BLOOD Concept: B

Tags

Antonio Zuddas, Artemisia, Autumn, B, Black Cherry, Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, Black Tea, BLOOD Concept, eau de parfum, Etat Libre d'Orange, Full Bottle Wishlist, Giovanni Castelli, Goreshock, Halloween, Men, Men's Fragrances, Metallic Notes, Niche, Novelty, Occasion, Patchouli, Pepper, Perfume, Pomegranate, Red Apple, Review, Season, Secretions Magnifique, Series, spicy, Tea Time, Tek, Winter, Wishlist, woody oriental

Blood freaks me out.   I’m a wimp when it comes to getting my blood drawn. Just a mere peak at the red stuff makes me woozy and wobbly.  Even typing the word BLOOD makes me queasy.  So you can imagine how uncomfortable today’s creepy feature is going to be for me. I just hope I don’t end up kissing the hardwood floor before I finish this review.

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Prada: Candy

Tags

Aqualina, Benzoin, Bow Wow Wow, Candy, Caramel, Daniela Andrier, Designer, eau de parfum, Feminine, Flowerbomb, Foodie Fumes, Full Bottle Wishlist, Gourmand, Halloween, Katie Puckrik, Le Labo, Love & Toast, Mainstream, Neiman Marcus, Perfume, Pink Sugar, Pomme Poivre, Prada, Review, Season, Sephora, Series, Vanilla, Vanille 44, Viktor & Rolf, White Musk, Winter, Wishlist

 

Halloween is around the corner which explains why I have a sweet tooth. This week’s focus on dark vanilla (Love & Toast’s Pomme Poivre and Le Labo’s Vanille 44)  is a tell-tell sign of my subliminal yearning for the confectionery.

In all honesty, when I saw Prada’s Candy ad this summer, I was prepared to pass it off as another one hit wonder.  I immediately thought of sickly sweet fragrances flying off the shelves of Sephora like Aquolina Pink Sugar and Viktor & Rolf’s Flowerbomb. Two perfumes which I abhor. The smell alone puts me into a diabetic coma. Much to my chagrin, in a market saturated with sugary gourmands, here comes another new candy fragrance called, get ready for this… 

Le Labo: Vanille 44 (Paris Exclusive)

Tags

Alberto Morillas, All Year, City Exclusive, Colette, eau de parfum, Full Bottle Wishlist, gaiac, Graveyard, hedion, incense, Le Labo, Limited Edition, Luxury, mandarine, Men's Fragrances, muscenone, Natural bergamot, Niche, Oriental Vanilla, Paris, Paris Exclusive, Perfume, pipol, Review, Season, Unisex, Vanille 44, vanille bourbon, Wishlist

I squealed with elation when I opened my mail box the other day and saw my package from Le Labo!  Like the Tasmanian devil, I maniacally ravaged the envelope to shreds just to get at the precious juice.  What’s the big deal, you ask?

This isn’t your average general catalog Le Labo fragrance. (Even though your average Le Labo fragrance will have people lining out the door and around the block.)  It’s a City Exclusive which means for a very short time, Vanille 44 is only available for purchase at Colette in Paris for $500!  In other words, very, very, very few of us will ever own a bottle of this.

Love & Toast: Pomme Poivre

Tags

All Year, Bulgari Black, eau de parfum, Ebony Woods, Floral Woody Musk, Full Bottle Wishlist, Fume Dupes, Hotel del Coronado, Husband, Jasmine, Love & Toast, Margot Elena, Men's Fragrances, Niche, Perfume, Pomme Poivre, Review, Rubber, San Diego, Scentimental Value, Season, Series, Tokyo Milk, Unisex, Vanilla Orchid, White Musk, Wishlist

There are several perfumes in my collection that hold “scentimental” value.  Pomme Poivre by Love & Toast is one of them.  Whenever I wear this scent, it transports me back to my honeymoon in San Diego.

The hubs and I were walking hand in hand exploring the dim maze of shops at the historical and majestic Hotel del Coronado.  We went into a charming perfume boutique and made a bee-line for the Love & Toast display.

Bliss: Bliss EDT

Tags

Aromatherapy, Bergamot, Bliss, Bliss EDT, Bliss Spa, Cecile Hua, clean, cucumber, dewy green notes, Eau de Toilette, Feminine, Fitness Fragrance, Fragrance, Fresh, Full Bottle Wishlist, lily, Mainstream, Perfume, Review, Season, Spring, Summer, Violet, Wishlist, Ylang Ylang

 

Life has been hectic lately.  I’ve run around like a headless chicken. I want a spa day. Unfortunately, I don’t have the cash to fork out on professional pampering and preening.  So I need to turn to the next best thing…”a spa in a bottle”.

Bliss EDT  was launched in 2002. The inspiration behind this scent was to capture the smell of their spa and put it in a bottle, “Bliss Spa’s mission is to ensure that you feel good.  Bliss is inspired by the blend of essential oils that scents every Bliss spa location, ‘A little splash lets you capture the spirit of the spa, even when you don’t have time [or money] to visit one.'”

Just what every woman needs…a spa genie!

YOSH: Ginger Ciao 2.27

Tags

100% Natural, Artisan, Backyard Series, Basil, Black Coconut, Feminine, Floral, Fragrance, Ginger, Ginger Ciao 2.27, Gourmand, Gourmand Floral, Natural Perfume, Neroli, Niche, Night Queen, Perfume, Review, San Francisco, Season, SF Bay Area Perfumers & Artisans, Summer, Tiger Lili, Ylang Ylang, YOSH, Yosh Han

 Part 2 in the YOSH fragrance series…

So Stargazer 7.71 wasn’t what I hoped it would be.  Let’s see how Ginger Ciao 2.27 rises to the challenge…

YOSH: Stargazer 7.71

Tags

100% Natural, Artisan, Backyard Series, Favorite Flowers, Feminine, Floral, Fragrance, Kenyan Lily, Natural Perfume, Niche, Perfume, Review, San Francisco, Season, Series, SF Bay Area Perfumers & Artisans, Spring, Stargazer 7.71, Stargazer Lily, Summer, White Ginger, Winter, YOSH, Yosh Han

The Stargazer Lily is one of my favorite flowers.  I love its vivid color of fuschia and the smell of its powerful sweet nectar.  Stargazer lilies have an intoxicating effect on me. When I smell them it instantly picks me up and I feel happy and energized.  Its scent has a candy-like quality as if the lily has been coated with a light dusting of confectioner’s sugar.

Chanel: Coco Mademoiselle EDT

Tags

Bergamot, Bourbon Vanilla, Chanel, Chanel No. 5, Chypre, Designer, Eau de Toilette, Feminine, Floral, Fragrance, Haitian Vetiver, Indonesian Patchouli, Jacques Polge, Jasmine, Litchi, Mainstream, Orange, Oriental, Perfume, Review, Rose, Season, Sicilian Grapefruit, Spring, Summer, White Musk

 

Chanel is the little black dress of perfumes…a necessity in every woman’s wardrobe that never goes out of style.

My first encounter with Chanel was in my early 20’s.  I was browsing through the perfume department in Bloomingdale’s.  I spritzed Chanel No. 5 and that was the first and last time we ever saw each other again.  I found it too pungent and heady.  It was definitely a mature perfume that middle-aged women wore. Women with sophisitication and “knew the ways of the world”.  In my early 20’s, I had neither.

For Strange Women: Winter Kitty

Tags

100% Natural, animalic, Artisan, Bohemian, Douglas Fir, Etsy, For Strange Women, Fragrance, Frankincense, Full Bottle Wishlist, Indie, Jill McKeever, Men's Fragrances, Mint, Natural Perfume, Olfactory Landscapes, Perfume, perfume enhancing fixative base, Perfume Oils, reality, Review, Rose, Season, Series, Unisex, Vanilla, Vetiver, Victorian, Winter, Winter Kitty, Wishlist

 

Call me a crazy cat lady but I love the smell of my cat’s fur. She’s a giant sweet-smelling, musky-purring powder puff!

Animalic perfumes have always intrigued me but I never had the courage to try them.  I was mistakenly convinced that animalic scents were off-limits to the beginning perfumista.  It’s too complex, too raw, too dirty, too revolting for the novice nose.

For Strange Women: Decadence & Debauchery

Tags

100% Natural, Amber, Artisan, Autumn, Bergamot, Blood Orange, Decadence & Debauchery, Edwardian, Etsy, For Strange Women, Fragrance, Goth, Immortelle, Indie, Jill McKeever, Men's Fragrances, Natural Perfume, Opopanax, Oriental, Patchouli, Perfume, Perfume Oils, Review, Season, Tobacco, Unisex, Vanilla Bourbon, Victorian, Violet, Winter

The second review in For Strange Women’s sample series…Decadence & Debauchery. The name suggests good times in a 19th century brothel. I immediately think of old timey piano music in the background, tobacco smoke, mahogany wood, the floral powdery musk of a whore’s perfume.