Perfume Randomness and Unrelated Excitement

Good evening! Today I am writing another little personal update, along with some random perfume thoughts and questions. Many of you have asked about the event I was organizing... Your inquiries warmed my heart :) The event itself was the first annual Cultural Festival... Considering it was the first, there was so much anticipation in the air: the outcome would determine whether the festival would become a tradition to be continued for years to come, or something to be left behind in sadness. My nerves were shattered on the days leading to the event and on the day itself I was a livewire. But I needn’t have worried! The event was not just extremely successful – it was amazing! I do not mean to bore you with non-perfume related details, but I guess I am still so drunk on the success I felt the need to share. I do not know whether any of my board members or committee members ever visit my blog, but if you do: thank you for all your extremely hard work! We did it! I will never forget this day as long as I live. For those of you wondering: I wore Opium FdS on the day... It’s not what my mind would have chosen – that would have been L’Eau Trois – but it is what my heart commanded and I had to obey, gladly I might add.

More excitement: I have a visitor from another country as a guest at the moment, a very special person who came to visit me especially for the festival and together we are traveling to Paris this Monday for three days. Visiting Paris was something of a promise I had made to myself – a little luxury, a little gift for all the hard work that has gone in this year. I do not know whether it will be relaxing as I am planning to visit all the perfumeries I have been longing to see with my own eyes for so long... I have to admit my top two destinations are probably the House of Guerlain and Parfums Caron. (Thank you Christine for your guide, it is invaluable to a first-time Paris visitor with little time on their hands and an ambitious sniffing agenda!) If you have any requests, like things you would like me to investigate while there, please post as a comment here or email me and I will do my best to comply. I am excited, but also slightly stressed. Do you ever have that? Stress before a trip? I always do, it is ridiculous.

So what else has been going on these days? Or rather, what has been going on perfume-wise? Well, first of all I’ve had a disappointment... I think the original Jean-Louis Scherrer perfume has been reformulated - for what I have found in a shop recently smells like a shadow of what I remember it to be. (and I do have a very good fragrance memory...) I am planning to telephone some kindly family member to see if I still have any of the good old stuff back home. I would love to review it, and if I am lucky enough to still have some dregs of the original, I’ll have it sent over and then I can do a side-by-side comparison. Furthermore, following Jenavira’s suggestion, I went to the Yves-Rocher store to sniff Neonatura Cocoon. I did not manage to find it and the SA was unfriendly enough to put me off asking for further information unfortunately. But what I did find was the Elixir de Parfum of Comme une Evidence which is absolutely fabulous. If you happen upon Comme une Evidence please, bypass the EdT concentration completely (it is horrible, really no relation at all between the two) and head for the Elixir, which is to die for. I am buying this as soon as possible – the only reason why it is not in my loving arms already is the fact that the SA really was rather obnoxious and I was not going to give her the pleasure of handing her any money. Finally, I have a request: Do any of you have some information on Les Beaux Arts by Christian Peschke? There are two fragrances, La Dolce and La Vita and their bottles can be seen here. I am afraid that the picture does not do them justice, they are very impressive in real life. I hope one of you has more information on them than I do, but if I get no responses on them I promise to investigate further and report back to you in a couple of weeks time, when I have time to revisit the boutique where I found them. They are quite expensive at around 240 euro each and I am very, very curious about the jus inside.

Pictures of Cultural Festival 2007, personal collection, thanks to J.J.S

L'Eau Trois by Diptyque : Perfume Review

Words could never describe how I feel about this perfume, but I will give it a try even though I’ll probably do my heart that beats to its rhythm injustice. L’Eau Trois must be one of the most unique fragrances I have ever had the joy of experiencing. I am a great lover of chypres and even though this is not traditionally identified as one, to my nose and heart it feels and behaves like one. But that does not even come into play in my mind when I think of all the reasons why I love it so. Diptyque aimed to capture the “scent of the mountainous coastline of Northern Greece” and having grown up just there I feel justified in saying that I know for a fact, they have done an outstanding job. The name too fits with Greece, even though that was most likely not the intention of the makers. Presumably they named it L’Eau Trois because it was their third perfume in the line, but orthodoxy being so tightly embedded in the way of life of the Greeks, I cannot help but think of the meaning of “three” and the role of the holy trinity in Greek daily life.

I moved away from my home country at the age of 18 and even though it is a decision I do not regret, I can’t help but feel a deep longing for it from time to time. Sensory input, in the form of sights, sounds and smells often creates the unsettling feeling of pained longing and nostalgia in my heart. I know this scent so very well... It is the scent that wafts from the hillsides and valleys in the summer as the sun bakes the herbal vegetation and shrubbery mercilessly. This is not the scent of spring or winter. This scent does not come through in shade or moisture. This is the marriage of the burning sun and the blessed herbs that withstand it. Oregano is the most prominent of those herbs, its herbal and somewhat sour character perfectly blended with thyme, myrtle, rosemary and pine. And this is all it is; I just don’t know how they captured the sun. The lasting power is excellent on my skin and I get moderate sillage out of it. I become irrationally possessive at times with this perfume, as though noone else could discover its meaning. It makes me bite my lip with shame. And then I smile, because I know I am wrong: there is a reason why it is still in production in spite (or perhaps because) of its difficult and unique character: Others have walked the same paths. Perhaps they even drove in a car with the window open just as I have, on the same roads. In the same sweltering heat, squinting their eyes because of the same glaring sun. Engulfed by the same aromatic and herbal smells. Unable to keep the smile off their face because of the prospect of the beach and crystal clear azure water that awaits them. I am not alone.

Both pictures are from Chalkidiki in Northern Greece. (alt. sp.: Halkidiki) Sources: www.travel-to-halkidiki.com and www.larioriders.it