Perfume for the Occasion: Harvest Moon

“Won’t you light the fire darling? I don’t think the summer is coming back...”


The last two weeks of August hid behind a silvery curtain of rain, but still I held hope that the blissful warmth of summer would make a comeback, allowing me to get a little more wear out of my sandals and chiffon shifts. But even as the sun shone the last couple of days, painting the university campus with colorful dots of students studying, smoking and laughing outside the buildings, the wind had carried a chill that sent shivers down our spines. We wore boots instead of sandals, thick jackets instead of light fabrics. The leaves are falling, producing a satisfying crunch under our footsteps. The first mushrooms can already be seen growing next to the thick trunks of trees. It’s Fall.

September must truly be the prince of Fall, full of promise for the year to come, full of novelty for business, academics and a social life that is warming up again and starting to roll as friends come together again after their summer vacations. Swathed in autumn’s new, deeply hued fabrics, it’s out with the old and in with the new for fashion. And the riches keep coming in: September’s knee deep in grapes, making wine. The Harvest Moon brings with it an abundance of grains, nuts and mushrooms. It’s the time of plenty. All this richness has inspired me to suggest that this month we not only embrace, but also pay homage to the season’s prince with perfumes befitting his precious gifts.

Rice: My favorite rice-scented perfume is Kenzo’s Amour, which just induces me to keep sniffing my wrist whenever I have it on. Its opening might seem slightly off-putting to some, since there is a strange heliotrope-plastic accord there, but if you wait just a bit you will be rewarded with a beautiful milky rice-scented heart with all the goodness of rice pudding. YUM! Kenzoki Rice Steam (Sensuel), also by Kenzo, is a fragrant mist meant to be sprayed all over the body, which perfumes and moisturizes the skin at the same time. Its steamed rice accord smells warm, gentle and comforting. It slowly fades into a soft skin-scent smelling vaguely of musk and clean skin. Ormonde Jayne’s Champaca is a gorgeous creation that will perfectly complement this Fall’s richly hued floral dresses but will also comfort the senses with its fragrant, basmati rice accord.

Nuts: I love perfumes with a distinct nutty accord and to my pleasant surprise many recent releases seem to be taking full advantage of the nuts’ autumnal appeal. Bond No. 9’s newest, Lexington Avenue, reveals an intense, beautiful roasted almond paste scent in its opening that is absolutely delicious. Even though the scent thins to reveal a blooming heart as time progresses, this nutty aspect remains a constant in this gourmand’s development. Secret Obsession’s heart in turn, is filled with the earthy nuttiness of a freshly cracked walnut. This beautiful walnut note is rich, buttery and very sexy indeed. Lastly, Creed’s brand new Love in Black, includes the most delicious, mouthwatering blend of nuts whipped with iris butter and cacao. Mmmmm!

Fruit: Burberry is the line I most readily turn to for my dose of Fall fruit. Burberry Brit, with its crystalline note of pear is sure to bring cheerfulness to any dreary old day, and even though I must admit I favor it in warm weather, I’ve lately found that it is perfect for early fall. Burberry Classic on the other hand, is an excellent example of apple rendered perfectly in a dry sophisticated composition, instead of the usual cinnamon laden wintry offerings (nothing wrong with those), or in an awful saccharine juice (the latter however are very wrong indeed!). I love Burberry Classic, which transforms into one of the most glorious fuse-with-my-own-skin-scents I know of in its drydown. It never fails to garner compliments and I always feel wonderful when I wear it.

Celebration: Are you familiar with the Harvest Moon Festival? Why not wear I am a Dandelion by CB I Hate Perfume on the day of the full moon, in honor of the traditional dandelion leaf custom of the day?

...and one for the house: It has to be my beloved Pumpkin Chestnuts candle by L’Occitane of course. Don’t be fooled by the way! Pumpkin might be more associated with October, but the truth is they make their appearance in September, along with squash, waiting to be made into delicious soup. This candle smells deliciously buttery, earthy, nutty and vanillic and will make the room smell oh-so-delightfully cozy.

The end of summer is always difficult to accept, but I hope this month’s Perfume for the Occasion has not only given you many ideas, but has also inspired you to embrace September with a smile and of course, the appropriate scent.

Images: www.imageafter.com, Flickr by Surplusparts, Visualpanic and Spiralz, www.sxc.hu

The Beat by Burberry : Perfume Review

The dry, wonderful skin-scent Burberry Classic, the lightly sweet, summery, honeyed Weekend, the exuberant, succulent Brit and the lovely, warm and comforting Brit Red, are all favorites, quality mainstream scents, that have made Burberry a brand that is well loved among perfume lovers. Even though neither the fragrances, nor the packaging and advertisements can be described as groundbreaking, Burberry has built a solid and rightly faithful relationship with consumers, largely due to the consistent quality of their scents. I count myself among the many that have come to expect good things from this brand, so I was eager to sniff their newest offering, The Beat.

Now, as I mentioned a couple of months ago in an unrelated post, my first impressions of The Beat were not entirely favorable. In fact, I found myself quietly disappointed by both the juice and the packaging. Yes, the juice was indeed nowhere near groundbreaking once again, but on top of that, smelling it on the blotting paper it seemed downright generic. Since then I have had the opportunity to test the scent more leisurely at home, both on my own skin and on the skin of a couple of friends and my impressions have changed to its favor. The opening is strangely incongruent, featuring a mildly citrusy, slightly soapy and intensely clean breeze over something very obviously warm. The effect can be likened to a clean smelling mantle of ice draped over a burning heart. As you might imagine, this feeble construction disintegrates almost instantly, the cool, clean top quickly melting away to reveal what it never quite managed to conceal anyway: a warm, gooey center of interesting, spicy sweetness. Unfortunately, like a miniature dragon that was bred to be someone’s pet, The Beat will never really blow fire or snort clouds of brimstone. The farthest it will venture into misbehaving is blowing a bubble or two when it hiccups. The spices never really scintillate the senses and the warmth never manages to spread like wildfire. In fact, the longer it stays on the skin the more it fizzles out, becoming milder and softer. Half an hour later we are left with the attractive sourness of a green apple dusted with black pepper and an aromatic tea blend, still dry. Nice enough and strangely familiar, like the face of an old friend whose name you can’t quite remember. Interestingly, what’s surprisingly more pleasurable than smelling The Beat on oneself, is smelling it on someone else. No, really. In fact, smelling it on someone else comes almost as a revelation. A single spray is enough to have this little baby lazily bouncing from wall to wall like an echo. It radiates from afar with quiet allure, never being obtrusive, but rather slowly coming in and out of consciousness, always as a pleasant surprise. It feels like a shining kind of warmth when it comes from another, spicy, pleasant, kind.

The Beat comes across as rather unisex, not particularly feminine and certainly not traditionally masculine, comfortably falling somewhere in the middle. The warm, slightly sweet and spicy scent is rather comforting, definitely better suited to the colder months of the year. The bottle itself echoes the unisex appeal of the fragrance, shaped like a spirit flask adorned with the brand’s signature plaid pattern. Definitely not the type of bottle I personally crave to display on my dresser, but I have no doubt this well designed, attractive object will appeal to many, as indeed, will the juice within.

Images: www.burberrythebeat.com

Perfume for the Occasion : Winter Holiday Scents

Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, New Years Eve ... All sorts of Winter Holidays are fast approaching, and even though it is still early, the beauty world is already busy, with companies like Givenchy already releasing this year’s holiday limited edition products. Alright, I’ll admit, it is a tad early to start contemplating winter holidays, but when TMH of For the Love of Perfume and I started discussing this month’s Perfume for the Occasion feature, we were both taken by the idea of writing about it anyway! And after all, the long, cold winters do seem to gain pace and become bearable when we have the holidays to look forward to! Now, I chose to concentrate on Christmas Holidays and not spread this feature’s focus to the rest of the winter holidays for several reasons. For starters, I have been daydreaming about Christmas for a while now. As the weather gets cold and dreary, planning my yearly Christmas-time trip definitely keeps me going. I can’t wait to see my family and old friends again! Secondly, I felt it would be presumptuous of me to write about Hanukkah or Thanksgiving when these are holidays I’ve never experienced myself and whose atmosphere eludes me. There are few things I know about either of these holidays, and even though I am utterly crazy about apricot filled Sufganiyot, this hardly qualifies me as an expert. So, rather than offend with my lack of knowledge, I found it preferable to write about something I know instead. As for Halloween, I found it hard to get further than typical apple-centered perfumes like Be Delicious and the new Nina – which I happen to hate. I would have loved to have a pumpkin fragrance to suggest, ever since I fell head over heels in love with the scent of last year’s limited edition L’Occitane pumpkin candles, but so far I have been unable to find one. Do you have a pumpkin scented suggestion for me? Please do share if that is the case!

• The One:
  If I were forced to limit my suggestions to only one perfume for the Christmas Holidays, Lolita by Lolita Lempicka would definitely be the one. With notes such as anis, heliotrope, vanilla, licorice and tonka, this beautiful gourmand-oriental scent has no trouble bringing to mind Christmas candy canes and lovely confectionary delights suited to the holidays. This scrumptious scent manages to be at once sweet and deeply sexy, without being sickly. And even though it definitely has a lot of presence, it stops short from being as oppressing as its Angel cousins. It is not just its gourmand qualities that make this perfect for Christmas though: Lolita’s character is exuberant, happy, full of confidence, making it a perfect choice for the season in which all the unlikely, attention grabbing, festive outfits have their day. Even the ornamental flacon seems to match the bauble-studded season, making application a primer for the parties that are sure to follow.



• Family Lunches:
  Be it is ham, game or turkey that is on the menu, many, if not most, families follow the tradition of coming together for a Christmas Day lunch. And even those not bound by family obligations on the day are often invited to festal lunches organized by their close friends. Whether you are the guest or the host in this occasion, the choice of perfume is a delicate one in this instance. The spread on offer is likely to be elaborate and the cook will have labored long and hard in the kitchen to make sure everything goes according to plan. The focus is meant to be the warm atmosphere, the interpersonal relations and the delicious meal prepared for this special event. It is not the time to draw attention to oneself with an heavy, intricate sillage monster. The often-overlooked Fleurs de Citronnier by Serge Lutens is perfect for the occasion. Artfully moving and at the same time subtle, Fleurs de Citronnier opens with a very realistic rendition of a lemon tree with focus on the beautiful scent of the blossoms. In the drydown, this gorgeous fragrance turns into a beautiful skin-scent, softly reminiscent of creamy lemon-cookies, icing sugar and powder. It truly is a wonderful creation that will perfectly accompany a meal from starter to desert.



• Christmas Shopping:
  No, no, no, I am not talking about hideously rushed, last-minute Christmas shopping. This is not about shopping with a list, or with a definite purpose. This is about going downtown, visiting the beautifully decorated shops during the holiday season. This is about indulgent, leisurely shopping, when every moment is savored and enjoyed. Don’t you just love seeing the city streets filled with well-dressed men and women enjoying the holiday spirits? Do you also love seeing everyone’s happiness reflected in their faces? Isn’t the hustle and bustle of the shops exciting in that time of the year? Isn’t it easy to picture, even now, how everyone quickly rushes into warmly lit cafes for an indulgent cup of chocolate viennoise as it gets dark? I dare you to forget about how tiring Christmas shopping can be this year. Do it early, then use the holiday shopping excursions for much more leisurely pursuits. Yes, go out there, see and be seen! Wear your winter city-best, wrap yourself in a luxurious cashmere pashmina stole and exchange your flats for heels. The perfume that fits the occasion best? It has to be Shalimar, true queen of luxury when it comes to ambery orientals. Its vanillic, slightly animalic amber character will keep you warm and safe, protected from the cold winds. You will be in your own bubble of comfort while at once exuding charm and sophistication. I love opoponax in wintry weather and Guerlain’s Shalimar makes wonderful use of this delightful note. I know it is a difficult perfume, but even those who can’t love it will surely agree, there’s no other like it for the occasion. Allow yourself to be a lady of leisure even for a day and I know Shalimar will hug you for it.



• The Office Party:
  This is one occasion where you are required to be festive and controlled at the same time. Choosing an outfit is hard enough already and most women fall back to the safety provided by their favorite Little Black Dress. The equivalent of “festive yet controlled” perfume-wise for me is Burberry Classic, which is at once spicy, effervescent and joyful without compromising maturity and sobriety. It is as safe, as versatile and also as sexy as a Little Black Dress. It is a skin scent with unique appeal. It will be good enough for the office party and it will be great for an evening in front of the fireplace too. It will do for coffee or tea with friends in a little cafe whose windows are misted over and it will do great for informal seasonal visits to family and friends. It will set you apart, but it will not draw unwanted attention. In other words, it is perfect. You can read a full review of Burberry Classic here.



• New Year’s Eve:
  Giving a definite pick for this one night would be unfair. New Year’s Eve is already riddled with enough too-high expectations and oftentimes subsequent disappointments to risk wearing a perfume you are not entirely sure about. So even though you might be tempted to bring out everything that’s new out on that night, including your scent, my advice is to stick with your one of your established, dearest, most treasured perfumes. Ideally, you have a number of those! If so, choose the one that sparkles, the one that makes you feel confident and optimistic, and of course, sexy. Lasting power is of great importance too, as you will likely be busy until very late. A last piece of advice: Don’t be afraid of big scents for this special evening. Go all out, indulge, make your heart be glad with whatever it desires!



• Home Scent:
  If you are lucky enough to be a domestic goddess who will spend a lot of time baking wonderful goodies and regularly throwing orange and mandarin peels in the fireplace, there is no need to read this section! Your house will already smell delicious due to your efforts, you admirable creature! For those of us who are more...domestically challenged (or, aherm...lazy...) though, some solution has to be found to make the house smell Christmassy. I swear by Marks & Spencer’s yearly limited edition Frankincense & Myrrh burner oil. The smell is gorgeous – everyone who steps into the house immediately exclaims how wonderful the house smells. The scent is spicy, with orange-glazed cinnamon and cloves overtones, which give the house a beautiful, warm atmosphere. I love this so much, I stockpile during the holidays just so that I can use it throughout winter.

Images Courtesy of: www.freefoto.com and http://commons.wikimedia.org

Burberry by Burberry : Perfume Review

Last night an email prompted me to prepare a skin scent review for today. I wanted to challenge myself by picking something I do not personally wear and I thought I had the perfect contender in my samples drawer: Murmure by Van Cleef & Arpels. Such a misleading name... The darned thing was nothing short of a scream, a foghorn in the dead of the night! Disappointed, I decided to fall back on a well-known friend instead: Burberry by Burberry.

In a series of puzzling marketing moves, the perfume released in 1995 and originally known as Burberry was subsequently renamed Burberry London, only to have its name changed once again recently to plain old Burberry when the new Burberry London scents were released by the British fashion house. The folly of those moves becomes especially apparent when one considers than not all online listings have been brought up to speed with the changes, resulting in considerable confusion. Fans of the fragrance have affectionately dubbed it Burberry Classic, or less eloquently in times of exasperation, as “the one in the pebble shaped bottle”. This is not an undeserving description of the flacon. It is indeed very reminiscent of a large pebble, not only in shape, but also in weight and feel. Its smooth surface fills the palm of one hand very adequately and its substantial weight somehow turns the process of application into a simple luxury, if only because of the slight extra effort one has to exert when using it. It is not a bottle you can just pick up for a quick spray and then drop back onto your dressing table thoughtlessly, and it is this that forces application to be more thoughtful than usual even in the most casual of perfume wearers. The masculine stopper and the simple lines of the flacon set the stage for the clean luxury of the perfume itself.

It all begins with almost effervescent, sparkling fruit. Mouthwatering peach and apricot shine brightly with the addition of fresh mint and brisk bergamot. Despite the full-bodied appeal of these fruits, Burberry always remains rather dry even at the top of its development, with the helpful combination of apple and tagetes. Even though I am not a fan of fruit notes generally speaking, Burberry is one of the few examples that brings out a different aspect of how fruit can be done and manages to get it right for me. It is the dryness of this fragrance that always keeps me interested and intrigued, explored further with the addition of geranium and cedar in the middle notes. Together with sandalwood, musk and amber, these notes conspire to make this fragrance intensely powdery. The end result feels completely parched of any moisture; it is a sheer powder that covers the skin with comfortable cleanness, warmed by a generous dollop of bourbon vanilla. It adheres to the body like a second skin, blurring the lines between one’s own personal scent and the fragrance itself. It is at once comforting and sensual, classy and familiar, like the bosom of a sexy, curvaceous woman in a cashmere sweater. In fact Cashmere would have been the most apt name for this perfume in my oppinion, done so much better than Cashmere by Chopard. While on the subject of perfume comparisons,
Skin by Trussardi smells very, very similar to Burberry, but it is far inferior and nowhere near as dry. Speaking of which, it is still early days, but I do wish to start archiving these reviews at some point – and aside from the more obvious house-name archiving, I would also like to make a perfume-alikes / comparisons link. Something to look forward to in the future.

Pictures courtesy of www.amazon.com, www.dann-online.com and www.duon.de respectively.