Perfume angst

[winter]

I've recently decided on my next signature fragrance - it was pure chance, but I tried out L'Instant Magic de Guerlain and it was almond love at first right. I adore oriental fragrances, always have - Samsara is still my standby for when I want to knock people dead - and as my bottle of Poème by Lancôme wore out, I wanted something different, less floral. I've been getting by with various pure-rose things, but they're really not cutting it, and with L'Instant Magic, I keep sniffing my own wrist obsessively.

And this is the pefectly wrong time for me to notice that there's another fragrance that I'd love, love to have. And it's bloody Mitsouko. I mean, it's Mitsouko - almost 90 years old, freaking chypre, the fragrance every ten-bucks bottle of "Parisian" perfume imitates.

Currently I have L'Instant Magic on my right wrist, Mitsouko on my fingers on the right hand, and possible RSI from turning my hand all the time to sniff them both.

(I also have Vol de Nuit on my left wrist, but buying three bottles of Guerlain perfume to alternate would be madness.)

Comments

[kali921.livejournal.com]

Aaah, Vol de Nuit. I loved that for a while. I grew up with my mom wearing Shalimar and Samsara and being incredibly learned about French perfume, thus I can inventory off a couple of hundred fragrances that I've tried over the past, say, eight years. I finally settled, for now, on Maitre Parfumeur Gantier's Passiflora fraiche, because it smells like passionfruit flowers and isn't all that sweet. I used to love florals and spices, then went for more unusual notes, like Christian Lacroix's fragrance for women - you can't say it's "sweet," or anything remotely thus, but damn if it doesn't smell good.

There are also a bunch of small Italian and French perfume houses that I love, but their stuff is so hard to find over here that it's almost pointless to link to them.

[winter]

I do have the advantage of being a tiny bit closer to Paris ;) I'm generally a fan of older fragrances, but the almond note in L'Instant Magic won me over.

(And um. Am I incredibly old by remembering the premiere of Samsara, or a tot because I was 7 years old at the time? I've worn it to my first costume party in primary school :D)

[kali921.livejournal.com]

Oh, you're not old at all. My mom took to it when it first came out, and I was well into adolescence by that point.

Have you ever tried the products by Santa Maria Novella, from Italy? Their bubble bath, lotions, soaps, and frangiapani perfume are to DIE for. I normally don't like white flower notes - in fact, I hate them - but their stuff smells like nirvana.

Since we're talking about perfume, I'll have to use my most macho icon. Even though I'm a girly girl.

[winter]

I'll have to keep an eye out for that one :) A quick google shows it's not sold in Poland (or generally much in Europe - I see one place in London, one in Brussels, plus the original pharmacy), but I've got a trip to Edinburgh coming on, so I'll try some digging.

[kali921.livejournal.com]

Santa Maria Novella products are made by Italian monks, and date back to something like the 13th century. I think that's so awesome.

They should have an aggressive ad marketing campaign that goes something like:

"Santa Maria Novella: Making People Smell Good for Jesus Since 1271."

[winter]

And here I thought the monks mostly made only booze ;)

[icebluesilver.livejournal.com]

I loooove L'Instant de Guerlain. I made a little blip and got L'Instant D'un Ete, but it's still such a gorgeous scent... I don't care if I'm too young to wear Guerlain perfume, it's a lovely smell. I think the Ete one got rid of some of the more sensual notes though, because I'm not obsessively trying to smell myself ad nauseum with Ete like I do with the original one. Either way, what's Magic like?

[winter]

It's more sensual than the original scent - warmer, I guess, with this gorgeous under-note of caramelised almonds. The beginning is similar, but the more musky, less spicy base notes work better with my skin. Certainly worth a try if you like L'Instant - they only introduced Magic this autumn :)

(And hey, I wore Guerlain at age 8. You're never too young._

[rkold.livejournal.com]

I'm a BPAL/Possets woman myself. lol I find I prefer scents that make one think you've been baking XD;

[winter]

I think I've just been conditioned to like all G perfumes. Except Giorgio Armani, but Diamonds is surprisingly tolerable for something advertised by Beyonce ;)

[rkold.livejournal.com]

I just find the scents of actual commercial perfumes a little overpowering for me. I think I'm a little weird sometimes lol