot com.
“Perfume? Really?” said my friend J., his incredulity laced with contempt. “You mean
Read the rest here: Perfume? Really?